Surprise Delivery (Page 31)

“I’m Doctor Duncan Clyburne and this woman is my patient,” I interject. “You’re taking her to St. Francis. That’s where I work. Now, stop wasting time and let’s go.”

I don’t have privileges at the hospital just yet, that much is a lie. That’s only a matter of paperwork, though. Now that I’m back, all I have to do is file and Janet will push me through. As much as I hate to do it, I’ll even go back to the One-Percent Unit, just to make sure I can see this through with Alexis and ensure that she’s okay.

The paramedic’s exchange glances with each other. Finally, he turns to me and nods.

“Fine, let’s go,” he says.

“Thank you, Debra,” I call out. “And I’ll be back to pay for whatever damages I caused.”

She looks at me – honestly, she looks a little shell-shocked, which isn’t all that surprising – but says nothing. She just gives me a nod. I hustle out with the paramedics and climb into the back of the ambulance. A moment later, we’re moving through traffic Each moment that passes is a moment Alexis doesn’t have. We need to get to the hospital, and we need to get there now.

“You know I can’t let you in there,” he says. “Not until your privileges have been restored.”

“Gary, we don’t have time to stand here debating about protocol,” I insist. “I need to be in there helping.”

“Duncan, I –”

“I’m not asking, Gary.”

He looks at me for a long moment. I’m already dressed and scrubbed in. When he saw me coming through the doors, he’d ushered me back out into the scrub room, trying to block my access – something I’m not about to let happen. Alexis is my patient. I delivered her baby and now I want to help save her life.

Gary sighs. “Fine,” he says. “You can be in the room, but you cannot assist. I’m not about to get my ass sued or fired because you don’t have your privileges back yet.”

It’s not ideal, but it’s something. Gary is a fine surgeon and I trust him completely. I just can’t stand around doing nothing while Alexis’ life is teetering on the brink.

We push back through the doors and step back into the operating theater. I look around at the crew and see Sabrina standing ready to assist. Even from behind her mask I can see the surprise on her face when she spots me. I’m sure there are a thousand questions firing through her mind right now, but they’re going to have to wait. She needs to be focused.

I can tell by the set of her body, by how stiff and tense she is when she moves, that she’s terrified and stressed out. Not that I can blame her in the least – it’s her best friend on the table in front of her. It’s a situation we, as doctors, all fear might happen to us. We all know that at some point, somebody we know and love may end up on our table and that it’s up to us to save their lives. As if surgery isn’t stressful enough in its own right.

Thankfully, it’s not something that happens often, but when it does, it can be earth-shattering.

“What happened?” she asks me.

“I’ll tell you after,” I say. “She needs you to be one hundred percent here with her right now, Sabrina.”

She nods. “I’m here,” she replies. “I’ve got it.”

“I know you do.”

I step back and do my best to keep from butting in at the table. Gary is a fantastic surgeon and I know that Alexis is in good hands. Not that it’s easy for me to sit on the bench. Especially not when it’s Alexis’ life at stake.

For the next hour and a half, I stand behind the team working on Alexis, my tension at an all-time high. Finally, Gary turns to me and gives me a nod.

“She’ll be good as new in no time,” he says.

Sabrina and I exchange a look and a nod. The sense of relief flowing between us is palpable. They finish up with Alexis and Sabrina escorts her as they wheel her out to recovery. I walk over and shake Gary’s hand.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t let you scrub in, Duncan,” he tells me.

“No worries. I understand,” I say. “All that matters is that she’s going to be okay. Great work, Gary. Thank you.”

He shrugs. “We – or more accurately, she – should be thanking you,” he says. “If you hadn’t done what you did to get that baby out of her, we likely would have lost them both. Where did you learn to do an ECV anyway? Risky stuff, that.”

I shrug. “It was all I could think to do.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it was smart thinking. But high risk and really not very common. I doubt a lot of doctors out there would have even thought about it, let alone had the guts to do it. I probably wouldn’t have, to be honest.”

“I guess it was being overseas and having to work in the conditions I did,” I say. “We didn’t have the most modern equipment and often just had to go with our gut and roll the dice. Sometimes it worked out, other times it didn’t.”

