by BK Harrell
Harrison absentmindedly fingered the engagement ring through his shirt. Maybe, just maybe things were starting to turn around. He wanted to call Rhett, but given the baby’s sleep schedule and his being up at all hours of the night he didn’t want to disturb him. Instead he decided to call the one person he knew would at least listen and not pass judgement. Scrolling through his phone he finally found who he was looking for and dialed the number.
“Hello.”
“Hey, mom. Hope I didn’t disturb you.”
“Harrison, you can call me anytime. So, what’s up? You don’t usually call this late just to chat.”
“I’m sorry, mom, but I needed to talk to someone, and you were the, well, second person I thought of. I wanted to call Rhett but with the baby and all…”
“Well, even if I’m your second choice. What can I do for you.”
“I’m really confused, mom. You know how long I was messed up about Sarah, and really never put her behind me. I finally saw her again the night Rhett and Alexis had their baby. To say that it wasn’t the reunion I would’ve imagined would be an understatement.” Harrison chuckled into the phone, “She slapped me again and ran away. Seems like that’s our MO.”
“Did you ever figure out what you did to that poor girl?”
“Mom, you’re supposed to be on my side here. No, I still haven’t, but I suspect on January 4th I’ll finally find out the truth about what happened all those years ago.”
“You seem certain of the date. Is there something I don’t know?”
“Yeah, I told you about the new contract, but I added a stipulation that she had to agree to meet with me so we could hash this out. Apparently, she works for my new bosses as an OB/GYN.”
“Interesting that you would put that type of stipulation on a contract that big. What if she had refused?”
“Then I would have signed the contract and tried to reach out to her another way. However, an interesting thing has happened recently. She has reached out to me via text message. She was concerned about whether I hated her or not. Even though I would have had every reason in the world to hate her, I don’t.”
“Do you think that she still has feelings for you?”
“Two weeks ago, I would have said no, but now I’m not too sure. I would think that her reaching out to me is a good sign. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. On the bright side, I’ll get to see her in a few weeks at my boss’s wedding. We agreed to be social and civil without talking about the past out of respect for the bride and groom.”
“Well, son. Take what you can get. I know you still have feelings for her, and I only want what’s best for you. I want you to find what your brother and sister have. Before you say anything, I’ve noticed the longing looks you throw their way when you think no one is looking.”
“MOM!”
“Don’t Mom me, Harrison Austin Cooper.”
“Sorry, mom. Listen I’ll let you go. I love you. Thanks for lending me an ear.”
“Anytime, son. Don’t be a stranger, and if things work out, bring her around again. I always thought she was your penguin. Love you, son. Good night.”
“Good night, mom. Love you too.”
Harrison hung up the phone and smiled at his conversation with his mother. He’d fought these feelings for so long. His mom was right. He did want a family and children, but he only wanted that with Sarah. Perhaps it was stupid thinking, but he wasn’t going to settle for anything less.
Finished with his evening refreshment, Harrison turned in for the night. Sadly, as happy as he felt, his mind wouldn’t let him rest. He tossed and turned before finally drifting off and dreaming of Sarah and what they could have had. He pictured a little boy who looked like him and a little girl that looked like Sarah. The way that they looked so lovingly at their parents. Harrison awoke feeling more exhausted than he had the night before. Shaking his head, he dragged himself out of bed and into the shower hoping that it would wake him up enough to complete his run.
The cool air invigorated Harrison as he ran the hills around his home. Five miles a day until his ten miles in January. However, Harrison found himself struggling a little more this morning from the lack of sleep. He had been dreaming of Sarah more and more lately. Perhaps it was finally finding her, or it was the realization that his dreams maybe closer to a reality. He struggled back up the hill of his driveway and into the house. He looked around while drinking a bottle of water and for the first time wondered why he had purchased such a large house for only himself. What would Sarah think? Would she want to live here? Harrison shook his head. He couldn’t afford to let such thoughts enter his head. He had hope, but he also knew reality often trumped hope.
Harrison continued around the house taking it in through the eye of someone else. Was he ready for the changes that were coming? He thought he was, but he couldn’t tell the future. Finishing his perusal of the house he went to take a shower and then headed to the stadium for some batting practice and weight lifting.
Chapter Five
Sarah awoke with a headache from her lack of sleep. This was going to be a long twenty-four hours. Why had she texted Coop last night? All it did was bring up a tidal wave of emotions that she wasn’t ready to deal with. Instead of a peaceful sleep, she dreamed of what their life would have been like if they had been together. The way that he would ruffle Harry’s hair and teach him how to play ball. What it could be like to watch him hold their daughter’s hand as she went to kindergarten for the first time. Dammit, she had to get out of her head. She went through her morning routine in a bit of a haze and finally started to feel human after her third cup of coffee.
Thankfully, the drive to the hospital was peaceful since she had to be there before the butt-ass crack of dawn for turnover. Luckily for Sarah, it had been a quiet night and there were no pending deliveries she would need to take over. As she finished her morning rounds with the residents, the first indication that her day was going to go straight to hell occurred when a thirty-two-week patient came in screaming in pain and bleeding. So much for an easy day.
