Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Grace
He finally opened up to me, and I was grateful.
I felt sad listening to him talk and couldn’t believe his father’s actions.
I now understood why he was the way he was.
The hurt, the anger, and the pain consumed him all these years.
He wanted to start over, and I was all for it.
I always knew there was a good man deep down inside him that was trying to escape but fear always stopped him.
I lay wrapped in his arms, not very comfortable, for the bed was small, but it didn’t matter.
He was here with me. I closed my eyes, and for the first time in so very long, I felt at peace.
“Dr. Harper,” Rebecca opened the door. “Oh, excuse me. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, Rebecca. What do you need?” I asked in a sleepy voice.
“This better be good, Dr. Lasher,” Jamieson spoke. “We’ve barely been sleeping.”
“There’s a trauma coming in. ETA is ten minutes. “Pile up on the highway.”
“I’m on it. Thank you.”
She closed the door, and I turned and looked at Jamieson.
“Good morning.” I smiled.
“It would be better if we could sleep a few more hours,” he spoke.
I climbed out of bed and changed into a pair of scrubs.
“Work calls, Dr. Finn,” I spoke.
“I guess I better get up and help out. It’s going to be crazy out there.”
I went over to the sink and quickly brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hair, and headed out the door.
“Were you here all night?” Jackie asked.
“Yeah. I slept in the on-call room.”
“I paged neuro already. I don’t know when Dr. Finn will be in.”
“He’s here.” I smiled.
“He is?”
“Yeah. He slept in the on-call room too.”
“Everything okay with you two?” She arched her brow.
“Yeah. I think everything is going to be okay.”
“I’m here,” Jamieson said.
“Dr. Harper, you take trauma one. Dr. Finn, trauma two.”
“What do we have?” I spoke to Dr. Lasher as I walked into trauma room one and put on a pair of latex gloves.
“Male, mid-thirties. BP 88/58, heart rate 120. Abdominal and head trauma.”
I turned around and froze when I saw him lying there. Suddenly, my heart jumped into my throat, and I began to tremble.
“Dr. Harper?” Dr. Lasher spoke.
“His abdomen is distended. Get the ultrasound now.”
“Grace,” Sam whispered as he stared at me, and I stared back.
“Ultrasound is ready,” Dr. Lasher spoke as she handed me the transducer.
“Is this the husband?” Jamieson asked as he walked in. “His wife is next door. She’s stable and wants to know how he is.”
“Dr. Harper, his stats are dropping. He’s going into V-fib.”
I stood there and stared at him and then looked at the monitor. I froze.
“Grace?” Jamieson spoke. “Dr. Harper?” His voice was stern.
“Dr. Harper!” Dr. Lasher shouted.
“Push a round of epi and charge the paddles to 200.”
“Epi is in,” Sara spoke.
“Clear.” I shocked his chest. “Charge to 200 and push another round of epi. Clear.” I shocked him again.
“Charge to 250. Clear.” I stared at the monitor and nothing.
“Oh no, you don’t, you son of a bitch. You are not getting off that easy!
” I spoke through gritted teeth. “Push 20 mgs. of Atropine. Charge to 300.”
“Dr. Harper,” Jamieson spoke in a stern tone.
“Clear!”
“He’s got a rhythm,” Dr. Lasher spoke.
“Let’s get a head CT, stat,” Jamieson said.
“I need to get him up to the O.R. and stop the bleeding.”
“Go. We’ll get the CT up there.”
Jamieson
I stared at Grace as she wheeled the patient out. What the hell happened with her? I went back to check on my patient in the next room before heading up to the O.R.
“How is he? How is my husband?” she asked.
“He’s stable for now, and we’re taking him up to the O.R. He has some internal bleeding, but he’s in excellent hands.”
“I can’t believe this is happening. We were on our way to the airport to catch our flight home, and out of nowhere, cars just started piling up in front of us. We were hit really hard from behind.”
“You’re not from here?” I asked.
“No. We’re from New York. My husband had a finance conference to attend, and he thought it would be a good idea for me to come so we could turn it into our anniversary celebration. It was perfect up until this. Dr. Finn, do you think Sam is going to be okay? I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”
“Sam?” I nervously spoke.
“My husband’s name is Sam.”
“Excuse me.”
I walked out of the room and ran up to the O.R. Grace should not be operating on him. I placed a mask over my face and entered inside.
“Dr. Harper, I know who your patient is, and I don’t think—”
“Dr. Finn, his scans are up for you to look at.” She interrupted me mid-sentence. “I’m in the middle of repairing his spleen and the tear in his abdominal wall.”
I walked over and took a look at his scans.
“He’s got a subdermal hematoma. Nothing a simple burr hole won’t fix. I’m going to scrub in. Get the drill ready.”
I scrubbed in, walked over, and took the drill from the scrub nurse.
“Are you doing okay, Dr. Harper?” I asked.
“Of course. Did his wife say why they’re here in Los Angeles?”
“Umm. Something about a finance conference.”
There was no way I was telling her any more than that. I drilled the burr hole and then assisted Grace with her surgery.
“Close for me, Dr. Lasher,” she spoke before walking out of the room.
“Grace, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Jamieson. I need to go update his wife.”
“I can do that. You don’t have to.”
“No. I want to.”
“You’re not going to say something, are you?”
“Say what? That her husband is a lying, cheating bastard who carried on a secret affair with me for over a year?”