Dark as Daylight Ch. 20

"Please explain that sentence."

"You don't understand one thing about a woman, when she is in love."

"Would you please explain what I'm missing?"

"I don't want to wait to marry you. I want to marry you now, right now, yesterday if it was possible, but I can't because of all the restrictions I've placed on myself. That's what's making me unhappy."

"Have you spoken to your grandmother about this?"

"No, I haven't."

"Don't you believe that should be your next move?"

"Will you come with me?"

"I'm busy that day."

(He didn't move fast enough to avoid being pummeled by her fists.)

"Wise ass!"

"Of course, I'll go with you. It does have something to do with the rest of my life, doesn't it?"

"Yes, sort of."

"I'll give you a 'sort of'."

He twisted her over, put her flat on the ground, and proceeded to spank her as he did her sister. Only this time, it was flesh to flesh, and it was a much sweeter feeling.

*****************

The den and the library of Patrick's home were taken apart down to bare walls to meet codes for hospital environs. A new air conditioner was put into the backyard to supply air flow requirements for the new room Jemma would be placed in. There were no problems getting permits, inspections, or waivers for this area of the house, because word had come down from on high that jobs were at risk if there were any delays or problems.

New electrical conduits were run into the house to run equipment that needed 440 Vac in case of an emergency. Nothing was left to chance. Things that should have taken six months to get designed, approved, installed, tested, and passed by code enforcement were done in a little more than three days. Walls were torn down, rebuilt, electrical, telephone, and emergency service lines were installed, wallboard put up and taped in one hour. There was no door. A system of heavy Lucite flexible panels hung from the ceiling to floor 60 inches wide. No one was worried about the cold air getting out of the room, they were worried about having access to the 2 people that were going to be living in that room. William was going to be by the Windows facing the rear yard. The draperies were all electric controlled. They could be opened and closed as he wished.

The room was going to be surrounded by monitors of every sort. When young William so the layout for the 1^st time he said, "Where is my father's television?"

Doctor Braverman said, "Will, your father can have his life or his television?"

Patrick stepped in.

"Doctor, are these all the monitors, and gadgets you are going to need to keep my parents alive?"

"Pat with everything you see here, we could perform open heart surgery."

"I guess you mean 'yes', isn't that right Doctor?"

"Yes Patrick, that is an absolute yes."

"Will, let's go pick out dad's television."

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving the stool alone."

"I'm not either William. I'm going to my laptop."

"Have you spoken to your lady today?"

"I'm working my way up to it."

"I never thought I would see the day Pat."

"You got me into this mess, William. I never thought I would fall in love. It's not the $10 million and you know it. She just knocked my socks off."

"Television."

"How can you think about watching television at a time like this?"

"Patrick, breathe."

Patrick took a quick deep breath and let it go and asked, "Okay, what did I miss?"

"What did we leave the recovery room for Patrick?"

"Gwen needed us?"

"Where would you like the wedding?"

"Why are we talking about weddings?"

"Patrick close your eyes."

"I will not close my eyes. You're going to hit me if I do."

"I may hit you if you deserve it, but I want you to think back to why we left the recovery room."

Patrick I'd his brother warily, but closed his eyes to think about what had happened in the last 5 minutes. He remembered the wall going up, the wire is being installed, and the discussion with Doctor Braverman. That's when he opened his eyes and yelled, "Shit!"

He was _1/2 too late. Williams heel had just made contact with his left instep. Patrick's 'SHIT' turned into an 'You Fucking Bastard', in the blink of an eye."

William said, "You remembered why we are here in the hallway, didn't you?"

"We are supposed to buy our father a television, with a very special display case."

"Way to go Pat. Sorry about your foot."

"You are not sorry. You waited a long time to get even for your nose."

"Yes, I did wait a long time, and it did feel very satisfying."

"A truce until we purchased the televisions?"

"Deal. You are so easy Pat."

"We will see William."

"Did you just say televisions?"

"I most certainly did."

"What are you up to now Pat?"

