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Date Posted: 15:02:21 03/04/06 Sat
Author: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett
Subject: FWWATT Chapter 7 Section Ten
In reply to: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett 's message, "FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL Ch 7" on 13:01:08 03/04/06 Sat

FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL

Chapter 7 Workin' My Way Back To You

By Sylvia Bartlett Mohr

Section Ten: Old Demons Rising



Sturgis frowned. Even with the heavy pain meds, Harm was going into spasms again.

Doctor Studevant noted it at the same time and quietly moved to open the versed drip. The spasms did not respond as quickly as they had before and Stu had to allow more of the drug in then he really liked with the pain meds already on board.

The nausea followed rapidly. Harm was retching in his sleep, violently. Sturgis had to pull the oxygen mask away so the basin could be placed when he finally began bringing up some bile.

Reyes had been silent to this point, but now, he spoke up. "With those pain meds on board and that amount of versed, I'm not sure compazine is the best idea right now, Stu."

"What other option is there? I am not going to put an NG tube down. That will be too distressing when he comes to. Harm has a powerful gag reflex. He doesn't handle NG tubes down much better than he does being intubated. He hyper salivates and those fluids will run right into his lungs every time he inhales. The last thing he needs right now is more fluid in his lungs. We'll watch him close and support his breathing with a CPPB mask if we have to, but give him the compazine."

Tim looked like he wanted to argue the point more, but reluctantly nodded and complied, administering the dose via one of the patients IV's.

The younger Turner was getting really worried. The doctors were obviously not happy with how Harm was responding to the mixture of meds he needed. "It's been hours since his last dose of curare. Why is he still having the spasms? I mean this time actually seemed worse than the last time."

Reyes frowned. "That's a very good question. Lou, you are our expert. Should this be going on this long?"

Studevant looked thoughtful. "Curare can take a while to be completely out of your system, but this is getting beyond what I would consider normal. I've been wondering about that myself. Hand me Harm's chart, Tim." He took a seat and began reviewing, grabbing a pad from his pocket and doing some calculations. "Damn. This doesn't make sense. Unless the carrier agent they used was one that stores in the muscle and is gradually continuing to release small amounts of curare into his system. You don't have the IV setup that was actually used to introduce the drugs into his system, do you?"

Reyes shook his head no.

"I'm going to call Dr. Mallard at NCIS and get Abby on the phone with us. We need to run some lab tests, but we don't really have the equipment for it on board. Ducky may be able to come up with an adaptive test we can run here with input from Ms. Sciuto. They can be quite creative when it is merited."

Boone spoke up. "We are close enough to the States that a Tomcat or Hornet could be dispatched to get blood samples to Bethesda pretty damn fast, you know."

"That's another option." Stu agreed. "But it still would take more time than if we can come up with a way to do it here aboard the ship."

"Doctors, his temp is beginning to climb again." Sturgis looked up with real dread. He could feel the heat radiating from Harm's body.

Stu moved fast, standing from where he had sat down and grabbing the ear reading thermometer. "It has been hovering at 101 degrees for quite a while now. What's making it climb now? The versed shouldn't do that. Even if there is curare in the muscles, it shouldn't make the temp spike. It's up to 103 point 4 already. It's like he's getting a fresh dose of the damn curare somehow."

"Shit." Boone ventured, as a thought struck him. "The versed you are using, the one attached to that IV. Could it be contaminated somehow?"

Admiral Chegwidden and Chaplain Turner had entered during this conversation, but had stayed out of it until now. AJ spoke up. "Who prepared that bolus of versed? Did you do it yourself, Reyes?"

"I got the first dose which was administered by a standard injection. The bolus IV bag was prepared by the ship's pharmacist. Why do you ask?"

"Harm said, there is at least one more."

Colonel MacKenzie entered the room. "One more what?"

"Conspirator in this little murderers' nest we've uncovered aboard this ship." AJ replied.

"Could someone please bring me up to speed?" She was looking worriedly at the unconscious form of the man she loved. She could see the three chest tubes running down to the evacuation chambers.

