Dr Velascos' Unexpected Baby

by Dianne Drake

  “I’m not frightened,” she said, trying to sound defiant. “More like experienced. With enough sense to know that the circumstances in my life don’t change no matter what I’m feeling, or not feeling, for someone.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Circumstances won’t change if you don’t want them to.”

  “Circumstances like going back to a medical practice in Chicago no matter what?”

  “Or staying in a tiny mountain village in Peru for the wrong reasons, no matter what.” Perhaps that was being a little cruel but, damn it, he was frustrated—not only for himself and his inability to simply take the woman he loved into his arms and make it all better for her but with Bella herself, for finding such a complacent spot in the middle of so much unhappiness in her life and simply staying there when he knew she didn’t want to. She should be punching her way out of it, and he wanted to help her do it. But how could he even begin to think of a life for himself and Ana Maria with someone who was building her own life simply to assuage guilt? If her reason for staying here and starting a clinic had been about her own passion…well, Chicago might have lost some of its appeal. But there was too much risk involved in planning a future with someone whose only motivation in life was guilt. He was a father now, and he had a little girl who deserved more stability than that. “You’re a strong woman, Arabella. You can change the things in your life you don’t like.” He laid his hand over his heart. “But it has to be from here to make it good. I’m only just now discovering that for myself.”

  “Words, Gabriel. That’s all they are…words, and very easy for you to say. But I’ve spent thirty-three years facing the realities all around me, and believe me, the one thing I know better than anything else is that we don’t always get what we want. In some cases, we don’t ever get what we want.”

  “And what is it you want?” he asked, fighting off the urge again to simply pull her into his arms. Even if he couldn’t make it better for her, or for himself, he did want to hold her, to let her know that somebody cared. She was so wounded, and so fiercely defensive about keeping people away from her, yet the woman standing there at the door, ready to bolt, didn’t fool him at all. Not for a minute. She wanted what he wanted to give her and, unless he was totally mistaken, she loved him. But she didn’t know how to receive it and if, in the future, there was to be anything between them, it would have to be her opening herself up. Anything else that he might force on her would be like trying to cover an abdominal incision with a finger bandage. It would work in a small area but it wasn’t enough to hold everything together. With her, he wanted everything held together, and he did have the right bandage. But she would have to be the one to apply it. Or ask him to apply it for her. And right now she still believed that tiny finger bandage was enough, and there was nothing he could do about that.

  “I want my sister back.” She brushed back the tears sliding down her cheeks. “That’s what I want.”

  “Isn’t there more?” Dear God, this hurt him. He hated inflicting the pain, but this was like the surgeries he performed. When something was wrong that needed correcting—an appendix removed, a tumor cut out—he would cut open his patient and perform the necessary procedure. Then came the healing, which did hurt, but eventually the pain went away and what was left was better than what had been there prior to the surgery. In her life, Arabella had never gotten to the part where the pain went away. She’d had all the surgeries, all the pain that went with them, and that’s where it had all stopped for her. She’d never had any closure, and that had turned into more guilt than any one person should ever have to bear. Especially over things that weren’t her fault. “What do you want for yourself, Arabella? And don’t say work, because we know that’s just something you hide behind.”

  “I don’t know what you mean!”

  Ah, the wall again. And just when he’d thought he was getting through. “I think you do,” he said gently. “I believe you know exactly what I mean.”

  “OK. I want to stay here. Open a clinic, fulfill Rosie’s promise. That’s what I want, Gabriel. All I want.”

  Bella elevated stubborn to an art form and it was clear from the unappeasable look on her face now that he could argue and reason and persuade until he ran out of breath, and it wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good. Bella was being…Bella. If he ever got beyond the point where they were locking horns day and night, that was something he was going to have to love. Simply love. Heart of gold buried beneath an awful lot of stubborn gristle.

  And, damn, he liked that. Liked the challenge. Liked the reward he knew was buried there. “I think the whole area would be very lucky to have you, if that’s what you really want to do. But that’s not what I wanted to know, and since we’re getting nowhere…” He brushed around her and opened the door. “I want to know what you want, Arabella. But you have to be the one who tells me, and because you want to tell me—not because I force it out of you.”

  Just a few steps into the hall he turned back and finally did what he’d wanted to do all along. He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her, not in a friendly little gesture as he’d done before but in the way a man needed to kiss a woman. Crushing her hard to his body, he lowered his head to her and sought her lips with a hunger that surprised him. Opening her mouth with his tongue, he sought the deep recesses, felt her respond with her own tongue, heard just the slightest whimper of a moan escape her as she wound her fingers around his neck and held him there. Pressed her hips to his in a way that caused him to go erect immediately and groan aloud, with no thought whatsoever about where they were and who might be watching them.

  He reached out his left hand to touch her face, to feel her skin, craving that connection, that intimacy. And she allowed it for a moment, allowed him to run his thumb down her delicate jaw and down her throat to that hollow spot he longed to kiss…that, and so much more of her. All of her. Then, suddenly, she pulled back, her eyes raked over him, toes to head, very slowly, very deliberately, making love to him in a way he’d never imagined possible. So sensually. So completely in just one look.

