Rae’jean nodded. She wanted to suggest to Alexia to really think through that plan, then decided if her cousin’s mind was made up about it, there was nothing she could do other than be there to give her support. “All right, you guys, give me hugs for the road.”
And they did.
Each of them knew that over the past four days they had done more than reaffirm their family ties. They had renewed their bond, a bond that meant they would always be there for one another, through the good times as well as through the bad.
It was an affinity, an allegiance, and a pact they planned to keep.
Chapter 23
“Welcome back, Rae. How was the family reunion?”
Rae’jean acknowledged Shawna Harper’s question with a lift of her head and a smile on her lips. Shawna was a trauma physician in ER and someone Rae’jean considered a friend.
“It was nice going back home and seeing everyone,” Rae’jean said as she closed the patient’s chart in which she’d just made an entry. Her first day back at the hospital and working a shift that began at midnight and ended at eight in the morning had her feeling bonelessly tired, especially since her shift had ended hours ago and she hadn’t left the hospital yet. “How were things around here while I was gone?”
“Quiet,” Shawna whispered in a surprised, hard-to-believe tone as she raked her fingers through the mane of braids on her head. “Last weekend was uneventful except for a few cases of food poisoning.”
Rae’jean quirked her brow. “Anyplace I should avoid dining at in the future?”
Shawna chuckled. “No, it was a private affair, a wedding. The caterers served a bad batch of potato salad.”
Before Shawna could say anything else her pager went off. After checking it, she immediately reached for the phone at the nurses’ station and dialed an extension that connected her to ER. The expression Shawna wore alerted Rae’jean that the call involved something serious. As soon as Shawna hung up the phone, she said, “Gotta go,” and took off walking quickly toward the elevator.
Rae’jean was right on her heels. “What is it?”
“A shooting at an elementary school in one of the upscale areas of town. A third-grader brought a gun to school and decided to take aim at a couple of his classmates he didn’t like. The bullets hit his teacher when she threw herself over the students to protect them. A bullet did hit one of the students, though. They’re life-flighting them over. It sounds serious.”
Rae’jean nodded as they stepped onto the elevator. “Can you use another pair of hands, Dr. Harper?” The last remnants of exhaustion dissolved from Rae’jean’s face in the wake of the pending emergency.
Shawna forced a smile. “ER can always use another pair of hands, Dr. Bennett.”
When Rae’jean and Shawna stepped off the elevator they saw ER turn into a madhouse as the paramedics rushed through the ER doors wheeling in their patients. Familiar with the routine of the trauma team, Rae’jean stepped aside as the doctors and nurses went into action. Her colleagues knew she was there, ready to give assistance if needed. She glanced across the room and studied the face of the unconscious little girl on a stretcher who was quickly hooked up to an IV and monitors. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. Rae’jean couldn’t help wondering what it would take for people to see the need for gun control. No gun should have been accessible to a third-grader.
Rae’jean’s attention shifted from the little girl to the other patient also being hooked up to an IV and monitors. It was the teacher who had placed herself in harm’s way to protect her students. Rae’jean’s intense gaze skimmed over the woman, studying the features she could barely make out from a distance. Blood soaked the sheet covering her, and her hair lay limp around her face. But there was something about the shape of the woman’s face, even with her eyes closed in unconsciousness.
A shudder raced through Rae’jean when recognition hit her. The teacher who had taken two bullets in the back and was fighting for her life was Lynn Whitworth.
Grady’s muscular form was sprawled across the bed as he slept. He had performed an emergency heart operation his first night back at work. His patient had been a newborn, a little girl who had come into the world with a huge hole in her heart. It was a hole that he and a colleague had successfully closed.
He muttered to himself when the sound of the phone disturbed his sleep. Without opening an eye, he reached out and picked it up immediately, hoping complications hadn’t developed with his young patient. “Dr. Fitzgerald.”
“Grady?”
He lifted an eye and turned away from the sunlight that slanted through the window in his bedroom. Yawning, he turned his body over in bed. “Rae’jean?” It was unusual for her to call not long after his shift ended. She knew the importance of uninterrupted sleep whenever a doctor could get it.
When she didn’t say anything he slowly pulled himself up in bed. “Rae’jean, what is it?”
“Grady, I think you need to come to the hospital right away. There’s been an emergency, a shooting at a local elementary school. A teacher and a student were injured.”
The doctor in Grady locked onto Rae’jean’s every word. A shooting at an elementary school? He glanced at the clock. It was just past noon. “Is ER short-handed?”
“This isn’t a professional call, Grady. For you, it’s personal.”
Grady’s brow lifted and mere seconds later he was on his feet. “Lynn?”
Rae’jean’s voice was soft when she answered, “Yes.”
Somehow Grady had expected the worst when he got to the hospital, and what he found wasn’t far from it. Lynn had been taken to surgery and was fighting for her life while surgeons tried removing two bullets from her body.
Rae’jean sat on a sofa in the waiting room and watched as Grady paced the floor. Lynn had been in surgery three hours already. “You need to eat something, Grady.”
“I don’t want anything now,” he murmured as he stopped and hooked the leg of a chair with one foot and sprawled down in it. He rubbed his hand across his face. “How could something like this happen?”
