There are some major time jumps in this chapter and not a lot of dialog. But it is for good reason... Hang on.
Also, sorry for any missed typos. They are probably not really typos, but rather my dyslexia coming out. I usually need to proof-read multiple times. But I have two kids underfoot and it's raining. But I wanted to get this down before I lost momentum.
It's been said time and again, life can change in an instant…
There are some major time jumps in this chapter and not a lot of dialog. But it is for good reason.
It's been said time and again, life can change in an instant…
Spring training came and went without to many hiccups. The major news outlets sent their standard contingencies. Players were asked the expected questions… And the Padres public relations department prepped the team every year. "What did you do during the off season?" What are you looking forward to most this season?" "Do you think the Padres will repeat and win the World Series again?" But this year there was an added question in the roll call… "What do you make of your team mates getting married?" or some version of that questions.
Most of the team brushed the question off with a response that let the person conducting the interview know they didn't have an issue last year with Mike and Ginny dating, so why would they have an issue this year with them being engaged. There were a few new guys to the team. They either stayed silent on the matter, for fear of Mike Lawson and getting the rest of the team mad at them or they said they had heard it wasn't an issue. On a side note, the Padres had become known over the past year, in part because of maintaining the Baker-Lawson secret, as being a close-knit clubhouse - having fun and truly being friends on and off the field. Add that to their recent World Series win, and most new team players, even high profile guys, weren't ready to make waves, but rather wanted to find how they could fit into this group.
It was only Livan who sparked any controversy when asked about Ginny by the press during spring training. He was walking to the field, unaware Mike was only a few feet behind him. A reporter was walking in time with him and asked him specifically if he felt additional pressure as a catcher to carry the team if their relationship got in the way on the field. Something protective in him snapped. His response was quick and sharp "Baker and Lawson have been nothing but professional for the last year. I know they will do the same this year. And Baker, she's one of the best damn pitchers I've ever worked with. I could have made more money over with the Yankee's. But, I'm grateful every time she steps on that mound, that Oscar convinced me to choose San Diego."
Mike doesn't think Livan ever realized he overheard that conversation; much of it didn't make it to print. But it made Mike feel better leaving his job at the end of the season, knowing Ginny had a catcher in her corner, even if it was that cocky guy.
- Opening Day and the 2018 Season Officially Begins -
Opening Day at Petco was the best Mike, Blip Al, Buck and other long-term Padres had ever seen. They handed out mock rings to all fans that day and did a huge ceremony at the end of the game to unveil new signage in the stadium showcasing their World Series win the previous season. Good thing they won the game that day, or the unveiling could have been a bit awkward.
The season progressed rather well. They had lost a few players, and gained a few more since the end of the World Series win in 2017. It took a while to find their groove again. But by September, the team was clicking and they looked like a solid team to be in the playoffs.
During this time, Mike and Ginny received some media attention, but nothing they couldn't weather. There had been speculation about Ginny being pregnant if she gained more than three pounds. Or if Mike went out with just they guys, they had automatically broken up. Lots of rumors. With Amelia's help, they only would respond publicly to dispel the rumors if they persisted more than a few days or if the rumors started affecting the game in anyway shape or form. They had expected this, which is why they had Amelia on retainer. But they still felt taking their relationship public was worth it. They were able to do the simple things like go to the movies, run errands together or hold hands walking on the beach.
The first year of their relationship forced them inside, into hiding. It gave them time to really get to know one another on every level. Since their relationship was up for pubic consumption now, they had now learned to trust one another, only deepening the relationship.
- In An Instant -
It was a Friday game with about three weeks left in the regular season. It's a night game and Ginny has a meeting earlier in the day with Nike to go over the renewals on her contract.
"Hey babe, my Uber will be here in a few minutes. Come kiss me before I head out."
Mike had been in the garage tinkering with one of his cars. He comes in with black grease randomly spread over his hands and forearms. "I'd take you in full kiss, but I don't want to get you as dirty as me, Rook."