  Her breaths were uneven, her nipples hard and straining against the thin fabric of her cotton shirt as she took him in. And all he could do was stand there. Silent. Almost in a trance. Allowing her all the journey she wanted.

  When she was finished, when she reached his face, and their eyes locked—hers so defiant, and hurt, and so full of love and open want—that’s when he knew every answer, even to the unasked questions. It wasn’t going to be easy, but if took the rest of his life, he would have this woman.

  Still without a word she stretched out her right hand and ran it over his chest, and even through his shirt she caused him chills like no woman had ever done. Then, when she reached up and brushed her fingers across his cheek, she finally spoke. “You’re what I want, Gabriel. But you’re also what I can’t have. Not in Chicago, not here. And that’s because I do love you.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “WHO is it?” Bella asked. She was sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor, tending to one of the children.

  Father Carlos shrugged. “A child from one of the villages. He said he has to see Juan Gabriel right away. But I don’t know where he is.”

  Neither did Bella. After they’d parted, she’d spent several hours tending patients around the village, while he did the same in the church, yet when she’d returned there he had gone, and no one seemed to know where. “He may have gone for a walk. I just don’t know.”

  “Well, the boy is insistent. Maybe you could help him instead?”

  “Where is he?”

  “Outside. He won’t come in. Says he wants to go back to his village after he sees Juan Gabriel.”

  “I’ll be right out.” After changing the bandage she’d been working on, one that was on the skinned knee of a little girl who needed the attention more than she needed the bandage, Bella stepped outside to see what she could do for the boy. He was about fifteen, she guessed. Very athletic. Very anxious to get b
ack to his home, as Father Carlos had said.

  “She told me I had to see Juan Gabriel.” His English was surprisingly good.

  “I’m a doctor, too,” Bella said. “Could I help you?”

  “But she said Juan Gabriel.” He looked agitated, and not at all pleased with this change in his mission.

  “Who said?”

  “The lady. I don’t know her name, but she said—”

  “You have to see Juan Gabriel. I know. But I don’t know when he’s going to return. So you can wait, or I can take a look at you, if you trust me to help you.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sick. I have a message. I have to give him a message.”

  “Could you give me the message, then I’ll tell Juan Gabriel as soon as I see him?” She was getting impatient now. There was so much work to do, and if this boy wasn’t willing to trust her…

  “She took the baby with her,” he said.

  “What?”

  “The baby. Ana Maria. The nurse took her.”

  This made no sense. “What nurse?”

  “She comes to the villages sometime, looking for babies. She took Ana Maria. That’s what the lady told me to tell Juan Gabriel.”

  “Gloria Elena?” Panic raised instantly. “Is that who sent you with the message?”

  He nodded. “She wants Juan Gabriel to come right away.”

  Dear God, someone had taken Ana Maria! “Father!” she practically screamed at the priest, who was on his way to enter a house across the street.

  “What it is?” he choked out, running over to her.

  “Somebody took Ana Maria away from Gloria Elena. I don’t have any details except that it was a woman, a nurse of some sort.”

  “La Madre de Dios,” he whispered, his face blanching. “I don’t let them come here. But they go to other villages, looking for babies to adopt out to families. It makes them much money to find a baby for a family. And some of the villagers…it’s not a good way, but it happens sometimes.”

  “Someone approached Gabriel in Iquitos. She wanted Ana Maria, but he told her no.”

  “After the earthquake, there was much confusion. She came to take advantage of that confusion.”

  “But how?”

  “The mountain has other roads to the villages. She could have traveled in easily, and with people coming here for medical help, or dealing with damages…Forgive me for saying this, but I believe she knew exactly how to take advantage of a terrible situation.”

  “By kidnaping babies when people are at their very worst?” This was insane! She had to do something now or Ana Maria could be lost forever. “Father, you’ve got to find Gabriel and tell him what’s happened. I’m going to go to Gloria Elena.”

  “My car. It will take you half the way there. But I’ve heard that the road is blocked by trees.” He fished car keys from his pocket and tossed them to her. “Via con Dios,” he said, then turned and ran into the church.

  The first half of the trip to the tiny village called San Lourdes was slow, but the road was amazingly passable. Had the nurse found a passable road? Bella prayed that wasn’t the case, prayed that she was stranded somewhere right now, unable to go any farther. Except, since she’d gotten up the mountain, then she knew the way back down. That caused a sinking feeling in the pit of Bella’s stomach as she was finally forced to a stop by those trees Father Carlos had warned her about. She’d come a good two kilometers, but now she had to run the rest of the way, which turned out to be another kilometer. Unfortunately, while she was in what she considered to be fairly good shape, she didn’t come close to keeping up with Pablo Espino, the boy who’d come for Gabriel. Pablo was quick, endowed with the speed of a distance runner, and it was quite obvious he was put out having to slow down to Bella’s pace. But he did, making sure he kept well ahead of her. By the time they’d reached San Lourdes, she was so winded if felt like her chest was going to explode.

