Luke followed in behind the three siblings as they scrambled into their parents' room at the hospital, eagerly rushing in to see them. He had finished packing up the gear from the impromptu campsite that he and the twins and his daughter had been at for the last two nights. He'd been able to keep the boys busy for the two days for the most part; only having to answer the occasional question about their mother. He'd like to keep the kids distracted a bit longer but he considered himself lucky to have been able to do so for the extra day that he promised the rest of the family while they waiting to see how Kira would fare from her harrowing ordeal.
Luke had dropped his daughter off with his wife and drove the children to the hospital hoping that they'd be reassured that their mother would be alright, eventually. The disappointment of seeing only their father when the made it inside was clear as Luke watched the three come to a halt in the hospital room. Still, the youngest went ahead and climbed into her father's lap where he was sitting on the side of the bed; still with his feet bandaged.
"Where's mom?" Mikey asked since he and his siblings had been told that they were coming to see her as well.
Jebb glanced at Luke subconsciously even though he knew that his older cousin wasn't aware of the most recent events at the hospital. Kira had been taken back into surgery to relieve the pressure from her brain swelling; a hold over from the beating that she'd taken at Shawn Kyle's hand with the tire iron. An Intracranial Pressure Monitor had been placed during a previous surgery. When the doctors had come in to check on Kira just after breakfast it indicated that Kira's brain was once more swelling and needed to be addressed.
"The doctors had to take your mother for a quick look to make sure that everything is healing up the way it needs to be." Jebb looked up at the clock to see what time it was. He'd been told that the operation was expected to be finished over an hour ago. He'd hoped that his wife would have been returned to the hospital room by the time that the children were brought to visit. "She should be back any time, now."
Luke caught Jebb's eye and knew that his cousin couldn't tell him but at the same time he understood that the reasoning behind Kira's absence was more concerning than he was telling the children. He made a mental note to call Kim after he took the children home. He figured that he'd try to divert their attention.
"So, how's your feet healing up, Jebb? Is Kim goin' to let you out of here any time soon?"
Jebb looked down at his bandaged feet briefly. "She said that I'll be released by the end of the weekend so long as I promise to stay off of my feet. Of course she'll be over to check and change the bandages a couple times every day. From then, it looks like these boys are goin' to have me as a roommate in the spare room that has always been set up for the kids in the family. Looks like I'll be sleeping in one of the bottom bunks. You know, I can't remember the last time I slept in a bunk bed."
Luke chuckled at the mental image of his cousin sharing the room with the twins with the two bunkbeds set up in it. Crystal had been staying with Faith this week but she likely will decide to go stay with her father once he was out of the hospital. That meant that all three children will be sharing a room with their father until they can rebuild their home. Once Kira was well enough to leave the hospital that room will be more than just a little tight.
"Just make sure you are careful waking up. Don't sit up too fast. You'll bust your head. You're just a bit taller than the youngens."
"Maybe Dad should sleep in the top bunk, instead?" Jay suggested with a grin.
"Yeh, somehow I don't think that would be much better."
Mikey nudged his brother and pretended to whisper, "He'll forget he's on a bunk and fall out when he goes to stand up. What a way to wake up."
"Gee, thanks, Mike. I'm sure you'd find that hilarious, too."
"Yep!" Mikey giggled as he mimicked his father's potential fall from the bed and collapse to the floor, causing both of his siblings and his uncle to join in the laughter.
"Something tells me that I'll be safer if I sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor," Jebb said sarcastically. He was about to say something else when the door opened to reveal some nurses bringing Kira in by way of a gurney. Jebb motioned for the children to hop up onto his bed to keep them out of the way as she was transferred back to her hospital bed. Her head was bandaged but there was no other outward signs that she'd just been in surgery. The rest of the family had already prepared the children for the sights of the tube that helped Kira to breathe.
