by Amy Ruttan
She was leaving for New York and she wasn’t coming back.
“Grandfather?” Eira asked groggily.
They both turned around to see Eira staring at them in confusion.
“Are you two hugging?” she asked.
Axel laughed and his father sat down next to Eira. “I’m so sorry, Eira. I’m sorry for being so distant when your father died. I loved him so much. I love you so much.”
Eira began to weep. “I love you too.”
His father leaned over and held her. “I was so afraid of losing you, Eira. Things will be better. I promise. It will be better for the three of us.”
Eira clung to her grandfather. “I miss my father too. I miss him every day and I missed you too, Grandfather.”
Axel touched her head. “I’m glad you’re okay, Eira.”
“What happened?” she asked as she let go of his father.
“You had a twisted ovary. And there was a mass,” Axel said.
Eira paled. “Cancer?”
“No,” Axel said. “It was benign. Dr. Jacinth repaired the ovary and you didn’t lose it. You’ll have to have yearly ultrasounds to make sure it doesn’t happen again and be aware of symptoms, but there’s no cancer and the mass is gone.”
Eira sighed in relief. “Where is Betty?”
“She went back to New York,” his father said.
“Why?” Eira asked, looking at him with annoyance.
“She got offered a job that she couldn’t turn down,” Axel said. “She had to go.”
“You mean you pushed her away!” Eira snapped.
“Your uncle didn’t push her away, Eira. I released her from her contract so she could take the opportunity in New York. She’s a fine surgeon. I would keep her if I could. So if you want to blame someone, it’s me.”
Eira looked sad. “Uncle Axel, you need to go after her.”
“What’s going on?” his father asked.
“Nothing,” Axel said.
“You love her,” Eira said.
“I can’t go to New York. I have you and—”
“I’m fine. Grandfather can take care of me and I’ll be in the hospital for a couple of days. You need to face your fear and get on a plane and go win her back.”
“Eira, I can’t. What if—?”
Eira shook her head. “Uncle Axel, you can’t live in fear and pushing someone away to save your heart isn’t working. You love her. Be with her. I don’t blame you for my father’s death. You know that. My father was a hero. I loved him, but I love you too and you’re sacrificing your life because you survived. Don’t—my father wouldn’t want it this way.”
Tears streamed down his face. “You’re smarter than your years, Eira.”
She smiled at him. “I know.”
His father nodded. “Go. Bring her back. If she wants to come back there’s a place for her permanently, especially since I’ll be losing you to Cardiothoracic.”
Axel was frozen. He wasn’t sure he could do it. He wasn’t sure that he could get on a plane, but he had to try.
He had to win Betty’s heart back.
No matter how scared he was.
* * *
The flight back to New York was long and though Thomas happily chatted away, the way he always used to chat to her, she just didn’t care any more. She’d thought she was doing well in Reykjavik, but Dr. Sturlusson had released her from her contract without any hesitation and without asking her if that was what she wanted.
When they landed Thomas drove her to her apartment in Manhattan and helped her carry in her luggage. She didn’t have a moment to rest before they were headed back to the hospital.
Outside there was a gaggle of press.
All of them waiting for updates on Jemima’s condition.
“The senator requested you specifically,” Thomas said. “But I know how much you hate the press so I will speak to them after the surgery.”
“Fine,” Betty said stonily.
She didn’t care.
All she could think about was Axel and his hurtful words.
She’d thought he’d loved her too. She’d thought there was something there and she had honestly thought about giving up her life here in New York to be with Axel and Eira. To have a family again.
It had been so nice having people to care about and who cared for her well-being too. To laugh and not feel so alone. To have someone who had her back at work. Who valued her as a surgeon and as a woman.
She hadn’t realized how lonely she really was until she’d spent time with Axel and Eira. Being here in New York again without them, her life felt empty, but Axel had pushed her away. She should’ve known better than to open up her heart to him.
She was a fool.
They pulled up at the back of the hospital where there was no press and she followed Thomas inside.
“Welcome back, Dr. Jacinth!” Nurse Rodriguez said from the nurses’ station in the emergency room.
Betty smiled and waved at all these colleagues of hers who never used to speak to her. Colleagues who had pitied her a bit when Thomas had cheated on her and left her high and dry. Colleagues who knew what she had been through, but had chosen to say nothing and to let her suffer alone.
At least this time they weren’t looking at her with pity.
“I’m going to change into my scrubs. What room is Jemima in?” she asked Thomas.
“She’s in Thirty-two B. In the private ward on the general surgery floor.”
Betty nodded. “Let her know I’ll be there shortly.”
“Of course. I will see you up there.”
Betty slipped into the locker room and found a pair of spare scrubs and her collection of colorful scrub caps still in her locker. She picked up a turquoise one with snowflakes from the pile.
It reminded her of the snow and walking through Old Town with Axel. Of how happy she’d felt with him. How he’d made her feel like herself again.
How he’d made her feel free.
