October 22, 1997
Carly Ashton took a deep breath as she and Ned made their way through the locked door into the Labor and Delivery Unit at Port Charles General Hospital for another non-stress test. The first one on Monday morning had been fine so Dr. Meadows had said they would do another one in forty-eight hours and then consider spacing them out more.
"Good Morning, Mrs. Ashton, why don't you come right in here and we'll get you set up and then your husband can join us," Cynthia Martin the L&D Unit Manager said.
"I like that dress, why don't I give you a moment to change and then I'll have Carla come in and hook everything up?" Cynthia asked as they entered the room and she handed Carly a gown.
"Thank you," Carly said. The dress had been in the collection of maternity clothes Beth had gifted her on Monday afternoon. They had watched Kensi play in what would soon be the baby's playroom for a while and it had almost felt normal like they were friends. But she had been so exhausted. Beth had sensed that, assured her it was fine, insisted that the third trimester had been exhausting for her as well.
After Beth had left, she had fallen asleep on the couch and still been asleep when Ned returned home after seven. Ned had at least pretended to be more concerned than annoyed. He had insisted on fixing her dinner and then she had gone up to bed to sleep for more than twelve hours. Despite that she had felt tired and weak most of the day on Tuesday.
"So, you were just here on Monday, but any changes since then?" Carla Grecco asked when she came in and started attaching the fetal monitor pads.
Carly hesitated. "Not really," she said.
"I'm sensing there is a but there," Carla said.
"I don't know, I guess I'm just exhausted. But that is supposed to be normal right?" Carly asked.
"You don't seem like a melodramatic person and you're using the word exhausted so maybe not. I'll mention that to Dr. Meadows she may want us to get some labwork or maybe just watch you overnight again," Carla said.
There was some irony in the nurse's words. Carly could think of a short list of people who would consider her melodramatic. She smiled at that and then at the sound of her son's heartbeat. "He is doing ok in there, right?" she asked nervously.
"The heart rate is in the one thirties which is basically where you want it to be in the third trimester. Dr. Meadows wanted us to monitor you for at least an hour so just relax," Carla said.
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On 4 North, Katherine Bell was anything but excited about her impending hospital discharge. She had kind of gotten used to being waited on and Nikolas fawning over her with attention and concern. Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. Her chest tubes had been removed and Dr. Monica Quartermaine had worked up her shortness of breath and assured her that her heart was fine.
When the door to her room opened, Katherine fought back the hope that Stefan had finally come to her and steeled herself for Dr. Ross and her discharge paperwork. Yet it wasn't Dr. Ross either, it was Nikolas who had returned.
"Are you still waiting for your official discharge order?" Nikolas asked.
"Yes, I'm glad you are here. I still feel a bit uneasy about all of this," Katherine said.
"Of course, I am here! Did you really think I was going to let you take a cab home from the hospital? I have arranged to have an adjoining suite at the Port Charles Hotel so I will be there if you need someone. I promised I would be there for you Katherine and I will," Nikolas said.
Katherine offered Nikolas a wan smile as she collapsed back onto her pillows and took a few quick breaths as if she was unable to remain upright any longer and needed rest. "I appreciate that, much more than I can explain," she said. She knew that damsel in distress was a role Nikolas would respond well to. So, it was a role Katherine would play.
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Dr. Alan Quartermaine swiped his badge to enter Labor & Delivery. Dr. Newman had admitted a patient for induction who was carrying a baby with gastroschisis and he wanted to be sure she didn't have any questions. He also figured it was a good opportunity to at least offer a little support from afar to his nephew.
"Alan, what are you doing here?" Ned greeted him with some surprise.
"I came over to do a pediatric surgery consult. How are Carly and the baby?" Alan explained.
"They are still getting everything hooked up for her Non-Stress Test, but the baby seems to be hanging in there. Unfortunately, as much as she tries to minimize it, Carly herself seems to be struggling."
"In what ways?" Alan asked. Monica had told him about the scene she had walked into when she had come over to do Carly's echocardiogram. His subsequent meeting with Tony to discuss the issue had been anything but productive.
"She seems so exhausted. Dr. Meadows had mentioned considering IV iron but I guess that has a lot of risks so she was hoping we could avoid it."
"Slow infusions of the lower molecular weight iron dextran preparations are a lot safer than the iron dextran of my residency days. There is always the anaphylaxis risk but that is rare with the low molecular weight version," Alan said.
"That is helpful to know, thank you, Alan," Ned said as Carla Greco came out of Carly's room and approached them.
"Your wife is all connected. I know Dr. Meadows wants to monitor for at least an hour and I am going to call her because I think she also wanted to examine her. You can go in now," Carla Greco said.
"Thank you, and, Alan, thank you for checking on us," Ned said.
"You and Carly are family. Seriously if there is anything Monica and, or, I can do we want you to ask because we really want to help you both," Alan said. After Ned started into Carly's room, and he continued down the hallway to meet with Eleanor Cassidy Murty he realized that he genuinely meant that. He had always wanted to help Ned and to an extent that alone made him want to help Carly. But more recently he was truly starting to feel for Carly.
