The ER's Newest Dad

by Janice Lynn

  Somehow she knew he wouldn’t, that he’d only do what he thought was right for Justice. He himself had said that she was a good mother, that she’d done a good job with Justice. Despite their argument, she knew Ross wouldn’t remove Justice completely from her life. Not for her sake but for Justice’s.

  “Bay Three needs vitals, to be hooked up to telemetry and cardiac enzymes drawn.” Ross’s order cut into her mind’s meanderings. “His information says he has chest pain, so why isn’t someone with him?”

  Good point. She’d seen the nurse call him back immediately after he’d signed in to the emergency department, stating he had chest pain, but that had been a few minutes ago and the nurse had disappeared.

  “Yes, sir.” Brielle put down the clipboard she was making notes on, turning it upside down to prevent passersby from being able to see her patient’s recorded information. She didn’t bother to explain that Bay Three was another nurse’s patient. If something was going on in the emergency room, whoever was available took care of it regardless of who’d been assigned to the patient.

  She wasn’t sure where the nurse had gone during the middle of triaging the patient, but Brielle would finish it and carry out Ross’s orders.

  When she stepped into the bay, she introduced herself to the fifty-three-year-old man, who was holding his chest.

  Ross was right. The man shouldn’t have been left alone. His face was ruddy, his skin clammy, and he had a nervous, wild-eyed appearance that set warning bells off in Brielle’s head.

  “Mr. Cook, do you have anyone with you?”

  The man shook his head. “No, I drove myself here.”

  Scary thought for him to have been behind the wheel of a car, but she smiled, wanting to keep him calm and definitely not wanting to raise his anxiety level.

  She assisted in removing his shirt, put an automatic blood-pressure cuff on his left upper arm, and began hooking the telemetry to him. He had a hairy body and the leads wouldn’t stick. She quickly shaved the hair in the appropriate spots and stuck the leads on, getting good adherence.

  She pressed the button, turning on the heart monitor. What she saw widened her eyes.

  His erratic pulse was registering anywhere from one hundred and forty to two hundred beats per minute in a horribly irregular rhythm.

  “Dr. Lane?” she called, keeping her voice calm. “I have Mr. Cook’s heart monitor started if you’d like to check him.”

  Knowing she wouldn’t have called him if he didn’t need to come immediately, Ross stepped into the bay, saw what had concerned her and began taking action.

  “Give him...” He named the appropriate medication and dosage. He rattled off more orders and Brielle made a mental note of each one, even as she began drawing up the medication to administer it.

  As the man didn’t have an intravenous line in yet, Ross sat down next to him and started the IV himself.

  Again, Brielle had to question where the nurse assigned to the patient had disappeared to. Ross got the line started and she pushed the medication in.

  “I want Cardiology here now,” Ross told her, then turned to Mr. Cook. “At the minimum, you’re going to need to be admitted so we can check you out really well to see what is going on. Right now your heart is out of rhythm. The medications the nurse gave you will help keep you from developing a blood clot and will help the heart not have to work quite so hard until the heart specialist gets here to evaluate you.”

  The man nodded as if he understood but rather than answer Ross, he closed his eyes.

  The monitor’s beeping became a constant steady drone.

  A drone that caused adrenaline to surge in any medical professional’s body.

  Brielle’s stomach fell and her own adrenaline skyrocketed.

  Mr. Cook had flat-lined.

  Beginning CPR, Ross called the code as Brielle grabbed the crash cart. She prepared the defibrillator and handed the paddles to Ross.

  “All clear,” he said, and immediately gave the man an electric shock with the paddles.

  Nothing.

  Hearing the code call, Cindy joined them and began giving the man breaths of air via a hand-held air bag as they performed two-man CPR. Brielle took over compressions while they waited for the defibrillator to recharge.

  “Again,” Ross said, the second the machine was ready to deliver another charge. “All clear.”

  Cindy and Brielle stepped back. Ross put the paddles to the man’s chest. The man’s body jerked from the jolt of electricity.

  Brielle held her breath, waiting, hoping.

  His heart gave a resounding beep on the monitor. Then another. And another.

  “Thank God,” she breathed, knowing that the man was far from out of danger as at any moment the tide could turn.

  “Give him...” Ross named the medication and Brielle nodded, turning to grab the injectible medication from the crash cart. He turned to Cindy. “Get Cardiology here stat.”

  “Yes, sir. Dr. Heather Abellano is in the CCU. I saw her earlier.” Cindy glanced toward Brielle then headed out of the partitioned exam room.

  Brielle continued to monitor the patient, all too aware that Ross was watching her. Okay, so really he was observing the patient, but she could sense his gaze shift to her every few seconds.

  But he didn’t say a single word to her. Not one.

  Within minutes, Dr. Abellano was in the room, examining Mr. Cook and having him transferred to the cardiac care unit for further evaluation and treatment.

  Once Mr. Cook was on his way, Brielle sighed in relief, glad her shift was almost over and she could go home to Justice.

