Manny Needs a Nanny - 12. The Wait, and Results

Bass had to look up the address for Charlie's, having never been there before. He walked into the bar just after they opened at two o'clock. Taylor and Danny were working, Charles was in his office—the bar was empty otherwise.

Taylor saw him first, "Hey Bass, what brings you here?"

Danny looked up, also curious.

"I went to go see Manny, but he's back in surgery. I figured; I'd come here to kill some time."

"Surgery again? What's up?"

"They need to amputate two fingers and part of his hand, Taylor."

Danny mumbled, but it was quiet in there, so it was heard, "Shit."

Danny went down the hallway with the restrooms and Charles' office and knocked.

"Yeah?"

Danny poked his head in, "Bass is here, he said Manny's getting his fingers amputated."

Charles' reaction was not nearly as quiet as Danny's was. He slammed his fist on his desk, nearly knocking over his coffee. As he flew out of his chair, he loudly exclaimed, "Fuck."

Entering the bar area, Charles greeted Bass, "Welcome Bass. I wish the circumstances for your visit were different. Danny just told me. It sucks. Manny's losing the fingers?"

"Yeah, that's what the floor nurse told me after checking his records."

"Damn. That's awful. Danny, give Bass whatever he wants, on the house."

"Just a beer, it's still early."

"We have quite a bit on tap."

Bass looked at the choices and smiled, "I'll have a Bass."

Danny grinned, "One Bass for Bass, coming up."

Bass sat at a table and started sipping his beer. Charles signaled to Danny and sat down with Bass. Danny brought him a coffee.

"This whole situation sucks, Bass. Manny's a good guy. He doesn't deserve this."

"Yeah. It's a good thing, the guy that shot him is dead. I'd be looking to tear him into pieces."

"I hear ya, but even if he was still alive, that wouldn't help things."

"It'd make me feel better. I hope, I'm not speaking out of turn here, but Manny and I are starting to get close, if you know what I mean."

"You're not sharing anything, we don't already know; well, about Manny, anyway. I'd never have guessed you were…"

"Yeah, when people find out, I'm gay, they're always surprised."

"I'll tell you something. Manny may have his rough edges, but underneath, he's really a nice guy. A big softy, to be honest. But on the other hand, you don't want to get on his bad side. He's loyal to a fault. Anyone bothers someone, he's close to, he won't hold back. Ask any of the girls. They only get harassed by the same guy once. Usually."

Taylor had come closer and joined the conversation. "Friday night, the guy that shot him, was here earlier with three of his buddies, they were hassling Priscilla and me. Manny asked once for them to stop. They didn't and he came back with Charles' gun. I was almost sure; he was going to start shooting when they told him to fuck off. That guy Wally, the dead one, wouldn't back down. Manny knew the blank was first to fire, so he shot at Wally, threatened to continue shooting with real bullets. I knew, he wasn't kidding."

Bass simply nodded, not knowing what to say. He finished his beer and asked if they served any food. Danny said, “mostly snacks," but they had a microwave and had pretzels, wings, hot dogs, and a few other items. Bass asked for a couple dogs and Danny brought them to him. At three o'clock, Bass phoned the hospital to see if he could get an update on Manny. He was told Manny was still in surgery. That worried him quite a bit. He didn't know how long it should have taken, but the nurse had said he wouldn't be back to his room until about three. Bass called twice more, at four and five, hearing the same thing. He'd called Sandy to have her tell everybody what was up, and that he didn't know any more. In between calls, he sipped another beer, but then switched to soda after two glasses.

Around five-thirty, Bass heard Taylor speak to some new arrivals, "Uh-uh. You guys don't belong here, you need to leave."

Bass turned around to watch.

"Where's the other bartender?"

"I asked you to leave."

"Shut up, bitch. Tell us where he is." The man slapped Taylor.

Bass was off his chair and in the man's face in a flash.

"You ought not have done that."

"Fuck you, fatso. Last time, bitch: Where's the other bartender? We have a score to settle with him. He killed our friend."

That's all Bass needed to hear. He grabbed the man's shoulder and squeezed.

"Ow. Fuck!"

One of his buddies took a swing at Bass. Bass caught his hand with the hand not squeezing asshole number one's shoulder and squeezed. Taylor heard the bones crack. Asshole number two, one hand down, one to go. Bass dragged the two men out the door, not wanting to cause a problem inside the bar. The third man followed and punched Bass in the side. Big mistake, more bones crunched. But not in Bass. Asshole number three now with broken fingers, at least.

Once outside, Bass no longer held back. He head-butted the first man, then grabbed both others by their good hands. More crunching. But he didn't let go. Two and three both lack functional hands now.

"My friend is losing at least part of a hand because of your friend. I think you need to understand exactly what that means."

Bass squeezed and twisted. More bones snapped. He looked at the one he head-butted, dazed and bleeding from the nose, but aware.

"Get out of here and take your worthless friends with you. If I ever see you again, I won't be as gentle."

