Chapter 8 #2
Jade’s arms burned as she continued the compressions, after a few seconds that felt like hours, a team came in and pushed Hannah’s bed into the hallway.
Jade rode with the gurney keeping the compressions timed precisely as they made it to the elevator.
The ride down to the operating floor was dizzying, but she maintained her rhythm.
“Are we set up for bypass?” Jade asked, never taking her eyes from Hannah.
“Yes, just a few more seconds,” Jade could hear Lillian as the team worked around her. “Okay, you can stop.”
Jade’s arms went limp as she sat back on her heels and looked around.
The room was eerily quiet without the rhythm of the heart monitor, but Hannah was hooked up to a machine that would circulate her blood for her until they could get her heart started again.
If they could get her heart started again.
“Doctor Noble?” Jade asked as she made her way to the scrub station.
The staff in the room sanitized everything that had been brought into the field, including Hannah, as Jade put on a surgical cap and tied the mask over her face.
She tapped the faucet with her forearm, checked the timer, and started scrubbing her hands.
Lillian took the sink next to her doing the same.
“She will be in as quickly as she can, but she wants us to go ahead and open her up. She said she’s pretty sure she knows where the clot is, and where it traveled. Hannah was on her schedule next. I guess Hannah didn’t want to wait,” Lillian said as she scrubbed her arms.
Jade smiled slightly behind her mask; she wouldn’t allow the thought of failure into her mind. They would save this woman. Jade had a sudden surge of confidence; she fully believed that there was nothing that she and Lillian couldn’t accomplish as long as they worked as a team.
“I’m glad you’re coming in here with me,” Lillian said, her voice almost sheepish. “Cracking a chest is not something I am very comfortable with.”
“I know,” Jade teased, and was thrilled at the light in Lillian’s eyes as she glared at Jade.
“You’re a neurosurgeon. You’re all delicate pathways and meticulous brain operations, which I am going to need in here, just on a slightly different system.
I’m more violent and barbaric, broken bones and stitching people back together. ”
Lillian laughed and Jade’s chest threated to burst. She tapped the sink with her forearm once again and shook the excess water in the sink.
Realization dawned on her as she looked up at Lillian’s sharp green eyes over her mask.
Jade could be in love with this woman, even if she never returned it.
Jade quirked an eyebrow at her as she pushed through the doors into the operating room with her hands held up.
The surgical assistants quickly dried her hands and tied the gown around her before they pulled gloves over her sleeves.
She went to the table and looked down at Hannah, still in her coma with the anesthesiologist sitting at her head.
She adjusted her tray next to her, and a surgical nurse stood at her side.
This was going to be tricky, and hopefully Dr. Noble would be here soon, but they didn’t have time to waste.
Lillian pushed through the door, the assistants performing the same routines, and she came to stand on the opposite side of Jade.
“Ready?” Jade asked, pulling in a deep breath.
“As I’m going to be,” Lillian answered. Her eyes were sharp, focused, and Jade’s heart thumped with excitement. They would not let this woman die.
“Scalpel,” Jade said and held out her hand as her assistant placed the tool in her hand. She pushed the blade through Hannah’s chest, and the world seemed to disappear, the only things that Jade recognized were the tools in her hand, the patient beneath her, and Lillian in front of her.
“Rib-spreader,” Jade said, handing the scalpel back to the assistant. She was handed a massive tool that looked like a torture device and placed it in Hannah’s chest. Very soon, Jade and Lillian were looking inside the woman that had come to mean so much to the both of them.
“You’re up, Doctor Holder,” Jade said as they examined the structure of Hannah’s heart.
“There,” Lillian said, pointing to a large artery that fed the heart. “I can see it. A few more seconds and she would be gone.” Lillian’s eyes met Jade’s over the field, and she pulled in a breath. “It is awfully close to the aorta.”
“She’s on bypass, we can clamp both,” Jade said. She glanced quickly at the glass window that looked into the scrub station, but Dr. Noble was still not in there.
“Okay,” Lillian said then asked for the clamps.
Jade held the clamps upright as Lillian delicately cut into the artery and removed a large clot.
Carefully, she tied off the edges and sewed the incision closed.
Jade watched each movement with fascination.
Each touch, each suture, everything Lillian did, was delicate and perfect.
Lillian’s precision and poise on the operating table was unmatched. She looked up at Jade, her eyes tight.
“Are we ready to take her off bypass?” Jade asked, her brows furrowed.
Lillian nodded slowly, this was the moment of truth. So many things could go wrong in this instant, and there would be nothing left that they could do to save Hannah’s life, but it was all that was left. Jade unclamped the arteries and nodded at the nurse to turn off the machines.
“Paddles,” Jade said as they watched the blood moving through Hannah’s body again. “Charge to 20.” She placed the metal disks on each side of Hannah’s heart. “Clear.” It jumped when she initiated the shock, but then remained still again. Lillian checked the sutures, nothing was leaking.
“Twenty-five,” Jade said, and the paddles whined again. “Clear.” Hannah’s heart jumped again, fighting to keep her alive. It twitched again as Jade pulled the paddles away. Then a smile broke over her and Lillian’s face both as Hannah’s heart started up with a regular rhythm.
The room broke out in cheers as Dr. Noble came in with her hands in the air. The assistants gloved her quickly and she stepped over to look at the work Jade and Lillian had done. “I take it my work here is done?” Dr. Noble asked, a good-natured smile lighting up her eyes behind the mask.
“I wouldn’t say done,” Jade said with a smirk, “but I’m sure you’ve got it from here.”
“Excellent work,” Dr. Noble said, eying the sutures. “For a neurosurgeon.” She lifted a teasing eyebrow at Lillian.
