Chapter 27: Missing Normal
With Sam now headed to the OSP to prepare to work a case with Kensi, Deeks stood near the sleeping Senior Agent's bed, while Hetty quietly finished tidying up the hospital room.
Deeks watched as Hetty restocked the small closet with the items she had brought for Callen, wondering if their tiny boss had broken into Callen's house or if she kept a stash of pajamas hidden away somewhere for each of them. Either way, he found it rather puzzling that someone as tough and cunning as Hetty Lange could also be so nurturing and protective. And just to add to the enigma, it would be like taking their life into their own hands if someone were to attempt to resist Hetty's protection and doting.
Hetty picked up her purse and the bag of Callen's things that needed to be laundered before turning to address the perplexed Detective. "I'm going to the nurses' station to speak to Miss Harris before her shift ends, and then I must go to the office. I'm leaving Mr. Callen in your care." Hetty gave her head a quick, sideways tilt toward the breakfast tray that had recently been delivered. "See that he eats at least a few bites this morning."
The blonde gave Callen a cautious glance. "You want me to wake him up?"
"He may be a bit groggy from the head injury, but the pain medication has worn off by now. He's not sleeping very soundly."
Deeks' eye narrowed. He looked at the man in the hospital bed who was laying there with his eye closed. "Really? You can tell that by looking at him? 'Cause he sure looks like he's out of it from where I'm standing."
"Mr. Callen is merely tuning out his environment; it's a technique he uses when coping with pain."
The curly-haired blonde smiled widely. "Wait. Is this some super-secret skill they taught you guys in spy school?"
Hetty stared back stoically.
Deeks' smile diminished slightly. "I know. I know. If you told me, you'd have to kill me."
"It shouldn't be difficult to wake him," Hetty continued, disregarding the Detective's playful attempt to avoid his assignment. "Just get him to eat a little something so he can begin regaining his strength."
"What if he doesn't want to eat 'a little something'?"
"Then spoon-feed him if necessary."
"Uhhh... I think that would fall into the category of 'coddling'."
"Then coddle him, Mr. Deeks." Ignoring the 'lost puppy' expression on her Liaison's face, Hetty took one last look at Callen and left the room.
Marty let out a long breath and then reached for the bed control. "Here we go," he whispered unenthusiastically.
Callen's eyes opened with the raising of the head of the bed. He squinted up at the one who had just disrupted his pseudo-tranquil state.
Deeks lowered the side rail and positioned the portable table over Callen's lap. "Hetty said you have to eat something."
G turned his head to the right and scoped out the sitting area of the room. "Where is she?"
"At the nurses' station. She'll be back in a few minutes," he half-lied.
Deeks removed the cover on the tray, revealing a steaming cup of broth, a small bowl of fresh fruit, and two slices of dry toast.
"I'm not really hungry," Callen protested weakly.
"You have to eat something. Hetty's orders. Here. Start with a bite of this yummy toast." Deeks tore the bread several times and gently stuck a very small piece between Callen's teeth.
The Senior Agent frowned up at Deeks while chewing and swallowing the minuscule piece of food. Before he had time to react, another tiny portion of dry toast had been inserted into his mouth.
Just then, Nurse Landon entered the room. "Good morning… Oh good. You're eating."
Marty stepped back from the bed. "Don't know if you can call this eating. I've seen mice take bigger bites."
The nurse smiled at Callen. "I need to give you some medication, and then you can get back to your breakfast." Landon handed the patient a small medicine cup. "After I've finished passing out meds, I'll be back to sit you on the side of the bed a few minutes. The doctor wants you ready to sit up in a chair tomorrow." Landon turned and addressed Marty. "The head of the bed needs to stay raised until I get back."
Seemingly oblivious to anything the nurse had just said, Callen just stared down at the two bright pink capsules lying in the bottom of the little plastic container. "What's this?"
"It's the new medication Dr. Lee ordered."
Without taking his focus off the offensive pink pills, Callen said hoarsely, "I don't wonna sleep anymore."
"You may get a little groggy, Agent Callen. But this medicine is not like what you've taken before; it's not a sedative."
G's glare at the pills intensified.
Deeks scrubbed his face with his palm, pushing down the feeling of dread that was creeping in. Being asked to feed his Lead Agent was bad enough. But force-feeding pills was a whole different level of intrusion. He needed to convince Callen to take his medicine.
Marty thought for a moment, and then did what any good undercover Detective would do – he improvised/lied. "You know what, Landon? Hetty said it would be alright just to give this to him in a shot if he had any problem swallowing the capsules."
"You're right," Landon said, playing along with the Detective's ruse. He sat the cup of water down on the table in front of the patient. "I'll go to the med room and get that injection ready."
Callen looked up at the nurse with wide blue eyes.
Deeks felt a twinge of guilt. Callen didn't even show this much fear when a bad guy's gun was pointed in his face.
G looked down at the pills a few seconds before bringing the medicine container to his lips, tilting his head back a little, and then taking a drink from the Styrofoam cup. Callen coughed weakly a couple of times, and dabbed his mouth with a napkin from his breakfast tray.
Landon gave Deeks an 'I'm impressed' look and left the room without another word.
Marty returned to his position beside the bed and eyed the breakfast tray. "Alright, then. Where were we?"
"Done," G grumbled.
"Nope. Not done," Deeks responded, sounding much more chipper than he felt. He picked up the cup of broth. "This should be cool enough now."
"Deeks?" Callen warned.
"Listen, Callen. If I don't get you to eat something, that tiny Ninja-boss of ours is gonna rip me a new one. I've had 'new ones' ripped a few times in the past," Deeks interjected a dramatic cringe, "and it's not a pleasant experience."
G pressed his lips together and looked down at the covers.
