by Olivia Gates
He cocked one eyebrow at her, teasing sparking the fiery brown of his eyes. “You think I can’t handle examining one highly cooperative tyke on my own?”
“Actually, I’m worried this is the calm before the storm. In previous visits, Ryan acted as if the doctors were torturing him.”
His eyebrows shot up before he looked at Ryan. “But you won’t do that to your obedient ride, will you? And I won’t make it such a cheerless endeavor that you’ll be driven to tears. You can even assist me, hold instruments, test and taste them to your heart’s content. Between us, we’ll make this a great game, Ryan.”
His thoughtfulness, then the way he said Rye-aan, Ryan’s similar-sounding Arabic name, lanced through her.
After receiving Ryan’s gleeful endorsement, he moved to start prepping him. She moved, too, bumped into him.
Feeling his steadying hands on her shoulders made her jump back. “I—I’ll just undress him.”
He gave her a tiny squeeze before setting her free and turning to Ryan. “As Ryan’s designated driver this afternoon, I think he’d want me to do the honors, right, Ryan?”
Sure enough, Ryan let out a squeal of agreement.
She stood back, every nerve buzzing as he undid Ryan’s snap-button jumpsuit with great care and dexterity, although it was clear he’d never performed the task before. Instead of fidgeting as he usually did, Ryan stunned her by chewing on a chart and offering Fareed every cooperation in stripping him down to his diapers.
“You’re an extremely well-cared-for little prince, eh, Ryan?”
Her heart gave another painful thud, which was stupid. It was just a figure of speech.
“Now, let’s start the game.”
She stood mesmerized, watching Fareed’s beautiful hands probe Ryan’s muscles for power, pushing and pulling on his feet and legs, making Ryan an eager participant. He turned to sensation, walking his fingers along nerve paths, before pouncing with tickles and eliciting Ryan’s shrieking giggles.
Next came recording muscle contraction and nerve conduction and he made Ryan help him fit in plugs and place leads over his body, all the time explaining everything. Ryan hung on his every word, his eyes rapt as he watched this larger-than-life entity who’d entered and filled his limited world. Fareed warned him that the tests were a bit uncomfortable, but would be over in no time, and Gwen braced herself for the end of the honeymoon.
But as he started the tests, instead of the dreaded wails, Ryan seemed to only notice Fareed’s banter, awarded him with a steady stream of corroborating gurgles.
She shouldn’t be surprised. Fareed’s darkest silk voice made her forget a world outside existed, or a past or a future.…
What was she thinking? She should only be thinking of running away once this exam ended, forgetting she’d ever seen him again.
She’d only sought him as a last resort, had hoped to slip in among his appointments undistinguished. But she’d ended up having his attention in its most undiluted form. Then it had gotten worse and he’d remembered her, had been treating her since as if he…
Her thoughts piled up as he dressed Ryan then caught her eye. “I’ll see those investigations now.”
She pounced on the briefcase, but he gently stopped her fumbling, took over. He studied the X-rays and MRIs briefly, set aside the reports without reading them before putting everything back in the briefcase. Then he turned to Ryan, who was demanding to be picked up—by him.
He complied at once. “So how was that? Fun as I promised, eh?” Ryan whooped an agreement. “But you know what? We had all this fun together, and I haven’t even introduced myself. My name is Fareed.” He pointed to himself, said his name a few time.
Ryan’s eyes twinkled before he echoed triumphantly, “Aa-eed.”
“Ma azkaak men subbi!” Fareed exclaimed. “What a clever boy you are.” Ryan seemed delighted by Fareed’s approval, and continued to say Aa-eed over and over. Fareed guffawed. “We’ll work on the F and R later. I bet you’ll get it right in a couple of months, being a genius, like Rose said—” he turned to her “—and like your mother is.”
Gwen felt about to faint again.
It’s dreading his still-unvoiced verdict, she told herself.
