Side Effects

by Bobby Hutchinson

  Alex took a long, refreshing drink before she answered.

  "I will be, yes. I'll be starting in two weeks."

  "It must be really satisfying, being a doctor," Nancy commented with a trace of envy in her tone. "Did you have your own practice in Vancouver?"

  Alex shook her head. "I worked at St. Joseph's, in Emergency." She thought of all her friends there and the madcap farewell party they'd given her, and she had to swallow back the tears. It had been painful, leaving them all. She pushed the emptiness inside her away and changed the subject.

  "Cam mentioned on the phone that you've got a beautiful new son, Nancy."

  Nancy's round face lit up like a signboard. "We sure do. He's six weeks today, in fact. You want to come over and meet him? He's sleeping in the kitchen, right where I can hear him."

  The telephone in the office rang. "Damn, wouldn't you know it, just when I wanna stay and talk?" Lorna waggled her fingers at them and hurried away, and Alex followed Nancy out one door and into the next. A wicker bassinet sat on a table in a gleaming kitchen, and Alex smiled at the tiny, dark-haired baby sleeping on his side.

  "He's a fine-looking fellow," she said, reaching out a finger to stroke the baby's minute hand. "What's his name?"

  "Jason. Jason Edward, actually. I'm glad he's sleeping like this—he was up most of the night." Nancy hesitated, and then blurted out, "He cries an awful lot. The doctor says it's colic, and I worry too much, I guess. But I— Well, I had three miscarriages before this pregnancy. Greg and I thought I'd never be able to carry a baby to term, and then Jason came." She gave Alex an apologetic glance. "I know I'm silly, but he really throws up a lot—it sort of explodes out of him about ten minutes after he eats, and there seems to be so much of it." Her face reflected her anxiety. "I've asked Dr. King about it time after time, and he says I'm just an overcautious mother."

  Excessive vomiting could be a signal that something was amiss with the baby's digestive tract, but Alex knew that the utmost diplomacy was called for. The last thing she wanted to do was alienate the man she'd be working with by questioning his diagnosis—especially before she even had a chance to meet him.

  "Babies do spit up, sometimes a great deal," she temporized. "Are you nursing him?"

  Nancy nodded. "For sure. I read all about the advantages breast feeding has, how it's the best for the baby."

  "It really is. And is he gaining weight normally?'

  Nancy hesitated. "Dr. King says he is, but according to the books I've read, I don't think so. He took forever to regain his birth weight, and he's only gained a pound since."

  Nancy was right, a pound wasn't within the normal range for a six-week-old baby. Alex wasn't sure what to suggest. Nancy's concerns seemed legitimate, but if Dr. King had examined the baby and found everything normal ... But then, there was nothing wrong with getting a second opinion, she reasoned. Probably King would appreciate having her confirm his diagnosis.

  "Alex? Hey, where are you?" It was Cameron's voice, and she felt a surge of joy. Two weeks was the longest they'd been apart in the entire two years they'd been married, and she'd missed him terribly. It had seemed an eternity.

  "Over here, Cam," she called, adding hurriedly to Nancy, "Look, I'd be happy to have a look at Jason if you want me to. Give me a call in the next couple of days, and I'll come over if you like."

  "Oh, thanks, I'd so appreciate—"

  "Alex?" Cameron stood at the open door, smiling a welcome that made her heart pound. On his lean, dark features Alex recognized the same relief and outright happiness she felt, but for a moment she simply stared, trying to get used to the sight of her husband in uniform and with a short haircut.

  The uniform suited him, she decided, although with his tall, long-limbed frame, almost any type of clothing would look good on him. It was just such a change from the faded jeans, gray sweatshirt and worn brown leather jacket that had been his chosen uniform for as long as she'd known him. And his hair—

  He almost seemed a stranger until he smiled at her, his signature smile, closed-lipped and crooked, and her heart lifted.

  "Oh, Cameron, I've missed you so." She threw herself into his arms, oblivious to the wide grin on the face of the policeman standing just behind him.

  Their kiss was passionate but short. With his arm tight around her shoulders, Cam turned to introduce her to his fellow Mountie, such blatant pride in his voice that Alex had to smile.

