Chapter Twenty-Seven
They kept Lila upstairs on the maternity floor for over 3 hours, until they were satisfied with her blood pressure and the babies' heart rates. As soon as Dr. Marcel gave the okay, she found the nearest elevator and returned to Steven's room with Jamie and Eddie on her heels.
"Joey? You're still here?"
"I wasn't going to leave him here alone, Lila" Joe replied.
Lila gave Joe a warm hug. "Are you okay? Why did that happen? Do you know?"
"Oh, I know why it happened," Lila replied. "And so does the doctor and the nurses and pretty much everyone on both these floors, but the fact is I can't let it happen again or they're going to take the babies early and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen."
"Well, you just let me know what I can do to help" offered Joe. "And consider it done."
"Thanks, Joe" replied Lila.
"Glad to help where I can," said Joey, looking at Jamie, still upset he'd been ordered away from his sister.
"Has his doctor been in since I've been gone?" asked Lila as she sat down in the recliner.
"Yeah, he was in a little while ago," answered Joe.
"And…?" prodded Lila.
"He wasn't pleased that Steven hasn't woken up yet," stated Joe solemnly.
Lila took a few deep, relaxing breaths while Eddie held tight to her hand. "So, did he order another CAT scan?"
"Yeah, he did" Sean spoke up as he stepped into the room after consulting with Steven's physician. "But it didn't show anything more than the first one. I just read both scans and there's not indication of a brain bleed anywhere."
"So what does that mean?" asked Lila hugging her cousin. "Thank you so much for coming."
"Well, it means we're still going on the assumption that there's no bleeding anywhere in Steven's brain, but sometimes there can be an area of bleeding that's so small it takes several days to show up."
"So he could be like this for several more days?" asked Lila, feeling herself getting upset. She took a few more deep breaths and focused on keeping calm. Jamie moved to her side and put his arms around both Eddie and Lila.
"It's possible, Lila. What we need to do is remain optimistic that there's no hidden bleeding and that this is just a really bad concussion that's Would you suggest a different test?"
"If Steven doesn't wake up by tomorrow morning, the best thing to do is order another CAT scan. Aside from that, nothing." Sean felt bad that he couldn't give Lila any better news.
"Why don't we go and get some breakfast and leave these two alone for a while?"
"That'd be nice" said Lila. "I'll stay calm, I promise."
"I know you will, Lila" said Joe as he headed for the cafeteria. "Maybe there'll be some good news waiting for me when I get back."
"We can hope" replied Lila. Joe left the room with Jamie, Eddie, and Sean while Lila took a seat in the chair where Joe had kept vigil while she was upstairs.
"Hey, handsome," she said softly as she looked at his still bruised face. "Did you miss me?" There was no answer, but somehow she knew he had.
"Sorry I was gone," she said. "Apparently it's not a good thing for a woman who's 30 weeks pregnant to get quite as upset as I've been since last night. We're okay, though, the babies and I, so don't worry about us - just concentrate on waking up."
Lila took a hold of Steven's hand, lifted it to her lips and kissed it. "I love you," she whispered. She caught sight of her wedding ring as it glistened atop her left hand.
"Well, hello, little ones," she said as she felt the babies kick. "Here," she said, taking Steven's hand and placing it on her tummy. "Can you do that again, for daddy?" It took a few moments, but one of the babies gave her another good, strong kick in the same place as before. Lila smiled, her instincts telling her that Steven knew what was going on.
"You almost missed the babies' birthday, did you know that? Well, I should say the babies' birthday almost came 10 weeks earlier than planned, but that's all taken care of now."
Lila held onto his hand and looked down at the floor, concentrating on not getting upset.
"It was scary, Steven. They had me hooked up to a monitor and wouldn't let me out of the bed, and the doctor said I came way too close to having an emergency C-section last night. I'm so glad that didn't happen, mostly because the babies are not ready yet, but also because I can't imagine either of us missing the birth, let alone both of us."
Lila felt a tiny squeeze of her hand, so tiny she almost missed it.
"Steven!" Lila jumped up from her chair. "Steven, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand again, babe! Come on, I know you can do it!"