But it wasn’t. She was terrified of having her worst fears validated, but that lightheadedness, as if she’d been hungry all her life, was the effect he had on her. Anything he did, every move and look and breath induced pure emotional and erotic tumult.…
What was happening to her? What was it about him that made her someone she didn’t know? Someone who couldn’t complete a thought without it turning into something…licentious?
He was guiding her back into the room, stopping by the desk for a computer tablet. At the sitting area, he set Ryan on the ground, gave him every safe article around to play with. Ryan instead made it clear he wanted to nap. She produced a blanket from the bag Rose had left behind and Fareed spread it in front of the couch, where Ryan crawled and promptly feel asleep facedown.
Once they sat down, Fareed said, “Tell me about Ryan, Gwen.”
Don’t call me that, she wanted to cry out. She needed to regain her balance and there was no hope she would when he kept calling her Gwaihn in that lion’s purr of his.
Instead she nodded her shaky assent. Over the next minutes, he obtained an exhaustive history of Ryan’s pre- and postnatal periods and developmental milestones, his fingers flying over the glossy tablet’s surface documenting it all.
Finally, he put the tablet down, turned to face her. “You do know he has spina bifida occulta?”
His question/declaration felt like a direct blow to her heart. She’d known, but had still been hoping against hope.…
Tears surged again as she nodded. “As a researcher of drugs targeting the nervous system, I knew the basics of the condition.” Incomplete closure of vertebrae around the spinal cord, which instead of hanging loose in the spinal canal was tethered to the bone, potentially causing varying degrees of nerve damage and disability. “I studied it extensively because I suspected Ryan of having it. But every pediatrician and neurologist told me not to worry, that ten percent of people have it and are asymptomatic, something they discover as adults during X-rays for unrelated complaints. I persisted, and a couple conceded that he has minor neurological deficits, which might or might not mean future disability but that there was no treatment anyway. But I couldn’t just wait until Ryan grew up and couldn’t walk or never developed bowel or urinary continence. I had to know for sure that there was nothing to be done, and only you…only your opinion will do…”
The sobs that had been banked broke loose.
He was down on his haunches in front of her in a blink, his hands squeezing her shoulders. “It was amazing that you noticed the mild weakness in his legs and clawing in his toes. He’s sitting and crawling, and with him far away from being toilet-trained and without previous experience with children, I’m beyond impressed that you discerned his condition even after the repeated dismissal of your worries. But I can excuse the doctors who examined him. It would take someone as extensively versed in the rare as I am to form an opinion on so irregular a condition.”
Her sobs had been subsiding gradually, at his soothing and under the urge to swamp him with questions.
The paramount one burst from her. “And you’ve formed one?”
He nodded. “You were absolutely right. Without surgery, he may develop increasing disability in lower limb motor function and bowel and urinary control.”
She sank her fingers into his sinew and muscle. “So there is a surgery? To prevent further damage? What about any that already exists? Is there damage? What about bowel and urinary problems? My sources say even when surgery successfully closes the defect and releases the cord, those usually never go away.…” She faltered on the last question, what she of all people knew was a long shot. “And if there’s a residual handicap, would my drug help?”
He rose, came down beside her. This time, she sank i
nto his solicitude gratefully, only the last vestiges of her willpower stopping her from physically seeking it.
“Most, if not all, surgeons wouldn’t touch a case like Ryan’s. They’d say their findings are too ephemeral to warrant a surgery that wouldn’t offer much, if any, improvement. But I say different.”
Hope surged so hard inside her that she choked with its agonizing expansion. “You—you mean you’re not telling me to give up?”
He shook his head. “Of course, any surgery comes with risks.” The world darkened again. He caught her hand, squeezed it. “I have to mention risks because it’s unethical to promise you a risk-free procedure, not because I expect problems. But I can and do promise you and Ryan the best result possible.”
Her tears faltered. “Y-you mean you want to operate on him?”
He nodded. “He’ll be safe with me, Gwen.”
