Unexpected Battle

Chapter One- You Never Know Where the Next Battle Will Start

When Birkhoff woke, he was surprised that his headache had not resolved.  The dull throbbing only turned worse into blinding, searing pain as he sat up.  Grimacing, he swung his legs out of the bed to get up.  Coughing, he could barely catch his breath.  Birkhoff could not remember the last time he had been this sick.  So far it had been dragging on for a couple of weeks.  Medical had checked him, but told him it was just a cold.                    

For the last week Birkhoff had mainly been working on his laptop, in his bed, when he was awake.  It had been fairly lonely- o one wanted to visit him while he was sick.  Now he had had enough bed rest and wanted to get out and about, no matter how bad he still felt.  About halfway across the room he paused, thinking ‘I’m in worse shape than I thought.’

It took him a lot longer than he expected, his head spinning and pounding as he headed out to Operations.  As he got to the point where the hall opened up into Operations, he started to feel weak.  Nikita and Michael glanced at him as he lost all his strength and unexpectedly dropping to the floor.

Nikita and Michael had looked up from their conversation to see Birkhoff heading towards them. While he did not exactly look good, he was out of bed for the first time in a week.  Her relief was short lived when Birkhoff suddenly dropped to the floor.

Michael and Nikita immediately ran to his side.  “Birkhoff?” Alex shouted, joining them at Birkhoff’s side.

Getting on her knees, Alex was beside Birkhoff and felt for a pulse.  “He’s got a pulse, but he’s very warm.”

Running across Operations, Nikita grabbed a first aid kit and ran back.  There was a thermometer in it and she took it out, quickly replacing it in Birkhoff’s ear.  When it beeped, she read the number- “103.4.  We’ve got to get him to medical!”

Michael carefully picked Birkhoff up immediately feeling the heat radiating from his body.  In fear for the tech’s life, he began to run towards medical.  As soon as he got there, he placed Birkhoff carefully on the table.  Almost immediately he began to seize, violently shaking on the exam table.  “He’s just passed out in Operations- he’s been in bed for a week.  He just started seizing now.”

Joining Nikita and Alex behind the glass outside of Medical, Michael watched the medical team work.  They watched in a panic as they lost Birkhoff’s pulse and began to shock him with a defibulizer.  Drawing blood they worked quickly, trying to save the techs life.  “What the hell is going on?” Michael randomly asked aloud.

“I think they missed something.” Alex announced, hugging herself to try to bring some comfort to the situation.

“Our medical techs are the best.  It wouldn’t be likely.” Michael replied.

“Obviously they missed something because he is not okay.” Nikita protested, tears forming in her eyes.  “We can’t lose him.”

Michael put his arm around Nikita’s waist.  “I’m sorry.” Michael replied, giving her a squeeze and resting his head against hers.  “They will figure out what’s wrong and get him better, Birkhoff is a fighter.”

It was several hours later when Sean, Nikita, Alex, Ryan and Michael were fathered around Birkhoff’s bed.  For the time being he was in a medically-induced coma.  The doctor came over to talk to them.  “We got him back and he should wake up, but we discovered a much bigger problem in his blood work.”

The group was confused.  “What kind of problems?” Sean finally brought himself to ask.

“His white blood count was through the roof.  He has a form of Leukemia.” The doctor slowly reported.