  “Where’s Arabella?” Gabriel called out the door to Father Carlos. “I need her to come take a look at George Gabriel. He’s not…” He wasn’t going to shout to the village priest that the newborn wasn’t taking too well his mother’s breast and what to do about it was totally out of his range of expertise. “I think she’ll do better with this than I will.”

  He hadn’t seen Bella for hours, but that was for the best. He’d needed breathing room, and time to think. But at first thinking hadn’t helped because it had merely widened the chasm between them. The distance from Chicago to Lado De la Montaña was a big one, but the distance from his heart to hers was even bigger. And there was so much emptiness in it—emptiness like he’d never felt before.

  He’d gone down to the stream to get away and spent an hour tossing pebbles into the water, trying to figure out just what he was doing. But there was nothing to figure out. He loved her. Head over heels, heart and soul. No convincing himself to do otherwise.

  So the question became, whether he could live without her in Chicago, and the answer had come so quickly it had surprised him. No, he couldn’t. Chicago was about things—his medical practice, his status, his nice condo on the lake, his car. Things. That’s all! But Lado De la Montaña was about heart. And Arabella. And Ana Maria and his mother.

  His things made life bigger. But the people in his life made his life better. So when he’d told Arabella that dedication was a good thing, but only when it was for the right reason, he’d been right. And so wrong. His dedication to his life in Chicago had only been for the things he had there, and they didn’t matter, especially not when everything that did matter was right here in his little mountain village.

  It had surprised him to realize that home truly was where the heart was, and his heart was here. But it was a good kind of surprise.

  So, he’d stayed at the stream a while longer, thinking about the good memories he’d made here with his father, and planning for the good memories he’d make here with his daughter. And with Arabella. Although he realized that might take a lot of work—work he looked forward to since she, more than anything, was where his heart was.

  Then he’d come back to do what he loved to do—taking care of patients. Not for the doctor’s fees he’d earn, or the prestige that his medical practice would bring him. But for the pure love of medicine, which was what he saw in her every time he watched her work. She did love it. Her truest passion was there, and it was for herself, for doing the thing she loved best. He’d been wrong to accuse her of being dedicated for the wrong reason when, all along, he’d been the one dedicated to all the wrong things. Her dedication so far transcended the things that most people considered normal and reasonable that he was truly in awe. For her it was all about being needed as a doctor, and it didn’t matter where that was. He wasn’t sure she could see that in herself yet, but he did, and his new, true dedication was to help her find pure joy in her passion because she’d helped him rediscover the joy in his own. It was good to be home, and this truly was home. Finally.

  “Can you go and find Arabella for me?” he called again to the priest, who was running frantically toward the Reyes house.

  “She’s gone to San Lourdes. Just a while ago…” He gasped for breath, bending over, hands on knees, trying to catch it

  At the mention of San Lourdes, Gabriel’s first thought was about his mother. Had something happened to her? Or to Ana Maria? “Why?” he choked out.

  “It’s the baby. She’s gone.”

  “Ana Maria?” It wasn’t sinking in yet. Wasn’t making sense.

  “A nurse came to the village after the earthquake and took her. That’s all I know. We didn’t know where you were, so Bella went.”

  “How long?”

  “Half an hour ago. Maybe a little longer. They took my car and…” Father Carlos didn’t bother finishing as Gabriel was already on his way down the road, looking for a vehicle to take him as far as the road would go. What he did do, however, was go to the church to pray.

  San Lourdes was much smaller than Lado De la Montaña—not
as many cars or houses. Not as many people on the street either. But Bella did notice a huddle of villagers surrounding one of the tiny houses, people shouting and animated, and she wondered if that’s where she’d find Gloria Elena. As it turned out, she was correct. Gabriel’s mother was inside, sitting in a straight-backed wooden chair, crying inconsolably, while a woman about her age fussed around her.

  When Gloria Elena saw Bella she jumped up and fairly ran across the room to her. “Juan Gabriel is here?”

  “Not yet,” Bella said. “Father Carlos went to find him, and he’ll be here soon.” The women looked so stricken, her face so drained of all color, that Bella was instantly concerned. “What happened?” she coaxed, as she led her back to the chair.

  “Ana Maria. She took Ana Maria.” Her English was broken, her voice wobbly.

  Bella knelt beside her and took her pulse. Fast, but not alarming. “The nurse?”

  Gloria Elena nodded, and started to cry again.

  “She told me she came for the baby,” Doloros Cunya, Gloria Elena’s cousin, said between her own tears. “She wore a uniform. I thought…I thought I was supposed to let her take Ana Maria. She said she was supposed to, that she’d talked to Juan Gabriel, so I let her.” Sobs overtook her words, and Bella was getting frustrated because they were wasting time. But both women were inconsolable.

  “I went to the church,” Gloria Elena finally said. “Just for a few minutes. When I did…”

  Now it was making sense to Bella. Gloria Elena had gone to the church and the woman they were calling the nurse had approached Doloros Cunya for the baby. A nurse, in a white uniform. Purposely deceptive. Probably waiting for her opportunity.

  Doloros continued, “She was a nurse. I trusted her!” Her voice quivered off into a giant sob and she ran from the room.

  “Gabriel,” Gloria Elena choked.