From Ashes To Flames

by A. M. Hargrove

I barely had time for my ass to hit the chair before a doctor rushed in. He introduced himself and went to work on Aaron right away. The labs had come back showing an elevated white count meaning he had an infection.

  “My suspicion is pneumonia. I want to see his chest X-ray first. But I’ll be honest. I’d like to admit him. This is a pretty sick little guy you have here. We’re going to start fluids on him right away and antibiotics since he does have some sort of infection. Let’s get things moving so we can get him up to PICU.”

  “PICU?”

  “Pediatric ICU.”

  “ICU! Oh God! Is he …?” I didn’t dare utter the words, but I immediately thought he was dying.

  “We need to keep an eye on his oxygen levels and make sure, for at least the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, things don’t go south. I want a pediatric pulmonary expert to handle this.”

  “Things go south?” I screeched. Kinsley started crying.

  “Marnie, I’m scared.”

  “I know.” I patted her shoulder and hugged her to my side.

  The doctor quickly interjected, “It’s going to be fine. Don’t worry. The good news is he’s been sick for less than a day.”

  “How could this happen?”

  “Pneumonia in children under two can do this.”

  I was close to breaking down but knew I couldn’t. Kinsley was here and she was hugging my leg, crying. The doctor crouched down and pulled a lollipop out of his pocket, handing it to her. She shook her head, not even wanting it. “Don’t worry, your brother will be fine.”

  About an hour later, we sat in the PICU unit. I was in a quandary. The nurses kept coming up to me, telling me young children weren’t allowed in the unit.

  I wrung my hands. “I don’t know what to do. Dr. West isn’t returning any of my calls or texts. His parents are out of town. I don’t have anyone to call to keep her. What am I supposed to do? She can’t stay home alone.” I tried to text my mom again and Paige, but now they weren’t responding. They had tickets for a show, so they probably had their phones turned off. If I could get in touch with one of Grey’s brothers, maybe they could help. Only I didn’t have either of their numbers.

  That’s when I broke down. Tears didn’t roll. They practically spurted out of my eyes like a busted hose. Kinsley cried too, asking me if Aaron was with the angels now.

  “No, baby, he’s not. He’s right here.” I lifted her up on my lap and held her. We both bawled like a couple of babies.

  The nurses left us alone for a while. I checked the time and it was nine o’clock and no calls or texts. I shot Dr. West another one, although I don’t know why. I told him Aaron was in the PICU with pneumonia and if he cared at all about his child, to please respond. They didn’t allow kids up here and I was in a bind with Kinsley.

  Ten minutes later, another physician came in and introduced herself. She was the pulmonary specialist who would be taking care of Aaron. His X-rays showed pneumonia in both lungs.

  “He’s a lucky guy you brought him in when you did.”

  “How in the world did this happen so fast?”

  “It was brewing for a day or two, but that’s how it can be with kids under two and people over sixty-five. But when it takes hold, it can spread like wildfire. I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine. However, I want him here for at least twenty-four hours, just to be sure. We should see a good response to the antibiotics we have running by then.”

  “That sounds good.”

  “I’d tell you to get some sleep, but I doubt you’d follow those instructions.”

  “No, you’re right. Thank you, doctor.”

  She checked him over and then left. There was a recliner and a hard chair in the small glass cubicle, so I let Kinsley sit in the recliner, where she fell asleep, holding her stuffed giraffe I’d brought for her. I covered her up with a blanket I found in the tiny closet.

  All I did was stare at the machines, looking at numbers I had no idea what they meant. Suddenly, the door slid open and he was there. Two long strides swallowed up the floor as he went to the computer near Aaron’s bed, furiously typing on it. The monitor jumped to life at his commands, instantly filling with information. I watched as he scanned it before he went over to his son and placed a hand on his head for a second. Then he turned toward me.

  That’s when I came to life. I stood up and walked over to him. Then I balled up my hand and punched him. My weak fists pounded his chest, shoulders, anything they could touch until I collapsed against him in a wall of tears. He held me as I sobbed, rubbing my back and hair, but didn’t utter a word. Then he pulled me away from him and just stared at me … until his mouth crashed onto mine in a bruising kiss.

