One of his eyebrows rose. “Did you ditch those anatomy classes in med school?”
“Humor me. Just try to get in touch with your feminine side.” Yeah, right, Rebecca thought. Could the man possibly look more masculine with his long sleeves rolled up, revealing wide wrists with a dusting of hair on his forearms. It was a sexy look and so far from feminine she felt stupid for even making the suggestion. Taking a different tack she said, “Try to understand that her body is changing and all of this is new to her. In spite of the fact that she’s doing her best to pretend it’s not happening, she’s scared and would like someone there when she has the test.”
“She’s got you.” The look on Gabe’s face said he’d rather hike barefoot through a foot of snow on Mount Charleston than walk in that room.
Benefit of the doubt, Rebecca thought. Maybe he was one of those squeamish types who couldn’t handle seeing a loved one in discomfort. During Amy’s first appointment he’d known about the ultrasound, but the procedure was so routine that practically everyone knew the term, although not necessarily the specifics of how it was performed. A few of those specifics might help.
“Look, Gabe, it won’t hurt her. It’s a noninvasive procedure. I’m going to take a transducer—a wandlike instrument—and move it across her belly. It bounces harmless sound waves off the fetus and gives us an image that will tell me the approximate size and weight of the baby, and general information, possibly the sex—”
“She doesn’t really want me in there.”
He started to turn away, but Rebecca put her hand on his arm and he froze. The muscles beneath the warm skin were hard and unyielding, not unlike the man. Which made the unexpected flutter in her stomach all the more puzzling.
Ignoring the sensation, she said, “Not so fast.”
The teen had been alternately passive, hostile and defensive. There’d been apprehension in her eyes and a tremor in her voice when she’d asked if Gabe could be there, and it was the first time she’d asked for anything. Rebecca had no idea what their history was or the nature of the problems between them, but he was the grown-up and wasn’t getting off the hook.
He looked surprised as he glanced at the hand still on his arm, then met her gaze. “Not so fast?”
“I’m not letting you walk out on her.”
One corner of his mouth curved up. “And just how do you plan to stop me?”
She removed her hand, then curled her fingers into her palm. “I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.”
She inspected the width of his shoulders and the idea of using physical force lost some appeal at the same time it produced even stronger stomach flutters. The sensation did not improve her odds of figuring it out and, in fact, made thinking even more of a challenge. What were they talking about? Oh, yes. Stop him from leaving.
She could share the fact that his sister was at increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension. Violating a patient’s privacy would be a minor blip on the trouble scale if she couldn’t get the teen to take care of herself. But she’d rather not break a rule.
She figured it was a positive sign that he was still there. “I’m hoping you’ll just do it.”
Gabe didn’t say anything for several moments. Then his mouth thinned and a muscle jerked in his jaw before he simply nodded his head.
“Okay. Let’s do this,” she said, opening the door.
Amy was lying on the exam table with the head slightly elevated. She looked expectantly at Rebecca, then smiled when she saw her brother. Not a big smile, but it was the first Rebecca had seen. It was a start.
“Gabe, you sit there next to Amy.”
He did as instructed and the teen started to reach out for him then dropped her hand when he ignored it and sat. Not a good start, Rebecca thought, when he rested his elbows on his knees and linked his fingers.
She walked around the exam table and sat on the stool beside the instrument. “This won’t hurt. I promise.” She gently lowered the sheet covering the teen’s belly, then picked up a tube of gel. “I’m going to squirt some of this on. It’s not cold. One of the really exciting advances in medicine is warm gel. Now, if someone could just come up with a way to keep a stethoscope above freezing.”
This was a tough room and she was getting no cooperation in her attempts to ease the tension. One look at brother and sister told her the bridge over those troubled waters would have to be miles long. Probably it would be best just to get this over with. She picked up the transducer and pressed it against Amy’s stomach, then moved it around, relieved that she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“The baby is active. That pulsing is the heart—it’s normal and strong. Everything looks very good.” She glanced at her patient, who was staring straight up at the ceiling. Again, benefit of the doubt. Sometimes it was hard to decipher organs and limbs unless they were pointed out. She pointed at the image on the screen. “Here’s a foot. And a little hand. See here?”
Amy said nothing and Gabe wasn’t looking, either. He was staring at the floor and frowning as if it were a competitive sport. What was up with these two? She suspected she knew what Amy was going through, but Gabe’s reaction puzzled her. Did he not like babies? Or doctors? Or his sister? Whatever it was, they were going to have to get over it because there was a life at stake. An innocent life.
“The baby has a very strong kick. Right now it’s turned away, but if it moves just right, I might be able to tell you the sex.” She looked at them to gauge a reaction to that suggestion, but neither responded, and she didn’t understand the absolute indifference. But she couldn’t make them care. All she could do was her job. The best outcome to this pregnancy was a healthy mother and baby and she’d do everything in her power to make that happen.
When she’d seen everything and gauged a due date, she moved the transducer around and typed in the command to print various views of the fetus. After wiping the gel off the teen’s stomach, she said, “Okay. We’re finished. I can—”
Amy pulled her shirt down, sat up and swung her legs to the side of the table before sliding off. “I’m going to the car.”
