Honor Thy Mother & Thy Father Ch. 10

She returned to do hers, which was to save Susan's life. She removed the placenta, and looked for the areas that were bleeding along her uterus. There were so many, and choosing an area to start was difficult. She reverted to her training. She started on the left side, and worked her way across to the right; sealing each one as she went across. Susan's blood pressure kept falling, and the Doctor could not find the reason for it. She called for an x-ray and an ultrasound immediately.

The doctor heard the baby cry, and after she looked at the ultrasound, she made her decision. "I'm sorry Susan, but no more children for you."

"She told the staff to prepare for a hysterectomy."

The nurses removed the instruments for the delivery of a baby and brought new trays of instruments to the table.

The anesthesiologist ran into the room and was clothed in a green gown and gloves. "Am I too late?"

"The baby is out, but I have to perform a hysterectomy. Your nurses did a great job, but I am happy that you are here."

"I got behind a police car and another idiot on their way here; that is the only way I made it."

He looked at the instruments and checked everything is nurses had done. He looked at them and said, "I should have stayed in bed. You guys are so well-trained, you don't need me anymore."

"His senior nurse said, "Does that mean you are going to give us that raise?"

"You bet your ass it does. Let's get to work. Sit here and I will monitor you."

The nurse said, "Holy shit, you weren't kidding."

The obstetrician began to work of removing Susan's uterus. She was never happy removing a woman's reproductive system, but this was the only way she had of saving Susan's life.

Callaway was going back and forth, between the OR and Alan keeping him informed of what was going on in there. First news, she came out with was that he had a son.

Alan's reaction was, "How Is my Susan?"

"I don't know Alan; they are still working on her."

Sergeant, charged into the group with Cassandra at his side, and said, "What the heck is going on?"

Alan was in no mood to talk to him, so Patricia gave him a running dialogue.

"Is she going to be alright?"

Patricia said, "We don't know."

Sergeant roared in anguish. He pulled Alan from his chair and said, "You son of a bitch, you had to go and get her pregnant." He reared back, swung his right hand at Allen head, and knocked him out."

Cassandra, and Patricia yelled, "No!"

Sergeant was about to pick Alan up and hit him again, when Stephano tackled him to the ground. "Are you out of your fucking mind?

A nurse came out here, and told him he had a son, and he did not care. The only thing he asked was 'How is my Susan?' He is devastated and you come in here and blame him for it. If she dies, he will be next."

Callaway came out to tell everyone the good news, and saw Alan lying on the floor. "What the fuck is going on here?"

Sergeant replied, "I thought I was going to lose Susan, and I blamed him for getting her pregnant. I hit him, and he has not moved since."

Callaway reached for her hospital cell phone and called a code red at pre-op.

The preop nurses were only feet away and they responded first. The emergency team was there moments later. The resident ordered an MRI to be done immediately. Alan was put onto a gurney and taken away.

Callaway looked Sergeant in the eye and said, "Susan is going to be fine, you idiot. They stopped the bleeding and she will be in postop in an hour. I hope you are happy. What are you going to tell her when she asks for her husband?"

"I don't know, I really don't know."

He turned around and looked at Cassandra, who had the coldest look on her face he had ever seen." I am sorry my love. The thought of losing her was more than I could bear."

Cassandra's face softened, and took her husband into her arms as he began to cry.

Stephano said quietly to Patricia, "In all my life, I have never seen anything like this. Strong men collapsing at the thought of losing, or hurting a woman."

"Really loving someone brings a lot of joy into your life. It also brings a lot of pain and sorrow. I thought you would begin to realize that by now."

"I realized that when I talked with my mother. It is different when you see it happen for yourself. You stay here; I am going to check on Alan."

Stephano followed the signs to Radiology and asked where Alan was. An aide took him to the area, and told him to wait. The radiologist came out and asked him who he was. Stephano was smart enough to say, "I am his brother."

The doctor asked, "What the hell hit him?"

"From where I was Doctor, it looked like a truck."

"It is probably what it felt like to him, also. He has a fractured skull. He is going to be here for a while. His brain is swelling, due to the force of whatever hit him. We are going to watch this very closely, and keep him in a coma, until we can determine if surgery is needed to reduce the pressure inside his skull. He is lucky to be alive."