  "Alex, this is Constable Greg Townsend. Greg, my wife, Alex."

  Greg was stocky, with a broad, friendly face, a wide grin and a firm handshake. "Really pleased to meet you at last, Mrs. Ross." He shot Cam a mischievous look. "I'll bet the sarge's gonna be a lot easier to get along with now that you're here. He's been like a bear with a sore tooth, waiting for you to arrive."

  "Don't you bet on it, I'm just snarly by nature," Cam growled, but he couldn't quite suppress his smile.

  There was a good feeling between the two men Alex decided.

  Cam kept his arm tight around her shoulders as she acknowledged the introduction, adding, "I've just met your son, Greg. Congratulations. He's a beautiful boy."

  Greg swelled with pride. "We sure like him. We waited a long time for him, which I guess makes us appreciate him all the more."

  "I'm sure it does," Alex agreed, really liking the young man.

  "I'm taking Alex over to the house now," Cameron said. "I probably won't be back today unless something urgent comes up. If you need me, Lorna has the number."

  "If we can help you at all with getting settled, just holler," Nancy offered.

  "Thanks. That's very kind." Alex smiled at the other woman and followed Cameron back into the office. After a few words with Loraa and a repetition of the offer of help, they made their way out to Alex's car, where Pavarotti was still in full voice. His complaints increased in volume when Alex shoved boxes and several plants to one side in order to move him to the back seat so she could sit beside Cam.

  Cameron scowled at the cat. "God, what a racket. Has he been doing that long?"

  "Almost the entire way from Vancouver. I stopped at nearly every rest stop to let him out. The first time, he was hard to catch, so I hooked him to a leash after that, and he got insulted. After fighting him into it and then listening to him all day yesterday and today, he's lucky I didn't just abandon him somewhere. He obviously doesn't like moving."

  Neither do I, she nearly added, but she stopped herself just in time. She'd already made her feelings on the matter all too clear, and she didn't want to spoil this reunion in any way.

  "Apart from Pavarotti, did you have any problems on the trip?" Cameron slid behind the wheel.

  "None at all. After the movers were done last week, there wasn't much left to pack except the last of my clothes and things. You did all the rest before you left."

  "We didn't have a lot," Cam said. "Everything we owned didn't come anywhere near to filling the mover's van."

  "Guess we've been too busy to think much about furniture. We'll have more time here. Things seem a lot more laid back than in Vancouver. Did the stuff get here okay?"

  "It all arrived two days ago," Cam confirmed. "Greg helped me move it in. God, I'm so glad you're finally here, sweetheart. If s seemed a lot longer than two weeks." He didn't start the car immediately. Instead, he reached over and drew her into his embrace, threading his fingers through her hair and smoothing it back, trailing hungry kisses down her forehead, across her nose, on her cheeks, ending finally at her mouth. He kissed her with leisurely thoroughness this time, his mouth intent.

  She rested a hand on his chest, feeling his heart hammer against her palm, feeling, too, the fever of pure sensation he set off inside of her.

  A low, tortured sound came from his throat. "I'm not certain, but I think there's a bylaw against making out in front of the police office in broad daylight, particularly in uniform. Let's go home." With a long, shaky sigh, he reached for the key to start the motor. He turned the car around and drove swiftly out of t
own, one hand on the wheel, the other covering Alex's hand where it rested on his thigh.

  "Everyone's friendly around here. Lorna and Nancy made me feel welcome," Alex commented as they angled off the main road.

  Cameron nodded. "Yeah, they're good people. I've had invitations to dinner almost every single night from Greg and Nancy. I accepted a couple of times, but I didn't want to impose on them. She's got enough to do with the new baby. God, I'm glad you're here, honey. I was running out of excuses. I guess it's just the custom in a small town, but for a city boy, it takes some getting used to."

  They chatted as well as they could over the constant wailing of the cat. She told him about the party at the hospital, about Wade's small physical gains and his continuing insistence that everyone leave him alone, but Alex was distracted. She kept glancing over at Cam, trying to get used to his new image.

