Red Mittens and a Rose Garden – the Trisha Pike Chronicles,
Ch22 – "Bringing home baby"
A/N: AU. What if there was a long-term consequence to the weekend romp between Lt Caitlin Pike and Lt Harmon Rabb Jr at that motel back in the summer of 1996? What is the responsible way to deal with an unexpected aftermath?
A/N – link to Canon Episodes: A "post-canon" timeline puts this into "JAG Season 24…" (solely for those who want to count! "Season 24" would start around 20-Sep-2018).
A/N: Publication date: 14-05-2020: Thanks for your enthusiastic reception for Chapter 21, which has brought forward your reward – bringing forward the publication of this 22nd chapter. The next chapter of "Red Mittens" is now likely to be published after Memorial Day, because I am getting ready to spend the rest of May publishing the next chapter(s) of my "Cigars" long-running story: then on to "Damaged"; then "Continuing Commitment"…
Notes: Mike, UK, 14-May-2020 – msg... (revised names – 15/May/2020)
Characters from FFNET – C Pike, H Rabb jr, Faith McBurney-Coleman plus OC
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Ch22 – "Bringing home baby"
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 05:48hrs EDT
Labour and Delivery suites, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
With initial checks completed, Harm brought his son out to meet the friends and family who were assembled.
"Hello everyone, meet Samuel Daniel Harmon Rabb."
He handed his son to a nurse who needed to take him away for some routine tests, and accepted the congratulations of the assembled group. Just at that point, several alarms in Caitlin's bay of the L&D ward began to sound off. Faith was elbowed out of the way, as a tall brunette nurse strode into the bay.
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For the next few minutes, Harm stood tensely alongside Faith, with Trisha on his other arm. Another alarm began bleeping and he edged forward, eavesdropping on the urgent conversations amongst the medical staff.
The only word that Harm heard was "haemorrhage". This took him back to the death of his beloved Sarah back in 2011. He cranked his emotion-meter up to "ELEVEN" and acted. With a despairing cry of "CAITLIN – NO! Not again!" he launched himself at the curtain which shielded Caitlin.
Trisha, caught flat-footed by his sudden lurch for the curtain, grabbed for him and missed, grabbing a handful of fresh air. Similarly caught off balance, Faith – handicapped as she was in her spike heels - failed to gain the necessary traction to launch herself to intercept him as he flew towards the door of L&D.
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 05:54hrs EDT
Labour and Delivery suites, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
Trisha was quicker to gain traction and followed her father through the curtain. A very-determined Faith McBurney-Coleman (despite the handicap of her heels) was only about a second behind her.
Harm burst into Caitlin's room just as the bleeping alarms fell silent. Nurses either side of Caitlin were re-attaching heart-monitor wires and she had her face buried in her baby's face.
Fearfully, Harm croaked out: "Caitlin – darling?"
Caitlin Rabb turned towards him, flashing a weary version of her wide happy smile – and he immediately noticed that her right eye was full of blood.
"Hey Harm, what's all the commotion out there darling?"
"Well, I heard the alarms bleeping…" he sheepishly fell silent, looking at the nurses.
Caitlin sighed. "Look Harm, I pulled off two ECG leads as I moved Samuel around – which set off the alarms. It happens."
"I also distinctly heard someone say 'Haemorrhage' and I was worried" he continued petulantly.
Again - as though explaining to a four-year-old - Caitlin calmly looked at him and raised an elegant finger to her face, pointing to her blood-filled eye.
"Harm, I blew a blood-vessel during the delivery – our son needed a greater push than I could manage at one stage. I've also remembered that exactly the same thing happened when I was delivering Trisha (remember that I told you her birth was 'challenging'?). It's no big problem and it will start to fade in a few days." Then she smiled: "Now then, would everyone else like to meet our new son?"
All the friends and family gathered in. Faith used the camera on her smartphone to capture all the "happy family" photographs, which she then emailed across to both Caitlin's and Harm's phones. She had a sneaking suspicion that Caitlin would be the better-organised of the two new parents - and would rapidly distribute the family photographs once she was safely cleaned up and out of L&D..
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By 06:30hrs, Faith looked at her watch and nodded to Trisha.
"Miss Pike – Trisha - I reckon it is time to get you back to the Academy."