"Come with me, Colonel." Doctor Reyes proposed. "We need to get ice packs for the Commander; his fever is going up again."

She followed him out, with a glance at Harm making it clear she was reluctant to leave him.

"We still have the watch." Admiral Boone assured her.

AJ moved towards the room's private head. "I'll get a basin of cold water and a couple of wash cloths."

Chaplain Turner moved up beside the bed to anoint Harm with oil and pray again. He had been praying within himself from the moment AJ had updated him.


Reyes led her to the room with the ice machine. He opened a drawer and took out Freezer size plastic Ziploc bags, counting out eight. Flipping open the lid to the storage compartment of the unit he handed her one of the metal scoops. "Start filling these while I fill you in." They both set to work. "Commander Rabb had to have chest tubes placed while you were away."

"I suspect he knew or at least feared he would and that is why he sent me with Special Agent Gibbs." Sarah replied.

"Well, he refused to have the injections to numb the areas before they were inserted, so I can understand he might not want you in the room."

"Why would he do that?" Mac was horrified. "They make a small cut with a scalpel before they insert the trocanter, don't they?"

"Yes, but Harm says the injections hurt worse than the actual placements. He isn't the first patient I've known who felt that way. The worst part was that he went stoic on us. Wouldn't cry out and his BP was dropping from secondary shock, so we gave him something for the pain; the tubes are uncomfortable and it hurt every time he inhaled so the pain right now is constant. Even with the pain med, he had almost no recovery time before the spasms started getting bad again, so we had to give him more versed. He was unconscious from the drugs, but the nausea and retching began again at once. I wanted to put an NG tube in, but Stu overruled that and gave him compazine.

"Sturgis was concerned about the fact he's still reacting as if he has had the curare recently. The spasms keep coming back. That got Stu thinking and he reviewed Rabb's chart and did some computations. He said it seems as if Harm is still getting minute quantities of the curare or the carrier agent; we still aren't sure which he is reaction too although Stu leans heavily towards it being the curare itself."

"If it were the curare, wouldn't he still be paralyzed if he was continuing to be exposed?"

"No, Colonel. Not if there was only enough curare getting in to trigger the reaction. Once you have an intolerance or adverse reaction to a drug…or even food allergies, exposure to relatively small amounts can trigger a full blown reaction. Boone asked if the unit of versed we are using, the one suspended in the small bolus IV bag piggybacked on the main line on his right side, might have been contaminated with curare. It was a canny observation on his part. The versed isn't on a continuous drip, we open it as needed. The longer the versed is allowed to run in the quicker Harm reacts with nausea and when more is used, his fever begins to go up. Let's drop these bags off to Harm's room and head to my office. I may need your persuasion to get the Agent and the forensic specialist back up here, pronto. Our lab is pretty standard medical fare; we don't have the capacity to perform rapid and extensive toxicology fluid studies. If it is pretty diluted, we need combined expertise to come up with a simple field test for any quantity of the contaminant."

They got the ice bags to Rabb's room and hurried on to Reyes office. As soon as they entered the room, Tim put the phone on speakerphone as he dialed the extension that put them through to the office NCIS had been assigned. Mac came up with the number at once.

"Gibbs here."

Mac spoke first. "Gunny, this is Colonel MacKenzie."

"Yes, ma'am. What's up?"

"Agent Gibbs, we need you and Ms. Sciuto back here pronto. The Commander is doing quite a bit worse."

"Why, what happened?"

"Commander Rabb seems certain there is at least one more conspirator involved."

"You thought that was possible even before the man said so. I was about to go down and interview the suspects we have. See if I could get one of them to tell me exactly how much curare was given and…"

"We need you both here, Gibbs. He's still actively reacting, as if he is still receiving periodic exposure to the curare."

"Abby here, Doctor Reyes. Do you think one of the meds he's receiving has been intentionally contaminated?" The Goth techie was quick on the uptake where this line of reasoning was going.

