Disclaimer: Neither Harm nor Mac nor Jen nor any of the other wonderful JAG folks belong to me...
A/N: I'm baaaack! Actually I had this chapter 99 percent written before my surgery last week, knowing that I'd want to post something this week and knowing I wouldn't be up to writing much just yet. For those who're wondering, my surgery went well and my recovery is going well also. I had to have my left fallopian tube removed because of the damage from the endometriosis (which is what caused my ectopic pregnancy last year, but we didn't know that at the time), and my doctor said my right tube looks really good (a definite blessing since that's the only tube I have left). I'll know a little more after my appointment on February 10, when I'll get a look at the surgical photos (eeww, guts!) and can talk with my doctor. THANK YOU to everyone who wrote to me sending their thoughts, prayers and well-wishes last week. I'm still moving slowly but things get better each day. :)
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Chapter 25:
They kept Mac upstairs on the maternity floor for over 3 hours, until they were satisfied with her blood pressure and the baby's heart rate. As soon as Commander Marcel gave the OK, she found the nearest elevator and returned to Harm's room.
"Jen" said Mac in a surprised tone, "what are you still doing here?"
"I wasn't going to leave him here alone, Mac" Jen replied. "I debated on whether I should go upstairs with you or stay here with him, and I decided if I went upstairs, once you woke up you'd probably just order me back down here anyway, so I stayed here. How are you feeling, what happened?"
Mac gave Jen a warm hug. "You're right, I would have ordered you back down here" she said. "The last thing I wanted was for him to wake up alone. As for me, I'm feeling OK for now. My blood pressure went sky high and that's what made me pass out. They had me on a fetal monitor for a few hours, and said I've got pre-eclampsia, a fancy way of saying my blood pressure isn't under control."
"Goodness, Mac" said Jen, "is the baby OK?"
"Yeah, baby's fine" said Mac, "however if I end up having another episode like that, they'll most likely have to deliver the baby early. My doctor upstairs said they were 2 minutes away from delivering tonight when they were finally able to get things under control."
"Well it's no wonder why it happened" said Jen, "look at everything you've had to deal with since last night."
"Oh, I know why it happened" said Mac, "so does the doctor and the nurses and pretty much everyone on both these floors, but the fact is I can't let it happen again or they're gonna take the baby early and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen."
"Well, you just let me know what I can do to help" offered Jen, "and consider it done."
"Thanks, Jen" replied Mac.
"Oh, the General, Harriet, Sturgis and Mattie all called while you were gone." said Jen. "They send their love and said they'll check back later today."
"Aw, how sweet" said Mac. "I take it you told them what happened when you got my message?"
"Yeah" replied Jen, "I knew you'd want them to know, plus since you'll both be out of the office for some amount of time, I went ahead and told them."
"Thanks for taking care of that" said Mac. "One less thing for me to keep up with."
"Glad to help where I can." said Jen.
"Has his doctor been in since I've been gone?" asked Mac as she sat down in the recliner.
"Yeah, he was in around 6:30" answered Jen.
"And…?" prodded Mac.
"He wasn't pleased that Harm hasn't woken up yet." stated Jen solemnly.
Mac took a few deep, relaxing breaths. "So, did he order another CAT scan?"
"Yeah, he did" said Jen, "but it didn't show anything more than the first one."
"So what does that mean?" asked Mac.
"Well, they're still going on the assumption that there's no bleeding anywhere in his brain" said Jen, "but sometimes there can be an area of bleeding that's so small it takes several days to show up."
"So he could be like this for several more days?" asked Mac, feeling herself getting upset. She took a few more deep breaths and focused on keeping calm.
"It's possible, Mac" Jen replied. "Now the doctor did say that we need to remain optimistic that there's no hidden bleeding and that this is just a really bad concussion that's taking him awhile to come out of."
"Right" said Mac. "What did he say about further testing of any sort?"
"That if Harm doesn't wake up by tomorrow morning, he'll order another CAT scan" said Jen. "Aside from that, nothing." She felt bad that she couldn't give Mac any better news.
"Why don't I go get some breakfast" offered Jen, "and leave you two alone for awhile?"
"That'd be nice" said Mac. "I'll stay calm, I promise."
"I know you will, Mac" said Jen as she headed for the cafeteria. "Maybe there'll be some good news waiting for me when I get back."
"We can hope" replied Mac. Jen left the room, and Mac took a seat in the chair where Jen had kept vigil while she was upstairs.
"Hey, handsome" she said softly as she looked at his still bruised face. "Did you miss me?" There was no answer, but somehow she knew he had.
"Sorry I was gone" she said. "Apparently it's not a good thing for a woman who's 30 weeks pregnant to get quite as upset as I've been since last night. We're OK, though, the baby and I, so don't worry about us - just concentrate on waking up."
