Chapter 3
Maura waited impatiently for Jane to wake up, or at least give some sign that she was no longer unconscious. The detective had been put in a medically induced coma for forty-eight hours while she recovered from the surgery. She was on a ventilator, the sound of which Maura had grown to detest in the time she had sat beside her lover. What she couldn't ignore was the chart at the foot of the bed.
The sedative had been reduced hours ago but Jane still hadn't come round. She was incredibly still, which Maura hoped was just the coma. Her arms lay beside her torso, outside of the covers. Each hand had IV lines running into the back of them. Hung beside the bed was the large catheter bag draining urine. "Jane is going to be mad about that when she wakes up." Maura spoke to herself.
Out of nowhere, Jane's eyes fluttered open and confusion appeared on her face. Maura heard the heart rate monitor change and reflexively looked down at her lover's face.
"Jane, can you hear me? Don't panic honey, but you have a tube in your throat to breathe. Just blink if you understand me."
Jane blinked to acknowledge Maura, but the confusion remained. It was common for someone on high doses of pain meds to be confused and disoriented when waking up.
"You were shot two days ago and have had surgery. The bullet went into your chest, under your left arm and fragmented. The fragments went into your spine and had to be removed. Two of your vertebrae were fractured and have been fused together." The doctor paused, realising she had just rattled off a lot of information. "Do you understand?"
Again, Jane blinked, but a tear ran from each of her eyes and still the confusion in her face was apparent.
"Are you in pain?" Maura asked but then realised an answer wouldn't be forthcoming. "Blink if you are."
Jane's eyes remained staring into her own.
"Is something wrong?"
This time there were two distinct blinks.
Maura was frustrated trying to understand so heaven knows how frustrated Jane must have felt being unable to speak. Jane's head was immobilised by a hard collar while the bones fused together with the titanium mesh. Maura also knew that with her injuries it was likely that at the moment at least, Jane would be unable to move and glancing down, she noticed that her whole body was inert.
Maura reached for Jane's hands and took them in her own. "Can you squeeze my hand?"
There was a change in Jane's face as though she was thinking, but then the confusion returned and more tears flowed. Maura hadn't felt a single twitch from Jane's fingers. A sinking feeling took hold of her and she knew what that probably meant. Again her thoughts returned to the chart. "Listen to me, okay? Don't panic. Everything's going to be okay. I'm going to get the doctor."
Moments later a doctor appeared, female this time. "Dr Isles, we need to check her over, can you give us a couple of minutes?"
Maura retreated to the other side of the glass panel in the high dependency unit while the doctor dictated to a nurse, who was completing the chart.
"Jane, hope it's okay to call you by your first name. I'm Dr Turner and I need to just check you over. I know it's frustrating with the breathing tube in place but you're going to need it for a little while." The doctor checked her pupils with a flashlight and seemed happy. She took a stethoscope and listened to Jane's chest. "Good movement of air in the left lung," she spoke to her colleague who scribbled away each time the doctor called something out. The monitors were all checked and finally she spoke to her patient again. "Until we can get the tube out of you, we need to use a rudimentary system to communicate. One blink for yes, two for no. Do you understand?"
Jane blinked once.
"Okay, so here's a test question. Are the Red Sox the greatest?"
One blink.
"That's fine," the doctor laughed. "We need to control your pain. If everything hurts too much, it will slow your recovery, so no need to play the hero; I know what you cops are like. You had some pain meds injected in surgery but they will be wearing off by now. If you are in pain, you need to be honest. Are you in pain at the moment?"
Two blinks.
"Okay, we'll check again in an hour. If anything changes before then, blink like crazy and we'll know you need something. Shall I have Dr Isles come back in?"
One blink.
She turned to the glass panel and waved Maura back into the room. Turning away from Jane, the doctor spoke quietly. "She's stable and everything looks good so far, but you can look at her chart for yourself. I'm going to give her a sedative, it's hard to sleep in here without it and she needs sleep."
Maura nodded. She felt a little numb, but knew enough to recognise how hard it would be to sleep with a ventilator hissing in your ear. "I asked her to squeeze my hands, but she couldn't and she hasn't moved anything, that's really not like her. If she could, she'd be pulling the tube out and we would have to restrain her."
Turner looked sympathetic. "It's not unexpected, but keep her reassured. As soon as the steroids take effect we should be able to reduce the respiratory assistance, but it's going take time and the best thing for her now is rest."
