Okay, I'm sorry about the torturous wait...That really wasn't in the holiday spirit, was it? My sincerest apologies. Hopefully this will make up for it...
OOOO
Part Eight
Mac continued to scream incoherently behind him as Harm made his way back to her and Webb. She immediately tried to push her way past him and to the car, but he pulled her towards him, holding her hard.
"No, Mac, there's no way anyone is still alive in there…"
"No," Mac sobbed, her chest heaving, "Katya…My baby!"
"I'm so sorry, Mac…" Clay told her softly, "Harm's right…"
Mac screamed again, loudly, "Oh, God…Katya!"
Harm could only hold her as she sobbed, convulsively.
Just then, they were stopped in their tracks by a distant voice.
"Mamma?"
Harm, Mac and Webb's heads spun around to the underbrush to their right, to see a purple-cloaked figure toddling to them.
"Papa? Mamma?" little Katya asked them, having heard Mac shouting her name. She had been thrown from the car as it rolled down the embankment and had come to a stop about twenty yards from where the car now lay, burning.
"Katya!" Mac exclaimed, still sobbing, this time with relief and set off running, Harm close behind her.
"Oh, Katya," Mac began to cry again as she scooped the little girl up into her arms, pulling back the hood on the girl's thick coat to kiss the child's face, "My baby…Mamma's got you, Mamma's got you…"
Harm enveloped them both in his arms, ducking his head down to kiss and rest on the top of the child's head.
"Oh, thank God…Thank God," he exclaimed, thankfully, visually surveying the child for injuries, "I've never been so scared in my life. Are you okay, baby? Do you hurt anywhere?"
Mac translated this into Russian and the little girl told her plaintively, "Head hurts…"
"Did you bump it when you fell out of the car?" Mac asked her, rubbing gently where the child indicated.
"No," Katya told them, pouting, "Doctor bump my head…on the car… he's a bad man!"
Mac let out a long sigh of relief, telling Harm and Webb, "The doctor bumped her head on the car, as he was pushing her in."
Just then, there was the sound of a fire engine and an ambulance pulling up.
"We'd better get her checked out, just in case. A fireman ran down the embankment past them to survey the situation of the car, as the four of them made their way up to the waiting ambulance. Katya began to cry again as a paramedic tried to take her from Mac.
"Don't cry, darling," Mac comforted her, trying to unhook Katya's arms from around her neck, "Mamma and Papa are going to come with you. The doctors just want to make sure that you aren't hurt."
She and Harm climbed into the ambulance behind the paramedic carrying Katya and stayed on hand to calm the upset child and give the medics information about what had happened.
"We think that she was thrown out of the car, when it rolled down the embankment," Mac explained to the woman attending Katya, "She probably wasn't belted into the car…"
"It is a good thing that she had this coat on," The medic commented, indicating the thick purple quilted coat laying on the stretcher, "She could have been hurt a lot worse, if it had not been there to pad and protect her."
The coat was torn extensively in places and there was glass embedded in the outside of it.
"Has she been complaining of any pain?"
"She said her head hurts," Mac reported, "She said it got knocked on the roof of the car as she was being pushed in, when the abductors escaped with her."
"I think that we should take her to St. Petersburg, just in case," the medic reported, "It would be wise to see a doctor and rule out any concussion or other kind of head injury."
Mac nodded, and turned her attention back to Katya. She sat down on the side of the stretcher and Katya scrambled to her.
"What a big, brave girl my baby is," she cooed softly as Katya curled up in her arms, tucking her face into the side of Mac's neck, "You've been so brave today."
Harm crossed over to them both and rubbed Katya's back, comfortingly.
"Mamma and Papa are so glad to have you back," Mac continued, "We're going to go to the hospital now, so that we can check that you're alright, then we'll all go home to the hotel. Mamma and Papa won't leave you again, I promise."
The little girl was asleep before the ambulance even pulled away, snuggled into Mac's arms, with Harm rubbing her back and stroking her hair, softly.
OOOO
A few hours later, they were in a small hospital room, waiting for a doctor to come and see them. Webb had gone to give Bud and Harriet a phone call, to let them know that everything was all right.
The doctor came in to see Katya at about 1845, introducing himself to Harm and Mac.
"Good evening, Commander, Colonel…This is your daughter, Ekaterina?"
"Katya is a ward of the state," Mac told him, "But we will be taking formal steps to adopt her."
"And Katya was thrown from a car?"
"Yes, she was…" Harm confirmed.
"There have been reporters all over the hospital," the doctor told them, as he leaned over to the bed to examine Katya, who was still sleeping, lying on her tummy, "I have to keep getting security staff to eject them from the hospital. Seems we've got a little celebrity in our midst."
He pressed a stethoscope to Katya's back, underneath the covers and listened to her heartbeat.
"Fine…could you please help me get her turned over onto her back, so I can check her eyes?"
Mac turned Katya over, the little girl only stirring minimally as the doctor pulled back her eyelids, gently and shone a penlight into her eyes.
"Hmm," he pondered, "I'm not sure that her pupils are responding as well as they should be…Have either of you noticed her having trouble tracking objects with her eyes?"
