Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be, etc...
A/N: This could possibly be the last chapter I get done before my surgery, but I'll try to get another finished today. A giant thank you goes out to codedriver for her help with some of the medical stuff!
-
Chapter 24:
"Are you OK, Colonel?" Mac jumped at the sound of the nurses voice.
"Sorry" said Mac, "I didn't mean to fall asleep." She'd pulled a chair up close to Harm's bed so she could hold his hand, and had at some unknown point laid her head down on the edge of the bed and dozed off.
"It's quite alright, ma'am" said the nurse, a different lieutenant than had been in before, "you need your rest."
"Yeah, I do" replied Mac. She leaned slowly back in the chair, her back scolding her for sleeping in that awkward position.
"When's the big day, ma'am?" asked the nurse.
"10 more weeks" answered Mac, "early-to-mid September."
"You must be so excited" said the nurse. "Is this your first baby?"
"Yes, it is" said Mac, "and we're very excited."
"If you'll let me sneak by you here, ma'am" said the nurse, "I'll get Commander Rabb's vitals and then I'll leave you two alone for awhile."
"Of course" replied Mac as she got up from her chair and went around to the other side of Harm's bed. "Has there been any change in the last couple of hours?" she asked the nurse.
"None to speak of, ma'am" said the nurse as she watched the blood pressure machine give the latest reading. "He's no better, but he's no worse either. We're all hoping for the best."
"He's gonna be fine" said Mac, caressing his forehead with her finger, "he's too stubborn not to be."
The nurse finished checking what she needed to, and made the appropriate notes in Harm's chart. "Alright, Colonel, he's all yours until shift change."
"Thank you, lieutenant" said Mac. She moved back to the opposite side of Harm's bed, took a hold of his hand and began talking to him about everything that came into her mind.
"Hey babe" she said, "I'm still here, still waiting to hear your voice. The doctor said you need to wake up within another 4 hours or else he'll have to check your head again. I know you don't want that, so how about you save us all the trouble and wake up for me, OK?"
No response.
She felt the tears coming, and knew she was powerless against them.
"Oh, Harm" she cried, "I love you so much, and I need you to come out of this!"
She was consumed with emotion until she heard a knock at the door. Managing to somehow get herself together, she looked up and saw a familiar and friendly face.
"Oh, hi Jen" said Mac, "come on in."
"I got here as soon as I could" said Jen, "I didn't check my messages until really late."
"It's OK" said Mac, "I've been here since an hour after it happened and I spent most of the first few hours in the waiting room thinking he was dead. You didn't miss much."
"How is he, ma'am - I mean Mac?" whispered Jen, a look of great concern on her face.
"He's holding his own" replied Mac, "but I'll feel a lot better when he comes out from under this stupid coma."
"Me, too" said Jen. "How long before the doctor will want to run more tests?"
"Just under 4 hours" answered Mac. "I don't want him to have anything else done. I just want him to wake up."
"Have you gotten any sleep?" Jen asked Mac, "You look exhausted."
"I dozed off for an hour and 34 minutes awhile ago" replied Mac, "then the nurse came in to check his vitals and I've been awake since then."
"Why don't I sit with him" asked Jen, "and you go get comfy in the recliner over there and sleep for awhile?"
"I guess it would be a good idea" said Mac, "my back is giving me fits for sleeping hunched over on the side of the bed, and I really am tired. You'll wake me if anything happens, understood?"
"Of course I will, Mac" said Jen, "now go get some rest."
Mac stood up from the chair she'd pulled beside Harm's bed and went across the room to get settled into the recliner. "They couldn't make these things any more uncomfortable if they tried" she thought to herself. After a few moments, she found a semi-comfortable position, and covered up with a blanket the nurse had left for her earlier. As she closed her eyes, she felt the baby move a few times. "Hey, little one" she whispered, "mommy's gonna take a nap, how about you join me?" Almost as if the baby understood, it settled down and allowed Mac nearly 2 hours of peaceful sleep.
She woke up shortly before 5:00 a.m. As she promised, Jen was sitting at Harm's bedside, keeping a close watch over him.
"No news, huh?" asked Mac as she sat the recliner up.
"Nope" said Jen. "The nurse popped in to see if you were alright and was pleased when she saw you sleeping."