  Every word of reproach, every incensed thought vanished. Even Aaron’s illness evaporated for a moment. All I knew at that moment was what his lips and tongue were doing to me … and how they singed mine, how my skin was scorched, my belly tightened, and that I wanted to clench my thighs, drop to my knees and do dirty filthy things to him. My fingers dug into his arms, holding on for dear life, knowing that if I let go, the terrible world as I knew it would crush me again, and I couldn’t bear for that to happen. I wanted this … this lust. This desire. I wanted to explore it, wanted it to devour me. But I also wanted the safety, the warmth, the comfort, the strength his body provided. The last six hours had been sheer hell and I wanted it to disappear and for Aaron to be healthy, and for all my worries about him to fade away. This kiss, this passion that was escalating between us was only a fantasy, a dream to carry me away for one tiny moment.

  But it did end, and when he looked down at me, I only saw wonder in his beautiful gray eyes. It hadn’t been a fantasy at all and I didn’t imagine it.

  His hand slid to my cheek as he said, “Jesus, Marin, my phone fell out of my pocket and I didn’t know anything until a few minutes ago. I’m so very sorry.” Then his warm, protective arms wrapped around me and held me tightly again before moving away to check on Aaron. “According to his chart, he has pneumonia and they have him on antibiotics.”

  After I filled him in, he said, “I owe you everything.” He reached for my hand. But this was so confusing to me, I drifted out of his reach.

  My hand touched my lips—which still burned from his kiss—for a second, and then I said, “Kinsley isn’t supposed to be in here. They’ve been giving me hell about it. I didn’t know what to do … there wasn’t anywhere for her to go.”

  His hand tore through his hair. “Shit. I’m sorry. You must’ve had the worst day.”

  I shuddered. “Not the best.”

  “Why don’t you go home and I’ll stay here with Aaron? Get some rest. If anything happens, I’ll call.”

  I swayed on my feet. “That’s probably a good idea. We still have a problem though. We’ll have to find another sitter for Kinsley.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I have backup. People I used before you.”

  “Good.” I started gathering my things and woke Kinsley. When she saw her daddy, she jumped out of the chair.

  He grabbed her and they clung to each other. “Hey, polka dot. You’re going home now with Marin so you two can go to bed.”

  “Are you gonna sleep with Aaron?”

  “I sure am.”

  “Did you bring your jammies?”

  “No, I’ll just sleep in my clothes.”

  “Oh. Then good night.” She gave him a loud smacking kiss on the mouth. Hmm. He had one sexy mouth, for sure.

  We left with him promising to call if there was anything to update me on.

  When I crawled into bed, exhaustion claimed me, but I could still feel the burn of Grey’s lips on mine. Something primal had been sparked deep within me. Why did he have to go and do that?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Greydon

  * * *

  When I walked into Aaron’s room and saw her sitting there, the ache in my chest grew exponentially until my heart nearly vaulted through my ribcage. Between Aaron and Marin, I was sure I would
need the services of one of my partners. You never want to see one of your kids so sick that they’ve been admitted to the PICU. I couldn’t take a solid breath until I was able to read his chart. It still wasn’t easy and wouldn’t be until he was out of the danger zone … until I was comfortable knowing he was having a positive response to the antibiotics.

  Then there was Marin. Dealing with her was like dealing with a wounded tigress. She came at me, claws exposed, but was harmless because she was so exhausted. And didn’t that make me feel even more like shit. It had all been a terrible series of mistakes, but still, I should’ve been more careful with my phone … paid closer attention to my shit. So yeah, I accepted full responsibility for that.

  Then something hit me when I saw her. Passion never swept me away. I wasn’t that guy. But when I stepped through that door, molten heat poured through my veins, unhinging me, and I couldn’t have stopped myself, no matter what. This had been brewing for some time now. If I were honest, it was why I was so defensive about how the office staff had treated her. She didn’t deserve it, true, but it hit me harder because I had feelings, intense feelings for her. But this couldn’t happen. I would never allow my heart to get wrapped up in a woman again. The pain was too great and not worth the risk.