Forty-five-minutes and a crash C-section later, Sarah had delivered a relatively healthy baby boy who went to the NICU for monitoring. The mother was in recovery and shouldn’t have any complications. Thankfully she didn’t put off calling an ambulance when she started cramping and bleeding.
“So, Jeremiah. Ready for a quiet day?” Sarah said as they walked out of the operating room.
Jeremiah just shook his head. “If this is quiet, then what’s busy like?”
Sarah laughed. “It should be a good day. Make sure all the discharges are ready to go, but before that, make sure you head down and get something to eat. The patients will be here when you get back and they can’t leave until the pediatrician gives the go ahead to discharge the infants.”
“Thanks, boss.”
Sarah watched as Jeremiah walked away, thankful that she had such a wonderful resident to work with today. Her chief resident was finishing rounds and doling out assignments for the day. The residents and students were usually busy until lunch time, and then their workload tended to slow down depending on which women were ready to have babies. As she walked towards the doctor’s lounge, her phone pinged her with a message. Looking down she smiled when she saw the message.
H:Thanks for last night. I’m glad we got to talk. I hope you have a great day.
S:You’re welcome. I really enjoyed our chat. Hope you have a great day as well. I’m on call today and will be here until tomorrow morning.
H: Yikes. I thought my schedule was crazy at times with all the travel, but I give it to you for doing twenty-four hours in a row.
Sarah was enjoying her texting when her pager went off alerting her to a new patient.
S:Sorry, Coop. Duty calls. Gotta run. Maybe I’ll catch you later.
H: Have a great day and good luck with the patients.
Sarah ran to the labor and delivery suite where a mother-to-be had waited a little too long to come to t
he hospital and was already crowning when she stepped up to the foot of the bed. “Okay, Mrs. Martin. No time for an epidural. Time to push and get that baby out.”
Sarah looked down at her watch. She thought it would be nice if all deliveries could be twenty minutes or less. Sarah walked over to the nurses’ station to finish her paperwork and round up her residents and students. She hoped the first three hours of her day were not an indication of the next twenty-one. She made sure all the discharges were signed and the patients were ready to go before handing out assignments for the rest of the day. She was about to leave when her favorite OR nurse Elisha appeared at her side. “Hey, E. What’s up today? Thanks for all your help this morning during that crash C-section.”
“No problem. That’s what I’m here for. I was wondering if you had a few minutes so that I could pick your brain? I’m in the middle of my nurse midwife classes, and I could use some help.”
“Sure. Let’s go to the doctor’s lounge and grab some coffee while we talk.”
Sarah and Elisha walked into the doctor’s lounge to find a place to talk. After walking in, Elisha saw Jeremiah sitting off to the side and blushed at her memories of him.
Sarah noticed the blush creep up the cheeks of her favorite nurse and looked across the room to see Jeremiah sitting there with his head in a book. She wondered what the story was between them, and hoped that they would have time to discuss it before they left. Sitting down with her coffee, Sarah said, “So, what can I help you with?”
“It seems that no matter what I do, and how hard I study, I can’t seem to get the grasp of the management of late term vaginal bleeding. When do you decide to initiate an emergency C-section vs conservative management.”
“Wow. You don’t ease into anything do you. Okay, so here are the general guidelines that I use. The key to management is the use of ultrasound (US). The US will tell you if the bleeding is due to a placental abruption where the placenta has detached from the uterine wall or whether there is a placental cyst that has a blood collection. Also, history is a big indicator. If a patient had early bleeding and the diagnosis of the cyst is present then it helps to decide your course of action. Also, the degree of placental detachment can clue you into whether you need a crash C-section or not. Typically, I will do a C-section if there is a detachment, but strong active bleeding indicates the emergency. Otherwise we can do a more controlled C-section with fewer post-op complications. If you like, we can pull some old cases and look at the US and case history.”
“Oh my God. Thank you. When you explain it like that, it seems so simple. You’re already one of my favorite docs, so let me know if there is anything I can do for you.”
“Well, actually. What’s the deal with you and Jeremiah? I couldn’t help but notice the blush you developed when you saw him, and the glances he kept stealing over here when he thought I wasn’t looking.”
“God, this is kind of embarrassing,” Elisha whispered, I used to dance at the Cheetah to help pay for grad school. I disguised my look but couldn’t hide my eyes. Well, the guys were all there for Lincoln’s bachelor party and Jeremiah was reeling from a bad break-up. Cole recognized me and talked to me about my second career choice. He and Lincoln asked me to quit with the understanding that they would pay for my program, then I would work for them for a period-of-time. Anyway, they wanted to do something special for Jeremiah and well during that time we hit it off. I didn’t tell him who I was, but then the next Wednesday he was in my OR and he recognized me. Since then, he has flirted a little bit, but he seems too skittish to do anything about it. So, if you could give him a nudge my way, I would appreciate it.”