Gabe stood. “Amy, wait. Dr. Hamilton is—”
The girl never looked back but simply opened the exam room door and left.
Gabe rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, then met Rebecca’s gaze. “I apologize for my sister’s rudeness.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hard not to.”
“I’m concerned, but not about her manners.”
His frown deepened. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything looks okay with the baby. I was just hoping that this procedure would help her connect to what’s going on, engage her emotionally with the changes in her body, help her bond with her baby. But she’s still in denial.”
“I guess I can understand.”
“Then maybe you can tell me why she’s indifferent to this pregnancy,” Rebecca said.
“Why would I be able to do that?”
“Because you’re acting the same way.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Gabe, you wouldn’t look at the baby, either. Is it possible that she’s interpreting that as disapproval?”
“I’m not judging her.”
“Does Amy know that?”
“You’d have to ask her. But like you said, what with all the changes happening to her, it’s—” He blew out a long breath. “I don’t have a clue why she’s acting the way she is.”
And he didn’t volunteer an explanation about his own attitude, which unfortunately made Rebecca acutely curious, on a strictly personal level. The difference was he was in perfect health and not facing a life crisis like Amy. Maybe it was time to say out loud what she suspected.
“Is it possible, Gabe, that this pregnancy is a result of your sister being sexually assaulted?”
If she’d punched him in the stomach, he couldn’t have looked more stunned. “No.” He shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
Two for two in the Thorne fami
ly denial department. Rebecca needed him to get it, but no way would she tell him her own experience was the source of her gut feeling. When she’d talked to Amy about the baby growing inside her, the defensive expression was replaced by a bruised look and she’d bet it was all about trust betrayed in the most intimate way. Rebecca knew how that felt. She just didn’t know how it would feel to have a part of the assaulter growing inside her.
“Look, Gabe, I know you think I’m young and inexperienced, but I’ve handled a lot of pregnancies. They don’t give you a license to practice medicine unless you have the training. I’ve seen a lot of reactions—from the unplanned pregnancy in a committed relationship to the infertile woman heartbroken when she learns that she will never feel a baby move inside her. In my experience, even the mother who didn’t plan to get pregnant usually gets excited and is emotionally engaged when she sees her baby for the first time. Amy wouldn’t even look. A child conceived through an act of violence would explain why.”
He shook his head again. “That’s just not possible.”
“No?”
He loosened his tie with a quick and irritated jerk of his hand. “It’s just…Amy…In your practice…Have you seen assault victims?”
Every time she looked in the mirror. Rebecca’s chest tightened, but this wasn’t about her.
She let out a long breath. “Yes. Unfortunately. Before, when I suggested you get in touch with your feminine side, I know you can’t. Not really. And especially with something like this—Men don’t understand what it’s like to feel powerless. But it would explain a lot about Amy’s apathy.”
“If she’d been—If someone had…raped her…she would have—” Anger snapped in his eyes, making them a bottomless blue. “I’d like to say that she would have said something to me. But—”
“What?”
“But the truth is we’ve never been close.”
“Maybe this is an opportunity to change that.”
“The age difference,” he went on. “And…other things.”
Rebecca couldn’t afford to care what those other things were, although she was curious. And, okay, she did care. But he wasn’t eighteen and pregnant. Whatever he was dealing with would have to wait. The clock was ticking for Amy and she needed him.
“It’s possible that this situation could bring the two of you closer.”
For a split second amusement flashed through his eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that sometimes people just want to brood and be ticked off? They don’t want to see the silver lining in any situation.”
“I understand.” She leaned a hip against the exam table.
He did the same and half sat, just inches from her. “I doubt it. You’re Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”
Not so much, she wanted to say. But his words opened up a warm fuzzy place inside her—a place where she wanted to be a normal woman attracted to a very good-looking man. But…There was always a “but.” And she’d learned there always would be. Her trust had been betrayed twice—first in body, then in spirit. There wouldn’t be a third time.
She opened her mouth to say something, and Gabe silenced her with his index finer. In spite of her cold thoughts the touch made her warm again, but it was a heat that started in her center and radiated outward. She’d never experienced warm-and-fuzzy warm followed by wow-he-makes-me-hot warm. It was a one/two punch and she so didn’t need it.
“I’m not Shirley Temple. I’m not an empty-headed optimist. I’m a doctor and my name happens to be Rebecca.”
“So now it’s okay for me to call you Rebecca?”
It had been okay since he barged into her office demanding that his sister get an appointment. The man might want his sister to go home, but he wasn’t going to leave her out in the cold.
She lifted one shoulder. “You strike me as a man who does what he wants regardless of permission. Not a judgment, just an observation and none of my business. But Amy is. Like it or not your sister is having a baby. Make the best of a bad situation. It could be an opportunity for the two of you to get closer.”
Rebecca reached for the black-and-white photos she’d printed of Amy’s baby and picked out the best one. She held it out to him. Gabe took it automatically, but when he looked down, all the teasing vanished from his expression. In its place was a bleak look that startled her. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost, and she couldn’t stop the question.