  He caught her staring and raised an eyebrow. "If it looks weird to you, sweetheart, think how I feel in this rig," he said dryly.

  "It's just so different. Your hair, all the rest of this—" She gestured at him, still staring.

  His arms were muscular and tanned beneath the crisp short-sleeved gray shirt, open at the neck. He wore a black leather belt with holster, leather bullet pouch and handcuff holder, and sharply creased navy blue trousers with the distinctive yellow stripe down the outside of each leg. On his feet were highly polished black ankle boots, and beside her on the seat of the car was his hat, the navy blue and yellow-crested forage cap.

  "You look so—so official. I feel as if I've been arrested for something."

  He shot her a frankly lecherous look. "Think of it more as an abduction, honey. I can't wait to get you home." He turned her hand over, placing his palm against hers, and the intimate warmth of his touch and the sexual intensity in his tone set off a purely physical surge of lust that made her heart beat faster and blood pool heavily in her abdomen. All of a sudden, a sense of optimism and joy overcame her.

  Maybe the strain that had been between them would disappear now that this move was accomplished. Maybe the chaos it had created in their lives would subside. Maybe such enormous change would actually be a positive thing for their marriage. Lordy, she hoped so. And surely now there'd be time to talk, to share their feelings about this transition in their lives.

  "I can't wait to see the house you rented!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Cam, is this our street?" They were driving along a gravel road, thickly lined with evergreens, and he turned beside a large red mailbox and wound down a long, treelined driveway. She caught glimpses of a gray-shingled roof and weathered wood siding, interspersed with dazzling flashes of sun-drenched lake.

  "This is it, love." There was a touch of uncertainty in his voice. He'd told her about the house he'd rented for them. He'd said it was large and old and out of town, partially furnished, close to the lake. He'd said he liked it, but if she hated it they'd find something else. It belonged to an old woman who now lived in a nursing home. Her husband had been a Mountie, and she was grateful to have another member of the RCMP living in her home. The rent was ridiculously low by Vancouver standards.

  Alex had barely listened when he described it over the phone; what did she care about a house, when her entire life was being torn apart? But the reality of it now took her breath away. Big and rambling, with deep porches that held comfortable old wooden chairs and an antiquated glider, the house seemed to have grown naturally out of the surrounding foliage. And best of all, it was right on the lakeshore. Alex could see a stone pathway winding past the separate garage, down to the water's edge.

  Pavarotti abruptly stopped complaining as Cam pulled the car to a halt under an immense pine tree and shut off the motor.

  Trembling with excitement, Alex opened her door and stepped out. The only sound was birdsong and the sighing of the trees as a gentle breeze rippled through them. "Oh, Cam, it's so quiet here." Her voice sounded muted by the open spaces all around.

  She lifted Pavarotti's cage out and turned him loose. He arched his back and let out one last, relieved yowl, stretched like a ballet dancer and then set off to explore, tail swishing.

  "Think he'll get lost?" She frowned anxiously as the cat disappeared into the bushes.

  "We can only hope," Cam said dryly.

  She grinned at him. "I want to see the lake first." She walked down to the pebbly beach, enchanted at the thought of having a lake for a front yard. The water was clear and green, inviting in the heat. "You forgot to mention the size of the swimming pool," she teased when she heard Cameron behind her. "It is good for swimming, I hope?"

  "I've been in every day after work." He looped his arms around her midriff, and she turned toward him and took his hand, lifting it to her lips and kissing his knuckles.

  "You approve, then?"

  "Cam, it's absolutely beautiful here. I love it already." She smiled at him, and she saw some of the tension disappear from his face. "And I love you, too, Sergeant Ross."

  "I was afraid you might not like being this secluded. It's actually only a couple of miles from town, but it feels pretty isolated, since there aren't any close neighbors," he admitted. "You've never lived in the country and neither have I, so it'll probably take some getting used to. And we might hate it when winter comes. I've imagined that driveway under a couple of feet of snow. We'd never get your car up."

  "So we'll buy another Jeep," she said recklessly. "Where's yours, anyway?"