She stifled another heart-wrenching sob. Fareed’s arm slid around her. “And yes, your drug will regenerate the nerve damage. I know it’s not approved for use on children, but because I believed the delay in approval was built on bureaucracy and not medical facts, I have obtained permission from the region’s drug administration under my personal responsibility and have used it on even younger patients than Ryan with adjusted doses and certain precautions to astonishing results. Together, we’ll cure Ryan, Gwen.”
And she had to ask the rest, everything, now, before this turned out to be a deranged dream, before she fainted again. “How long will it take? The surgery? The recuperation? How soon can he have it? How much will it all cost?”
“The surgery itself is from four to six hours, and the recuperation is from four to six weeks. He can have it as soon as I prepare everything. And it won’t cost a thing.”
That stopped the churning world. Her tears. Her heart.
“You must have misunderstood,” she finally whispered. “I’m not here seeking charity. I didn’t even think of asking you to perform the surgery, only hoped you’d write me a report stating that it’s a surgical case, so no surgeon could tell me it isn’t.”
He pursed his lips. “First, there’s no charity involved—”
She struggled to detach herself from the circle of his support. “Of course there is. You’re here performing pro bono surgeries. But I can pay. Just tell me how much, and I will.”
“You will pay? Not that it’s an issue here, but why wouldn’t your insurance cover your child’s medical expenses?”
She should be more careful what she said. He noticed everything. Now she had to satisfy him with an explanation or he’d corner her with demands for more information she couldn’t give. “I insisted on costly investigations the doctors said weren’t needed, moving me to an unfavorable insurance category, so the coverage would be only partial now. But that doesn’t matter. I’m very well paid and I have a lot of money.”
He leveled patient eyes on her. “Of course you are and you do. And there is still no cost involved.”
She shook her head. “I can’t accept a waiver of your fee. And then there are many other expenses besides that.”
His lips quirked, teasing, indulgent. “First, I’m a big boy, if you haven’t noticed, and I can waive my fee if I want to, which I mostly do. My ‘reputation’ isn’t totally hype, you know. Second, there won’t be any other expenses back home.”
She gaped at him. For a full minute.
She finally heard a strangled echo. “Back home?”
He rose to his feet with a smile. “Yes. You, Ryan and Rose are coming with me to Jizaan.”
Five
Gwen stared at the overwhelming force that was Fareed Aal Zaafer, and was certain of one of two things.
Either she’d finally lost her mind, or he was out of his.
She squeezed her eyes shut, as if that would stop the disintegration of this situation, set it back in the land of the acceptable. She opened her eyes again hoping she’d see on his face what should have been there from the start, polite forbearance with a patient’s hysterical mother.
But he was looking at her with that indulgent intensity that singed her. Worse, a new excitement was entering his gaze, as if he was realizing more benefits to his decision by the second.
“As soon as Rose and Emad return, we’ll go to your hotel and collect your luggage on our way to the airport. We’ll be in Jizaan in under twenty-four hours.”
He’d said it again. This Jizaan thing. She hadn’t imagined it the first time. This was real. He meant it.
But he couldn’t mean it. He had to be joking. He did have a wicked sense of humor.…
No. His humor, while unpredictable and lightning-fast, was not in any way mean, at least, not in any of the lectures and interviews she’d seen. It would be beyond cruel to joke now and he was the very opposite of that: magnanimous, compassionate, protective.
But he was also single-minded and autocratic and she had to stop him before this crazy idea became a solid intention.
He detailed said intention. “We’ll go to dinner first, or we can have it on board the jet.” He got out his cell phone, cocked his head at her. “What would you like to have? Real food this time, I promise. I can either reserve seats in a restaurant, or have your choice ready on the jet.”
“I can’t go to your kingdom!”
The shaky statement managed to do the job. It stopped him short.
For about a second. Then he smiled. “Of course, you can.”
She raised her hands. “Please, let’s not start another ‘I can’t’ ‘No, you can’ match. We just finished one about payment.”
