Chapter Fourteen

"Mom!" Lila waved at Eddie when she spotted her mother in the large conference room at the hospital. Jamie was set to go home the next day and the family had a lot to learn about how to position him in his bed and his wheelchair to make sure he was able to breathe well and did not suffer painful muscle spasms. He was already having some from the physical therapy but there was no reason to add to it from ignorance.

"Hey, honey. Steven I'm so glad you came," Eddie said smiling at her son-in-law to be.

"No problem, I want to be there to help out whenever I can be. We just peaked in on Jamie, he looks pretty good. They have him sitting up today in the chair again."

"Yes they started that earlier this week, he holds his posture for about a half hour now before he needs more support but apparently that is what we are going to learn about today."

Eddie got a cup of coffee the spotted Danny. "Hey I just came into say hi, I'm going to spend some time with Dad and Jamie getting things coordinated for tomorrow. Linda can show me anything I need to know about helping him get around."

Eddie sighed, "I can do this myself, I appreciate you all coming but…" She stopped mid-sentence when she Joey approaching. "Joey, what are you doing here?"

Eddie was honestly surprised that Joey had come to the class. Even though he's softened a little bit towards Jamie, he was still not very proactive in being involved with his father's care.

"Mom, of course I'm here," Joey replied. "Dad's coming home and you need help taking care of him so I'm going to learn how. You should be home in bed, look at you." Joey affectionately reached out his hand to stroke his mother's cheek. "You're exhausted and it will only be worse after tomorrow."

"No, I think after tomorrow I'll finally be able to sleep well again, I miss having your father next to me," Eddie replied as the nurse teaching the class walked to the front of the room.

They discussed moving the patients to and from their chairs, Eddie had learned a lot of that from Callie and Jamie was able, with great effort to push down with his leg and get himself into the wheelchair or into the bed. Eddie needed to know what to do for him in bed, he had to be place just so or he'd suffer a poor night's rest.

She was meticulous in her note taking, two pillows under his head at all times and make sure he did not tilt his head towards the stronger side, pillows seems to be the ticket. Eddie wrote down to have more pillows purchased, firm ones that would be soft enough for his comfort but strong enough for support. The part where they watched a film of a patient dressing scared her a little bit. The man was older than Jamie but the elapsed time on the bottom said dressing took him over 45 minutes. Jamie didn't have the patience for that even being the most patient of the family. Could she be so calm seeing him struggle as the wife in the film? She doubted it very much. Maybe he was coming home too soon was her fleeting thought.

As the class went on, Jamie visited with Danny and Frank in his room. He was in the hospital chair propped with pillows, weak arm resting on a pillowed arm rest and his feet on a cushioned stool to keep them from dangling and swelling. "We finished setting up your room. Dad had the bathroom doorway opened more and we put a shower chair and got a new shower in here too so you can step in easier and Eddie can help you in an out evenly not over the side."

"I really appreciate all of this, Danny," Jamie sighed. "I'm really…I think it's a mistake to go home yet. I mean I can barely get into and out of the wheelchair or bed here, at home…I'm concerned for Eddie."

"Jamie, Eddie is no shrinking violet," Danny reminded him. "She put up with you all these years, she can handle anything you throw at her."

"I've got seven inches on her Danny and I'm thin but no light weight, I still have some solid muscle mass, it's going to be so hard on her with her chemo pills and all. Maybe I need to go to a hospital for a time."

"No," Danny insisted. "We all worked hard to get the house ready for you to go home and home is where you are going to go." That was it, he was not going to let his little brother's self-doubt creep up.

"Besides, Jamie," Frank said from the other side of the bed. "I will there to help Eddie with anything she needs. I'm old but I still have some strength left in me. You're my child, there's nothing I won't do to help you get well again in your own home."

Jamie sighed, he was ashamed he'd made such little progress. "You know what happened this morning before you got here. I had to go to the bathroom, I called the nurse and she didn't come on time. I wet the bed and I'm 59 years old. I can't even take myself to the damn toilet, I'm useless to my wife who is sick herself right now, I'm useless to my officers…"

Danny got his back up then, "Don't you go talking like that," he scolded. "You are not useless to anyone. Your wife loves you like you are, we all do. You'll get better Jamie but this pity party is not going to fly with me. You wet the bed, so what, you had a stroke only a few weeks ago. There aren't many people who would be this far along."

Jamie nods, in her mind he knows Danny is right but in his heart he is concerned about Eddie. She was getting more and more tired from the chemo pills and had a checkup in two more weeks. He had to be there for that checkup, he had to be well enough.

