The Patient Patient
CJ/Danny, Donna, mentions of Josh, others
Rating Late Teen –
Spoilers through end of series
Feedback and criticism always welcomed
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
Early June, 2015; Santa Monica, CA; mid-afternoon
"What in the world was Danny doing in a chem lab?"
"He was attending an undergraduate curriculum committee meeting, Donna," CJ laughed at the incredulity of her friend's voice. "The dean of Arts, Letters, and Sciences asked him to be vice-chair. And he wasn't in the lab; he was in a conference room under the lab. Not that that mattered to his spleen when the autoclave came crashing through the ceiling and landed on his abdomen."
Two days ago, a construction worker with an urgent need to use the men's room set down his blow torch in the second floor lab, neglecting to shut off the device. When an unsuspecting graduate student came in a few minutes later and turned on his Bunsen burner, the resulting explosion did serious damage to the building. Luckily, there were no fatalities, but the injuries ranged from a few scratches to third degree burns and internal injuries.
Once the ER doctors at USC's hospital discovered the ruptured spleen, Danny was rushed into surgery, most of the organ was removed, and the bleeding was stopped.
"Abbey assures me that the spleen is a very efficient organ and that with what they were able to leave in Danny, he shouldn't have any more problems with infections and immunity than the usual middle-aged guy."
"How long will he be in the hospital?" Donna asked.
"Four or five more days. They need to make sure he's all balanced out with that mineral deficiency. It's a bit of a hassle, having to go to USC every day. I mean, Danny and I pay extra because we wanted to keep the kids with Linda, Danny wanted to stay with Ted George, and I wanted to stay with Scott. And, of course, the UCLA hospital is much closer to us."
"Remember when Josh was shot? All the problems he had because they took him to the out-of-network hospital and we forgot to call for authorization? You won't have any of those issues?"
"Not with network issues," CJ answered. "Again, we have the PPO, and they did take him to USC's hospital because it was the closest. However, Ken Robbins thinks there may be some bureaucratic stuff between the disability insurance folks and the workmen's comp folks. The Fire Marshall hasn't filed the official report, but it's obvious that there was no arson or terrorism involved. And Danny was participating in a work-related activity. Anyway, Ken said that he'll help with whatever we need as far as legal advice and support goes. But - "
" - bureaucrats live to complicate our lives," Donna finished CJ's thought with a laugh. "How are the kids dealing?"
"They miss their daddy. Paddy keeps pressuring me to go to the hospital. If Danny gets the rest of the tubes out tomorrow, maybe he can get into a wheel chair and I can bring the kids to the garden area. Caitlin doesn't really understand. She doesn't remember last fall, when I was so sick. The only thing she relates a hospital to is when Nancy's brother Charlie and his wife had their little boy last month; she keeps asking if 'Daddy is bringing her a brother or a sister'. It's kind of cute," CJ chuckled.
"What about you, CJ? Are you doing okay?"
"I'm fine. Tired, with all the driving back and forth across LA, but fine. Paddy's out of school, of course, but there's always someone here to watch the kids during the day. And Danny shoos me out of the hospital by 3:30 so I can beat the traffic home. The others also take turns going to visit with him in the evenings. Hank, Steve, and Billy went last night and the nurse had to chase them out at 10:30. They were playing poker and watching the Dodgers.
"I'm a little disappointed that we'll have to curtail a lot of our summer plans, at least for a while. We probably won't go up to Albion until August, if at all; Danny can't be away from his doctor for at least six weeks. And Cape May is out of the question, unless Abbey's going to be there."
"Wow, CJ, this sounds serious, like when Josh - ," Donna paused, unable to finish her thought. "Are you telling us everything?"
"No secrets, Donna, but it was abdominal surgery, after all. They had to cut through a lot of important muscle. I'm told it's the same thing you would have gone through with your C-section. Anyway, since we moved Caitlin out of the nursery and into what used to be my office, I've wanted to redo both rooms. The nursery will become my office, or rather my 'personal space', since I don't have a real job anymore," CJ giggled. "Caitlin's beginning to want to be like Pammy. She wants a fairy tale room like the one the guys designed for their daughter. So I think I can stay busy this summer."
"Well, we'll miss you, of course, if you can't come. I guess it depends on whether or not Jed goes to monitor those elections in Thailand. Josh and I were hoping that you could spend some time with us. We're fixing up the attic to be a big bedroom for the boys, complete with a bath up there. Maybe when they get older, we'll subdivide it into separate rooms for each of them, but right now, it'll be like a dorm. We're going to put Joanie in the smaller room off Josh's office. We'll cover up the doorway between the two and cut a new one into the hall. When we bought this place, we had assumed that we'd eventually try again for another kid but we had no idea that the trips would come along inside of a year. However, we're adapting.
