sorry if this seems a bit off. I was literally adding to it right before posting.
The Captain nodded his head and watched as Lizanne and Robert walked out of the room. "Looks like its back to the cell for you," he said. "You'll get your phone call in an hour." Nick stood up and headed to the door with the Captain right behind him.
Ten minutes after Lizanne and Robert left the police station, they pulled into the hospital's parking lot. She parked the car, they got out and walked into the hospital and were greeted by Steve.
"We need to talk." Steve turned and walked in the direction of the empty cafeteria. He pulled out a chair and looked at Lizanne and Robert who did the same – sitting across from him. "Catherine tells me you told her she could change her mind about give up her baby."
"I didn't tell her that." Robert said. "I reminded her of what was in the papers she signed."
"Same difference." Steve wasn't happy and it showed. "She's changed her mind and wants to keep the baby."
"And she can do that."
Steve looked at Lizanne. "Sorry, Steve, she can," Lizanne told him. "With everything that's come out, no judge would ever up hold anything that she signed. But, in that same token, Nick wouldn't be given custody of the baby either."
"So either way, I'm out of the loop?" Steve asked
"When the baby is born, you'll get a paternity test," Robert said. "There's no waiting and it's done before Catherine is given the chance to see the baby."
"But don't worry about that right now. He's in jail, and won't be out for at least 24 hours," Lizanne said.
Steve shot her a look. "How'd you know that?"
"I heard he was in jail, and Robert and I went to have a little talk with him," Lizanne stated. "He didn't tell us anything we didn't already know."
Steve looked at Robert. "Don't you think that's a conflict of interest to represent him and me?"
"Steve, I'm not representing him. I gave him no legal advice,' Robert said. "Going there was just to…scare him." Lizanne nodded her head in agreement
"SEALs don't scare easily," Steve stated flatly.
The door to the cafeteria opened and Steve turned towards the sound. The nurse standing in the entrance motioned for him to join her and Steve stood up and walked into the hall with her. "Is everything okay?"
Lizanne and Robert looked up as Steve stood up and walked to the nurse. "But they can have the ground ripped from under them…," Lizanne mumbled to Robert as they watched the nurse speak with Steve.
"The baby is under distress," the nurse explained. "The heart beat is slowing. Ms. Rollins is asking for you."
Steve nodded his head and followed the nurse to Catherine's room. "What do the doctors want to do?"
"She won't let them touch her until she's talked to you."
They got to the room and Steve walked to Catherine. "I'm here, Catherine."
"I'm…I'm sorry for doing this." Catherine had tears in her eyes and she shifted a bit in an attempt to get comfortable. "I never wanted to hurt you."
Steve reached her Catherine's hand and lightly gave it a squeeze. "It's okay," he managed to say around the lump forming in his throat.
"No it's not okay. I'm taking your daughter away from you," Catherine said. "I've known you were the father all along. But I freaked out and that's why I left seven months ago."
"My God Catherine, you gotta stop jerkin' me around," Steve said as he sat in a chair near her bed. "What about what Nick said? He said that you guys had been having sex for eight months."
"True enough, I've been cheating on you for the majority of our relationship, but I was on the pill and I never told Nick." She looked at Steve, hoping he would see she was telling the truth. "I knew he wanted a family so badly, but after that joint-op you and he had, he changed and was so abusive and then he'd apologize and I so wanted to believe him. Then I caught him using drugs." She paused again, letting her words sink in. "I tried to leave him. Got as far as the base in San Diego, but I was in between tours, and there was no need for me to be on base."
"Why didn't you come back here?" Steve asked; his eyes were sad as he listened to her story. "We were still together and you know that you were always welcome at my house."
Catherine shook her head. "He would have found out if I got on a plane, so I went back to the house and we talked things over and I was stupid enough to believe him. For two years I believed his lies that he would stop using drugs, that he would stop hitting me, stop yelling at me. After a while it sunk in that he would never change, but he got in my head so much that no one would want me after him, that he wouldn't blet/b anyone have me." The disgust in how she had been treated was evident in her voice. "I couldn't put a child through that." Now she began to speak softly. "He used a condom every time we had sex. One weekend I flew from California to see you; I left my pills, but didn't think anything of it. We made love, I left two days later."