"I'm still beat" replied Mac, "but I know any sleep is better than none."
"Indeed" agreed Jen, "especially in your condition."
Mac nodded her head. "I'm gonna run to the restroom, then I'll be back so you can head home if you'd like."
"I'm in no hurry" said Jen, "really. I'd like to stay here if it's alright. I'm worried about him."
"Sure, that's fine" said Mac as she headed towards the restroom. "I'll be right back."
"OK" said Jen. "When you get back, I think I'll go find a coffee machine."
"OK, that's fine" said Mac.
A couple moments later, Mac returned and Jen went in search of coffee. Mac once again stood at Harm's bedside and talked to him, knowing in her heart he could sense her presence.
"Ok, flyboy" she said, "this coma stuff is getting really old really fast, so why don't you wake up for me, OK? I know you can hear me, Harm, I know it. Now, prove it to me and wake up."
Nothing.
"Damn it, Harm, don't do this to me!" cried Mac. "You have to wake up, do you hear me? I'm trying to believe that you're gonna pull through this just like you've pulled through everything else, but the longer I stand here and have to listen to the incessant beeping of these monitors instead of the sound of your voice, the more scared I get!"
She paused for a second to calm down and catch her breath, still believing that he could hear her and that he knew she was upset. The doctor had said it wasn't good for him to know she was upset, so she had to try and control her emotions, which by that time had far more control over her than the other way around.
She took a deep breath and continued to talk to him.
"I'm thinking back on our weekend in California. I still can't believe you had your friend fly us across the country like that, but I should know by now that you're all about surprises."
Still no response, but she kept talking.
"Do you remember our walk along the beach that Saturday night? Gosh, you looked so handsome in that shirt your mom picked out. I'll give her credit, she's got good taste in clothing. I'll never forget that night, Harm. Just you and I, alone on that gorgeous beach. You stopped walking after awhile and when I asked you why, you said it was so you could kiss me underneath the moon. Do you remember that, babe?"
Still nothing.
"One minute we're kissing underneath the moon, and the next we're laying in the sand with half our clothes off. It just happened. No planning, no forethought, it just…happened. That's one thing I'm learning to love about you more every day we're together - the way you make so many wonderful things 'just happen.'"
The baby kicked, just hard enough to get Mac's attention. Still nothing from Harm.
"I don't know if I've ever said thank you for giving me this baby. I know you'd say that I did all the work, and yeah, I did do more than you did, but that's not what matters. I was in a very sad place after my surgery, and I'd given up on the idea of ever carrying a child, yours or anyone else's, but you didn't give up. Even when you did all the research on what our options were and instead of embracing them, I pushed you as far away as I could, you didn't give up. This baby wouldn't exist without you, Harm, and I don't just mean medically speaking. This little one is living proof that you and I belong together, we always have and we always will."
Nothing. She couldn't take it anymore.
"You listen to me, Harmon David Rabb, Jr.!" she yelled. "I can't imagine living life without you, and I can't imagine having this baby without you being right by my side, like you promised you'd be! You always say you've never made a promise you couldn't keep, so I'm holding you to it, do you understand me! Oh, oh God…"
"Sorry it took me so long" said Jen as she walked into Harm's room. "The machine on this floor was broken, I had to go two floors up to fi- oh my God!"
Jen found Mac in a heap on the floor beside Harm's bed. She immediately pressed the nurse call button.
"Can I help you?" said the voice on the other end.
"We need a doctor in here right away!" said Jen urgently. "Colonel Mackenzie collapsed!"
"We'll be right there!" said the nurse. Within 30 seconds, Harm's room was a buzz of activity, all revolving around his fiancée and their unborn child, and he was oblivious to it all.
-
"Wh-what happened?" Mac asked groggily as she woke up and realized she was in a hospital bed with an ID band on her wrist.
"You collapsed, Colonel" said yet another different nurse. "Your friend found you next to Commander Rabb's bed and called for help."
"Is Harm OK? Did he wake up yet?" Mac asked excitedly.
"He's still stable, ma'am" replied the nurse, "but he hasn't come out of the coma yet."
"I have to get back to him" said Mac as she started getting out of her bed.