Mac took a hold of Harm's hand, lifted it to her lips and kissed it. "I love you" she whispered. She caught sight of her engagement ring as it glistened atop her left hand. It didn't seem real that they were actually engaged, almost too good to be true.
"Well, good morning, little one" she said as she felt the baby kick. "Here" she said, taking Harm's hand and placing it on her tummy, "can you do that again, for daddy?" It took a few moments, but the baby gave her another good, strong kick in the same place as before. Mac smiled, her instincts telling her that Harm knew what was going on.
"You almost missed the baby's birthday, did you know that? Well, I should say the baby's birthday almost came 10 weeks earlier than planned, but that's all taken care of now."
Mac held onto his hand and looked down at the floor, concentrating on not getting upset.
"It was scary, Harm. They had me hooked up to a monitor and wouldn't let me out of the bed, and the doctor said I came way too close to having an emergency C-section last night. I'm so glad that didn't happen, mostly because the baby's not ready yet, but also because I can't imagine either of us missing the birth, let alone both of us."
Again, no response from the patient, lying still as stone in the bed, but she continued talking anyway.
"I haven't called your mom and Frank yet, but I plan to shortly. I was hoping to have more news for them than this, but since I don't, I'll just give them what I've got and if they want to fly out, they can. You know she's not gonna like seeing you like this, babe. She needs to know what happened, though."
Mac felt a tiny squeeze of her hand, so tiny she almost missed it.
"Harm!" Mac jumped up from her chair. "Harm, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand again, babe! Come on, I know you can do it!"
She felt another squeeze. She reached around and pressed the nurse call button.
"Can I help you?" said the answering nurse.
"Yes" exclaimed Mac, "Commander Rabb is waking up!"
"I'll page Commander Stephenson right away" replied the nurse. "Are his eyes open?"
"Not yet" said Mac, "but he squeezed my hand twice and I know he's close to opening his eyes!"
"Ok, Colonel, we'll be right there" said the nurse.
"Thank you!" replied Mac, turning her attention back to Harm.
"Ok flyboy" she said, "I need you to open your eyes for me. Come on, let's see those gorgeous baby blues."
Nothing.
"Wake up, Harm, come on, babe, please wake up." Just then, Commander Stephenson and his nurse entered the room.
"You said he squeezed your hand?" asked the doctor.
"Twice" answered Mac, "and he's this close to opening his eyes, I just know it."
"That's altogether possible, Colonel" said the doctor. "The hand squeezing is an excellent sign, but we can't get too excited until his eyes are open and we can assess his cognitive functions."
"Speak for yourself, Commander" retorted Mac, a little put out at the doctor's definition of what did and didn't warrant excitement. "I know Harm better than anyone in the world, and I'm telling you he's very close to breaking out of this coma."
"I hope you're correct, Colonel" said the doctor, "I really do. I'll be back in another hour or so, unless there's a change in his condition before then."
"Fine" said Mac, having to focus extra hard at remaining calm. Once they were alone again, her efforts turned back towards getting her man to open his eyes.
"OK, Harm, I really need you to work with me here. Prove that doctor wrong, babe, come on!"
"Mmmm…" It was the first sound he'd made since the accident.
"Harm! Harm I'm here, wake up and talk to me!"
He very slowly opened his eyes. At first he just stared straight up, squinting from the light.
"Harm! Can you see me?" asked Mac, fighting with every word to keep from getting too excited and sending her blood pressure back up.
He painstakingly turned his head towards her, his eyes still open and a blank stare on his face. After what seemed like an eternity…
"Mac" he said groggily, the slightest of smiles coming to his face.
"Harm" she replied, losing her fight to keep from crying. "How do you feel?"
"Head….hurts….bad" he said. "What…happened?"
"You were in a car accident last night" answered Mac. "You've been unconscious since you got here."
"You…OK?" he asked.
"I'm fine, babe" replied Mac. "You were alone in the car. I came here as soon as the police called me, just like you did for me."
"Pain…all…over" he said.
"I know, love" said Mac, "you have a couple of bruised ribs from where the seatbelt did it's job, and your knees are pretty banged up from slamming into the dashboard."
"That….all?" he asked.
"Except for the airbag bruise" she said. "Your face looks like mine did after my accident."
"Didn't…know…I…was…so…pretty" said Harm.
"Oh boy" said Mac, "always the jokester, huh?"
"Love…you…too" he said. Just then, the nurse came in to check on him.
"Well, isn't this a pleasant turn of events?" exclaimed the nurse upon realizing Harm was awake. "Let me go page the doctor, I'll be right back."
"He's gonna be pleased to see you awake and talking" said Mac.
"Good" said Harm. "Sit…up?"
"Maybe we should wait until the doctor comes in and see what he says" said Mac.