  "In the garage." He pointed at the roomy structure. "I had Greg pick me up this morning so I could drive you back."

  "Thoughtful man. C'mon, I want to see the house." She ran back up the sloping shore to the front of the house and hurried up the wide stairs. Cam was right behind her. He used a key to open the heavy front door, and then he slipped it from the ring and handed it to her with a bow, a smacking kiss and a grin. "Your palace awaits, madam."

  She walked in, finding herself in a huge room that stretched from the front of the building to the back. "Wow. This is immense. Good thing there was furniture here already. Ours would have looked ridiculous in all this space."

  A rock fireplace formed one interior wall, and at right angles to it was a bank of windows with sliding glass doors that opened to the wraparound porch and a panoramic view of the lake, sparkling like quartz in the late-afternoon sunshine.

  Couches, low tables, chairs and a big old rocker with a faded velvet cushion were scattered around, interspersed with Alex's own love seat and two easy chairs. The furniture in the house was old and much of it was shabby, but all the same, the rooms breathed comfort arid hominess.

  "Come see the kitchen." Cameron took her hand and tugged her into a large, outdated room with shallow cupboards and the oldest gas range Alex had ever seen. The fridge rattled alarmingly as the motor started up, but here, too, there were sliding glass doors that led to the outdoors.

  A round wooden picnic table and curved benches sat just outside the door on a wide porch, and Alex could imagine cozy early-morning breakfasts and romantic dinners out in the open air.

  Time. They 'd have so much more time here.

  There was a pantry off the kitchen with row upon row of built-in shelves for cans and a long, narrow shelf that Cam insisted was built to hold pies.

  "You put them there to cool when they come out of the oven," he said in a reverent tone.

  "In your dreams." Alex hadn't made a pie in her life, and she didn't think she was about to start. Delighted by the pantry in spite of her lack of cooking skills, Alex peered into wooden bins that held flour and sugar. There were canisters marked Coffee and Tea and a huge, ventilated bin for storing fresh loaves of bread.

  She laughed with delight. "I love this! I've never seen a real pantry before. Your mother's going to adore it here. We're going to have to invite her up here for a visit after we get settled, Cam."

  "We'll do that. Come and see the TV room." It was a small cedar-paneled room under the stairwell with worn couches and seat-sprung chairs, and Cam had already hooked up their te
levision.

  Alex marveled at the size of the house. There was a large bedroom with an iron bedstead on the main floor, and a small bathroom with a shower but no tub. That was up the winding stairs, with toilet and sink in one small room and claw-footed tub in another, larger space.

  There were four more bedrooms off a wide corridor, two with lake views. Cam had installed their bedroom furniture in the largest, brightest room, but Alex discovered there were already beds and dressers in the other rooms, as well.

  "Lord, look at all these beds. We could run a bed-and-breakfast. Everyone at work threatened to come and— and visit us." She swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice even as sudden homesickness assailed her. "I'll—have to, umm, write and tell them we've got enough room for them to shut the ER down and all come at once." Her voice quavered no matter how she tried to steady it. The ER staff had been her extended family.

  Cameron was watching h6r, an unreadable expression in his eyes. "You miss them already, huh?"

  "Yeah. Yeah, I do," she confessed. "I—I know them all so well. I know about their lives, their families, their problems. It's sort of—scary, thinking about meeting all these new people here, starting a different job, making new friends. And family practice is a far cry from the ER."

  He didn't answer. He moved to the window, his back to her, and stood looking out, his arms folded across his chest.

  She hated the tension that had suddenly sprung up between them. She shouldn't have brought up the way she felt just now.

  But if not now, then when?

  Suddenly she needed to be by herself. "I'm going out to see what's become of Pavarotti, Cam."

  "Yeah." His voice was flat. "Yeah, I guess I'll change and start bringing in the stuff from the car."

  He walked across the hall to their bedroom and unbuckled his gun belt and set it on the dresser. For a moment she was tempted to go in to him, unbutton the gray shirt, ease it off his broad shoulders and lift her mouth for the kiss that would lead to the lovemaking that might heal the awkwardness that had appeared like a sudden virus in their relationship.