"That's our concern. He had to be given more from the versed piggyback on his IV and he immediately was not only nauseated, but his temperature began to rise. However, we have a limited supply of versed on board the ship. I don't want to discontinue the bolus unless it really is contaminated. Our lab doesn't really have the equipment for rapid broad spectrum toxicology analysis. We need some sort of field test that can be done quickly."

"We understand, Doc. Abby and I just finished cataloging the evidence from the Tomcat post. We'll lock up and come straight down to your office."

"Doctor Reyes, until we are certain, do not open that bolus of versed." Abby added in a worried voice.

In short order, Dr Studevant was in Reye's office with Abby, Gibbs, Colonel MacKenzie and Admiral Chegwidden, waiting for the phone to ring with their sea to shore connection to Doctor Mallard. AJ had been reluctant to leave Harm, but wanted to be sure that if authorization was needed to take whatever action was decided to be the best course it was obtained with minimal difficulty.

Reyes had remained behind. The fever was continuing to rise. Harm was very restive in his delirium. So, Doctor Reyes was leaning towards starting him back on the ice blanket sooner, rather than later. At least one doctor needed to remain at his bedside now.

The danger of convulsions was even more severe and would need to be dealt with quickly, if they occurred. If the chest tubes were pulled out in a seizure, there could be serious consequences. There were clamps attached to the bed clothes on each side of the bed to employ if the tubing pulled out of the evac unit it was attached to. If the tubes pulled out of the chest, immediate sealing pressure would have to be applied to the wound to keep air from rushing in and further collapsing his lungs.

The phone rang and Doctor Mallard joined them in conferring on the matter. Ducky was worried when he heard their concern expressed. "Curare can have a cumulative effect. It's a botanical and it can build up in the system. Even if the fluid is only slightly contaminated with curare, that level could be building to a serious toxic quantity in his whole system. You need to have more versed sent out to that ship. You can't wait to test all your supply on board. He could be heading for a series of even more severe spasms or possibly multiple organ failure, if he has been repeatedly receiving small doses. You better get a heart monitor on him, if you haven't already got one, Stu. He could develop cardiac irritability or go into cardiac arrest. Watch for kidney or liver failure as well. Oh, and watch for evidence of pancreatitis. That's another possible side effect."

Between Abby and Ducky, they came up with a simple reagent test for any level of curare, but, if it was the carrier agent Harm was reacting to, testing for that would be more difficult. Abby stayed with Doctor Studevant to help with the testing.

Gibbs invited Admiral Chegwidden and Mac to accompany him to interrogate the suspects to see if one of them would give up information on who the third accomplice was and what drugs were involved.

AJ reluctantly recommended Mac go back to Harm's room and he would help Gibbs with the questioning. He trusted the Colonel, but feared she might find a close confrontation with either suspect impossible to be dispassionate about; she might be tempted to be a bit too aggressive in her questioning. He was only slightly more certain of his own self control.



Gibbs had to fight the temptation to put his fist through this doctor's face. This interrogation kept getting more frustrating. The cold blooded disdain of Mahlberg infuriated him. The man seemed so sure he was winning.

The good doctor sneered. "Rabb will never be able to testify against me, if he was conscious, as you claim. He's damaged goods. He'll be wetting his nappies in a rubber room the rest of his life. Imagine the terror for a big tough hero like that. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe without the machine. If he heard me entertaining bids, he'll never get beyond being the victim. It'll scar him for life. He'll never come back. That's if he survives. He had a bad reaction to that curare. That's why he came out from under enough for Turner to realize he wasn't comatose. I couldn't give him enough drugs to completely mimic brain death because the fever and other reactions would have damaged the prize - those prize organs.

"The commander was worth a lot of money to me if the guy holding his medical power of attorney had not shown up. The bids were going sky high. With his blood type and his physical history, those organs were extremely valuable. He's a jogger and health nut, for Pete's sake. Rabb was a great find. The find of a lifetime as he was primarily a vegetarian, so no fear of mad cow disease – that's a big selling point in some markets these days. He was pure bidding gold. His heart and lungs would have been better than diamonds on the international market ~ that heart…damn what a beauty, not a trace of coronary artery disease."