"See what I say about what?" asked Commander Stephenson as he entered the room.
"He wants to sit up in the bed" said Mac. "Is that OK?"
"Sure" said the doctor. "Let's do it this way" and as he pushed a button on the side of the bed, the head began to slowly rise, easing Harm into a semi-sitting position.
"AH!" yelled Harm just as the bed came to a stop.
"What's wrong!" exclaimed Mac.
"Hurts!" said Harm, clutching his bruised ribs.
"I'm sorry, Commander" the doctor said to Harm. "Bruised ribs are extremely painful, but it's important that we get you sitting up as much as we can to try and alleviate your risk of developing pneumonia."
"Can you give him anything for the pain?" asked Mac. She hated to see him hurting like that.
"I'll give him some IV steroids for now, to help with inflammation" said the doctor, "and after awhile, if he does well on those, we can give him something stronger for the pain, likely some Tylenol with codeine."
"Why can't we start with something stronger" asked Mac.
"With this type of injury" replied the doctor "we need to keep the patient as alert as possible so we can best monitor the situation. If we drug him up too much, it could mask a serious situation."
"I see" said Mac.
"I need to run through a few quick things with him right now" said the doctor "and then we'll get the meds going."
"OK" replied Mac, stepping back a bit so the doctor could get to Harm. He held up 2 fingers, and asked Harm if he could see them and how many there were.
"Two" said Harm, his voice indicative of the pain he was in.
"Good" answered the doctor. "Any ringing in your ears, anything like that?"
"No."
"Do you have a headache?"
"Yeah" said Harm.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the worst" said the doctor, "how bad is the pain?"
"Five" said Harm. Mac wasn't fooled, she could tell her was hurting a lot more than he was letting on.
"OK" said the doctor. "We'll get you going on some steroids real soon and that should help your head a lot. I'll give you a little while to rest here in bed, and then I need you to try getting up and walking around if you can."
"Is that really necessary to do so soon?" asked Mac. "He's only been conscious for half an hour and he's in a lot of pain. Can't the walking wait awhile?"
"Sure, it can wait, Colonel" replied the doctor, "I'd just like to see him at least try to get up and walk from the bed to the recliner sometime before dinner, OK?"
"We can give it a try, sure" replied Mac. "Can he have the meds now?"
"I'm writing the order as we speak" said Commander Stephenson.
"Thank you" said Mac. The doctor finished making notes in Harm's chart, and left the room.
"I'm sorry you're hurting so much, babe" said Mac as she watched Harm wince with every breath.
"Me too" he replied, his voice becoming a little stronger but still very weak compared to normal.
"You're tough, though" she said, "you've been through more painful things than this and done great, don't forget that."
"Like what?" he asked.
"Like staying alive for over 3 hours in that ice cold ocean when you dunked your Tomcat in the drink trying to get back in time for the wedding that never was." Her heart sank at the memory of that horrible night and the weeks that followed, not only for what Harm had gone through, but for how close she'd come to marrying the wrong man.
"That was bad" said Harm, also remembering how close he'd come to losing Mac to Brumby. "This really hurts, though" he added, gently touching his ribs.
"I know it does" said Mac, "it'll probably be the most painful part of your recovery, but you'll have to fight through it, OK?"
"What'll I hafta do to get outta here?" he asked, his voice remaining weak and quiet.
"I'm not sure of everything just yet" said Mac, "but I know you'll have to do your breathing exercises to the satisfaction of the doctor or you're stuck here forever." She smiled a little, knowing beyond any doubt Harm wouldn't spend a second longer than necessary in that place.
"OK, Commander, we've got some meds for you" said a nurse as she entered the room with a drug pump.
"Good" replied Harm. The nurse proceeded to set up the machine next to the bed and connect it to Harm's IV. She punched in a code and locked the box when she was finished.
"Here you go" she said, handing Harm a small button connected to the machine. "It's all ready to go, just press the button when you want a dose, and if it's been at least 7 minutes since the last dose, the machine will dispense the programmed amount through your IV."
"Sounds great" said Harm, "can I have some now?"
"I pressed it right before I handed it to you" answered the nurse, "but in about 5 minutes you can press it again, just look for this little light to go off." She pointed to a small indicator light on the machine, which showed that the required time between doses hadn't expired.
"Five minutes it is" said Harm, his body beginning not feeling any relief as of yet.
"Thank you, lieutenant" said Mac, as the nurse left the room. She turned to Harm, his eyes once again closed.
"We'll give the steroids a little time, then we need to get you up out of this bed, OK?"
"OK" he replied. "Mac?"
"Yeah, babe?" she answered.
"I love you" he said, opening his eyes slowly and looking into hers.
"We love you, too" replied Mac, and she placed Harm's hand on her tummy as the baby tumbled about.
I hope to have Chapter 26 up by the end of this week...