She felt another squeeze. She reached around and pressed the nurse call button.
"Can I help you?" said the answering nurse.
"Yes!" exclaimed Lila, "Steven is waking up!"
"I'll page the doctor right away," replied the nurse. "Are his eyes open?"
"Not yet," Lila answered with excitement. "But he squeezed my hand twice and I know he's close to opening his eyes!"
"Okay, Mrs. Tenney, we'll be right there."
"Thank you!" replied Lila, turning her attention back to Steven.
"Okay Smokey," Lila whispered. "I need you to open your eyes for me. Come on, let's see those gorgeous baby blues."
Nothing.
"Wake up, Steven, come on, babe, please wake up." Just then, Dr. Stephenson and his nurse entered the room.
"You said he squeezed your hand?" asked the doctor.
"Twice!" answered Lila. "And he's this close to opening his eyes, I just know it."
"That's altogether possible, Mrs. Tenney," said the doctor. "The hand squeezing is an excellent sign, but we can't get too excited until his eyes are open and we can assess his cognitive functions."
"Speak for yourself, Doctor," retorted Lila, a little put out at the doctor's definition of what did and didn't warrant excitement. "I know Steven better than anyone in the world, and I'm telling you he's very close to breaking out of this coma."
"I hope you're correct, Mrs. Tenney. I really do. I'll be back in another hour or so, unless there's a change in his condition before then."
"Fine," said Lila, having to focus extra hard at remaining calm. Once they were alone again, her efforts turned back towards getting her man to open his eyes.
"Okay, Steven, I really need you to work with me here. Prove that doctor wrong, babe, come on!"
"Mmmm…" It was the first sound he'd made since the accident.
"Steven! Steven I'm here, wake up and talk to me!"
He very slowly opened his eyes. At first he just stared straight up, squinting from the light.
"Steven! Can you see me?" asked Lila, fighting with every word to keep from getting too excited and sending her blood pressure back up.
He painstakingly turned his head towards her, his eyes still open and a blank stare on his face. After what seemed like an eternity…
"Lila," he said groggily, the slightest of smiles coming to his face.
"Steven," she replied, losing her fight to keep from crying. "How do you feel?"
"Head….hurts….bad.," he moaned. "What…happened?"
"You were in a car accident last night," answered Lila. "You've been unconscious since you got here."
"You…okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine, babe. You were alone in the car. I came here as soon as the police called me, just like would for me."
"Pain…all…over." Steven grimaced. He didn't remember anything after Lila left the apartment angry. She looked so beautiful.
"I know, love. You have a couple of bruised ribs from where the seatbelt did it's job, and your knees are pretty banged up from slamming into the dashboard."
"That….all?" he asked.
"Except for the airbag bruise" she said.
"Didn't…know…I…was…so…pretty." said Steven.
"Oh boy, always the jokester, huh?" Lila laughed.
"Love…you…too" he said. Just then, the nurse came in to check on him.
"Well, isn't this a pleasant turn of events?" exclaimed the nurse upon realizing Steven was awake. "Let me go page the doctor, I'll be right back."
"He's going to be pleased to see you awake and talking," said Lila.
"Good," said Steven. "Sit…up?"
"Maybe we should wait until the doctor comes in and see what he says." Lila stroked his hair back while they waited for the doctor to arrive. Once Steven was examined, she'd tell her parents and Joey the news. They would be back from the cafeteria any minute.
"See what I say about what?" asked Dr. Stephenson as he entered the room.
"He wants to sit up in the bed. Is that okay?" Lila didn't want to cause any more damage.
"Sure" said the doctor. "Let's do it this way" and as he pushed a button on the side of the bed, the head began to slowly rise, easing Steven into a semi-sitting position.
"AH!" yelled Steven just as the bed came to a stop.
"What's wrong!" exclaimed Lila.
"Hurts!" said Steven, clutching his bruised ribs.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Tenney," the doctor said to Steven. "Bruised ribs are extremely painful, but it's important that we get you sitting up as much as we can to try and alleviate your risk of developing pneumonia."
"Can you give him anything for the pain?" asked Lila. She hated to see him hurting like that.
