We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 10

"Why what's wrong?" asked Lanh as she hustled into the house. Tam's tone was grave, so Lanh was expecting Kim-ly and Don in a tug-of-war over the baby.

"Kim-ly is freaking out, she's terrified that they will find out who the dad is," said Tam as she led Lanh into the apartment that Don built for her. Inside there was a small fire in the little fireplace, Don was sitting in his wingback chair holding the baby while Kim-ly sat in the other wingback chair. With a little bit of arranging Lan curled up in Don's lap and she was holding Danh.

"He's so beautiful!" gasped Lanh and she looked to see the similarities between Don and Danh. "He's got your eyes," Lanh said.

"How is that possible?" laughed Don. "My eyes are blue and round, his eyes are brown, and he's got the Asian fold."

"It's not what they look like," said Lanh, "it's how they look." She tickled the baby's stomach to see if she could get a smile out of him, no smile, but he did look amused. "He looks at me and his eyes say, "I got that girl's heart, she's all mine!"

"Ok, I'll grant you that," said Don.

"I tell him the same thing and he says I'm crazy!" said Kim-ly. "But he believes you, what gives?"

Lanh shrugged but Don said, "I like having sex with Lanh and want to keep doing it." As Tam took pictures of Don, Lanh and Danh curled up on Don's chair Don said, "I'm going to assume that all three of you know who Danh's father is, is that a correct assumption?"

All three women nodded. Tam wasn't in on the conspiracy, but since they left their teens behind, the three of them have been closer than they ever had been in their lives. As far as Don was concerned, Kim-ly and Lanh didn't have to tell Tam, the knowledge would have passed via osmosis.

"I'm also going to assume the guys are completely out of the loop, am I right?" asked Don. The Guys he was referring to was their brothers, Bao, Trung, and Huy.

"What are you getting at honey?" Lanh asked.

Don sighed and tried to figure out a way to say it properly, and the only way to say it is head-on. "Sandy and Mai are one, maybe two mistakes heard in conversation from figuring out my identity and your sisters know this."

Lanh looked at Kim-ly and Tam and they both nodded, "How did you figure this out?" asked Lanh.

"I listen and take notes too." He looked at the three Nguyen sisters and for once Tam wasn't taking command of the situation. "It's time to go anyhow, let's go have dinner, just be careful with what you say." This was the first time since Christmas that everybody was in town, it's a rare occurrence to have the entire family together outside of a holiday, so everyone is gathering at Nguyen Pho for dinner in the large banquet room on the side where Thanksgiving and Boxing Day dinner is normally held.

Lanh couldn't believe how big their family had grown, from the original eight her family had swollen to twenty-five people with only Karole and Krissy missing. Don stepped into the banquet room and he found Jake, Tam's blind husband, standing in a corner trying to get someone's attention but with a new baby in the room that was hard. "How are you doing Jake," said Don as he gripped Jake's upper arm. "Need a hand with anything?"

"Don, just the guy I wanted to talk to," said Jake. "Help me through this crowd if you don't mind. Tam is busy and my boys have disappeared."

Jake's oldest boys, Chip and Liam, were normally there to guide Jake through the crowds, Don glanced around the room and saw that Don's boys were running around through the crowd with their cousins. He remembered fondly being that age and playing with his cousins Billy and Geoff at family gatherings. Don didn't mind helping Jake to his seat, and he sat and talked with Jake a bit. As people started to sit down Don said, "Gotta go, but lets get together tomorrow, I'll let you kick my ass at backgammon some more."

Jake grabbed Don's arm tightly and whispered. "Don, you know how I hear things, you need to know that Bao, Trung, and Huy suspect something and are planning to have a few words with you."

"Thanks Jake," said Don as he headed back to Lanh. A quiet spread over the family as they all sat down, Don stood up and said, "Excuse me, before we get started, could I have a moment?" Expecting Don to say grace everyone got quiet quickly, some even folded their hands.

"Don, don't!" whispered Lanh, she knew exactly what Don was going to do.

Don took her hand and held it and whispered, "It's ok," Then he continued, "I know you're all wondering who Danh's father is, that's natural, and I'll let you in on a secret. It's me."

Shock ran through the table, the room became icy silent, the delicious odors coming from the buffet seemed to have stopped also. Mai looked like she was ready to cry, and Duong looked like he was ready to kill. "Nothing physically happened between Kim-ly and I, I gave my contribution to Lanh who took it to Kim-ly's doctor who made the magic and here's Danh. If you don't believe me, you can look at the birth certificate."

