Part 9: Mr. And Mrs. Russeler
by N.R. LevyThe emergency room at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Hospital was notoriously busy. This was the place where any variety of injuries, from multiple gunshot victims to the unending series of drunks needing fluids and a good night's sleep flowed through the doors. Needless to say, it was a safe assumption that Dr. Spencer Townsend had seen it all since coming to the Delaware hospital.
She was in the fifteenth hour of what looked like the shift that would never end. Somehow, it had seemed that becoming the head of Emergency Surgery was supposed to cut down on the number of hours she worked, but instead, she found that her life revolved around the hospital more and more.
She stood up, about to go and get her twentieth cup of coffee when she saw the man walk in carrying a woman in his arms. The man was in his mid thirties, very handsome – and he was panic stricken. Spencer immediately headed toward the couple.
"Can I help you, sir?"
"It's my wife. She's seven months pregnant and she's bleeding internally."
Spencer directed the man into a triage room, and she directed her favorite nurse, Angela, to follow. Spencer couldn't help but notice the gentleness in the way the man laid his wife on the stretcher in the room, and she decided then and there that this couple would remain under her care for the duration of their crisis.
"What can you tell me about what happened?" A strange look crossed the man's face, and Spencer quickly recognized it as fear.
"Sir, all I care about is helping your wife. Whatever you tell me, it'll stay here."
The man's face relaxed a little, and he took his wife's hand and leaned close to her as he spoke.
"My name is Jarod Russeler. I'm a federal agent. During my wife's first trimester, she was shot by someone coming after me, and the bullet is still logged in her lower back. She took a fall tonight, and I think it must have moved the bullet."
"Okay, Jarod. We're going to bring in the ultrasound and check on the baby and your wife. What's her name?"
"Catherine."
The ultrasound arrived and Angela, who had finished hooking Mrs. Russeler up to an IV and a fetal heart monitor was about to shoo Jarod away when a look from Spencer held her back.
Spencer decided to first check on the baby's condition. There was no question that if things had happened the way Jarod said, Mrs. Russeler would be in surgery within the hour. What was in question were the
baby's chances of survival.After a moment, the baby's image filled the screen of the sonogram screen, and Spencer felt her options doubling. The baby's heartbeat was already registering steady and normal on the monitor, and now she could see that the baby was actually active and in no apparent distress.
"Angela, get a setup for an amnio. We need to check the baby's ox-sat levels."
Angela nodded and left to get the materials the doctor needed. Spencer looked over and saw that Jarod's whole focus was on his wife, on trying to comfort her and to get her to wake.
"Jarod."
He looked up at her, nearly surprised to hear his name. Then his eyes fell on the screen of the ultrasound.
"Your son's doing fine for now. I'm going to check on his oxygen saturation levels. Do you know what that means?"
She was surprised when Jarod nodded yes, but accepted his answer and continued.
"Okay, I'm going to use the ultrasound to check her back. Do you know where the bullet was sitting?"
"Lower left side, about two inches from her spine."
Spencer decided not to ask how he knew that in such detail and instead, eased Catherine Russeler onto her side with Jarod's help. Moments with the ultrasound showed Spencer that her patient was definitely bleeding internally, but that the rupture was slow and contained.
"She was in a lot of pain when I found her."
Spencer nodded at Jarod's words, and continued to work with the ultrasound.
"I'm not surprised. The bleeding is fairly contained in the muscle tissues, but the tearing affected several nerve bundles. She probably had pain receptors shooting off all over the place."
"Can you save them both?"
Spencer looked up into Jarod's face. He was so obviously devoted to the family that lay in her care, and she felt a sudden compulsion to do better than her best for them.
"I think we can. I'm going to page Dr. Carl Young. He's the lead OB/GYN here. But that's just as a precaution. I think we can fix the damage in Michael's back without delivering the baby."
She saw the worry that crossed Jarod's face, and also noticed a hint of something else, but she wasn't sure what it was.
"But, I – the, uh, doctors said initially that there was no way to do surgery without losing the baby."
"They were right at the time, Jarod. Especially in the first trimester, a procedure this invasive would have definitely ended the pregnancy. But your son's probably only two to three weeks away from being able to be born and not end up on a respirator. I'd like to give him that time if I can. So we'll do the surgery to stop the bleeding, and we'll keep Dr. Young on standby, just in case there's a complication and we have to deliver her tonight."
