Whispers of What We Were
Chapter 25
About an hour later Jax came back into his bedroom to find Abel asleep in the middle of his bed with Tara on the right. He smiled at Tara. "Karma is really a bitch." He said, getting into his side of the bed.
"You brought this on yourself mister."
"I know, I know."
"But tomorrow, if Karma is on your side and we get both kids off to school, I have the morning off."
Jax groaned, "I'll make sure Karma likes me tomorrow."
SOASOASOASOA
Karma was indeed on Jax's side the following morning. Donna had picked up the kids for school and Jax was able to spend the entire morning with his wife, in their bed. After three hours in bed with her, Tara would never feel insecure about Jax's love for her. Jax took her to heights unparalleled by anything else and she knew nothing would ever come close.
"I could fall back asleep for another with hours." Tara said, exhausted.
"Mmm, why don't you?" Jax pulled Tara's naked body closer to him and buried his face in her neck.
"Jax... I have surgery in an hour and a half."
"Tiny lives to save." He mumbled.
"Exactly."
"So... An hour and a half huh?" Jax said, running his hands up his wife's side. She nodded. "Plenty of time for another round."
"Definitely."
SOASOASOASOA
"Dr. Knowles. Your husband was just on the phone. Your daughter's school called and said Emily was being brought in. Your husband said he'd get here as soon as he could."
Tara looked at the clock. 15:45. Emily was supposed to be at soccer practice. "Dr. Nameed, can you finish this without me?"
"Of course." Tara handed the suction to a junior resident and left the OR as quickly as possible.
Once unscrubbed, she ran down the two flights of stairs to the Emergency Department. An ambulance was rushing Emily in on a stretcher. All Tara heard was 'cardiac arrest' and 'unresponsive' and she quickly made her way to her daughter. "What happened?" She asked one of the paramedics.
"Apparently she was playing soccer and she just dropped. We were able to shock her heart back into rhythm but we had to intubate her."
Tara's eyes filled with tears, "Oh god."
"You're the doctor right?" The paramedic asked, confused as to why the doctor was crying.
"This is my daughter... Emily Teller." Tara bent to brush some hair out of Emily's face and kiss her cheek. "It's ok baby. Mom's here. I love you." She whispered and held her hand.
"Dr. Knowles." She gave no response. "Dr. Knowles? I'm Dr. Rabkin, Chief of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic surgery." Tara turned to face the doctor. "We need to get your daughter to the Cardiac Cath Lab as soon as possible and see what's going on ok?" Tara nodded. "Has anything like this happened before?" He asked as they started to wheel Emily down the hall. Tara kept her hand firmly clasped to her daughters.
"No, never. But her father has an extensive family history of CHD. His mother has had surgery and his brother died when he was very young." Tara said, openly sobbing at the thought of Emily sharing little Thomas' fate.
"Dr. Knowles, I know we haven't formally met yet but I am the best at what I do. Right now, you're going to have to wait here and we will go from there."
Tara nodded, giving Emily one last kiss before she was taken through a set of double doors. As soon as the doors shut, Tara was grateful for the chair she was able to collapse into.
SOASOASOASOA
"See babe. Our kids got your cardiac genes. Doc says they are doing great. Nothing to worry about." Jax said with a smile as they rode back from the Doctor's office with a three year old Emily and one year old Abel in their car seats in the back.
Tara leaned her head against Jax's shoulder as they drove home. "I can't help but worry. It comes with the whole 'being a mom' thing."
"I know. But right now this is one less thing you need to worry about."
Tara smiled. "They may have my cardiac genes, but they have your heart Jax."
SOASOASOASOA
"Tara!"
"Jax!" Tara got up from the chair on shaky legs as Jax ran to her.
Jax took his wife fiercely in his arms. As soon as the nurse he was asking about Emily said Cardiac, he knew what was going on. He had been through it before. "Jax... She just collapsed playing soccer." She cried into his arms.
"Oh baby, I'm sorry I couldn't get here earlier. Did you see her before she went in?"
"She's was unconscious... They had to put a tube down her throat to help her breathe."
"Jesus... I thought we had gotten lucky with this shit."
"Me too."
They stayed there together silently for a few minutes before the double doors opened.
"Dr. Knowles." Dr. Rabkin addressed as he came into the hallway. The doctor looked towards Jax. He was still in his kutte.
"This is my husband Jackson."
Dr. Rabkin nodded. "I'm afraid that your daughter has a large tear in her aortic valve so we're going to have to go in and replace it as soon as possible. There was no way of knowing this was coming but because of the family history she was susceptible to something like this."
Tara nodded and Jax couldn't look guiltier.
"You can fix this right? You can fix her?" Jax asked.
"Yes. But I will warn you that we may have some trouble getting her off the bypass machine after surgery. It's common with heart surgery and children..."
"You might have to put her on ECHMO?" Tara asked.
"What's that?"
"Its a machine we will use after surgery to help keep Emily's heart beating and lungs breathing while she recovers."
"Just help her." Tara said. "Please." She added desperately.
"Of course. I'll just get some forms for you to sign and we'll get little Emily to the OR." Tara and Jax nodded as the Doctor disappeared through the double doors again.
"Oh god Jax." Tara cried. "Our little girl" She wailed.
"Shh baby. She'll get through this. We'll all get through this."
END CHAPTER 25
So I'm back for a short short time. Don't know when I'll be back but I just had to get this chapter written. I don't know much of the Cardiac logistics but just bear with me...
Hope you liked.
