Joy Cometh in the Morning—Part 9/20

AN: This is the one chapter that might create some controversy. I’m not one of those people who think you can just brush everything under the rug and forget it. Something or someone will bring it all back at the most inopportune time, better to just deal with it head on--with a little humor if possible. I’m sure you’ll see what I mean when you hit that section.


Part 9A

Between the Rabb house and the hospital, Harm stopped at an exclusive strip mall shopping area. The stores in that particular shopping center tended to be high end retail, and one of Mac’s favorite clothing stores was among them. He entered the store and headed toward the back to the lingerie department. On one of the displays toward the back he saw exactly what he was looking for. With little else on his mind but getting back to Mac and Sophie, he failed to see the clerk refolding clothing on a lower shelf. He was already tripping over her and falling head long into a display of ladies underwear and bras before he could halt his momentum.

“Oh, I’m sorry sir…can I help you with something,” the petite clerk apologized.

He managed to stand up and scoop most of the delicate underthings off his body before blushing profusely at the clerk. “No, no my fault…I should’ve been watching where I was going. I’m just in a hurry.”

“Is there anything in particular I can assist you with?” asked the clerk in a polite tone.

“I’m just looking for an anniversary gift for my wife?” Harm stuttered back.

“Oh I see. Well we have some beautiful lingerie over this way,” the clerk gestured toward the lacy and flimsy gowns in the corner.

“No…” Harm squeaked, clearing his throat, “…no I was thinking more along the lines of the pajamas over there.” He pointed out a modest silk 2-piece set towards the back.

“Yes, of course,” the clerk smiled politely. “You’ve been married awhile I take it?”

“No, actually it’s our first wedding anniversary,” he beamed back.

“And you want to buy her THOSE!” the clerk gaped back.

“What…oh you don’t understand…”

“I’m sure your wife will love those pajamas, they’re so…a…cozy…just what every women wants on her…first…anniversary,” the clerk threw back with a tight smile. “Now then, what size might she need…perhaps an X-large?”
“No, you’ve got it all wrong. You see my wife just had a baby last night…and…she’s in the ICU…my wife that is…well Sophie too…she’s the baby…but…well it been a rough 24-hours…well 8 weeks really….”

“Ah…ah, Sir. If I could just interrupt one second, let me see if I’ve got this right. You wife is in the hospital…” Harm nodded, “…and she just had a baby…” He nodded again, “…and your wife and the baby are both in the ICU?” He nodded twice more. “Heavens sir, why are you here?”

“Well,” he exhaled and looked around as though he were lost. “It’s our first anniversary and it’s been a really tough year. My wife’s been on bedrest for over 2 months, and even though she’s been through a lot in the last 24 hours…I still want her to know that I didn’t forget and that I love her and I’m glad that’s she finally my wife,” he finished in a whisper with a look of awe.

The clerk smiled back, “I think that’s one of the most romantic speeches I’ve ever heard…much better than the stogy prepared verses usually thrown out. Now, I take it your looking for something that she can be comfortable wearing in the hospital?”

“Yes ma’am. I thought that those silk pajamas would work nicely.”

“Yes, they’re lovely pajamas, but they’re kind of cold and stiff. You know, not particularly flexible or comfortable. I think I have just what you’re looking for right over here.” The clerk led him to a corner display of pajamas made of a soft-brushed stretch cotton. The fabric had a cream background with a lavender floral design and delicate cream lace around the v-neck and sleeves. “By the way my name is Evelyn. What size would your wife need?”

“I’m not sure, small or medium I guess,” he fingered the soft fabric. “Sarah my wife is tall, 5-9, but is thin, lithe even.”

“I suggest a medium with her height. They often shrink when you wash them. Now, how about a matching robe and I have some soft lavender chenille slippers that would work perfectly? That way she’s all covered up when she goes to visit the baby.” Harm nodded again. “Alright, if you’ll just follow me we’ll get you checked out.”

As he followed to the register, he paused at a display of bath products and inhaled their delightful scent. “Oh, I see you’ve find our new line of fragrances and bath products. I love this one over here, it has a soft scent and wouldn’t be overpowering if Sarah still isn’t feeling well…here smell,” she extended the lotion to Harm. “It’s a mixture of jasmine and orange, what do you think.”

“I think it perfect,” he marveled.

“Why don’t we get the bath gel and lotion, that way she can use them in the hospital. I also have a shampoo and conditioner if you’re interested,” smiled the helpful clerk.
Harm paid for all his purchases while Evelyn wrapped them with extra-special attention. She handed back the beautifully wrapped gift and his credit card. “It’s been a pleasure, Harm. Tell your wife she’s got something special and if I can help you with anything else, please come back again.”