"Is there anything we can do for him?"

"Yes, pray that nothing else goes wrong."

"Where will he be taken from here, Doctor?"

"We will take him to intensive care, where we will monitor him for his brain functions."

"Thank you for the information doctor; I will tell the family."

When Stephano turned the corner and walked towards everyone waiting for word on Susan, all eyes turned to him. His eyes focused on Sergeant

"You almost killed him, a little higher and he would be dead. You cracked his skull. His brain is swelling and they are hoping nothing else happens. I should call the police have you arrested for attempted murder."

Patricia took his arm and said, "Please Stephano, don't do that. There has been enough pain and suffering here today."

"I am not calling them Patty. There is no sense doing that to Susan. Have we heard anything new?"

"We have not heard anything since Ms. Callaway's last update."

A nurse came out of the surgical doors and said, "Both mother and child are doing fine. The baby is in the premmie area, because of his birth weight, but you can see him through the windows. The husband can see Susan, now."

Stephano said, "The husband had an accident, will her brother do?"

"Yes, the brother can go see her."

Cassandra pushed Sergeant towards the door to give him the message that he was the brother. He still had no idea what he was going to tell Susan. He followed the nurse to the post-op area, and found her talking to her doctor. When she saw him instead of Alan, he said, "You fucking idiot, what did you do now?"

The Doctor said, "Susan, you just had a major operation. You stay calm, or I will sedate you."

"Doctor, you better get your needle ready. That asshole cousin of mine did something to my husband. I can read it on his face."

"Susan, you have to forgive me. When I got to the hospital, everything was going downhill. The reports were all bad, they could not stop the bleeding, and I thought I was going to lose you. I blamed Alan, because he got you pregnant. I picked him up and hit him. I did not mean to hurt him like I did, but I hurt him bad. He is in intensive care because I cracked his skull.

The Doctor did not wait any longer. She jabbed the needle into Susan's IV line with Valium, added Demerol to help her with the pain, and to help her sleep.

Susan was cursing a blue streak Sergeant, but within a few seconds her speech started to slur. She was still looking at Sergeant through hazy eyes when she said, "You... are... so...fuckin...luc..."

The doctor checked her pulse and respiration and Susan was peacefully asleep. She looked at Sergeant and said, "It might be a good idea for you to stay away from her for a while. If there any sharp instruments around her, she may be tempted to use them on you."

"She is very good with guns Doctor. I can't hide from her forever, I love her too much."

"Why don't you go check on her husband?"

"Very funny, Doctor; if Susan is good with guns, he is an expert. He has every reason in the world to kill me, and I would not blame him."

"There is one reason he won't kill you, Sergeant. She is lying right there."

"How long will she be sleeping."

"I gave her enough to have her sleep through the night. You can see her in the morning, if you are brave enough."

"I will be here. Thank you for saving her life Doctor; she means the world to me."

"You're welcome, Sergeant. Don't hurt anyone else tonight please, the hospital appreciates the business, but we don't want to see you put in jail."

"You are the second person who mentioned jail to me tonight Doctor. If it was almost anyone else that is where he would be now."

"Why don't you go check on her husband, and see how he is doing."

"They are going to keep him in a coma until they know how bad the brain swelling is going to be. He would not even know if I was there."

"You would be surprised Sergeant. Sometimes patients recall things you don't expect them to while they are in a coma or in a near death experience. It is written up in all the medical papers, and no one has a definitive answer as to why."

"Thanks again for Susan, Doctor. I will be here in the morning.

"That's funny Sergeant, so will I."

Sergeant walked into the corridor and into a wall of questions.

He raised his hands up to silence everyone and said, "She knew I did something wrong when she saw my face, instead of Alan's. Thankfully, the Doctor was with her, and warned her if she was going to get upset she was going to sedate her. Susan told her to get her needles ready, because that idiot, meaning me, did something to her husband. I began telling the story, while the doctor got the medication. When the doctor got back, I guess she heard the last part of the story and injected Susan with something immediately. Susan started to yell at me, and the Doctor put something into her intravenous line. Susan fell asleep while telling me how lucky I was that she could not get to my throat."