She looked at Samantha and Tony, who were resting in a pair of hospital chairs, with their heads together. "Samantha, Anthony?" They looked up. "I think we all need to make a move ahead of morning formation."
"Thanks Captain, but how do we get four people into a Porsche?"
Faith smiled triumphantly at Tony's evident lack of observational prowess.
"Simple, Mr Lee – it's a Panamera! Come on kiddies, Wagons East!" She looked at Trisha: "Sorry Trisha, I really don't want to drive barefoot – would you be OK to drive us all back please – even if it means driving into the cold grey light of dawn on the way back?"
"Sure thing Faith – and I'm going to buy you a pair of flat shoes for your car, for the next time you are in such a wonderful costume but need to drive."
"Trisha, that sounds like a deal – although ironically I have plenty of pairs of flats and at least one pair normally in my car. It's just that I cleared the car out on Monday before it was serviced, then the week ran away with me and Caitlin decided to go into labour a full three weeks ahead of her schedule." She looked across at the proud new parents. "Harm, Caitlin, bye for now; if you let Trisha know by 1700hrs tonight what the plans are for visitors and also a likely discharge date, then she can spread the word and we can get visiting rotas scheduled. Well done once again, both of you."
Faith turned on her heel, ready to lead her three midshipmen out of the ward. Trisha smiled wearily – thank heavens her new baby brother had arrived in the early hours of an Academy day which was specifically set aside for private study time.
Trisha would be studying – the inside of her eyeballs for at least six hours!
Harm waved farewell: "Faith, safe journey and thanks for everything."
"Ah: de nada Admiral – that's just what friends do."
Secretly, Faith McBurney-Coleman was still grateful, even 15 years on, for Harmon Rabb's crappy murder trial back in '03. The trial had brought her into contact with Jack McBurney, who had subsequently opened her up in ways which she had – before Jack – not even been able to imagine. She knew, for sure, that the old "OCD robot" Faith Coleman would *never* have even considered the idea of dressing up as Star Trek's Lt Saavik. She looked down – yes, this was an outfit that she truly *owned* now!
"OK Trisha, let's get this show on the road. See ya later, the Rabbs!"
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 07:23hrs EDT
Labour and Delivery suites, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
Harm settled his chin onto the bed and watched as Trisha fed Samuel.
"I can't believe that I missed out on all this, 22 years ago; thank you, my darling Caitlin, so much for taking this on..." He suddenly paused, causing Caitlin to look up sharply at him.
"Steady Hammer, don't you dare add 'at your age' – old man!" Caitlin chuckled, swapping Samuel across from one breast to the other.
"Wow Harm, we actually did it – he's here."
"Yes he is; our son."
Harm and Caitlin fell silent as they both watched, almost mesmerised, as their son suckled away for a further five minute before, with a gentle wave of an uncoordinated hand and a yawn which morphed into a hiccup, he slowly began to fall asleep in Caitlin's supportive grasp.
"Harm, would you please take our son and burp him, whilst I start seeing about getting up to go and clean myself up." She pushed the call button, which summoned a student nurse who quickly announced that, if Caitlin could wait about 20 minutes, she would arrange her move out of L&D and up to a private room (with a bath and shower), where she would assist Caitlin with her first steps post-partum. In the interim, she handed Caitlin a fresh hospital gown.
"Harm, the shower and bath sound really good. I am hoping that you have access to some other clothing for me, beyond a very messy 'Mother Superior' fancy-dress costume?"
"Yes of course darling. If you wait a bit (and that nurse just said 20 minutes, didn't she?), then I'll go bring in our sea-bags." He looked down at his own costume and smiled. "I think I'd better arrange to have myself 'de-frocked' as well, but I reckon that you should go first darling, when I get back."
Harm was as good as his word, returning within 15 minutes with two sea-bags. By this time the hospital porter had arrived with a wheelchair, so Caitlin lowered herself gingerly into the chair and watched as Samuel was placed in a heated, portable bassinet supervised by the student nurse.
When everyone was ready, the new – and enlarged - Rabb family set off for the privacy of a ward room on the upper floor.
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 08:56hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
"Oh, I *do* feel better for that" Caitlin announced after a good 20 minutes under a lovely refreshing shower in the bathroom of the hospital room. She fluffed out her hair with the powerful dryer from her sea-bag, then brushed her hair back into a ponytail to keep everything out of reach of Samuel's uncoordinated hands.