Once the nurses had finished with setting Kira back up they told Jebb that someone would be in to talk to him later after his company was gone. The nurses had been told ahead of time that he didn't want to worry the children needlessly and he appreciated their discretion. He convinced the children that their mother was merely sleeping but he knew that even without the medication given before and during her surgery, Kira wasn't just asleep. Kim had told him that she had been put into a medically induced coma to allow her system to try to heal from her injuries. Jebb wasn't sure how to explain that to the kids so he'd rather not have to at all. At least for the time being. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to explain it at all.
A few days later Jebb tucked the kids into their beds for the first time after their home had burned. The boys were both on the top bunks while Crystal was on one of the bottom bunks. He, himself, would take the other one when he returned upstairs to get some sleep for himself. He leaned against the doorframe with his crutches and watched the children sleep for a few moments. The last week had seemed to throw everything up into even more chaos than it had been beforehand; and he hadn't thought that would have been possible just seven days prior.
"Jebb," a deep, soft, yet thunderous voice spoke up from behind him. Jebb turned and saw that his uncle was standing behind him. "You know you ain't supposed to be up on your feet."
"I know. I'm on my way back downstairs." Jebb adjusted the crutches under his arms as he moved away from the doorway and moved toward the stairs. He hated the fact that he needed them to take some of his weight off of his damaged feet. Still, it was some progress to not be relegated to the hospital bed; even if he knew that Kim hadn't been happy about sending him home. She'd carefully weighed sending him to the farm with the needs of his children to have one parent that appeared to be mostly recovered from their harrowing week.
Once the two Duke men were downstairs with Daisy they sat at the table to drink a cup of coffee while discussing the plans of rebuilding the house that had been set on fire.
Daisy set Jebb's cup down in front of him as she informed him what Luke and Bo had determined regarding the other house. "Luke seems to think that much of the lower level can be salvaged. There's a lot of water damage along with smoke but nothing that can't be fixed. He's already called Coy to see if he'd be able to come and help with the work. Vance is out to sea for the next several months but Coy has already agreed to come down. Even General Hart said that when he comes down for Faith's birthday next weekend that he'd stick around to do what he can."
Daisy wasn't sure why she had been surprised to hear of the latter's staying for the razing of the burned out parts of the other farmhouse. He had taken to the family over the years as if he'd always been a part of them; though it did help when Enos became the sheriff after Boss's death. He never was comfortable with the idea of unjust arrests being a part of normal life for a Duke in Hazzard.
"That's good news. With the family coming in, in a couple of weeks, for Thanksgiving we'll have a few more hands to help with the cleanup. Then after the start of the year we can get started with the rebuildin'." Jesse said. He hoped that by that time Jebb would once more be on his feet, without the need for the crutches. He knew his nephew would be hard to keep still until then.
Jebb nodded as he couldn't help but wonder how much of that time his wife would be stuck in the hospital. The farm house had been Kira's first real home and it didn't feel right to be planning the rebuilding of it without her input. Nor would he be capable of doing much of the work on the house himself for a while.
Jay sat off to the side as the other children celebrated his cousin's birthday. Faith blew out the seven candles and eagerly accepted the slice of cake that her mother cut for her. Jay pretended to enjoy himself but he was silently waiting for the end of the party so that he and his siblings could visit their mother. He knew that the adults weren't telling him and the other kids everything. His mother had been asleep for over a week now. Something was wrong. He knew it. Still, he knew that he shouldn't ask his questions about his mother right now. His cousin deserved a festive birthday, even if he couldn't force himself to be just as festive.
Jay ate his cake along with the others and watched as Faith was given her presents. He watched as his younger sister joined in with their cousins with playing with the party guests. He wondered how much his sister could understand about how hurt their mother must have been for her still not be awake after a week and a half of being at the hospital. But he knew that something wasn't right. He'd seen how the adults would stop talking about their mother when they saw any of the children. He'd also overheard his grandparents speaking to his father when they came up last night. Everyone was worried about his mother. They just didn't want the children to know. That scared him. Even when his father was hurt Jay and the others were told what to expect and that everything would eventually okay. But now...