“Thanks Evelyn, I will,” he nodded back as he hurried out the door.

Evelyn smiled to her associate, “I wonder if he has a brother, my daughter could use someone like him…Nah, probably one of kind.”

As Harm hurried toward the car, he passed a bookstore and noticed a photograph album in the window. He smiled and opened the door to head inside. He located the correct section and picked out a leather bound embossed album with an area for engraving. He could have Sophie’s name added at a later date. As he looked up, he saw two leather bound journals…perfect he thought, that way both he and Mac could record details about Sophie’s hospital stay. Sophie would have a written and a pictorial remembrance of her already momentous beginnings.

As he wondered a bit further into the store, he was drawn to the children’s department. Once there he paused to listen to a selection of music that was playing overhead. The music and lyrics sounded strangely familiar, but he couldn’t place from where. As he continued to listen, a young woman approached, “Hello sir, may I help you with something?”

Harm turned to find a woman dressed in a fanciful tall pointed hat. “Excuse me,” he chuckled.

The clerk followed his gaze, “I’m sorry. I just finished story hour and forgot to remove my prop,” she smiled back while removing the hat. “Now, are you looking for something in particular?”

“Not exactly, I was just noticing the music that was playing…it’s a lullaby isn’t it.”

“Yes, a beautiful piece isn’t it. The songwriter was a mother who recorded the album for her daughter. Seems the baby was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the mother couldn’t find any soothing lullabies for her daughter to listen to in the ICU. So she wrote and recorded that album. I especially like the tract that’s playing…it’s so hopeful.” Harm listened to the melody playing.

Never thought that in a million years,
Never thought that you would come to me
You’re the answer to a million prayers

“It’s beautiful,” he replied. “I feel like I know that song, but I’m sure I’ve never heard it before. Do you have the album in stock.”

“Let me check…CD or tape?” the clerk rushed off to check for the selection.

“Ah, CD I guess. I think my little girl will love the song. It describes what she means to my wife and me, perfectly,” he mused, why did that song sound so familiar.
“Here we go…I have the CD in stock. How old is your little girl, anyway?”

“Ah…less than 24-hours actually. She was born last night, but she’s premature and in the NICU.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry sir. I guess this CD was meant for you then…I hope your daughter gets better. You’ll have to bring her back for story hour when she’s a little older.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he headed away from the children’s department and toward the front registers. He stopped at the entrance to the children’s section to gape at a large stuffed frog dressed in fancy attire with a crown. He shook his head and mused ‘a frog prince, who would buy such a silly gift,’ and continued on to pay for his purchases.

Walking back toward the car, he passed the window display of a well-known jewelry store. ‘I guess jewelry would be more in keeping with a proper anniversary gift,’ he thought while glancing in the window. Nothing seemed quite appropriate, but just as he was about to continue on, he spied a selection of charms in the corner of the window. As he looked closer, he saw a small 14k gold charm in the shape of a delicate little girl’s buckle shoe. The charm had small diamonds and pink crystals adorning the top. He chuckled as he remembered Mac’s statement of wanting ‘comfortable shoes, lots and lots of them.’ The charm, he thought, would be a good reminder of Sophie their best anniversary gift of all. He entered the store and purchased the charm along with a 14k gold bracelet to display it on, that way he could add more charms as mementos of other significant events in their life.

With gifts in hand, he returned to the car and headed back to the hospital. It was just past noon, but he had a good excuse for being late. He intended to pamper his marine a little on this special day.

***

13:15
Saturday, May 20th, 2006
Bethesda Naval Hospital
Surgical ICU

Harm arrived in the SICU to find an uncomfortable marine. As he was trying to help her find a more comfortable position, Dr. Abrahms entered the room. “Good afternoon Harm,” he nodded. “Sarah how are feeling.” The doctor watched as she gingerly reclined back into the bed. “Are you taking your pain meds?”

Mac looked down and gave a barely discernible shake of her head in negative reply. “I don’t…really…want to use them,” she softly responded.

“Why not, if you’re in pain you need to use them?” questioned the doctor.
Mac shrugged her shoulders in response. “I have a history of alcohol abuse as a teenager, I don’t like to take drugs. I’ll be OK,” she sighed softly.

Harm looked on with concern, “Mac, if you need the meds….”

“Harm, no…plus I don’t want to expose Sophie. The nurse said I needed to start pumping today.”

“Sarah, in the first place, the pain medication I ordered is safe for Sophie in the small amounts that she’ll receive in the breast milk. Initially you’ll just get small amounts of colostrum, so the drug levels are small. Once you’re more comfortable in a few days then we can switch to something like Tylenol that won’t be a problem at all. Second, in the short time that you’re going to be on the IV pain meds, there is very little chance that they’ll be addictive. I really want you to remain comfortable and pain-free to keep your blood pressure down. If you keep improving, we should be able to move you back to the antepartum unit by late afternoon. I’ll have them remove the arterial catheter from you wrist now and that should make it much easier to move around in bed. Do either of you have any other questions?”

