“Sweetheart, don’t you think we should cut the umbilical cord now?”
Deanna hadn’t been paying any attention. Her sole attention was on Gracie who was lying on her mother’s chest making happy noises.
“Hmm? Oh yes of course.”
Carefully separating the two, I handed the scissors back to Bridget and watched Gracie sleep atop Deanna’s chest.
“Maybe she does have my hair after all. This is so much different from when Laura was born.”
Deanna gave me a tired smile. She wasn’t in any immediate pain, so she was feeling good.
“Well Will, from her point of view, her birth was just as trying as her sister’s, but the main difference is that she was born into a room with air and bright lights, and Laura was born in a darkened bathroom and in a bathtub full of water.”
Our perfect moment of happiness was suddenly shattered as Sartos came into the room with a scowl on her face.
“Ah, I see you’ve had your daughter… What a surprise. I thought you’d be able to hold out a little longer…”
A sarcastic tone had taken hold of her voice. While the smug look never left her face, Deanna’s look of serenity and happiness was replaced with utter horror. Gracie started to whine from the comfortable spot on top of her mother’s chest. My eyes hardened at Doctor Sartos. I listened to Deanna’s soft voice to Gracie.
“Don’t worry sweetie, mama won’t let anybody take you away from me. We’re going to stay together. I promise you.”
Gracie continued to cry. I firmly planted myself in front of Deanna, and soon Beverly and Bridget followed. Sartos tried to push Bridget aside, but I blocked her. She only let out a strange laugh as she looked at Bridget.
“Huh, I was wondering when you’d show… Things don’t exactly add up when it comes to you. Doctor Howard how long have you been practicing medicine?”
Bridget became offended by Doctor Sartos questioning. But Beverly stepped in to protect her family.
“How about you get out of here and leave my family out of this. You’ve already caused enough trouble.”
But Bridget stood her ground and put a hand on Beverly’s shoulder.
“No, I can handle her. Besides, I outrank her. I’m a general and she’s a Lieutenant. She’s crossing the lines into insubordination territory. Effective immediately I am transferring you to the base in Washington D.C. Pack your bags doctor, your flight leaves from Albuquerque at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.”
Doctor Sartos was livid, her face was red and she was panting.
“Just you wait doctor. Wait until Admiral Sartonson hears about this.”
Bridget had a smirk of her own on her face.
“Admiral Sartonson already agreed on the transfer. End of story. Now go pack.”
Sartos huffed and puffed out of the room, seemingly defeated. All the nurses had now left the room and Beverly spoke up.
“Way to stick the landing Gran.”
Bridget made a face at Beverly and sank down into the chair I’d just vacated next to the bed.
“Ah, don’t call me that. Call me Bridget. You calling me gran makes me feel old. For now I’m younger than you!”
I was confused by Beverly’s wording, scratching my chin, I raised my eyebrows.
“What did you mean by ‘way to stick the landing’ Beverly?”
Bridget and Beverly both giggled for a second or two.
“I’m surprised you’ve never heard it Will, it’s a saying still popular in gymnasts circles. My great-grandmother was one. She was forced to abandon that dream when she broke her leg in two places falling from the balance beam doing a double back flip and tuck at the end of her routine. She had my grandmother later in life. Nana was horrified to find that when she was a teenager that great-gran was the oldest of all her friend’s mother’s. Here she was with a mother that was well into her mid-seventies, while her friend’s mother was in their late forties. But my great-gran lived until she was 165. Great-gran was really something. Us Howard’s tend to live a long life. We may have long lives, but tragedy always seems to follow us. We either seem to find bad men, or the one good man we settle with meets with an untimely death…”
We’d all lost someone. Beverly had lost her own mother when she was very young. I was a baby, and Deanna was only 7 when her father passed. I scratched my chin some more and spoke, trying to keep the tears out of my eyes and the quiver out of my voice.
“I was just a baby when I lost my mother. She was beautiful. Jet black hair, dark eyes. Native to the Inuit peoples of Alaska. I took care of myself from the age of 13 and beyond. My father was never really around.”
I felt Deanna’s hand on my shoulder. Her eyes stinging with tears. My eyes hooked onto the sight of Gracie still lying peacefully on Deanna’s chest, fast asleep.
“You are not your father Will. You’ve already proven that with Laura. Our girls are lucky to have such a wonderful father. If anything, you are more like your mother. I’ve never met her, but if I had, I’m sure we’d become fast friends.”
A smile graced my lips. Bridget looked at Beverly with her own smile.
“What’s your mother like?”
Beverly’s eyes saddened, but her voice never quavered.
“Oh mam? She passed away when I was 4 or 5. The only thing I can really remember about mam was that she had the most beautiful singing voice anyone had ever heard. That and her red hair and blue eyes. I remember looking at her one night before bed and thinking I was looking at a mirror at myself.”
I looked to Bridget. Everything was the same, except for she had green eyes. Beverly picked up on that.
“Amazing. You have green eyes. You’re son has green eyes too by the way. The other three children you have, are blue-eyed and red hair…”
Beverly stopped talking when she noticed Bridget looked unusually tired.
“I don’t know why I’m so tired…”
Before we could ask her what was wrong, she was still, and slumped over in the chair. Beverly moved into action faster than I could react first.
“Will help me get her on the floor. Something’s not right. Deanna can I borrow a pillow from behind your head?”
Deanna nodded as I pulled a pillow from behind her. Setting it on the floor, I helped pull Bridget from the chair and carefully lie her on the floor, with her head gently on the pillow.
“Get me that Otoscope on the wall over there.”
I did exactly as Beverly instructed me to do.
“What is this end piece for?”
Beverly looked at me and pointed to it.
“It’s to look inside your ears to see if there are any problems. Just take that piece off and throw it in the bin over there. It’s disposable.”
Now I was really confused.
“Disposable?”
Beverly nodded as I handed her the instrument.
“You’d be surprised how much material we used to waste between this time frame and the end of the century. This has a magnifier and a light on the end of it.”
I watched as she looked into Bridget’s left eye with it.
“What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head, she looked into Bridget’s other eye.
“She’s blown her left pupil. 4 millimeters. Indicative of a brain injury. If we were back on the Enterprise it would be simple, I could give a hypospray and her blown pupil could reverse itself. With this primitive technology, it’s hard to definitively diagnose her condition. This simply could mean that she’s exhausted too. Can’t give her a CAT scan because there’s a lot of radiation involved and it would harm the fetus. I’ll keep checking. Could you get me those privacy screens over there?”
Nodding, I walked the few steps away and grabbed the set and brought them back to Beverly. Setting them up, I sat down on the bed next to Deanna and stroked Gracie’s head.
“Someone looks very comfortable on top of mama’s chest…”
Gracie’s little hands were moving across Deanna’s semi-bare chest. I turned my head slightly at the left when I began to hear two voices.
“What happened?”
Bridget sounded confused, then I heard Beverly’s voice.
“You lost consciousness and were slumped over in the chair. I thought you had a brain injury, but now I’m not seeing any evidence of that. Don’t worry, your son is fine. Let’s sit you up. There we go. Any dizziness?”
By now Beverly had removed the privacy screens and Bridget looked better. She was all business again.
“Well Deanna, I think its time for Gracie’s first bath don’t you?”
To Be Continued…
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