Sarah smiled. “I’ll see what I can do. What you just told me cemented all the reasons I respect and love Cole and Lincoln. So, since we’re having girl talk, wanna know my big secret. I don’t want to burden you, but I could use woman’s perspective.”
“Anything for you.”
“I have a son who’s nine almost ten. He doesn’t know who his father is and his father doesn’t know that he has a child. It’s a long, complicated story, but when we were dating everything was great, but he was my first everything including relationship. I didn’t trust in his love and I think I believed the words of a worthless tramp and ran away. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until later and never told him. Now, I’m confronted with seeing his father again and I don’t know what to do. I think I made a huge mistake, but I know that when he finds out about Harry he’s going to flip his shit and hate me.”
“Yikes. Do you mind if I ask who the father is?”
“You can’t say anything to anybody. I mean only a few people know who he is, and it would unfortunately create a media storm that I don’t want Harry dragged into the middle of. You swear you will take this to the grave or at least until it becomes public?”
“I swear. I would never break your trust.”
“His father is Harrison Cooper.”
“Oh my God. You mean the Braves all-star third baseman?”
“Yes.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Holy shit. So, you can see my dilemma. The worst part is that I’m still in love with him. I haven’t seen him in ten years - until his best friend’s baby was born - and since Nicole went into what she thought was labor, I ended up doing the delivery. After I delivered the baby, I was standing by the nurses’ station when he approached me. I did the only thing I could think of. I slapped him and ran away. Which is ironic, as that was what happened the last time I saw him.”
“Just out of curiosity, what did the tramp say to you?”
“She told me that she was Harrison’s baby momma which meant that he would have had to have been with her when he was with me.”
“Ouch. I can understand why you would’ve been upset. What did he say to you afterwards?”
“Nothing. I never gave him a chance.”
“Why do you think it’s coming to a head?”
“When he signed his new contract, he made a stipulation that we would have a sit-down meeting as part of the contract. I could’ve said no, but I feel like I owe Lincoln and Cole so much that I couldn’t say no. So, we have a meeting on January 4th and Lincoln and Cole have agreed to act as mediators should I want them there, but honestly, I just want to hear him out. Also, since seeing him, I’ve been drawn more and more back towards him that I can barely control myself. We’ve texted a few times at night. I get the feeling he still cares for me, but I know that will end when he finds out about Harry.”
“So, are you going to tell him at your meeting?”
“Maybe. I want to hear what he has to say then take some time to think about how to tell him. I need a good plan especially if I have made the biggest mistake of my life.”
“Well, good luck. If you need me for anything just let me know.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.”
Just as Sarah finished, her pager went off alerting her to another patient’s arrival. She looked over at Jeremiah and said, “Come on Jeremiah. Enough studying for now. Let’s go do some practical application of that book knowledge you are gaining.” Sarah was happy to see Jeremiah smiling again. She remembered when he was going through his personal hell in the spring. So far, he seemed to be thriving in the program.
“So, are you going to ask her out?”
Jeremiah’s head shot up, momentarily confused by the question. “Pardon?”
“Elisha. Are you going to ask her out? She’s a great person and I think you two would have a lot of fun.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought about it very much.”
“I’m going to call bullshit on that one. You couldn’t stop staring at her when you thought we weren’t paying attention.”
Jeremiah began to stammer and stutter as he looked for the right words.
“I’m going to stop you right there. There’s no reason to not ask her out. She won’t turn you down, and I don’t mean because she’s easy. I mean that she would be receptive to your asking.”
Thankfully, Jeremiah was saved as they walked into the exam room to find an expectant mother of twins deep into the labor process.
“Crap. What is it with people waiting so long to get to the hospital today?” Sarah looked over the chart quickly before stepping up to the bedside. “Well, Mrs. McAllen. Cutting it a little close, today aren’t we?”
“Well, at least I made it to the hospital this time.” she said with a grimacing laugh in between contractions.”
“So, you’re 36 weeks which is good for twins. Your contractions are five minutes apart, and…wait…what? This time?”
“Yeah, last time I made it as far as the front lawn of the hospital.”
Sarah laughed before quickly examining her, “Well, at least you made it all the way this time. You’re fully dilated. It shouldn’t be long now.”
Sarah brought Jeremiah over to the foot of the bed. She introduced him to the McAllen’s and then worked to help him deliver a set if healthy twins. After ensuring the twins were on their way to the NICU for monitoring, Sarah helped Jeremiah finish his paperwork, and signed off on the live births.
“Wow. That was just wow, Dr. Buckley. That was awesome. I can’t believe that I just delivered twins.”
“Good job Jeremiah. That was fun. Not as exciting as my first twins which were delivered to a twelve-year-old. That was a whole lot of screaming and drama. The mom stood over to the side and kept saying, ‘I don’t know how this could’ve happened.’ I mean, I nearly lost it laughing at the woman, because we all know how it happened, she just didn’t want to acknowledge her precious daughter was doing the nasty at twelve.”