Rae’jean said nothing. Grady knew the answer to his question. They’d had numerous discussions on gun control and the need for it. What he really wanted to know was how such a thing could happen to Lynn.
“Did you notify Lynn’s family?” she asked him.
Grady lifted his gaze to hers. “There’s no one left in Lynn’s family. Her parents died when she was in college, and her grandmother died a few years ago.”
Rae’jean nodded. “Did you call your sister?”
Grady nodded. “Yes. I was able to locate Candace in the Middle East. It will take her a few days to get a flight out, but she’s on her way.”
At that moment one of the surgeons, Dr. Jason Hudson, came into the waiting room and Grady immediately got to his feet. “How is she, Jason?”
Dr. Hudson sighed deeply before saying anything. “We were able to get both bullets out, which was no easy task, Grady. They went through her back, barely missing the spine and lodging in her chest. Her condition is still critical and the next forty-eight hours will be crucial. She lost a lot of blood and is still in a coma.”
Grady nodded as a deep, intense expression covered his face. “How soon will she be placed in a room?”
“One is being prepared for her now. She did a very courageous thing by taking those bullets to protect her students. I hope to God she pulls out of this.”
Grady shook his head. “So do I.”
A few moments later, after the doctor had left, Rae’jean asked Grady, “Are you sure you don’t want me to get you something to eat?”
He tried to place a smile on his lips. “No, but thanks for asking.” He sat back down and leaned back against the chair. “I know you just got off work a couple of hours ago and must be tired. You don’t have to hang around here if you don’t want to.”
“No, that’s OK. I’ll wait with you a little while longer, until they bring her out of surgery
; then we can leave together.”
Grady shook his head. “No, you go on. I’m going to stay. I want to be here when they get her settled into a room to see for myself that she’s OK.”
Rae’jean forced her mind to understand Grady’s need to do that. After all, he had once loved Lynn. “All right.” She stood. “Will you call me if anything develops?”
He stood and reached out and pulled her into his arms. She felt the shudder that moved through him. “Yes, sweetheart, I’ll call you.”
Rae’jean awoke from a long nap and noted Grady hadn’t called. In a way that was good news, since it meant Lynn’s condition hadn’t worsened.
She arrived at work earlier than usual so she could go by Intensive Care to see how Lynn was doing. She was not surprised to find Grady still there. He wasn’t in the waiting room where she had left him earlier that day but was now in Lynn’s hospital room, sitting by her bed where an IV and monitors were hooked up to her. Grady was asleep in a chair next to the bed.
He immediately came awake when Rae’jean touched him lightly on the shoulder. “You OK?” she whispered to him.
He nodded, then stood slowly, stretched, and yawned. Taking Rae’jean’s hand, he led her from the room so they could talk.
“How is she?” Rae’jean asked, noticing the tired lines of fatigue etched in Grady’s face.
“The same. She hasn’t come out of the coma.”
Rae’jean nodded. She knew that under the circumstances Lynn’s being in a comatose state was not at all surprising, considering the extent of her injuries and the amount of blood she had lost. Like Jason had said, the next forty-eight hours would be crucial.
She handed Grady the bag in her hand. “I brought you something to eat. You should be hungry now.”
He took the bag from her hand. “Thanks, and you’re right. I am.”
Rae’jean glanced down at her watch. “I got an hour before duty. Do you want to go to the cafeteria and grab some coffee to go along with your sandwich?”
“No, I want to stay here just in case Lynn comes out of the coma. She needs to know someone is here.”
Rae’jean nodded as she considered his words. She wondered just how long he planned on staying. “Aren’t you on duty tonight?”
He shook his head. “No, I’ve asked for a couple days off. Hopefully by then Candace will have gotten here.”
Rae’jean studied Grady. Her gaze was intense and assessing. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if he thought a twenty-four-hour watch was necessary. “I’ll check by in the morning before I leave,” she said quietly.
He nodded. “All right.”
She leaned forward and kissed his check. “I’m praying that Lynn pulls through this, Grady.”
He nodded. “Thanks. She’s going to need all the prayers she can get.”
Rae’jean was able to take a lunch break a little before two in the morning and caught the elevator to the floor where Lynn’s room was located. The corridors of the Intensive Care Unit were quiet. Shawna looked up when she approached the nurses’ station.
“Hey, girl, busy night?” Rae’jean asked.
Shawna smiled. “No, luckily it’s been pretty peaceful, for which I’m glad, considering the happenings yesterday. This place was swarming with reporters.”
Rae’jean nodded. “I can imagine. How’s the little girl?”
“She’s improving. Luckily, the bullet was lodged in tissue and not muscle of her arm. That made removing it easier, although it was still a bit much for a seven-year-old to have to go through. Her condition will be downgraded from critical to serious in the morning.”
“I’m glad.”
Shawna moved closer to Rae’jean so they could have a private conversation away from a nurse who’d walked up. “What’s Grady’s connection to the teacher? He hasn’t left her bedside since she came out of surgery.”