Ginny leans only her head in to kiss him "Don't worry, I know you love me, old man." She kisses him again. "Need me to get you something to drink before I head out? Water? Gatorade?"
"I'm good. What time will you be at the park again?" Mike asked.
"I told Duarte I'd get there around 2 to go over hitters and then warm up. Have fun playing." Ginny waves her hand towards the garage, leans in for one more kiss and heads out.
Ginny arrives at Petco on time at 2:00 to start go over hitters with Duarte and start warming up for the game. Mike still hasn't arrived, but Ginny figures since he isn't playing he got caught up working on that car of his. By 5:00 Mike still hadn't arrive and the team was back in the clubhouse eating and getting ready. Ginny at this point has left numerous texts, voice mails and even asked Eliot to stop by their house. She's heard nothing back and is officially worried. He should have at least been at the park by 5:00.
Al can see the worry on her face. Everyone has clearly noticed their captains' absence and is trying to not worry Baker. Al called Ginny into his office, "Baker, no word from Lawson yet?"
"None sir. He should have been here by now." She responds trying to stay in control.
"You still good to start, or to I need to start someone else?" He asks.
"Put me in, he'll be here. I'm guessing Rachel or his dad showed up causing drama or something. It'll be fine. It has to be. We good here?"
All just nods and Ginny walks out to get back to the locker room. She looks over at Blip. He shakes is head, he hasn't hear anything. "It's only 6. It's nothing. I'll go run to the parking lot to see if his car is out there." Blip offered.
"Thanks Blip."
It's now 7:00 and the team has taken the field with the national anthem being played. Still no number 36 in the dugout. But Ginny takes the mound and follows Livan's calls. She's only a few batters in, and she's already had 2 runs. Then Al get's a call in the dugout. He makes a hand motion Ginny isn't familiar with to somewhere in the outfield then starts walking onto the field himself. This is all highly unorthodoxed. Livan jumps up and follows Al as though he knows what's going on.
Al get's to the mound. "Baker, I'm pulling you." She see's Blip running in to meet them from is position on third. A hush has come over the crowd. This is something you would see in a late inning, not a first inning.
"I'm good… give me the ball." Ginny demands.
"No Baker, you're not." Al turned to Blip and whispered in his ear. He turned back and motioned for Sonny to come in. Ginny had a rush of emotions come over her. Anger for being pulled in the first inning, which hadn't happened since her first Padres game, embarrassment because she couldn't stay focused and most of all worry since there was still no word on Mike. And, as all these feelings were flowing through her, she realized Blip was walking off the field with her.
"Why'd you get pulled?" she asked as they entered the dugout. And it was there that she looked at Blips eyes, then over at Al and realized then were trying to get her off of the field with dignity before she lost it. Something happened.
"Al got a call while you were pitching. Mike's in the hospital. Some sort of accident and he's unconscious. Ev and I are going to drive you there now."
And she did, she lost it. She began to feel her legs crumple underneath her. Blip held her up and escorted her into the clubhouse. As they made their way, Al called Oscar and had him find Evelyn to meet Blip and Ginny in the locker room. "I know you don't want to, but you have to change out of your uniform. You don't want any more attention drawn to you at the hospital than necessary."
Ginny became a robot out of cleats. All she could think about was getting to Mike. Mike had to be okay. Ev helped her change and gather her things. Blip and Ev tried to talk to her to keep her calm in the car on the way to the hospital. Ev called the hospital ahead of time to find out exactly where they needed to go once they arrived. She didn't really hear a word of what was going on in the car. She was focused on all the possibilities of their life together. Mike had to be okay. They made their way up to his room where someone was was just exiting.
