One Chicago Life

Stress Limit

We had gotten back home late last night and were at the station early this morning.
"We got the new case details!" Yelled Voight. "A group of carjackers are getting more violent with their crimes.  There are now 16 people dead. Same MO. They have all happened within a ten block radius. Find the chop shops in that area!"
I got to work on my computer scouring any traffic lights and cameras I could find, to follow their possible path. "Found two shops I think!" I yelled after only a few minutes. Everyone jumped up to head out except me. I kept looking for other shops and if I could see where they came from of where they went to after.
The team split up to check out the two leads. The first one was Al, Antonio and Hank. They found one car and grabbed a suspect without too much drama. The second shop was Adam, Kim, Kevin and Jay. They suspected 3 vehicles or more were there and the owner and another employee drew gunfire at them. "5021 Eddie shots fired at the police and by the police! Requesting immediate backup at this location! Officers Down! Officers down!" Was heard on the team's radios in Kim's frantic voice and Hank took off in that direction as Al and Antonio were putting their suspect in the car. Hank raced to the second location and found an unconscious Adam and Jay as well as 2 dead suspects. The third was in cuffs by uniformed officers and Kim was hysterical sitting in between her injured friends. Kevin had already requested paramedics and sirens could be heard. He was applying pressure to Jay's wound in his chest while Kim tried to help Adam with his two wounds.
Meanwhile I was in shock as I heard everything on the scanner. I had a sick feeling that this was very bad. I grabbed my stuff and ran down to Platt. "You heard?" She asked. I nodded my head. She grabbed her keys, "let's roll." We beat the team to the ER. Will and two teams of medical staff were waiting for the two injured intelligence officers to arrive and no one knew the details or who was incoming yet. Kelly and his team of firefighters were just leaving but Will motioned him to talk. He whispered, "if it's Jay, I could use some extra manpower to hold her back. I am afraid of how things are going to go with all of her extra hormones and the baby. Kelly nodded, "hey guys go on out to the truck, radio if you need me. I am going to stay here for a minute." I could hear the sirens of both ambulances getting closer. The first one pulled up and they quickly rolled out an unconscious Adam with 2 wounds, one in the leg and other in the abdomen. When the doors of the second ambo opened my heart stopped as they rolled out my husband with a chest wound. I tried to run after the gurney but Kelly wrapped his arms around me, telling me over and over to let them work on him and that he was going to be ok. I must have gotten hysterical and started hyperventilating because Kelly and Will were yelling at me to breathe but I couldn't focus on what they were saying. They somehow managed to get me into an exam room where Will gave me an injection of something to help calm me down. Once I stopped hyperventilating, I cried.
"I can't lose another husband, I cannot be a widow again!" Will sighed placing both hands on my shoulders, "Jay is tough, he will fight hard for you." Once I was calmed down Kelly left to go finish his shift saying he would stop by when he got done. Al poked his head in and pulled me into a hug saying, "you are supposed to be limiting your stress for the baby." Will asked when my next appointment was scheduled. "Tomorrow morning," I cried while rubbing my belly. "I am going to text Dr. Adams so he knows what's going on," said Will. Al told me Trudy was getting me some lunch. The thought of food made me extremely nauseous. I shook my head and pointed to the garbage can. Will grabbed it just in time. I threw up until I dry heaved with both of them holding my hair and rubbing my back.  Will got some water to rinse my mouth out. "Are you ok now?" Asked Will. I nodded my head and Al helped me up. He kept his arm around me and led me to the waiting room.
Jay and Adam had been in surgery for almost an hour. I sat there with tears streaming down my face. I tried to hold it together but I knew at some point the dam would break again.