"He's right son, you have come so far, you are so strong, Jamison. Really you are…" Frank put his arm on Jamie's shoulders. "We'll get through this. Eddie will have all the help she needs from me, from Danny…You can't worry so much about this, Jamie. You can't. You need to worry about getting better not what happens if you don't."

Before Jamie could reply the door opened and Lila came in with Steven. "Hey, Dad…" She went to kiss Jamie's cheek. He smiled at her. Now he had more control over his facial muscles, his smile only drooped a little unless he was tired. "Mom said to tell you she had to go shopping and she'll be here later."

"Shopping?" Jamie asked, raising his eyebrow. "She's needing to be home resting not going shopping. She's going shopping, Dad?"

Frank laughed, Eddie was not usually a shopper. "What compelled her to do this?" Frank asked. He had a feeling but he hoped he wasn't right.

"Well, that class said a lot of good things, but a lot of it was for older people that had strokes. Dad still had a lot of strength on his good side so he won't need as much as the people in the video did. Still, Mom kind of freaked out a little bit and took off to buy pillows and Velcro spoons and stuff at the medical supply store. She took off right after class was done. Joey ran after her so he can probably keep her from buying the entire store. She's just nervous."

Jamie sighed, "Look…look what I'm doing to my family."

Jamie's attitude scared his daughter, "Daddy, what is wrong with you? You are alive and getting better you promised me!"

"Lila," Steve said gently. "Honey, don't yell at him, all right. This is scary for everyone." He put a hand on her back. It was then it struck Jamie in the chest, his little girl really did find her soul mate. Lila was just like him and Steven was just like Eddie, a solid partnership, the perfect match.

"He's giving up, Dad you are giving up!" Lila was working herself up into a classic Reagan fit. She had very little of her mother in her except for her beauty.

"No baby," Jamie replied. "Never, I'm not giving up. I promised to be at your side going down the aisle and I will. Don't get upset sweetie pie." He reached over and she let him hold her tight. "I need you go off and find your mom for me. I don't know how Joe will deal with her being so high strung, the last time he snapped at her and made her all upset. Can you go track her down for me?"

Lila nodded, "I will, Dad. After tomorrow you and Mom will be together again all the time. You won't have to worry so much about each other. You'll both feel better then won't you?"

Jamie nodded, he knew he'd feel so much better with Eddie in his arms again at night. He just knew it.

Lila and Steven tracked Eddie and Joey to the medical supply shop. Joey was trying to talk Eddie out of buying Jamie a bedside toilet. "He might be too tired, Joey and he'll be humiliated if he has to pee in a diaper or a jar."

"Mom, if you think that having your or grandpa or someone dump his pee in the toilet from that thing won't humiliate him you are dead wrong. I think he'd rather use the diaper and tell you he needs help if he can't change it himself which he probably can do. Don't do this to him, Mom. Get it later if he needs it."

Eddie sighed, "I need to help him Joey," she replied choking up. "We are kidding ourselves all of us to think he's going to be like he was. He's not. He's not going to be like he was at all!"

Joey grabbed Eddie's shoulders, "No, he's not. He's going to struggle and he's going to need help some and all those pillows, he'll need it cause he slouches so much and it's bad to slouch but all this other stuff, no Mom. Stop, please stop."

Lila came into the store and just saw Joey holding their mother's arms. Eddie's head dropped and she looked like she just lost her best friend, their Dad. "Let her go," Lila ordered. "Dad was rght, you're hurting Mom now, what kind of a person are you!"

"I'd never hurt her, I'm trying to help!" Joey snapped. "Of course he'd think I'd do something so horrible, just when I thought maybe I won his favor!"

"Lila, he's not hurting me, I just…I'm worried that I can't help Dad like I should and Joey is making me see some of this…" She gestured to the cart. "Is a big mistake. That it will only upset him."

Lila looked at some of the items, Velcro spoons, a bib, rubber sheets…It would absolutely destroy Jamie's fragile ego, Joey was right.

"Joey, Dad said that you might need help calming Mom down, so he wanted me to bring her, that's all. He knows that class kind of spooked her."

Eddie's eyes flashed, "You told him that? You should never have told him that! He doesn't need to be worried about me."

"But he is mom," Lila replied. "He really is worried about you. He's asking for you, so let's pay for the stuff that won't totally destroy what's left of his pride and have lunch all of us together, even you Joey, Dad wants to see you too."

Eddie put back more than half of the equipment she had taken and headed with Joey back to the hospital. Lila and Steven stopped to get sandwiches for the rest of the family and thick cream soup for Jamie. When they arrived back at the hospital it looked like a family party. Sean stopped in on his rounds and Jack was paying a non-uniformed visit. Jamie was in a very different mood than just a little while before as if the crowd of people in the room reminded him that he and Eddie would have all the support in the word to get themselves through.