Katrina clenched her trembling hands in her lap. The hospital gown felt foreign against her skin, the cotton fabric woven to withstand a thousand washings. The antiseptic smell of the preop room was the worst. It brought back memories of her childhood as sharp as broken glass.
Her mouth had grown so dry with nerves she couldn’t swallow. She longed for something to drink, but wasn’t allowed anything before surgery. The chances of anything going wrong during the operation were slim, and actually weren’t what concerned her. The possible side effects of being a Mermaid had caused this sudden round of anxiety.
After she’d been burned, she healed too quickly for the doctors to prevent scarring. When they tried to remove the scar tissue, it had been agony and only made things worse. What if the same thing happened this time?
The nurse looped a tourniquet around her arm, found a vein, and with only a small pinch started her IV. She released the tourniquet.
The cold fluid running into her arm gave Katrina a chill, and she tugged the sheet up over her shoulder.
“Need a blanket?” the nurse asked.
Katrina nodded.
“Do you have someone with you?” she asked.
“My boyfriend, Drew, is in the waiting room.”
Her boyfriend. Drew had become so much more in the past week. They’d spent every free moment together. Made love at least twice a day, sometimes more. She was learning intimate emotional things about him. He was a fantastic lover. Just thinking of making love with him set her aflame. He could be funny, with a self-deprecating humor about his Siren side. She was awed by the focus and passion he poured into his music. He had a fierce temper, though he’d never directed it at her. The blow he had sustained from his best friend had left him hurting, though he continued to act like he was over it.
Last night she’d invited Cheryl and Howard to go with her to the club to watch the band perform. The changes they were making had drawn a lot of attention, and the crowd had been as large as it had been on Saturday, their busiest night.
Cheryl raved about their performance. She hadn’t missed Drew’s Siren vibe at all, or if she had, she hadn’t said anything. She wanted to come to the hospital with her today, but she was working on a big project and Emory, their boss, had thrown a fit about having two of his best artists out at the same time.
“Would you like your boyfriend to come in with you until they take you into surgery?” the nurse asked.
Katrina smiled. “Yes, please.”
“I’ll send him back.”
She left and pulled the curtain closed behind her.
Katrina looked up expectantly when the fabric was jerked back a second later, but it was Dr. Powell who stepped into the cubicle.
“Good morning, Katrina,” he greeted her.
“Good morning.”
He reached for the chart at the foot of her bed, glanced at it, and slid it back into place. “I can tell from here you’re a little nervous about the procedure. There’s nothing to worry about. We’re going to take very good care of you.”
Instead of comforting her, goose bumps covered on her shoulders and arms. Not from a creepy factor, but from something else. There was a hint of desperation in the way he looked at her.
Drew pulled back the curtain and entered. Katrina nearly sighed with relief. “Drew, this is Dr. Powell, my surgeon.”
Drew shook the other man’s hand briefly.
Katrina studied the two men together. Both were the same height, very masculine, and powerfully built. One was dark, the other light. One was fire, the other ice. They seemed to size each other up, like two sharks about to go after the same seal. What was that about? Dr. Powell was her surgeon, nothing else.
“I was just telling Katrina the surgery will take about three hours, possibly a little longer.” Graham signed as he spoke. “You’ll be in good hands. My team members are very well trained, and we’ve worked together for the last five years.”
Drew came over to stand next to the bed and took her hand.
“Do you have any questions, Katrina?”
“No.”
“Good. The nurse will be back in about fifteen minutes to bring you into the operating room.”
Katrina cleared her throat. “Thank you, Dr. Powell.”
He nodded to them both, and, pulling the curtain aside, left the cubicle.
Drew dragged the only chair in the room forward and sat down.
For a moment Katrina thought he might say something about Dr. Powell, since there had definitely been something there between them for a moment. Instead Drew said, “My father’s going to stop by later, and wait for you to come out of surgery.”
“Oh, that’s nice of him.”
He rubbed her hands to warm them. “And Cheryl said she’d be here when you wake up, too. She said she laid a guilt trip on your boss, and he’s agreed someone from the office needs to be here to check on you.”
Katrina laughed. “When Cheryl decides she wants something, she usually gets her way.”
Though he was trying to put her at ease, she could tell he was worried. His face was tight, and his usually gray-blue eyes were the hue of a stormy sea.
She turned on her side and stretched out a hand to smooth his ruffled hair. “I’m going to be fine. You and I both know what amazing healing properties we water folk have.
He kissed the back of her hand. “I know.”
“I’ll be able to hear you, Drew.”
“You already do.”
Her cheeks heated. “But it only happens when we’re making love. I want to hear what you say all the time.”
“When you trust me enough, it will happen. Until then, I think we communicate in other ways just fine.”
“Yeah we do.” She bit her lip at his comment about trust. Though he’d tried to teach her how to open up to him and allow their connection to expand, it hadn’t happened yet. But apparently it couldn’t be forced. “When we’re in a group situation with your friends and mine, I won’t miss so much.”
“I know.”
They’d been over and over this.