"CJ, Josh is really enjoying this time here at the beach. I swear he's starting to look younger; his worry lines are fading, or at least becoming less noticeable with his tan. Every morning, before he goes to work, he takes the kids for a walk along the beach after breakfast. At first, I would use the time to clean up, but now I just pour myself another cup of coffee and go sit on the porch and read the Post. Or a magazine. Or one of those smutty novels that Margaret and Carol got us hooked on. Then, when Josh leaves for the law office, I do the dishes while the kids make their beds and stuff. The five of us have the morning together and then I have someone come in to be with them while I do my DNC stuff. By the way, I'm thinking of running for the local school board."
"Really!" CJ exclaimed. "What brought that on?"
"The fact that there is nothing in place to help kids like Noah who are ahead of their peers, other than double promotion. Noah is reading at a second grade level and doing math at a fourth grade level, but socially and emotionally, he's a normal about-to-be first grader. I tell the school that Noah's needs and the needs of kids above the norm are just as important as those of kids who are below the norm. The principal agrees with me, but says the funding isn't there. I intend to change that," Donna stated.
And CJ knew that Donna would succeed. She and Danny were lucky that St. Monica's did provide the extra challenges that the Lymans' school district did not, although, truth be told, Paddy was only slightly above grade level in reading and was "normal" as far as math skills went. However, her son had a very healthy curiosity about things, he excelled at verbal expression, and, to her observation when she was a class mom, he did very well in the social skills area.
"Listen, CJ, call whenever you need to vent, or whatever," Donna continued. "I know what it's like to take care of an ailing man. Sometimes I think they're worse than the kids. Josh had a cold two months ago and I was waiting on him hand and foot. White toast with seedless strawberry jam, in a house where the kids won't eat anything other than grape jelly. Chicken breast poached in chicken stock, not baked or pan-fried. Flat Seven-Up, cold but no ice. Soft-boiled eggs, God forbid I should poach them."
"Actually, ever since the summer I was pregnant with Caitlin, Danny has been the world's most patient patient," CJ laughed. "Chicken soup, ginger ale, Jell-O, and sleep is all he wants when he's sick.
A week later; early afternoon
"Paddy, please don't jump on the bed."
"I'm sorry, Mama," the six year old said as he stopped his exuberant up and down motion. "I'm just so glad that Daddy's back home with us."
Danny had been discharged from the hospital that morning and was now beginning the "three weeks or so of mostly bed rest, a small walk each day, work your way up to a half-hour by the end of the month, maybe sitting outside starting on Independence Day" recovery plan outlined by his doctors.
"I'm glad, too, baby, but Daddy still needs to be careful. Anyway, I have lunch ready for you and Caitlin, so why don't you come to the kitchen?" CJ said as she set down the tray holding Danny's soup, sandwich, and ginger ale, making sure that the legs were firmly nestled on either side of Danny's lap.
"Eat with Daddy." Caitlin made her feelings known.
"Please, Mama, can't we eat here with Daddy? Pretty please?" Paddy echoed his little sister's sentiments.
"We've all missed each other, honey," Danny told CJ. "Let's have a picnic on the bed."
"Danny, they'll get crumbs over everything!"
"Then Destiny will clean them up, won't you, girl?" Danny answered, ruffling the neck fur of the yellow lab that was lying alongside him on the bed. Destiny knew who the alpha member of the household was. "I've really missed all of you," he softly added, looking into her eyes.
"Okay," CJ said with a smile. "I'll be back." Danny was right, the children had missed their father and he had missed them. Dr. George had told Danny and her that the recovery would be slow. Danny needed to spend a lot of time in bed at first.
"People don't realize how much they use their stomach muscles until something like this happens," the man said. "Also, the human body needs rest to repair itself and you will be amazed at how much you'll want to sleep. My great-uncle was also a doctor, an OB-GYN, and he had a phrase I've borrowed – what you need most is elixir of time and tincture of neglect."
Five minutes later, CJ was walking back toward the bedroom, balancing three bowls of soup, two sandwiches for the kids, a salad for herself, bananas, two glasses of milk, and one of seltzer on a second tray, when she heard the squeaking sound of springs.
"Hey, buddy," Danny's voice came through the open door, "settle down. We don't want an – oops!"
As CJ walked into the room, she saw the collapsed tray leaning against Danny's right thigh, the overturned glass, and the spreading stain of tomato broth with chicken and rice spreading over the silver grey and pale aqua bed linens and covers.
"Padraic Talmadge Concannon! What did I say about jumping on the bed? Just look at the mess you made!"
"I'm sorry, Mama," Paddy answered.
"I thought you said you wanted to be treated like a big kid, now that you're six. Is that what a big kid does? Come back here; I'm talking to you!"