“Yes, let’s not. You do remember how you fared in that last match? No point in repeating the same method and expecting different results, hmm?”
The definition of insanity, which also described this situation. She did feel her sanity slipping another notch. “You know what you’re proposing is impossible.”
“I know no such thing.”
She shook her head, disbelief deepening, dread taking root. “You’re asking me to just haul everyone halfway across the world.…”
“I’ll do the ‘hauling,’ so cross that out on your no-doubt alphabetized list of worries. I’m sure you have your affairs sorted out for as long as you thought would see Ryan’s medical situation resolved. But in case you’re not fully covered, and fear repercussions for prolonged or unexcused absence from work, one phone call from me should get you an open-ended leave, with pay.”
Her breathing had gone awry by the time he finished. “It’s not just my work, it’s…everything.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, someone who would not be denied, who had an answer to everything. “Like what?”
She groped for something, anything, latched on the first logical thing that occurred to her. “Like passports. We didn’t bring them on a trip we couldn’t have dreamed would take us outside the States.”
His daunting shoulder rose and fell. “You won’t need them to enter my kingdom.”
“But we’d need visas.…”
He intercepted that, too. “Not when you’re entering the kingdom with me, you don’t. And I’ll bring you back with me, so you won’t need more than your American IDs to re-enter the States.”
Her eyes darted around, as if looking for a way out. There was none. He kept neutralizing possible objections in advance. “And anyway, to make you feel better, once in Jizaan, I’ll have the American embassy there issue new passports for you and I’ll have visas stamped on them.”
She knew he could do that with a flick of a finger. Any country would bend over backward to accommodate him.
“And if you’re worried about your family, I’ll call them right now, give them all my contact info, so they’d be in touch with you at all times. I can even take any of them who wish to come along, too.”
Her heart emptied at his mention of her family. A subject she had to close before he probed it open. “Rose is my closest relative.”
And probe he did. “You said she was a maternal relative.
So what happened to your mother?”
She could feel the familiar pain and loss expanding all over inside her. She had to get this over with, dissuade him from broaching the subject ever again. “She died from surgical complications just after I entered college. I have no one else.”
He looked thoughtful. “And that must have factored in your decision to have Ryan after your engagement fell through, so you’d form your own family.”
She let her silence convince him his deduction was right, when it was anything but.
“I’m very sorry to hear you were all alone in the world for so long. Coming from such an extensive family, I can’t imagine how it must have been for you.”
“I’m no longer alone.”
“Yes.” After a long moment when sympathy seemed to radiate off him, he smiled. “So we checked off passports, visas, fees and responsibility to family as reasons to resist my plans.”
“But these are not the only…” She stopped, panting now as if she’d been trying to outrun an out-of-control car. She was trying to escape his inexorable intentions. “What am I saying? I’m not debating the feasibility of something that’s not even an option. And the only thing that will make me feel better is that you drop this and…and…” She stopped again, feeling herself being backed into a trap her own capitulation would close shut. And he was standing there, waiting for her to succumb, knowing that she would. She groaned with helplessness, “Why even suggest this? Why not perform the surgery here? If it’s because you’re worried I’d be saddled with hospital expenses…”
He waved that majestic hand of his. “I could have had the hospital waive them by adding Ryan to the cases I was here for.”
“Then why?” That came out a desperate moan.
He gave her such a look, that of someone willing to spend days cajoling and happy to do it. “You want reasons in descending or ascending order of importance?”
“Oh, please!” She tried to rise, failed to inject any coordination in her jellified legs. “Just…just…”
He sat down, put a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Breathe, Gwen. Everything will be fine, I promise. As for why, one main reason is that I can’t stay away from my medical center any longer. And I certainly won’t operate on Ryan, then leave him to someone else’s follow-up. The other major reason is that I can only guarantee my results in a case as delicate when I’m in my medium, among the medical team I put together and the system I constructed.”