“Thanks,” Lillian chuckled.
“How’d you know it wasn’t me?” Jade asked, playing like she was offended.
“You’re trauma, it would be a mangled mess in there if you’d done it,” Dr. Noble said with a chuckle.
“Fine,” Jade said with a lift of her chin. No point in arguing, Dr. Noble was correct. Jade’s expertise was in life-saving emergency procedures, pretty and precise was not exactly the most important factors. “If you’re done giving us grief, Doctor holder and I will leave you to it.”
“Leave me with the grunt work, huh?” Dr. Noble chuckled.
“You should have gotten here sooner,” Jade chided back.
Dr. Noble waved them away and turned her attention to Hannah. Jade was glad that she was there to run any checks, this was her specialty after all. She would make sure that she and Lillian hadn’t missed anything.
Jade looked up at Lillian, whose smile showed through her eyes. They each pulled off their gowns and masks and deposited them in the waste bins, then headed back to scrub out.
“We make a hell of a team,” Jade said with a smile at Lillian. She wanted to move closer to her, but she made herself stop.
“What are you doing?” Lillian asked, her voice suddenly tight. Jade blinked a few times, trying to figure out why her demeanor had suddenly changed.
“I’m not doing anything, Lillian, we kicked ass in there,” Jade said, suddenly defensive.
“Of course we did; we’re excellent surgeons,” Lillian countered, she turned her attention to the sink, refusing to meet Jade’s eyes.
“Yes, we are,” Jade said slowly as Lillian quickly dried her hands and left in a huff. Jade shook her head wondering what the hell just happened.
Jade bit her lip as irritation flashed through her. Lillian was always going on about being professional, being impersonal. Surely, she wasn’t going to let whatever happened between them become a conflict. She quickly dried her hands and followed Lillian out into the hallway.
“Lillian!” she called out as she followed her down the hall.
Lillian ignored her and pushed through the doorway that led to the stairs.
Heat flooded through Jade at her childish behavior.
She pushed through the door behind her, but Lillian was already on the landing between floors.
“Doctor! Holder!” Jade called upwards. Lillian froze and looked down at her.
Jade sucked in a breath as those sharp green eyes penetrated her.
“What is it, Doctor Lin,” Lillian said, her voice was like ice. What had gotten into this woman?
“What is going on?” Jade said as she circled up the stairs to stand on the landing next to her.
“What do you mean?” Lillian asked with a lift of her chin.
“Why are you acting like this?” Jade demanded. “If nothing else, I could always count on you to be professional, but you’re acting like a child.”
Lillian’s eyes flew wide at the accusation. “That’s something coming from you,” she said, her voice low. “You don’t have room to call anyone unprofessional.”
“At least people know what to expect from me,” Jade countered. “I can’t handle this hot then cold nonsense. Make up your mind.”
“I’ve already told you—” Lillian began, but Jade cut her off.
“If you don’t want anything more from me, that’s fine, but you don’t get to keep messing with my head, Doctor Holder . You at least owe me some professional courtesy.”
“Oh, that is rich,” Lillian scoffed, but she took a step toward Jade. “You don’t know the meaning of the term.”
“I expect the same respect I show you,” Jade challenged.
She took a step closer to Lillian, and her heart started pounding when she didn’t back away.
“We can go around pretending last night didn’t happen, but it did, and you are going to have to find a way to deal with it that doesn’t involve punishing me. ”
“Last night was a mis—” Lillian’s words were cut off when Jade kissed her.
Her lips crashed into Lillian’s, and though she half-expected Lillian to pull back and slap her, she melted into Jade’s arms. Jade put her hands inside Lillian’s lab coat wrapping around her waist and pulling her body closer as Lillian’s tongue probed inside Jade’s teeth.
Jade ran her hands up the back of Lillian’s dress, pulling her closer still, and heat washed through her.
The next thing Jade knew, her breath was being knocked out of her as Lillian spun her around and pressed her against the cold wall of the stairwell, her hands exploring Lillian’s body and dipping below the hem of her top.
Lillian’s fingers dragged across Jade’s stomach as her lips made their way across Jade’s jaw and down to her neck.
She moaned in pleasure, and Lillian’s lips crashed into hers again.
She wanted to rip Lillian’s clothes off here in the stairwell and touch every inch of her body with her tongue and fingertips.
She wanted to make Lillian cry out in pleasure like she did last night.
The sound of a door opening and slamming above them brought them both back to reality. They pulled away from each other, their eyes darting upward to see if someone was approaching. They heard another door open and close, the person finding the floor before noticing them.
“Tell me that meant nothing to you, Lillian,” Jade said, her voice thick. “Tell me you felt nothing.” Jade pulled in a deep breath and lifted herself from the wall as Lillian stared at her with wide eyes, hair disheveled, and her makeup smeared.
Lillian’s lip trembled with effort. She wanted to say the words, Jade could see that much, but she knew as much as Jade did that they would be a lie. “I can’t,” she finally whispered, but she turned on her heel and ran up the stairs like her life depended on it.
Jade leaned back against the wall again, as the heat flowing through her slowly started to subside.
She was elated, though she couldn’t say that it was unexpected.
If Lillian fought hard enough, she would be able to resist, and Jade was not going to force her into anything.
Lillian would either figure out that what they had was something worth fighting for or she wouldn’t, but Jade knew that it was not up to her.
Only Lillian would be able to reach that conclusion.
Still, Jade smiled as she strolled lazily up the stairs. The warmth in her chest spread throughout her. Even if she was never able to act on it again, the knowledge that Lillian felt something for her was enough to keep the smile on her face.