Chapter 43 - Settling In
Leonard was tired from the trip and he could tell Penny was too, but the situation they now found themselves in didn't offer any comfort to them conducive to rest. Leonard just sat in his bed, while Penny sat in a chair next to him holding his hand, both of them at a loss for words, because there seemed to be nothing they could say to each other that would allow or make their current situation any better. They were in a hospital ward with several other men, the privacy they had taken for granted before now completely gone. However the strain of the morning, the flight, having to move so much and just plain jet lag was winning the fight to dominate their bodies, especially Leonard, so even though he was not very relaxed his body started to succumb to the fatigue.
Captain Judy Carlson came on to the ward, she was the day senior floor nurse, and she wanted to check on the newcomer, before she went off shift. Judy was more than a little surprised to see the man asleep in bed, with a blonde woman sitting in a chair next to him, holding his hand while her head laid on the edge of his bed, half asleep. Judy was trying to think of the best way to approach this scene when she noticed the blonde woman's eyes open and center on her, so Judy signaled the young woman to come to talk to her.
Penny was waken by the movement, from her very light uncomfortable sleep, and after seeing the nurse wanted to speak to her, reluctantly separated her hand from Leonard's and approached the woman. "Yes."
Judy smiled. "Hi, I'm Judy Carlson, I'm the lead day nurse for this floor, are you this man's wife?" Judy had noticed the wedding ring on the woman's left hand.
Penny nodded then offered her hand to shake Judy's, "Yes, Penny Hofstadter, that is my husband, Dr Leonard Hofstadter."
Judy was a little surprised at the woman's identification of the patient since this was a military hospital and all the patients were active or retired military and usually address by their rank. Judy saw the admittance package on the end of the bed document rack and took out this man's file to deposit at the nurses station and find out his current military status. Judy's eyes went slightly wide as she quickly glanced at the cover, and began to read the first page of information, first looking at Leonard then back at Penny. "Mrs. Hofstadter, I wish to apologize about Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter being put in a ward, but the hospital is under partial renovation and he is not a critical patient, so we cannot give him a private room at this time."
Penny's heart sank, she didn't know what to do, how was she going to be with Leonard in this place, would they let her even stay. Penny was about ask the nurse questions, when another nurse walked up behind her and interrupted them.
"Carlson, Dr Thorne wants to see you and I think you are off shift so I can take over now." Captain Susan Bach told Carlson, in a tone that boarded on dismissive.
Carlson looked at the other woman with distain, Captain Bach was the embodiment of the word 'Bitch', she cared for no one but herself and looked down on everyone. She was a medical school drop out, who thought everyone was beneath her, even most of the doctors, and always seemed to keep herself just a step away from formal discipline for her actions. Carlson was not even going to give her the decency of acknowledgement as she turned to Penny, "Mrs. Hofstadter, I must leave, THIS NURSE, will help you and I will see you tomorrow." Carlson then left never saying a word to Bach.
Bach looked at Penny and dismissed her, then looked at Leonard seeing he was asleep. She then looked at the other four awake men and decided to set them straight first before she bothered with this sleeping man, so she turned and rudely walked away from Penny. To Bach, being a floor nurse was beneath her, so these patients needed to know what was expected of them, so she was not bothered by problems from them, her being an officer made that easier, because she knew this was an enlisted ward. Bach walked up to the first man, "I am Captain Bach, I am in charge this evening. You will address me as Captain Bach and you will do as your told and take all medicines provided. Is that clear." The Air Force Staff Sergeant just nodded.
Penny went back to sit in the chair, taking Leonard's hand again while watching the new nurse go from bed to bed to talk to each patient. Penny had so many questions and she just quietly waited until the nurse worked her way around to her and Leonard, so that she could ask them. Penny was a little surprised and happy that the nurse didn't seem to be spending too much time with each man, she wrongly inferred that things were going fine in the ward and that each of the men was being taken care of well by the staff, so maybe things for her and Leonard would not be so bad.
Penny notice the nurse coming over her way shortly and got up to greet her like she was requested to do with the first nurse. "Hi, I'm Penny."
Bach looked at the blonde annoyed that the woman stood between her and waking the patient up. "Are you related to the patient, because if you are not, you will have to leave."
Penny blinked, at how harsh the words came out of the nurse's mouth. "I am his wife."
"Well, I need to wake him up. You need to stand away until I am through talking to him."
"Can I ask you a question?" Penny really was hoping this situation was temporary.
"Yes, but I need to get my work done, so make them important."
"Umm, is my husband going to be staying here?"
"Yes of course, why would you ask that, where did you expect him to go?" Bach mocked her.
"At the last hospital, he had his own room." Penny was practically pleading.
Bach chuckled, "This is the military, the patient will stay where the hospital puts him."
Bach then walked by Penny to Leonard, who was now awake having heard the whole last exchange. Walking up to Leonard she went to her standard lecture on who is in charge, "I am Captain Bach, I am in charge this evening. You will address me as Captain Bach and you will do as your told and take all medicines provided. Is that clear. Now to give you proper care, tell me why you have been transferred here."
Leonard just stared at Bach, trying to control his anger from how she had pleasure in mocking Penny, he never said a word.
Bach was getting pissed, "Is there something wrong, do you have trouble responding to questions?" Bach then turned to Penny, "Is there some sort of communication problem with him?"
