From Doctor to Daddy

by Becky Wicks

  ‘This is crazy.’

  He put a hand to the back of her hot neck, into her hair. ‘It’s good news if you want it to be,’ he said.

  ‘I didn’t know,’ she whispered, still shaking her head. ‘You and I were always so careful with protection. I promise I wasn’t keeping anything from you, Fraser—why would I do that?’

  He moved the paper away and took her hands in his. ‘I know. I believe you.’

  ‘I thought she was his. Fraser, I swear it.’

  ‘I said I believe you.’

  She looking into his eyes through a wall of tears, the shock of discovery sinking in hard. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her small shaking frame tightly.

  ‘You’re really her father...’ she breathed, sinking into him as they rested against the cushions. ‘How could I not have known this?’

  ‘How could you have known this?’

  He held her tighter, allowing the weight of the truth to drift slowly from his shoulders. She hadn’t got up. She wasn’t angry. She was just shell-shocked—as he had been.

  ‘I know you’ll think there’s a lot attached to this transplant now, with me being Esme’s father,’ he said, realising he had to reassure her. ‘But I wanted to do this for Esme before I knew—it’s how I found out. It’s all I want if it’s all you want. I won’t come between you, or get in the way—’

  ‘I’m so glad it’s you, Fraser,’ she said, cutting him off. Her fingers were latched in his hair. Her eyes were pooling. ‘I mean, I’m thinking a thousand things, but the only one that matters is that I’m so glad you’re her father. No matter what happens now, I mean that.’

  ‘I’m glad it’s me, too,’ he told her.

  And he was shocked at the water he felt in his eyes the moment the words left his lips.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  IT HAD BEEN inevitable that they’d made love that night, Sara mused, scooping a croissant from the buffet platter and putting it on her plate.

  The final breakfast. The very last morning of the cruise. She’d come so far in so many ways it was almost unfathomable.

  She’d been running over it for the past two days, while tending to her patients—re-dressing wounds, checking the eyes of a gentleman who’d smashed his glasses... The way she and Fraser had stayed glued to each other in that cabana for hours.

  They’d been kissing to the sound of the rush of the Puerto Rican ocean—and talking, of course. Going over all the similarities between him and Esme, all the little things about her that now made sense, and all the things about her life and situation that hadn’t...

  ‘Mummy!’

  Esme was calling to her from her seat next to Fraser. Sara watched the sunlight on his hair, saw how it fell on Esme’s too, and lit her up even more. Father and daughter. It was still so overwhelming. She’d had no idea. No idea whatsoever in all this time.

  Or had she?

  She carried her plate across the deck towards them, contemplating all the times she’d been moved by something in Esme that had seemed familiar. So strangely familiar and yet she’d never quite been able to place it.

  How quickly everything could change.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked her now, pulling out her chair. He was wearing jeans and sneakers, like she was, ready to depart the ship.

  ‘I’m OK,’ she replied, but butterflies were swirling so hard inside her that she didn’t even want her croissant.

  They’d spent a night together in Fraser’s cabin, unable to resist each other, but no one else was supposed to know that.

  She was feeling the perfect mix of excitement, bewilderment, nervousness, anticipation and exhilaration all in one. She had an inkling that Esme would feel the same very soon.

  They’d decided on the beach that night in Puerto Rico that they’d tell her Fraser was to be her donor when they got to Florida. Florida was now in sight.

  ‘Esme, you know the cruise is almost over...’ She picked up the croissant she knew she didn’t want. ‘Have you had a good time?’

  Esme was beaming. ‘Yes, Mummy, I’ve had the best time.’

  Fraser folded his arms and turned to her in his chair. ‘So have I. And you know what? Your mum and I have a surprise for you.’

  Sara caught his glance and felt her heart somersault. Esme was pressing her hands together. Her eyes were like saucers.

  The port was ahead, busy and green and surrounded by boats under blue skies. They’d have several hours once they docked to get their things off the ship, to say their goodbyes. She could tell that Esme would be sad to leave Jess and Marcus, but hopefully what they were about to tell her would make her feel better.

  ‘Esme...’ She lowered her voice and shuffled her chair closer. From the corner of her eye she saw Renee at the breakfast buffet, but in this moment she really didn’t care who saw them.

  ‘I know you like Dr Fraser,’ she said, as her emotions bubbled up again, ‘and it turns out he can do something incredibly special for you.’

  Esme looked between them, intrigued. Fraser’s supportive hand was warm over Sara’s now, and under the table his foot nudged hers. She took another nervous breath.

  ‘Baby, it turns out that Fraser can be your donor. He can help you, Esme. He’s a match! We found out on this trip.’

  When the words were out, she realised how crazy they sounded, but Esme’s big eyes had widened even further over her breakfast plate. She started jumping up and down in her seat with excitement.

  ‘Really?’ She was looking at Fraser in awe. Then looking back to Sara.

  ‘I can help and I will,’ Fraser told her. ‘We just have to do some tests together—if you’re OK with that?’

  ‘I’m fine with that.’