Harm and Mac both shook their heads, "Not that we've seen…But she didn't quite seem to be alert enough…"
"She hasn't seemed confused, at all?"
"Yes, a bit, but she was pretty shaken up," Mac justified.
"I see…has she complained of much pain? Has she shown aversion to bright lights, or squinted at all?"
"No," Harm replied, "She said her head was sore where it had been bumped, but it didn't seem to be causing her much pain."
"Can you show me the bump on her head that was giving her the pain?" the doctor requested.
Mac showed him, parting the child's hair where Katya had shown her, earlier.
"Yes," the doctor pondered, "The bump does not seem to be too big or too bruised. Still, I'd like to keep her overnight, if I may, just to run a couple of tests tonight and tomorrow, just to be sure."
Harm and Mac both nodded in consent and a nurse entered the room, who had been in to take a blood sample and insert an IV drip into the back of Katya's hand, soon after they had arrived at the hospital.
"Doctor," she reported to the man, "The little girl's blood tests are back from the lab."
The doctor took the notes from her and read over them for a second.
"Ah!" he noted aloud then turned to Harm and Mac, "I think I know why Katya's pupils seem to be a bit sluggish. Her blood tests indicate that there is a tranquilliser in her system…Did she seem a bit disoriented, when you first saw her today?"
"We didn't see her face," Mac told him, "She was wearing a coat with her hood up…But she did seem to take a minute to notice that Harm and I were there…"
"That is because of the tranquilliser," the doctor told them, "They must have sedated her for the car journey. Right, well I think we should still run those tests on Katya, just to make sure, then the three of you will be able to go home sometime tomorrow afternoon."
"Thank you, doctor," Harm and Mac thanked him, then he and the nurse disappeared to continue with their rounds. Mac went back to sit on the side of the bed.
"Mac?" Harm asked her, "Do you want to go and get something to eat? You haven't had anything all day."
"No," Mac dismissed, "I'm fine."
"Really, I can stay here with Katya while you go…"
"No, I just want to stay here with her," Mac told him and let out a sigh, "Goodness, what a day! We came so close to losing her, Harm…"
"But we didn't," Harm stopped her, "She's fine and that's all that matters. We're going to get this adoption pushed through, with Webb's help and then we'll go home and settle back in."
Mac nodded, and leaned down to Katya, lifting the child and gathering her up in her arms. The little girl stirred, mumbling, softly, "Mamma…"
"It's all right…Mamma's right here, baby," Mac soothed her, kissing her softly, and nuzzling her face.
Harm joined them on the bed and put an arm around Mac, holding her and Katya close. He stroked Katya's fine, baby-soft hair and the little girl turned her attention to him.
"Papa…" she requested, in Russian, "Kiss-kiss…"
"She wants a kiss," Mac translated to him, smiling as Harm gladly took the child into his arms, careful of the IV drip in her hand.
"There's my princess," Harm told the little girl, kissing her softly on the nose and cheeks, "Daddy's so happy to have his baby-girl back."
Mac translated this into Russian for Katya and the child wriggled higher in his arms, tucking her face into his neck.
She mumbled something that Harm and Mac did not hear.
"What did she say?" Harm asked Mac, who shook her head in reply.
"I don't know, turn her this way a bit."
Harm did so and Mac gently stroked Katya's cheek.
"What did you say, Sweetheart? Mamma and Papa didn't hear you."
"Sasha, Mamma…want Sasha…"
Mac looked at her daughter with sadness for a second.
"I know you do, baby…"
"Want Sasha…Mamma, want Sasha!" Katya continued to get worked up, beginning to cry.
Hearing the noise, one of the nurses came in to see if everything was all right.
"She's just a little upset," Mac told her, in Russian, "She's missing her friend."
The nurse just nodded and went to check, Katya's IV drip.
"Mamma, please…Want Sasha!" Katya continued to cry plaintively.
Harm and Mac did their best to calm her, but it looked as if she had well and truly started off.
The nurse finished checking Katya's chart and was about to leave the room, but turned to tell Mac something, first.
"I'm sorry the child is so upset, but it really is out of the question for her to visit her little friend, tonight."
"No," Mac started to explain to her, "The child is not here in the hospital…"
"You mean Sasha?" The nurse clarified, "The little girl with whom Katya was admitted on Friday night? She is down the hall, but will be fast asleep by now…"
Mac stared at her, agog for a minute.
"You mean Sashenka? A little girl with short blond hair?"
When the nurse nodded, Mac stammered, "But we were told that she had died. They said she had the SARS…"
"No," the nurse reported, "Both Sahsa and Katya were admitted only with a twenty-four hour bug. Sasha was dehydrated from the sickness, so she has remained in the hospital. But she is fine and will be released tomorrow."
"Sasha didn't die on Saturday morning?" Mac continued, disbelieving.
"No," the nurse assured her, "No female children died at all, over the weekend. I was here the entire time…"
"What is it, Mac?" asked Harm, totally not understanding the rapid dialogue going on in Russian.
"Go and phone Bud and Harriet, Harm, quick!" Mac told him, "Tell them to get down here…"
OOOO