The Surgeon's Convenient Husband

by Amy Ruttan

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My bear attack patient—he needs surgery. It’s just what I thought. I have to get back to the hospital.” Ruby motioned to the waiter.

  “Can I help you, miss?” the waiter asked.

  “The bill, please.”

  “Separate or...?”

  “Together,” Aran said.

  The waiter nodded and disappeared.

  “Aran, you don’t...”

  “I asked you out to dinner. This is my treat. You go back to the hospital and I’ll meet you there. I’d like to help. I’d like to learn how you do things.”

  Ruby’s expression softened. “Thank you—and, yes. Of course. Come to the operating floor and we’ll get you scrubbed in.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you there.”

  Ruby slid out of her chair and moved quickly through the busy restaurant.

  It was not a long walk to the hospital, he thought. But his leg was a bit stiff. Yeah, it helped to move it, but he had been doing too much today to be able to show her that he could keep up. So he was going to take a cab back to the hospital.

  Hopefully the pain would subside a bit so that he could be in the operating room with her, because that was the last thing he needed anyone to see.

  He didn’t need anyone to see his pain.

  CHAPTER THREE

  RUBY WAS HOPING that Aran would show up soon, because in another minute she wouldn’t be able to wait any longer and she’d have to go and scrub in. Her patient from Wainwright was in the operating room and being prepped for surgery.

  Come on Aran. Don’t be late this time.

  Ruby tied back her hair and then put on a scrub cap. As she tied it on Aran appeared, in scrubs, and seemed ready to go.

  Thank goodness.

  “I was just about to scrub in,” she said as he moved past her to grab a scrub cap.

  “I know. That waiter was slow.”

  He winced slightly and it made her uneasy.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Fine. A little stiff, but I can handle the operating room. It’s an infected abscess, yes?”

  “As far as I know. My plan is to go in and remove what I can of the infection, then pack him and place a drain. That bear tore open his abdomen and I’m not so sure it was completely clean.”

  “Jeez...” Aran said. “He’s lucky to be alive.”

  “Yes—and this is why drinking and hunting don’t mix.”

  “I thought most camps up there were dry?” he asked.

  “They are. He snuck some beer in. The State Troopers are involved, and there are fish and wildlife troopers dealing with the bear. Unfortunately the bear loses completely, because he’ll be destroyed. Once they have the taste for... Well, the bear might come back to the camp and it would pose a threat.”

  Ruby did feel bad for the bear. It wasn’t the bear’s fault that it had attacked. The man had been reckless and stupid. He’d done something illegal by bringing alcohol to a dry camp. To survive up in remote locations like that you needed your wits about you.

  Eat or be eaten. That was what her father and her older brother had taught her about surviving in the north. They’d told her to trust her instincts and be wary of strangers as well. Ruby totally relied on her instincts. They’d saved her countless times.

  They walked to the scrub room and started scrubbing in.

  “Just follow my lead,” Ruby said.

  “I have put together men who were in worse shape than this patient,” Aran stated.

  “I’m sure, but this is my patient and my operating room.” She shook her hands before drying them off with a paper towel. She slipped on a paper mask and headed into the operating room, where a scrub nurse was waiting to help her on with her gown and gloves.

  She didn’t doubt that Aran had worked on worse cases, but Ruby liked control, and this was her patient and her OR. She was going to do things her way.

  She took a calming breath. A little moment of meditation before she approached the operating table. She could hear the door behind her open—the door to the scrub room. She knew that Aran was getting into his gown and being gloved.

  She wasn’t sure how this was going to work out, and she was sort of kicking herself for inviting him into her operating room. She liked to work with surgeons she knew. Surgeons she’d worked with before. Aran might be an excellent surgeon, but he was still an unknown factor in the calm and order that she demanded in her operating room.

  This was why she was one of the best trauma surgeons in the north. This was why she led such an elite rescue team. Because things were done her way, in her fashion.

  It worked.

  It saved lives.

  She took her place at the operating table while a resident read off the chart.

  “Patient is Albert Weinstein, thirty-three. The surgery is to remove an abscess that has formed on his abdominal wall secondary to an...”

  The resident cleared her throat and Ruby knew she was having a hard time reading it because it was a pretty vicious injury.

  “Evisceration,” Ruby stated.

  The resident nodded. “Evisceration that was repaired by Dr. Cloutier in Wainwright. Patient was deemed stable to travel and be placed in the ICU at Seward Memorial. The patient’s white cell count has increased, and he spiked a temperature this afternoon. This led to a CT scan that confirmed an abscess has formed.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Marks,” Ruby said.

  Aran stood on the opposite of the table. “Ready, Dr. Cloutier?”

  Ruby nodded at him and looked down at her patient. Foolish man. Well, whether he was foolish or not, she was going to save his life.

  * * *

  Ruby finished her chart, even though her shoulders were aching. She had managed a small nap when she’d got home, before she went out to dinner with Aran, but her body was telling her that it hadn’t been enough.

