We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 10

"I take it you two don't have any?" asked Doctor O'Conner. Before Lanh could say anything, the doctor said, "I could see it in your eyes. Have you tried to adopt a child?"

"Yes, but he was injured overseas, and we missed our appointment..." Lanh's voice trailed off, she couldn't' believe how much it still hurt.

"Have you looked into foster care?" They hadn't, they hadn't even considered it. "There's hundreds of kids that need a loving foster parent," said Dr. O'Conner. They could do that! Lanh looked around for Don, but he was gone.

It was cold outside in the parking lot, after the sun set behind the mountains the temperature started to slide downward past zero, but luckily there was no wind. Don sat on a bench near the main entrance and berated himself, he should be feeling joy for Karole, her daughter was born healthy and strong! But all he could think of was the love on Karole and Krissy's faces when their eyes met and how the beauty and the joy of that moment had been denied to Lanh. He was losing the fight to hold back the tears and he didn't notice Lanh sit down next to him. "You look like you lost your best friend mister."

"No, I've done nothing but hurt my best friend," said Don sadly.

Lanh leaned against him; she was sure he was feeling the same thing she was. "I've done a lot of that too," she said softly. "The doctor figured out we can't have kids," Lanh sighed.

"I guess it's pretty obvious," said Don. They sat and watched the moisture in the air freeze into tiny ice crystals that hung suspended in the air. The crystals twinkled and flashed slowly as they rotated under the exterior hospital lights. "Let's go home," Don said. "I'm out of happy."

"You take Karole's truck home and I'll catch up with you," said Lanh. "I'll go up and say goodnight."

Later they soaked in the hot tub, neither had an appetite to eat, maybe soaking naked in the tub would help, and it did somewhat. Finally, Lanh said, "Doctor O'Conner thinks we might be able to foster."

"Couldn't be hard to figure out," said Don, "we just ask Rosa what her folks did, and we just do the opposite."

Lanh splashed water in Don's face, "that's mean!"

"It's true though," said Don, then he thought about the idea. "We'll be great, when we go back to Minnesota we can start over." He made a mental note to himself to call his sister-in-law Ahnjong and ask her to get the ball rolling. She's a legal wizard, she's tops in Family Law and when it came to legal roadblocks, Annie was a steamroller. With Annie's help their legal nightmare should be complete by the time Lanh's contract expires and they move back to the farm. Maybe they'll be allowed to adopt again!

Lanh grinned; they could do it! She saw that spark in Don's eyes, she hasn't see that spark in years.

The next morning, they went to visit Karole, they found her exhausted, she was trying to get Krissy to feed but the little booger wasn't quite in the mood for it. When Don came up from the gift shop with flowers, he found that Lanh was holding Krissy, and Karole was on the bed and was drifting in and out of sleep, there was a spray of flowers from her coworkers at Mountain Sports Medicine sat on the side table and Don put their flowers there with them. Through the partially open door came the call, "Knock knock... can we come in?"

Karole and Lanh looked up and expecting another nurse, Karole said, "Come on in," and in walked Don's stepmother Sandy and Lanh's mother Mai, "Grandma's here!" called Sandy.

"Grandma?" asked Karole blearily, then she looked up and saw Sandy and Mai at the door, their arms full of flowers, balloons, dolls, and packages wrapped in "It's a Girl!" giftwrap.

"Oh you!" called an exhausted Karole, "You shouldn'a done it. Y'all come all th' way up here..." Karole could barely keep her eyes open, but she was overwhelmed at the show of love. "Y'all didn' have ta do it..."

"Yes we did," said Sandy. "It's what family does."

"Now you go right back to sleep, you probably need it more than anything else," said Mai. "Do you mind if we hold the baby?"

"Nah... ah reckon y'all r'member how..." and Karole drifted off to sleep, happy and feeling loved.

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Don and Lanh set up a bedroom for Karol and Krissy and the two spent two weeks living with Don and Lanh until Karole felt guilty that she was living off the unearned largess of her neighbors, "Ah really need to get back to my own house, and get my own life started again. Ah love y'all but you probably want to start getting some sleep at night."

"We don't mind, really," said Lanh, "but if you need help..."

"No... you guys have done so much already! Ah need to get back into my own life, besides, y'all's doing daycare, that's more than enough!"

