27. Always.

As Damon sensed Mimi passing out with his telepathy, a sigh escaped him. He thought he was prepared for the operation, but a part of him strongly desired to protect Mimi. The thought of her having to undergo another operation and being sedated caused him immense inner turmoil. No matter how much he relied on clinical decision-making, the pain in his heart persisted.

Number Two's gentle voice interrupted his thoughts. "Do you feel it too? Ever since we broke off from hive, all I want is to ensure her safety, to see her happy. The fact that we must cause her more pain to make her well again almost makes me physically ill."

Number One looked at Number Two in surprise, realizing that he was experiencing the same emotions.

Damon tried to distract himself with various thoughts as he prepared for the operation. At times, he felt guilty as the versions of himself, known only by numbers, served as a sort of support group for him and Mariella. Despite Mariella's attempts to assign them new names, they preferred to remain as numbers, even though they were not just random individuals.

Damon was aware that five of them, Number Two, Three, Four, Nine, and Ten, had distanced themselves from the Salvatore hive, reducing his influence over them.

He remembered how Charles and Samuel despised it when Bran exerted power over them, so he accepted the situation. The last thing Damon wanted was to emulate Bran's behavior, misusing his authority.

Mimi had once informed Damon that the Marrok force could heal mortal wounds in the past. However, Bran's corruption and misuse of power had diminished its effectiveness over the centuries.

Damon, being a healer, vividly remembered his frustration and desperation when his blood did not work effectively on Mimi due to Damien's manipulations. 

He wanted to help and heal. He was sure that he was created to be there for Mimi. Even Mariella meant everything to him. He knew his existence was for Mimi, strengthening their bond. Maybe it was time for him to finally accept it and stop fighting against his purpose.

Number Two said, "Not just you, but all of us. I believe the Salvatore hive is made for Mimi. It may sound absurd, but let's remember that she is immortal, regenerating from one cell, with intense memory retention and unique purposes only she can fulfill. She needs backup, and we are that backup. Wulfe grounds her, supports her, and advises her to stop overanalyzing, protecting her more than we can. He is part of her, just like Mariella is part of us, grounding us."

Damon nodded and said, "I know Mimi has said this, but you are one very wise Salvatore."

Number Two smiled and replied, "I'm not sure about being wise, but I'm not distracted by Mariella. I've had time to think things through and come to terms with my feelings for Baby. She means everything to me, while Mariella is just a plaything, nothing more."

Number One nodded, understanding Number Two. All versions of himself represented possibilities of what could have been if only he had believed Mimi, been stronger. Perhaps one reason for his jealousy was that they were him, making better choices than he did, which irked him.

Why was Mariella jealous? Of course, she wanted all ten Damons for herself. Yet, when she was made for Number One, no one else mattered to him. The most broken version was hers, and she had been pulling him back together.

Damon realized this, too. He was the most broken Salvatore, but it had been a long time since he healed, and the past stopped haunting him. He was ready to move on and live a life with Mimi. 

Damon was brought back from his thoughts by the scanner's ping, indicating that the task was completed. It was time to review the results and proceed with the operation.

"Alright, I will fetch the baby, and we can commence with the surgery. There is a large display in the operating room where we can view the scan results. Number eight will set it up. Ensure that we have all the necessary equipment ready. I want the same scans done on everyone, along with blood tests, but only after we have controlled these infections. Let's begin by removing the thymus; we need the scans for that first. After that, it will be time to sample the thymus, so gather everyone when the time comes," he instructed numbers five and six, who had entered the room.

Damon rose from his seat and headed to the back room. Despite sensing through his telepathy that she was unconscious, he cautiously approached her.

"Baby, wake up, baby," he whispered, relieved by her lack of response.

He disconnected the IV, carried her naked body in his arms, and swiftly made his way to the operating room. Placing her gently on the table with padding, he covered her with a heated blanket as the team prepared for the surgery. 

As the bright light illuminated Mimi's unmoving body, her pale but silky skin, Damon took a calming breath and reached for his gloved hand and scalpel. He pressed it against the delicate skin, and as number two sprayed Birch extract, rendering her healing ineffective, red blood welled from the cut.

Deft fingers dabbed at it while number one got his initial cut done. Meanwhile, number two and four were putting spreaders in place, and number one reached for the bonesaw, a modified version that also sprayed Birch extract when sawing Mimi's breastbone to access the thymus.

The whirring of the saw was heard, and the smell of bone, blood, and medical disinfection substances wafted through the air. The men had no facemasks as they were considered obsolete and potentially harmful. Damon sometimes wished he could wear a face mask to shield himself from these smells, but it was incompatible with Mimi's sensitivities, pushing harmful substances out of the mask with each breath.

They had not found safe ones, and he did not want to poison Mimi. After all this was operation, her body was splayed open, and if they had had those masks, whatever harmful substances they would have released would have ended up in her organs, inside her. 

As more spreaders were put in place, Damon continued to saw the breastbone, revealing the immense thymus underneath. It took a few minutes for the team to go through the scans as the thymus was thickened and required thinning.

Damon suggested, "I would say we can excise about 80% of this at least and then see where we are. Prepare the bowl so you can divide it into pieces for the pack."

Number two proposed, "Would it be better to remove it whole, dissect it on the table, and then put the piece back to modify it to a suitable size to reduce the risk of puncturing a lung or damaging her heart?"