  She rubbed her eyes. She needed to finish her work here and then find a place to crash. Even though she should go home, she didn’t want to leave her patient. She wanted to monitor him closely while he was in the intensive care unit. So she needed to be close by, just in case anything happened to him.

  “Hey,” Aran said as he approached the charge desk.

  “Hey.” She nodded, not looking up from her work.

  “Your patient’s family is here—and his brothers who were up at the hunting camp too. They’re looking for an update.”

  Ruby sighed. This was the part of the job she hated. She hated having to deal with the families of her patients. Good or bad, she just found it difficult.

  “Okay.” Ruby finished off her chart and set the binder back behind the ICU charge desk. “Where are they?”

  “In the waiting room. You want me to come with you?” he asked.

  “No, it’s fine.”

  “It doesn’t look fine. You look like you’d rather do anything but talk to the family.”

  “Well, that’s the truth. Especially when I don’t have any answers.”

  Only that wasn’t completely it. Talking to families was hard when you were a trauma surgeon most times anyway, but it also evoked something in her. Something she didn’t like to think about.

  She remembered what it had been like, walking down the halls of Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife so that they could view her father. How the doctor there had tried to offer his condolences to them. But all Ruby had been able to see was her father, lying there under a white sheet. His eyes had been closed and he was gone.

  Just gone.

  The one person who had always been her rock was no longer there.

  It was a pain that haunted her still. And when she had to tell family members that their loved one was really ill and might not make it, or that their loved one had passed away, the pain in their faces brought it all back.
>
  It was the worst part of the job for Ruby. If she didn’t have to deal with the families, it would be so much better.

  Ruby walked numbly toward the quiet room where her patient’s family had been told to wait for her. Her pulse was racing as she saw a little girl, clutching her mother’s hand. The little girl looked to be about twelve.

  Just like she had been.

  Oh, Creator.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Aran asked.

  Ruby nodded. “Just give me a moment.”

  “Sure.”

  She could hear the sympathy in his voice.

  “I don’t envy you. I never had to do this in the Army. I would patch the soldiers up and get them stable enough to travel to a military hospital. I didn’t have to contact significant others or children about their loved ones.”

  Ruby nodded. “I hate this part.”

  “What about when your patients live? Surely you don’t mind delivering that news?”

  “I don’t like interacting with families at all—but, yeah, when they live and pull through that is so much better.” She took a deep breath.

  “Do you mind if I come in with you?” Aran asked. “I haven’t done this in a while—not since I was a resident, and even then it was in a military hospital. I’d like to see how you handle it.”

  “Sure. Let’s go.”

  Aran opened the door for her and Ruby walked into the room. The family stood, but their gazes didn’t go to her—they focused on Aran.

  “How is he, Doctor? How is my husband?” asked the woman holding the little girl’s hand.

  Aran glanced at Ruby. “You’ll have to ask his doctor. This is Dr. Ruby Cloutier—the one who brought him down from Wainwright—and she’s his surgeon.”

  Everyone turned and looked at her.

  Her pulse began to race as they looked at her with disbelief. It wasn’t the first time someone had looked at her like that and it wouldn’t be the last. She was short and she was a woman. People always assumed it was a man who was the surgeon and not her.

  “Yes, I’m Dr. Cloutier, and I did the first surgery on Mr. Weinstein in Wainwright.”

  “How is he?” his wife asked.

  “Stable, but...” Ruby trailed off as she looked down at the little girl staring up at her. It broke her heart. “He’s in the intensive care unit. Mrs. Weinstein, I can have a child life specialist paged and then I can talk to you about your husband’s condition.”

  “Mommy...?” the little girl asked.

  Mrs. Weinstein nodded. “Yes, that’s probably for the best.”

  Ruby nodded and quickly left the room to page someone to take the child to a play area. It wasn’t long before Bonnie, a child life specialist, came down to the quiet room.

  Ruby led Bonnie over to the little girl. “This is my friend, Bonnie, and she’s going to take you to do some crafts while I talk to your mom, okay?”

  The little girl nodded and took Bonnie’s hand as she was led from the room.

  “How bad is it, Doc? I’m his brother and I remember you from the camp.”

  Ruby glanced up at the man. “It’s bad—and you need to prepare yourself. I’m not going to lie. Your husband’s condition is severe, Mrs. Weinstein. I was able to repair the damage to his internal organs and stabilize him before flying to Anchorage, but he’s developed an infection and an abscess has formed. Right now he needs to stay in the intensive care unit while the infection drains and while the wound is open and packed.”

  “Oh, God...” Mrs. Weinstein sat down.

  Ruby wanted to chastise her patient’s brothers about safety, and drinking while dealing with large predators, but she didn’t. She fought the urge.

  “We’re not from Alaska,” Mrs. Weinstein stated. “We’re from Kansas. Can we get him transferred there?”

  “Eventually,” Ruby said. “We can’t move him right now. If we do, he will die.”

  “He can’t stay here. He has to come home,” Mr. Weinstein’s brother insisted. “When can we move him?”