"Whoa! You're not going anywhere, Colonel" said the nurse. "We've gotta get your blood pressure under control. It was through the roof when we got you up here."
"My blood pressure? It's probably just from getting so upset, I'm fine now" insisted Mac, still trying to get out of her bed.
"Sorry, no can do, ma'am" said the nurse. "You've got pre-eclampsia, which means if we can't get your pressures under control and keep them there, you'll very likely deliver this baby 10 weeks early."
"I can't have the baby now! It's way too early, and Harm…" Mac began to sob uncontrollably. The nurse wrapped a compassionate arm around Mac and let her cry.
"It's OK, Colonel" she said, "you've had a very rough night, you haven't eaten or slept nearly enough, and this much stress would be hard on anyone, let alone someone 30 weeks pregnant."
"Is the baby OK?" asked Mac as she reached for a tissue.
"So far, the baby is fine" assured the nurse as she nodded to the fetal monitors next to Mac's bed. "We're watching the baby's heart rate to make sure everything is OK, but we need to get you calmed down and keep a very close eye on those pressures."
"When can I go back to see Harm?" asked Mac, hating the idea that he might wake up and not see her there.
"The doctor should be back in to check on you in about 10 minutes" said the nurse, "and we'll see what he says. I can tell you this much, though, you can't go back down there and get as upset as you were before."
"Understood" said Mac. "I don't know what happened. I was talking to him, you know, hoping he could hear me and that he'd wake up if he knew I was there, and then I got a terrible headache and the next thing I knew, I was in here."
"Well", said the nurse "according to the Commander's nurse, you were yelling at him to not make a promise he couldn't keep, or something to the like, and then they didn't hear you yelling anymore, so chances are that's what got you so worked up that you collapsed." Mac remembered something about promises, and knew that was probably what sent her over the edge.
"I'll do my best to calm down and stay that way" said Mac. "I just really need to be there when he wakes up."
"We'll see what we can do about that, ma'am" said the nurse. "In the meantime, why don't you have a little snack, it'll make you feel better."
"That'd be great" said Mac, realizing she was pretty hungry.
"What would you like?" asked the nurse.
"Some vanilla ice cream and some apple juice sounds great" said Mac.
"I'll be right back with that, ma'am" replied the nurse.
Mac laid in bed and watched the baby's heartbeat on the monitor. She tried to focus all her thoughts there instead of letting them wander down paths better left alone. She smiled at the nurse when she returned with the ice cream and juice.
"Thank you" she said.
"You're welcome, Colonel."
-
Shortly after she finished her snack, the on-call OB, Commander Marcel, came in to talk with her.
"You gave us quite a scare, Colonel" he said.
"Sorry, Commander" Mac replied. "I take it you've been told about the situation with my fiancé?"
"Yes, I have" said the doctor, "and I'm very sorry you've had to deal with that. Is he OK?"
"He will be" said Mac confidently, "but he's still in a coma and if he doesn't wake up very soon, they'll have to do another CAT scan to check for a brain bleed."
"Well, I know you want to get back down there to be with him" said Commander Marcel, "but in order for me to let you do that, you have to promise me you'll do a couple of things."
"Anything" said Mac.
"Number one" said the doctor, "you have to stay as calm as you can. That means no more yelling at your fiancé or anyone else, it's not good for you or your baby."
"Ok, what else?" asked Mac.
"If your head gets to hurting at all while you're still here, I want you to have them check your blood pressure down there. If it's high, I want you to get back up here right away."
"Can do" said Mac. "Anything else?
"Not for right now" replied the doctor, "but you do need to make an appointment with your OB/GYN to let him or her know what happened and that they need to very closely monitor your blood pressure for the remainder of your pregnancy. We don't want to see a repeat of tonight."
"How bad was it?" asked Mac, not completely understanding the severity of the situation.
"Let me put it this way, Colonel" said Commander Marcel, "you were 2 minutes away from being prepped for a crash C-section."
Mac dissolved into tears for the umpteenth time. "I'm sorry…"
"It's OK" said the doctor. "Everything turned out OK this time, but it's imperative that we avoid a repeat, so you need to take the next 2-and-a-half months as easy as possible."
Mac knew she had to do as the doctor said, but with Harm still comatose, it was going to be a challenge.
-