He grimaced, but nodded. Kissing Delphine’s hand, he put it down carefully on her blanket-covered stomach. “I’ll be right back, ma belle. Nicky will stay with you.”
“Of course,” Nick agreed. Reluctantly, Aaron turned and followed the nurse.
Once the older man was gone, Delphine seemed to relax minutely. “I wish you weren’t leaving Chicago, Nicky. I always liked you very much,” she said, her voice soft. “And Aaron will need you afterwards.”
Nick stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, feeling the paper-dry skin. “I’ll help him as much as I can, gorgeous. But I have someone down here now,” he said. “Two someones, actually.”
Her tired eyes lit up a fraction. “Two? How European of you, cher.” She managed a weak chuckle. “Are they tall and handsome?”
“Very.” Yet another odd tickle, more demanding this time. “Delphine, I’m sorry to ask you about this now,” he said, “but you said chemo and radiation didn’t help. Were you ever checked for any other diseases?”
“What other kind forms tumors in the lungs, cher? I smoked since I was a girl.” Another Gallic shrug. “This was bound to happen, non?”
Nick didn’t want to give her false hope, but something about her diagnosis just didn’t feel right. “With your permission, I’d like to check something. This won’t hurt, I promise.”
Another of those pained-sounding chuckles. “That will be a first, Nicky. Mais oui.”
“All right. Close your eyes.”
She obeyed, apparently grateful to do so. Nick slid the pen-sized Rod out of his coat pocket and touched it to her ribcage, concentrating. A three-dimensional picture of her pulmonary anatomy appeared in his mind’s eye, with the tumors infiltrating her alveoli in both lungs. He shifted the picture, examining the growths from various angles, then zoomed in on one, virtually dissecting it. Gross level, fine level, and—
There. A wrinkled shape with delicate cilia infiltrating nearby cells’ membrane walls. He searched, finding other wrinkled shapes, enough to confirm his diagnosis. Pulling back, he opened his eyes to see Delphine staring at him.
“I felt that,” she said in wonder. “It felt like a butterfly in my chest, the softest fluttering. Nicky, what did you do?”
Hopefully, I just saved your life. “I need to go talk to Aaron,” he said, giving her hand a careful squeeze. “Be right back.”
****
The hospital’s oncologist, a handsome man with Korean features and a name badge that identified him as Dr. S. Liles, gave him a look of disbelief. “A fungal infection?” he said, folding his arms across a broad chest. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No,” Nick said firmly. “A pulmonary actinomycosis-related pseudotumour can present as lung cancer. Even veteran radiologists and oncologists can’t tell the difference on X-rays, and there’s no reliable clinical test to identify it.”
“So you were able to diagnose this how?”
Time to tap dance, Gardiner. “I’ve seen this before,” Nick lied. “A patient came into the Memorial ER presenting with severe pulmonary edema related to what he thought was Stage 4 lung cancer. One of our attendings was an expert on fungal infections, and when he saw the color of the patient’s drained ascites he tested it. It turned out the patient had a healthy colony of Actinomyces israelii in his lungs, and the edema was actually caused by the radiation. The patient stopped radiation immediately and was treated with antifungals, and within a week his lungs were almost completely clear. I remember he had a very faint but unusual scent in his breath, very memorable, and I smelled it on Mrs. Carstairs’s breath as well. Considering her negative reaction to both chemo and radiation, I think we’re looking at actinomycosis here.”
At the oncologist’s side, Aaron was a study of a man afraid to hope. “Nicky, are you sure?” he demanded.
“Putting her on antifungals could worsen her edema and send her into cardiac arrest,” Dr. Liles pointed out.
Nick turned to Aaron. “Sir, please, I’m begging you,” he said, putting every ounce of meaning into his words. “Trust me on this.”
Aaron stared at him silently for a long, painful moment. Then he nodded. “Put her on the antifungals, doctor.”
“But—”
“Doctor.” The Dom voice came out, cracking but still powerful. “My wife is exhausted and in a great deal of pain. I won’t keep her in that condition for my own selfish needs. If this doesn’t work,” his throat convulsed, “then at least she’ll be out of pain.”
