Chapter Twenty-Six
Joe found Lila in a heap on the floor beside Steven's bed. He immediately pressed the nurse call button.
"Can I help you?" said the voice on the other end.
"We need a doctor in here right away!" said Joe urgently. "My sister collapsed! She's pregnant! Hurry!"
"We'll be right there!" said the nurse. Within 30 seconds, Steven's room was a buzz of activity, all revolving around his wife and their unborn children, and he was oblivious to it all.
The nurses worked on Lila, paging the OB resident on call while Joey rushed to the phone to call their parents. Frank picked up the phone, Jamie and Eddie was sleeping, two exhausted heaps on the sofa.
"Grandpa, Mom and Dad have to come right now. Lila…she passed out and Steven…he's still being useless even if it isn't his fault. They have to come!"
"Calm down, son, take a breath. I'll wake them up but you have to get it together for your sister and those babies. She needs you Joe, you're all she's got until your folks arrive. They were both pretty exhausted. I'll have one call when they are up."
Frank hurried to wake Jamie and Eddie while Joey headed to the maternity department to check on and watch over his little sister.
"Wh-what happened?" Lila asked groggily as she woke up and realized she was in a hospital bed with an ID band on her wrist.
"You collapsed, Mrs. Tenney," said yet another different nurse. "Your brother found you next to your husband's bed and called for help."
"Is Steven okay? Did he wake up yet?" Lila asked excitedly.
"He's still stable, ma'am, but he hasn't come out of the coma yet."
"I have to get back to him" said Lila as she started getting out of her bed.
"Whoa! You're not going anywhere, Mrs. Tenney" said the nurse. "We've got to get your blood pressure under control. It was through the roof when we got you up here."
"My blood pressure? It's probably just from getting so upset, I'm fine now," insisted Lila, still trying to get out of her bed.
"Sorry, no can do, ma'am," said the nurse. "You've got pre-eclampsia, which means if we can't get your pressures under control and keep them there, you'll very likely deliver your babies 10 weeks early."
"I can't have the babies now! It's way too early, and Steven…" Lila began to sob uncontrollably. The nurse wrapped a compassionate arm around Lila and let her cry.
"It's okay, Mrs. Tenney, you've had a very rough night, you haven't eaten or slept nearly enough, and this much stress would be hard on anyone, let alone someone 30 weeks pregnant."
"Are the babies okay?" asked Lila as she reached for a tissue.
"So far, the babies are fine," assured the nurse as she nodded to the fetal monitors next to Lila's bed. "We're watching their heart rates to make sure everything is okay, but we need to get you calmed down and keep a very close eye on those pressures."
"When can I go back to see Steven?" asked Lila, hating the idea that he might wake up and not see her there.
"The doctor should be back in to check on you in about 10 minutes, and we'll see what he says. I can tell you this much, though, you can't go back down there and get as upset as you were before."
"Understood," said Lila. "I don't know what happened. I was talking to him, you know, hoping he could hear me and that he'd wake up if he knew I was there, and then I got a terrible headache and the next thing I knew, I was in here."
"Well, according to Mr. Tenney's nurse, you were yelling at him to not make a promise he couldn't keep, or something to the like, and then they didn't hear you yelling anymore, so chances are that's what got you so worked up that you collapsed." Lila remembered something about promises, and knew that was probably what sent her over the edge.
"I'll do my best to calm down and stay that way. I just really need to be there when he wakes up."
"We'll see what we can do about that, ma'am" said the nurse. "In the meantime, why don't you have a little snack, it'll make you feel better."
"That'd be great," said Lila, realizing she was pretty hungry.
"What would you like?" asked the nurse.
"Some vanilla ice cream and some apple juice sounds great," said Lila.
"I'll be right back with that, ma'am," replied the nurse.
Lila laid in bed and watched the babies' heartbeats on the monitor. She tried to focus all her thoughts there instead of letting them wander down paths better left alone. She smiled at the nurse when she returned with the ice cream and juice.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, Mrs. Tenney," she replied. "Your brother is outside. I'll send him in."
Joey sat down beside Lila, taking her in for a hug, "You scared me," he scolded lightly. "I called Mom and Dad, they are on their way. Grandpa just called. Aunt Linda and Uncle Danny are there with him so Mom and Dad can focus here. I called Sean, he's off duty in a half hour and he's going to come and look at Steven's ER notes and talk to his doctors. How about you eat your snack, the lie back and rest. I'll be right here." Joey brushed her hair back from her forehead.