"I'll give him some IV steroids for now, to help with inflammation. And after a while, if he does well on those, we can give him something stronger for the pain, likely some Tylenol with codeine."
"Why can't we start with something stronger?" asked Lila.
"With this type of injury, we need to keep the patient as alert as possible so we can best monitor the situation. If we drug him up too much, it could mask a serious situation."
Lila nodded in understanding and rested her free hand on her belly to soothe her anxious babies.
"I need to run through a few quick things with him right now, and then we'll get the meds going."
"Okay," replied Lila, stepping back a bit so the doctor could get to Steven. He held up 2 fingers, and asked Steven if he could see them and how many there were.
"Two," said Steven, his voice indicative of the pain he was in.
"Good!" answered the doctor. "Any ringing in your ears, anything like that?"
"No."
"Do you have a headache?"
"You're kidding right?" Steven laughed. He had the mother of all headaches
"On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the worst," said the doctor "How bad is the pain?"
"Five," said Steven. Lila wasn't fooled, she could tell her was hurting a lot more than he was letting on.
"Okay," said the doctor. "We'll get you going on some steroids real soon and that should help your head a lot. I'll give you a little while to rest here in bed, and then I need you to try getting up and walking around if you can."
"Is that really necessary to do so soon?" asked Lila. "He's only been conscious for half an hour and he's in a lot of pain. Can't the walking wait awhile?"
"Sure, it can wait, Mrs. Tenney," replied the doctor, "I'd just like to see him at least try to get up and walk from the bed to the recliner sometime before dinner, okay?"
"We can give it a try, sure" replied Lila. "Can he have the meds now?"
"I'm writing the order as we speak" said Dr. Stephenson.
"Thank you" said Lila. The doctor finished making notes in Steven's chart, and left the room.
Jamie and Eddie appeared just a few minutes after the doctor left. "Oh, thank God!" Eddie hurried over to Steven and gave him a gentle hug. "We are so glad to see you awake, honey. You scared us."
"Sorry, Mom," Steven replied. "Dad…I'm sorry for the trouble…'
"Nonsense, Son, you get your rest. Everything is fine. I spoke to Aunt Erin, Grandpa is doing fine, I told him that you are fine…there's no reason for anyone to be so excited."
"What'll I have to do to get out of here?" Steven asked, his voice remaining weak and quiet, not quite picking up on Jamie's soft order to Lila.
"I'm not sure of everything just yet," said Lila. "But I know you'll have to do your breathing exercises to the satisfaction of the doctor or you're stuck here forever." She smiled a little, knowing beyond any doubt Steven wouldn't spend a second longer than necessary in that place.
"Okay Mr. Tenney, we've got some meds for you," said a nurse as she entered the room with a drug pump.
"Good" replied Steven. The nurse proceeded to set up the machine next to the bed and connect it to Steven's IV. She punched in a code and locked the box when she was finished.
"Here you go" she said, handing Steven a small button connected to the machine. "It's all ready to go, just press the button when you want a dose, and if it's been at least 7 minutes since the last dose, the machine will dispense the programmed amount through your IV."
"Sounds great" said Steven. "Can I have some now?"
"I pressed it right before I handed it to you," answered the nurse. "But in about 5 minutes you can press it again, just look for this little light to go off." She pointed to a small indicator light on the Machine, which showed that the required time between doses hadn't expired.
"Five minutes it is," said Steven, his body beginning not feeling any relief as of yet.
"Thank you," said Lila, as the nurse left the room. She turned to Steven, his eyes once again closed.
"We'll give the steroids a little time, then we need to get you up out of this bed, okay?"
"Okay," he replied. "Lila?"
"Yeah, babe?" she answered.
"I love you" he said, opening his eyes slowly and looking into hers.
"We love you, too" replied Lila, and she placed Steven's hand on her tummy as the babies tumbled about.
A/N: So Steven is awake and Lila and the little babies are doing all right. It's been a while since I thanked my reviewers for their loyalty. I have begun writing the fifth installment of this series and I think it's going to be one of the most interesting yet.
Next Update – June 4th – Steven learns of Lila's near delivery and receives some surprise visitors.
