Dr. Cusack's Secret Son

by Lucy Clark

  ‘Joe? Don’t we need to go?’

  His answer was to kiss her again.

  ‘This isn’t helping, Joe.’

  ‘Mmm. I don’t know about you but I’m feeling quite fine.’

  ‘Come on.’ She pressed a kiss to his lips but couldn’t bring herself to end the embrace.

  ‘You’re right,’ he growled, but even though he spoke the words, he still didn’t move.

  ‘You first.’

  ‘You don’t play fair.’

  Rachael chuckled. ‘We’re doctors. Since when is life fair?’ She opened her eyes and pulled back to look at him. Joe immediately brushed his lips against hers once more.

  ‘I can’t get enough of you.’

  ‘The feeling is very mutual.’ She moved away slightly and reluctantly he let her go. Rachael reached for his hand and turned it over in both of hers before saying softly, ‘What’s next, Joe?’ She glanced up at him, her expression filled with concern.

  ‘For us? Honestly? I don’t know.’ He laced their fingers together and gave her hand a little squeeze. ‘For now, though, let’s have a look at Wong’s X-rays.’

  Rachael nodded and together they headed out of the tearoom. ‘Hey, wait a minute. Don’t I still need to fill in some paperwork? Can I just go looking at X-rays and giving my opinion—if I’m asked—if I’m not licensed to work here?’

  ‘It’s just X-rays, Rachael. Not espionage. You can fill them in any time tonight because they won’t be processed until tomorrow morning, but at least the red tape will be covered.’

  ‘OK. Well, perhaps I should get them out of the way now.’

  Joe indulged her and they walked over to the nurses’ station where Beatrice handed over the forms to register Rachael as a visiting medical officer. Rachael noticed the glances a few of the staff gave them due to the fact that Joe was still holding her hand and realised hospitals around the world were the same—the staff living off rumours and gossip. She felt like grabbing Joe and planting a big, smoochy kiss on his lips just to ensure the rumours could be confirmed.

  ‘What are you thinking, Rach?’ Joe asked quietly as he waited for her to complete the forms.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You have that teasing look in your eyes. That usually means you’re up to no good.’

  She glanced at him, doing her best ‘who me?’ look.

  ‘Yes, Miss Sweetness-and-Light. You,’ he answered, then chuckled. ‘You’re conscious that people are watching us together and you’re thinking about teasing them.’

  Rachael fumbled with what she’d been writing before putting the pen down and staring at him in amazement. Joe straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the desk. ‘You mean I’m right?’

  ‘I know we used to be able to read each other’s minds, Joe, but this is ridiculous.’

  Joe preened like a peacock and Rachael rolled her eyes. He edged closer. ‘Let’s give them something to talk about.’

  Before she could say or do anything, he leaned over and placed his mouth on hers. It wasn’t a brief kiss, as she’d expected, but a slow, intimate kiss, his lips slightly open with just a hint of tongue. Soft, sensual and simply seductive. When he pulled back, she saw the desire in his eyes.

  ‘That ought to do the trick,’ he murmured, and straightened, getting himself under control.

  Rachael cleared her throat and glanced around them. As the nurses went about their business, she knew several had witnessed the kiss. One or two glared daggers at her, a few others had dreamy, romantic looks on their faces. She even heard one of them sigh with longing.

  ‘Trying to scare someone off?’

  ‘Rachael.’ He placed a hand over his heart. ‘I’m highly offended you should think that.’

  ‘I know you too well, Joseph Silvermark.’ She completed the forms.

  ‘When did I ever use you to scare other women off, as you put it?’

  ‘Hmm. Let me think. There was Janice and Celeste, not to mention Freya and Samantha.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘On the tour, Joe. You knew they all had the hots for you.’

  The peacock returned as he preened. ‘Really? All of them?’

  Rachael laughed and shook her head. ‘I need to go ring my parents to let them know what’s happening.’

  Joe sobered immediately. ‘And to check on Declan.’

  ‘It’s a mother’s prerogative.’

  ‘OK, Dr Cusack.’ He handed her the phone from the nurses’ desk. ‘Dial zero to get an outside line.’

  ‘Thank you, Dr Silvermark.’

  ‘What?’ Beatrice was astounded. ‘You’re still on a last-name basis after a kiss like that?’

  Both of them laughed.

  ‘I’ll go get the X-rays and meet you back in the doctors’ tearoom,’ Joe said, giving her some privacy.

  ‘OK.’ Rachael dialled the number, watching Joe hungrily as he walked away. He had such a nice back with those wonderful broad shoulders. Years ago she’d touched every inch of him and had tenderly caressed the scars he had on his arms and back. She had her theory as to how he’d come across them, but even now the urge to kiss every single one better was growing stronger by the minute.

  Declan answered the phone, bringing her back to the present. ‘Hi, Mum. How’s Wong? And how’s the stunt guy?’

  ‘Wong’s still in Theatre but apparently things are progressing well, and Rino should be waiting to go into surgery.’

  ‘Then everyone’s good, eh?’