She tied her hair back and slipped on the scrub cap and then changed into her scrubs and headed up to the general-surgery floor. She held her head up high, instead of looking at the floor as she walked through the doors.
“Can I have Jemima Whiting’s chart, please?” she asked the nurse behind the charge desk.
“Jemima Whiting is Dr. Welling’s patient and he has the chart,” the nurse said.
“Since when is Dr. Welling her surgeon? I have always been her surgeon.”
The nurse looked uncomfortable. “Dr. Welling has removed you from her case. I’m sorry, Dr. Jacinth.”
Betty smiled gently at the nurse. “It’s not your fault. I’ll retrieve the file myself.”
It was time to put an end to Thomas’s dependence on her, or rather it was time to end his hold on her.
She was the surgeon Senator and Mrs. Whiting had asked for.
She could handle the press.
She could make her own decisions about her career.
And she knew one thing: she didn’t want to work at this hospital any more. She would find a job somewhere else, even if Reykjavik had fallen through because two men who thought they knew better had decided her life for her and she had let them.
No more. She was done.
This was her life and she was going to take control of it.
Thomas was in his office down the hall from the nurses’ station and he was going over Jemima Whiting’s chart with the hospital’s press secretary.
“Dr. Welling, can I please have a moment of your time?”
Thomas looked up. “Sure. Barbara, you remember Dr. Jacinth?”
Barbara nodded. “How are you, Dr. Jacinth? How was Iceland?”
“Wonderful. If you’ll excuse us, Barbara?”
Barbara nodded and left, shutting the door beh
ind her.
“Barbara is getting the conference ready for after the surgery.”
“The nurse said that I was removed from Jemima Whiting’s chart. She said that you’re the lead surgeon now.”
“Well, you were in Iceland.”
“Yet you came to get me. You begged me to come.”
Thomas sighed. “Betty, let’s not get into semantics about this.”
“I’m not performing the surgery, am I? You’re going to take over and take all the credit. Why was I brought here?”
“Fine,” Thomas snapped. “You’re better at laparoscopic surgery, especially on pediatric cancer survivors. Senator Whiting requested you. Jemima wouldn’t even let me examine her. She likes you and I told the senator and his wife you were in Iceland, but they didn’t care. Once she’s under anesthesia, it won’t matter. I need you to convince them that you’re doing the surgery.”
Betty was shocked, but she shouldn’t have been.
Thomas was using her again. As he always did. As she always let him.
“Oh, I’ll tell them that I’m doing the surgery because I am doing the surgery.”
“What?” Thomas asked, his voice rising.
“You heard me. I’m doing the surgery and you’re not to step foot in my operating room. And if you do step into the operating room I will report your deceitful behavior to the board.”
Thomas’s face went red and his eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I? Try me, Thomas. We can do this the civilized way and you can keep your reputation at this hospital or I will get the patient involved in this. There’s an awful lot of press downstairs.”
Thomas said nothing and handed her the chart. “You’ve jeopardized the job as head of the laparoscopic program here. It was my idea, by the way, to give you that job!”
“I never accepted the job and I don’t want it.”
His mouth dropped open.
“Goodbye, Thomas.” She left his office and shut the door. Not slamming it. And when the door was shut she started smiling.
Inside she was screaming, jumping for joy.
She was free of Thomas.
He had no hold on her.
This was her life. She was a damn fine surgeon and she was going to save Jemima.
She headed down the hall toward Jemima’s room with her head held high. She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Senator Whiting said.
Betty stepped in the room and Senator Whiting’s expression lit up. As did Jemima’s, who was jaundiced and breathing through a nose cannula. Betty’s heart sank seeing her and she was glad she had come back for her favorite patient.
“Well, it’s about damn time you showed up, Dr. Jacinth. I told that Dr. Welling he wasn’t going to do the surgery and he’d better fetch you.” The senator was teasing; she could hear the relief in his voice.
“Well, he did fetch me. And I’m here now.” Betty opened her chart. “Have they prepped Jemima for surgery?”
“Yes. I was getting worried that I hadn’t seen you yet,” Senator Whiting said. ‘What were you doing in Iceland anyways?”
Finding myself. Freeing myself.
“I was working with the Reykjavik hospital and teaching their residents. I even got to work at the front lines of a disaster.”
Senator Whiting was impressed. “Really? Was that the earthquake and tsunami that hit Greenland?”
“It was. I was there helping out.”
Senator Whiting smiled at her. “Good for you. I always thought your talent was overshadowed here. Are you going to go back to Reykjavik?”
“I don’t know, but I do know one thing—I’m leaving here. Maybe I’ll volunteer with Doctors Without Borders or something like that. Go somewhere I can be of the most help.”
“Well, if we pull through this, you come and talk to me and I’ll make sure your talents aren’t wasted.”
“Thank you, Senator Whiting.” Betty turned to Jemima, who was beaming at her, though it looked as if she was in extreme pain. “Now, let’s get you ready and see what’s going on.”