Duong looked at Lanh and Kim-ly, "Is this true?"

Kim-ly nodded, "every word." Lanh bit her lower lip and nodded in agreement but remained silent.

"It's not my idea, but it is my fault," said Don. "I got busted up pretty bad, and that scared the bejeezuz out of Lanh, but she pretended to be brave, and she pretended so good that I believed her. But all the time on the inside she was hysterical with fear. And as my health started to slide, and she got scared again and thought if there was a little bit of me left behind for her when I go..."

"Is that true?" asked Duong. He looked terrified.

"Look, I know you want to talk, you need to talk," said Don, "I'll step out and let you discuss this, and I'll abide by anything you come up with," and he left the room.

The room was silent, everyone was looking at each other in confusion then Mai turned to her daughter Lanh and said, "I don't understand honey, what is going on?"

Lanh took a deep breath and steeled herself, her story was emotionally taxing, and she wanted to tell it without her verbal skills falling apart. "Sandy, when you lost Tom, you had Doris, Stephanie, Melissa, and Mary to care for. Ralph, when you lost Emily, you had Don to care for. You had a great responsibility, but you also had a piece of your lost spouse there to love and to love you."

"Yes," said Sandy, "that thought was actually a great help." She and Ralph knew exactly where she was going with this. "Lanh honey, you don't have to..."

"I DO have to; you need to know. Every military wife knows that when your husband's commander and first sergeant come to your house there is trouble. I opened my door at five forty-five in the morning and there was the commander, the first sergeant, and the chaplain, and they looked very upset. And I was not their first stop."

Mai covered her mouth and gasped while Duong lowered his head, they spent six years in the Army, Mai and Duong knew exactly what that means to a military wife. Ralph was a Marine; he knew it too.

"They told me that Don was hurt bad, that they had to fly him from Saudi Arabia to Germany for surgery or he would die and I had no one! There was no one to hold, no one to cry with me. If Don had died, I would have had nothing. Colonel Gilliam assigned an officer to help me, Captain Zoomer, but he wasn't family. And if Don had died in Germany I would have been alone over there, with nowhere to turn." She didn't mention that she fully intended to open her wrists if Don had died, instead she shuddered as she held back the tears.

"That's why we came for you em yêu..." started Tam, but Kim-ly quieted her with a raised hand, she knew where her little sister was going with this. The room was silent as they waited for Lanh to collect herself

"We get home and now Don is getting sick, and the doctors can't stop it..." Lanh paused and fought back the tears. She bent and gently picked up Danh and turned to Sandy. "Tom is here now," Lanh said to Sandy who was standing behind her youngest daughter Mary who loves these gatherings. She looked at Ralph and said, "Emily is here too, and because Kim-ly went through all that pain for me, Don is here. Even though Danh is not mine, I know if something happened, Kim-ly wouldn't mind having a roommate and Danh wouldn't mind an extra má."

Completely exhausted from exposing her heart to her family, Lanh sagged to her chair and gently hugged the tiny piece of her husband's soul that lay swaddled in her arms. Duong spoke for everyone when he sadly said, "We didn't realize..." and her family gathered around her.

Twenty minutes later Ralph found Don in the park sitting on a bench watching the 3-foot-wide Mississippi River flow past. Here local folks call it the Mississippi Creek to confound the tourists. "How did you find me?"

Ralph chuckled as he sat down next to Don. "You'd asked me that every time I found you here in the past, especially after your mom passed." He paused for a minute then said, "I can see you sitting here from Main Street. You didn't have to leave, they're not mad at you."

"Yes, I did, they need to know how scared Lanh was, and still is." Don threw a stick in the stream; it bounced off an ice floe before joining the current and started on a journey 2300 miles south to New Orleans. "I didn't know dad, she put on such a good show of being strong that I believed her, she had everybody else fooled too. They need to spend time with Lanh without me sucking up all the oxygen in the room."

"They've had enough time, let's go eat." He urged Don up off the bench and they walked back to the restaurant in the early evening dark. Ralph was amazed at Don's analysis of Lanh's fear and how he handled having a surprise son and asked, "When did you get so smart?"

Don scoffed and said, "Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from you."

The days are getting longer now, the sun sets around 7:30, the temperatures should start catching up with the sun and soon it will be planting time. They got back to the restaurant and the dinner was underway. Lanh was still holding Danh and the little guy looked like he was in distress. His face was red and scrunched up, he was making little grunting sounds and his younger cousins gathered around to see what was going on. Five-year-old Ahn was deeply concerned, "Is he ok?"

