Part 10

As soon as they rushed into the ICU, they found themselves herded into an empty room. "He's fine," an unfamiliar doctor kept assuring them. "Really, he's fine now."

"Is that his blood?" Emily pointed a shaking hand at the doctor's lab coat, the white material now liberally spotted with red.

The doctor glanced down with a sheepish grin, "No, I'm afraid that's mine." He touched his nose gingerly. "I got tagged with a flying elbow in the tussle. Not sure who's elbow either."

"Tussle? What tussle?" Zoe demanded. "I want to know what happened! What kind of hospital is this?"

A micro-expression of anger. "At the start of the shift, we decided to try turning down his sedation," the doctor began only to be cut off by Zoe again.

"Why do that? And why weren't we informed?"

"Using the minimum amount of sedation possible is always in the patient's best interest."

Tiny Missy, who'd been Cal's nurse the first night, stepped forward. "I stayed with him for most of an hour, but I had to go start meds on my other patient." She brushed a tear from her eye. "He seemed to be resting comfortably, so I didn't ask anyone else to watch him."

"So you screwed up," Zoe accused.

"I'm sorry," the young woman implored Gillian, her voice breaking. "He didn't look like he was nearly awake enough to pull out the tube. He hadn't even tried to touch it before. I'm so sorry."

"Sure you're sorry…"

Fury drove Gillian forward. "Zoe." She forcibly pulled the taller woman away from the defensive medical team. "Back off. Right now. Or I'm going to ask you to leave."

"Leave?" Zoe raised her brows in astonishment. "Who made you God? You have no right to ask me to leave."

"Oh, but I do." Gillian answered, a low and dangerous growl. "I can keep you out of his room and I can keep them from telling you any of his medical information."

Zoe gaped. "There's no way…I'm his wife…"

"Ex-wife. You gave up any rights to Cal when you divorced him. You don't even own any of the Lightman Group anymore." For this one moment, Gillian rejoiced that Cal had bought Zoe out and the woman no longer had any piece of Cal, except as the mother of his beloved daughter.

"Well, what about you, Miss Too Good To Be True? What gives you any rights here? You're not family. You're not even…"

Gillian tried to keep the smugness off her face and out of her voice. "I have full power of attorney."

"What?! But that's just the business."

"No, Zoe, full power of attorney, signed more than six months ago. I'm empowered to make any decision in Cal's stead. Any decision." Gillian stepped into the taller woman's personal space. "That means I can kick you out of here if I want. I don't even need a reason."

"You wouldn't." Zoe tried, her bluster faltering. "You don't have the balls."

"I'm not so sure, Zoe." Every ounce of her disdain for this woman showed in her smile. "Do you really want to try and find out?

No? Then if you want to stay, I suggest you shut up and let me find out what happened to Cal."

Without waiting for an answer Gillian turned briskly back to the stunned medical personnel. As she stepped back Emily, she heard the teen whisper, "Go, Gill!" Suppressing a smile, she asked as calmly as she could, "So, who can tell me the whole story from the beginning."

"Umm…well…as I was saying…well, we lowered his sedation…and he woke up more than we expected. He pulled out the ventilator tube when Missy was out of the room."

"And then?"

"The ventilator alarm went off, so it was only a minute or two before we arrived. We tried to reintubate him, but he was very combative. And quite strong, I have to say. We didn't want to aggravate any of this other injuries fighting with him, so we decided to do an emergency tracheotomy."

"You cut him…" Zoe subsided at Gillian's warning stare.

"Is that dangerous for Cal? The tracheotomy?" Gillian wanted to know.

"Not really any more so than translaryngeal intubation, the tube going through his mouth. Oh, he'll have a permanent scar, in a fairly noticeable place. And as with any open incision there's a chance for bleeding and infection. Most of the other problems you have with a trach you'll also have with the translaryngeal, such as possibility of damage to the esophagus and vocal chords. With the trach we do eliminate any possible erosion and damage to his mouth. There are studies that weaning off the ventilator is actually easier with a trach. Some researchers advise doing with more than three days of intubation."

"Was that a consideration with Cal before?"

"Well, we usually do a trach in the operating room and in his condition sending him back to surgery again wasn't an optimal choice. But now except for the fact that he's such a fighter, we're not terribly unhappy with the outcome."

"You mentioned his other injuries. He didn't…"

"Not that we can tell. A couple of the surgical staples tore a tiny bit, but not enough to even consider replacing them. We turned his sedation back up, of course, and his blood pressure and heart rate went back down to his normal. We've ordered a chest x-ray to make sure he didn't dislodge any of the other tubes, they should be up any minute."

Emily pushed close under her arm. "Can we see him now?"

"Sure. You may even like the improved view."

As they entered Cal's room, Gillian caught a sob in the back of her throat. "Oh, look, Emily."

The teen rushed forward, a beaming grin on her face. "You can see his whole face."

Without the obstructing tubes and headgear, Cal's entire face was indeed visible. The tubes now disappeared into an incision in the base of his throat. Indentations from the headgear were still visible on his upper lip and chin.

Emily plopped a kiss on her dad's stubbled cheek. "Yeah, I like this much better, dad."

Gillian wholeheartedly agreed.