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Dr. Chris Ramsey slid the chart he had been writing in back into the chart rack on 4 East. When he turned around, he nearly collided with his fellow intern, Dr. Julie Devlin.
"Can I change over? That way I can leave right after noon conference is over." Julie asked.
"Do we even have noon conference? I thought this was another one of the ones that Dr. Collins had signed up for and no one noticed until it was too late," Chris said. Their lecture the prior Friday had been cancelled for the same reason. Apparently, Dr. Kevin Collins had departed on such an emergent family emergency in September that he had just departed without word, arranging for patient and call coverage, or rescheduling his lectures. Chris understood the latter was definitely the least important, but he was indignant about it because he thought Dr. Collins was a tool.
He had first met the Psychiatrist with his own significant psychiatric history when their entire intern class had been required to meet with one PCGH's staff psychiatrists for incident debriefing and support after they had all been locked in a conference room with an armed and deranged Greg Cooper and had, in essence, run their first code on their former Director of Medical Education Dr. Cameron Faulk. Their efforts had been in vain. Although losing patients was part of the practice of medicine most programs didn't ask their residents to come to grips with that with a live patient during orientation.
Chris had been assigned to Dr. Collins, along with Eve Lambert and Julie Devlin. While Chris understood that the counseling was a formality; he just questioned the benefit of it coming from a guy who had less than a year earlier stalked a mother of two and framed her lover for his crimes. Ultimately, Dr. Collins had been exposed as the stalker when he had been about to kill his victim. His girlfriend, Lucy Coe, had talked him down, he had gone off to Shady Brook; Lucy had pledged to stand by him as he healed. His victim Felicia Jones had forgiven him but been unable to trust her former lover Dr. Tom Hardy, coincidentally also a psychiatrist, so Dr. Hardy had eventually given up and gone off to do a child psychiatry fellowship in Boston. Less than a year later Dr. Collins had been back on staff at PCGH even though with minimal digging Chris had learned that several of his former patients were still suing the hospital.
Chris had raised all of those concerns with Psychiatry Department Chair, Dr. Gail Baldwin. She had explained that since Dr. Collins had a physician preceptorship in place with Dr. Rachel Locke, it would have been a violation of the PCGH bylaws to deny him privileges after the state had given him back his medical license. She did offer that if Chris was more comfortable speaking with one of the other psychiatrists, she would reassign him. In the end, curiosity got the better of him and he agreed to the required sessions with Kevin.
Dr. Kevin Collins was a hypocrite at his core but that was almost entertaining. So, Chris had faked his way through some breathing exercises and gone on to start his internship. He really hadn't given much thought to the sessions with Kevin until after he had heard about his recent issues with patient abandonment.
"There is Pediatrics noon conference in the 4th Floor Conference Room. There is even a catered lunch from Mario's," Julie said.
Chris decided he couldn't complain about free lunch. "Ok, talk fast so we can get to conference before Dr. Banning steals all the calzones!" he said.
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Nikolas Cassadine smoothed the coverlet out over Katherine and then gently lowered himself down onto the edge of her bed. He laid his hand over hers and offered a few soothing pats. It was almost unfathomable all that she had been through. "Is there anything else you require? Perhaps I could order us some lunch from room service," he offered.
"Nothing for me, I'm still feeling a bit nauseated, but you should eat."
Nikolas felt it was inappropriate to eat in front of someone who was feeling nauseous. "I had a substantial meal with my morning tea so I will be fine. Why don't you see if you can get some rest?" he suggested.
"I wish I could. Every time I try to close my eyes, I see the face of the man who attacked me," Katherine wailed.
Once again, her pain tore at Nikolas's heart. He took her into his arms and just held her while she sobbed. He could not understand how the Port Charles Police Department could be so inept.
"Have the police come up with any more leads" Nikolas asked after Katherine had regained her composure.
"No, and I'm afraid they just are not taking this case seriously. That is why I so appreciate you staying with me. I don't think I could possibly feel safe again until that ape is behind bars."
Nikolas could understand that. He also found it unlikely that would ever happen if Katherine relied on local law enforcement. He could see it was time that one of the Cassadine Enterprises investigators got involved in the case.
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"So where would you like to go for a late lunch?" Ned Ashton asked his wife as he pulled out of the Parking Garage at Port Charles Hospital.
Carly shrugged her shoulders. "I understand if you have to get back to the office. I'm sorry I didn't expect the non-stress test was going to take that long," she said.
"You don't need to apologize for not feeling well. Anyway, I cleared most of the day. I need to make a few phone calls later, but they are on the west coast, so I have some time. So, truly, we can go wherever you want, or we can go home, and I can fix you something," Ned offered.
Carly debated internally. She was afraid to admit to her husband that all she really wanted to do was lie down. Or maybe she was just afraid to admit that aloud. "Actually, one of your omelets would be great!" she said with forced enthusiasm.
"Ok, we can do that," Ned said. He smiled at her for a second before he turned his eyes back to full attention on the road.
Carly carefully averted her eyes out the opposite window and tried to ignore the growing nausea. She had no idea how she was going to survive another ten weeks of pregnancy. Unfortunately, she had even less idea how she was actually going to manage to be a mom.