Her twin brother Him-chan was equally concerned, "Is he broken?"

Lanh was trying not to laugh the whole time. Like with Don, this is a fairly new experience for her, neither of them had ever babysat when they were young, they were gone when their nieces and nephews where this tiny, their first experience with a newborn was a two months ago with Krissy and they've been through this part so they know exactly what he's doing. Danh began to make a stuttering grunt and Sophia who has been babysitting called out "I know what he's doing!" without looking up from her rice bowl.

Her older sister Chau nodded and said, "I'm not cleaning up! Someone else can do it."

Finally, he stopped grunting and a look of pure relief spread over his little face. "He's done!" announced Lanh, then she turned and handed Danh to Don. "Here you go daddy!"

Don scooped up Danh and grabbed his baby bag and headed toward an open table in the back. The youngest kids tagged along demanding to know what happened. "Come here, I'll show you."

They all leaned in, watching with great interest as Don unzipped Danh's onesie. Don continued to undress the baby and suddenly a collective "EWWW!" went up from the children who sprinted back to Lanh.

"HE POOPED!" they shrieked in horror as they surrounded Lanh. "Aunty Lanh! He pooped on you!"

Don returned with a freshly cleaned baby boy. "He's ready for you mommy," and he carefully handed Danh back to Lanh then he sat down next to her and put his arm around her. "What happened when I left?"

"Oh, usual stuff. Gunplay, knife fights, and vandalism. Lots of vandalism." Lanh sighed. "He acts hungry, but he won't take the bottle." She inspected the bottle but didn't see a defect or something on it that would cause him to dislike it.

"He's spoiled already," said Kim-ly. "Daddy, my shade please." Don unfolded a receiving blanket and held it up so that it covered Kim-ly as she exposed a breast and lifted Danh to her nipple. After a moment or two he opened his mouth and began nursing. "Learning has occurred," said Kim-ly. "He's a smart baby."

"So, what happened while I was out?" asked Don.

"My little baby explained very eloquently why Danh is here," said Mai as she came up and peeked and watched Danh nursing along with Lanh.

After a few moments Kim-ly said, "Ya know, other girls get tips for putting on a show like this."

"Way to break a mood sis," said Don as he tucked a dollar bill under Kim-ly's bra strap and headed over to the Buffet to fill plates for himself and Lanh.

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

Returning to Colorado was difficult for Don, not just because he had to say goodbye to his son, but because it was so hard to breathe, the change in altitude from 800 feet above sea level to 5,100 feet was telling on him. When they got home, he tried to make love to Lanh and was so horribly out of breath after a minute or two that he had to stop. As he lay on his back gasping for air Lanh watched in horror. Coming to her senses she put the pulse/ox on his finger and found that his blood/oxygen level was below eighty. She texted Dr. Roberts who immediately called her and said, "Take him to the ER, I've got an opening in my schedule tomorrow, be sure the ER runs a full CBC and bring him in to my office at noon, OK?"

Don was miserable, he hated flying with that damn canula in his nose, the plastic tube that supplied him with oxygen, but the ER gave him a metal tank full of oxygen in a carrier slung over his shoulder and he's sitting in the waiting room waiting to see Dr. Roberts. He spent the morning in the testing wing of the hospital breathing into computers, getting chest x-rays, even a CT scan. He and Lanh lost count of how many tubes of blood were drawn from his arm. Finally, he ended up in Dr. Robert's waiting room and as he waited a pair of tiny blond girls no older than two, maybe close to three, came out of the office across from the waiting room and walked up to him and stood staring at him. Regardless of how cute they were, he was unnerved by their steady unmoving gaze. They were obviously identical twins and were very tiny.

"They're preemies," whispered Lanh. "I was that little at their age."

Finally, one twin looked at the other and began muttering something that Don was unable to understand, and the other twin replied in the same babytalk which confused him even more. Lanh was reading a book and holding a sleeping Krissy when she heard the strange language her ears perked up and she put her book down.

One of the twins started looking in Lanh's book bag while the other twin continued to stare at Don. The twin looking in the bookbag looked up at Lanh and said, "Is that your baby?"

"You must be Sandy," said Lanh.

The twin nodded her head and pointed at Krissy and said, "Not your baby."