"Ok," said Lanh reluctantly. She gave Karole a hug and said, "If you need help and you don't call, we'll be angry."

"Ah know, ah know, and Don?"

"Yes?" asked Don as he started heading back to the living room.

"Can I have my baby back?"

"I suppose..."

Time passed and life changed and soon it was time to go help with Kim-ly. It will be wonderful to be able to spend a month in Minnesota with family and preparing for the baby's arrival but before he left Colorado there was something Lanh had to say that she couldn't hold back.

The day before she was planning to drive him out to Denver airport her language skills started to break down until speaking English around Don was nearly impossible. He finally sat down and pulled her into his lap. Physically it was a bad day, he was having problems breathing, it had to be that purple K he inhaled when he was trapped in Saudi Arabia, along with other physical damage that was causing it. He was seeing Doctor Andi Roberts in Denver about it, and she was touted to him as a genius. Additionally, his back and legs were killing him. How is he going to work on the farm with this much pain?

"What is going on?" he finally asked Lanh.

"No yell," she said.

"I won't yell at you," said Don.

"Xin đừng đánh tôi."

"What?" Don was shocked. "I will not hit you. I would never hit you!" Now he was concerned, she clearly had something to say that upset her. He's never hit her, not even accidentally, except for the occasional erotic spanking. "What's wrong?"

"I lie," she said sadly.

"Whatever it was it can't be that bad," said Don "we all lie, people do it and we learn to deal with it."

"Lie of omission is still lie," she said softly.

Don was concerned, when she was under emotional stress her language skills fall apart, and no matter how cute she sounded, Don has learned that when she's sad it's never a good sign. "You can tell me, I won't hate you."

Lanh began weeping softly, "It ok to hate me, please don't hate baby Danh."

"I don't hate you and Little Danh is a baby, he's not even born yet, how could I hate him?" What was bothering Lanh? This was starting to confuse Don. It was time to end this. He put a finger on Lanh's chin and turned her face to face him. "Please darling, tell me. Just come out with it, I won't yell, I won't hate you."

"Danh... father... you."

It took Don a moment to understand what she was saying, then it hit, Danh's father is you... "Lanh baby, there's no way, I never touched Kim-ly, I'd never do that to you, I love you and you only, I never..."

Lanh stopped him with a finger to the lips. "No, that's not how..."

"Then how? Was it at the sex shop?" Don was suspicious of that whole Glory Hole idea.

"No," said Lanh, she was terrified. "It was artificial, I gave her the condoms from the theater and the changing room at Target."

Condoms from the theater? What was she saying... Then Don remembered, Lanh's new found thrill of having sex in public places, a couple of times she caught his sperm in a condom last summer. Don froze, he didn't know what to think of that, the realization that Kim-ly was carrying his son hit like a well swung baseball bat. "I... just..." he was completely lost for words. "Why?" he finally asked.

"Kim-ly... wants baby, not husband... It something we thought about long time..." the tears were really starting to flow Lanh got up and grabbed a tissue and turned her back on Don. "Just got courage now."

Don didn't say anything for a long time. Lanh finally broke the silence by saying, "You hate baby now."

"No, I don't, I love him more now, but don't you see? Five minutes ago, he was my nephew, and I could come back here and if Kim-ly finds a nice man they can go live wherever they want, and I'd be happy for them. But now he's my son, and how can I come back here and not worry about him? How can I not miss him every day?" Images of the horrors of custody battles rifled through his head, lawyers getting rich off of their agony...

"Like I missed you every day when you were in Spain, and Turkey, and Guam, and Korea!" cried Lanh. "I so scared! Every time, every minute... Germany and Korea were worst! What would happen if you were killed on a deployment... I'm abandoned overseas... so worried every moment... if we had baby, I could have some of you to hold... not matter if Kim-ly was mother... THEN YOU GO TO SAUDI AND IT HAPPEN!"

Lanh broke down into gales of weeping, the horror and sorrow of what she endured while he lay bent and broken in the hospital finally came to the surface. So much terror she felt when he was near death, but she stayed strong for him, she kept her horror hidden... Don rose to try to comfort her, but she would have nothing to do with him, she twisted away every time he tried to put his arms around her. "You don't know how scared!" she cried out and fought even harder. Don finally got his arms around her from behind and held her tiny wrists as she tried to fight him off. Weeping and mourning in Vietnamese she shook in sorrow as she struggled to get free.

