CH9 (90)
It was to hotel room from HELL! Not what they advertised. $580 shot! Problem is the place was packed and me with a dog, only a few hotels take pets.
So I'm home and my loss is your gain. Hence the update before Tuesday.
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Two hours later Rick and Alexis were back in their dome.
Kate had looked terrible. White and pale with oxygen at her nose, along with a tube down her nose that was feeding her plus a tube in her arm that was keeping her hydrated.
Tabs that would keep track of her temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, even her perspiration level.
Plus there was an oxygen tent encasing her leg.
"Where's mommy?" Emily asks as soon as Rick and Alexis return.
Rick picks her up and takes her over to where Kali is sitting looking like she is ready to cry.
"Mommy got hurt and Madison is helping her feel better sweetie. We need to stay here and let Madison help her. You trust Madison right?" Rick was now happy that Madison had come and that his girls loved her.
"Uh huh." Emily whispers out now sure something is wrong.
"Well we need to let Madison help mommy so we're going to stay here and let Madison do that, because we trust Madison." Rick tells them. "Right?"
"O-kay." Emily isn't convinced. Seeing mommy would help.
"How about you draw something to help make mommy feel better." Rick offers. It would help keep them busy.
"OK." Emily gets down and takes her sister over to draw something pretty for mommy. Getting Rick to let out a long breath.
"That isn't going to work for much longer dad." Alexis points out, who is already barely holding it together herself.
"I know!" Rick snaps at her. … "I'm sorry pumpkin, I'm just scared. … I watched, I saw it all happen right in front of me. …. It was like a nightmare just 20, maybe 25 feet in front of me. Except I wasn't asleep and I had my eyes open.
I watched that croc take her down to the bottom of the river to drown her before he ate her. She was dying right in front of me and I couldn't help her." Rick's tears were falling fast as he watched it happen all over again.
"Mom's alive dad, she's alive, and she has Madison." Alexis looks for the silver lining after she jumps in the hug him.
Rick nods his head. "And it happens the day after the last ship leaves for the next six months, leaving us all alone."
Alexis hugs her dad, they both needed one.
It is one week later now:
Kate's bed is surrounded by drawings that Emily and Kali have been drawing for their mommy to help her feel better. Rick however has not let them come see her. He had decided that they didn't need to remember seeing their mom looking like she does.
He was waiting till she was better and awake enough to talk to them.
Kate blinked her eyes open and didn't recognize where she was. Nothing looked familiar, though she was lying on her back looking at the ceiling with her head slightly elevated.
Then Kate noticed something else. PAIN! And lots of it. PAIN on top of pain followed by more pain. Kate soon had tears in her eyes. Then there was someone next to her, but she couldn't tell who it was so she closed her eyes.
Kate blinked her eyes open and didn't recognize where she was. Nothing looked familiar. She was lying on her back and she was elevated and could see a monitor on the wall on the far side. It took some concentrating before she worked out Lucy's avatar was on it smiling at her.
Kate tried to lick her lips, but her mouth was so dry that it didn't work. Then she saw she was surrounded by drawings of happy places, but she couldn't figure out why.
Then someone was placing something cold in her mouth and it was melting quickly and it made her mouth and throat feel better, a little. Then there was a face looking at her. "Hi Becks."
Becks? Her name was Becks? Maybe the ladies name was Becks? "Are you in pain?" She asked her.
Now that she thought about it the answer was yes. Why was she in pain? But her mouth didn't seem to work so she tried to make a face that said yes.
She saw the lady do something. "Go back to sleep Becks. Everything is fine. Just rest."
Kate blinded her eyes open and found herself in a bed, elevated a little. Kate could see Lucy on the monitor smiling at her. "Lu,. .. cy?" Kate tried to lick her lips and swallow since her throat hurt.
Next thing Kate knew Madison was putting something cold in her mouth. "Suck on them Becks, it'll make your throat feel better."
Kate sucks on them for a bit till they are soon gone. "You know where you are?" Madison asks her.
"Medical." Kate whispers out.
"Do you have pain?" Madison asks.
Kate could now feel the pain. It was in her leg. It wasn't horrible pain but it did hurt. "A little." Kate whispers out.
Kate looked around some more. It was just her and Madison and a lot of drawings. They were crude looking but she liked them.
"Rick has been bringing drawings from Emily and Kali since you've been here. It's kinda cute actually." Madison liked the idea actually.