"Ms. Baker. I'm Alan and I've been the recovery nurse tending to your fiancé." In this moment, she was glad this man knew who she was and that she was someone special to the man inside the room. He continued, "I'm sorry we didn't call earlier. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I wanted to prepare you first." It was clear he was blocking the trio's entrance to the room. "My understanding is Mr. Lawson was in a car accident that was not his fault. The police will be by once he regains consciousness. Right now we have him in a medically induced coma until some of the swelling in his head goes away. He also ha a breathing tube because one of his lungs collapsed and his breathing was so labored he wasn't getting enough oxygen."
This was sounding bad. Mike had to be okay,Ginny thought again. Nurse Alan continued, "When your fiancé arrived he was so badly injured, the admitting staff didn't recognize him. His phone and wallet were thrown from the car, so they had to wait for the police to identify the owner of the car before we could identify who the driver was. Don't worry, we began treating him immediately. In addition to his collapsed lunch and the swelling in his head, he had a ruptured spleen, which required an immediate operation. He also has two broken ribs, which are partially to blame for the collapsed lung. And we expect him to have some 'whip lash type effects along his spinal column, so he'll need to be in a neck brace for a few weeks. He's going to have a lot of bruising and as I mentioned earlier, he has some swelling in the head in addition to multiple lacerations on his face and upper body. The other driver didn't make it, so consider yourself lucky."
'Lucky…' was she hearing all of this correctly? Ginny was pretty sure that Blip and Ev were holding her up at this point, she felt like everything had been sucked out of her. Mike had to be okay,Ginny thought. "Can I see him now?"
Alan started to open the door… "Brace yourself. He doesn't look the same. He's pretty beat up. But everything on the surface will heal and he'll look like himself again soon enough. His doctor will be back by in a few hours to check on him and you can ask any other questions. Until then, I'm just around the corner at the nurses station." All four of the entered the room one by one. As soon as it looked like Ginny wasn't going to freak out, Alan left. Being a ballplayer, Ginny had seen her share of bruises, cuts and scrapes. So she had hoped she would be able to hold it together.
No such luck. Ginny's eyes started to well up. Ask anyone else to identify this man, and they probably wouldn't have been able to. But under the bruising and the cuts, she saw the laugh line on his forehead. And could still see remnants of the grease from the car he had been working on earlier in the day under his nails. She lifted his hand and felt the callouses and her tears fell. Blip pulled a seat up behind Ginny for her to sit in. He knew she wasn't going anywhere that night. It was already 8:00.
"Hey Gin, I'm going to run over to your house to get you some stuff to stay the night here. Blip will stay with you until I get back." Ev offered.
Ginny nods and tells her the security code and gives her the keys to the house. Then she hands Blip her phone. "Call Amelia please. Going to be a circus and I… I can't… I need to be here with him." Mike had to be okay.
Blip stepped outside the room and made the call as Ev leaves. About an hour later Evelyn came back with a bag. She really was the best at predicting what would be needed at times like this. They sat with her in silence for a bit longer until Ginny finally spoke up. "Thanks you two. Sorry you missed them game, but I don't know how I would have gotten through this without you two here." Ginny didn't look up, just stared at Mike's hand.
Blip placed a hand on her shoulder. "You two are family. Don't worry about me missing a game."
"Go home. You've got the boys. Get some sleep and come back tomorrow."
"Are you sure? We could take turns." Evelyn answered.
"I'm sure. I'll text you both if I get any updates once I speak to the doctor." They both hugged her and left around 9:00.
Around 9:30, two doctors came in, along with Alan to check on Mike. "I see the fiancé has been located. I hope apologies were made for our delay in contacting you. My name is Dr. Mark Harris."
"Yes sir. I'm Ginny Baker."
"You don't need to tell me. I'm a huge fan. So it says something about how bad Mr. Lawson looked when I didn't recognize him. The team got him cleaned up, we've given him anti-inflammatory meds in his IV and I can already tell a difference. He's looking much better."
"What recovery timeline are we looking at Doc? When will he wake up? I want to take him home." Ginny asked.
