Jesse had wrapped her hand in his and matched her squeeze for squeeze as he stroked her head and whispered words of love. She’d been laboring for almost four hours. As he looked at her struggling, red, squinched-up face, he loved her more than ever and thought she was never more beautiful. Something she would not have believed. One thought kept hammering into his mind. Please God let this child be whole. Let these doctors be correct. Don’t let anything go wrong, please. There came a point when he could think of nothing else.
The nurses in their familiarity with this everyday event bantered lightly. “So what are you hoping for? A boy, right? Cowboys all want boys.”
“I like girls…” he managed to get said.
“You got names picked out?” The voices came anonymously from masked faces.
“Harley, if it’s a boy. Alexandra, if it’s a girl.”
Just then, Holly howled, perspiration popped in beads across her face. A faceless chorus chanted the word “push.” Jesse stood by her head, mopping her face as she sucked air in and blew it out on a shattering scream, nearly crushing his hand. He heard the sounds in a blur of movement and turned to see the doctor holding their baby and swabbing it clean. The nurse held a pair of scissors out to Jesse and he cut the cord.
And then she handed him his son. How fragile, his tiny fuzzy head cradled in his palm and how insistent in his effort to rise up and turn to see the world. The sweet, newborn smell of him was that of life itself. The scent of a miracle. All his parts seemed where they belonged. Jesse brought him gently to his chest and felt complete…then he carried him to Holly and presented their son to her outstretched arms. Once in her possession, she scanned him like a laser. Satisfied, she mouthed, “He’s a smoogie, Harley.” She then took him to her bosom and closed her eyes.
Later, in a private room, Jesse sat on the edge of the bed holding her hand. Doctor Adashek had taken Ruby to see her grandson. He squeezed her hand and said, “Well done, Holly Marie. You did a helluva job. I’m so proud of you. We’ve got a son. We’ve got a Harley.” He felt his eyes well up and turned to look at her.
Her hand had felt lifeless when he squeezed it. Her eyes were closed. He pressed her hand again and said, “You want to sleep?” A sharp panic surged through him as he sensed something wrong and called her name. “Holly?!”
There was no response. He reached for her shoulders and moved her gently, calling her name. There was nothing. He flew from the bed and ran into the hall calling for help. A nurse came quickly to the room. In minutes, Doctor Adashek, the Indian woman, another doctor and several nurses hovered at her bedside. Jesse had turned to stone, out of their way, letting them work. Ruby came to his side. They put their arms around each other, stunned.
Doctor Adashek, rigid-faced, came to them and very quickly said, “She’s in coma. We’re taking her to intensive care immediately.” With that, he turned to a flurry of activity that sped her from the room leaving Jesse and Ruby mute, frozen fast to their place.
The emergency team moved with elegant precision at a furious pace. Complex procedures were carried out with astonishing dispatch. Blood pressure, pulse, temperature, heart rhythm, and blood oxygen monitors were attached. Electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, and a CT scan of the brain were performed. Within minutes, computerized blood tests were completed to evaluate for the possibility of various organ or gland malfunctions or chemical imbalances in the blood—all unlikely in a young woman so healthy, but Doctor Adashek took nothing for granted. He knew he stood in the presence of a grave complication.
He called in an intensivist to manage the myriad details involved in caring for a comatose patient and a neurologist for the specialized evaluation of the possibility of a central nervous system disaster. After his examination and reviewing test results, it was determined that his clinical suspicion was correct. The CT scan had shown an intracerebral hemorrhage, bleeding into the substance of the brain. It was confined to the right frontal lobe. A neurosurgeon arrived promptly, performed a neurological examination, reviewed the test results and confirmed the diagnosis.
Abbie had met Bear at the airport by holding up a sign saying, GRANDFATHER BEAR? She drove him straight to the hospital where their bright expectant faces turned immediately to clay.
Four white-coated doctors came through doors and arced around Jesse, Ruby, Bear, and Abbie. The family faces, drawn and creased had taken on the color of the walls.
Doctor Adashek spoke first, then deferred to the neurosurgeon. He was patient, compassionate. His eyes went to each family member as he spoke. “At this point, the exact cause of this event can only be a matter of speculation. Intracranial hemorrhages occur very rarely, and totally unpredictably in normal, healthy women. Some recover with residual disability of varying degrees, and some make total recovery with no permanent effects at all.” Then his calm, educated face took on another hue as his poise crumbled some. He fiddled with a nonexistent itch at the end of his nose as he said, “And you do need to have the full picture, at least to the extent that we do. In some instances, these events…they can prove fatal. I’m sorry to have to say that, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t. Now we’ve got a lot more testing to do and we’re going to get right to it. We need to do a cerebral angiogram. She could have an aneurysm that ruptured. We just don’t know.” He scanned the pained faces before him and smiled as warmly as he could. He stepped close to Ruby and touched her arm saying, “We’ll take care of her.” He placed his hand on Jesse’s shoulder for an instant, then turned and left followed by two doctors.
The cold sparseness of his form belied the warmness of Doctor Adashek’s heart. “Doctor Wilson is one of the best neurosurgeons in the country. If I had a problem, he’s who I’d want. Have you seen your new grandson, Mr. Bassett?” Bear shook his head. “Come. We’ll show him off to you. And for whatever it’s worth,” he turned back over his shoulder as he led the way, “her hemorrhage had nothing to do with the pregnancy or the delivery.” They all fell in behind, Bear with his arm around Ruby. Abbie mustered enthusiasm for what should have been a pure and joyous thing, corrupted now with fear and anxiety.
Doctor Adashek put the baby Harley back in his tiny chamber. “It’s going to be some time,” he said. “So if you want to leave, get something to eat, whatever…I’ll call you the minute we know anything.”
“If it’s all the same, Doctor,” Bear responded, “we’ll stay.”