"Why?" Kate asks, not meaning why are her children drawing her pictures but why is she here.
"Do you remember what happened to you?" Madison asks her.
Kate scrunches her face to try and concentrate, she doesn't remember much. "Water." And not asking for water.
"Do you remember Rick?" Madison wanted to see how awake she was.
Kate decides short answers on a sore throat are best. "Husband." The answer brought a smile to Madison's face.
Madison turned to face Lucy. "Lucy?"
"Alexis is in the greenhouse with the girls, Rick is on his way from the kitchen." Lucy tells her.
Madison decides to wait for Rick, who shows up huffing and puffing having sprinted the entire distance.
"Kate!" Rick steps up to the bed on the other side from Madison. What he wanted to do was take her in his arms and start crying, but he simply took her hand in his.
Kate tries to smile recognizing Rick. "You're awake." Rick states the obvious. "I'm so sorry babe, I wasn't paying enough attention." Rick was sure it was his fault.
Kate however looks puzzled. "What?" Meaning what happened.
"Five minutes Rick then she needs rest again." Madison walks away.
"Kate babe, we went croc hunting. You shot one and I went to the shuttle to get the rope that we didn't take with us. You got too close to the water's edge and a really big croc jumped out and grabbed you and took you deep, down to the bottom of the water.
I think you shot it since I saw blue flashes in the river, then you came back up spitting up water. I got you on the shuttle and brought you here. …. I should have had the rope with me like I always did before. It's my fault you got to close." Rick was still sure it was all his fault.
"Water. …. drown?" Kate just heard croc and water.
"It got you by your leg and almost ripped it off babe." Rick explains starting to cry again.
Kate looked down and saw the tent over her leg. Now she was scared and the monitor started beeping faster and faster.
Madison rushed in and injected something into her tubing and the beeping got slower.
Just before Kate closed her eyes, Rick leaned down and whispered in her ear. "You still have your leg babe. It's still there." Rick watches her face relax as her eyes close.
Rick turns to Madison. "Now what?"
"Now we have another operation tomorrow morning to look at her leg and hopefully take muscle mass from somewhere else to shore up this one and start giving her steroid injections. Then in about 2 months or so we start physical therapy to try and build her muscles back up.
With a lot of work and some time, like a year or more, she should be walking around on her own if all goes well. After she has knee surgery next.
What I don't know is will she fight us or work even harder to be walking even sooner." Madison didn't know what to expect. Would she give up or fight?
The next day, Rick, Alexis, Emily and Kali were in medical waiting for Madison to finish operating on Kate. It had already been 4 hours and Emily and Kali were restless and Rick had them on the floor drawing mommy another picture. He had them convinced that they were helping mommy get better.
Three hours later Madison came out of the doors and grabbed a chair to sit down.
"There were some damaged areas that we had to remove." Madison had thought of saying dead but the girls were here and they didn't need to hear that word.
"It wasn't extensive, though we did have to attach an artery section we have in cryo. We took muscle mass and a small skin graft from her other leg and built up her damaged leg. So long as it heals properly and doesn't tear loose it looks hopeful.
She is going to need those steroid shots to try and get it to grow bigger and stronger. I'm thinking in maybe less than a month, based on what I saw we can start limited physical therapy. Get the old and new muscles moving. Maybe about three months out we can get her standing for a very short time.
And slowly work our way up to getting her to walk. I think this is where you two are going to come in. If we can convince her to walk to her babies, she will fight to walk instead of give up.
You two are going to help me get your mother to feel better. … You think you can help me?" Madison asks Emily and Kali.
"Mommy will get better?" Emily asks softly.
"If you help me she will. Are you going to help me?" Madison asks again.
Getting Emily and Kali to cry tears while they nod their heads.
"Becks should be out of it for a few days while she recovers. You should go home. I'll have Lucy tell you when she wakes up again." Madison tells them and gets up to help the nurses move Kate to her bed again and get her settled.
It was another week before Kate was awake enough and long enough to talk to anyone and retain the memory of it.
Unfortunately Rick was out with someone hunting Emu and Kangaroo, while Alexis had the girls in the greenhouse. Emily was actually helping while Kali was mostly helping herself into needing a shower soon.
Kate blinked her eyes open and soon saw Madison come into her field of vision. And before either of them say anything Madison places something in Kate's mouth. "Just suck on it, let it melt in your mouth."