Deeks picked up the cup of warm liquid and held it just under Callen's chin. "How 'bout it? Just a few bites?... Please? Or we can wait and let Hetty do it when she comes back."
With his eyes still lowered, Callen parted his lips slightly, allowing Deeks to put a spoonful of broth into his mouth.
Giving him ample time to swallow, Deeks slowly fed him a second bite of liquid, and then a third. He was scooping up another spoonful when he noticed a hitch in Callen's breathing. The outward signs were subtle, but Deeks could see the pain in Callen's eyes.
When Deeks offered another spoonful of soup, Callen closed his eyes and turned his head away.
"It's okay," Deeks conceded, remembering what Hetty had said about Callen's strategy for coping with pain. He rolled the table away and raised the rail of the bed. "We'll try again at lunch."
Several minutes of silence had passed when Callen opened his eyes and turned his head toward the door. "Where's Hetty?" he asked weakly.
"Oh, yeah. About that. I think she said something about having to go back to the office. You want me to call her?"
"No," G responded without hesitation, raising an eyebrow at the blonde.
Deeks grinned. "Well then, it looks like you're stuck with me again for a while."
Callen's eyes closed once again and his head sunk deeper into the pillow. The pain seemed to have let up for the time being.
Forty minutes later, Landon returned. "Alright, Agent Callen. I'm here to help sit you on the side of the bed." The nurse lowered the rail and pulled the covers down to G's feet. "Let me know if you start to feel light-headed."
Deeks came to the bedside. "What do you need me to do?"
"If you'll reach around him with both hands, slide your hands underneath him at about his shoulder blades… That's it… I'll take care of moving his legs. On my count, we'll slowly pivot him up and around to a sitting position. This goes without saying, but move him as slowly and gently as possible. This is most likely going to cause quite a bit of pain in that hip as it is... Ready?"
With his hands already in position beneath Callen's shoulders, Deeks nodded.
"One. Two. Three."
Callen groaned loudly. As predicted, the transition to the side of the bed was painful.
G was now sitting up, face-to-face with Deeks, with his eyes squeezed shut.
"Sorry, buddy," Deeks soothed. "Hang on."
Landon released the patient's legs and rose up from his half-crouched position. "While he's up, I'd like to do a quick skin assessment of his back. Just keep a hand on his shoulder in case he needs some support."
"Go ahead. I got 'im."
The nurse quickly moved to the other side of the bed to take a look at Callen's back.
Deeks felt Callen begin to lean to the right, so he brought one hand down to G's left thigh, applying enough pressure to help him remain upright. Deeks looked down to make sure he was not putting Callen's legs in a bind. His eyes narrowed when he noticed the discoloration in G's feet. "Uuhhh… Excuse me. But are his feet supposed to be… like this dark purplish color?"
"That's to be expected," Landon responded from across the bed. "It's going to take some time before his circulation returns to normal."
Deeks' eyes filled with concern when he realized Callen was now drifting to the left.
"Except for the bruising, skin looks good." Landon had just rounded the foot of the bed when he saw that the patient had begun to flag.
Deeks opened his mouth to comment about how clammy Callen looked when G suddenly slumped forward, face-first into Deeks' chest.
The nurse hurriedly grasped Callen's lower legs. "We need to get his head down! One. Two. Now!"
With the patient now on his back, Landon lowered the head of the bed all the way and quickly placed a couple of pillows under his feet, and placed a blood pressure cuff on Callen's arm.
G's eyes were open but unfocused. His breathing was shallow.
Deeks darted to the sink and came back with a wet washcloth. He folded it and blotted G's pale face, carefully avoiding the small strip of tape that was closing the wound on Callen's forehead. "What's wrong with him?" he asked worriedly.
"Orthostatic Hypotension."
"Ortho what?"
"His blood pressure dropped from the sudden change in position. I didn't anticipate this since the head of the bed's been raised for a while."
A couple of minutes later, with his eyes still trained on the blood pressure monitor, Landon let out a relieved sigh. "There we go."
Callen reached up and weakly pushed Deeks' hand, and the cold rag away from his head. He blinked hard a couple of time before focusing in on Deeks' face.
Marty smiled. "That's better."
Callen blinked a few more times and then looked around the room. "What'd I do?" Callen slurred.
"The nurse here says your blood pressure dropped. You almost did a nosedive. Don't ever scare me like that again. Your partner will end my life if I let you fall off this bed."
Landon removed the blood pressure cuff. "I think we're good now."
The nurse put away the blood pressure cuff and removed the pillows from the foot of the bed. He pulled the covers back up over his patient and turned to address Deeks. "In twenty minutes, would you raise the head of the bed to about forty-five degrees?"
"Sure thing."
"Give him a while, and if he's tolerating it well, raise the head up all the way." The nurse locked the side rails into place. "We'll try sitting him up again after lunch."
When the nurse had left the room, Deeks laid the wet washcloth on the back of the sink and set the timer on his watch for twenty minutes. He walked back over to the side of the bed, noticing Callen was staring straight ahead, a look of discouragement on his face.
Deeks placed both palms on the side rail and leaned in just a little. "You need anything."
G turned and looked up at Marty with watery eyes. "For things to be back to normal."
Deeks cleared his throat, taken back a bit by the Senior Agent's candid response. "It's going to get better. You'll see."
Callen turned his head away and shook his head negatively. "I can't even sit up," he said softly.
"That was the first time, Callen. You've been through a lot. Give it some time. Before you know it, we'll all be back in the field chasing bad guys. You and Sam will be arguing about who gets to drive. Kenzalina will be punching me so hard that I can't move my arm the rest of the day. Sam'll be lecturing you about what you're eating for breakfast…"
With his gaze still averted, a single tear escaped Callen's right eye.
Deeks swallowed down the lump in his throat. "I know, buddy. I miss normal, too."
