Chapter 110
The hospital staff were all very happy to see their favourite patient up and about and looking good. "Hey Tegan! Good to see you! You're looking great! How are you feeling?" asked Karev as they walked past him. "Good to see you too, I'm feeling great thanks! You still terrorising the nurses or have you run out of hearts to break?" joked Tegan. "We get new ones all the time so I'm yet to run out! Oh yeah, congrats on the wedding! You're a lucky girl Lindsey. Guess you won't be breaking any more hearts Tegan!" he winked.
"Hey Sar… you holding up okay?" said Kate into her cell phone. "Yeah I'm okay. Glad Erin and Alex are here" said Sara. "Tell my big brother to take good care of my girl... Just try and relax sweetheart, nice deep breaths. I can't wait to give you a long massage tonight when this is over" said Kate. "You have the most gorgeous voice… so soothing, I can listen to you talk all day. I may just record you and put you on repeat on my iPod" said Sara. Kate laughed "Good luck sweetie… I'll be thinking of you all day" she said. "Thanks… I need to go they're ready for us. Good luck with Tee today" said Sara. "Thanks, speaking of which, they've just walked into my office" said Kate. "How did it go with the OB, everything good with the babies?" asked Sara quickly. "They're smiling very wide and they've given me the thumbs up so yeah everything's good" said Kate.
Tegan was sitting on an exam bed with slumped shoulders after a long discussion with Kate about what will be happening during the day. Her legs were hanging down the side and she played nervously with the hospital bracelet on her arm. She looked scared and small in the oversized hospital gown. Lindsey walked around the bed, stood in front of her and lifted her chin. She put her belly on Tegan's lap and her arms around her neck. "They're heavy" she smiled. Tegan laughed. "My perfect wife" whispered Lindsey. Tegan put her hand on Lindsey's cheek. "Thanks for being here with me" she said. "For better or for worse" smiled Lindsey and kissed Tegan's forehead.
Kate walked in and proceeded to put some gloves on. "Alright... We're going to start with the full physical exam Tee. Just relax for me" said Kate and smiled. Kate's smile always calmed Tegan down but it wasn't working as well as always today. Kate put her stethoscope in her ears and listened to Tegan's lungs for a few minutes. "Just take some deep breaths for me Tee. Everything's okay" said Kate softly after listening to Tegan's rapid, adrenaline fueled heartbeat. She moved to her back and listened intently. "You can lie down for me now" she said and gently guided Tegan down. Tegan was like a scared child and Lindsey wanted to comfort her. "Can I hold her hand?" she asked Kate. "Of course you can" smiled Kate. Lindsey took Tegan's hand and squeezed it. She kissed Tegan's fingers and smiled. "I'm right here baby" she said. Tegan sighed. "Can you imagine what a fucking wreck I'd be if it wasn't Kate examining me" she said and gave a nervous laugh. Kate smiled and shook her head still listening to Tegan's heart. "I'm going to poke around your abdomen a little, look into my eyes and tell me if anything hurts or feels uncomfortable okay?" said Kate. Tegan nodded as she felt Kate's hands press into her abdomen. She poked around quite a bit but Tegan wasn't in any discomfort. "Nothing hurt?" asked Kate. "Nope" said Tegan. "Good… no problems there" smiled Kate and made some notes on an iPad. "Can you get me a BP, temp and glucose please Abby? Okay Tee you can sit up for me again. Let's check your glands" said Kate and felt behind Tegan's neck, under her ears, under her jaw, above her collar bones, under her arms. "Mmm... I'm feeling a little bit of swelling but it's not worse than it's been in the last few weeks. Let's see what the blood tests pick up. We need to keep nursing that immune system" said Kate. Lindsey closed her eyes and looked upset. She hoped Tegan didn't see. "It's okay" mouthed Kate to Lindsey. Kate looked into Tegan's ears, nose and throat. "Jeez that's a lot of poking stuff into me doc" complained Tegan. "Well... what can you do" was Kate's only comment. "I don't see any inflammation. Those vocal chords look good Tee" said Kate. "I'm going to start with the neuro exam now" said Kate and pulled down Tegan's bottom eyelids and felt around her face with her fingers. Inside of the eyelids are a bit on the white side... I wouldn't be surprised if you were a bit anemic, blood tests will tell us more" said Kate calmly. She clicked her penlight on and swung the light into Tegan's pupils a few times. "Good… good" she mumbled. "Follow the light with your eyes…. now follow my finger" said Kate. "Pressure's 110 over 75. Temp's 98" reported Abby. "Great. I'm going to need you to stand up now Tee and put your arms out. Palms down. Okay I'm going to press them down now and you need to keep them up for me" said Kate. Tegan did as instructed but felt dizzy as soon as Kate pressed her hands down. She stumbled forward