Madison waits a couple of minutes for it to melt. "How do you feel? Any pain?"
"A little." Kate whispers out. "Why both legs?" Kate was now worried. They said last time it was only the one leg, didn't they?
"I had to take from one leg to try and reconstruct the other one. We took some muscle tissue from your good leg to replace what you lost in the other. We also took some tissue to fill out the bad leg and we had to take a small skin graft since we didn't have enough artificial skin to cover it all.
You also have had your main artery repaired using a graft we had in cryo." Madison quickly goes over everything, leaving out the small details. Like the vast amount of blood she lost and without the colonists she would have bled to death.
"Can I walk?" Kate suddenly had a new scare.
Madison tries to keep a poker face, but fails. This was her best friend they were talking about. "No, the knee in your bad leg will need to be replaced. There is not much left of that joint. You'll need still another operation to replace it."
Kate's eyes light up. "Another?"
"You've had two so far. If all goes well, you're knee replacement should be your last." Madison tries to soften the blow.
"Will I ever walk?" They could both hear the beep, beep of the monitor increase.
"You will need some serious physical therapy, which we can do here. But it's going to be long and you're not likely going to like it. But if you keep up with it, then yes, we should have you walking normally eventually.
Running however is likely to be something you either can't ever do or only for a very short period."
Madison bent down till she is in Kate's face. "There is something else we need to discuss. … You are going to need to keep wearing the stems and get them replace regularly. I'm not saying you can't get pregnant again, but your legs will be weaker and all the extra weight is likely to keep you bed ridden in the later stages of your pregnancy." Madison tries not to scare her about it.
"But I can?" Kate was pretty sure Rick wanted a son.
Madison smiles. "Yes, likely 1-1/2 to 2 years from now, once you have built up some muscle mass in both your legs. It isn't just your back that will hurt late in the pregnancy, but your legs will be weak and being pregnant will put a great deal of strain on them. Hence the bed rest. But yeah, you can get pregnant. Bed rest will be the price you pay if you do decide to get pregnant." Madison was still smiling.
Kate was happy for that at least. She could walk and possibly give Rick his son, but why was Mags still smiling? Kate scrunches her face. "MAGS?" Kate whispers out.
"I found out yesterday after I got my blood test results. … I'm pregnant." Madison was beaming at Kate.
Kate's eyes open wide. "Really?" Her best friend was pregnant. "Shawn?" Meaning does Shawn know not is it Shawn's.
"I haven't told him yet. I've been too busy with you. I've barely even been out of medical since Rick brought you in. I even sleep here some nights." Madison confesses.
Kate suddenly felt bad about that, because of her people were suffering. "Rick?" Meaning where is he and how is he.
Madison chuckles. "Mr. Procrastinator is out hunting with someone from the colony, I don't know who volunteered. He has been in here for days just like me. Finally the freezer became empty and if we want dinner tonight he had to go get it.
And for your next question Alexis and the girls are fine. As you can probably see they have been sending you drawings they create together every couple of days. It's kinda sweet actually. Alexis has been keeping them and herself busy in the greenhouses.
I think everyone in the colony has been in here at least once to check up on how you are doing.
I know for a fact that everyone in the colony with your blood type all donated twice in the same day.
We went thru a lot of blood Becks, a lot of blood." Madison could still see all the damaged areas that she had painstakingly patched back together to get blood flowing to all parts of her leg, or what was left of it.
"Sorry."
"Don't dwell on it Becks, they would do it all over again for any other colonist. And so would I. …. Go back to sleep. …. If you're awake you can see Rick and Alexis after dinner." Madison leaves to let her rest while Lucy keeps her 24 hour vigil watching Kate.
Rick and his volunteer had come back with a number of Emu and a couple of kangaroos. Kangaroo meat wasn't that popular but he wasn't going croc hunting anytime soon. Too many bad memories associated with them. So Emu was going to be the main meat of choice for a while still.
Rick spotted Madison enter the kitchen to eat so he intercepted her. "Becks is fine Rick. She was conscious while you were out hunting. She was awake long enough to know what is happening.
In a couple of weeks we'll start injecting her muscles with the steroids and work her legs for her.
After a while of that we'll get her out of bed and see if she can handle any weight for a short time.
It's going to be a long process Rick. Lucy will let you know when she is awake next." Madison holds his arm for a moment and then takes her food to sit with Shawn.