Lila nodded, "I hope you didn't worry them. Mom's just starting to feel really good…"
"Lila, if I didn't call them you know what they'd do…What about the Tenneys?"
"Dad called them, but he didn't say much about it after," Lila sighed. "Dad's tried so hard to help them fix it, he really did…"
Joey continued talking lightly while Lila ate. Shortly after she finished her snack, the on-call OB, Dr. Marcel, came in to talk with her.
"You gave us quite a scare, Mrs. Tenney," he said.
"Sorry, Doc," Lila replied. "I take it you've been told about the situation with my husband?"
"Yes, I have, and I'm very sorry you've had to deal with that. Is he okay?"
"He will be," said Lila confidently. "But he's still in a coma and if he doesn't wake up very soon, they'll have to do another CAT scan to check for a brain bleed."
"Well, I know you want to get back down there to be with him" said Dr. Marcel. "But in order for me to let you do that, you have to promise me you'll do a couple of things."
"Anything," said Lila, giving Joey a sharp look warning him to keep his mouth shut. Joey had no intention of arguing, he'd leave that to his parents when they arrived.
"Number one," said the doctor. "You have to stay as calm as you can. That means no more yelling at your husband or anyone else, it's not good for you or your babies."
"Okay, what else?" asked Lila.
"If your head gets to hurting at all while you're still here, I want you to have them check your blood pressure down there. If it's high, I want you to get back up here right away."
"Can do," Lila agreed. "Anything else?
"Not for right now, but you do need to make an appointment with your OB/GYN to let him or her know what happened and that they need to very closely monitor your blood pressure for the remainder of your pregnancy. We don't want to see a repeat of tonight."
"How bad was it?" asked Lila, not completely understanding the severity of the situation.
"Let me put it this way, Mrs. Tenney," said Dr. Marcel. "You were 2 minutes away from being prepped for a crash C-section."
Lila dissolved into tears for the umpteenth time. "I'm sorry…"
Joey rubbed Lila's back as the doctor delivered the news, "It's all right, it's all right. Everything is fine now…The babies are fine, you lie back and rest, be calm…"
Lila knew she had to do as the doctor said, but with Steven still comatose, it was going to be a challenge.
"Lila?" Eddie pushed the door open to the door of Lila's hospital room. "Oh, honey…" Eddie hurried over and hugged Lila to her chest. "Are you okay? How do you feel?
"I'm fine, I want to go be with Steven, but they won't let me yet. Mom, they said I almost had to have the babies."
Eddie raised her eyebrow, "Some of these doctors," Joey sighed. "Telling her to be calm then blurt out she almost had to give birth to twin preemies."
"Joseph," Jamie warned from the doorway.
"Dad, come on, that's kind of a silly thing to say to someone that is in the hospital for high blood pressure, but I guess she has to know what's at stake, right?"
"Yes," Jamie sighed. Joey was getting a little excitable, so Jamie thought quickly, "Perhaps you'd be better off helping us by sitting with Steven. Mom and I will update you on Lila. Go on, son."
Joey knew when he was dispatched. Kissing Lila's head, he left her with their parents. Eddie had already dropped the back of the bed and was stroking Lila's hair. Lila smiled, there was nothing quite like your mother nursing you when you were sick.
Back at the house, Danny and Linda had their hands full with a protective Grandpa Reagan. "Dad, you don't need to be back down at the hospital picking up all kinds of germs. When Lila has the babies, that's fine but…" Danny reasoned.
"Joey said she was unconscious on the floor, my little Lila! How can I just sit here?"
"Frank," Linda sighed. "Dad, listen…you aren't going to be do Lila any good getting her more upset. She needs to be calm and quiet, worrying about you getting sick won't be good for her. You can call her for a few minutes later. For now…why don't we sit back and say a prayer for Lila, Steven, and the babies, that's what they need."
Frank sighed, Linda was right, his being there would upset and worry his granddaughter, so he got out the old rosary, wrapped it around his hand and with his oldest son and daughter-in-law on either side, Frank prayed.
A/N: Lila must start taking it easy and I think Joey is going to have a word or two with Steven seeing he doesn't find much use for his brother-in-law on a good day.
Next Update – June 2nd – Lila learns Steven's fate.
