Later on that day, Kate and my mother came into the hospital with Elizabeth. "Why would you bring Elizabeth?" I asked my Ma as she sat down. Thank God I enrolled Emma in preschool- she's someone else's problem during the day. No, I'm just kidding. Maybe.
"Well I wanted to see Maura and the baby. No one was able to watch her," she told me.
"So how's Maura?" Kate asked, interrupting my mother.
As I explained to Kate what happened back in Maura's office, some woman made an announcement over the loud speaker in the hospital. "Code pink in the NICU. Code pink in the NICU," she calmly announced. Why did this sound so familiar? I tried to remember back to the time I heard this announcement before. Then suddenly, I remembered as if I was there again.
"We have a code pink, again we have a code pink."
Maura immediately stood up from her bed and dodged towards the door. I stood up from my seat and asked, "Where are you going?"
She turned around to face me and I saw tears streaming down her face. Not being able to speak, she whimpered, "I...the...ca...pi..."
"Calm down, Maura. What's going on?" I asked her.
Instead of responding with words, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the nursery. She walked very fast as we reached our destination. She pointed at the window.
"That's what's going on!" she hollered.
As I looked through the window, I saw her son being handled by several doctors and nurses.
"Maura, I don't understand what's going on."
She turned to me with sorrow and hurt in her eyes. "Code pink is when there is a cardio-respiratory arrest in an infant, toddler, or child," she explained.
"So..." I hesitated as I looked through the window at Baby Jake. I've never seen anyone perform CPR on an infant before. It wasn't too long after before we saw the color wash out of the baby's face. He turned pale blue faster than we could blink. The doctor backed away from him and covered her face with the palms of her hands. I saw her rub her eyes as if she knew she messed up. The nurse walked over to her and asked her something. When I saw her shake her head no, I grabbed Maura and pulled her into a hug.
"Oh my God," I said as I stood up from my chair and headed over to the doors of the hallway. I started to run around the waiting room like a crazy person. Running over to the front desk, I asked them if they knew what the hell was going on, but nobody knew. I went back over to the door of the NICU and tried to look in. There were a bunch of medical people inside and around the nursery.
"What is it, Jane?" Ma asked, followed by Kate.
Turning around, I explain what code pink was to my mother. Immediately, Bret stood up with Elizabeth and walked over to us. "What?" he asked. "Here," he handed Elizabeth to me as he ran into the NICU to find out what's going on.
"Do you think it's Maura's baby?" Ma asked as we both tried to look into the hallway.
"I'm not sure."
As we were trying to watch Bret, Maura's doctor interrupted us. "Ms Rizzoli?" he asked. Immediately, my mother and I both turned around. "Doctor Isles will be fine. She suffered from a spontaneous pneumothorax, the cause of this is unknown," he announced to us.
"What is that?" Ma asked.
"Collapsed lung," he said with little words.
"Well what happened? You helped her, didn't you?" I questioned him.
"Yes, we had to reinflate her left lung. She is in recovery right now. Everything looks really good," he reassured us.
"So can we see her?" I asked him.
"Only one person at a time."
Kate, Ma, and I looked around at each other when Kate said, "You go, Jane. She's your best friend."
"Okay," I whispered as I walked with the doctor to Maura's room. When I entered the room, she was laying there with an oxygen tank hooked around her nose- looking just like her son. Looking over at me, she raised her hand and waved.
"Feeling better?" I asked her, knowing she's on strong pain medications.
She nodded and said, "I feel great. Now I know how people get addicted to this stuff."
I laughed at her obliviousness. "That good, huh?"
"Did you see the baby?" she asked me.
Nodding my head, I answered, "Bret and I both did. Did you?"
She shook her head, "No."
"Do you want to?"
"I can't leave my room."
"Well, that's why I took a picture," I told her as I brought the picture up on my phone and held it up so Maura could see it.
She covered her mouth with her hand as she took my phone from me. Tears began to flow from her eyes as she whispered, "He's perfect."
"He is a perfect mix of the both of you."
Wiping the tears from underneath her eyes, she laughed and said, "Bret's football player. I'd give anything to hold him right now."