He nods, obviously impressed. “Well, that young woman owes you her life,” he says. “And so does her child.”

“Speaking of which, where is the baby?”

“Neonatal ICU,” he answers. “They want to monitor her for a few days, make sure everything checks out and there was no lasting damage because of the situation.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I nod.

“Take care of that young woman,” Gary says and gives me a wink before he leaves the operating theater.

I stand with my back to the wall and let out a long breath, feeling the relief washing over me. While I’m beyond relieved they’ll be okay, my mood is tempered by the knowledge that Alexis is not my girl and that is not my child. She’s with Brad and that is their child together. It’s a sobering reality, but one I have to deal with.

It’s a reality that feels like a kick in the nuts, to be honest. But, it’s reality all the same.

Eighteen

Alexis

“Welcome back, Lexi,” he says. “You had us all scared to death.”

My eyes flutter open at the sound of his voice, but something doesn’t seem right. As my vision comes into focus, I find myself staring into Brad’s face. He’s got a wide smile upon his lips and eyes full of concern. I’d been expecting to see Duncan’s face looking back at me – his was the last thing I saw before blacking out.

“How long have I been out?” I ask, my voice weak and raspy.

“About three days.”

Three days. Jesus. I lost three days of my life? How? I rack my brain, trying to figure out where I am and what’s going on. I can’t remember much beyond the fight with Brad, waking up in Duncan’s arms – and blinding, excruciating pain. Everything else is shrouded in a mystery thicker than the fog in San Francisco.

“How are you feeling?” Brad asks.

I squeeze my eyes shut, willing the fog to dissipate, doing everything in my power to remember what happened. Brad grabbing me. The crazed look on his face. The bikers who stepped in. All those things flash through my head – and help explain the cuts and bruises on Brad’s face. And then it hits me.

My baby. Some snippet of memory tells me that I had my baby – or more precisely, Duncan delivered my baby. Was it really in the back room of a coffee house though? My mind is in such a state of chaos at the moment, I can’t guarantee that what’s passing through it is the truth or just some kind of fever dream.

The more I remember, the more confused my memories seem to get. Everything is coming back to me in bits and flashes, but none of them seem to be in any sort of order and none of them make any damn sense. I shake my head, trying to clear it and feel a sharp pain shoot through my body with the sudden movement.

“You shouldn’t move too suddenly,” he tells me. “The doctors say you’ve been through a lot and need to give your body a chance to heal. They say you’re probably going to be pretty sore for a little while.”

“You think?”

I open my eyes again and Brad is still standing there beside my bed, staring down at me. I slowly turn my head and see men and women in scrubs walking by the window in my room. I sit quietly for a moment and listen to the buzz of activity as well as the voice on the overhead speakers paging this doctor or that doctor.

Okay, so I’m in a hospital. At some point, I was moved to a hospital. That’s good. Judging by the amount of pain I seem to recall, being in a hospital is a good thing. I slide my hands down to my stomach and feel that it’s – different. I look down and see that my stomach isn’t as big – I’ve obviously had my baby. But, if I had my baby, where is it?

“Your baby is in the neonatal ICU,” Brad says as if reading my mind. “I stopped by on my way up here and although they want to monitor her for a little while longer, they think she’s going to be perfectly fine.”

Tears well in my eyes, making them sting. “Girl?” I ask.

Brad nods, the smile on his face stretching even wider. “You had a girl, Lexi,” he says. “A beautiful, baby girl.”

I’m so caught up in the moment and the tidal wave of emotion crashing down over me as I think about my beautiful baby girl, I almost forget that I’m pissed at Brad. Almost. Grimacing with the effort, sharp needles of pain sticking me as I move, I manage to get myself into an upright position. Once I am, I grab the remote and adjust my bed, so I have some support behind me.

“You really shouldn’t –”

“You need to go,” I tell him coldly.

“What? Why?”

My mouth falls open as I look at him. He actually has the audacity to look shocked that I’d tell him to leave. I’m stunned by his arrogance in trying to act like nothing ever happened, everything is all good, and we can just move forward like before.