Arslan
Despite my exhaustion, which was the only reason I slept so soundly through the night, I woke up earlier than I expected the next morning and decided to go back to the hospital. I wanted to be there while Reagan was operating on Lannie. Not because I didn’t trust her—because I certainly did—but because I wanted to be there for her and my old friend.
When I went to scrub up and change, I saw Reagan as she was headed into the operating room and hurried to get in there. As soon as I came through the door, her green eyes went wide. “What are you doing here, Dr. Dawson?”
“I just want to observe, Dr. Storey.” I went to stand at her side and felt the tension in her body right away. “You okay?”
She looked at me with confusion in her eyes—the only feature I could see, as the surgical mask hid the rest of her face. “You didn’t tell me you were coming this morning.”
“I didn’t tell you I wasn’t going to be here either.” I didn’t know what her problem was. “Go ahead, get started.”
Looking back at Lannie’s chest, scalpel in hand, I watched her hands as they shook. “Ugh!”
Stepping back, I jerked my head toward the door. “Outside, Dr. Storey.”
The look I got from her almost made me cringe. But I wasn’t the kind of man who got scared off by a glare. “What?”
“Outside.” I pulled her arm to make her follow me and out we went. She quickly handed the scalpel to the nurse, who looked at me like I might be insane.
Walking with her into the scrub room, we both ripped our masks off our faces. “What the hell are you doing, Arrie?” she snapped as soon as the door shut.
“Your hands are shaking.” I took her hands in mine and saw that they hadn’t stopped.
She jerked them away. “Stop it! You just waltzed into my OR and expected I wouldn’t be shaken up by that? Are you nuts?”
“Why would it shake you up to have me in there, Reagan?” I had my ideas—I was pretty sure this went beyond just seeing an ex—but I needed to hear her say it.
“Because it’s you, Arrie.” She threw her hands into the air, beginning to pace. “Not only are you this man’s friend, but you’re also a neurosurgeon from the best hospital in America! And you know I’m attracted to you. And that’s just for starters too.”
She’d piqued my interest. “And the other reasons, Reagan? What are they?”
“Never mind. Just do me a personal favor and sit this one out, Arrie.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Please. I can’t do this with you looking over my shoulder. I just can’t.”
She didn’t leave me much choice. “You will calm down, and you will do this with me looking over your shoulder, or I’ll get another cardiologist who will.”
Her jaw dropped. “This is my hospital, Arrie. You’re merely a visitor here. I didn’t think I’d need to remind you of that.”
“First of all, you don’t own this hospital,” I began.
“Neither do you,” she butted in.
“Yes, but I am the physician in charge of Langston Stone, and as such, I am going to oversee whatever surgeries and procedures I damn well want, Dr. Storey.” I’d never had cause to be this way with Reagan, but that wouldn’t stop me from doing what I knew was right for my patient.
“And if I tell you I don’t want you in there, judging me?” she went on.
I stopped her. “I will not judge. But if you do something questionable, I will ask what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. And if I don’t agree, then we’ll have to discuss it at length.”
“How long do you want to keep this man under, Arrie?” Her green eyes rolled.
“As long as it takes.” I had no problem keeping him under. He wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon anyway. Not with all the meds we had him on to keep him asleep and out of pain. “So, do I go find another cardiologist or are you going to stop being a baby about this and get in there and help our patient?”
Heading to the sink to scrub up again, she put her skin through hell as she brushed it hard and fast. “You make me so mad, Arrie. You have no idea how angry this makes me.”
“And I don’t care.” She had to know the patient had to take precedence over anyone else in that room. “Don’t take this personally, Reagan. It’s not personal at all. It’s just good medicine.”
“Says you.” With her hands held up to dry, she turned her back to me. “Put my mask on. I’m going to do this. I am a damn good surgeon, and you have no right to question me this way. You’re going to give me space to move and do my job, or I’ll give you such an earful, you have no idea.”
Putting the mask back into place, I followed her back into the OR and gave her more space than I had previously. I also stayed quiet as she executed the procedure perfectly.
Once it was over, she looked over at me and I could tell that her anger with me was back in the forefront of her mind, even after all she’d just done. She looked at the intern who’d been observing. “Care to stitch the patient up, James?”
She knew I’d stay to watch over that, and I only assumed she hoped she’d have enough time to get the hell out of the hospital and away from me. Her anger might’ve stopped her hands from shaking and stopped her nerves from getting in her way, but it was more persistent than I’d counted on.