"Be nice, I'll charge it off to NASA."

"Don't you dare, someone will catch it, and there will be a congressional hearing, and someone will smear us all over the papers and the televisions for a few thousand dollars."

"Relax, I'll call in a debt Samsung owes me. Jong Kyun has a new set coming out that is supposed to be the be-all and end-all for the next generation of televisions. They are about $8 grand a piece, and we only need a dozen of them, unless you want one for your bedroom if things are drying up."

"Take care of your own bedroom Pat. Mine is doing just fine. Have you heard from Audra lately?"

"You no good, rotten, son of a bitch. You had to do that to me, didn't you?"

"You opened the door, and all I was doing was trying to ease your pain."

"How were you trying to ease my pain big brother? I am being a monk because I've fallen for a woman I could be faithful to for the rest of my life. You had to mention the one woman in the entire world I could call and have her do anything for me as soon as she closes the door."

"I want you to think back to the days and months after I met Gwendolyn. Do you have to close your eyes to remember what you did to me during the months mom forced Gwen and me to remain engaged rather give them get married just to be sure Gwen was the right one for her, but more importantly she was the right one for me."

"I was a dumb youth at the time."

"I am in the prime of my life, and I am going to give you everything I can think of to make your life miserable. When I meet this young woman, I am going to warn her off you. I am going to tell her about all your mental defects, your liaisons with all the women dad set you up with so you could grow up to be a man, especially Audra. I will tell her about the 3-day weekend in the rolling hills of West Virginia where the 2 of you christened nearly 273 beds, in 3 nights. She will not believe me, because it's very hard to believe that any 2 people can have sex that many times in 60 hours, but I will offer up my father as proof of that event, because we were both there as witnesses. You, brother, will be dead meat."

"She believes in the redemption of the body and of the soul."

"You are going to be asking for an awful lot of redemption, little brother, especially when I tell her you attempted to have sex with my wife."

"I did not."

"We weren't married yet. We were at a party, and she was a little tipsy. You took her into a bedroom, and attempted to take advantage of her."

"You are a no good, lousy rat."

"Thank you for protecting my honor, Patrick. Of course, my husband may go on the longest dry spell of his life, but it was a very interesting scenario."

"I would put my life on the line to protect you Gwennie, at any time and at any place and you know it."

William kissed Gwen passionately, but she pushed him away.

"Mister, it is going to take an awful lot more than a kiss to get you out of this much trouble."

"Are you asking me to stand and deliver?"

"I am."

"In that case, I need approximately one hour to finish purchasing, how many did you say Patrick, '10' televisions for the recovery room and several other places in the houses. I dare not leave him alone and let his imagination run rampant."

"I am going to take a bath and get into bed. If I am asleep before you get there, sleep with your daughters, it will remind you of celibacy."

"I will be there while you are awake my love."

"I'm horny, you better be there."

"What time is it in Seoul?"

"Do you really give a fuck William?"

"No not really."

Patrick flipped open his Android, went through his phonebook and found what he wanted. William watched his brother as he negotiated and very quickly it was done. A dozen televisions that were not on the market yet were on their way by Federal Express and would be here in 2 days. The cost, nothing. It was another gift from a friend to a friend.

**********************

William stayed by Jemma's side day and night. Actually; he lay down in his bed beside her, watching her breathe through a ventilator. Doctor Braverman was taking no chances with him, and his health. William Junior was running the show, and Patrick was his ramrod.

From the moment construction started to the moment it finished, it took 3 ½ days no one missed a beat.

Patrick had everyone remain on-site until two engineers could go over their work, and certify everything was in 100% working order. This man and woman team tested everything from light bulbs to electrical outlets and when they were finished, they had a list of 42 items that didn't pass inspection.

The construction workers couldn't believe it, but when they checked, it was true. It was nitpicky work, but it was bad work, and they fixed it in under two hours. When the engineers checked over the house again, they found one thing was not fixed properly. The person that did it said that he did fix it properly. This led to a larger problem in the electrical system all the way back to a circuit breaker that was overloading. It turned out that the circuit breaker was good but the wiring design was wrong. It could've caused a fire inside a wall and nobody wanted that to happen, or worse still, be blamed for it. It was a good catch before the Zabo's returned home.