Liles studied him, then Nick. Reluctantly, the oncologist nodded.
****
The rest of the day became a waiting game. Delphine was moved into an ICU bed, and along with the usual tubes, wires, and monitoring equipment, a bag of antifungal medication was added to her IV. Aaron and Nick took turns sitting with her, holding her hand and talking to her as she drifted in and out of lucidity.
During one of his breaks Nick called the cottage, relieved when Liam picked up. “Hello, chuisle,” the mer rumbled down the line. “We thought you’d be back by now.”
“Yeah, something happened,” Nick said, explaining about Aaron and Delphine. To his relief, Liam understood and agreed with his need to sit vigil.
“Stay as long as you need, Nick,” the mer said sympathetically. “If we can help in any way, just call.”
“Will do,” Nick said gratefully. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, chuisle.”
He ended the call in time to hear raised voices coming down the hallway. Dr. Liles was arguing with a tall, bearded man in a designer suit. “You should lose your license for this kind of malpractice,” the man snapped at Liles.
Liles spotted Nick. “He’s the one who made the call,” the oncologist said defensively.
“Oh, really?” The new arrival stalked up to Nick. “How dare you string my patient along with this bullshit diagnosis?” he snarled. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
Nick stood his ground. “Dr. Nick Gardiner. I’m a friend of Aaron’s. And you are?”
“Dr. Roger Jemmison, Delphine Carstairs’s physician and a board-certified oncologist. Unlike you,” the man snapped. “Fungal infection, my ass. I have been treating cancer patients for over twenty-five years, doctor, and I know the difference between a fungal infection and carcinoma of the lung. Mrs. Carstairs has been a smoker for the last 40-plus years, and her lifestyle choice caught up to her, simple as that. And now, thanks to you, I have to be the bad guy and take away Aaron’s last shred of hope.” He glowered at Nick. “At least I can give him another day or so with her. I’m taking her off the antifungal.”
“You can’t,” Nick said tightly.
“Watch me.”
“Dr. Jemmison,” Liles interrupted, “let me remind you that you don’t have privileges here. At the moment, I’m Mrs. Carstairs’s physician.”
“Really?” Jemmison sneered. “Well, let me tell you something, sonny. I have a license to practice in the state of Florida, and I’m pretty damn sure I can talk your director of internal medicine into granting me privileges long enough to see Mrs. Carstairs through to the end, since she’s not strong enough to be moved to a quack-free hospital.”
Liles bristled at that, and Nick felt his own temper start to fray. “Dr. Jemmison, I understand your position,” he said, “and please believe me when I say I am not trying to undermine your authority or your expertise. But in this one case I think you’re wrong, and we still have a chance to save Delphine if we keep her on the antifungals—”
Jemmison got into Nick’s face. “Listen, you little prick,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of deal you’ve got going with Carstairs, but if you think you can slide into his bed by getting rid of his wife early, I’m here to tell you that you’ve got another think coming.”
Nick’s temper snapped. “Okay, first? Fuck you. Second, you have no business making medical decisions for anyone considering the amount of Scotch I can smell on your breath, and I’m pretty sure I can convince Aaron to f
ire your ass on that alone. Third, if you don’t step back right now I’m gonna make sure you get a personal tour of the ER as a patient.”
This time Liles interjected himself between them. “Both of you, back off,” he ordered. “Dr. Gardiner, stop threatening Dr. Jemmison. Dr. Jemmison, I suggest that you not make any unfounded accusations about Dr. Gardiner’s motivations regarding Mrs. Carstairs. Your malpractice insurance won’t cover a slander suit.”
Jemmison retreated a step. “I want to see my patient. Now.”
Liles pulled out his cell phone and checked the face. “Visiting hours are almost over, so we need to make this fast.” He gave Nick an annoyed look. “I’m guessing you want to tag along.”
“Damn right I do.”
“Fine. But keep your voices down, or I’ll have security chuck both of you out.”
He turned and headed for the double doors leading to the ICU, Nick and Jemmison in his wake. After promising the head nurse at the nursing station that they’d be quick, they headed for Delphine’s bed.