"Will, where is the nearest bathroom?" I asked. "It's down the hall, second door on the right. Are you going to be sick again?" I grimaced, it's definitely a possibility." He rubbed my shoulder, let me go find you some crackers and ginger ale or something. You can't get dehydrated now." Several minutes after Will left I jumped up and took off for the bathroom with my hand over my mouth but with the very sudden change of position, my blood pressure dropped and I fainted in the hallway. Trudy was following me but didn't quite make it to catch me before I hit my belly and head on the ground. Trudy yelled, "Kaycie! Kaycie can you hear me?! I need some help over here!" Will was coming back when he heard the commotion and saw all of intelligence running down the hall. He took off running when he heard my name. "What happened?!" He yelled as he tossed the food aside. "She took off running and then she just collapsed. I wasn't able to catch her, I am sorry." Will and Al carefully rolled me over. My head was bleeding above my eyebrow. Will checked my pulse and yelled for a gurney. April came running with one, "what happened?" They picked me up and put me on the gurney and wheeled me into an exam room. April started taking my vitals. "She is definitely dehydrated, her BP is low and her pulse is rapid." "Ok, start an IV, let's get her on monitors to check that baby. My brother will kill us all if he wakes up and finds out something has happened to either of them." They both moved around the room and attached monitors, wires and my IV as Trudy and the team hovered in the doorway. I groaned when will put gauze and applied pressure to my head. "Oh hey trouble, nice of you to join the party." Will said sarcastically. I groaned again, "baby girl?" I mumbled. April handed Will the ultrasound machine. "Let's take a look, cold gel, sorry." Will moved the wand over my belly and clicked a button and her heartbeat filled the room. I cried tears of relief. "Everything looks good so far but we are definitely going to admit you for at least 24 hours on the monitors to make sure no bleeding or contractions occur. Are you hurting anywhere?" "My head definitely, my abdomen hurts a little." What about Jay? Any updates?" I asked. Will shook his head and felt around my belly, "still in surgery. I will go see if I can find out any updates after I put some steri-strips on that cut. Please just relax and let the meds take effect. This kind of stress is not good for the baby." I nodded and tried to breathe deeply. Trudy came to sit by me and the rest of team went back to the waiting room. I must have fallen asleep at some point.
I woke up confused momentarily but seeing Trudy brought it all back. "It wasn't all a bad dream was it?" I asked. She shook her head no saying, "Jay and Adam are still In surgery. The only updates we have are that they are both touch and go." I started crying again. "How long have they been in surgery? How long was I asleep?" She looked at the clock and said, "about two hours for the boys and only about 30 minutes for you." I sighed and nodded. There was a knock at the door and Dr. Adams came in shaking his head. "How are you feeling?" He asked. "I am ok, I guess. My head hurts and my belly kind of feels bruised. I am still nauseous and anxious." He nodded, "You are very lucky that the fall didn't cause a placenta abruption or cause you to go into labor. Your blood pressure is still lower than I would like. You haven't had any contractions except little Braxton Hicks that the monitors have picked up. The baby's heart rate looks really good. Have you been up since you fainted?" I shook my head, "No but I could use the bathroom." He pushed my button and asked for a nurse to come assist. He started undoing the baby monitors and moving my IV line. "Could you help me Sargent? I want the nurse to check her blood pressure when she stands but I want you to stand on one side and help me pull her back on the bed if she starts to faint, I will be on the other side." Trudy nodded and they helped me sit on the edge of the bed. The nurse took my blood pressure and then they told me to stand up. I did slowly and still ended up fainting and they barely got me on the bed. I came to when they were putting more heart monitors and oxygen on me. "What happened?" I asked as I tried to get more comfortable on the bed. The nurse was checking my blood pressure again. "Your blood pressure dropped over 30 points causing you to faint. I can't have you getting up by yourself until we figure out why it's dropping like that." I shook my head, "I still need to pee. Could this just be stress induced?" I asked. "We are going to have to place a catheter for at least today and we will see how things change. There is a room upstairs that we got permission to use for you and Jay."
They eventually moved me upstairs and Jay was supposed to be coming out of surgery any minute. They almost lost him twice during surgery. The bullet grazed both his heart and left lung but they were able to repair both. He was getting his third bag of transfused blood. They finally brought Jay in, he was mostly sedated to keep him relaxed. They were able to move our beds together and I snuggled Jay as best I could with all of his wires and tubes and finally fell asleep with my hand on his chest feeling his heart beat. I was exhausted from all of the stress.