"Don't you worry about me, though. If Rabb does, by some miracle, make it to the stand, I'll have the best legal counsel money can buy. I won't have some inept JAG attorney for my defense. I will have the freaking best lawyer there is. Your commander will be reduced to a blubbering baby on the stand. He'll never stand up under cross examination by a real pro."

AJ Chegwidden was far calmer than the NCIS agent, but the calm of a former Navy SEAL had an even more lethal edge to it. "Actually, Commander Rabb was able to tell us quite a few details about your conversations with great clarity. He'll make an excellent witness and he has a fine legal mind. He'll sidestep any traps a defense lawyer can try to ensnare him with."

"You're bluffing, Chegwidden." Mahlberg retorted. "Rabb may have been able to tell you at first, but with time and continuing exposure -" The doctor froze. He'd just let something slip, damn it. He'd been sure his lackey, Vinkman, would be the one to screw up, but if they didn't already suspect the aviator was still getting doses of curare, they would look for it now. Shit. No more time for bragging. Fortunately, they'd never discover the source of the contamination in time. It had probably already done enough of its work to insure Rabb's death from complications.

Damage control, he had to exercise damage control. Rabb's organs were out of reach for profit, but his death would still serve Mahlberg well. His other cronies wouldn't let him down. He'd beat the rap and return to earning a tidy fortune soon enough.

Once he got stateside his friends would get him out of prison one way or another. If not by legal means, an escape would be arranged. His money could buy an identity change and he could move on to other countries to ply the lucrative trade of hunting out organs for wealthy people in need of transplants. The best course now was silence.

"You were saying, Doctor? I use the term Doctor very loosely." Gibbs pressed.

Mahlberg turned his face away from his interrogators and would say only one more thing. "You won't hear another peep out of me until I see a lawyer. And I don't mean some ship board JAG hack, I mean stateside." The man became a wall of silence.

AJ and Gibbs wasted another half an hour, but it was obvious the effort was a bust.

Vinkman had insisted he didn't know if whether there was one or several other conspirators aboard. He only knew his cut was to have been a certain percentage. Now that Mahlberg had clammed up, they were out of options. Gibbs would have another go questioning both men later, but he doubted it would be any more productive.



Admiral and NCIS agent walked away from the brig area feeling drained. This had gotten them very little information. Both men had been careful to dangle enough information to trip Mahlberg into beginning to brag. He was cocky, sure Harm wouldn't be able to testify, and anything else was circumstantial. He didn't know the level of expertise Doctor Mallard could bring to bear or how quickly Gibbs staff was unraveling the stateside history of this doctor of death. They had been careful not to tip their hand to that.

Instead they had focused on the information Harm had provided and what had been learned shipboard. Mahlberg had been overconfident for a while and started regaling them with some insights, but now the window of opportunity appeared closed.

"I really need to get Rabb's statement." Gibbs said grimly. "If he dies without giving it…"

"Don't give up on Harmon Rabb Jr." AJ said firmly. "People have made that mistake before. He always comes back. He's a survivor."

"I hope you're right."

Chegwidden admitted. "He's never let me down so far. I'm praying this won't be the first time he does."

"Amen to that. I want to see Mahlberg's face when Rabb's testimony nails him. I want that bad."

"I'm heading back up there. Are you coming, Gibbs?"

"I'll check and see if Abby needs me for anything. I have other aspects to investigate though, if she doesn't need me. There is one actual pharmacist aboard and he works with the assistance of three pharmacist mates. The person doping the meds with the contaminant is almost certainly one of those four. I'll try asking them questions, see if I can shake anything loose." The agent mused as they headed for Sick Bay.



Harm's eyes opened. They were fever glazed, but he seemed surprisingly lucid as he asked. "What's my temperature up to?" The tone was idle, just curious, detached.

"One hundred and four point two Fahrenheit." Sturgis replied. "You seem to know where you are, right?"

"I'm still sicker than a dog in the sick bay of the USS Seahawk, right?" The aviator responded. "If the Marine would turn her back a minute, could someone please remove the ice pack that's freezing me where a man doesn't want to be frozen? It's very uncomfortable. Please?"

