18. Jack
18
JACK
T he car bumped along the road and Sophia's hand rested on top of mine on the shifter. We were headed across town where the likelihood of anyone recognizing us was slim so we could have dinner out. I was set to pick up Leah later, when dinner was over, because Sophia promised to make a blanket fort and have a sleepover with her. I thought it was sweet, especially given how well the two were bonding. After four weeks of Sophia and me sneaking around and Leah knowing about it, it was about time we let her get involved.
"Wow, that's a lot of flashing lights," Sophia said, noticing the same thing I had. Traffic was already heavy, even on the highway, and we'd seen three cop cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance since we got into the car at my place ten minutes ago. It wasn't abnormal for something like this to happen when there was a bad accident, but being a surgeon, I was always on alert.
"Yeah, I hope it's not bad. It's on the east side of the city, though, so we should be good." Neither one of us were on call for this weekend either, which meant even if it was something that was emergent, we wouldn’t be called in.
The light turned green and I pulled away, watching two more sets of flashing lights flash through the intersection in my rearview mirror. It made me sigh with discouragement because I knew that big of a response meant whatever hospital they took crash victims to would have their hands full.
"Hey," Sophia soothed, rubbing my bicep, "let's just enjoy dinner. Okay?" Her soft features drew me in. There was no way for me to stay worried or distracted for long when she was around.
"You're right." I turned on Fifth Street toward the restaurant and turned my hand over. She laced her fingers through mine, and I noticed from the corner of my eye that she smiled.
"I can't wait for the sleepover," she said, and my dick tingled.
"Me either," I said in a very suggestive tone. I wagged my eyebrows and pictured her naked and draped across my bed. More and more, I was enjoying fucking her brains out and then talking for hours afterward.
"I mean with Leah." She swatted my arm and chuckled. "I haven't done anything fun like this in decades. I was too old after I turned twelve, or at least my parents said so. I was forced into music lessons and dance, tutoring, sports… Anything but imaginative fun. I am really looking forward to just building a fort, eating popcorn, watching a princess movie, and painting my nails."
When I glanced at her, I noticed how happy and content she seemed, though her eyes betrayed a bit of fatigue. It had been a rough week for us with surgeries back-to-back most days. I hoped her energy level stayed elevated long enough to deal with a feisty seven-year-old.
"You really like hanging out with Leah, don't you?" I couldn’t keep staring at her, so I had to rely on her words and the tone of her voice to communicate, but I knew she'd never lie.
"I think I love that little girl to pieces, Jack." Sophia rested her head on my shoulder across the center console and my heart warmed. "I mean it when I say how sweet she is. I love spending time with her. It makes me realize how much I will love being a mother someday."
The sweet sigh at the end of her statement made me smile, but my body felt tense too. It was one of the things we had to discuss, because there was no point in continuing a relationship, no matter how well we clicked emotionally, if our life goals weren't matched up. I wasn’t sure about having more kids so late in life. And being ten years younger than me, I knew she had her whole life ahead of her.
I opened my mouth to respond, hoping maybe to break the ice on that topic in general, when my phone rang through my speakers. I pressed the hands-free button on my steering wheel and glanced at the screen. It was Twin Peaks.
"Shit," I hissed under my breath before saying, "Hello, Jack Thornton here."
"Jack, uh… Dr. Thornton, it's Rita at Twin Peaks. We need you to come in. There was a building collapse across town. They're at max capacity already with dozens more people injured. Some of these folks need a surgeon, buddy." Rita sounded flustered and busy, and I glanced at Sophia and noted the disappointment on her face. She frowned but nodded, and I knew I had to respond.
"What's the ETA on the buses? How many? What am I looking at?" I turned at the next intersection, heading back toward the highway. My black suit and Sophia's cute blue dress would be completely out of place under scrubs, but we had no choice. And I needed her help.
"We have at least five buses coming on diversion, with who knows how many more. Right now we're looking at a tension pneumothorax and a perforated colon. We suspect a ruptured spleen on that one." Rita rattled off the list of injuries highest in priority but continued for thirty more seconds with a rundown of less life-threatening injuries, including a broken leg that needed set and a partially severed limb, which could have a tourniquet while we fixed up our near-death patients.
I had to pull my hand away from Sophia's and focus on the road. My mind switched gears from distracted lover to skilled surgeon easily, and Sophia seemed to take the hint. She started removing her earrings and the hairpins out of her fancy up-do, and I watched her tie her hair up in a knot.
"I'll be there in twelve minutes flat. Have an OR prepped for the TPX right away. If that bus is there in twenty minutes, I want that OR ready in nineteen. Got it?" My mind raced with possibilities and I was already rehearsing the incisions and insertion of the chest tube in my head.
"Got it. See you soon." Rita hung up, and I was immediately apologetic.
"I'm so sorry, Soph. I know how much you were looking forward to this." I drove like a bat straight out of hell and didn't care if I got blueberries and cherries behind me. They'd have to take it up with the hospital and the dying patients. Besides, the focus was probably on the building collapse across town. I knew it was bad when we'd seen so many first responder vehicles. I just didn't think it would come to this.
"Just drive, Jack. People need our help." Sophia's shift from my lover to my intern was just as immediate as mine, and I felt strangely calmed by that.