"What will the baby's chances be? I mean, if you have to take him tonight?"
"I won't know for sure until I see the ox-sat levels, but I'm guessing from what I saw in the ultrasound that he'd still have pretty good odds. Just not as good as the ones he'd have in a few weeks."
Jarod nodded and looked back to his wife. He reached out with his other hand and gently brushed the hair away from her face. Spencer sensed that he needed to tell the sleeping woman something, and so she excused herself to contact Dr. Young and track down the test results.
Alone with Parker, Jarod finally let the tears he'd been fighting fall down from his eyes. Why couldn't anything ever be easy for her? She'd already been facing so much, and now this – it just didn't seem fair that she was always the one who was left hurting. He leaned close to her, his heart full of things he wanted to say, his mind knowing there were only two things he needed to say.
"I promise you, Parker, you're going to be all right, you and Tommy. And I promise I won't leave you. I won't ever leave you again."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Broots paced in Sydney's office, waiting for the shrink to return from yet another meeting with Mr. Parker. The older man was furious that his daughter had disappeared, and even more upset that it appeared foul play had been involved. Quite frankly, his level of concern had surprised both Broots and Sydney, but neither had told him what they knew about Miss Parker's sudden disappearance from Blue Cove.
Actually, what Broots had known up until today had been pretty limited. Jarod had called Sydney in the middle of the night, telling him that Miss Parker had been hurt and that he was taking her away. Sydney had called Broots' shortly after that, and he had met his colleague at Miss Parker's house.
Broots was horrified when they saw the blood trail that ran from her living room to the front door. Sydney quickly told him the blood was from her assailant and not from their friend, but Broots still couldn't help but worry. He had taken a sample from the blood and searched for any other forensic clues that would help he and Sydney determine who had attacked Miss Parker. Then Sydney had called Mr. Parker to report Miss Parker missing.
Sydney entered the office and crossed toward Broots.
"How'd it go?"
Sydney shook his head, not wanting to discuss his meeting with the Parker family.
"Did you get the results back?"
Broots handed Sydney the file folder that he had brought with him that morning. The psychiatrist carefully opened the folder, suspecting what it might say, but almost dreading having it confirmed. He looked down and read the page.
"AB negative with the pretender genetic factor." Sydney closed the file and looked at Broots. "Lyle."
"Yeah, Syd, it's definite. Are you going to tell Jarod?"
"I have to. I'm extremely concerned about how he'll take the news, Broots, but he has to know. If Lyle was willing to go this far, Miss Parker can't come back here, not until there's a way for she and the baby to stay safe."
"Have you heard from him again?"
"He called early this morning, but Parker was still in surgery. Hopefully we'll hear something soon."
Broots nodded and dropped his eyes to the floor. 'Please,' he thought, 'please, let her be okay.'
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Parker slowly became aware of her surroundings, registering immediately that she was not in her own home and that she wasn't alone. She opened her eyes and blinked several times before looking around to get a better idea of where she was.
A hospital. Suddenly the events in her house came racing back to her and her right hand flew to her stomach as she felt pressure on her left.
"He's okay, Parker. He's still with you."
The words sank in as she relaxed a moment and let herself accept that her son was all right. She turned her head to where Jarod's voice had come from, and found him sitting beside her, looking absolutely exhausted.
"Jarod, where are we?"
"A hospital in Delaware, but away from Blue Cove. The Centre has no idea where you are."
"How did you know?"
Jarod smiled and moved from his chair to the side of her bed, her left hand remaining warm in the grasp of his.
"I didn't. I was coming to bully you into going on an early maternity leave somewhere I could keep an eye on you."
"Thank God." Suddenly Parker was no longer able to hold at bay thoughts of what had almost happened that night. Tears spilled from her eyes as Jarod reached out to wipe them away.
"Jarod, I was so scared. I've never felt so helpless in my life."
"Shh. I know. I know. But you're safe now, you both are."
They sat there like that for what seemed a long time, and only allowed distance to come between them when the nurses came in to check on her vital signs. After they finished, Jarod returned to his seat on her bed.
"You should get some rest. We can talk about everything later."
