29. Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
Isla was exhausted. She’d been up since four that morning.
Four-month sleep regression was apparently a real thing.
Jesse had been up every hour in the night.
When she had dropped him off at Gramma Dawn’s, the sun had just come over the horizon.
The hour trip into Billings felt like it took forever.
The coffee wasn’t doing the trick. She only had one more week at St. Vincent’s and she wouldn’t need to make this trip again.
Working full-time with Kech at the clinic was the answer to her prayers.
The morning started out slow, but like any ER, momentum picked up throughout the day.
There had been a pileup on the highway and eight patients had been brought in.
Two had come into the trauma unit where Isla had been scheduled for the day.
To make matters worse, there had been two call offs and she had been mandated to work a second shift. The trauma unit needed her.
She called Dawn, but Kech answered the phone. “Hey Siobhan, are you on the way?” Kech asked. “This little guy is anxious to see his mama. He misses you.”
“That’s what I’m calling about. They’ve mandated me for another shift. Is it alright if your mom keeps Jesse overnight?”
“I’m sure it is. Here’s Mom now,” said Kech.
Dawn answered with her usual cheer. “Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi, Dawn, can Jesse spend the night? I probably won’t get home till after midnight. I hate to wake him up to bring him home.”
“Not a problem, sweetie,” said Dawn. “We’ve got this—Uncle Kech is here to help. You just get home safe. If you’re too tired to drive home, you stay at the hospital till morning. We’ll be fine. I’ll give Jesse a kiss for you and don’t you worry.”
It was after two in the morning when Isla was finally able to find a bed for the night. If a cot in an empty room counted as a bed. At three thirty, there was a knock on the door. She pulled herself out of bed and opened it. Grace stood on the other side.
“Siobhan, I hate to wake you, but we need you in the trauma unit. We have six gunshot wounds and it’s total chaos down there.”
“I’ll be right down. How bad is it?”
“Two are critical,” she said with a frown. “I guess there was a shootout at Hidden Haven Ranch tonight. We’ve got four suspects, one critical, and two private security, one critical. It looks like a war zone down there. So much blood—”
Isla jumped to her feet. “Okay, let’s go. I’m ready. After tonight, I plan on sleeping all day if Jesse permits it. I hope Gramma Dawn doesn’t mind keeping him again today. It’s still today, right?”
“It is—you’ve been up twenty-three hours,” said Grace. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. My adrenaline is pumping,” said Isla. “It feels like nursing school all over again.”
They got down to trauma in seconds and Grace was right—it did look like a war zone. Isla looked in trauma room one and the doctor gave her a thumbs up, so she moved to the next trauma room. The team was working feverishly to stabilize the patient.
Dr. Moore looked over as she walked in. “Thank goodness you didn’t leave.
We’ve got a male, approximately forty years of age.
Gunshot to the left hip. He lost consciousness on the way here.
The bullet nicked a femoral artery. He’s lost a lot of blood.
He’s coded twice already. They’re on standby in operating room three.
Let’s get moving, people. We don’t have time to waste. ”
“Siobhan, can you scrub in? I need you for this one.”
“Not a problem, doctor,” said Isla. “I’ll meet you in the operating room.”
As Isla scrubbed in, the tiredness she had felt earlier disappeared.
She knew she’d be paying the price for it once she got home, but right now, she was in the game.
She walked into the operating room and stood next to Dr. Moore, waiting for his instruction.
They worked well together. She was going to miss working with him when she left St. Vincent’s.
It took them three hours to repair the damage to the patient’s hip. He was in for a long rehabilitation. He had been lucky that Dr. Moore had been on shift. He was the best that Isla had ever worked with. With therapy and time, the patient would be up and around again.
When the operation was over, Dr. Moore turned to Isla. “Thanks for your help. I was able to repair the damage he had. If that bullet had been a millimeter closer, it would have severed the artery completely. The bone fragments alone caused enough problems. Mr. Larkin doesn’t know how lucky he is.”
Isla grabbed onto the table, “Did you say Larkin?”
“Yeah, Mitchell Larkin,” said Dr. Moore. “He’s one of the private security guys that was involved in the mess up at the Hidden Haven Ranch tonight. Why? Do you know him?”
Isla nodded as she went to the top of the table for the first time that evening and looked down to see if this Mitchell Larkin was her Mitchell Larkin. Her heart pounded and stars flashed before her eyes. My Mitch, here. My Mitch. His eyes blinked open, and then fell shut again.