Sarah had to hide a smile as she turned. "No need to be so delicate, Harm. You could just say it's freezing your balls off."

"Not yet," he bantered back at her, "but a certain agreement we have may become null and void, if I get frostbite in that region."

"What agreement would that be, buddy?" The younger Turner asked as he moved quickly to comply with Harm's request. Doctor Studevant had glanced at his watch, noting the amount of time the pack had been in place and nodded his agreement to the request.

"The details are a private matter between the Colonel and myself." Harm replied.

"Oh, the baby deal." Tom Boone said nonchalantly.

"Tom! I never told you that." Harm looked outraged at his godfather and friend.

Sarah looked at him suspiciously. "Are you sure, fly-boy? 'Coz I sure as heck didn't tell him."

"What baby deal?" Sturgis was totally mystified by this non-conversation.

"I think I've already said too much." Tom Boone tried to look innocent, but MacKenzie and Rabb were regarding him with equal parts anger and confusion. "Hey, let's just say I have my sources, okay?"

"Baby deal, Commander?" Chaplain Turner was obviously intrigued as well. "Is there something you'll need to be confessing to, Harmon?"

Harm closed his eyes. "Me and my big mouth." He muttered.

"Hah! You just admitted you’re the one who spilled the beans on it, Rabb." The Colonel was all him. "Figures a squid can't keep an operation secret."

"What operation?" Now the younger Turner was really confused. "What is going on with you two? Harm?"

"Drop it, will you, buddy? It's between the Colonel and me. It's really no one else's business at this point. I have a really bad headache. Could I get some aspirin?"

"The headache is from the carbon monoxide you inhaled earlier, Harm. Just keeping breathing that oxygen you are on. Each blood test is improving, but we are watching things closely. Aspirin isn't going to help that particular kind of headache."

"Great. How about some ice chips? I'm so dry."


Reyes stepped over and lifted the mask, raising a spoon with some ice chips up to Harm's lips. "Let them melt in your mouth, Harm. Don't chew them. If your body can absorb it gradually, maybe it won't make the nausea worse again."

Harm took all the chips off the spoon, greedily. He was so parched. He let the chips melt in his mouth and actually swished the resulting fluid about to try and get the most moisture everywhere in his mouth possible before he swallowed anything. The nausea was already pretty severe, but he was tired of the dry heaves. "More, please?"

The doctor hesitated an instant and repeated the process again. "Just once more, for now."

Harm sucked the ice chips in silence for a while. He seemed to slip into unconsciousness.


The doctor took his temperature again and frowned. "It's still going up. Stu, let's get the cooling blanket back on him." Doctor Studevant had come in the room with Chegwidden since Harm had fallen silent.

Chegwidden moved to help the doctor get the machine set up, ready and in place. Almost immediately as the fluid began to circulate and pump cool water through its baffles, Harm began to shiver, violently. He seemed to cringe. The coldness of it clearly bothered him.


Rabb's head moved restlessly from side to side. He was on the edge of consciousness and his eyes moved rapidly behind closed lids. Suddenly he whispered, weakly. "God, I'm so cold. Where's Billy?"

Sturgis looked over at his father in horror. "What did you say, Harm?" He softly asked his friend.

"Is Billy okay? They were hurting him. They hurt us both, but he stopped talking and I couldn't keep him awake. He said it wouldn't hurt so much, if he slept. I tried to keep him awake. It is so cold." His voice was fading as true conscious faded. "Tell me Billy is okay." Rabb pleaded.

"Billy does not hurt any more, Harmon." The senior Turner bent over the Commander and placed his hands on Harm's forehead and his cheek, stilling his head movement. "He's safe now, son. No one will hurt him any more."

Harm's eyes snapped opened and sought the Chaplain's. Tears slid down his cheeks. "He's dead, isn't he? Billy died. This is all my fault."

"Harm, nothing about what happened was your fault." Chaplain Turner insisted, firmly.