The young man stepped up and Reagan headed for the door. “Aren’t you going to stay and oversee this intern, Dr. Storey?” I asked before she got all the way out of the room.
Without even turning back to look at me, she said, “Why? You’ll be here. Mr. Stone is in excellent hands.”
He was, but that hadn’t been my point. The way everyone went dead quiet told me Reagan and I were creating a scene. And that made me a little bit angry with myself. And I had to be honest; it made me angry at her too.
Does she have no idea how to be professional?
I let her leave without more comment, and once Lennie was stitched up, I went to see if I could find Reagan. No one seemed to know where she’d gone. I took the time to find Samantha and Gerald to tell them how the surgery had gone.
I finally found them in one of the many waiting rooms. “It’s going to take me a while to figure out the layout of this hospital. I’m still getting all turned around, it seems.” I walked in and took a seat across from my friend’s parents. Samantha’s eyes were red-rimmed, and I knew she’d been crying. “He’s coming along well, Samantha.”
“This is just so hard to take, Arslan.” She blew her nose.
Gerald put his arm around her. “How’d it go in there this morning?”
“Dr. Storey is an amazing surgeon. It went beautifully.” Reagan had impressed me to no end. “I rattled Reagan by showing up in the OR this morning, and I thought I might have to replace her for a moment. After seeing her work, though, I’m damn glad I didn’t. She’s remarkable. Amazing.” I shook my head as I thought of all the words that could be used to describe how great Reagan really was.
Gerald smirked at my effusiveness. “Sounds like you might be a little biased. Do you think you it’s because you’ve got the hots for her?”
Shaking my head, I knew better than that. “No. I don’t work that way, Gerald. When I’m in doctor mode, I’m a professional. I didn’t see Reagan in there; I just saw Dr. Storey. And Dr. Storey impressed the hell out of Dr. Dawson.”
Samantha beamed. “She must feel so proud that you thought so highly of her work. Did you get a kiss after you gushed over her, Arslan?”
“I didn’t get the chance to do that.” I wondered at the likelihood of a kiss if I had gotten the chance to tell her how great I thought she’d done. “She was pretty pissed at me for taking her aside before the surgery, and she left before I could say a word of praise. And now I’m not sure if I’ll be getting any kisses once I do manage to track her down to let her know my thoughts.”
“Well, you must do that, Arslan.” Samantha blew her nose again. “Now, tell me when we can talk to our son.”
“Not anytime soon.” I knew that wasn’t what they wanted to hear. “These things take time.” I always found myself saying that to the families of my patients, and it was no less true in this case. “Once we start easing him off the pain meds, he’ll start to come around. But his brain won’t be working well right away, and you can’t rush him to start making it work.”
“I understand.” Gerald squeezed his wife’s shoulders then kissed the side of her head. “Samantha and I will be right there by his side as much as we can. But we promise not to put any pressure on him. That’s the last thing we want to do. So you just tell us how to do things, and we’re going to follow your advice to the tee.”
“Great.” At least I wouldn’t have to argue with them the way I often had to with others.
“I’m going to see if they have Lannie back in the ICU, and if so, I’m going to make sure things are looking good with him. Then I’m going to get a bite to eat.”
Gerald nodded. “We’ll be here. Waiting.”
I knew why they’d want to do that, but as I got up to leave, I tried to persuade them otherwise. “I know you think that’s the best thing for you to do right now, but let me tell you that it’s not. Lannie isn’t going to wake up today. I say you guys should check on him with me right now, and then go home and get some rest; try to do something normal. Tonight, around six, you can come back and see him again for fifteen minutes. Then go home and do whatever it is you’d normally do before this happened. You don’t have to live here, guys. It won’t help Lannie anyway. And I’ll be called if anything happens. You know you can count on me to call you if that happens.”
Samantha sighed as they stood up to follow me. “We’ve never gone through anything like this. We’ve got no idea what we should be doing.”
“I know.” I led them to see their son. “It’s a difficult time, and you’re feeling lost and pretty helpless. But he’s in good hands, and you can rest easy knowing everything that can be done for him is being done. And you’ve got me. You know I will never let you guys down. We’re family, as far as I’m concerned. And you know how we Dawsons are about family.”
Gerald smiled. “You never turn your backs on any of them. Even the ones who might deserve it.”
Gerald knew our family well, even Cousin Jimmy from Brooklyn who liked the ladies of the night and gambling with mobsters. I’d known the Stones for as long as I’d known every family member I had.
I could never let them down. I could never let Lannie down. It wasn’t in me to give less than everything for the people I loved.