The external air conditioner was turned on in the 'Recovery Room'. The room was cooled to a temperature of 72°. Everyone who remained in the room was freezing and when the test was done, they felt like icicles. The air conditioner was raised to a comfortable 80°, the box over the thermostat was closed and locked, and the temperature control unit was linked directly to the nurse's station. The computer which was going to care for Jemma was directly across the way from the nurse's station, and both were a mere 10 feet outside the Recovery Room.

No one was allowed into the room without wearing the disposable cotton botties, except the nurses. Their shoes stayed on site always and went into a decontamination unit every time they went off duty.

Patrick's house had every medical device and prescription medication either patient would need at a second's notice. The nurses were top notch. They were being paid a princely sum for every day's work, in cash as they watched over the two Zabo patients. There was no record of their service, so if they declared it as income, they did. If they didn't, that was their choice. They knew their friends would never say a thing against them.

Tuesday was D-Day. William was hyper from the second he woke up. By the way he was acting with his sons, making demands of them that were unreasonable, he knew his patient had to be taken out of the equation for the day. He discussed it with William Junior, and he agreed that getting his father home and in bed was going to be the best way to handle him while Jemma was being transferred.

"I wish we hadn't taken out his IV, because my choice would have been easy to make as far as what medication to give him would be. Don't get me wrong William, your dad is healthy and it is my plan to keep them that way. The medicine I'm going to give him is a little out of the box, but it is also over 40 years old, and has a great track record for someone who is aggressive. I think we can say your dad is a little 'aggressive' this morning."

William responded, "Double the dosage Manolo, one dose won't do it for him today."

"If he's not asleep in 30 minutes, I'll give him another pill. The man is 97 years old, and I would hate to get hit by him."

"Thank God you're a doctor and not a mathematician."

"Why?"

"My dad is coming up on his 99^th birthday in July."

"Maybe we should give him Olivia as his birthday present?"

"My mother would grab both poles holding her meds, and walk around this entire hospital to find you, and would beat you to death with her bare hands. She would return to her bed not knowing what had transpired and slept the sleep of the angels. You don't ever put a woman between my father and my mother, and expect to come out unscathed."

"I think I will give him one 20 mg Pericyazine, and if he is not sleeping in 15 minutes, I will inject him with 40 mgs more."

"I believe that is a good precaution."

As soon as his father was comfortably asleep, the ballet began. William was put onto a gurney, with Patrick and Gwen at his sides. He was delivered to an ambulance that was waiting to take him to his home.

The very important things were taking place in the cardiac ICU. Jemma's body was being carefully lifted onto inflatable bags that were covered with cotton sheets and lambs-wool. The plastic bags were filled with a combination of oxygen, and nitrogen to bring them to a temperature of 76°. After being filled to the correct temperature, and density, the entire ensemble was lifted by the blankets beneath everything, just high enough to have a gurney slipped underneath Jemma. As soon as she was settled down, everything was checked, and rechecked to make sure she was safe and aligned properly.

Manolo watched his patient as she was moved to see if there was any sign of life coming from her, even though he knew she was in a deep coma. There were none. He cursed himself for hoping to see something he knew would not be there.

Matti Williams was standing beside him.

"Were you expecting a miracle Doctor?"

"Shit, Matti, you scared the crap out of me. Yes, I guess I was, but I didn't get it. This next month is going to be a stone-cold bitch."

"How many have you buried?"

"Two that I know of."

"You've lived a charmed life, Manolo. You are a world-famous cardiologist of more than 17 years of service to the world, and you've only buried two of your patients. I've been cutting hearts open for 23 years, and I can still remember the first patient who died on me. I block out all the rest. I wouldn't be able to lift a knife again if I kept count of the dead ones. He was a 25-year-old white male by the name of Richard Goldstone. He was rushed into the hospital, cardiac arrest, in the middle of the night. I was the junior resident, and they could not reach the cardiac surgeon on call. The Chief of Medicine looked at me and said, "Matti, you are up."