Rae’jean wasn’t surprised that others were noticing Grady’s concern for Lynn. “Lynn Whitworth and Grady go way back. They’re childhood friends.” Rae’jean knew she could be completely honest with Shawna and added, “And they were engaged to be married three years ago.”
Shawna nodded. “Oh, I see.”
At that moment Shawna’s pager went off and Rae’jean was grateful for the interruption. “I’m needed elsewhere,” Shawna said before taking off and leaving Rae’jean to continue her walk to Lynn’s room.
She quietly pushed the door open. The room was dark and the only light was from the television that was on. Grady had moved his chair closer to the bed and was asleep.
Rae’jean was about to turn to leave the room when something suddenly struck her. The reason Grady had moved his chair closer to the bed was so that he could hold Lynn’s hand.
He was sound asleep with Lynn’s seemingly lifeless hand securely gripped in his.
When she was calm enough to think clearly the next morning, Rae’jean couldn’t help wondering if perhaps Grady cared more for Lynn than he realized and the shock of possibly losing her was what he was going through. That thought was heavy on her mind when her shift ended and she headed toward the floor where Lynn was.
She paused when she reached Lynn’s hospital room door. Grady was still sitting next to the bed, but this time he was wide awake. He looked scruffier than she’d ever seen him look before. It was obvious he hadn’t shaved, and his thick brown hair looked as if he’d run his fingers through it several times.
He was reading the newspaper out loud, the comics. Apparently he knew just what Lynn enjoyed from the paper the most. Medical experts claimed that in most cases comatose patients retained their sense of hearing, and encouraged talking or reading to them to bring them out of a coma. Grady was giving it his best shot.
“Good morning.”
He glanced up from the newspaper and smiled. “Good morning, Rae’jean.”
She walked into the room. “How are things here?”
“The same. I’ve been watching her closely and I haven’t detected any sign of movement in her body.”
Rae’jean nodded. “We still have to keep hoping.”
“Believe me, I am. Jason stopped by earlier, and he says she seems to be breathing better.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“Yes, but she’s far from being out of danger. I’ll feel a lot better when she comes out of the coma.”
Rae’jean shook her head in understanding. “Look, I can stay here for a while if you want to go home and freshen up.”
Grady placed the newspaper aside. “I can’t ask you to do that. You just finished your shift.”
“You’re not asking me, Grady. I’m volunteering. I know how much it means to you for Lynn not to be alone. Besides,” she said, smiling, “I had a pretty easy night last night and I’m not as tired as I normally am.”
Grady looked at her as an abundance of gratitude filled his gaze. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. If it was a close friend of mine you’d do the same thing for me.” And Rae’jean knew that he would. Grady was just that kind of person.
“Thanks, Rae’jean. I appreciate it.”
Later that evening Rae’jean sat in her living room curled up in her favorite chair with her fingers around a cup of coffee. After Grady had returned to the hospital she had left to come home to get some sleep. Instead of sleeping at least four to five hours like she normally would have done, she had only gotten three hours of sleep at the most.
She kept her head bowed down and her fingers gripped tight around the cup as she mulled over Grady’s behavior over the past day and a half. Was it only deep concern for a friend that had him acting the way he was? She doubted he even realized the way he was acting. A lump formed in Rae’jean’s throat. Grady was behaving like a man on the verge of losing the woman he loved.
She took a sip of her coffee as she forced her mind to concentrate deeply on that thought. Grady loved her; she was sure of it. But was he in love with her? Some people claimed there was a difference between loving someon
e and being in love with that person. Did Grady understand the difference? Did she? Was that the reason she’d had those lustful thoughts about her neighbor? Were she and Grady turning their backs on the chance to have the kind of love they both deserved by unknowingly pretending to be satisfied with the simple, easy, and safe relationship they shared?
Before she could think about it anymore, the phone rang. Placing her coffee cup on the table, she reached over and grabbed the phone.
“Hello.”
“Rae’jean, this is Shawna. Lynn Whitworth’s condition just took a turn for the worse.” She took a moment before adding, “I think Grady needs you.”
Rae’jean was already on her feet with her heart pounding a thousand beats a minute. “I’m on my way.”
When Rae’jean arrived at the hospital she found Dr. Hudson and a couple of nurses in Lynn’s room readjusting the life-sustaining apparatus connected to her. “What happened?” She glanced at the bed where Lynn still lay in a coma.
“Her breathing slowed, almost came to a stop. We were able to bring her back around, although it was touch-and-go for a while. We’ve been able to stabilize her condition for now.”
Rae’jean nodded. “Where’s Grady?”
Dr. Hudson heaved a deep sigh. “You might want to check the chapel.”
That’s where Rae’jean found him, sitting in a middle pew. At first Rae’jean decided not to go to him, to let him have his quiet, personal moments alone. But then she decided that she had to go to him to make him see things not as they were but as they should be. She owed him that.
Without saying anything, she slipped into the seat beside him and took his hand in hers. “She’s all right, Grady. I just left Dr. Hudson and he said they were able to stabilize her condition.”
Without looking at her, Grady nodded. He continued to look ahead at the front of the chapel. “Did Jason tell you she came out of her coma, for a little while?”
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