  But seeing Marin sitting there, looking like she’d been through hell, had opened up something inside of me … something I thought had died. When she started punching me with her weak blows, I was done. I had to find out, to taste her, and so I did. I kissed her. It was undoubtedly the most inappropriate time and place, but I couldn’t take it back now. And wouldn’t if I could. That kiss only made me want more. … made me want it all. And if she was willing, I aimed to go after it, God help me.

  After keeping watch on Aaron for a few hours, I settled down on the recliner for an unrestful night. The beeping of the machines made it difficult to get much sleep at all. At first light, I texted the staff on the group messaging we’d set up for emergencies such as this, letting them know I needed to cancel out my day and why.

  Josh was the first to hit me back.

  Josh: You okay? Is Aaron?

  Instead of going through all the texting, I decided to call him.

  “Hey man, what the hell happened?” he asked.

  I explained everything, down to my phone situation.

  “Shit, I bet you freaked.”

  “Yeah, when I got home and saw that Aaron was in the PICU, I about lost it.”

  “Hey, I’m glad he’s doing okay. Is there anything I can do for you? Other than practice stuff?”

  “Now that you mention it, do you guys have a good sitter that can watch Kinsley. I know Marin will want to come and see Aaron and I can’t be here all day tomorrow.”

  “Hang on.”

  I heard him checking with Ashley in the background. “Ash says to have Marin drop her off here and she’ll handle it.”

  “No, I can’t do that. She has her hands full.”

  “She insists. Besides, the nanny comes during the day and Kinsley will have a good time. She can even spend the night if she wants.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Grey, you know us. We wouldn’t offer if we didn’t mean it.”

  “Thanks, I’ll let Marin know. Both our parents are in Vegas together, or I wouldn’t be asking.”

  “Not a problem. Give Marin Ashley’s number. You have it, right?”

  “Let me check.” I quickly scanned my contacts and saw that I did. “Yeah, I’ve got it. Thanks, man. I owe you.”

  “Yeah, when our brood is the size of a baseball team, we’ll hit you up.” I chuckled. Just then, Aaron started crying.

  “Hey, Aaron just woke up. I’ve gotta run.”

  I checked on him and was pretty sure his diaper needed changing.

  “Hey, buddy. How’s my boy?” I rubbed his tummy, but it didn’t help. He was safe in his bed, so I searched the room for a clean diaper and finally found one. Then I went about changing him. He still cried afterward, but a nurse arrived and checked his IVs.

  “His sedation has obviously worn off,” I said.

  She stared at me for a second.

  “I’m his father.”

  “Hi, I’m Cathy, his nurse for today.”

  I got up and went to the computer and started typing.

  “Sir, you can’t do that.”

  I ignored her.

  “Sir! Mr. West.”

  Annoyed, I said, “He hasn’t had any sedatives since I got here and the last time they were administered was at nine thirty.”

  “Sir, I’m calling …”

  “It’s Dr. West, not Mr. West, and I have access to all his medical records as I’m on staff here at the hospital. Now, why has my son not been attended to? This is the PICU and no one has checked on him for at least three hours.”

  Eyes resembling ping-pong balls nearly popped out of her head. “Um, sir, I mean, Dr. West, we monitor the patients from the station out there.” She pointed to where a group was seated and looking at all the monitors.

  Scowling, I asked, “Doesn’t the I in PICU, mean intensive? He hasn’t had any hands-on care in quite a while. How can you do that from out there?”

  “But …”

  “Who is Aaron’s attending physician?”

  “It’s Dr. Sutton.”

  “When will she be making rounds?”

  “She’s here now.”

  “Good. I’d like to speak to her. Oh, and so you are aware, sedation was ordered for Aaron every eight hours. It’s eight o’clock. He’s well past his last dosage.”

