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Date Posted: 14:34:46 02/26/06 Sun
Author: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett
Subject: FWWATT CH 4 Section 3
In reply to: Sylvia Mohr Bartlett 's message, "FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL CH 4" on 14:17:56 02/26/06 Sun


FOR WHICH WE ARE TRULY THANKFUL CHAPTER 4: SECTION 3


Section 3: Coming Around

by Sylvia Mohr Bartlett



The ventilator was taped to the left side of Harm's face, so Mac walked around to the other side. She let down the railing and climbed up on the bed, being careful of the IV's and restraint on his wrist. She gently kissed his forehead, each eyelid and the tip of his nose. Careful not to disturb the ventilator tubing, she pressed her lips against what of his were available and kissed him as deeply as the circumstances would permit. His eyelids fluttered and she saw. She kissed him again. He tried to cough and began to fight the ventilator.

"Easy, Harm." She whispered. "Don't fight it. Let it work. Just come back to me."

A panicked look came on Harm's face. He tried to turn his head, but Mac held it still. "Come back to me, fly boy. Come on." Harm fought to open his eyes, but couldn't yet. A single tear coursed down his right cheek. Sarah wiped it away with her fingertips. "Wake up, Harm."

Rabb coughed and choked at the tubing.

"Doctor!" Mac called out.

Reyes came in fast, pausing only a brief instant at the sight of the Marine Colonel up on the bed next to his patient. Ignoring that, he went to the other side and tried to calm Harm. "Commander, can you hear me?"

Harm tried to swallow, tried to nod and finally got his eyes open. There was stark terror in them.

Mac realized what was happening and moved into his field of vision. "Harm, look at me." His eyes sought hers, wide…frightened. "It's okay. You aren't on the Watertown. You are safe. I'm okay. You are hurt but you will be all right. The tube is a ventilator."

The doctor was doing something with the controls of the machine. Harm bucked slightly, but drew his first unassisted breath at once around the tubing. Coughing and choking a bit, but breathing. "Want this out, Rabb?"

The aviator/lawyer's eyes made plain his plea. The doctor quickly moved to comply. As the tube slid out, Harm coughed again, but as soon as it was clear, he gasped for his first clean, unobstructed air at once. His eyes closed and he tried to swallow. It was an effort and clearly hurt, but he succeeded.

For good measure, Mac kissed him again and was surprised with the insistence of the response she got. She pulled away. His eyes opened again and he asked in a ragged whisper of sound. "Did you just wake me with a kiss?"

Mac smiled. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Dr Reyes remarked dryly. "Unconventional approach in sick bay, but obviously effective."

Rabb's eyes went to him. "Why am I restrained?"

"Easy, Harm. You have an IV in your good arm, one in the sub-clavian artery on your injured side and blood transfusions in both ankles. The restraints are to keep you from dislodging any of them. You came too damn close to bleeding out on us, Hammer. Try and stay awake." He went out to update Sturgis and Admiral Boone.


Sturgis immediately closed on the doctor after he barely cleared the door out of the room. "What do you suspect this Doctor Mahlberg was up to, exactly?"

The man hesitated, but leveled with them. "I don't want either of you jumping to premature conclusions, but the corpsman who came to get me had concerns about what exactly was administered to Rabb earlier by Dr. Mahlberg. I did the surgery on Rabb before the other case came in. He was beginning to come out of the anesthesia while he was still in the OR. Him declining again makes no sense unless… The tests will tell me if he has started bleeding again inside the wound. I put a Teflon graft on the artery. It should have held. Let's give the colonel a moment or two more with Rabb. He's – um – responding well to her."

"He's awake?" Both Boone and Sturgis looked relieved.

"Awake and off the ventilator." The doctor affirmed. "Wait here a few." He went back in to his patient.


Mac had her head against the right side of Harm's chest, one hand stroking his cheek. She felt him tensing and raised her head to look at his face. He was trying to hide the pain.

Dr Reyes moved to draw up a syringe from two medicine bottles on the bedside table. Harm saw what he was doing in his peripheral vision and pleaded, weakly. "No. Please. I don't want anything."

"Commander, believe me, after what it took to get you back with us, I am not going to over sedate you. This is a combination of a muscle relaxer and something to take the edge off that pain. It won't knock you out."

"Mac?" His eyes turned to her, fearful. "I don't … please, no."

Sarah stroked his face, keeping his eyes focused on her as the doctor administered the drugs IV push. "It's all right, Harm." She was trying to reassure him, but she saw the drugs hitting him almost at once and him fighting them, resisting.

"No. The dreams." He tried to toss his head only to be more firmly restrained by Reyes.

"Commander, you have a sub-clavian IV. Hold still or I'll have to strap your head between two sandbags to restrain you."

"No." Harm quieted his movements. "I'll behave. Please…don't…"

Reyes frowned. "It's not punishment Harm. You could restart the bleeding or cause an embolism. Just try not to toss around too much."

