I shook my head as I tried to find the source of where all this blood was coming from. God, it looked like something went off in here! I’d given Deanna a strong sedative so that she’d sleep while we fixed her. I knew that Will would be very concerned over her condition until we successfully finished the surgery. The nurse next to me on the left handed me more towels and I packed them in as best I could. The mask over my face was making me terribly hot. Less than a minute later, the towels were completely soaked with Deanna’s blood. Shaking my head once again, I was beginning to get angry.
“Doctor Jacobson! Where are those lap-pads! I asked you for at least 12!”
Doctor Jacobson became irritated with me but slapped the pads in my hands anyways.
“I don’t know who lets you bark orders at others at Bethesda, but here in New Mexico, we follow the chain of command, and you answer to me, is that understood Doctor Howard?”
I resisted the urge to start yelling at Doctor Jacobson, this wasn’t the time. Deanna needed our help. Taking a deep breath, I refocused myself, trying to drown out the classical music in the background.
“Crystal, doctor.”
Another nurse wiped the sweat from my forehead. I looked to Doctor Jacobson.
“How many blood transfusions is that now? 3?”
Doctor Jacobson shook his head and took the soaked towels from me and dropped them on the floor. This century is so disgusting and very unsanitary! This floor is littered with blood-soaked towels.
“This is transfusion number 4 Doctor Howard. Starting transfusion number 5 will put her back into DIC. I’m making the call, another twenty minutes to try and get the bleeding under control and then we perform a Hysterectomy. No ifs, ands or buts about it Doctor Howard. There’s just too much oozing in the Uterus and she’s lost a lot of blood already.
At this point, another transfusion would just drain as quickly as we can give it. She’s on her deathbed. Do what you can. I’ll go find a kit…”
I glared up at Doctor Jacobson, he gave up so easily and accepted the worst case scenario. But I refused to believe that this was that worst case scenario. Not yet. Twenty minutes seemed to fly by, and a nurse put a hand on mine, sympathy in her eyes. Doctor Jacobson came back with the kit. This time I couldn’t hold back my anger.
“That’s it? Why do you all give up so easily! We’ve only been working on her for 3 hours and 22 minutes! There’s still time to save her! Nurse get me some more towels, please?”
No one in the room moved a muscle. I let out a humorless laugh. I grabbed a handful of towels and placed them inside Deanna. Grabbing for two Kelley clamps, I tied off two bleeders. If they aren’t going to help me, I’ll do it myself! I kept shaking my head. Why isn’t this working?! The blood was beginning to soak the towels I’d just put in there. Doctor Jacobson wrapped a large gloved hand around my wrist.
“You’ve done all you can doctor. It’s time… Nurse O-silk please.”
For a moment, I actually saw a glimmer of sympathy and compassion in his eyes. But it was gone just as quickly as he was all business again. I couldn’t stay here any longer. Shaking my head no, I pulled the double gloves off my hands and threw them in the bio-hazard bin by the door. I’d removed the booties from over my shoes and started down the hallway. I’d pulled the mask under my chin. I slowly made my way into Will and Deanna’s room. He was just waking up from whatever the soldier with the jet black hair had given him. His face was full of worry. My hands were shaking. Then I remembered, I must look a sight to him. Looking down at my bloodied scrubs, I shook my head in irritation.
“…Will there is something I need to tell you…”
I watched as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He shook his head no at me and got out of bed with a groan.
“No… Um… When… W-when did she go?”
Tears were streaming down his face. I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Will listen to me, she’s not gone. But there is something else that you need to know. I did my best. There was just too much hemorrhaging in the uterus. We gave her 5 blood transfusions. She went into DIC twice. We worked on her for 3 hours and 22 minutes. Doctor Jacobson is performing a Hysterectomy right now… I’m sorry…”
As soon as those words slipped out of my mouth Doctor Jacobson burst into the room, his face filled with genuine surprise.