The three of them stumbled to their car, bloody nose opening the doors for his friends. Neither one still had the ability to do that for themselves. Bass watched until they left the parking lot and were out of sight. Danny, Taylor, and Charles were standing behind him, shocked by what just happened.

Bass turned around, "I'm going back to the hospital. Those assholes ever show back up, call me."

Charles knew, he'd tell his team to call the police and not Bass, but he wasn't about to contradict the big man just then. Bass walked away and got into his car, driving away calmly.

************************************

While Bass was away at Charlie's, things were in the process of taking an ugly turn at the hospital. Shortly after ten o'clock, a team of surgeons and their support began working on Manny's hand. After opening a few holes just above Manny's wrist, they began clamping off the various blood vessels leading to and from the left half of his left hand. When that was done, the removal of the two fingers went relatively smoothly. Once they started removing the necrotic portions of his hand, it became apparent that something else was wrong. Even though they had removed everything that was obviously affected externally, the interior of Manny's hand told a different story.

The blood vessels feeding the next portion of Manny's hands had collapsed. While there was still some blood flow, it wasn't sufficient to sustain the health of the third finger. After clamping off the necessary vessels, they removed that finger and started on the next section of the hand. There, they saw the same thing. Now, they were faced with a decision: They could continue removing parts of his hand piece-by-piece, with no guarantee that more would be healthy, leaving him with possibly just the thumb. Or they could make the decision to remove the entire hand. So, they paused at where they were. Phone calls were made to other hospitals around the country. One of the preeminent hand surgeons was located at UCLA medical center. X-rays were taken, a portable MRI scanner was brought into the O-R to scan the state of the rest of the blood vessels. All this was shared with UCLA.

The decision was jointly made to amputate just below the elbow, due to the muscle damage sustained. They felt this would allow for the best possible outcome of a transplant. Manny was immediately added to the transplant recipient list. By the time the procedure was complete, it was almost eight o'clock. Manny had been in surgery nearly ten hours. He was looking at another twelve to eighteen hours—or more—of surgery for the actual transplant, when—and if—a suitable limb was found. Of course, other criteria must be met to be a candidate for a hand/arm transplant. Fortunately, Manny met these criteria:

– 18 to 60 years of age

– Good general health

– Amputation not due to birth defect or cancer

– Amputation of limb at the wrist or forearm

– No serious infections such as hepatitis B or C or HIV

Manny was transferred to the ICU after a short period in the recovery room.

************************************

Bass stopped for something to eat after leaving Charlie's. He was upset with himself for losing control so badly. Those guys may have been looking for some sort of revenge from Manny, but they hadn't really done anything yet. He didn't believe they would make any noise about it. After slapping Taylor, they had something to lose by bringing in the police. Yeah, he may have gone overboard, but he didn't throw the first punch.

Bass got back to the hospital a little after six-fifty. It had already been a long day of waiting and he soon found out, the waiting wasn't over yet. He finally got the word just before ten that Manny was out of recovery and was now in the ICU. He still didn't know exactly what happened until he checked in there. The nurse, he spoke to outside the ICU, filled him in as best she could. She didn't know all the details, but she was aware that his entire hand had to be amputated. She also mentioned the ten-hour surgery. Bass sat in the ICU lounge and cried. Manny wasn't expected to wake up any time soon, so Bass finally gave in and headed home. He was dreading having to share the news.

It was almost eleven o'clock when Bass got home. Bass stops the engine at the top of the driveway but is unable to leave the car. He realizes the fact that he is entirely unable to share the news right now. So, he just sits there, and time passes. Eventually, after what feels like an eternity, he gets up and walks slowly toward the front door, feeling the weight of the burden heavily on his shoulder with every step.

Even with school starting the next day, Rocky was still awake and worried about Manny. Rocky, rarely a patient boy, showed an unusual amount of patience. He saw how upset Bass was and didn't pester him right away. After sitting alone for a few minutes, Bass found Rocky and told him to get everyone together.

After everyone was gathered, Bass took a deep breath and began, "There's no easy way to say this, so I apologize in advance if it's shocking. They had to amputate Manny's hand. I couldn’t get a lot of details due to the hour, but he was resting comfortably in the ICU when I left.” He senses his voice starting to falter. Bass clears his throat and swallows before he continues, “I suspect, he won't know what happened until the morning. I'll be heading back over there first thing tomorrow, after we get you off to school, Rocky."

"I don't want to go to school! I want to go see Manny! He was getting better. What the f... what happened? Who decided to cut off his hand? It’s not fair!" Rocky was fighting a losing battle to maintain his composure.

"I don’t have those answers, Rocky. I'll take you over as soon as you get home, but it's your first day at a new school, you really can't miss it."

Sniffling now, "But…"

"I'm sorry, Rocky. There will be no arguing about it. I know, it's bad timing for you, but Manny will be fine, and he'll probably be more lucid later in the day anyway. He was under anesthesia for ten hours. It will take a while for that to leave his system."

Rocky started to say something else, but saw that Bass was not going to negotiate. He simply said, "Okay."

Next up - "School and Recovery Begin"