  ‘Yes.’ She heard her son sigh with relief. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’m fine, Mum.’ His tone was bored.

  ‘OK. We may be a little while longer but not too much.’

  ‘And Joe’s going to drive you back here, right?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Can I see him?’

  ‘You might be asleep.’

  ‘Please, Mum.’ The pleading tone was back. ‘I just want to see the guy. That’s all.’

  ‘OK. When we get to Grandma’s, I’ll ask him to come in to see you.’

  ‘Excellent.’

  ‘So long as you try and get some sleep to start off with. You have school tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, Mother.’ Again his tone was bored. ‘So we’re going back to the hotel tonight?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘OK. I’ll have everything ready by the door.’

  Rachael rang off, her thoughts on Declan. She’d heard the tension in his voice no matter how much he’d tried to disguise it. There would be hardly any sleep for either of them tonight and she wasn’t looking forward to it.

  She saw Joe come out of the emergency theatre block with another doctor in scrubs. The man was a similar height and build to Joe, and she surmised it must be his friend Zac. The two men were talking and when Zac gave Joe a playful thump on the shoulder and glanced over her way, she realised she was the topic of their conversation.

  Taking a deep breath, she headed over.

  ‘Declan OK?’

  ‘He’s fine.’

  ‘Rachael, this is Zac.’

  Zac’s smile was teasing, his blue eyes twinkling with repressed humour. ‘Very pleased to meet you, Rachael.’ They headed for the doctors’ tearoom.

  ‘Likewise.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Is there some joke I’m missing?’

  ‘No,’ Joe said.

  ‘Yes,’ Zac said in unison, then chuckled. ‘Not a joke, really. Just that I told Joe not so long ago that a person’s past has a way of catching up with them and…well…here you are.’ At Rachael’s confused frown, Zac explained. ‘The same thing happened to me. The woman I dated in med school came to work here six years ago and we were reunited. We had a lot of stuff to work through, naturally—hence my crack about the past catching up with you, especially if you lock it away and refuse to deal with it—but work through it we did and we’ve been happily married since.’

  Rachael smiled sincerely. ‘I’m glad.’ Her opinion of Zac grew immensely because if he knew she was part o
f Joe’s past, it meant here was another person Joe trusted.

  ‘Anyway, let’s not get into everything now—except I will say that Julia will definitely want to meet you.’

  ‘Your wife?’

  ‘Yes. She’s off on maternity leave at the moment.’ Zac preened. ‘We’ve just had a baby girl. Four months old and looks just like her mother. We’ll have to arrange for you, Joe and your son to come over some time.’

  Rachael glanced at Joe, not sure how he felt about all this, but as he wasn’t jumping in to say anything, she decided to wing it. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Let’s take a look at these X-rays,’ was Joe’s only comment, and Rachael realised he was distancing himself again…running, protecting himself because he was once more out of his depth. They studied the films and Rachael wasn’t surprised to see that Wong’s pelvis was fractured in three different places.

  ‘He’s busted up his left leg quite badly.’ Zac hooked up a new X-ray beside the pelvic one. ‘I’ll do the Grosse and Kempf intramedullary nailing down his left femur soon, but the tibia and fibula can wait for another twenty-four hours.’

  ‘And the pelvis?’

  ‘I’ll monitor it over the next week because the posterior fracture up here…’ he pointed to the fracture in the bone ‘…may actually heal itself and not require surgical intervention. Besides, it also gives his other abdominal injuries time to heal before he’s being poked and prodded there again.’

  ‘You’ll call me when he’s done in Theatre?’

  ‘Yes.’ Zac took the films down and slid them back into the X-ray sleeve as his pager beeped. He checked the extension. ‘Theatre two. Looks like they’re ready for Rino.’

  ‘You’re operating on him now?’

  ‘Yes. We’ll fix his right tibia and fibula with ORIF and, depending on when I need to go into surgery with Wong, I might put Rino’s external fixator on his left tibia tomorrow. I’ll see what the time constraints are.’

  ‘He was right.’ Rachael nodded, telling Zac that Rino had known exactly how his legs would be fixed. ‘What about his clavicle?’

  ‘I’ll strap it, which is going to be highly uncomfortable for him but, hey, I guess that’s the price he pays for being a stuntman.’

  ‘It’s in his blood.’ Joe shrugged.

  Zac agreed. ‘Hey, you guys look exhausted. Get out of here and go see your son. You know what hospitals are like. If you hang around here for too long, an emergency will come in and you’ll be stuck here for hours.’

  ‘Get out while the going’s good, eh?’ Joe smiled for the first time since he’d introduced Zac to Rachael. ‘Good thinking. Take care of Rino and—’

  ‘Let you know what happens in Theatre?’ Zac grinned at his friend. ‘Will do. Oh, and I’ll get Jules to give you a call and fix up a date for dinner.’

  ‘No hurry,’ Joe replied as he ushered Rachael out the tearoom. Although he was still smiling as he said the words, the smile didn’t quite meet his eyes. It spoke volumes to her and she realised Joe was quite a few steps behind her. Where she knew her love for him had never died, he was still floundering in the dark and running as fast as he could every time a new emotion assailed him.