  Only he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Aran again, which infuriated her.

  “He can’t be moved,” Aran stated. “Did you not clearly hear what Dr. Cloutier said?”

  “We’ll stay,” Mrs. Weinstein said with resignation. “We’ll stay until he can be transferred to Kansas.”

  Ruby nodded. “I’ll send in a social worker to help you with arrangements and someone will take you up to see him shortly.”

  Mrs. Weinstein nodded and Ruby took that moment to leave the room and catch her breath as well as control her anger. This was why she hated dealing with families. They couldn’t think rationally.

  But there was a side of her that sympathized with them. You didn’t think rationally when you were grieving. She got that. She understood that well.

  “Dr. Cloutier?”

  Ruby turned to see a nurse coming toward her. “Yes, Janet?” she said.

  “There’s a call for you on line three. It’s a man from the United States Citizen and Immigration services.”

  “Immigration?”

  It took a moment to let the word really sink in. Her stomach dropped to the soles of her feet.

  “Immigration...” Janet said nervously.

  Ruby’s stomach sank. “Thank you, Janet.”

  Janet nodded and headed back to the charge desk.

  Ruby groaned as Aran came out of the waiting room. He’d stuck around, waiting for the social worker to arrive.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Immigration is calling me.”

  Aran’s brow furrowed. “They want to check up on us, I suppose.”

  “Yeah...” Ruby sighed nervously and began to wring her hands.

  “Well, you should take the call.”

  Ruby nodded, but she really didn’t want to.

  They made their way into an empty doctors’ lounge and Aran locked the door behind them. She just stared at the phone flashing, her heart racing as she picked up the line.

  “Dr. Cloutier speaking.”

  “Dr. Cloutier—this is Agent Bolton of the United States Citizen and Immigration Services, about your Green Card application.”

  “Yes?”

  “We’ve been informed that your husband, Dr. Aran Atkinson, has been honorably discharged from the Armed Forces and has since returned to Anchorage. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, he arrived yesterday.” She was glad her sleep deprivation hadn’t deprived her from remembering that it was early the next morning.

  “That’s great. We’d like to set up a time to come and meet both of you in the next couple of days—at your convenience. We’d like to do a last interview and some paperwork before we can approve your Green Card and citizenship.”

  “Sounds great. Why don’t you email me a few dates and I’ll arrange our schedules?”

  “Perfect. We look forward to meeting you both, Dr. Cloutier.”

  Ruby hung up the phone and felt as if the room was spinning. This was why she should have said no when Aran had suggested marriage to her five years ago.

  “Well? Do you know what they want?” Aran asked.

  She nodded. “I do. They probably know that you’re not living with me. That you’ve checked into a hotel.”

  “Right...”

  Ruby sighed. “They want to meet with us both—probably at our house.”

  “Did they say our house?” Aran asked.

  “No. They didn’t. But it really doesn’t make sense that a husband and wife live apart, now, does it?”

  “You’re right.”

  “They want to meet us at our convenience.” Ruby bit her lip nervously.

  “Okay. So we’ll set up a time, right?”

  Ruby nodded. “I think we need to do a bit more than that, though.”

 
“Oh?” Aran asked.

  She couldn’t believe she was about to say this, but to make this work it was the only solution—even if it was a dangerous one.

  “I think you need to check out of your hotel and move in with me.”

  Aran wasn’t sure if he was hearing Ruby correctly. Had she actually just suggested that he move in with her? He had planned to get his own place in Anchorage. He didn’t have plans to live with anyone—not even the woman who was technically his wife.

  He was better off alone—especially since the accident. He had really bad bouts of night terrors and he didn’t want to scare Ruby or even to have her know. He didn’t want anyone to know. The only person it affected was him.

  Living with Ruby?

  That was not a good idea.

  He didn’t want to get married—ever.

  You are married, remember?

  Well, he didn’t want to get emotionally involved with anyone. Not after seeing what had happened to his parents. Not after living through that IED explosion. He didn’t have any desire to be with anyone. He was better off alone.

  Moving in with Ruby was a bad idea. Why had he offered to marry her in the first place?

  You believed in her. You still do.

  But he was supposed to be still serving overseas. He wasn’t supposed to be here, broken and no longer doing what he loved.

  “Aran?” Ruby asked, breaking his chain of thought.

  “What?”

  “I said I think you should check out of your hotel and move in with me.”

  “That’s what I thought you said.” Aran ran his hand through his hair.

  “It would look better if we were living together since we’ve been married these last five years.”

  She bit her lip, and he could tell that she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the prospect.

  “It’s not permanent. It would just be until everything’s cleared up and we can divorce.”

  Say no. Say no.

  Only he couldn’t. She was right. The most logical thing to do was move in with her. Even if he thought it was the worst idea ever. He wasn’t emotionally in the right place to move in with any one.

  Not after what had happened overseas.

  Not after his whole unit had been wiped out and he’d been the only one to survive.