"You know how it is when they tell you that you are on the top of the hill, and there is no one backing you up. You feel like God has anointed you with supreme powers. You're running down the hall to get ready, and your friends are telling you, "Matti, you're not qualified yet."

You know they're right, but the guy is going to die if you don't try. So, I go in to the operating theater, with supreme confidence, and nagging doubts. I look at the x-rays, and technically the guy shouldn't be alive. His right descending artery was 99% blocked. They put him under, and we are not in spacesuits back then, just plastic sheets. I crack in his chest, and he goes flatline. I reached under grabbed the artery. I feel for the blockage. I find it, and I puncture a small hole just about where I think the blockage is. I was right on. The blockage and blood flew out everywhere. Suddenly, his heart is beating like crazy, but I must figure out a way to sew that artery closed before he bleeds out. I couldn't do it. I saved the stupid guy's life, and then I killed him, because I didn't have enough room to get two hands under his chest wall to sew his artery back together again, before he bleeds out. I felt lower than dog shit.

During the postmortem, the cardiac team said it wasn't my fault. The only way to save that guy would have been to remove his chest wall completely, and even then, he would have bled out before I could have sewn him back together."

They told me it was a brilliant move to puncture the artery to get the blood flowing again to give the guy a chance to live, but it was just his time to go. My first surgery procedure, and I killed the guy with my own two hands. I think it affected everything I've done since.

"Do you really think so, Matti? Do you really think so? Everything you do is perfect. Everything you do in each operation is a carbon copy of the one before it. I think you've been paying for that one operation since Mr. Goldstone died. That's why you made a terrible wife, and a phenomenal Doctor."

"Mickey used to say I was great in bed."

"I bet if you asked Mickey how great you were in bed, he could tell you when and how you two were going to make each move, and in what order."

"You mean I was doing things by rote?"

"Rote is not a terrible thing during the right time, and in the right place. I don't believe bed is one of them."

"He didn't ask anything of me in the divorce."

"Apparently, the way you made love with him, kept him very happy, and he was not vindictive at all.

"We used to see each other when he came into town on business."

"See or SEE?"

"I'll leave that up to your dirty imagination. Here comes our patient."

"I like my imagination."

"I do too."

****************

The hall was cleared for this very important transfer.

Jemma looked like she was covered in bubble wrap, with tubes coming out the bottom, both sides, and the top. There was no way to know there was a human being inside that cocoon.

Nurses tried to get Williams men out of the way. William spoke to the head nurse quite firmly.

"Ms. Adelson, I am not going to threaten you with the possibility of your losing your job. Right now, the woman on that gurney is the most important person in the world to me. Those men are being paid to make sure nothing happens to her. If you have a problem with them come to me. They will get her to the ambulance in the most expeditious manner. You stay out of their way, or you will be taking my mother's place in ICU. Do we understand each other Ms. Adelson?"

"I'm going to call the police and have you arrested."

"Here's my phone. The police commissioners number is in my telephone directory. Tell Jimmy I said hello."

Adelson decided to call his bluff. She looked up the police commissioners number, and called it. A secretary didn't answer. A flunky didn't answer. James O'Connell, the police commissioner, himself, answered.

"Hello William, how's your mom doing?"

"One moment sir, I will hand him the phone."

William refused to take it from her. She had to beg him to take his own phone and speak to the police commissioner. Finally, he took it from her.

"Hello Jim, I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I was teaching someone a lesson. We are moving my mom now. We are almost to the end of the ER. It should be another 20 minutes or so before everything is locked up inside the ambulance and we are ready to roll. We will be in touch as soon as our wheels touch 1st Avenue."

"We have a rolling blockade for you until we can get you onto the FDR. Once you are on there, no one passes you. I don't care if you do 10 miles an hour to keep your mom safe, no one is going to pass you on that roadway."