“Yes Sir, how long will Mac have to be in the hospital?”

“Well Harm, normally with a C-section I keep a woman in the hospital for about 3 days. However, with all of Sarah’s other complications I anticipate her being hospitalized for 5-7 days.”

“Will I have problems with high blood pressure from now on? I don’t want that to affect my military service,” Mac asked somewhat distressed.

“Not at all. The high blood pressure is a response that your body had to the pregnancy. Once you’re delivered the blood pressure usually normalizes within a few days. Occasionally a mother may need to be discharged on oral meds for a short period of time, but this shouldn’t be a life long problem,” the doctor answered. He quickly added in response to the question that he saw on Harm’s face, “And before you ask Harm, the fact that Sarah had high blood pressure with this pregnancy doesn’t mean that it will happen with the next.” Harm released a breath in relief and smiled at Mac.

“Well, I’ll let you get some rest. Don’t keep her up too much Harm; I really want her to relax so that she can get out of the ICU,” the doctor waved as he started for the door. “Sarah, I’ll have the nurse come in with the pain meds and remove that arterial line,” he winked back at Mac.

Mac leaned back and sighed. Harm sat on the bed and gently shifted her over before taking her in his arms. “What’s wrong honey? What the doctor said was good news.”

“I know I just didn’t want to take the pain meds,” she whispered back turning her face away.

He reached up and placed a finger under chin turning her face back to him. Placing his lips on her forehead, he replied gently, “Mac the doctor said it was safe and I don’t want you hurting. Besides the quicker you get out of the ICU the sooner you can go visit Sophie.” Her eyes lit up and she smiled at the obvious bribe.

At that moment the nurse came into the room with a syringe in hand. “Dr. Abrahms wants you to have this Demerol, Colonel. I’ll also be removing that catheter in your wrist.” She looked up and eyed Harm with one eyebrow raised.

“I’m sorry, I’ll just move,” Harm mumbled and began to rise from the bed.

Mac held him tightly in place. “I’ll make you a deal…I’ll take the med, if you stay right here with me until I fall asleep.”

Harm looked back at the nurse pleading with questioning eyes. “Alright Sir, you can stay where you are. I’ll just give you this Demerol and then…”

“No…take out the catheter first then the med. I don’t want to fall asleep too quickly.” She glance back toward Harm, “I want to hear about Sophie.”

The nurse smiled her understanding and made short order out of removing the arterial catheter. “I’ll be right back,” the nurse smiled and winked at Harm who nodded back in understanding that they were being given a few minutes reprieve to talk.

Harm positioned Mac back into his arms. He gently fingered her left wrist and grimaced. She relaxed against him and sighed in contentment at the contact. “Tell me about Sophie,” she asked with anticipation while taking his hand.

“Well…she absolutely beautiful. She has short dark hair that’s sort of in wooly tufts; the nurse said that was normal for a preemie. She has blue-green eyes and she’s so tiny…her hand is barely bigger than my thumbnail,” he said in awe while holding out his thumb.

“How’s she doing…from a medical standpoint I mean?” she asked unsurely.

“Dr. Williams said she’s doing as expected. She’s on the ventilator and some blood pressure medicines,” he was afraid to give to much detail for fear of upsetting Mac and causing her blood pressure to skyrocket again. “Look, why don’t you close your eyes and try to get some sleep. I’ll stay here and hold you for awhile before I go visit Sophie.” He kissed the top of her head while gesturing with his eyes for the nurse to come in and give the med. Mac was just dozing off when he again spoke, “Happy Anniversary by the way.” Mac looked up with sleep-glazed eyes and a questioning look. He grinned and kissed her forehead whispering, “Go to sleep, we’ll celebrate later,” then kissed her closed eyelids as she snuggled in close.

***

14:00
Saturday, May 20th, 2006
Bethesda Naval HospitalNICU

Twenty minutes later, Harm was scrubbing in the NICU and proceeding to Sophie’s room. He was met by a bubbly marine as he approached the bed. “Hello Sir, I’m Maj. Roberta Moore, but you can call me Bobbie. I’ll be Sophie’s primary nurse. We like to have a team of nurses assigned to a small group of patients that way you only have to get to know and trust a few of us, and we really get to know our patients and their families. Since, I’m Sophie’s primary nurse, I’ll try to take care of her whenever I’m on duty,” the nurse said with a friendly smile. “Do you have any questions?”