Aaron was still sitting at Delphine’s side, holding her hand and talking to her quietly. Jemmison quickened his pace, reaching the bedside first. “Aaron, I’m so sorry about this,” he said. “My damn plane got held up by storms, otherwise I would’ve been here much sooner. We need to discuss this treatment Dr. Gardiner talked you into—”
Aaron smiled. “It’s working.”
Jemmison stopped, silver eyebrows shooting up. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s working. Delphie can breathe more easily.” He beamed at his wife. “Can’t you, ma belle?”
“Oui.” Delphine gave them all a smile that, for all its weakness, was also a benediction. “For the first time in weeks. It feels like that damned elephant on my chest has finally shifted.”
Jemmison’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Delphine, I’d like to examine you. You could be suffering some dissociative side effects from the antifungal.”
The Frenchwoman arched one hairless eyebrow at him. “If being able to breathe more easily is a side effect, I’ll take it,” she said, a hint of the old crispness that Nick remembered in her tone. “But if Dr. Gardiner agrees, I’ll let you examine me.”
Nick hesitated, shooting Liles an apologetic look. The oncologist simply held up his hands. “We probably should get a new chest X-ray, Delphine.”
The woman sighed. After a beat, her face lit up at what she’d just done. “Bien sûr.”
****
An hour later the three doctors stood side by side studying Delphine Carstairs’s latest X-ray on a light box in Liles’s office.
“You know her case better than I do, Dr. Jemmison,” Liles said, nodding at the films. “How does this look to you?”
Jemmison stared at the films, jaw muscles bunched. After what felt like an eternity, he reluctantly nodded. “I can’t be absolutely sure, but from what I remember, it does appear as though there’s been some tumor shrinkage.” He sketched a finger around one of the dark blobs in the right upper lung. “This was starting to encroach on her airway in her last film. It’s definitely pulled back.”
He turned to Nick, every muscle in his face taut. “It seems I was wrong, Dr. Gardiner,” he said slowly. “Every symptom pointed to lung cancer, but…”
Despite his dislike for the man, Nick knew the gut-knotting guilt of getting a diagnosis, particularly a life-or-death one, wrong. “Dr. Jemmison, if I had seen this X-ray without knowing it belonged to Delphine I would have assumed it was lung cancer, too. Your fellow oncologist also thought it was lung cancer. Considering her symptoms and her smoking, it was the logical diagnosis.”
“But it was the wrong one. And as a result, I put her through a year of unnecessary agony with chemo and radiation.” Jemmison nodded tightly. “I’ve got a feeling my malpractice insurance is about to get one hell of a workout.”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that,” Nick said. He couldn’t say he liked Jemmison, but neither did he want to see another doctor’s career go down the drain due to a single mistake. “I’ll talk to Aaron, explain what happened.”
“All right. Thank you.” His gaze flickered over both of them, then skidded away. “As my patient is in good hands, I think I’m going to find that hotel room I was promised and take a shower. I’ll be back in the morning.” With another sharp nod, he left.
Liles relaxed once the older doctor was gone. “You really going to go to bat for that asshole?”
Nick pointed at the X-rays. “Did you think it was lung cancer?”
“Hell, yes.”
“That’s why I’m going to bat for him. He fucked up, yes, but we would’ve done the same thing.”
“You wouldn’t have,” Liles pointed out.
“I was in the right place at the right time. Pure luck of the draw.”
Liles hit the switch for the light box and the images went black. “Lucky for Jemmison, you mean.”
“I was thinking more for Delphine, but what the hell, let’s spread it around a bit.” Nick followed the oncologist out of the office. “Are they going to let Aaron stay overnight?”
“Yeah. Depending on how she’s feeling tomorrow, we may be able to move her into a private room. If you give me your cell number, I’ll let you know tomorrow where they are.”
“Thanks.” Liles pulled out his phone and Nick recited his number. “And thanks for not siding with Jemmison.”
Liles grinned at him. “Are you kidding me? Cabron comes into my house and starts ordering me around like I’m a medical student, I’m shutting his dumb ass down.” He nodded, dark eyes gleaming. “See you tomorrow, then.”
“You got it.”
****
Walking through the front door, he was surprised to see Aidan and Liam waiting for him in the living room. “Sorry I’m late. Delphine’s going to be okay.”