Isla felt the world go black as she sank to the floor.
Isla found herself on a gurney outside of the operating room. Her head throbbed. Grace stood over her with a glass of orange juice. “Hey, you,” she said. “Welcome back to the land of the living. Here, drink this.”
Isla sat up slowly, accepting the glass.
“What the heck happened in there?” Grace asked. “One minute you were talking to Dr. Moore and the next minute he was picking you up from the floor. Have you eaten anything all day? We had lunch at noon, but I don’t recall seeing you eat anything after that.”
“I had some crackers from the vending machine for dinner,” Isla answered. “I guess between not eating and exhaustion…”
“Well, off to bed with you. You’re done for the day. I called Kech and he’s picking you up. He’ll be here within the hour.”
“Grace, I can’t leave, not now.”
“And why not?” Grace asked, concern lacing her voice.
“I need to stay and make sure our patient is out of the woods.”
“What patient? The one you and Dr. Moore were taking care of during surgery?”
“Grace, I know him. I need to make sure he’s okay.”
“Siobhan, he’s out of the woods. They have him up in ICU, just as a precaution. He’ll probably be in a regular room as soon as tomorrow. Who is he anyway?”
“He’s just a person I once knew. I need to see for myself that he’s okay.”
“I’m not going to say you need to take care of yourself—I know you know that. But you need to get some sleep. You’ve got Jesse to take care of. Go and check on your guy if it makes you feel better. I’ll have Kech come into ICU when he gets here.”
“Thanks, Grace, I really appreciate it,” said Isla. “And one more question. Is anyone in the waiting room for him?”
“Yeah, there are four burly guys in there, each one hotter than the last. The testosterone is thick in there.”
Isla felt the corners of her lips rise . “Thanks, Grace.”
Isla knew she should have just waited for Kech to take her home, but she couldn’t leave without making sure that Mitch was okay.
She couldn’t believe that he was here. My Mitch.
Just the chance to look down at his face one more time was a dream come true.
She’d just sit with him for a moment and then she’d leave.
Her heart ached. The pain was unbearable. But there was also a fluttering excitement, just to be so near to him. She walked into the ICU and smiled at the nurse at the desk.
“Hi Millie, just checking on my patient before I call it a day. Larkin?”
“Mr. Larkin’s in room five, Siobhan. He’s doing as well as can be expected. He’s stable.”
She stopped in front of the door and drew a deep breath. Just a few minutes, that’s all she needed. Just to make sure he was okay.
Isla walked over to the bed. Mitch was so pale.
She would give anything to see his beautiful blue eyes.
She pulled up the chair in the corner and took his hand in hers.
The hand she knew so well. She knew every callous, every scar.
These strong hands had held her softly when she was scared, held her firmly when they were making love.
How she wished she could feel those arms around her once more.
She knew it was a wish she would never have fulfilled.
She needed to keep Jesse safe at all costs and it meant not seeing Mitch again.
She had promised God she would keep him safe and she would, no matter what.
She just needed to look at him one last time, feel his skin against hers.
Then she could leave his side for the sake of their son.
She knew it was what Mitch would have wanted, for her to keep Jesse safe.
She laid her head on his hand and turned it over, kissing his palm. Just for a moment, her eyes closed. She woke with a start when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and found Kech standing behind her.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked with concern.
“I’m fine—promise,” she said, though tears streamed down her face.
Kech gave her a gentle smile. “You’re not fine, Siobhan. There’s a story behind those tears. You know you can tell me anything.”
That just made Isla cry harder. “I know I can. You’re my best friend, Kech, and I’ve kept so much from you. But right now, I just want to go home and hold my son.”
Kech nodded. Then he looked over at Mitch. “He’s Jesse’s father, isn’t he?”
Isla nodded.
“Does he know you’re here?”
She shook her head. “He hasn’t woken up yet.
I just wanted to make sure he was okay before I left.
I don’t want him to know I was here. He’s better off not knowing.
I’ll tell you everything on the way home.
” She stood and looked down at Mitch, still asleep.
She leaned over and pressed her lips to his, her tears falling on his cheeks.
She wiped them away with her fingertips and turned toward Kech. “I’m ready.”
Kech took her arm and guided her out the door. “Let’s get you home and tucked in. Mom said not to worry about Jesse, he’s fine.”