We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 08

"He's right you know," smiled the nurse as she placed a cloth covered tray on Don's bed table. "You wouldn't believe some of the things I hear at oh four hundred."

Don gave Lanh a "Told ya so!" smile and said, "Trust me, I'm a doctor, I know things."

Thinking he was kidding, the nurse said "Ok, Doctor Sergeant Campbell, we're going to draw a little blood and if everything looks good, we're going to do some surgery and get that metal off your arm so you guys can head home on Wednesday."

"Wednesday? Awesome! uh... what day is it today?"

PHOTOGRAPH

A newborn baby is lying on Tam's chest right after delivery, mother and baby's eyes are studying each other, you can see the love between them

Tam started her breathing again, "He He Hoo Hoo, He He Hoo Hoo..." Jake sat alongside, holding her hand, breathing along with her. Nine-year-old Chip and his four-year-old little brother Liam were in a corner of the room with Grandma Mai and Jake's mom Grandma Amy, sitting at their feet playing with trucks. A large screen TV was tuned to children's programming for the boys. The room looked like a big comfortable family room, comfortable furniture, wood paneling, paintings on the wall, toys for the kids. But when Chip and Liam heard Tam's breathing exercises, they jumped up and raced over to the bed where she was laying and began to look for something.

"What are you looking for honey?" Tam asked.

"Arlo," said Liam. "Is he here yet?"

"What if the baby is a girl?" asked Jake.

"Then... we call her... Carla?" said Chip brightly. He was learning word gender in Spanish from Aunt Rosa, so in his mind Arlo went to Arla then to Carla.

That set Tam laughing when he explained that to her, then she suddenly grabbed the sides of her distended stomach, her eyes grew wide and she stopped laughing. "I don't think he liked being called Carla... ooohhhh, this is a big one!"

Jake took Tam's hand and it looked for all the world like they were wrist wrestling, "I'm feeling pushy!" she cried as she pushed against his hand.

"Liam! Feel this!" said Chip as he patted his mother's stomach.

"Wow! Did she swallow a rock?" gasped Liam as he patted his mom's tummy. Her stomach was rock hard caused by her abdominal muscles contracting, pushing their little sister, or brother, down the birth canal.

Tam lay back, soaked in sweat, the contraction over. "I think there's too many children in the room right now," she gasped.

"How long was that?" asked Jake.

"One minute thirty," called his mother, not allowing a new grandchild to interfere with her conversation with Mai, but she was very good at timing contractions. One minute thirty seconds meant Arlo or Carla was almost here.

A nurse came in and sat down on a stool near the end of the bed and reached under the sheet. "Let's see how we're doing here," she said from behind her mask.

"We're having a baby," Liam informed the nurse with all the authority a four-year-old can generate. "She's going to be a girl."

"I know!" said the Nurse. "And she's almost here!" She got up, stripped off her gloves and reached for the wall phone, she spoke into it shortly, then turned to Mai and Amy. "Grandmas, we need you to take these big brothers down the hall for some ice cream."

"Ok you two," said Mai, "Let's go find some ice cream!"

New brother or sister was immediately forgotten as the boys fell in line with their grandmothers. "Does Carla like ice cream?" asked Liam.

"Course not," said his big brother Chip. "Babies don't have no teeth." Big brothers know everything.

As they exited one door, the delivery team entered another door and began to set up the delivery room. What looked like ornate wood paneling was merely cleverly carved cabinet doors that were opened up revealing all forms of medical equipment. More devices sprang from hidden ceiling panels, operating theater lights, oxygen lines. The bed became a birthing chair, the end dropped away, and her feet were placed in stirrups, the back was elevated until she was nearly sitting straight up. Equipment was rolled in, IV stands, equipment trays, an incubator... Tam tried to describe to Jake the activity as the room transformed from a suburban family room with a hospital bed in the corner, to a fully equipped delivery room in minutes flat, but another contraction started as the job neared completion. When she opened her eyes her OB/GYN Doctor Schaeffer was seated between Tams widespread legs.

"Doctor." Tam gave Dr. Schaeffer a weak smile in greeting.

"Doctor," smiled Dr. Schaeffer in return as she reached out to Tam. "Let's see what we have... oh, we won't be here long..."

Chip and Liam would disagree with that estimate. The ice cream at the cafeteria was complete and it was taking forever for the nurse to come out and tell them about the new baby. There was a TV in the waiting room tuned to a police drama, but a very heartbroken looking family was sitting in front of it, watching but not seeing, waiting for news of a loved one that they knew in their hearts would be dreadful. Trying to keep the boys entertained was difficult, toys were at a minimum in the children's area of the waiting room.