Leonard's low threatening voice brought Bach to immediate alert, "No I have no communication problem, and you will address me as Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter or Sir, nurse." Leonard stared right into Bach's eyes as she turned back to look at him. "I also want to talk to your supervisor,….. nurse,…. immediately." Bach stood there, her eyes wide. "Is there something wrong, do you have trouble responding to orders. That was an order…. nurse!"
Bach slightly jumped at Leonard's last statement and turned, quickly walking out of the ward, to the chuckles of the men in the other beds, a couple of them giving Leonard and Penny a thumbs up. Penny then watched as the anger on Leonard's face turned to sadness as his eyes moved from the retreating Bach to her. "I'm sorry Honey." he whispered to her.
Penny was stunned and in awe of Leonard, and she felt so proud he was her husband. If they were in their own room she would have thrown herself at him, but with all the eyes watching she just walked over and let him take her into a hug, all the time trying not to cry for the love she felt for this man. It felt so good to be in his arms, to know he was going to be okay and they would have a future together, Penny didn't really know how to express it at that moment, so she just said the thing she knew he loved to hear, "I love you, Honey."
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
Carlson walked up to Lieutenant Colonel/Doctor Thorne's door and peaked in. "Sir did you want to see me?"
"Yes, Captain Carlson, do you have a minute, I have something going on that I need your help on." Thorne looked at Carlson motioning her to the seat in front of his desk.
"Yes Sir, what can I do to help?"
Thorne nodded, "Could you first get me the file on the new patient that just came in on the Medevac, he is Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter?"
Carlson handed over the file she had in her hands, trying not to smile as Thorne's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Her you go, Sir."
"Umm, Thank You." Thorne quickly looked through the file to recover from Carlson's surprise and to check on what was in Leonard's file. He knew his file masked what really happened to the man, because earlier he was at a Top Secret video briefing, in the command post, with an Army Brigadier General Turner, who filled them in on the details of this man's injuries, to make sure Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter got proper medical care. Thorne was the only doctor in the hospital with a Top Secret clearance and handled all special project cases, so now Hofstadter was his personal patient. What was even more special about this situation was that a two star Air Force Major General from Strategic Command, who knew General Turner, sat in the briefing and told Turner, at the end, they would take care of Hofstadter, Turner's man. So after the briefing, the Major General told Thorne to brief him later on how they were complying with Turner's wishes, and also he wanted to kept informed on Hofstadter's progress regularly.
Thorne closed the file, he actually knew more about Hofstadter's condition then the file stated, he then silently sighed and looked at Carlson. "Captain Carlson, this patient is to be moved into a private room. There are several newly renovated rooms near the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that are complete, but don't have the special utilities installed, you know the oxygen outlets aren't hooked up yet, etcetera, but these are fine for someone just here for physical therapy. We need to move him there. ICU can help with the patient and his needs."
"That is unusual Sir?" Carlson was confused, they never did that.
"Yes, but it has to be done. Is his wife with him?" Thorne had been briefed on her too.
"Yes Sir."
"Okay, put two beds in the room, she will be staying with him and make sure she is taken care of too."
Carlson just stared at Thorne. "Really Sir?"
"Yes, really, consider Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter as a VIP, and don't be surprised if he has flag officers visiting him."
"Wow." Carlson said in awe.
"Judy, I need you personally to make sure things are done right with him, you will be my backup on the care of our guest. Let me just tell you there are a lot of very high up people concerned about him. Our job is to make sure he is taken care off, and his wife is part of taking care of him. I can't let you know any more, but I hope you understand."
Carlson nodded, everyone in the hospital knew Doctor Thorne was involved in all things classified, that came through the hospital. "Yes Sir."
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
They hadn't see that second nurse again, after Leonard told her to go, however the first nurse showed up again and, to Penny's mental relief, told them they would be moved to a private room, which finally lifted the dread Penny had since getting there. They were then brought to a room that was new and very nice, but the thing that made Penny really feel things were getting better was seeing the two hospital beds placed inside. She even started to smile when the nurse briefed both of them on their stay, making no distinction or inference that Penny was not going to be allowed to stay at Leonard's side the whole time. The nurse even welcoming Penny and telling her the next room and bathroom would be kept empty for her use, if she needed it.
So it was 10 PM that night when Penny finally climbed into her hospital bed that was now attached to Leonard's, that except for the crack in the middle, was like one big bed. Everything had happened so fast the last couple of hours, and even though she was tired from the days activity, she was happy laying so close to her husband, as she finally was able to physically relax. As she laid there she remembered how it had been so surprising watching Leonard's interaction with that horrible nurse, when Leonard told her to go. Penny, in her whole time knowing him, had never seen Leonard so authoritative and angry before. Penny had always got a flush of desire at take charge Leonard, but this was so different, it wasn't an act or a isolated thing, Leonard had changed, he acted like a military officer disciplining a problem subordinate and it seemed so natural the way he did it. Leonard had definitely changed, he was still the sweet man she had married, but he seemed more in command of the world around him now, he wasn't the little timid nerd anymore, she realized he had done and seen things most men would never do or see and he was harder now. As Penny looked at him, she even felt a little ashamed because she knew this change in Leonard was drawing her to him even stronger than ever before, she never thought she could love or admire him more, but she did.