* * *
Betty was exhausted. She hadn’t slept since... Well, she couldn’t remember. The last couple of days had been a whirlwind. First had been the disaster in Kulusuk and then Eira’s ovarian torsion followed by the flight back to New York and a long laparoscopic resection of the tumor that had been growing on Jemima Whiting’s liver.
Thankfully, the cancer hadn’t spread and the cancer that was on her liver had been different from the cancer that had been in her stomach.
Jemima would need chemotherapy again, but the child had gumption and would survive it. Jemima was a fighter and Betty had just given her her best chance.
Betty had delivered the good news to the press and now she was looking forward to going back to her home and figuring out what her next steps were.
She changed back into her street clothes and packed her scrub caps in her bag. She wasn’t going to leave them behind this time. She also cleared out the rest of her personal belongings and left her lab coat and her scrubs from the hospital in the locker. She didn’t need them any more.
When she left the locker room Mr. Crisp, the head of the board of directors, Thomas and Dr. Vero, the Chief of Surgery, were waiting for her.
“Dr. Jacinth, a word,” Mr. Crisp said as he beckoned her over.
Betty’s stomach sank, but only for a moment. Then she didn’t care.
She wanted nothing to do with this hospital any more.
This was her past.
“How can I help you, gentlemen?”
“We wanted to congratulate you on a successful surgery, Dr. Jacinth,” Dr. Vero said. “And we’d like to offer you the job of Head of Laparoscopic Surgery at this hospital.”
Thomas looked sullen.
“That is a very generous offer, but I’m going to have to decline. And, Dr. Vero, I would like to tender my resignation. I was on sabbatical while I was in Reykjavik, but I won’t be returning to this hospital after all.”
Dr. Vero was stunned and Mr. Crisp’s face was like thunder.
“Betty, don’t be a fool,” Thomas snapped.
She glared at him. “I’m not being a fool, Thomas. I would never try to trick a patient into thinking that the surgeon she requested was going to perform her surgery and have another surgeon perform it because that surgeon needed all the attention on himself. I’ve taken the back seat too long at this hospital.”
“But we’re offering you a position as Head of Laparoscopic Surgery. You wouldn’t be in the back seat any more, Dr. Jacinth,” Dr. Vero said.
“If I stayed here, I would. Thank you for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline. Good day, gentlemen.”
She turned and left them all standing there. Her palms were sweating and her heart was racing. She couldn’t believe that she’d done that.
That she’d stood up and taken charge.
She didn’t know yet what she was going to do, but she didn’t want to stay in New York. She hailed a cab and the driver took her to the end of her street. Her flat was the top of a sought-after brownstone in Manhattan and she would contact a real estate agent in the morning to put it on the market.
As she walked down the street, she noticed there was a tall man lingering outside the steps to her apartment.
Her heart skipped a beat and she stopped in her tracks. It couldn’t be him. He would never come to New York, but as she slowly walked closer she could tell that it was indeed him. It wasn’t her exhaustion that was making her hallucinate.
He had come to New York.
Axel?
As if he’d heard her thoughts he turned and looked at her. In his hand was a bouquet of flowers and he smiled at her, gently. He was dressed exactly the same way that he’d been dressed when he’d met her at the airpo
rt in Keflavik.
Only this time he didn’t look so annoyed, or so put out as he’d been that first day.
“Betty, I’m glad that I had the right address. I thought this was your house and I didn’t realize that there are many different apartments in this building. I couldn’t get in. The street signs are impossible to figure out. So many numbers.”
Betty smiled, trying not to laugh. Numbers were a lot easier than some of the long street names in Reykjavik.
“You’ve been waiting in the cold?” she asked.
He nodded. “This really isn’t that cold though. It’s like spring.”
As if to directly contradict Axel’s words, it began to snow.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked, finally finding her voice and getting her head clear.
“I think it’s obvious.” He held out the flowers. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t take the flowers. “Axel, you said some...wait, how did you get here?”
“I flew,” he said nervously.
A lump formed in her throat. “You don’t fly, though.”
“I flew for you. I faced my demons for you and, guess what, I can’t live without you, Betty. I don’t want to live without you.”
The words stunned her and she didn’t know what to say.
“I pushed you away because I was afraid of losing you. I didn’t want to burden you with my life. It broke me when Calder died. I blamed myself and I didn’t think that I deserved happiness. So I hurt you. And I’m sorry. I love you.”
“I... I love you too,” she said, her voice shaking. “I came back to help a patient. That’s all. I didn’t come back for Thomas and I didn’t come back for a job I didn’t even want. I came back for a patient, but I was going to come back to you.”
“I know. My father told me.”
“You spoke with your father?”
Axel smiled and nodded. “Who do you think is with Eira now? Eira is the one who urged me to come here.”
Tears slid down her face. “Eira’s okay?”
Axel nodded. “She’s doing well and she would like you to come home.”
“Your father released me from my contract.”
“He’d like you to know there’s a job waiting for you. If you’ll come back to Reykjavik and be a family with me and Eira.”