“Doctor Howard! I don’t know what you did, but the bleeding has stopped. Doctor Allerson and I will close her up and bring her back here to recover.”
With that Doctor Jacobson was gone again as quickly, I heard his heavy footfalls going down the hallway. Q showed up in a flash, Will had his fists balled up at his sides.
“Well, Doctor Crusher, I think a thank-you is in order for me… I was the one who saved Counselor Troi. And yes Riker, to answer your question that’s on your mind you can still procreate. However revolting the thought is to us Q anyways…”
A smile spread across Will’s face. Then his face turned serious.
“I think I’ve had just about enough of this game Q, you can return us back to the 24th Century now.”
Q sighed and seemed indifferent.
“Eh, as you wish Riker. Back to the 24th Century and to your miniscule existence.”
———————————————————————————————————————
Another flash, and the three of us found ourselves in Sickbay. There was someone missing though. Laura. I began to panic, looking around the room frantically.
“Where’s Laura? Laura!”
Deanna was sitting on the bio-bed when she suddenly gasped. She grabbed onto my arm.
“Will, I think I found her.”
My smile grew as I felt little feet below my hand over Deanna’s stomach. Removing my hand for a fraction of a second I placed a kiss in the same spot.
“…And that’s where you should be princess. Tucked away inside mommy.”
Q showed up again in a flash of light. I blocked Deanna’s view of Q. Beverly put a hand over her face when she realized what she was still wearing. The nurses and the other doctors in the room looked at her in horror. Q giggled like a little kid.
“Oops. Let me just get you all fixed up here doctor. There. That’s better now isn’t it? A nice clean uniform? You are most welcome to keep the doctors coat. It is your ancestors after all.”
Once again Q was gone in a flash. Beverly looked relieved that we were back in our own time. I know I was. Deanna got a pained look on her face suddenly.
“What is it?”
She shook her head and moved her hand to the left of her belly button.
“I’m not sure, but it hurts when I press down right here.”
Beverly came around to Deanna’s left side and gently pressed two fingers against her stomach.
“What is that?”
My eyebrows came together.
“What’s what? I’m not sure I follow.”
Beverly looked confused as she scanned Deanna with her tricorder.
“I don’t know, looks to be some sort of tracking device. I’ll need to examine her further. Alyssa, can you get Deanna a gown?”
Alyssa nodded her head and scurried off.
“What kind of tracking device?”
A temporary screen was placed around the bio-bed so that we were blocked from everyone else in the room. I narrowed my eyes at the seemingly large round and disc-like object on Deanna’s stomach.
“Looks to be sub-dermal. Just below the skin. Can you get it out?”
Beverly nodded her head yes and grabbed a hypospray with Teroquine and local anesthetic.
“Yes, this’ll help with the pain and make it so she will not feel anything from the waist down.”
Deanna locked eyes with me. I suddenly became worried.
“Can you get that disc out of her without any risk to the baby?”
I held Deanna’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
“If I can narrow the beam of the laser scalpel, I will be able to extract the disc. You’ll feel some pressure Deanna as I get the disc out.”
Deanna looked at me and smiled.
“I never thought I’d hear myself say this but: I’m glad that there isn’t any needles in this time. I never want to see anything but a hypospray again. The last four months have been strange. I don’t want to go anywhere for a long time…”
I understood what she meant.
“After what we’ve been through, I don’t blame you one bit Imzadi.”
I saw Beverly extract the disc from under Deanna’s skin and close the incision spot.
“Well, I think I’ve found the cause of your bruising Deanna. This disc is a sensor that contacts a machine in the past. I’ll run some more tests on this disc. I want to see what makes it tick. I’ll ask that the two of you remain in Sickbay until the anesthetic wears off. As for Laura, she is doing wonderfully and is right on schedule at 31 weeks. Perfectly healthy in every way.”
Everything was going the way it was supposed to, maybe we could finally put this nightmare behind us.
To Be Continued…
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]