Both the mers came to him, pulling him into their arms and kissing him thoroughly. “We told Bythos and Aphros what was happening, so they gave us the afternoon off,” Liam said, hugging him.
“Congratulations, baby,” Aidan said, nuzzling his hair. “I knew you’d be able to help.”
He relaxed in their arms, feeling a welcome thickening in his pants. Since they’d come back to the cove, there had been some sex, but nothing more.
Today, he wanted more. “I think we should celebrate.”
“Oh, really?” Aidan purred, running his hand down Nick’s abs and cupping his groin. He squeezed, and Nick thrust into the mer’s hand. “Yeah, I like that idea.”
“Wait.” He pulled back a bit, licking his lips and praying he wasn’t pushing Liam’s limits. “Can we scene?”
Aidan’s eyes lit with desire, but he looked to Liam for the final decision. The tall mer considered him for a long moment. “Are you sure, Nick?”
“Definitely.” He leaned against Liam, nuzzling the sexy line of his neck. “Please, Maighstir, this is our home, now. Let me serve you.”
He felt rather than heard Liam chuckle. “All right, then. Go in the bathroom. You have some prep work to do.”
****
Nick spread out naked on his stomach over the bed while Aidan and Liam gave him a rubdown. The mers had guided him through a gentle but thorough cleanout before bundling him into the shower to be washed, and he felt warm and relaxed everywhere.
The only fly in the ointment was when he asked Aidan where the injector bottle had come from. “Ian drove us to Publix while you were at the hospital,” the mer said with a cheeky grin. “He was really helpful, helped us pick out the right brand and everything.”
Nick cringed from embarrassment. Great. Now my best friend is picking out enemas for me. Kill me now.
Liam smirked. “If it makes you feel any better, it’s the brand he uses.”
“Oh, God, please just stop with the TMI,” Nick moaned.
Afterwards, he was escorted into the bedroom, and Liam picked up a bottle of massage oil from the night stand. “More goodies from Publix?” Nick asked, stretching out o
ver the coverlet. He waited until Liam raised a censorious eyebrow before adding, “Maighstir.”
“As a matter of fact, yes.” Liam said. “Hope you like coconut and pineapple.”
“Yay. I always wanted to smell like a piña colada.”
“Hush and relax, boy.”
He did, sinking into the deep, soothing joy of his men’s touch. Liam worked on his shoulders and back, gently undoing all the knots that had accumulated during the day. Aidan’s hands rubbed his legs and feet in long, strong strokes, sensual without being overtly sexual. Although when the handsome mer started massaging his feet, Nick let out an orgasmic groan. “Oh, God. Keep doing that and you can have anything you want,” he mumbled into the coverlet.
Aidan’s hands stilled. “Anything?”
“Mm.” Belatedly, Nick realized he’d just handed them the equivalent of a blank check written on his body. But whatever his Doms wanted to do with him was fine. He trusted them, body and soul, and knew that they would always take care of him. “Anything, Maighstir.”
Aidan’s hands left his feet and drifted up his calves, then his thighs, until they rested just under the crease of his ass cheeks. “What if we wanted to take you, chuisle?” His hands slid onto Nick’s ass, rubbing the globes of muscle there. “Both of us?”
Nick’s breath caught as Liam’s meaning dawned. Both of the mers were well-endowed, and sex with either of them required a certain amount of prepwork and stretching. To be penetrated by both of them at the same time was theoretically possible, but… The medical part of his brain screamed about fissures, damage to delicate tissues, muscle tears.
The submissive part of his brain rolled over and begged. To be used like that, opened so wide and taken by the masters he loved, sent blood coursing to his cock. He shifted uncomfortably, knowing his face was flushed and glowing red. “I’ve never done that before,”
“Neither have we.” Liam squeezed his ass harder, digging pleasantly into the muscle. “But we want it, boy. We want to feel you tight around both of us, fill you up all the way, until all you can think about is us.”
“Let us do that to you, chuisle,” Aidan murmured, hand so warm as it slid into Nick’s crease, massaging the whorled muscle there. “Let us in.”
Olympic Cove 2-Breaker Zone Page 31