And Then There Were Three
Chapter Two
Squad 36 arrived in minutes and Paramedics Steve Olson and Jim Bear took over care of Miss Millie. Sam told them about her findings and, after a quick follow up exam, Steve was on the biophone to Rampart while Bear and Sam took spinal precautions and packaged Miss Millie for transport. When the ambulance arrived, the two on-duty paramedics helped get Miss Millie situated inside while Sam called Mike and told him what was going on, asking him to meet her at the hospital. When she hung up, she ran out to the ambulance and convinced Bear to let her assist him on the way.
Doctor Varner met the ambulance at the hospital entrance. She immediately directed Sam to the waiting room and then directed Bear and the ambulance attendants to take Miss Millie to treatment room one. A portable X-ray was already waiting for them.
Sam was not happy to have been sent to the waiting room instead of staying with Miss Millie, but she knew it was protocol. She paced the room impatiently waiting for news of her dear friend. She didn't notice when Mike came jogging into the waiting room from the main entry hall. He went straight to her and put his arms around her, holding her close. His sudden presence surprised Sam but when Mike's arms came around her, she knew them, knew his scent and knew his strength would be her strength for as long as she needed it to be. Mike stood holding Sam and gently stroked her hair. After a moment of just taking in Mike's presence and allowing herself to relax a little in his arms, the tears silently started to fall. Sam pulled away from Mike enough that the two of them could find a place to sit down, and they did. She leaned into Mike's shoulder with Mike's arm around her and his other arm was crossed over his own body as he held her hand.
Nurse Dixie McCall soon came over to take down information for the required paperwork.
"Sam, I need some information from you. Do you know how to reach the family?"
"She doesn't have any family. Her husband passed years ago and they never had children."
"Do you know who we should contact regarding health care decisions? Is there any legal paperwork that you know of?" Dixie asked.
"There's just me. She said she had legal documents drawn up but I've never seen them."
"Do you know the name of her attorney?"
"Uh, Rannahan, I think… or something like that," answered Sam.
"Well, that's a good place to start. I'll call Mr. Rannahan and see if we can't track things down. Thanks for your help."
The two talked and filled out what they could of the paperwork together. Dixie did her best to reassure Sam that Miss Millie was in the best place she could be right now and that she would be well taken care of, and then went off to contact Mr. Rannahan.
Quite some time later, Dr. Varner came to speak with Sam.
"Ms. Anderson?" Doctor Varner started. Sam looked up and then stood up to speak with the doctor. "I am afraid I have some bad news. Your friend's right hip is broken. She's being admitted. I've given her something for the pain and she'll sleep now. You may as well go home. There's nothing else you can do for her right now."
"Thank you doctor. Will she recover fully?" Sam asked the hard question.
"It's very soon to tell. We'll have to wait and see but I think she stands a good chance."
Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "Does she know the whole situation?"
"Yes. We discussed her situation and that she's being admitted just before I gave her the pain meds."
"Good. May we see her?" Sam asked.
"It won't make any difference. She is already under strong painkillers. She is sleeping and won't know if you're there or not. Come back tomorrow." Doctor Varner answered in her usual no nonsense way. "Now, if you'll excuse me." She said as she turned and walked away.
Sam stood there feeling torn. Millie's doctor had told her to go home, but she hadn't seen for herself that Millie was okay. She didn't want to leave. Mike put his hand on her shoulder.
"Come on Sam. The doc is right. There is nothing we can do for her right now. They're going to keep her on pain meds and she'll only sleep. It's what's best for her right now." Sam would have put up a fight with anyone else, but she gave in to Mike's gentle urging and started to leave.
"Wait, I want to leave a message for her with Dixie." Sam and Mike walked over to Dixie's desk where they found her just ending a telephone conversation. Dixie looked up at them and smiled.
"Good news. That was Mr. Rannahan and he confirmed that Miss Millie Manning did indeed authorize you to make her healthcare decisions. You have both financial and medical power of attorney for her, it seems."
"That's good. Thank you for looking into it." Sam was most appreciative of Dixie's efforts.
"That's my job." Dixie winked at her. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"Mike and Doctor Varner have convinced me to leave here, but I wanted to make sure that if Miss Millie wakes up she'll know I'll be back to see her."
"I'll tell her myself. I promise." Dixie reassured her.
"Okay, and call me right away if anything changes. Oh, let me give you the numbers you'll most likely
be able to reach me at." She gave Dixie Miss Millie's home phone number, Mike's phone number and the number to her private line in her upstairs living quarters. "More than likely you'll reach me at one of the first two numbers."
"Try not to worry, Sam. We'll take good care of her and I promise we'll call you if there is any change.
"Thank you Dixie," Sam said as she and Mike turned to leave.
Joanne was reading a book while sitting on the couch with her feet up. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she awoke from dozing when her book hit the floor. She awoke with a small start. She smiled when she realized that Katie had curled up on the couch and gone to sleep using her mother's stomach for a pillow. Jo put her hand on Katie's shoulder, waking her gently.
"Katie, honey. Mommy has to get up." Gently she shook her daughter until sleepy eyes opened and looked up at her.
"Mommy? What's the matter?" Katie asked.
"Nothing's wrong, Sweetie, I just need to get up. I dropped my book and I have to the bathroom."
"Oh. How come your tummy is wiggly?"
Joanne raised an eyebrow at Katie. "What do you mean?"
"When you were sleeping I put my head on your tummy and it felt like snakes were in there."
Joanne laughed out loud. "There aren't any snakes in my tummy, Katie. Now get up. I really have to go!" Katie moved so her mother could escape. When Jo was finished in the bathroom she went searching for Roy. She found him in the garage, under the car changing the oil.
Hearing his wife's approaching footsteps, Roy rolled out from under the car. "Well Hi there," he said.
"Hi yourself. I… I uh, think it's time to sit down with the kids. They've both commented about my growing belly and Katie just told me it felt like there were snakes in there!"
"You're feeling the baby move?" Roy asked with excitement in his voice.
"Well, a few times I've thought maybe I felt something, but I was asleep and Katie had her head on my stomach. I guess there was some pretty good movement going on then, but I didn't feel it."
Roy wanted to feel for himself. He had loved feeling Chris and Katie kicking around when Jo was pregnant with them. Being able to feel the baby made it more real to him. He looked at his hands, covered in oil. It would have to wait. "Well, why don't we tell them at dinner tonight?" Roy suggested.
"Okay. Let's do that. I'm pretty sure Chris already knows."
That night at dinner Roy said grace and then dished up spaghetti for each of his kids and his wife before dishing up his own. Joanne had green beans in front of her so everyone passed their plates her way for their veggies. Plates were put in front of everyone and bread was passed around the table. Conversation at the table was the usual, "how was your day?" kind of talk. Then, after a while Chris looked right at his mother and said, "Mom, where do babies really come from?"
Roy choked on the milk he was drinking when Chris asked the question. Joanne started to turn red in the face.
"Yeah, where do babies come from?" repeated Katie.
Roy stopped choking and said to Chris, "Well, see it's funny you should ask that just now. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I heard Jimmy's parents talking when I was over there last night for cub scouts. They said something about Mom having a baby and I said that she didn't get a baby. They said that she had one in her stomach. How does a baby get in there and how does it get out?"
Thanks for reading my story. Please leave me a comment or two. I really appreciate it. -Hotflash