"Well you will eventually," I told her.
Looking confused, she asked me, "The doctor didn't tell you what happened with the baby?"
"No, what?"
"He suffered from lack of oxygen and they're afraid he has cerebral palsy."
"Well, does he?"
"They don't know for sure. It normally isn't something you can diagnose right away. It could take years to fully diagnose it," she explained.
"But I don't understand why you aren't able to hold him though," I said to her.
She took in a deep breath before continuing, "I can hold him, but not the way I held Elizabeth. When I get to hold him, it'll be hard to because of those wires and machines. I won't be able to cradle him like I did with Elizabeth."
"You will one day," I said to her just as Bret entered the room. "Hey, I thought it was only one person at a time?" I asked him.
"No, it's four people. They only said that because they didn't know if she was awake," he told me as he walked up to the bed and firmly grabbed Maura's hand. "You need to stop having these scares," he whispered to her.
"I'm sorry," she replied.
"Have you seen our son?" he asked her.
"Jane showed me a photo of him."
"Maura, he's beautiful. He is so tiny and would fit in the palm of my hand. When you start to feel better, we will go and see him together."
I smiled at the two of them talking. They are perfect for each other. I'm glad Maura finally found someone that cares about her and treats her right.
"Oh Maura, I forgot to tell you- Elizabeth is here," Bret said to her.
"She is? Well bring her in here," she responded.
"Let me go get her. I'll give you two some privacy," I said as I got up and left the room.
Maura's POV
"You know, this baby caught us by surprise. We never discussed names," I told Bret when Jane left.
He smiled, "Whatever you decide."
"I like Reid. It's unique," I suggest.
To my surprise, Bret leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "I love it," he whispered.
"What if we lose him?" I asked, thinking the worst of the situation like I always do.
"We're not going to lose him. I just check up on him and he is fine. He's sleeping."
Pushing the blankets off of me, I sat up on the bed and put my slippers on. "Where are you going?" Bret asked me as I stood up.
"I am going to see my son. Help me get there, Bret."
"No no no," he spoke as he grabbed my shoulders and lead me back to the bed. He continued, "You're not leaving this room."
"Bret, I want to go see him! If you don't let me, I will call the nurses and ask them."
"Go ahead, Maur. Call them," he said as I pushed the button on the side of the bed to call the nurses. When the woman walked into my room, I asked her if I could go see him for a few minutes. She explained to me that with my condition, I might not be able to walk all the way down there, so we compromised. I would be able to go see him if she pushed me in a wheel chair and stayed with me the entire time. Personally, I didn't care what it took- as long as I was able to go and see him.
Slowly getting up, I made my way over to the wheel chair with my nurse and Bret. I felt like I was seventy years old. It took a few minutes to get me into the chair, considering that I was short of breath. The nurse had to get an oxygen tank-to-go to strap onto the back of the wheel chair.
As Bret and I entered the NICU, the one doctor lead us to our baby. He picked up this extremely tiny little boy and gently placed him in my arms. He looked up at me with the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen. "Hi, baby," I whispered to him as tears came to my eyes again. Lifting him up, I carefully kissed his forehead.
Bret held his pinky out as the baby wrapped his fingers around it. The doctor came over to us and said, "He's looking really good for being premature. We will be moving him to the regular nursery in the morning."
This was the best thing I've heard all day. Before I got too excited, the doctor spoke again, "However, there is something you should know. We have been performing tests on him and we regret to inform you that because of the lack of oxygen to his brain, he has developed a minor case cerebral palsy."
Everything the doctor said went in one ear and out the other. I didn't care if he had a minor condition. I only care that he's here and he's absolutely beautiful. "Thank you," I told the doctor before he walked away.
Another family was in the NICU with their little girl. The father came over to us and introduced himself as he said, "I don't mean to interrupt. I overheard what the doctor told you about your son. I'm sorry to hear about his disability. Our first daughter is also mentally challenged and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy."
Cutting him off, I said, "He's not mentally challenged." I kissed my son one more time before continuing, "He's exceptionally beautiful."