  She glanced toward Ross. He was scribbling on Mr. Cook’s emergency room encounter, no doubt documenting the man’s code, stabilization, and transfer.

  He glanced up, caught her staring at him. His brow lifted, but she only looked away. What did he expect? For her to say something? What was she supposed to say that they hadn’t already said?

  * * *

  Ross signed his name at the bottom of the emergency room encounter, trying to focus on the task at hand and not on the woman across the room restocking the crash cart.

  The woman who’d turned his life upside down.

  He couldn’t say that he regretted his decision to come to Bean’s Creek. If he hadn’t, he’d never have known about Justice. He’d done the right thing.

  About coming here, if nothing else.

  On everything else he just wasn’t sure.

  Everything had seemed so clear in his mind when he’d stormed out of her house.

  He’d had to leave.

  Yet hadn’t he done exactly what she’d expected all along? Left when things got sticky?

  He wasn’t a quitter, or the type of man who walked away from a problem. He’d have labeled himself a problem-solver, not a runner.

  Yet perhaps Brielle was justified to think that way of him, because with her he hadn’t stuck around when things got muddled.

  But unlike in the past, he hadn’t left with no intention of returning. Over the past few days he’d made major life decisions. Decisions that he’d needed to make with a clear head.

  Apparently, a clear head and being near Brielle didn’t go hand in hand. Not for him. She made him crazy.

  She made him alive.

  More alive than at any other point in his life. Every emotion was more intense, more real, more vivid with Brielle back in his life, and that’s where he wanted her, in his life.

  He probably should have stayed, camped out on her sofa until they’d both cooled off. Instead, he’d flown to Boston, arranged to sell his practice to his partners, put his apartment on the market and tied up loose ends because he wouldn’t be moving back at the end of his three months in Bean’s Creek.

  Regardless of what happened be
tween him and Brielle, he was staying in North Carolina, was staying where his family was, Justice and Brielle.

  What was happening between them?

  What did he want to happen?

  Hadn’t that thought been foremost in his mind over the past few days? What was it he wanted more than anything?

  Not what currently was, that was for sure.

  His skin crawled every time he caught her looking at him with her big sad eyes. He wanted her eyes smiling, her lips laughing, her world a better place because he was in her life. What he didn’t want was to cause her stress and grief.

  But he was going to be a part of Justice’s daily life.

  He’d missed five years of his son’s life. He wouldn’t miss any more. He missed that kid.

  He missed Brielle.

  He glanced at where she was talking to the nurse who’d just returned from helping transport Mr. Cook. Brielle looked tired, stressed, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well, and he knew he was to blame.

  He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her he wanted to come home.

  Home? Was that how he thought of her quaint little house? Home was where the heart was.

  His heart was wherever Brielle and Justice were.

  Yes, he wanted to go home.

  Which meant he and Brielle needed to talk. No coercion or threats on his part regarding custody of Justice, though. He wanted her to invite him to come back. For her to tell him she’d missed him as much as he’d missed her.

  He wanted her to love him as much as he loved her.

  As much as she had loved him once upon a time.

  If she’d loved him once, he’d win her love again. He knew Brielle. She wasn’t the kind to love lightly. She’d given him her heart and he was going to stake his future happiness on the fact that she’d never gotten it back completely, otherwise she wouldn’t have made love with him.

  They had made love. Yes, the chemistry between them was phenomenal, but their connection went way beyond physical.

  Love really was the most powerful thing in the world.

  Why question himself?

  He knew what he wanted.

  The time apart had cleared that up for him and he had no doubts about the direction he wanted his future to take.

  He glanced at his watch. Their shift was almost over. Thank God. Today had been a killer day. Or maybe it had been the tension between him and Brielle that had made him feel that way.

  He’d known that at the end of their shift he’d talk to her, get down on his knees and beg her to open her heart to him.

  Somehow he would convince her that he deserved a second chance, deserved her love, deserved the opportunity to love and cherish her and their son for the rest of their lives.

  He put his hand in his scrub pocket. His fingers traced over a velvet box. Why had he brought the trinket with him? It wasn’t as if he’d do anything with it at the hospital, yet he zhadn’t wanted to leave it at the apartment he’d returned to late last night either.

  Brielle came over to the station where he sat and picked up a clipboard.

  “I’d like to see Justice tonight.”

  “Fine.”

  Ross cringed. He really didn’t like that word.

  “Could I take you both to dinner?”

  She hesitated only a second. “No, but you are welcome to spend time with Justice, either taking him to dinner or playing with him at my house.”

  “But I’m not welcome to spend time with you?”

  She shook her head. “The less time we spend together, the better for Justice’s sake.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because us being together is like mixing fire and gasoline. We can’t coexist.”

  “We coexisted for years. Quite well,” he reminded her.

  “That was before.”

  “Before?”

  “Justice.”

  “Justice is all the more reason for us to coexist.”