When Kim-ly arrived out of breath, Mai and Amy expected her to be their savior and take over entertaining Chip and Liam, but she informed them in no uncertain terms that she was going in the delivery room to help Jake. She's been Jake's audio description service for both Chip and Liam, she's not going to miss welcoming Abbie into the world.

"It's Carla now," informed Amy.

"Carla? Where did that come from?" asked an incredulous Kim-ly. She just spent the past six months getting used to the baby being named Abbie.

"Chip, he just came up with it and your sister liked it." The way Mai said "your sister" implied that Tam's existence was somehow Kim-ly's fault.

"I'll go straighten her out, here watch my purse," and she dropped her purse, coat, hat, and gloves on her mother's lap, kicked off her snow-covered boots and strolled off to the delivery room in her stocking feet.

Kim-ly sashayed into the delivery room, opened one of the cabinets and selected a set of scrubs. This is her third trip to this delivery room; she knows right where everything is. She peeled off her blouse and slacks, as usual she was braless. Tam was resting between contractions and saw Kim-ly standing on the other side of the room topless. "Kim!"

"What!"

"My husband is RIGHT THERE!"

She shrugged then pulled on the scrubs shirt. "He's blind, he can't see me standing here with my breasts exposed, right Jake?"

"You're killing me girl," groaned Jake. The teasing and taunting between Jake and Kim-ly predates Jake and Tam's first date.

"There's other men in the room," snarled Tam.

"And they're all medical professionals, right boys?" she said as she pulled up a wheeled stool and sat down next to Jake. "I'm sure if they saw something out of place, they would have mentioned it. Ok, where are we at?"

"I can tell by the way that the conversation dove into the gutter that Kim-ly has finally arrived," said Doctor Schaeffer. "I hope you can take over for me by helping Dad." Having Kim-ly help Jake understand what was going on was a huge boon to Doctor Schaeffer, she didn't have time to deliver a baby and be an obstetric tour guide at the same time.

"I got it now doc," said Kim-ly as she slipped on gloves. "Ok, the baby is crowning, let's see what that feels like," she took Jake's hand and moved it across Tam's belly. "We start by looking for familiar landmarks and see how they changed... here's her naval, she's got an outie now..."

"Kim-ly, please?" groaned Tam. She knew where this was going.

"Ok," Kim-ly continued, "moving further south we find that your wife shaved! How thoughtful! This is called a Landing Strip..."

"Kiiiiimmm!" came a warning growl from Tam

But Kim-ly couldn't be stopped, she spent her entire life in the shadow of Tam, a force of nature that couldn't be opposed. This is her best and only time to get payback. "Things change drastically from here on down... here's her fun button..."

"KIM!" shrieked Tam.

"Ignore her, it's a medical term. She wouldn't understand, she's a psychiatrist."

"PSYCHOLOGIST!"

"Potato, po-tah-toe, whatever."

Jake tried his hardest not to laugh but the struggle between the sisters was too funny sometimes. Even Doctor Schaeffer was laughing now.

"Ok, feel that? That's your baby's head."

A look of wonder came over Jakes face as he touched his child for the first time. He felt the dividing line between mother and child, how tightly stretched Tam's tissues were around the infant's head. "Is this her hair?"

"Yeah, she's got a bit, not a lot." Kim-ly was stunned that Jake could feel the fine, wispy strands of hair plastered on the baby's head, what an incredible sense of touch! "Keep your fingers here," said Kim-ly as she placed Jakes fingers at the juncture of the baby and Tam. "If someone moves your hand away, just back out, ok? I'm going to hurry your wife along."

"Ok," said Jake. He's never had his fingers here before. He was pushed out of the way the whole time when Chip was born, he was allowed some closer access when Liam was born, but he was still pushed out of the way before they got to this point. Doctor Schaeffer told her crew in no uncertain terms that this would not happen again.

Kim-ly moved to Jake's right and took Tam's hands. "You ready? One more push, that's all."

"I can't... I'm so tired..." panted Tam. Soaked in sweat, her gown was wide open, the only part of her body that was covered was her upper arms, but she was at that point where she didn't care anymore, she just wanted it to stop.

"Come on," said Kim-ly, then she said softly, "This one for Don and Lanh, they need a baby to hold, so let's cheer them up, ok?"