  The way she said it sounded so grown up for a five-year-old. She’d been through more in her five years than a lot of kids would go through in their entire lifetime. Sara put a hand to her soft hair as Esme climbed onto Fraser’s lap and hugged him. It was a bear hug, and it made her heart soar when he returned it. Now she understood the bond between them. Had they felt it, the two of them, without even knowing why?

  ‘Do you know why Dr Fraser is such a good match for you?’ she ventured now, as Esme settled on his lap and picked up some pineapple—her new favourite fruit.

  ‘Because he likes making movies with me?’

  Sara smiled. ‘No, baby.’

  ‘I’m a match because I’m your daddy,’ Fraser said quietly, taking his cue. ‘Is that a good enough surprise for you, Spielberg?’

  Esme paused with her pineapple. A huge blast from the ship’s horn shook Sara to the core. Florida had crept up on them even sooner than she’d anticipated it would.

  ‘You’re my daddy? My real daddy?’ Esme looked delighted.

  ‘Yes!’ Fraser and Sara said at the same time.

  Esme blinked a few times, wonderstruck. ‘Why have I only just met you?’

  Sara took her little hand. She’d been expecting this. ‘It’s complicated, and we’ll tell you the whole story very soon. But for now you have to get ready to have some tests done in Florida.’

  ‘Now? Today?’

  ‘No time like the present,’ Fraser said. ‘We have to get my kidney over to you before the coral reef takes over.’

  ‘Can we film it?’ Esme asked, leaning back against his chest and nibbling her fruit, as if the news of her brand-new parent was old already.

  ‘I don’t know...’

  ‘It would make the perfect ending to my film,’ Esme coaxed, turning to him.

  ‘You’re going to make a great director one day,’ he told her, putting his arms around her.

  And there it was. Right there in their identical expressions when they grinned at each other. That strange feeling Sara had always felt was ‘home’ when she looked at Esme was all because of Fraser, and it had n
ever even crossed her mind.

  She shook her head, smiling ruefully.

  ‘You look like a happy bunch,’ Renee said, walking over and putting her hands on the back of Sara’s chair. ‘I’d like to thank you both personally for everything you’ve done on this trip. Did you have a good cruise, Esme?’

  ‘The best—because I’m getting a new kidney and a new daddy,’ she said bluntly, from Fraser’s lap.

  Sara felt her cheeks flaming once again. This was why they hadn’t told Esme sooner; the whole ship would have known.

  Renee’s eyes said it all, though. She had known all along that something bigger was going on between them than general squabbles between exes, and she hadn’t once pressured them. Sara was grateful. All the drama they’d been part of with Trevor and Jasmine had only served to highlight how special their relationship had always been, and she knew Renee could see that, too.

  ‘I see. Well, that’s great news,’ Renee replied. There was genuine warmth in her eyes when she looked at Sara. ‘I guess this is the start of a whole new journey, then. Will we see you all back next year?’

  Fraser shrugged. So did Sara. She wasn’t about to decide on that for definite yet, but in all honesty, after everything they had gone through on this cruise, she far preferred performing her medical duties on land.

  Esme looked overjoyed as they ate and talked and said their goodbyes to everyone who came over to wish them well.

  Sara couldn’t stop looking at Fraser. For the last two nights she hadn’t been able to get enough of him. His mouth and his tongue, his closeness, her legs wrapped around his middle. Their lovemaking was even more passionate than she remembered.

  When they’d finally fallen into bed that night in Puerto Rico, after talking on the beach for hours, it had felt only right that they make love. And she had told him herself, when he’d been moving deep inside her, ‘I always knew it felt right with you...’

  They had no set plans beyond the transplant operation—not yet. But for the first time in a long time she didn’t feel the need to make any. Somehow she knew in her heart that things would be OK.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  ‘THIS IS QUITE a thing you’ve done—you should be proud of yourself.’

  The kindly nurse was bustling about the room, and Fraser watched her place a vase of flowers by the bed and smiled at the familiar Scottish accent.

  ‘Congratulations,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks, but it was really a no-brainer,’ he said. ‘I don’t need two kidneys.’

  He tried to sit up against the pillows, but the grey-haired nurse stopped him with a firm hand to his shoulder.

  ‘Not yet.’ She turned to rearrange the flowers and place the card he’d received from Boyd back upright. ‘You might be sore for a couple of days, but I’m sure whatever discomfort you experience is for the greater good.’

  ‘It definitely is.’

  ‘Your daughter is the one you donated to?’ She was smiling with her eyes. ‘She’s a lucky girl. You know what? My youngest nephew needed a kidney. He was water skiing on a family holiday just six weeks later. So a strong man like you should have no problem getting back to regular life—maybe even sooner than that.’

  ‘Water skiing, huh?’

  Fraser couldn’t help feeling amused, even though he’d been slightly uncomfortable from the moment he’d arrived at the hospital. Not because of the surgery. That part didn’t faze him. He’d have done anything to save his daughter’s life, and the thought of having done so made his heart swell. He just wasn’t used to being the patient.

  ‘How’s Esme doing?’ He was anxious to see her—and Sara, of course.

  ‘She’s doing tremendously. Do you want me to take you to her?’

  ‘I would love that.’ He reached for the iPad on the bedside table, and the other items he’d brought along for this moment.