Cassandra took her husband's hand and said, "Listen, we have three live people; they are all sick, but they are all alive and they will get better. It is our job to make sure it happens. No arguing, no fighting, no sad faces in the hospital. Everyone is going to make it through this ordeal just fine. Susan was the centerpiece of the problem but now she is the healthiest of the group. Now, Alan becomes the biggest problem, thanks to my dummy. Next comes baby Robbins, and at two pounds, we have to find out what his chances are, and what has to be done for him."

Patricia said, "I can find that out in a few minutes."

Cassandra asked, "How can you do that?"

Stephano replied, "Never ask her that question when there is a computer around."

Patricia kicked him in the ankle and he said, "Ow!"

"Your father told you never to hit me again."

"I did not hit you, I kicked you."

Cassandra said, "Stop it. That is exactly what I'm talking about. We cannot do that while we are near them. We have to behave as if nothing is wrong. Are we going to have to separate you two?"

Stephano replied, "We will separate from each other, before we become a problem."

The OR nurse came out and told them Susan was being moved up to room 426, in the telemetry area of the hospital. It is on the same floor as the intensive care unit. When she is able to walk, she would be able to see Alan.

It was 8 PM and there was nothing left for them to do at the hospital, so everyone made arrangements to meet back there, tomorrow.

Callaway asked Patricia where she was staying just in case an emergency popped up. She told her she was staying at Susan's home, which reminded her of something Alan said.

"Ms. Callalily, Alan had something he wanted to talk to you about before Sergeant hit him. He said he owed you a favor, and wanted to repay it. I don't know what it was, but it seemed important to him."

"Alan promised to find my father for me. He ran out on my mother, sister and I a lot of years ago, after my mom divorced him. He was supposed to pay alimony and child support, but my mom never saw a penny. Alan said all he needed was my father's Social Security number, and he could find him. I have it with me, but I kept forgetting to give it to him."

"Why don't you give it to me and I will put it on his desk at home."

"Thank you Patricia, I will get it from my locker and give it to you."

Stephano said, "What are you up to now, Patty?

"Why do I have to be up to something? I am just doing nurse Callaway and Alan a favor."

"Yes Patty, and the Mississippi River will start flowing north tomorrow. The temperature in Death Valley on a summer day will be minus 55 degrees, and all cars will be running on water, which will end ninety-nine percent of all carbon pollution in the world."

"I did all that, because I am doing Ms. Callaway a favor. I must be a wonderful person."

"Be careful Ms. Parent, I owe you one kick, and you are getting dangerously close to it."

"My father said you are never to hit a lady."

Stephano looked at Patricia in the eye "Your father is absolutely correct."

It took Patricia a second for the bell to ring in her head, and when it did she said, "You are a ..."

"Here is my father's Social Security number, Patricia. When Alan is well enough I hope he can use it to track down my father. The courts would love to know where he is. He owes my mother a ton of money, and I could use the $18,000 to pay off the remainder of my student loans."

"You must be paying off your loans very quickly. How much did they start out at?"

"Between college and nursing school, my loans totaled $67,000. Thank God this job pays well; otherwise, those loans would be around my neck until I retire. I will not marry anyone, until I get rid of them."

"Are you being a little harsh on yourself?"

"No, I don't think so. Marriage is a contract between two people. You don't want to go into it, and put a stone around someone else's neck that you are responsible for. There is plenty of time, and I am still young."

"You are also a very beautiful. Men, many men must have asked you out on dates and even gone further than that, as time went by."

"I have turned down three proposals of marriage, to three very wonderful men. Each of them said they would pay off my student loan, and I told them no. I told them it was my responsibility, not theirs. I told them, when that loan would be paid off, and if they were still interested, I would be around. We are not exclusive, but two of them still take me out on dates."

"Ms. Callaway, you are something else."

"My mother says the same thing about me, but I don't believe she means it the same way."

Sergeant and Cassandra went up to the ICU to check on Alan. The nurses had just finished settling him into his bed when they approached his cubicle.