Several hours later Jay woke up with someone snuggled up to him. He looked around confused at the whole situation and found Will sitting in a chair next to him playing on his phone. "Will," he whispered. Will looked up immediately. "Jay! How are you feeling?" Will whispered loudly. "I am a little sore but feeling ok. What the hell happened to Kayce? Why is she a patient with an IV? Is she ok?" Jay croaked. "Slow down, little brother. She is ok, so is the baby. She fainted while running for the bathroom and fell on her belly. The stress was a little too much for her. She threw up a few times and she has fainted twice. They are monitoring her and the baby but everything seems ok except her blood pressure drastically drops when she stands up which causes her to faint." Will said. I grumbled in my sleep. Jay slowly stroked my hair. "Shh it's ok," he cooed. I sleepily opened my eyes. "Jay?" I asked. "Yeah babe, I am here." He whispered. I was fully awake now. "Jay! I thought I lost you forever!" I cried. I tried to snuggle closer to him. "Are you ok?" I asked while kissing his chest. "It's ok, I am ok. You don't need to cry." He whispered while wiping my tears away. We snuggled together with our arms wrapped around each other as best as we could with all the tubes and wires. There was multiple 'I love yous' before we both slipped peacefully to sleep in each other's arms.
Dr Rhodes came by a couple hours later. He laughed that we were basically on one bed even though they were pushed together. Will and Dr. Rhodes were talking which woke both of us up. I stretched and then grimaced because of a cramp in my leg. Will left to go find me a banana. "Jay you are very lucky to be alive and awake. The bullet grazed your heart and left lung. We were able to repair all the damage but you will have to take it easy for awhile. You lost a lot of blood but you have had three bags transfused and all of your vitals are looking pretty good." Said Dr. Connor Rhodes. Jay nodded, "Does that mean I can go home soon?" Connor shook his head, "not for at least a few days. We will see how things go. As for you Kaycie, tomorrow we will do another standing test after you finish another two bags of fluids and rest. If you pass out again, we will have to do some cardiac testing to see what's going on or further imaging with Dr. Adams to see if you have some bleeding that is causing anemia. You both need plenty of protein and rest." With that he left and Voight came in to see how we were doing. He gave us an update on Adam who was also recovering as expected but going to take awhile to recover due to his injuries. Will came back with a chocolate protein milkshake or so he called it and a banana for me and some jello for Jay. The milkshake wasn't too bad. I snuck Jay some when Will was distracted by the team and Trudy visiting. They all left for the night so that we could rest.
Early the next morning there was a knock at the door. In walked Dr. Adams and his ultra sound technician. "Sorry for the early wake up call, I wanted to check out this baby before the office got busy." Said Dr Adams. I adjusted the blankets and uncovered my belly. The tech got busy doing her thing. "Alright baby seems to have grown like she needed to. Still a little in the small side but has definitely gotten longer and put on some weight. I don't see any signs of bleeding either. Everything looks good." Jay and I both sighed with relief. "You have no idea how good that is to hear." I told them. They wanted to do my orthostatic hypotension test next. Connor came in and they each stood beside me as the nurse stood in front of me. I slowly stood up from the edge of the bed while the nurse took my blood pressure again. I got a little dizzy but nothing too terrible. My blood pressure only dropped about ten points. I passed the test and was able to get rid of several monitors and the catheter because I could get up safely.
Gabby had stopped by with clothes for both of us. We were getting quite antsy to go home. I did enjoy a shower in our room and then went for a walk with Jay and his therapist for PT. We begged Will and he got everyone to agree to discharge us the next day if Will stayed with us for a day or two and we promised to take it easy.
Being home was amazing. We both slept great, being exhausted from being woken up all the time. I made sure Jay did all of his physical therapy and Will helped cook and made his famous cinnamon roll French Toast. I enjoyed hearing stories of their mischievous childhood. Two days later when Will went back to work, Jay was also getting bored and trying to talk me into letting him go back.