Eventually she did get free, and when she did, she whirled around and slapped Don as hard as she could. All the fear, all the anger, all the sadness that she hid from him for years was wound up in that one tiny slap, and then her legs gave out and she sagged to the floor. "I deserve that," he said softly, then Don scooped her up. In the past she was light as a feather to him, but now lifting her up is a huge struggle. Not because she gained weight, but because Don has lost so much strength and the pain from his injuries flares up with exertion. He carried her to the couch where they sat in the dark and wished they were home, but neither one dared to say it. Don broke the silence when he said, "Remember last week when I woke up in the night and I said it was a leg cramp?"

"You were scared," said Lanh softly. "I know when you are scared and when you hurt."

"I supposed you do by now," he said sadly. Memories of the incident that took so much from them still haunt Don's dreams. "Lately it's been different. I dreamed that your angels came to me. I was babysitting Krissy when Karole came to pick her up and the angels came to comfort us. I said why are you doing that? Then your mom called and said that you had been run over. I was so lost, so alone, and when I tried to go join you, Karole stopped me. I ran away, I went up to Guanella Pass to jump off a cliff and your angels said, "You promised to watch over Krissy," and they wouldn't let me jump. I tried over and over, and your angels held me back."

Lanh softly nodded her head; she knew the feeling. She wanted to end the taunting and humiliation she was being subjected to in high school, and it was another outcast's caring for her that prevented her from ending it.

"Now there's two babies to hold me back if you go," said Don. The thought of sitting alone, staring at an empty chair, knowing that he couldn't do anything about it because of two babies that aren't in his life horrified him. It reminded him of the empty feeling he carried for years after his mother died.

"Let's go home," she finally whispered.

"But you love your job," Don replied.

"Love you more," Lanh whispered.

"No, I love YOU more."

"No, I love YOU more," Lanh insisted. They went back and forth with their silly argument until Don pulled a quilt over them and they went to sleep in each other's arms.

The next morning Lanh was in the kitchen making coffee when Karole came over with the baby to see Lanh and say good luck to Don before he left. This would be the first time he had ever flown on oxygen, and he was getting apprehensive about the process. As she came in, she saw Don sleeping on the couch and just had to say to Lanh, "Ah heard you two shoutin' las' night, you ok?"

"We worked it out," said Lanh as she poured Karole a cup.

"Can ah ask what it was all about?" asked Karole fulling expecting to hear Lanh give her a non-committal one-word answer.

Lanh sighed; Karole is going to find out eventually, chances are good that Kim-ly already told her. "I told Don that Kim-ly is carrying his baby."

"WHAT?" The statuesque blond wanted to shout but Krissy was asleep. "How could he NOT know? That kind of thing is a bit obvious."

"We didn't tell him," said Lanh as she took Krissy from Karole's arms. "We should have but we were afraid he would say no."

"Daaaamn! So, you knew before he did?" Karole was convinced that Lanh was pulling her leg. The girl had a great sense of humor, but this is way too soon for an April Fool's joke.

"It was my idea."

"Wait, y'all are just too weird, what are you talking about? How is it your idea?"

Lanh told Karole how she and Kim-ly came up with the idea and how Kim-ly became pregnant using Don's sperm that she gave to her doctor. That explained why Kim-ly was so cagy about the father's name. "Kim-ly told me yesterday she was too scared to tell him, so I told him."

"And that started the argument," said Karole. "Did he hit you?"

"No, I hit him."

"And he ended up sleeping on the couch," Karole shook her head.

"No, I did. He stayed to keep me company."

Karole started chuckling into her coffee cup. "That's why Krissy loves to come over here so much," she said as she pointed at her month-old daughter in Lanh's arms, "Y'all are jest so entertaining."

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Don wasn't sure how to fly with oxygen, but he's heard horror stories from other patients of Dr. Roberts of how difficult it was to arrange, getting the doctors signature on the correct form, insuring you have enough battery life for your oxygen machine, and worst of all is the TSA. Dr. Andi Roberts prescribed oxygen to Don at night and when he's over 7,500 feet in altitude. Airplanes are pressurized to 8,500 feet so Don and Lanh found a portable oxygen concentrator with several batteries for trips via air and up into the mountains.