"You should get some rest, Jarod. You look like you haven't slept in days."
"I haven't. I'm not a big sleeper anyway. Besides, I'd much rather sit here and watch you sleep."
Before Parker could respond, a red-haired woman wearing surgical scrubs entered her room.
"Well, well, I see my star patient is awake."
Parker noticed Jarod smile at the woman, and a momentary surge of jealousy ran through her.
"Jarod, I hope you're taking good care of Catherine for me."
Catherine – the name hit Parker and caused a momentary bout of confusion before she realized that Jarod had invented a cover for them in order to keep them hidden from the Centre. She should have realized that sooner, she chided herself, and wondered if she would ever have her edge back or if motherhood had permanently stolen it away.
"She seems great to me, but then again, she always is." Jarod smiled at Parker, and she smiled back, signaling that she got the pretend and wouldn't give them away.
"Honey, if you keep talking like that, people are going to actually start to believe that you like me."
Spencer laughed at Parker's comment, and she was glad to see that her patient was in such good spirits following what had been a very tricky and long procedure. But they had gotten the results they wanted – Mrs. Russeler was alive and the baby's condition was stable.
"I just wanted to check in on you before I finally head home. I don't know about you two, but I'm beat."
Parker decided she liked Spencer's manner and she relaxed around the woman who she guessed was not much older than her. Spencer went on to explain that they would keep her hospitalized until the baby's oxygen levels showed his lungs were fully developed – two to three weeks at most, and then they would deliver him via c-section and remove the damnable bullet from her back.
Spencer left after admonishing Parker to get some rest, and as if the words held some magic power to make her sleep, her eyelids began to droop. She was nearly out when she felt the warmth of Jarod's hand against her face, making her feel safe and cared for.
Jarod watched her drift off to sleep and then settled back into his chair, finally letting his own eyes close for a few hours of sleep. He woke with a start from yet another nightmare about Parker being hurt to see that she was still resting comfortably. Knowing there was no way he could get back to sleep, he stood and walked into the corner of the room, pressing a speed dial button on his cell phone.
"This is Sydney."
"Did you find anything?"
The pause that followed his question told Jarod that not only had Sydney found something, but it was also something Sydney did not really want to tell him.
"How's Miss Parker?"
"Stable, for now. We're going to try and wait a few weeks before they deliver the baby. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep her comfortable until then. Sydney, what did you find?"
"The blood in Miss Parker's house is AB Negative, and contains the pretender genetic factor."
Jarod closed his eyes and his body burned with the fury he'd so often felt since recovering his mind and heart following Raines' torture. Lyle. That one word reverberated over and over in his mind, and he silently wished -- not for the first time – that he hadd killed Parker's psychopathic brother that day in the Appalachians.
"Watch him, Sydney. Watch everything he does. This time, he's going to have to pay for what he's done."
Jarod hung up the phone as pain shot through his hand, and he looked down, realizing it was coming from the vice-like grip he held on the small appliance. His emotions were building into a cold rage, and probably would have reached the breaking point had he not heard Parker yelp in pain from her bed.
He dropped the phone in his chair and moved to her side. She was still battling pain without the aid of any painkillers. Especially now, it was crucial that the baby not have anything interfere with his last weeks of growth. The onslaught of discomfort hadn't woken her, but she was clearly disturbed.
Jarod held her hand and tried to calm her, but it wasn't helping. Then he remembered a moment from his early recovery in Maine, and he climbed into the bed beside her, snaking his body into the open space so that he didn't jostle her. He eased her head onto his chest, and let his arms wrap around her.
"It's okay, Parker. I'm right here."
Jarod felt her relax in his arms. He lay there, just holding her for hours. And then he drifted off into the first dreamless sleep he could remember.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"We have to find her." The urgency in Lyle's voice only stood to infuriate Brigitte more. If he hadn't blown everything, there wouldn't be a problem.
"We will, luvvie. If she's on her own, she'll make a mistake. And if she isn't, well, then we just have to wait for Jarod to show."
Lyle looked at his stepmother, confusion playing over his face.
"Lyle, if she's with Jarod, then he knows her little fall was no accident. That means he'll be looking for whoever did it."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, watch your back. He'll come for you this time, and we'll have to be ready."
Go to part 10