Robert and Lizanne slipped in the room and listened to the conversation.
"Three weeks later when my period should have come, it didn't. I took one of those home pregnancy tests and it came back negative. I waited a couple more weeks and still nothing. So I went to my doctor, they gave me a test and told me I was about eight weeks along."
"The baby could still be Nick's," Lizanne said as she stepped further into the room. "A paternity test is going to be done when she's born."
"Aren't you listening to me?" Catherine demanded. "Steve is the father!"
"Well, there a man in jail who, for the last six months, has thought otherwise," Robert added.
"Would it make any difference if I just let Steve have her?"
"Yeah," Steve said in agreement. "After she's born, she can come home with me and that's the end of it."
Lizanne looked at Steve. "As much as I would like to say yes, it can't be done. Nick is going to fight this to the very end."
"I don't care about that." Catherine was adamant. "I don't want Nick to have her!"
"Why are you fighting this paternity thing? You get it done; it says Steve is her father and what you do after that is between you and Steve. If you don't take the test you both may lose her," Lizanne said. "The test takes but five minutes and done right after she's born."
There was a series of beeping noises and a nurse and doctor walked into the room. "Okay, everyone out."
Robert left the room, but Lizanne hung around for a little bit longer.
"Is everything okay?" Steve asked nervously
The nurse in front of the baby monitor held up the printout and motioned for Steve to come to her. Steve walked over and looked at the paper. "You see this?" she pointed to the lines on the paper, "This is the baby's heartbeat, notice how its spikes are low?" Steve nodded his head, "Heartbeat slowing isn't good, the baby has to come out before it dips any lower."
"What happens if it dips lower?" Catherine asked
"It'll be too late." Lizanne said. Steve and Catherine looked at Lizanne as she walked out of the room.
"Can I stay?" Steve asked. The doctor looked up from his position in front of Catherine and nodded his head.
The nurse at the monitor walked to a cabinet, pulled out blue scrubs and handed them to Steve. "Put these on."
Steve went to the bathroom, put the scrubs on, then left the bathroom and walked to the fetal monitor and the printout that was slowly coming from the machine. The nurse quickly unhooked the machine from Catherine's stomach, pushed the cart aside and walked out of the room.
A few minutes later another doctor entered and began to prep Catherine.
Steve panicked a bit when he saw the large needle.
"Don't worry, Commander; this is for the epidural. We can't deliver the baby unless she's numb."
Steve sat with her, doing his best to keep both himself and Catherine calm.
The nurse returned to the room sometime later and checked on Catherine, and once the doctor who would be performing the surgery okayed things, the nurse called two orderlies and they wheeled Catherine to the delivery room.
In the interim, Lizanne walked to the waiting room where Danny, Mary and Robert were waiting. She sat in a chair and stared at her lap while she processed everything. The group had seen Catherine being wheeled away and Steve following them in the blue scrubs.
Mary got up, walked over to Lizanne and sat next to her. "What happened?"
"Catherine's changed her mind. She wants to keep the baby even though she knows that Steve is her father."
"Can she do that?" Mary asked softly
Lizanne nodded her head. "Even though the papers she signed can't be enforced by a judge, she has the right to change her mind. Nick is going to fight this. It's better to have the paternity test done so we know with complete certainty if Nick or Steve is the father."
"What are we going to do now?" Danny asked
"They're going to deliver the baby and a test is going to be done."
An hour later Steve was standing next to the nurse as she cleaned up the baby. "So far she looks healthy, Mr. McGarrett," the nurse said with a smile. She attached some tubes to her nose to help her breathe. "Her lungs and heart are still weak, so she'll be watched closely."
"But other than that she's fine?" he asked as he lightly touched her fingers.