“Gabe? What is it?” She wanted to hug him. The reaction was instinctive and unnerving.
He set the pictures on the exam table as if they’d burned his fingers. Bleak blue eyes looked into hers, and his mouth pulled tight. Paleness crept into his cheeks despite the healthy tan. “I have to go. Amy—”
Then he walked out as abruptly as his sister. Part of her wanted to go after him and demand to know why he’d looked like that. But the part of her in charge of self-preservation held back. She had the horrible feeling that something deeply and tragically emotional had put that expression on his face and whatever it was had everything to do with why he wanted no part of his sister’s pregnancy. She’d stopped herself from following him because if he wasn’t the unfeeling bastard Rebecca believed, she could be in a lot of trouble.
She’d been shattered twice and put herself back together. She didn’t want to find out whether or not she had the emotional fortitude to do it a third time.
In the hospital cafeteria, Rebecca bypassed the steam table with the day’s specials and the refrigerated ready-made sandwiches in favor of the salad bar. Then she grabbed a cup and filled it with ice and diet soda. After picking up her tray, she carried it around the corner and kept walking when the cashier waved her on. Complimentary meals were a perk, however dubious, of doctors on staff at Mercy Medical.
Rebecca glanced around the sparsely filled room where people in civilian clothes mixed with employees dressed in different-colored shapeless scrubs similar to her own royal-blue ones. It was nearly seven-thirty and dinner was over. The cafeteria would close in about half an hour. She spotted a nurse she knew from the E.R. and walked over to her.
Kate Carpenter was a beautiful brunette with big hazel eyes and a gift for connecting with the patients who came into Mercy Medical for emergency care. She was alternately tender and tough, depending on what was needed, and situations in the E.R. could get pretty intense. It was important to have someone who moved fluidly between people looking for help and the doctors who made the hard calls. Rebecca knew some of them weren’t easy to get along with.
“Hi, Kate. Mind if I join you?”
Kate shrugged. “Sure.”
Rebecca sat down in the hunter green plastic chair across from her. “How’s life in the E.R.?”
“Hectic. As usual.” Kate pushed away her plate and what was left of her salad. “How’s your patient doing?”
“Elena Castillo. Mother and baby are doing fine.”
She’d gone into labor and come into the hospital through emergency. Kate was on duty and on the ball. She’d sent her straight up to Labor and Delivery. It didn’t often happen, but sometimes an expectant mother got hung up with paperwork. Kate was good about making sure that didn’t happen.
“Thanks for sending her straight upstairs,” Rebecca added. “There wasn’t much time to spare. That baby was in a big hurry. Her last office visit was three days ago, and I told her then that she wouldn’t need another one. I was sure the next time I saw her would be here.”
“And you were right,” Kate said with a smile that showed off her dimple.
“I love being right,” Rebecca agreed. “And now she has a beautiful baby girl.”
Kate cut her apple in half then in quarters. “Good APGAR?”
APGAR, an acronym for activity, pulse, grimace, appearance and respiration, was the test designed to quickly evaluate a newborn’s physical condition post delivery. It was done at specific intervals.
“The one-minute APGAR was eight. Not bad for a forty-year-old mother’s first baby.”
“Any reason she waited
so long?” Kate asked.
“She didn’t want to go the single mother route, and it took her a while to find the right guy.” Her friend didn’t comment, and Rebecca noticed the pensive expression. “Speaking of babies, how’s your little guy?”
“J.T. is perfect.” She smiled and the shadows in her eyes evaporated. “Getting too big too fast.”
Rebecca didn’t believe she would ever experience those maternal feelings, and that made her a little sad. She believed that a child should have two parents in a committed relationship and since Rebecca wouldn’t commit again, she wasn’t likely to become a mother. She knew her friend was a single mother, but not much more than that. “What does J.T. stand for?”
“Joseph Thomas. After his father.”
“Joe—nice name,” Rebecca said. “What does he do?”
“He’s a Marine Corps helicopter pilot.”
“A dangerous job these days,” Rebecca commented.
The shadows regrouped and gathered in Kate’s eyes again. “Yeah.”
“Is he excited about being a father?” Rebecca asked.
Kate stirred her coffee without looking up and finally said, “He never responded to my letter telling him about the baby, so I’d have to say he wasn’t happy.”
“Is it possible he didn’t get the letter? Maybe—”
“I don’t mean to be rude, Rebecca. But it’s not something I’m comfortable talking about.”
“Of course. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be nosy. I just—I wish I could help.”
“I know and I appreciate it. That’s just not a time in my life I want to dwell on. It’s taken a while, but I’m okay.” She shrugged, but the troubled look in her eyes belied the words. “I have a beautiful boy and will always be grateful to Joe Morgan—”
“Morgan? His father’s last name?”
She nodded and a smile curved up the corners of her mouth. “It’s who he is. With him around there’s never a dull moment.”
Rebecca picked that moment to glance over her shoulder and saw Gabe Thorne in the doorway looking around the room as if searching for someone. “Speaking of dull moments—”
The Millionaire and the M.D. Page 4