"Ok," gasped Tam as the urge to push started to build.

Kim-ly knew the mechanics of it but she didn't understand what the urge to push was all about. "It's like," said Rosa once, "when you went out and drank some really nasty stuff, you know, jungle juice. So, you got really trashed and your body wants to get rid of it so your abdomen contracts and pushes it out and you puke. You can feel your muscles contract, you can't stop it, it just happens. Labor is kinda like that but in the opposite direction." Putting it in terms of alcohol and vomiting made it easily understandable to Kim-ly, the Nguyen Party Girl.

"This is it!" encouraged Kim-ly, "here she comes!"

The urge to push slammed into Tam like a freight train. She grabbed the bed rails and pushed as hard as possible, the whole time Kim-ly encouraging her, "Push! Push! Push! Pushpushpushpush!" Tam gritted her teeth and bared down, and she felt a move, here she comes!

Jake felt his wife straining, he heard her screaming, then suddenly the baby moved, he felt the ear as it started to emerge. "I'm going to help momma a little," said Doctor Schaffer and suddenly the baby was sliding past the tips of Jake's fingers; neck, shoulder, arm, hip, she's out! The doctor had pulled the baby out, and now Jake could hear its little cries. "Give me your hand," said Doctor Schaffer, and she took Jakes hand and put it on the baby. "Here's the umbilical cord, and here..."

When Jake realized what his fingers encountered, he turned toward where Tam was panting and smiled "It's a boy!"

"Told ya," smiled Tam weakly as the doctor placed Arlo on Tam's chest and let mommy and daddy greet the new life while she attended to cleaning up Tam.

Kim-ly collapsed into her chair and shook the pain out of her hand. Her hand was on the bed rail when Tam started her last push, she clamped down right on Kim-ly's hand and damn near crushed it. Her fingers were still numb, so she flexed her fingers and shook her hand trying to get some feeling back into her fingers. "Damnit," she moaned, her hand wasn't responding when she tried to flex her fingers. "There goes my sex life." But as she sat and reflected on the event, she considered what she said - a baby for Don and Lanh to hold.

PHOTOGRAPH

Don and Wendy Addams sitting in wheelchairs outdoors side by side saluting as people walk past them.

It was twenty-two hundred hours (ten PM) when the phone on the table next to the bed rang. Lanh was on her laptop looking for employment, she could find teaching jobs, and she could find clinical jobs, but she couldn't find full time positions for either one, nor could she find a part time clinical position close to a part time teaching position. She wanted both, at UND she learned that they go together so nicely. She can take what she learned from the clinic and apply it to the teaching position, and vice versa so two part time positions in close proximity would be nice. Don was fast asleep, he had another day of surgery in the morning, but they're still on schedule for the hop across the pond, Wendy is ready, and Lanh was told that Cynthia will make the trip too.

Lanh picked up the phone with the annoying ring and answered "Hello?"

"Ma'am, this is Sergeant Luna with the Ramstein MARS station, are you familiar with MARS?"

Lanh scoffed; she was probably more familiar with MARS than the sergeant volunteer talking to her right now. After a year of operating the MARS station AGA8OS out of Osan, like Don she did it so she could call family back home more often, and like Don she now has a ham license, KO4JPN. "Roger dat," she said.

Not believing her, Sergeant Luna gave her a full briefing on how to use the system. He ended his briefing by saying "This is cool, I've never had a call originate in the states."

"It happens," she said, "I had a few come into the station at Osan."

It sounded to Sergeant Luna that she said she operated a MARS station, but she's a dependent! It didn't make sense to him, but he's never been to Korea, but he heard that's where the Real Air Force lives. Lanh heard him connect the phone to the radio and start the mantra that begins a transmission, "Alfa Foxtrot Charlie Three Golf Delta, this is Alpha Gulf Alpha Two Romeo Sierra, we have your number one on the line, go ahead when ready."

Then she heard a familiar voice that she hadn't heard in a decade say, "Ok, Kimmy, go ahead when you're ready." Then "Hi Lanh, this is Kim-ly... over."

Lanh knew that a MARS call wasn't a conversation, you sent all your headlines and the person you are talking to does the same when it's their turn. "Hi Kim-ly what's up? Don is asleep, we will be flying out of here on Wednesday. Don had the braces removed from his arm on Friday, tomorrow he is getting his left leg reset, he's not looking forward to it, but it should finish up work on that leg... over."