Jay sat and waited for the party to end and hoped that when he was taken to the hospital to see his mother that worse news wouldn't be waiting for the family. He could only hope that his mother would wake up and start getting better.
Kim read over the recent observations that were put into her sister-in-law's chart. She'd decided to try to pull back on some of the medication that Kira had been placed on that had placed her into a medically induced coma days ago. What concerned her, however, was that Kira showed no signs of improvement or even the slightest hint of waking up. Kim went over the various tests in hopes that she had missed something in vain. She planned to go talk to Jebb while he was visiting Kira with the kids but she had hoped that she'd have better news to share while he was here. Kim knew that the rest of the family, too, would like to know when to expect the injured Duke to wake up. She didn't like knowing that the only answer that she could give them was that she didn't know.
With no other choice, Kim got up from her desk and made her way to Kira's hospital room where she found Jebb with the three young children. She noticed that Jay still kept a guarded distance from his father; a holdover from seeing him with someone who wasn't his mother a couple of weeks ago at the race. Kim instinctively walked over to put a hand on his shoulder as she joined the family.
"Kim, I was just tellin' the kids that Kira must still be pretty tired. That we should be quiet to let her sleep." Jebb tried to sound as if he wasn't concerned for the children's sake but if he was honest he was terrified that Kira still showed no sign of waking.
Kim took in a calming breath before she tried to decide how best to proceed. "Actually, I think that hearing a little bit of noise could do her some good. I was actually going to see if the boys would like to take turns reading to their mother while we talked. Jo's been reading from a mystery when she comes to visit but she may be ready for a change of pace."
Mikey exchanged a glance with his twin since their Aunt Kim seemed a bit less optimistic than she had been when they came to the hospital for their visits. "What should we read?"
"How about this?" Kim suggested as she held out a book that she had grabbed with the boys in mind earlier in the day.
"Peter Pan?" Mikey asked as he reached for the book.
"I thought that you might enjoy it. You and Jay can take turns reading to your mother and to your sister," Kim smiled at the young girl who had climbed up to sit on the bed next to her mother.
Once the boys were settled in with the book and started to take turns reading Jebb walked out of the room with his sister-in-law with trepidation. He closed the door behind him since he had the feeling that he wouldn't want the children to overhear what was about to be said.
"What's wrong, Kim? Why hasn't Kira started to wake up, yet?"
Kim wasn't surprised to hear Jebb get straight to the point. She decided to do the same. "To be honest, I don't know. We pulled back on her medication days ago and we'd expected her to wake up by now. But brain injuries are sometimes unpredictable. Add that to the fact that we had to induce coma to try to help with the healing... We tried to reverse the coma but she's not reacting to the lack of anesthetics. Which means that we no longer have control over it. She could wake up tomorrow or she could stay in the coma for an undetermined amount of time. But I will warn you, the longer that she stays under the harder it will be for her to recover."
"Are you sayin' that she might not wake up at all?" Jebb didn't wait for the answer. He saw it in Kim's eyes the moment that he asked the question. He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. "So what do we do? How can we help her?"
"Just keep talking to her. The more she hears the rest of the family the more likely that her mind will react to her environment. Help trigger memories. Let the kids read to her, tell her about their day. I've asked Bo and Luke to find some of their old tapes of the family singing and play them in a loop when she doesn't have any visitors."
"And that will help?"
"It won't hurt," Kim answered before she noticed that Jebb was showing signs of his burned feet still causing him pain from standing for too long. He may have ditched the crutches but he was still far from healed up. "You need to go back and sit down. Spend a while with Kira with the kids. Bo will be coming by to sit with her in a few hours. We'll get through this, together, as a family. We just have to have hope."
Jebb nodded before doing his best to strip his face of the renewed worry that he now had for his wife. He knew that he'd have to share some of what he was told with the children. He just didn't know how much would be appropriate. The boys suspected. He could tell that. Perhaps he needed to talk to them after their sister was asleep tonight.