"They said they wouldn't hurt him any more if I did what they wanted. I tried to, sir. I tried, but I couldn't. I just couldn't. So, they started hurting him again. They wouldn't stop. Nothing I said, no matter what I did. They would not stop. They kept hitting him until he was curled up in a ball on the ground. When he lay completely still, that is when they came after me."


The horror and loss in his voice broke Mac's heart. He sounded so young, so shattered, all of a sudden. It was clear he was trapped in another time. The clarity and lucidity he had held just a brief while ago was gone. He was shuddering with more than just cold. He looked her way, but never saw her. His eyes shut again quickly, as if he had seen something too horrible to gaze on very long.


Boone was looking at Mac, clearly as lost as she was as to what Harm was talking about.

"Chaplain T, how can you stand looking at me?" Harm sounded so vanquished. "I'm so dirty. I can never get clean. How can you even bear to be around me? It's my fault. I couldn't convince them they were wrong. It was all a terrible mistake.

"Why do they hate us so much? They were wrong about Billy. He wasn't that way. Even if he was that way, they had no right to hurt him like that, but he wasn't." He tried to turn away from the older man. Sturgis, the Chaplain and Boone all moved to pin him down, so he wouldn't displace the chest tubes.

Harm's response to the restraining move was one of pure terror. "Please. No more. Don't hurt me. I'm not…I'm not like that. Stop it. Don't. Please." His voice grew silent and he went limp.


"I want some answers. Who was Billy? What in the hell is he reliving now?" Boone was filled with rage. He had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Oh, God." Chegwidden looked at Harm with deep sadness. The time Harm was at the academy and the name, Billy. These facts stirred an uneasy memory. His eyes moved up and locked with the Chaplain's. "Matthew, we need to talk."

"Not now, Admiral." The Chaplain was actually curt with him. "There are some things you don't need to know. Leave it. Sturgis and I will stay here with Harm. He's adrift amidst some very rocky shoals right now. The presence of so many will only serve to confuse him more and make things worse. Please. Leave us and the doctors alone with him for the time being. This is going to get worse before it gets better." He turned to regard the doctors. "Is the cooling blanket absolutely necessary?" Both doctors nodded, grimly.

"He was cold that night, so cold. He nearly died of the hypothermia, but it slowed the bleeding and may be what saved his life." Sturgis was saying the words as if compelled.

"Stop, son!" Matthew looked angry. "Enough. That isn't helping."

"Dad, we can't make him colder. It's going to keep the nightmare alive. He's trapped back there. We have to stop it somehow." The younger man was pleading, looking for an escape for his friend.

"Please. Let me die. Just let me die." Harm's eyes were still closed. He pleaded. "I just want it all to stop. I can't do this again. I can't. Let me go."

Tom Boone pushed Sturgis out of the way and bent over Harm. "Snap out of it, Harm. It's Tom. I don't know where you think you are, but you are on the Seahawk with me. You are not a quitter, Junior. You never have been. You aren't going anywhere. Hold on, son. Fight this." He grabbed the younger man's shoulder, but when he made contact, he sensed something he didn't like. His voice changed to a tone of pleading. "Don't you dare give up, Harm. You never give up. A Rabb doesn't give up."

Eerily matter of fact, Harm replied. "You don't understand. If you did, you'd want me gone. I don't deserve to be called Rabb. I've shamed the name, Uncle Tom. You knew. Somehow you knew. It's why you stayed away from me all these years. Deep inside, you knew I was unclean."

"Damn it, Hammer! Stop it. That's not true."

Sturgis pulled him away. "Don't call him that, right now. He's not the man you know. He's the boy he was. Please, my father is right. He and I need to handle things right now. Go now. Please. Don't make this harder for him. We'll send for you when he's less confused about where he is, but leave us now."

On the bed, Harm was weeping silent tears. Every now and then he would murmur, softly. "Please let me go. This has to end. Let me go."

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  • FWWATT Chapter 7 Section Eleven -- Sylvia Mohr Bartlett, 15:18:03 03/04/06 Sat
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