Harm's color was gray, almost blue tinged. The doctor got an oxygen mask and put it over his nose and mouth, adjusting the flow. In just a few breaths, his color improved. "Sorry, Dr. Reyes."

"For what?" The doctor asked gruffly. "You didn't do anything wrong, Harm."

"I was kind of freaking out." He tried to raise his head, but couldn't manage it. He was too weak. "Mac, tell him about the Watertown." He closed his eyes. "I'm dizzy. Room's spinning."

"Quit fighting the meds so hard, Commander. They won't knock you out. Let them work." The doctor felt his arm where it was secured to his chest and just below the injury. "Your muscles are still in spasm, here. Try and relax as much as possible. Breath slow and easy. Come on."

Harm tried, slowing and deepening his breathing pattern.

"Remind him, colonel. In through the nose; out through the mouth with slow even breaths."

Sarah gently coached him.


Reyes went back to the door and let Boone and Turner in. Neither man remarked or even raised an eyebrow at the sight of Mac perched on the bed.

When Harm saw Tom Boone, he said. "Admiral…"

"Not for much longer, Harm. You look better than the last time I saw you, but you're hurting. Doc, can't you give him something for it?"

"No." Harm protested hastily. "It's – it's not that bad."

"My friend, you can't get better if the pain is taking all your energy." Sturgis put in. Seeing the panic flare, he sighed. "I know. The dreams. Doc, can't you give him anything that would actually preclude the dreams?"

"Not at this point. It would be risky in light of how hard a time we had bringing him out. I may increase the muscle relaxers. For now, that is the best option."

Trying to deflect any more medication, Harm asked. "Doc? Will this bum wing end my flying career?"

"I don't think you need have any concern about that, Hammer. The muscle and nerves are protesting the injury and all the flying you still had to do after the shrapnel caught you. Wiggle your fingers for me on this hand."

Wincing, Harm complied. His arm was taped firm to his side and across his mid-abdomen, so wiggling the fingers on that arm was all he could do.

"You didn't tear any nerves, tendons or muscles in any way that compromised anything structurally. There is no broken bone. Originally, I think the shrapnel just nicked the artery. You were spurting blood at that point, still bleeding pretty good, but it was once you hit the deck and caught the wire the artery was almost completely torn through. We had to use a Teflon graft to repair it. Barring infection causing further damage, you should be able to start playing guitar again in about 7 to 10 days, once the stitches come out."

"I figured at least 6 to 8 weeks for something like that." Harm muttered.

"Actually, a quicker return to playing guitar would almost count as physical therapy. It will help you regain full use of your arm sooner. Besides, Chaplain Howard told me about your Thanksgiving appearance at the Academy Chapel. I think that's great. Prepping for it will give you something to do while you recuperate – a welcome distraction."

"Gee, thanks." Rabb groused. "No doctor's note to get me out of it, huh?"

"Sorry, Harm. I'm not going to tick off two chaplains and a two star unnecessarily."

Harm's breath was coming in shallow, ragged pants now and the pain on his face was clearly intensifying.

Doctor Reyes checked above and below the surgery site on the injured arm. "This isn't working, Commander;" he said regretfully, "I have to give you another shot." He moved quickly to do so. Almost before he removed the needle from the IV tubing, Harm's struggle to remain conscious failed and his eyes slid closed.

Reyes gave an apologetic glance at Mac and Commander Turner. "The welfare of my patient has to take precedence over your investigation. In spite of the earlier dose, he was going into a major spasm in his injured arm. I've seen spasms like that snap bones, let alone rip a grafted artery apart. Why is Hammer so wary of pain meds? I know he can have some horrific nightmares, but ~"

Mac explained the incident aboard the Watertown sub in detail, obviously the first time Admiral Boone and Sturgis had heard some of the grim facts of the ordeal.

"Okay. That would explain his fear of being unable to breath on his own and being restrained – even his reluctance to use pain meds to a degree, but…"

"That is just one of the traumas he lives with. He's never failed a psych evaluation, Doctor Reyes. He handles his 'night terrors' well for the most part, but he needs to be able to wake up when they happen. With heavy pain meds, he can't always do that. It makes it worse." Turner added.

"I see. Well, that's not a problem in this case. The last thing I intend to do is sedate him into Elm Street land. I just have to prevent further damage or re-injury."


Boone paced away from the bed. He was clearly uncomfortable with the thought of what Harm seemed to endure on an ongoing basis, but he added. "He's always had problems with bad dreams – even before his dad went down. Harm Sr. told me of some real awful ones." He came back to regard the younger man with a sad pride. "He overcomes more on a daily basis than the average Joe will ever face….and he does it so well it is easy to forget he has to deal with crap like that." He looked regretfully at Mac and Sturgis. "You two have an investigation to handle. You'd best get to it. I'll stay with Harm."

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  • FWWATT CH 4 Section 4 -- Sylvia Mohr Bartlett, 14:37:41 02/26/06 Sun
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