A/N: Baked Tegan was a big hit! We may have to get Tegan drunk or high again soon. Remember to review please.
Chapter 114
"We're going to keep her in ICU for the night. She's okay! It's just easier to monitor her for complications. She should be so much better by tomorrow" said Kate after Tegan fell asleep. "Linds, it's late and you're exhausted... why don't you go home and get some rest, I'll be here the whole night" said Kate rubbing Lindsey's back. "No way, I'm staying right here" said Lindsey. "Linds... you need to get some rest... your babies need rest" said Kate seriously. "I won't get any rest at home Kate... please just let me stay" said Lindsey holding back tears. Stress, exhaustion and hormones made her super emotional. Kate sighed and shook her head. "Okay... I can see I'm not going to win here. I'll ask them to set up a cot for you in Tegan's room. But please get some rest. Erin... you and Alex go home now. I'm not even entertaining any excuses from you. You're carrying my niece there" said Kate. Erin just nodded "Call us if there's anything we need to know Kate" said Alex. "I promise" said Kate. Sara was glued to the spot next to Tegan's bed. Before Kate could even say a word Sara blurted out "I'm staying"
It took a long time to move Tegan out of post-op and get her settled in ICU with the post op meds she needed. Sara and Lindsey were both fast asleep in a waiting room on couches. Kate entered quietly and sat down next to Lindsey. "Linds... hey... Let's get you to bed my friend" said Kate. Lindsey still felt like shit but at least her mood was lifted significantly. Kate put Lindsey to bed before going back to the waiting room. She moved a strand of hair out of Sara's face and touched her face tenderly. "Sar... baby" she whispered. "mmmm" grunted Sara and moved her body. "Sar wake up. You can't sleep here you'll mess up your back" said Kate. Sara opened her eyes and looked at her Kate. "Hey beautiful" she said. "Come..." whispered Kate. Kate led Sara by the hand to her office. "No... can I stay with Tegan tonight?" asked Sara. "Sara, my office is right outside ICU... well it's almost IN ICU. Only one person officially allowed with her tonight" said Kate. "Oh... okay... will you come get me if..." Sara was interrupted by Kate. "One of the doctors will come get us... I'm coming with you" said Kate. They entered Kate's beautiful office and she pulled the blinds and yawned. She pushed the couch down and it turned into a bed. Sara plonked down on it. "Kate... thank you for today... that must have been so hard for you" said Sara softly. "You're welcome Sara. I'm just happy she's okay" said Kate and kissed Sara softly. "I'm going to brush my teeth and take a quick shower, I'm all sweaty after surgery. You just relax I'll be back soon" said Kate and walked into the tiny bathroom that formed part of her office. When she came back Sara was out cold. She took a blanket out of a cupboard and put it over Sara before crawling in next to her. "Sar" she whispered. Sara didn't reply, obviously deep in dreamland already. "I love you" whispered Kate and touched Sara's lips with her fingertips. She closed her eyes and tried to forget the events of the day.
Lindsey lay in silence looking at Tegan's still form in the bed next to her. The steady beeping of the heart monitor was hypnotic. Lindsey wanted so bad to hold her darling Tegan in her arms but hugged a pillow tight as consolation. She ran through the events of the day in her mind. She cried herself to sleep with her face buried in the pillow. Tears of frustration, tears of relief.
Kate was woken up by her beeper buzzing silently in her side. She grabbed it and looked at the screen before sitting up rubbing her eyes. Sara was still fast asleep on the uncomfortable sofa bed. Kate stretched her back out to get rid of a kink. This was why she preferred sleeping in the on-call room but taking her girlfriend with her would have been a challenge and there was no way she was leaving Sara alone tonight. Kate left the office quietly, careful not to wake Sara.