As soon as he recognised his mommy's scent, Samuel was beginning to root hungrily again, so she lifted up the front of her second fresh hospital gown and let him feed.
"Harm, this is going to be hard work for a period of time. We were three weeks early with Samuel's arrival, so we hadn't really nailed down where we were finally going to live once he had arrived. What are your thoughts this morning about where to call home?"
"Cait, I reckon that we should simply consider the Residence as our home base – for some time to come. Apart from our suite, we also have 15,000 square feet in the rest of Buchanan House, along with seven bedrooms. The whole place was refurbished not so long ago, plus it's on the Academy campus so I can walk or cycle to work and can easily pop back to assist with Samuel during the daytime. Also, you won't have neighbours complaining about a crying baby, because they either cannot hear or wouldn't dare complain! Apart from Academy graduates having their wedding photographs taken in the gardens of Buchanan House, we have pretty-much complete privacy. Plus, with everything in one place, we cut out the 'where are my clothes or where is my dress' scenario."
"OK, counsellor, you make a good point." Caitlin was quite content to settle into "his" housing, as they started their new normal. She didn't want to face a 40-mile commute each way – and the Lowell & Hanson satellite office in Edgewater was very conveniently located for her, when she finally returned to work.
Eventually, she nodded. "Yes Harm; let's sort out the furniture and ship the items from Falls Church and get it across this weekend. I don't want to take up Trisha's time, because she has her own life. I would like to keep the lease going on the apartment in Falls Church at least across Christmas – you know, 'change one thing in your life at a time' as the old adage goes."
"No problem Cait: I am guessing that you took the apartment with something like a three-month notice break clause?"
She nodded, so he continued. "It may actually make sense to keep it on until the new year, if our Christmas visitors want a DC base during their visit (hint – that would also give us a break and some flexibility and quality time alone in the Residence with our children)."
Caitlin smiled and squeezed his hand as she looked down to check that Samuel was still feeding. "Oh lord, you are right Harm; I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes – we have *our* children with us, ahead of *our* family Christmas celebrations." She snuggled her head under his chin and relaxed with a gentle sigh, supporting a sated Samuel into the crook of her left arm as she settled onto her husband.
"Caitlin; just before you fall asleep, I'm sorry but I need to move, because our son needs to be burped. I'll be straight back." Harm slid out from under Caitlin, holding Samuel ready for his post-feed clean-up – after which, Harm placed him in the bassinet.
By the time that he returned to the bed, Caitlin was already snoring peacefully again. Very soon, Harm joined her in slumber: the post-birth exhaustion and euphoria combined to get him sleeping almost immediately.
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 12:03hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
To no-one's great surprise, both Harm and Caitlin were still sleeping when Samuel woke up a few hours later, complaining loudly (as only babies can) that he was both hungry and wet. This meant that his parents woke up very shortly after he did and the treadmill of looking after a new-born was well under way! Stirring first, Harm left Caitlin to rest for a short while longer, whilst he tended to the tasks of cleaning their son.
Soon, Samuel was cleaned and dry once more – and announced his hunger to the world! Harm placed Samuel back into the crook of his wife's arm (where the baby seemed to enjoy "nesting" during the stay in the hospital) and then he kissed his wife gently as she began to feed their son once more.
He looked at the lovely picture in front of him and smiled; a thought had occurred to him.
"You know, darling Cait, I have been thinking about our daughter and her life right now after what you said earlier this morning about her leading her own life. I believe that you may be pleasantly surprised, but I reckon that she wants to get involved heavily with looking after her new brother and to help. Oh, it isn't her feeling envious or displaced or anything like that; I just believe that she will be glad to help *her* newly-expanded Pike-Rabb family."
He kissed her forehead tenderly. "Look, how about we discuss it with her, this evening, before everyone goes for a good night's sleep?"
"Sounds good, Harm. Oh, the little one has finished feeding, so would you burp him while I go clean up please?"
She pulled her hospital gown down, then grimaced: "Oh darn, I forgot to get any maternity bras."
Harm smiled, dipping into the side pocket of her sea-bag and producing a small box. "You should find that this is perfect, when you dress. Thank your daughter for her foresight. She bought these for you the other week and she told me that one of the female Academy lecturers was in the shop when she purchased them. Caitlin thinks that she got away with claiming that the nursing bras were not her size!"