"Tam had her baby this morning," came Kim-ly's excited call, "she was right, it was a boy! Six pounds, eleven ounces... His name is Arlo... over"

"Oh, that's wonderful!" The sisters chatted back and forth about Don and Arlo until their five minutes were up and were even able to get an extra two minutes in, then they said their goodbyes. Just as Lanh was about to hang up, she quickly said, "It was good to hear you again Rudy!"

The stateside side of the connection, AFC3GD, called out, "AGA2RS, is that number one Lanh Campbell? Over."

"Roger, roger Rudy. I'm here at Wiesbaden hospital with Don, we're hoping to catch a flight back to New Mexico in a couple of days... over."

"I want to apologize, I thought she said Kimmy instead of Kim-ly, I would have recognized you if I was hearing her correctly. It was so good to hear you again, I'm sorry for the circumstances, over."

"It's great to hear from you one more time, Rudy," said Lanh with a tear in her eye. "You were there for us at the start of this journey, it's only fitting you should be there as we end our time in the military. MARS even got us started in a great hobby so, seven three from KB0LVZ and KO4JPN, and we'll be clear on your final... over."

"Very good, very good, two hams in the family, that is great. It was good to hear from you again, good luck to you on your future endeavors." There was so much more he wanted to say, but he has their call signs now, he can look up their address and send them a snail-mail about how great it was to hear old customers again. He gave Lanh his civilian call sign which she wrote down. She vowed to write him a nice thank you note right away.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Before his surgery Don insisted on stopping by and seeing Cynthia, they couldn't dissuade him from wanting to do this, but instead they swung by Wendy's room, she too had moved up to the inpatient ward and was just down the hall from him. She was sitting up in a wheelchair, a marked improvement, and she was telling a volunteer how she was going to dance with her husband when she got home. Her long, beautiful hair was now in a box; her head was shaved like Cynthia and Don to treat the skull fractures they suffered, but hers were more severe than Don, Cynthia, and the surviving McDonnell Douglas contractor.

His surgery was not a complex matter this time, his left tibia had to be realigned, it wasn't set properly in the initial emergency and had a low priority, his other injuries took precedence. His spine was so damaged they couldn't give him an epidural, so he went under general anesthesia, but he took a long time to come out of it. In the recovery room Lanh sat composing her note to Rudy, she had looked up his call sign and found that he was Rudolph Flaminio and lives on Long Island New York.

Finally, Don woke up and gasped "Baby?" He started looking around in a panic, he even sat up to look, which caused a lot of pain. Zoomer and Lanh had to ease him back down before he tore open some of Doctor Ortiz' work. "What are you looking for em yêu?"

"It doesn't matter," sighed Don, "it was just a dream."

"Tell me," Lanh said as she leaned close.

"It was dumb, I dreamed I was laying here, half awake, but I had a little baby with me tucked between my arm and my side. That's all, I dreamed about lying in bed with a baby. As I was taking a nap with a baby, your angel came and got him. Then I woke up in my dream and then I woke up here," he said. "Told you it was dumb."

Lanh leaned forward just a little more and gave him a kiss. "It sounds peaceful, maybe she decided it was what you needed. Or maybe you were dreaming about Arlo."

"Yeah, it was peaceful," said Don, "but it wasn't Arlo. It's... it's weird, I knew who it was... maybe it was Arlo I don't know. When your angel came and picked him up, she said, "That's about enough time for you," and she left with him." He didn't want to say it to Lanh, but in his dream, he had such a sense of belonging, that he and the baby were a team.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Sitting up was a novel thing, and Don wanted to be transported in a wheelchair, finally Dr. Ortiz had to convince him to practice sitting in a wheelchair, he couldn't believe how dizzy he was just sitting up; he's been lying flat for weeks and not moving much. "It's because of your blood pressure," said the German nurse who was wheeling him around the hospital. They had just come back from seeing Wendy, he and Wendy wanted to see Cynthia, but the nurse said no, "Your blood pressure too low," and she wheeled him back to his room. Don didn't press the issue because German nurses are very sweet until you cross them.

Don also wanted to travel in uniform, but his uniform was destroyed and his belongings that were in his room at the Khobar Towers were sent home ahead of him. All he had was his wallet containing $40 and his ID card, so he wanted to give Zoomer his credit card and send him over to Uniform Sales and get him a uniform to wear. Again Dr. Ortiz put her foot down, "NO! If there is a problem with your monitors on the flight, they will have to cut the uniform off. Your uniform is a hospital gown and robe, and I will inform the aircrew commander of that."