and Kate caught her. "Whoa… you okay there Tee?" asked Kate. "Yeah… must just be nerves" said Tegan looking embarrassed. "Repeat the BP for me please Abby. Alright you can lie back on the bed now. We're going to take you for a few tests, CT, MRI, X-ray… I know it's boring. Just bare with us. I'm going to do an echocardiogram and hook you up to a 12 lead ECG first. We need to let the ECG run through the scans so we have a good, long reading" said Kate. "O… Okay" said Tegan softly. "BPs down slightly, 100 over 70" reported Abby. Kate squirted a bit of gel on Tegan's chest and rolled the head of the probe around her chest. "There we go" she said softly while inspecting the screen displaying Tegan's beating heart. She looked at it for what seemed like forever before finally turning to Tegan with a smile. "Well... I'm happy so far with what your heart is doing" she said. Tegan let out a breath she'd been holding for a while. "Okay let's get those scans done and get you out of here as soon as possible my friend. Linds you can wait here. Just make yourself comfortable. Take a nap" said Kate. "Can I go with?" asked Lindsey. "Not this time… it's not healthy for the babies to be around radiation. "Sorry baby… you're going to be fine. Katy's right here with you" said Lindsey kissing Tegan as Kate and Abby attached the electrodes to Tegan's chest, arms and legs. The familiar beeping started. "Alright, let's roll" said Kate. "Love you" said Lindsey as they wheeled Tegan out of the room. Lindsey's phone rang and she answered. "Hi Sonia... Yeah, she's fine. They've just taken her to CT…. No, she's holding up okay. The babies are doing great, that calmed her nerves a bit"
Sara and Erin were sitting around a big table in the DA's office discussing possible questions they may face during their testimony at the trial. It was immensely difficult reliving everything that happened to them. Erin looked pale and shaky and was clinging desperately to Alex's hand. Sara was on the war path. "Look... Sir... We don't have anything to hide... Our answers will be the same because they're the truth. I don't understand why we have to go through this now. I'd rather just face this once... In court" said Sara. "Ms Quin, the defense will try and get you into a corner... Trick you... Make you out to be the bad guys. I just want you to be prepared" said the DA. "What the fuck" said Sara jumping up. "We did nothing wrong... They... They almost killed us. I... I... Fuck them!" shouted Sara and burst out in tears. "It's okay Sar... Take it easy" said Erin and hugged Sara. "We're on your side Sara... I think now is a good time for a break" said the DA and walked out of the room. Sara breathed in deep to calm herself down. She picked up her phone and dialed Kate's number. It went straight to voicemail. She shook her head and tried another number. "Linds... How's Tee?" she asked. After a conversation of a few minutes she hung up. "Tee's in CT and after that they're doing an MRI and X-rays. Lindsey says everything seems fine so far" reported Sara still looking emotional. She breathed deep and rubbed her neck muscles. Something just didn't feel right, she didn't know what was causing the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Try and calm yourself down Tee, your pulse is very high" said Kate as they lifted Tegan onto the CT scanner. "I'm fucking trying okay" said Tegan sounding annoyed. "Okay… I'm going to give you a bit of nitrous oxide just to calm you down a bit. Just some laughing gas. You're going to feel like you're flying for a bit. If you want to sleep you can" said Kate as she put a mask over Tegan's nose. "Whoa… yeah... this stuff is good… you should've... pulled this out… a… lot...earl…" Tegan trailed off. She felt high as a kite suddenly. She felt the anxiety slowly leave her body and she grinned happily. She thought of her babies… she daydreamed about holding them, singing to them, playing with their little feet as she got pushed into the tube. She started feeling more and more sleepy.
Kate was leaning back in a chair, talking to the technician in the booth outside as images appeared slowly on the screen. He was telling her about a movie he's seen the previous night. Kate glanced at Tegan's ECG while swinging around on her chair, everything looked fine. She looked at the video feed of Tegan's face in the scanner. Her eyes were closed and she had a kind of smile on her face looking peaceful. "Images are up" said the tech. Kate studied the images one by one nodding her head. "Looks good" she said with a smile. Her face suddenly fell and her eyes went wide. "Hang on… hang on... page Dr Altman please" she said sounding spooked. "What do you see?" asked the tech. He raised his eyebrows as he saw it. "Just... Page Altman stat!" Said Kate. "Um... I'll page Dr. Altman" he said. Kate put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. "Fuck..." she whispered to herself.
A/N: Oooooh... What did Kate see?
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