An hour later Michael and Claudia Joy made their way into the hospital to go see Denise and check on Frank. They walked up to the front desk and the young receptionist smiled
"How can I help you?"She asked cheerfully.
Claudia Joy smiled back while Michael kept a straight face. "We are here to see Denise Sherwood. Her husband called us about an hour ago. He's Lt. Colonel Frank Sherwood," Michael said in a stern but polite voice.
"Yes, sir. She is in room 208. Go right on up," the receptionist said then went back to looking at her computer.
Michael grabbed Claudia Joy's hand and walked toward the elevator, they got in and pressed 2. Claudia Joy sighed sadly and said, "I hope she is okay. She has been through so much and this doesn't help matters much."
Michael knew how much Denise meant to Claudia Joy and hoped when they got up there it wouldn't be as bad as what he pictured in his mind. They both got off the elevator as the doors opened and when they come up on the window of Denise's room what they saw broke their hearts.
Frank was sitting as close to his wife's bed as he can get holding her hand tightly and whispering what seem to be words of comfort into her ear. It was clear to anyone that passed the window the woman in the bed meant the world to the man in the chair.
"Come on, honey," Frank whispered holding her hands tightly in this and kissing her fingers lightly. "You can pull through this. I know you can. You are strong," he told her trying to give her a boost as if his willing her to get well would make her wake up and start feeling better. She just looked up at him and smiled but was really too weak and confused to do much of anything beside stare into her husband's eyes.
Michael and Claudia Joy gave Frank another few minutes and then walked into the room where Denise lay dosing in and out of sleep. She had one IV hooked up to her left arm and another IV draining medicine into her right hand. She saw them and smiled weakly. She tried to speak but found herself too weak and short of breath to form words. Claudia Joy knew it bothered Denise being so weak, and so she simply smiled and said, "It's okay, Denise. You just rest. We will have plenty of time to talk when you are feeling better. You just rest now honey."
Denise smiled and was soon in a safe and peaceful slumber.
Frank smiled down at his sleeping beauty; even sick as a dog she was absolutely gorgeous in his eyes.
Just then the doctor came back in to go over Denise's chest x-rays and blood test results.
"Can you two please excuse us? I need to speak to Colonel Sherwood alone for a moment," he asked politely but Frank spoke, "No, it's okay. They can stay, they are like family,"he smiled lightly at Michael and Claudia Joy.
Dr. Miller nodded, "All right then. The X-rays confirm my suspicion, Denise has pneumonia. It is mainly concentrated in the left lung, but there is substantial infection in both. Expect her shortness of breath to get worse before it gets better, we'll begin an aggressive course of antibiotics right away along with breathing treatments and an inhaled steroid to keep her lungs functioning."
"How serious is this, Doctor?" Frank asked. "I mean, do I need to be worried about losing my wife here or are you going to fix her?"
"I won't lie, Mrs. Sherwood is a very sick woman and her body is working tremendously hard to perform simple functions, mainly breathing, speaking... My biggest concern is that she hasn't begun to cough, which means that infection is being circulated through her lungs over and over again. Her blood tests are also a cause for concern, the strain she's contracted is bacterial in nature, which is good we can fight that a lot more effectively; however it appears she's attracted a viral strain of pneumonia as well, and that is complicating her condition further. She's a very sick woman and she'll be with us for at least the next four to five days for IV antibiotics and of course monitoring of her breathing. She's having a great deal of confusion right now mostly due to her fever and lack of sufficient oxygen so it's important someone is close by. I'm going to move her to the ICU, we have the bed and in her condition it doesn't hurt to be careful."
"The ICU?" Frank said more to make himself believe it than to clarify that he'd heard it. "Well, I can be with her right? I can stay with her up there."
"The rule is 15 minutes of each hour…" Dr. Miller began.
"No, no, no," Frank protested. "No, I'm staying with her until she walks out of this damned hospital so if I can't do that with her in the ICU she's staying where she is. She needs me, okay?"
As if to prove Frank correct, Denise began to stir and call out for Frank.