Don walked into the check-in area of Denver International Airport feeling awful, this will be the first time he's been separated from Lanh since he was shipped off to Saudi Arabia. She practically had to chase him into the terminal, he kept insisting on one more kiss until she had to call "Enough! Go! Go meet your baby."

That wasn't fair. He paused after entering the terminal and pulled out his phone and sent a text to Lanh, "I miss you" with a heart emoji, then he headed over to the check-in kiosk for his airline. He typed in his confirmation number and the screen lit up with the message "Go to counter" He looked over at the counter and the line for the common rabble was a mile long, but there was one person being served at the priority counter.

Shaking his head Don moved toward the long slow line when the woman at the priority counter waved him over. "Mr. Campbell?" she asked cheerily as he stepped up to the counter.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Your oxygen machine, we want to make sure you have a comfortable flight. How many hours of battery do you have?" asked the pretty young woman at the priority counter. She clearly had been keeping an eye out for him. Part of the process of flying with oxygen is to notify the airline in advance that you will be bringing an airline rated oxygen concentrator on board. She hadn't asked how many batteries he had, she asked how long he could run his oxygen concentrator on batteries. The airline requirement is 50% more battery time than the flight's scheduled length.

"I have nine hours," he replied as the person at the counter tagged his baggage. He has 3 batteries and gets three hours per battery.

"Perfect," she smiled as she weighed and inspected his oxygen concentrator. "It's a 2-hour flight so we require 3 hours of battery life." Then with a little more chit-chat Don had his boarding pass, and he was on his way. His only hurdle was the TSA. Don didn't have any dots or check marks or other cryptic marks on his boarding pass that the savvy traveler knows will allow him into the TSA express line, so when he got to the TSA check point he knew this was not going to be fun. He was wearing the canula over his ears and in his nose as he stepped up to the TSA agent.

"Go ahead and take the machine off and step into the scanner."

"No." Don loved to say "No" to people in positions of authority who fail to say "Please."

The Single Stripe TSA agent looked at him with all of the disdain that a world weary twenty-one-year-old could manage. "You can take that off for a minute, now please sir, step into the scanner."

Don gazed at the agent; this was going to be fun. "Is that a medical opinion or are you questioning my doctor's ability to properly treat my condition?"

"Look, just take the machine off and step in the scanner."

Don was in a pissy mood and just felt the need to push back. "No, that's not how this is going to play out deputy. Either do your job and pat me down or call your supervisor over here and we'll explain to him how you're incapable of doing your job."

"It's going to take a while for him to get over here..."

"I can wait," smiled Don, "My flight doesn't leave for hours."

"Sir, you'll have to step to the side to let people come through."

Don glared at this guy, his name tag said "Brooks" but to Don he was a punk who thought he had authority when in reality he had none. He was a punk with a job to do and he thought that gave him power over the people paying his salary. "Say please," said Don.

"You're holding up the line!" snarled Agent Brooks.

"I am the one doing my job, I'm waiting for you to pat me down properly, you're the one holding up the line."

"Hell yeah!" agreed a fellow traveler in line behind Don.

Seeing that the line was being held up, the TSA supervisor arrived quickly and asked, "What appears to be happening here?"

Before Brooks could answer, Don chimed in, "Agent Brooks was letting me know that he wouldn't lower himself to do a manual search on a disabled veteran on oxygen and would rather I risk my life and take the oxygen off to make his life easier..." Don was having memories of a certain Airman First Class on a C-17 refusing to get a seat set up for Lanh.

"I did no such thing!" interrupted Agent Brooks.

"That is the impression I got from you. You were eager to make a disabled passenger feel that his health was secondary and that to get to my gate on time I may need to endanger my life," snarled Don.

Before Brooks could say anything, the supervisor gestured to a large stack of plastic tubs. "Take care of those," and Brooks sulkily went to distribute the tubs. Apologizing profusely to Don, the TSA supervisor did a pat down of Don, and soon Don was on his way down to the basement and on to the rubber tire train that took him to the appropriate terminal.

Don arrived at the gate just as they were starting to ask the passengers to line up to board the 737. "Mister Campbell!" smiled the gate attendant as Don approached pulling his oxygen concentrator along behind him. "Please follow me," and she led him down the jetway on to the jet. On the plane he moved as far back as he could get and sat on the aisle seat while he set up his oxygen system, then he buckled in for the flight to Minneapolis. By the time the flight attendants were handing out refreshments, Don was sound asleep.