Caitlin chuckled, imagining the scene. "Oh that must have been fun. Our daughter, the personal shopper for a nursing mother!"
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 18:03hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
Harm dialled the well-memorised number for the Rabb-Boone home in La Jolla.
"Hey Tom - Grandad once more!"
"Harm; well done, son. How is Caitlin?"
"Well, she says that she is very sore but very happy - and who am I to argue with that! Tom; is Mom around please?"
"Yep - she is right here."
"Harm, hello and congratulations."
"Thanks Mom; actually, I have to admit that Caitlin did the vast bulk of the work. We were starting to think about whether you guys might like to come east for this Christmas, after our trip to you last December. Have a think and a chat with Tom, so that you'd maybe be able to let us know over the weekend, Mom?"
"Of course Harm; Tom and I will talk and we shall let you know in due course. But congratulations anyway."
"Thanks, mom."
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Thursday 1st November 2018, 19:17hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
Faith brought Trisha back across to Sibley on the Thursday evening. Both of the adult women looked slightly tired, although Trisha had clearly benefitted from a few hours of sleep.
Harm was quite surprised to see Faith fully back into "normal human" form, with just a touch of blusher and mascara.
"Faith, thanks for all your help last night and through to this morning. By the way, that was quite a costume – it certainly complemented Jack's outfit as well."
"Yes Harm, I felt good in the costume as well – well, up until I tried to drive anyway! But the inconvenience of the night was all worthwhile, to see Caitlin safely deliver Samuel. Now, Trisha and I won't be staying all that long. She has a school day tomorrow and I need to be back to support my husband; he has a case conference at Quantico tomorrow morning, so he'll be off on the road at Zero Dark hundred."
"Fair enough Faith – but thanks one more time."
"The Vulcan" smiled warmly: "Harm, it was my pleasure to assist. Now, let's see your newest family addition once more."
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Friday 2nd November 2018, 14:03hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
After a night disturbed by three feeds, Harm had surfaced at 06:30hrs and gone in search of coffee in the hospital's cafeterias. Fortunately a new Starbucks franchise had recently extended its opening hours and the staff were alert, helpful – and caffeinated! Harm was delighted to place his first order of the day.
Harm had brought two containers of coffee back with him to the room. Caitlin looked at him with envy (or lust – or hunger!) in her eyes as he waved one cup towards her.
"Oh gimme gimme - *please*! I *need* some caffeine, even if it's just two gulps before I have to feed this little diaper-filling machine again."
Harm placed the cup on Caitlin's bedside locker before he gently lifted Samuel from her arms, for some quality father-son bonding time. Caitlin made a bee-line for the coffee, luxuriating in the strong flavour before she turned, once more, to "mommy-feed-me" duties with her new-born son.
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A little later, Harm had brought along some breakfast food, which Caitlin had wolfed down whilst he munched his way through the vegetarian offering.
"Harm, come lunchtime I want to have some more solid food. Assuming we shall be home tonight, let's aim to get back on track with regular meal-times for the grown-ups – OK?"
"Yes please; the sooner we have order, the better. Plus, come Monday I need to get back into the office. Faith dropped everything to help and I owe it to her to get her back to normal."
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Friday 2nd November 2018, 17:23hrs EDT
Private room, upper floor, Sibley Maternal Foetal Medicine,
5255 Loughboro Rd NW 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20016, United States
"OK doll, ready to blow this joint?" Harm was attempting a cod-Bogart accent – and failing!
Caitlin, sympathetically, picked up his line. "Ah surely am, mah darling husband – did you let Trisha know?"
"Yes, she'll head straight to the Residence and will be waiting for us. I need to take my hat off to Faith again – she brought a bassinet and car-carrier with her last night when she and Trisha visited. This means that we can safely get Samuel into the Lexus for the run back to the Residence."
"You know Harm, every time I come across Faith, she impresses me more."
"She has certainly developed in 15 years. You will hear no arguments from me, Wife!"
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End Ch22 – "Bringing home baby"
Notes: Mike, UK, 14-May-2020 – msg... This seems a sensible point to adjourn "Red Mittens" for a while – purely to allow me to concentrate on my other three live stories. Please be in no doubt that Harm, Caitlin, Trisha, Samuel will be back (along with Tom, Trish, Faith etc) in due course.
++++++++++++Cut above here for FFN Publication.