"Honey, it's just a little food stain. It's not the end of the world," Danny said softly as Caitlin started to cry, Destiny cowered into the bed, and Paddy hung his head, trying to control his trembling lower lip.
Then Paddy, who had run into the master bath, came back into the room, carrying an armful of pale grey towels.
"I'm sorry, Mama," he repeated. "I'll clean it up."
And before CJ could stop her son, the towels were also strained orange.
"CJ, don't," Danny whispered, forestalling another explosion on the part of his wife. "I just want to enjoy being home with my family."
CJ inhaled and exhaled deeply, silently reminding herself how much she had wanted this child. "Let me go get you some more soup and ginger ale."
"Later. The sandwich will be enough; I'm not that hungry."
In the end, Danny finished Caitlin's soup ("Me no like.") and asked Paddy to fill his glass with water from the bathroom sink. Forty-five minutes later, two children and one dog dozed while CJ tried to make herself comfortable. With the three extra bodies, it was hard to find room on the bed that was not damp and liable to stain her shorts a shade of tomato.
"I've missed you, Danny," she whispered. "The house is so empty without you, this bed is empty without you, and I'm glad you're here to fill it."
"Even though I can't, um, 'work on taxes' (Danny wasn't completely sure that Paddy was sound asleep) for another three weeks?"
"We've done without before, haven't we?" CJ said with a smile.
Yes, we have, Danny said to himself, but that was with you being incapacitated, not me.
Five days later; early afternoon
CJ pulled into the drive, set the brake, and shut off the engine. She remained seated in the Mustang, taking deep breaths. She felt different than she had an hour ago; embarrassment and guilt had replaced anger and shame.
Thinking back over the events of the morning, she felt herself flushing again. Had she really lost it, had she really sworn like that to the children? She must have; why else would Danny tell her to take the Mustang, with the top down, and go for a drive? As she got out of the car, she realized that she should have stopped at the market and bought something for the kids, to go along with the apology she needed to make to them.
Ever since Danny had come home, her son and her daughter had been pushing her buttons. They demanded attention from her. They wanted to bend the rules, especially in terms of being with their father. It seemed to CJ that she was put in the role of "bad cop" in trying to maintain a normal life for the kids whereas Danny was the "good cop", giving in to their demands. Even Destiny got away with numerous canine "sins".
Paddy and Caitlin wanted to sleep with Danny and her. From the beginning, she and Danny had followed everyone's advice and had not allowed the children in their bed, other than when she was nursing them. When necessary, if the kids were really sick, she or Danny had slept in the kids' rooms with them, but the marital bedroom was reserved for marital matters. Of course, when they were on family trips and staying in hotels or with friends or relatives, circumstances might require that they share a room. And the dangerous events of two Christmases ago meant that all the rules were temporarily discarded. So, when the kids started their fussing last week, her first inclination had been to say "no"; but Danny suggested that the kids be allowed to sleep on an Areobed on the floor.
When the kids wanted to continue to eat their meals with Danny, he suggested that they set up a card table in the bedroom. He was able to sit up for the fifteen to thirty minutes it took to eat. Danny was the one who bent bedtimes in order to let the kids finish watching a video. ("It's summer, there's no reason for them to have to stick to a rigid schedule. They'll have a whole lifetime of beings grown-ups; let's let them be little kids while they can.")
Caitlin was with him almost constantly. She insisted on "reading" to him, using magazines and books from Danny's den as well as her story books. CJ and Danny marveled at her imagination as she pointed to pictures and talked of dolphins in the water, sea monsters, and ferocious beasts that Daddy slew. CJ put down a sheet on the carpet and Caitlin drew lots of pictures for her Daddy, showing him as big, strong, and always holding Caitlin's hand. Danny and his daughter also took naps together, one in the morning and one in mid-afternoon. CJ would often find herself sitting in one of the easy chairs in the bedroom, drinking in the sight of Danny and Caitlin's red heads abutting each other on the pillows.
Paddy watched baseball games with Danny, and played checkers; however, the boy also spent time outside with the other children and told Danny that he couldn't wait for his Daddy to be well enough to sit outside and watch him play baseball, tag, kick the can, and Red Rover with the others.
Danny, of course, was no trouble at all. He almost never rang the little bell she had put on his side of the bed, and the few times that he did, he was immensely apologetic for bothering her. He was grateful for her company when she had time to spend with him, and was glad when the guys came to watch the games and to provide male company, but he was equally capable of fending for himself with his books, the newspapers, and the television. He always had time for his son and daughter.
As CJ walked across the courtyard, she didn't hear any sounds coming from the bedroom wing. Danny, Paddy, and Caitlin were probably napping.
"Feeling better?" Danny asked his wife as she entered the room.
"Calmer? Yes. Better? No. I'm ashamed of myself. But, where are the kids? They must be starving," CJ looked around the room.