"Talk to me" she said as she entered Tegan's room. "She's been up and down the last few hours. We had so much trouble stabilising her temperature, she's been shivering non-stop for the last hour but her temp is normal. I'm sorry to wake you but I don't know what to do." said a more junior doctor looking scared. "You should've called me earlier" said Kate putting her stethoscope in her ears. "Aaaaand... She just went into a laryngospasm" said the young doctor as Tegan started gasping and making an awful sound. "It's okay... I've got this" said Kate and started to order blood work. "Let's get this airway open" said Kate performing a chin lift, jaw thrust manoeuvre. "Get a CPAP machine ready. Let's put her on 100% 02 in the meantime. Karev can you assist breathing with a bag valve mask" said Kate calmly. "Sats and BP are dropping" said Karev. "Give it a sec. Where's Lindsey?" asked Kate as she kept an eye on Karev gently squeezing the ambu bag and Tegan's oxygen saturation monitor. "Sleeping, we moved her out earlier when we needed to work on Tegan" said a nurse. "Without waking her?" asked Kate. "Yup, miraculously without waking her. She is exhausted" said a nurse. "Hold bagging" said Kate and looked down Tegan's throat with a laryngoscope. "Yup, those chords are still in spasm. We may have to jet ventilate her" she said calmly. "Hang on... cords are relaxing she's letting air in again. Okay... she seems to be stabilizing. Check her breathing" said Kate. "Much better" said Karev. "Okay, she's stable. Let's put her on the CPAP for the rest of the night" said Kate.
Tegan woke up grunting and pushing the mask away from her face and coughing. "Hey Teebag... I know you're not feeling too hot right now but just try and relax for me" said Kate with her hand on Tegan's forehead. "Where am I?" Tegan asked sounding confused and scared. "Patient's still confused" said the junior doctor. "Tell me something I don't know" said Kate annoyed. "Look at me" said Kate softly leaning forward while holding her friend's hand tight. Tegan looked into Kate's eyes and seemed to calm down a bit. "Can you tell me your name?" asked Kate. Tegan frowned. "Uh... Tegan... where am I?" she breathed. "Just relax Tegan... you're in the hospital... you've had an operation but everything's fine" said Kate. Tegan started to hyperventilate "Tegan... calm down, just take slow, deep breaths okay we don't want those vocal chords to seize up again. You're fine" said Kate. Tegan calmed down a bit but freaked out every time Kate let go of her hand or turned her face away to do something else. "Jenny, can you go wake Sara up please... she's sleeping in my office" said Kate. "Kate... help me" Tegan was moaning, her throat closing up again.
Sara felt somebody shake her shoulder lightly. "Hey babe... five more minutes" she mumbled. "Sara... wake up please" she heard an unfamiliar voice and her eyes flew open. "What's going on" she said. "I'm so sorry to wake you but we need you in Tegan's room for a few minutes Sara" said the nurse. Sara jumped up and fumbled around to put her shoes on, she sprinted to Tegan's room. "Tee... Tegan" she exclaimed as she entered the room. She panicked when she saw a lot of doctors and nurses around her bed. Kate turned to her and waved her over. "Sara... just keep her calm. I need you to talk her down like you always do okay" smiled Kate. Kate's smile calmed Sara. She took Tegan's hand and put her other hand on Tegan's head. "Tegan... it's Sara, you're okay... I know you're not feeling great right now but you're going to be fine okay. Kate's right here... she's taking very good care of you just try and relax and take nice deep breaths for me. Tee... come on breathe with me" said Sara. Tegan eventually fell asleep again after Kate adjusted her medication and Sara calmed her down.