  Fraser tried not to fidget with the IV and gauze as the nurse helped him into a wheelchair. The sight of himself in a blue gown was amusing, to say the least, as he was wheeled past the reflective windows in the hospital.

  The surgery had gone to plan—as he had known it would in the hands of trusted friends and colleagues like Boyd—but there was one more somewhat elaborate plan he still had to put into action.

  ‘What’s on the iPad?’ the nurse asked.

  He smiled. ‘Kind of a documentary,’ he replied, sliding it against him down the side of the wheelchair.

  It had all been go, go, go since they’d departed the Ocean Dream in Florida, and after the tests he and Esme had completed there had all verified that he was the perfect match for her, in every way, they’d opted to have the surgery performed in Scotland.

  He’d had time to think since leaving the ship, about how back then, if he’d known Sara was pregnant with his child, he would have gone to the trustees and asked them outright to release the money. There would have been exceptional circumstances, after all. All their problems would have been fixed a lot sooner if his stupid pride hadn’t been bruised by seeing her with another man.

  He’d been alone for a few weeks with his thoughts while Sara had been preparing Esme for the operation back in London.

  His mother had loved his plan to open a dialysis unit on the Breckenridge Practice premises. It had been hatching for a while in his head, and now she seemed to have found a new lease of life in planning a children’s play area, and a special safe place for weary parents to gather and exchange tips on caring for kids on dialysis. It would bring more people to the surgery, and more expertise, more experience. Even more so if Sara and Esme joined him.

  His stomach jumped inside. He could hear Sara’s voice now.

  She turned from Esme’s bedside when the nurse swung the door open to her room. ‘Fraser!’

  Esme’s small frame looked fragile in the bed. She smiled when she saw him. She was wearing pink pyjamas with a unicorn on the front.

  Sara hurried to him and thanked the nurse, wheeling his chair to Esme’s side. ‘You’re awake. How are you feeling?’

  She leant in, dropping a light kiss on his lips, which he returned. Her eyes were shining. She looked well, as if years of worry had floated away, leaving her refreshed, reborn. Her hair brushed his face as she studied him up close.

  ‘You look good to me,’ she said, and smiled. ‘Very good.’

  ‘I feel good,’ he said. ‘I could murder a cheeseburger, though. How about you, Esme?’

  ‘Am I allowed to eat those now?’

  Sara sat on the side of the bed, ran a hand gently up Esme’s small arm. ‘I don’t see why not—in a few days.’

  ‘I’ll have five—and some ice-cream,’ Esme replied, matter-of-factly. ‘I can eat what I want now I won’t have to do dialysis, can’t I?’

  Fraser wanted to say something along the lines of like father, like daughter, but he didn’t. He just reached for the iPad and pulled it out.

  Sara looked suspicious, but she was almost smiling. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘You haven’t seen an iPad before?’

  ‘Very funny.’

  Sara looked tired, but beautiful as ever in a warm blue woollen jumper, skinny jeans and black heeled boots. This was definitely not the Caribbean any more. She watched, intrigued, as he swiped the iPad and brought up a video.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I have another surprise for you both,’ he said.

  He handed it to her and she held it between them so Esme could see. A lump formed in his throat as she pressed play. Seconds later she gasped, and Esme squealed in delight from the bed.

  ‘You made another movie!’

  ‘Your footage was just so good,’ he replied, winking at her.

  He studied their faces as they both took it in, and the words my family took root in his head.

  Sara’s hand kept flying over her mouth, as if she couldn’t believe it. B
ut it was all in there: a documentary, of sorts, of their time on the cruise. Stolen moments that Esme and Marcus had captured. A friend of Boyd’s had helped him edit it, so the nights he’d had to spend without them hadn’t seemed so long.

  ‘Fraser, this is amazing!’ Sara gushed, as Esme fought to hold the iPad in her hands.

  There they were, he and Sara, swinging Esme between them on the deck of the ship. There they were again, dancing, looking into each other’s eyes and laughing at something. There they were in the little boat with the water skis, and again on deck the night of the medevac. And with the dolphin at the aquarium.

  Esme had captured it all—their togetherness—and he’d had it edited in the way he wanted Sara to remember it: the two of them falling slowly back together in spite of everything that had threatened to keep them apart.

  He cleared his throat as another shot came up. Him, on the final day of the cruise, in his cabin. The sheets behind him were messed up, and only Sara would know why. He’d filmed this part himself.

  ‘Sara, this has been one hell of a trip. And I want you to know that, whatever happens, I am and always will be madly in love with you—and with Esme too.’

  His on-screen self was nervous. Fraser could hear it in his own voice.

  ‘Now, please look at the real me, in front of you. I hope that’s where I am!’

  Sara looked up from the iPad as the picture of his on-screen self cut out. There in the hospital room Fraser pulled the tiny blue box from his pocket.

  ‘I can’t get down on one knee,’ he said, holding out his hand to her from the wheelchair. ‘But I can still say the words.’

  She was shaking her head in disbelief.

  ‘Sara Cohen,’ he said, ‘will you do me the utmost honour of marrying me?’