Harm moved over to Sophie’s bedside and sat down. He noticed the large brightly colored nametag over her bed. ‘Sophie’ was written in big letters with flowers and ladybugs drawn all around the outside edge of the card. Harm raised a brow and gestured, “Wow that’s pretty impressive,” he chuckled.

“Yes Sir, we have a grade school class that decorates the cards as a school project. It gives our little patients their own identity and the school kids get to feel like they’re helping.”

He reached out and stroked down Sophie’s arm before taking her hand. “How’s she doing today?” he quietly asked.

“She’s had a good day so far. Her oxygen is down to 50% and we’ve been able to wean her other ventilator settings as well. We’ve cut the nitric oxide, the medication for the high lung blood pressure, in half since I came on shift,” she cheerily noted.

Harm nodded in response, “What about her other blood pressure?”

“That’s stabilized on her current medications. I don’t expect we’ll be able to really wean those until her lungs are more improved and she’s started to wake up more.”

Just then Sophie opened one drowsy eye and looked at her Daddy. “Hey princess, you’re awake,” he marveled. She stretched her body in response to his voice, causing the ventilator to alarm. He looked toward the nurse in panic.

“It’s OK Sir. She’s fine; the ventilator was just noticing the change in pressure when she moved. The alarms on the oscillator are very sensitive; you’ll get used to them,” soothed the nurse.

He relaxed back into his chair and began to stroke Sophie’s head. “Trying to scare your Daddy are you little one.” Sophie blinked back once more before falling back to sleep. He leaned over to place a kiss on her head and whispered, “Your Mommy’s awake…hopefully, she’ll get to come visit you tomorrow. She can hardly wait to see you. We love you princess.”

“Did I hear you say that your wife’s doing better,” quizzed Bobbie as she adjusted Sophie’s position and flushed her IV line.
Harm beamed, “Yeah, Mac is awake and they think she can probably move out of the ICU later today.”

“Mac?” the nurse looked up amused.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Colonel Sarah Rabb, that’s my wife.”

“Ah, why do you call her Mac?” grinned the nurse.

“It’s short for her maiden name, MacKenzie. I think she used that name early on in the marines to fit in, you know, show that she could hold her own with all the jarheads,” he laughed. “Anyways, when we met she introduced herself as Mac. That’s how I’ve always known her. Sometimes she’s Sarah, but mostly she’s just my Mac,’ he tilted his head and shrugged in explanation.

“I understand, my name’s Roberta but my husband calls me Bobbie. You should see the looks he gets when he tells someone he’s taking Bobbie out for dinner and dancing,” she laughed. “Is Sophie your first?”

“Yeah, we didn’t think we’d be able to have children. Mac worked really hard to get her here…she just has to be fine,” he sobered and resumed stroking the baby’s hair.

Bobbie tilted her head in inspection, “You know Sophie looks like you.”

“That was the deal,” he whispered thinking back to the promise made 7 years prior.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The deal…” he cleared his voice, “…she would have my looks and Mac’s brains. If she’d been a boy it was supposed to be reversed. She’s just 2 years late in making her appearance.”

The nurse smiled back in amusement, “You had a deal about how she was supposed to look?”

“Not about her looks…ah, never mind,” he blushed.

The nurse laughed, “So how long have you and your wife been married?”

“A year today,” Harm beamed. “Sophie is my best anniversary present.”

“But I thought you said she was 2 years late?” Charlie frowned.

“Ah yeah,” he fidgeted. “We’ve had her promised for awhile.”

“I see,” Charlie grinned, it was fun to see a senior officer squirm for a change. “So you and your wife have known each other for a few years then?”
“Ten years,” he nodded. “We met in the rose garden. I was being awarded a DFC by the President and we we’re being partnered at JAG for the first time.”

“You met in ‘THE ROSE GARDEN’? Wow, that’s a story to tell Sophie. So, you’ve worked together for 10 years, but have only been married for 1 year…took you a while to fall in love I guess?”

“No…” he sighed, “…we pretty much fell in love from the beginning.” At the nurses confused expression, he continued, “Well there was JAG…ah…and we really didn’t admit to ourselves much less each other…ah…military protocol, it’s kind of like a 500-pound gorilla in the room preventing…ah…suffice it to say I guess I was kinda…slow,” he laughed while looking away.

“Yes, Sir,” Bobbie snickered back. “I’m going to run out to get Sophie’s next med…I’ll be right back.

“We’ll be right here, won’t we Sophie.” He grinned at his daughter, “Sophie sometimes your Dad is a real dolt…I’m just lucky your Mommy stuck around and we finally worked things out.” He shook his head and thought back to a day in early May before their wedding. He’d almost blown it again.

**Continued in 9B**