  * * *

  Which was exactly why Brielle couldn’t even try. She couldn’t be her mother. Hadn’t she seen the devastation that forcing a man into marriage caused?

  “You are welcome to see him. He misses you.”

  “I miss him.” Ross raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Look, Brielle...” he glanced around the for once almost empty emergency department “...we need to talk. Not here. Not at your place with Justice there. Just you and me.”

  “I don’t see the point.”

  “Then give me the opportunity to show you the point.”

  She sighed. As much as she didn’t want to have the conversation with him, she knew that eventually she’d have to. He was her son’s father and would always be a part of her life.

  “Fine. We’ll talk, but I have to pick Justice up from his preschool after-care when I get off work, so not tonight.”

  He seemed ready to argue with her, but the vibration of her cellular phone in her pocket and her pulling the phone out to check the number stopped him.

  She rarely got a phone call at work.

  The preschool.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, Brielle, this is Rachel. I don’t know how to tell you this, but...Justice is missing.”

  Brielle’s heart stopped. “Missing? What do you mean, missing?”

  “We’ve looked every where at the school and can’t find him. He’s gone.”

  Brielle couldn’t say another word, could barely stand. Her gaze met Ross’s concerned one and she held the phone out to him in a hand that visibly shook.

  He took the phone. “This is Dr. Ross Lane. What’s going on?”

  Brielle moved in a daze as Ross had her get her purse while he informed Administration that they were both leaving. Fortunately, it was close enough to shift change that their replacements were already at the hospital.

  Wordlessly, she climbed into the passenger seat of his car, rode to the preschool with panic and fear foremost in her heart and mind.

  Missing. Justice was missing.

  Ross had called the police the moment he’d hung up from the preschool, reported what the preschool teacher had told him. Although not enough time had passed for them to file an official missing-person report, they were sending an officer to meet them at the preschool.

  When Ross reached across the car seat and took her hand into his, she didn’t pull away. Somewhere in the horror of the moment she registered that his hand trembled. Yet she drew great strength from knowing he was there, that he was with her and she didn’t have to face this alone.

  She acknowledged she was in shock.

  She moved through the next thirty minutes without anything really registering except that she ached inside as she’d never ached before.

  Ross stayed at her side, holding her, letting her cry, helping her when her hands shook too much for her to remove the photo of Justice from her wallet to give to the police.

  “We’ll have all units on the look out and give you folks a call if we hear anything. I suggest you go home and see if he’s gone there.”

  Hope lit in Brielle’s heart. Was it possible that Justice had gone home?

  Had he run away from the preschool? Her mind had gone in a hundred directions, all of which involved someone snatching her son.

  But what if Justice had left on his own?

  Why would he do that?

  She glanced at Ross, the truth dawning and hope growing that Justice was okay. “He’s not at home.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “He’s gone to find you.”

  Ross’s brows lifted. “But I told him I’d come back, that I was only going to be in Boston for a few days.”

  He’d gone to Boston? Why?

  “Obviously he didn
’t want to wait a moment longer to find you. He kept saying we needed to go find you.”

  She closed her eyes, remorse filling her.

  Oh, Justice. She should have taken more notice of his questions, known that her brilliant son would be a person of action, not waiting around for something he wanted desperately.

  “We’ll check at local bus stops and contact the local taxi services to see if anyone remembers seeing him,” the officer informed them, putting a call in to the communication center.

  Brielle nodded then jumped as her phone started ringing. Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please, be Justice, she prayed.

  Vann’s number showed on the screen. She winced. She hadn’t even thought to call her brother. Vann. Justice would have gone to Vann for help.

  She hit the answer icon on her phone. “Is Justice with you?”

  “Yeah, he just showed up. Alone. What’s up?”

  Her body sagged with relief. “Thank God. Oh, Vann, thank God.”

  “He’s with Vann?” Ross asked, relief evident in his voice as well.

  She nodded, listening to her brother explain how Justice had shown up at the hospital where he worked in a taxi, stating he needed Vann’s help to find his daddy.

  Brielle started crying and couldn’t quit. Not silent tears but full-out, shaking-her-entire-body sobs.

  Ross wrapped his arms around her. “Shh, baby, it’s going to be okay. He’s all right. He’s with Vann and he’s bringing him back to us.”

  After letting the police and the preschool know what had happened, they left and went to Brielle’s house to wait for Vann to arrive.

  “I won’t stop him from seeing you. Ever,” Brielle informed him when they were sitting on her kitchen bar stools. Ross had forced her to sit, and drink a glass of water. She knew he was just trying to distract her while they waited, anything to help pass the time.

  “I know. I feel the same. He needs us both.”

  Swiping at her eyes, which were wet again, she nodded. “He does.” She glanced at Ross, met his red-rimmed eyes and realized that her eyes weren’t the only ones that were wet. “Oh, Ross. I’m so sorry. For everything.”

  She stood, wrapped her arms around him, felt the comfort of his arms around her. How long they stood there she wasn’t sure. Just that they clung to each other, comforting and being comforted.