"She could stand to gain a little more weight, but she's still fine," the nurse replied. "The doctor will watch her closely."
"What about the paternity test?" Steve asked
"Will be done in a couple minutes," she said. "We'll have the results within five days." She placed the baby in the bassinette and wheeled her over to Catherine. "You can see your little girl before she's taken to the neo-natal unit."
Catherine sat up as best she could and looked at the baby. Her eyes welled up with tears. "She's so tiny."
"But she's fine," the nurse said with a smile. "We're just going to monitor her to make sure her heart and lungs are okay."
"How bad are they?" Catherine asked.
"They're a bit weak due to the early delivery, but with time they will get stronger," the nurse said as she turned and wheeled the baby out of the delivery room.
Nick sat in the cell that he was placed in, looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. 'An hour and a half,' he thought to himself. 'When do I get my call…who would I call?'
The officer at the desk, stood up, walked to the cell, unlocked it and looked at Nick. "You can make your call now."
Nick stood up, walked to the payphone, took the few coins left for him and thought a moment. Once he decided who he would call, he deposited the coins and dialed his parents' number. The phone rang three times before the call was connected and a soft-spoken woman spoke. "Hello?"
"Mom, it's Nick…" he said
"Nick dear, what a surprise," she said. "How are things going?"
Nick sighed and shook his head as if his mother could see. "Not so good, Mom, but I don't have time to explain. I need to you make an emergency call to Justin Ambrose and have him get to Oahu as soon as he can."
"Okay," his mother said, "but he's going to want to know why."
"Tell him it's an emergency and I'll explain when he gets here," Nick said.
"Where exactly is here?"
"Police station near Queens Medical," Nick said. "He knows the place."
"All right, I'll call him now," his mother said. "It might be morning before he's able to get a flight from the Big Island."
"That's not soon enough, but it looks like I have no other choice," Nick said. "I have to go. I'll call you soon and explain everything." He hung up the phone before his mother had a chance to respond.
The officer looked at Nick, "Done?" Nick nodded his head, "Okay, time for a little ride."
"To where?"
"Queens," the officer said walking to Nick. "Turn around, hands behind your back."
Nick did as he was told. "Look, is all this necessary?"
The officer didn't respond as he placed the cuffs on Nick's wrists. "They'll be off in 10 minutes."
"Then back on again," Nick said with a sigh. He followed the officer out of the station and in to the car. They drove 10 minutes to the hospital and walked in through a side entrance to avoid any patients that were in the waiting rooms. They walked down a hall to a lab where a nurse was sitting at a counter.
The nurse wheeled to the side and exposed Steve who was sitting on a chair with his arm resting on a table. Steve looked up when Nick and the officer walked into the room. Nick was about to say something when Steve put his jacket on and walked out of the lab leaving Nick, the officer and the nurse alone.
"Mr. Taylor?" She asked as she looked up from her clipboard. "Which of you is Nick Taylor?"
"I am." Nick said stepping forward. The officer undid the cuffs and Nick shook his arms out.
"Have a seat in the chair and roll both of your sleeves up above the elbow." Nick did as he was instructed and the nurse took her seat in front of him. She went to wipe off his arm with an alcohol pad and noticed the track marks. "When was the last time you used?" she asked. "And don't try to lie to me."
"Last week," He said.
"How long have you been using?"
"About two years."
"Drug of choice?" she asked
"Crack," He said plainly
She gave him a look, and then wrote something down on her clipboard before she began to draw a tube of blood. When she finished that she capped the tube, placed it to the side and collected another one. While it was filling up, she pulled an unopened swab out, took it out of the package and held it at Nick's mouth. "Open." Nick opened his mouth, she swabbed the side of his cheek and placed a cap on that. She stood up and collected her materials. "Results will be back in about five days," she said before walking away.
The officer nodded his head and motioned for Nick to come back to him. Nick stood up, walked over to the officer and stood in front of him. "Can I see Catherine?" he asked. The officer shook his head, placed the cuffs back on Nick and they walked out of the hospital.