As we drove, she started walking through the steps of the surgeries we had to do audibly and I knew she was on the ball. They'd have called in the other surgeons by now, the on-call doctor and even Dr. Briggs. For an emergency this large, every available medically trained person would be on duty, like it or not.
We squealed into the parking lot a full ninety seconds sooner than I planned and I slammed the car into park while I said, "Stay in the car. Wait two minutes, then walk in after me. They can't see us arrive together all dressed up like this. Go straight to trauma one and scrub in." I opened the door then turned back and leaned across the center console and kissed her briefly. "And lock up the car, bring me my keys. And get your Crocs. It could be a long night."
Even in the rush to get to my patient, I was thinking about her comfort. Those spiked patent-leather heels would kill her feet after a while.
Darting toward the hospital, I took my phone out of my pocket and called Dana. If things were as bad as they seemed, it meant I wouldn't be getting Leah tonight, after all. That would definitely piss my ex-wife off, but it couldn't be avoided. It rang several times before anyone picked up and I was already in the heart of the emergency department when they finally did.
"My God, Jack, don't tell me you're going to fucking cancel on me again." Dana sounded furious, but I didn't know what to tell her. When I signed up for this job, I knew it meant being prepared at a minute's notice to help, and here I was. You'd have thought being a first responder would give me more honor, not this bullshit.
"Dana, there was a building collapse. I'm going in to the hospital." I didn’t have to explain, or at least, I shouldn't have had to explain. This was my job and people depended on me.
"I have plans, Jack. You can’t just dump Leah on me last-minute. What kind of father are you?"
The selfishness of that statement infuriated me, but I was a trained professional and I had to keep my calm. I couldn't let her rile me up any more than I could let Sophia get me worked up sexually. People's lives were at stake.
"Look, I'm just telling you what's happening. I can't help it. I have to perform life-saving surgery. Leah will understand. I can pick her up first thing in the morning." I walked past Rita with the phone pinched between my ear and shoulder as I undid my cufflinks and headed for the doctors’ lounge where I could find my scrubs and scrub cap. Rita gave me a thumbs-up, and I nodded as she indicated seven minutes left.
"You mean while I'm sleeping in? You're ridiculous."
"I have to go, Dana. I'll call you in the morning." I let the phone drop to my hand and continued walking, but the last thing I heard her say was so cruel.
"We'll see if a judge agrees with me that you spend no time with your daughter." I knew she was so mad about this, but her anger was misplaced.
No one liked to have their plans rearranged, and these types of situations were disappointing. But I put myself in the shoes of the victims or their families and how they would look to doctors and nurses with hope and desperation. I wished Dana would be more like me, holding a space in her heart for those who were hurting, even through discouragement. I wished she'd be more like Sophia.
Ten minutes later, Sophia and I were walking into the operating room, scrubbed in and ready to do the chest tube. The patient's vitals were all over the place and he was screaming in pain. I had the team sedate him and we got to work. It took thirty minutes to place the tube and position it correctly, then tape it in place. We waited another fifteen for the pressure to start alleviating and the air to begin abating. It was touch and go, but when his vitals started to level out, I knew we were out of the most dangerous part.
It might take as much as three days for his lung to fully inflate and stay that way, but his heart was no longer under the extreme duress. The other doctors could tend to his multiple lacerations and broken bones, but he would live.
I gave Sophia a nod of appreciation for her stellar attitude under such pressure. She had been the steady, consistent help I needed, though a trained perioperative nurse may also have done the same, but not the way Sophia did. She and I worked together so well, I was ashamed to admit I knew I'd be less of a surgeon when she finally moved on to her own practice and I had to do it alone again. It'd be hard to find another assistant like her.
"Touch and go for a minute there," she said as she scrubbed out. We had less than ten minutes to get to the next OR for the next patient. Dr. Briggs and his supervisor had taken the perforated bowel, which left us with a mild case of internal bleeding which needed a surgeon's keen eye.
"I'm proud of you. After that emergency a few weeks ago, I worried you'd feel too overwhelmed again." I knew how easily Sophia got flustered and how much she cared about her patients. It wasn’t a dig, just a cautious and compassionate observation.
"I feel better now with you around, though I feel nauseous." She pressed a hand to her stomach and closed her eyes for a second, then returned to scrubbing. Her fatigue and now this nausea concerned me. She'd been working so hard, and I knew how easy it was to get burned out early in your career.
"Maybe you should go home. You’re not required to be here, you know? I can handle this." I knew I could, but I didn't want to do it alone. She was part of my team now and I relied on her help.
"Are you kidding? And skip this excitement? What stories would I tell my grandkids someday?" She winked at me, but her face looked a little green. "Did you call your ex? How did Leah take the news?"
I reached for a towel and scowled. "Dana never lets me speak to her, so I don't know. What I know is she threatened me again, and I'm not taking kindly to it. She thinks she's more important than the whole world. I just don't know what to do."
" Dr. Thornton, OR Six is prepped ." The loudspeaker announcement interrupted my thoughts, and I was glad. I couldn’t let myself dive off into the deep end of anger.
"Let's get going. We have to scrub in next door." I nodded at the door and left ahead of Sophia, but I knew she'd follow. I just hoped her nauseous stomach wasn't my fault. She hadn't even eaten dinner yet. I owed her, big time.