The nurse slipped behind the curtain and tugged it open. She signed, “Time to go, Katrina.”
Drew came closer to the bed. The intensity of his look brought a quiver to the pit of her stomach. “I’ll be waiting for you.” He cupped her chin and lowered his lips to hers.
Katrina forced herself not to reach for him. If she did, she might change her mind about the surgery. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
Drew walked with Katrina to the operating room door, gave her one last kiss, and stood back to allow the nurse and an orderly to roll her through.
The nurse paused to say, “There’s a waiting room for family down the hall there.” She pointed to the left.
“Thanks.”
She pushed through the door and disappeared.
Drew stood very still for a moment, reaching for calm. Worried didn’t begin to cover how he felt. He’d never known such an overwhelming emotion. He wanted to lower the door between him and Katrina, but needed to be sure he was in control of his feelings before he did.
He wandered down the hall to the room the nurse had pointed out. There were two other people sitting on the gray cushioned seats, one woman reading a magazine, and the other watching the television mounted on the wall in the corner. He’d go crazy sitting in the small room with strangers for four hours, but he didn’t dare leave in case something happened.
He jerked his cell phone out of his pocket and ran his thumb over the screen to unlock it. He started to call Simon, but changed his mind and hit Tony’s number instead. Tony and Simon both had keys to his place.
“Tony. Katrina’s in surgery, and I have a three- or four-hour wait until she comes out. Could you swing by my apartment and pick up my small keyboard and some music paper? I need to have something to do until she comes out.”
“Sure. I’ll be there ASAP.”
“Thanks, man.” He gave him the waiting room location.
“I’ll find it. See you in half an hour.”
Drew forced himself to go into the room and sit down.
The night before, he and Katrina had discussed what she needed done should something unexpected happen during the surgery. The conversation had been surreal. Although he’d acted as though everything was going to be fine, and was fairly sure he’d succeeded, it had scared the shit out of him.
It wasn’t going to happen. She was strong. Stronger than humans. She was Mer, which meant she healed ten times faster than they did. She was going to be fine. He was going to take her home tomorrow to his apartment and look after her until she recovered.
Unable to sit still, he went down the hall to the first office area he found and borrowed a pen and some copy paper. He tried to block off the occasional announcement from the PA system and work on the tune to the song he’d written after recording Katrina’s underwater music.
When Tony appeared, he heaved a sigh of relief.
“Hope I got everything you needed. I brought earphones in case you want to play without disturbing anyone.” He glanced around at the small group, now grown to three besides Drew.
Drew took the two-foot long keyboard, the headphones, and narrow stack of the music paper and angled his chin toward the corner he’d taken over.
Tony took a seat. “Think you’ll be able to concentrate on writing while you’re waiting for news?”
“I’m doing okay.”
Tony raised a brow. “Yeah, you look it. You’re a little green around the gills, buddy.”
“She’s going to be fine.”
Tony nodded.
“Katrina doesn’t have any parents or family. She has Cheryl, her best friend, and a few people she works with. So if anything major happens, Cheryl and I will need to take care of things.”
Tony had a stricken, deer-in-the-headlights look. “Wow. Since I have like a thousand family members, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around that.”
“Me, too. The risks are low, but they’re there.”
Tony laid a hand on his shoulder. “Concentrate on the low risk part, and forget the other. She’s young and healthy. She’ll be fine.”
Drew nodded. “I’m going to work to pass the time.” And keep from going crazy.
“You’re really wild about her,” Tony said, sounding amazed.
Drew remained silent.
“As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never gotten really involved. It’s always been about the sex, or just hanging out, or having someone to take to parties. But this is something real.”
Drew had promised himself to keep his distance. He answered grudgingly. “Yeah. So?”
Tony smiled, then the smile stretched into a grin so big it threatened to split his face in two. He laughed. “I can’t wait to tell Rand.”
Drew narrowed his eyes, though he knew he hadn’t entirely kept his wry amusement from showing. “Bastard.”
Tony punched his arm. “I’m happy for you, man. No one should be allowed to avoid the clutches of the right woman.”
Drew laughed aloud and shook his head.
“Do you think you and Simon might stow the shit and make up anytime soon?” Tony asked with a little more cheek than normal.
Drew looked down at the empty sheet music. “We’re okay.”
“Yeah, sure. We’re going to be working together for years, Drew. Think you’ll be able to keep this distant, business-as-usual thing going for that long?”
Did he have any choice?
Tony leaned forward. “Did you know his old lady had been harping at him to get a day job and give up the band?”
Simon hadn’t said a word. Music was his dream. How could Brianna ask him to give it up? That would be like asking him to cut off his hand. “He won’t ever do that.”
“If she keeps pushing, something will give.”
It already had. She’d succeeded in forcing him to defect. Drew’s jaw pulsed with anger. “I’ll try to talk to him about it.”
“Good.”
Tony stayed a few more minutes, then left for a date. Though Simon’s situation played in the background of his thoughts, Drew poured his concentration into the song. It was the first piece of music he wanted Katrina to hear after she got her implant.
He refused to believe she might never hear his music.