THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

time getting used to his new — or rather, his old — physiology. He put down the heavy oxygen tank he was carrying, punched in the security code to keep the alarm from squawking, and strode to his bedroom.
    Ainsley greeted him at the door, taking the carry tote from his hand and leaving him with the portable oxygen. “I’ll get venous access established while you get that oxygen on him.”
    Delano thanked his stars for Ainsley’s trauma training. Seconds counted in these situations. “How’s the patient?”
    Eli opened his eyes. Though his pallor was evident against the dark pillow, he still managed to look reassuringly robust. “The patient can talk for himself.”
    “That’s encouraging.” Delano started the oxygen, adjusted the flow, then lifted the mask to Eli’s face. “But now the patient is going to have to shut up and take this oxygen.”
    Eli grinned. “Don’t mind if I do.”
    After fitting the mask to Eli’s face, Delano looked down to see that Ainsley had already managed to get the large-gauge cannula into his left arm. Eli hadn’t even flinched. He was a better man than most.
    “Good work,” Delano told Ainsley. “Now, let’s trade places so you can get this other arm, while I fix up an IV suspension system.”
    “You make a great team,” came Eli’s muffled voice from beneath the mask.
    “We do, don’t we? Now save your breath.” Delano removed his belt, climbed onto the bed and proceeded to cinch the belt around the arm of one of the blades on the ceiling fan, leaving the end dangling.
    Ainsley regarded the length of leather.
    “Interesting, but I don’t see how we’re going to suspend the bags from that.”
    Delano produced one of a couple of S hooks that he’d found in the lab. “We simply stick one end through a belt hole and voila.”
    “Brilliant! Here you go.”
    She handed up both bags. Carefully, he secured them on the hook and stepped off the bed.
    Delano checked his patient to see that Eli was regarding the ceiling fan IV assembly with a little less admiration than Ainsley had displayed.
    “Ainsley?” Eli said.
    She lifted the edge of the oxygen mask so she could hear his words better. “What is it? Are you feeling okay?”
    “Never better,” he replied, “but if you don’t mind, could you take some of that tape and secure the switch to that ceiling fan?”
    Delano had a mental flash of the fan being switched on, the blades turning, ripping out the IV. He couldn’t help it; he laughed. A second later, Ainsley joined him. Even Eli was laughing under the oxygen mask.
    Ainsley wiped tears from her eyes. “Thank you for the laugh. I really needed it. But you know, that’s not a bad idea.” She picked up the roll of tape and went to take care of the wall switch.
    Delano leaned in to check the lines. Perfect. Ainsley was a consummate professional, even under these rough circumstances.
    “Is there anything more I can do for you before I go back out there to monitor the phone?” he asked Eli. “I’ll be back, of course, for blood samples so we can keep an eye on things.”
    Eli rolled his eyes, which Delano took to be a suggestion to lift the mask.
    “Yeah, there’s something you can do. You can bring the damned phone.”
    “You want to use the phone?”
    “Not a phone. The phone.
    “The speakerphone?”
    “You must have a phone jack in here, don’t you?”
    “Of course, but you’ve given enough to the job for today, Eli. Let us handle it from here.”
    “What us?” he demanded. “Ainsley’ll be stuck in here nursing me, or running back and forth with her attention divided. Just bring the damn phone in here. Oh, and a radio so we can stay in touch with the security cam view of what’s happening on the roof.”
    “He has a good point, Delano. I don’t want to leave him, but I need to know what’s going on up there.”
    Delano fixed Eli with a glare. “You’re not going to take this patient thing lying down, are you?” Of course, his exasperation sprang only partly from Eli’s reluctance to play the patient. He’d been half hoping to shield Ainsley from the next act in this little drama. Looked like that was a non-starter.
    “Did you really expect me to?”
    Delano sighed. “I guess not.” He retrieved the radio, which was sitting with the pile of supplies he’d brought up from the lab, and tossed it on the bed where Ainsley could reach it. “You better have this, in case it squawks before I get back with the