Princess & the Player

twenty-nine: all is lost

JJ's POV:

I stood by her bedside and watched the machines and monitors. Blood pressure, good. Pulse, good. Heart, good. Saline drip dripping. Air prongs in her nose; Ox sat above 98%. PSA pump operating. 

The numbers said Maggie was fine. But she looked anything but. 

Eileen, Ma, had knocked Maggie back so hard she'd landed on the coffee table which had shattered under her. Maggie had been knocked unconscious. It was a blessing, since she'd had two broken ribs and 6 pieces of glass embedded in her including one deep enough to put a rip in her spleen. 

Her eyes began to flutter open and I stepped closer so she could see me.

I remembered meeting Maggie. It had been months after the wedding by the time my next scheduled visit with Dad had come around. We'd pulled up at the house they'd been renting back then and there was Maggie. Dirty blond braids and a 1-piece swimsuit, running through a sprinkler in the front yard. Jeb had been asleep on a towel just outside the range of the spray. 

Maggie had come jogging as we'd parked, her eyes huge and expectant. She'd looked up at me and asked, "Are you my new brother?"

I'd answered, "No. Your mom just married my father."

Her smile had faltered.

I'd screwed up. I hadn't even known it yet. 

As Maggie had grown up, nothing I did ever brought back that first expression to her face. The one that said I was every superhero wrapped in one landed on her lawn. 

"JJ?"

"Hey, Magster, it's me." I hadn't called her that in years. I stepped back and waved to let the nurses know she'd woken. "How are you doing?"

"Ah...ah...OK. Hard to breathe." She swallowed and winced. "Where are the kids."

"They're fine. I'm more worried about you."

"...happened?"

"You're in post-op. The surgeons just spent about 3 hours digging glass out of you and stitching up a small tear in your spleen..."

She was wincing and clearly in pain as two nurses stepped into the curtained area. One pushed on the PSA to administer more analgesic while the other checked Maggie's incision.  

"Kids," she insisted again.

"They're fine, I promise. You can see them soon."

"Now," she gasped.

The nurse flashed me a warning look. 

"Maggie, you have to get stabilized first. No kids allowed in post-op or ICU so just get well enough for a regular room. Got it?"

She nodded, her eyelids looking heavy. The painkiller had hit. Normally the number one priority after an operation is to get the patient up and moving. The faster they get up, the sooner they heal. But there were a handful of exceptions and the spleen was one of them; if it started to bleed out in her stomach it could turn into dangerous infection and the spleen would have to be removed.

I watched her drift off to sleep again with no regrets for lying.