  She went to leave, but I stopped her. “Aren’t you even going to check your patient?”

  Cathy scurried back to Aaron to check his diaper.

  “Too late. I already changed him because you didn’t bother to do so.”

  She was clearly flustered by now but did what she was supposed to and left.

  Dr. Sutton—Jane—came in about ten minutes later.

  “Grey, you’re stirring things up in here.”

  “I hope more than a little. They needed a little stirring. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed in the care Aaron’s received.”

  “I totally understand. That won’t happen again. I got on them about Aaron’s meds. His IVs are good. We’re going to do another CBC and a white count with a differential to check on whether or not there’s an improvement over yesterday’s.

  “Yeah, I saw that left shift with the neutrophilia.” That was a clear indication of infection.

  “I think we’ll see improvement. I want another chest X-ray later today as well. If by tonight, I’m seeing a steady improvement, we can move him out of here and into a regular room. And if this improvement continues at a rapid rate, which I have no reason to think it won’t, then he can go home the day after that. We’ll switch him off the IV antibiotics to oral. Sound like a good plan to you?”

  Nodding, I said, “I’m just overwhelmed at how quickly this developed.”

  “Like I told your nanny, he’s under two and kids can be very vulnerable to pneumonia. You’re lucky she had the foresight to bring him in. I won’t explain the outcome to you if she hadn’t.”

  “You don’t have to. I know.”

  Jane left and Cathy practically ran in here and hovered over Aaron. She gave him more sedation so he would sleep, and was in and out like an overprotective mother. Jane must’ve really given them a dressing down.

  I called Marin and woke her up, but also scared the hell out of her.

  “Dr. West! Is everything okay? How’s Aaron?” she yelled into the phone.

  Laughing, I answered, “He’s good. It’s after eight, so I assumed you’d be awake or I would’ve waited to call.”

  “It’s after eight?” she screamed.

  “Yeah, sleepy head.”

  “Ugh.” I had a vision of her flopping back on her pillow for some reason. “I’m sorry I overslept.”

  “Don’t be sorry. You deserve to sleep. And don’t you think you need to stop calling m
e Dr. West?”

  “Um, okay.”

  “I think you should start calling me Grey.”

  “Grey?”

  “It’s my name, you know.”

  “Y-your name,” she stuttered.

  Chuckling, I said, “Yes, Grey, short for Greydon.”

  “I knew that.” She paused briefly, then said, “I mean, okay.”

  “The reason I’m calling is I need a favor. Can you bring me some fresh clothes? I’ve been in these for a while and they’re awful. I want to run down to the doctor’s lounge and shower. Oh, and Ashley said for you to drop Kinsley off at their place. They want her to spend the night so that’ll free you to come here.”

  “Are they sure?”

  “Absolutely. I asked and Josh said we could return the favor when their brood was the size of a baseball team.”

  She laughed. I actually loved the sound of it. “I love it when you laugh.”

  “Er, uh, thanks. So, what should I bring you to wear?”

  “Jeans and a decent shirt will be fine.”

  “Um, do you need, erm, like, ah, underwear or anything?” she squeaked out.

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. It was interesting that this conversation was causing her to sound so awkward. I wondered if she was blushing. “No. Unless you want me to wear some and, in that case, they’re in one of the drawers in the closet.”

  “What about socks? Or shoes?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be needing those too. Socks are in the drawers. Shoes, use your own judgment.” I wanted to see what she’d bring. “There are some duffle bags in there too. Oh, and can you bring a toothbrush and toothpaste? You’ll find some in my bathroom. One of the drawers. Just dig around in there.” Man, I imagined her squirming.

  “Sure. I have to shower and bathe Kinsley. We were so tired last night we fell straight into bed. And then breakfast. Is that okay?”

  “It’s perfectly fine. I’ll see you whenever you get here.”

  “O-okay.”

  “And Marin?”

  “Uh huh?”

  “I liked kissing you last night. More than a lot.”

  I hung up before she had a chance to respond. Let her think about that when she was digging around in my closet, looking in my underwear drawer.