Damon nodded in agreement and said, "Fine, you and four can start to excise it. I will check on the spleens around the lungs and chest cavity while you work."

Number five and six came to assist him as he carefully excised the huge thymus and handed it over to number two and four, who began thinning and chopping it into smaller pieces. The thymus was one part that Mimi did not regrow easily, so she had to have her own.

"I will now check the left lateral aspect. Next, let's see what kind of spleen is there," Damon's voice was soft as he spoke aloud.

He was deep in Mimi's chest cavity, examining 15 tiny or not-so-tiny spleens. As he removed each one that Mimi had created for others, Damon noticed their different coloring. He had to use his feline eyes to spot them, a trick that Mariella had told him.

Carefully excising yet another spleen, which was small, maybe 2 cm in circumference, he placed it in a jar filled with his blood. Mariella would examine them to determine their origin without needing to dissect them. Some were so small that preserving them intact was crucial due to limited tissue. They were literally more precious than gold, as they were ones who might save someone from a nasty infection. So far, there had only been one spleen for Mimi herself, but it had been in a precarious location under her heart and had to be removed.

After dissecting the thymus into suitable sizes, Damon and the others finished with the chest cavity. He now placed a much smaller thymus in place, allowing it to regrow with the help of his blood. Removing the spreaders, Damon used his blood to aid in healing Mimi's breastbone and the incision.

The next step was to explore her abdominal cavity, which would be a longer part of the operation due to more spleens being present there. With his focus on medical matters, Damon proceeded with the scalpel, trying not to view the subject on the table as his wife, but simply as another patient.

Despite reassuring himself that she was unaware of the procedure, he knew he had to proceed to hurt her to help her, even if it meant temporarily putting aside his personal feelings. 

He had opened her widely, and there were many spreaders around the incision, spreading her abdominal cavity wide open so they could start to remove spleens that weren't hers. They were checking to see how many there were for her, perhaps removing a few as they were valuable and important but tended to grow too large near infections.

Damon did not want to leave too many, to avoid having to operate on her again soon. He wanted to get this done right the first time. In the quiet sterility of the operating room, a man's voice droned in medical jargon, referring to different parts of the abdomen. Using this language made it easier for them as medical professionals and helped them focus on the operation rather than seeing the patient as a cherished wife.

As they literally delved into her abdomen, they had to move most of her intestines aside to access the enlarged spleen in her retroperitoneal space. This delicate operation was necessary because the spleen is very vascular and prone to bleeding easily.

They aimed to keep the operation as stress-free as possible. While they could give her more blood if needed, it would still stress her system as it would need to recognize the new blood. They were also trying to lower her elevated cortisol levels, which had been high for god knows how long, impacting various aspects of her body.

Despite her resilience, she was also sensitive, and her system could easily become imbalanced. Getting it back on track was not a simple task, so they proceeded with the operation as carefully as possible.

The operation lasted a total of eight hours. It was challenging because they had to be extremely careful while locating and removing spleens. The scanner's report proved to be very helpful. It had noted at least 11 issues that they had not noticed. But it was up to Damon to make decisions about what to do to those issues,

A few of the salvatores were already creating schedules for everyone who had undergone the scan, establishing a baseline for comparison in case the computer detected anything unusual.

Mimi was gently placed on a patient bed and carefully covered. Damon then placed a special mask over her face, releasing Damon's protector pheromones to ensure she felt safe and shielded from the hospital-like scent of the medbay.

A feeding button was inserted directly into her stomach to maintain a constant supply of nutrients and IV nutrition. The goal was to provide maximum benefits within the limited time they could keep her there, with every calorie counting.

AI provided suggestions for IV fluids, sugars, and lipids, while Damon devised his own solution. He extracted a large amount of his arterial blood, centrifuged it, and infused Mimi with his plasma, a method also followed by other salvatores. Damon remained by Mimi's side as she slept, keeping his telepathy active to ensure she was undisturbed by nightmares. Monitoring her vitals closely, he was vigilant yet careful not to suppress them too much with heavy drugs.

The medbay was quiet except for the soft hum of the scanner as another packmember underwent a scan. Damon planned to review the results later, but for now, he wanted to ensure Mimi's solitude and keep her company when she woke up. 

It had been 30 hours since everyone had their pieces of thymus, and it was already working. Surely Mimi had prepared some of the pack members' spleens, but Damon put them in safety as he wanted to check if the thymus would be enough. There was no need to waste those spleens yet.

Mimi had made a quite large spleen for him, and she had done for all five salvatores who had broken off from the salvatore hive on their own spleen. Half of a mammoth spleen under her gut, weighing 4.5 kilos, belonged to Wulfe. She was truly protecting him, too.

She had lost weight because the spleens had been a part of her weight, but she was now feeding, and as the drugs somewhat suppressed her metabolism, she was gaining a few kilos back. Damon hoped that the same trend would continue after she woke up.

It was not yet time for her to wake up. She could still be asleep for another 30 hours or so. Then she could wake up, and they would have time to address some of her deficiencies and improve her health. Damon also hoped that as they would take one set of blood tests just before waking her up, there would be a clear drop in her cortisol levels.

Cortisol was bad as it accelerated her system, making her calorie requirements shoot up and interfering with nutrition absorption and processing. She was truly a spellbinding beauty whose system just could not handle that one pea under the mattress so well. Despite her powers and abilities, she had her weaknesses or Achilles' heels, so to speak. After all, no one is perfect.