"Paddy and Destiny are with Diana until tomorrow morning. Caitlin is with Steve and Pammy, also until tomorrow. Love of my life, you obviously need a break," Danny said.
Danny's eyes shifted and CJ followed their motion, taking in the bright blue, green, red, and yellow splashes of paint on the carpet and the nightstand that had been the cause of her earlier outburst. "CJ, it's only stuff. And, anyway, weren't you saying something about redecorating?"
CJ took in her husband's smile, the one he first gave her on that night when he told her that she sucked at relationships but that she could be trained, the one that was scolding, forgiving, understanding, and most of all loving, all at the same time.
"Yeah. How are the kids? I mean, I was pretty outrageous to them. Did I really say - "
"You God damn fucking little bastards?" Danny finished her thought. "I'm afraid you did. I don't think they understood the words, but they got the tone and the volume loud and clear. But we can deal with that tomorrow. As I said, you need a break.
"CJ, we're all reacting to what happened to me. The kids are scared because it's first experience with Daddy being less than all powerful, all perfect. Their sense of security has been threatened. You don't remember, of course, but they reacted somewhat the same way when you were hospitalized and then convalescing back around Halloween. But at their age, fathers are expected to be stronger, to be invincible. And you. You're trying to make everything normal for them, but also for yourself. You're dealing with thoughts about almost losing me and you don't want to accept those thoughts. For myself, I'm also dealing with thoughts about almost losing you and the kids, but whereas you're in 'Oh, my God!' mode, I'm in the 'I'm so grateful for what I do have, so willing to have different ideas about what matters' stage. So, not only do you need a break from the kids, the kids need a break from you."
"It shouldn't be that way. I should be their rock at a time like this," CJ said. "But a break would be nice. Maybe I could get Laura to come sit with you for a while? I'd love to take a long bath; I haven't read the last three TIME's. But I couldn't relax if I thought that you might need something."
"Later. Right now, you have a more pressing need that I need to handle, one that is best handled with no one else around." Danny's mouth formed into another smile variation; the one he first gave her the night after Leo had died and she appeared at his door needing friendship, comfort, and something else. "Come here."
"Danny! The doctor said we can't have sex for another month, that we can't even," CJ stopped. Am I really blushing, she asked herself.
"He said that I can't, at least not yet," Danny answered. ("Even ejaculating uses stomach muscles. Maybe in four weeks.") "He said nothing about not being able to take care of you, as long as I don't, ah, react. Come here."
"And what makes you think I need 'taken care of', Daniel? This isn't the first time we've had to abstain. Three pregnancies, my illness last fall, the trips. For God's sake, Danny, do you think I'm some kind of nymphomaniac? I mean - ".
"Claudia Jean."
Danny said her name softly, but she immediately stopped talking. Her husband was about to assert his masculinity, something he did only when he felt it absolutely necessary.
"I have been in love with you for the last sixteen years. We have been joined in Holy Matrimony for the last eight of them. I have been bedding you for six months longer than that. You have been used to a regular and, I believe I can say with surety and without smugness, satisfying sex life, both physically and emotionally. And this is the first time that I've been the one who is unable. Remember how I was after Paddy? How I had a hard time accepting your willingness to give to me, but I came around? Now it's my turn to give and your turn to accept. So, I am going to undress you, I am going to kiss you, I am going to play with those gorgeous breasts, I am going to do nice things between your legs. Then I am going to have you kneel over my face and hold onto the headboard for dear life. And you are going to feel a lot better. For the last time, come here."
Forty-five minutes later, CJ stretched and snuggled up against her husband. She sighed contentedly as Danny brushed her hair from her forehead and kissed her temple. Then she remembered something that had struck her when Danny was describing why he knew that she needed what he had first outlined and then proceeded to expertly do to her.
"Bed me? Where did that come from?" she asked, raising herself on one elbow.
"Research," Danny answered. "I'm going to teach a mini-course next year – "The Art of Writing Medieval Romances" – and I've been looking at some of the more popular books. The ones that are most popular use many terms for sex and that's one that resonated with me for some reason. I guess it implies skill, competence, things I like to think I have, at least as far as keeping you happy."
"Oh, believe me, you have them, and you do. Keep me happy, I mean. Daniel Michael Fabian Concannon, you are amazing. How were you able to do that to me without becoming needy yourself?"
"Do what?"
"You know what I mean," CJ said, lightly poking him in the arm.
"Well, I am still recovering from abdominal surgery," Danny laughed. "And for that matter, all those times when you had your period and would kneel at my feet, with your hair spread over my lap, taking care of me. What did you say to me? That you wanted to take care of me, and that you could wait until the time was right? Well, it's the same with me. I'll wait Dr. George says I can bury myself deep within you. I waited eight years for you, CJ. I know how to be patient."