A nurse looked at him and said, "Callaway says you are the truck that hit him. If you touch him, while he is under my care, you will never know what hit you."

Cassandra looked at the nurse and said, "He has been thoroughly chastened and will do nothing like that again. He wanted to apologize to Alan personally before we went home."

"In that case, I will get another bed ready. He will probably wake up and try to strangle Sergeant to death, before he goes back into his coma."

Sergeant approached Alan, who looked like he was peacefully sleeping. It was not like the last time he saw him in a bed like this. There were no tubes coming out of his chest. There was only one IV line going into his arm, and the machines on the wall were beeping peacefully. He pulled up a chair, sat by Alan's head and waited for the words to form and his head. Finally, he said, "Alan, Susan is fine. Your son is going to be fine. You have got to come back for their sake. I know I said this once before when you were seriously hurt but they need you. This time your injuries are my fault. Just think of how screwed up their lives will be if I have to help them through this next 20 years. Your little one will grow up to be like me; and all-star idiot. He will be afraid of girls until he is in his 40s, and tied to his Susan's apron strings, just as I am. What kind of life is that for young boy? Then there is Susan to think about. She told me she has never so happy and it is because of you. How am I supposed to replace that happiness in her heart? I cannot do it. I just got married and found someone of my own. Susan will want me to keep Cassandra happy. She will not allow me to make time to keep her happy too. You have to come back, one more time. You can beat the shit out of me, and believe me I have earned it. Even if you are comfortable, in the arms of an angel, come back here, and take care of our Susan and your son. You still have more work to do."

Patricia and Stephano got into the Dodge, and drove back to Susan's home. He said good night, and started walking towards his car. She asked where he was going, and he replied that he was going back to his hotel.

"I guess you said everything you wanted to say to me?"

"Actually, I think tonight said everything I wanted to say to you, and I learned everything I needed to learn. Now I have to put it into practice. They did not put this into books, because I have read all the books, and it is not there. Businesses are not run this way. I grew up watching strong men push aside women. I went to college and learned how strong men, push weaker men, and women aside to climb the ladder of success. I went to graduate school and learned how to do that with more finesse. You fucked people and they thanked you for it. It does not work that way here. It did not work that way at your school. People genuinely cared about each other. If somebody got ahead, they cheered their success. If someone got hurt, they ran to lift them up. It may not work that way in the monster corporations, but countries are made up of billions of little companies, and those companies can work this way, and profit from it. I have a lot of work to do on myself, and when I am finished, maybe I can help some of those companies."

Patricia smiled at him and said, "Would you like some coffee?"

"I hate the way you make coffee."

"I did not say I was going to make the coffee. I asked you if you would like some coffee."

"Okay, I will make us coffee."

"I don't drink coffee, I drink tea."

"This could take all night."

"Do you have any place to go?"

"No, I don't, not really."

"So, what is your rush?"

"Are you going to put gloves on my hands?"

"Are you rushing things a little bit?"

"I certainly hope not."

"You know the rules."

"I have always obeyed the rules."

"You cannot make my tea out here."

"I have forgotten all about tea and coffee. I am looking at dessert, and I am extremely hungry."

"So am I, but we have a long way to go, and I am not promising you anything but tonight."

"I cannot accept that, Patricia. Tonight is not enough for me. I want you forever, and when I can have you forever, you let me know, and I will make you tea, every morning, noon, and night. Good night, I will see you tomorrow at the hospital."

"Good night, Stephano, I do love you."

"I love you too, Patricia. It hurts me more than you will ever know to walk back to my car. There was a time I would have taken you up on your offer, but not anymore."

"Would it be safe to ask you for a kiss good night?"

"No, but I am going to kiss you, anyhow."

She did not make him walk all the way to her, she met him exactly halfway. She took his hands and kissed both of his palms. She looked into his eyes and said, "This is the way it has to be: Equals."

He replied, "Is it all right if I start kissing you first?"

"In matters of the heart, you can start first, anytime you want to, but I have to have that same right."

The kiss seemed to go on forever; but his hands behaved, and he stopped before anything got out of control.