It was early morning when Tegan woke up again. She saw Kate and Sara asleep in small, uncomfortable looking chairs. The last thing she remembered was being pushed into surgery. Her head was pounding and she had a dull ache in her chest. She had a weird mask on her face that felt as if it was blowing air into her. "She turned her head to see Lindsey lying in a bed next to hers. She tried to sit up, she felt weak and disorientated and her heart monitor immediately sped up when she moved. Kate woke up and jumped up when she saw Tegan's awake. "Good morning... I'm going to take this mask off now okay... just hang in there Tee everything's alright" smiled Kate hooking Tegan up to an oxygen line again. "Hi doc" Tegan croaked. Sara and Lindsey woke up and rushed to Tegan's side. "Hey baby, sweetie pie" said Lindsey and kissed Tegan. Tegan felt weak and sore. "Hey my love" she whispered. "What happened... what did you find Kate?" said Tegan. "Can you remember waking up yesterday Tegan?" asked Kate. "Um... not really" said Tegan shaking her head. "Oh don't worry I recorded the whole thing" laughed Sara, you were very entertaining. "Well..." Tegan said before coughing a few times "You're all smiling so I'm guessing I'm gonna live" joked Tegan. "Yup... you're going to be fine" said Kate before giving Tegan a recap or the surgery and the events of the previous night.
"In the middle of the night your throat, or more to the point, your larynx went into a spasm and it made it a bit difficult to get air into you but we sorted that out in no time. It's most likely just an after effect of the anaesthesia. It's really affecting you in a nasty way this time" said Kate. "Ugh it sucks" said Tegan as she took a sip of luke warm water through a straw. "We're going to need you to really focus on your breathing Tegan. I'm sending you home... whenever that may be... with the CPAP so we can make sure you keep breathing normally at night. Just for a while. Breathing can be hard after surgery. Mainly because it hurts... am I right?" said Kate. Tegan nodded "Yeah... it's fucking torture most of the time" she said. "Here's the thing... Small shallow breaths cause fluid and mucus to build up in your lungs. This could cause serious lung infection... now we all know we cannot afford that again" said Kate. "Hell no... that's not happening again" said Tegan. "Great attitude Tee... We have ways of preventing that from happening though. Using an incentive spirometer can help you practice taking deep breaths, which can help open your airways, prevent fluid or mucus from building up in your lungs and make it easier for you to breathe. It will hopefully prevent the collapse of one or both of the lungs. We need to make sure we prevent another bout of pneumonia as your lungs are not hundred percent yet. So you basically take a slow deep breath in and you breath out slowly as long as you can and you try and move the ball up this tube and keep it between these two lines" Tegan tried moving the ball up a few times. She put the machine down and closed her eyes looking upset. "Tee... you're doing great... it's okay... nobody feels like themselves after surgery. It will probably take 2 or 3 days before you even feel 70% of how you felt before surgery. Just relax. Do those lung exercises every couple of hours. I'm hoping to have you out of here by tomorrow if everything goes according to plan" said Kate.
Tegan nodded and looked at Lindsey standing next to her bed. She was suddenly super pale and had her eyes closed hanging onto Tegan's bed. "Linds... baby? Lindsey?" said Tegan in a panic. "Lindsey are you okay?" asked Kate. Lindsey didn't answer. She simply nodded before her legs gave way. "She's going down! Catch her Sara" said Kate moving around the bed swiftly. Lindsey was out for the count in Sara's arms the second Kate reached her. "Page Dr Montgomery stat please" said Kate as she gently lay Lindsey down on the floor. "Is she okay... Lindsey!" said Tegan and tried to get out of bed. Her heart monitor went haywire. "Tegan no, stay in bed" said Sara holding her down. "No... let me go... my wife... my wife needs me" said Tegan panicked. "They're helping her Tegan. You can't do anything for her. Let them do their job! Stay calm!" said Sara trying to remain calm herself.
Kate knelt next to Lindsey and checked for a pulse. She found one easily but it was fast and kind of weak. She tilted her head back to open her airway. "Lindsey... wake up" she said and slapped her cheek softly. "Ouch... fuck" exclaimed Tegan as she tried to get out of bed fast. "Tegan stay put" said Kate with her hand up to Tegan. "She's okay" said Kate. A team rushed into the room with a gurney. Tegan was losing it completely. She was sobbing and screaming with a hoarse voice. "Help her... o fuck... help her" she wailed. "We've got her Tee... we're going to take care of her" said Kate as calmly as she could. An orderly swiftly lifted Lindsey onto the gurney and they disappeared out of the door. "Karev, I want you to sedate Tegan... now!" said Kate.