Don and Lanh looked at each other in surprise, did the twin know that Krissy was not their child because of her hair color? Neither she nor Don is blond, and Krissy is a brilliant bright blond like her mother Karole. Lanh finally decided to be completely honest and said, "our baby is in Minnesota with my sister. We just came back from seeing him."

Sandy looked confused. She pointed at Don and said, "You're daddy," then she pointed at Lanh and said, "You're..." just as she was about to say something, Dr. Roberts opened her office door and said, "Don?" She smiled when she saw Lanh and the baby and said, "Come on in," then seeing her daughters she glared at them. "Girls! Get back in your office."

Sandy threw up her hands and shrugged. "Work, work, work. That's all we ever do. Come on Madeline." The other twin waited for Don to stand, then she held on to a finger on his free hand and led him across the waiting room to her mother's office. Don and Lanh sat in the open chairs in Dr. Roberts' office and Madeline climbed up on Don's lap while Sandy stood on the chair next to Lanh and watched Krissy sleep. "Is this one yours?" Dr. Roberts cooed.

"No, little Danh is in Minnesota with my sister," said Lanh. "This one is our neighbor's daughter Krissy; she was born about nine weeks ago." She saw a bit of confusion on Dr. Roberts' face and said, "Don watches Krissy while her mom works, sometimes it's complicated, but it's working."

"Ok, as long as it's working for you and as long as the girls aren't bothering you. I can send them back to their playroom..." Dr. Roberts frowned; this is coming to a breaking point for her soon. She put on a smile and said, "my sitter bailed out on me yesterday..."

"It's fine," said Don before Lanh could respond. "And if you get stuck again, give me a call, I'm sure we can work something out. I'm getting the hang of daycare."

Dr. Adrianna Roberts, also known as Andi to her friends, thought for a moment. Could she accept an offer of daycare from a patient? She's going to have to check in on that, but for now she's got some bad news. "Yesterday the ER ran a CBC and considering your past injuries they included a d-dimer test, unfortunately the d-dimer test came back positive."

"What does that mean?" asked Lanh.

"Something bad that starts with the letter P," muttered Don sadly. He now had Krissy and both twins on his lap.

"Girls, back to work," said Andi and the girls reluctantly climbed down from Don's lap and walked slowly into the adjacent office. As soon as the twins were in the next office Dr. Robertson sat down and said, "it's pulmonary emboli."

"Told ya," said Don softly. As Lanh looked in shock at Don, Don sighed and said, "Don't sugarcoat it Doc, we're all educated here. Tell us honestly, we can handle it, and our insurance can handle it so give it to us straight."

Andi watched Don as he very gently patted the baby's tummy every time Krissy moved. "I'm going to be straight with you, it's not good, but it's not horrible. Your lungs are filled with blood clots, possibly from a DVT, a deep vein thrombosis in the leg. Did you have a series of chest pains that went away recently?

Don didn't say anything at first, but then said slowly, "Right after I saw my... our son for the first time, it was so beautiful, I thought... I thought I was just feeling... verklempt."

Andi noticeably sagged. "That was possibly a DVT breaking away from the leg and traveling through the heart and into the lungs. Your lungs now have blood clots blocking the flow of oxygen rich blood back to the body. Five years ago, I would have given you two years to live. Now I'd say, "who knows?" Treatments are developing rapidly. I'm going to start you on oxygen, diuretics and anticoagulants..." The rest of what she was saying was completely lost on Don, but he found himself with a stack of papers in his hand labeled "Pulmonary Hypertension."

"Hypertension?" Don said, "I don't have high blood pressure, I'm a carrier, I give it to other people." That's almost true, his blood pressure reading today was 120 over 75.

Dr. Robertson rolled her eyes, "This is high blood pressure inside the heart and inside the lungs, the blood clots are blocking the arteries inside your lungs which is causing back pressure. The condition that you have is CTEPH, Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension."

"What do we do?" said Lanh, her nightmares were coming true again. When doctor Roberts said that five years ago Don would have had two years to live her heart stopped, what does that give him now?

Andi looked at Don and saw a look in his eyes that encouraged her, he clearly saw this as a challenge, but Lanh looked terrified, completely shattered. "There's a treatment available, it's called Adempas, it only works on two things, one of which is CTEPH, and I'll prescribe it. It's very strong, you'll start out on a small dose of.5 milligrams and titrate up every few weeks until you're at the maximum dose of 2.5 milligrams. You will have a nurse advising you."