"My shift is ending now, but I'll be back in the morning. The broken ribs were causing extremely labored breathing. I'm going to remove the breathing tube now."
The worried look on Ginny's face must have set off an alarm. Finally, the other doctor spoke up. "Dr. Harris is going off shift, but I'll be here all night to monitor him. I'm Dr. Caroline Matz." And she extended her hand to Ginny.
Just then Al and Buck came in. Was it that late already? Was the game over? "You can keep going." This is the team Manager, Al and Assistant Manager, Buck who are going to want to know what's going. I'll bring them up to speed on the rest.
By the look on Al and Buck's face you could tell they had not been prepared for what they encountered. Mike didn't look like Mike, at all. His face was beaten and swollen. His large body was limp.
Dr. Matz continued talking while Dr. Harris and nurse Alan began to remove his breathing tube. Al immediately went to wrap his arm around Ginny's shoulder. "Mr. Lawson's has all the monitors that will let our team and I know if anything is wrong with his breathing overnight. We want to get him breathing and back on his own as quickly as possible. It looks as though the collapsed lung is functioning for itself, so we want to get the tube out. This is a good thing. We'll stopped the meds that keep him in the coma in the morning. He could wake up 6 to 12 hours after that, but they can take up to 24 hours to wear off. But I need to warn you, that he may also still be in a natural coma and we won't know that for up to 24 to 36 hours. I wish I could give you a better timeline, but best case scenario is a weeks here, but it could be several weeks or even months. You need to be patient and prepare yourself for the long haul."
Mike had to be okay.
Once the tube had been removed, both doctors checked his stats and looked confident. Dr. Harris needed to head out. "Ms. Baker, honor to meet you. My shift is ending now, but I'll be back in the morning. I wish it had been in a different situation. Until then, you are in great hands with Alan and Dr. Matz." And he left. Dr. Harris stayed and Alan stayed a few minutes longer while Ginny brought Al and Buck up to speed. She kept looking over at Dr. Matz for assurance she was giving out correct information.
"I'll be back in an hour to check on hour patient. Try to get some rest yourself. These first few hours are the worst." Then Dr. Matz and Alan left the room and it was nearly 11:00 at night.
"Baker, can I get you anything?" Al asked, not knowing what else to do in this situation. He had players who's significant others had been sick or been injured. He had players who had been sick or injured. But this was one-in-the same.
"Al, if Sonny's wife was laying in this bed, what would you do for him?" She knew what she wanted, but wanted to make sure she wasn't asking too much. She needed time off to be there for the love of her life. That's what he was and it hit her. He wasn't just her fiancé, a man teammate she had fallen in love with. Mike, with all his flaws, was her perfect match to all of her flaws. Mike had to be okay.
"If this were Sonny, or Blip or any other guy on the team, I would suggest going on the DL for a few games until you have a better idea of what is going on. I'll let it be your call. But I think you should take some time, Baker."
"I don't think I can leave here until I know he's going to be okay. My head won't be in the game. I'll be no good to the team… The team, do they know?"
"Sanders called me when he left here earlier. I waited until the end of the game to let the rest of the team know. I figured you wouldn't want visitors right away. We don't leave for Boston for a few days. But let us know when it's okay to come by."
"Let's wait to see how Mike's doing in the morning. I think he might scare a few people right now. I mean I'm scared and barely holding it together myself. Thanks for being here." She said with a yawn.
"You okay if we head out. I mean we can stay if 'ya need." Buck asked.
"No guys. Thanks. I'm going to get some sleep. Not much happening right now. I'll call." And with that, Ginny is left alone in the hospital room, sitting in a chair leaning over Mike, holding his hand. For the first time in her life, she would give up everything, even baseball to have Mike be better. She's already lost her dad. She couldn't lose Mike. Mike had to be okay.
Sorry to end on a little cliff hanger... The next chapter should come in a week.