  They checked on Grace, who’d been admitted to the neurology department and was stable. She was sleeping so they headed to the nurses’ station to talk to the registrar. ‘EEG doesn’t tell us much,’ the neurology registrar said. ‘I’ll book her in for a MRI and see what that tells me.’

  Joe nodded. ‘You know she was in an accident three months ago?’

  ‘I read the notes you wrote, Joe.’

  ‘Just checking.’

  ‘Was she involved in the stunt tonight?’

  ‘No. In fact, she was working the clapperboard.’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘The board that marks the scene on the roll of film.’

  ‘Oh. So she wasn’t involved with the stunt tonight?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well, thanks to the immediate medical attention, Grace has a good chance of recovery. The question is, will she fit again? That’s what we need to determine.’

  ‘Good. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow when you know more.’ Joe and Rachael said goodbye, stopping by the nurses’ station to collect her bag.

  ‘I guess we’ll be seeing you around,’ Beatrice said to Rachael. Rachael merely smiled and followed Joe as they headed for the exit. The cool autumn air hit Rachael as they walked out of the hospital.

  ‘It’s getting cold.’

  ‘That’s because it’s almost midnight.’

  She shook her head. ‘Now I remember why I went into private practice.’

  ‘Hospital life’s not your scene?’

  ‘Not really. Yours?’

  Joe shrugged. ‘I like it now and then, a bit of action, but every day?’ He shook his head, answering his own question.

  ‘So you get your action from the movie shoots.’

  ‘Yes. Gives me variety, otherwise I’d get bored.’

  ‘Mmm-hmm.’ She nodded knowingly.

  ‘What?’ he asked defensively.

  ‘You’re always looking for the next challenge.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I’m not criticising, Joe. It’s actually quite normal for people with higher-than-average IQs to have that urge.’

  He rolled his eyes as they walked to his car. ‘How many books have you read on this subject?’

  ‘Quite a few. I’ve had to so I could learn the most effective way to deal with Declan.’

  ‘Have you ever thought he’d be just fine without all the labels being put on him?’

  ‘I’ve already told you I don’t like the labels but the truth is, I’ve needed to learn. Joe, think back to when you were at school and the work was so boring. You could understand what the teacher was getting at before she’d finished writing the question up on the board. You felt they were almost insulting you asking you to sit there and do such pathetic work. I know that happened to you, even though you’ve never said one word about it to me. Then I’ll bet you started playing up in class and getting into trouble. They labelled you, Joe, but not as gifted. No, they labelled you as a troublemaker who couldn’t be bothered with hard work.’

  She waited for him to unlock the door then climbed in the passenger seat, watching him walk around to the driver’s side and get in. She could tell her words were beginning to affect him as his body language became defensive.

  ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘From reading the books, Joe, and from seeing it happen with Declan. I was called to the principal’s office on his first week at school—he was five years old—and was told that my son was a troublemaker. He played up in class, he couldn’t be bothered doing the work.’

  ‘Really? What did you do?’

  ‘I tried talking to Declan. He told me things were too easy. That’s when I read my first book and realised it was up to me to do something about it. I asked to see the work they were giving him and eventually got the wheels in motion so Declan was challenged. Once he was working at the right level, he stopped misbehaving.’ She paused. ‘Don’t you wish you’d had someone in your corner back when you started school? I know you didn’t, and I’m not trying to resurrect old wounds, but I take my responsibilities as a parent seriously, and if other people think I’m an overreacting, neurotic mother, then so be it. It’s better than being a mother who neglects her child’s intellect.’ She was past caring what other people thought of her but for some reason she desperately wanted Joe’s approval. Still, as she’d spoken, she’d felt him tense, and when he glanced at her, she could see the shutters were already in place.

  ‘You really get going on the subject, don’t you?’ His words were light, showing he wanted to keep this conversation on a more superficial level.

  Rachael sighed and rubbed her temples. ‘I guess.’

  Joe started the engine and drove out of the car park and onto the road. ‘Where to?’

  She gave him her parents’ address an
d he said he knew the area. It was an affluent area and the old feeling of inadequacy swamped him. He shook it away, telling himself circumstances had changed, and if he wanted to buy a house in the same area, he could well afford to.

  Neither of them spoke for a few minutes and she began to feel the weight of the day catch up with her. Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and sighed again, this time forcing her body to relax.

  ‘I don’t mean to preach, Joe, and don’t worry that I’m going to psychoanalyse you because I’m not. I’m just trying to let you know how it is with Declan.’

  ‘I appreciate it.’

  ‘Really?’ She turned her head so she could see him better. ‘Why?’

  ‘Why? Because he’s my son and I’ve missed the first fourteen years of his life.’

  ‘Yes.’ She could feel the defensiveness start to kick in again. ‘But you can hardly blame me for that.’

  ‘I’m not looking to cast blame. I’m merely stating a fact.’ He gripped the wheel as he continued to drive. He also didn’t like the fact Rachael knew everything about the boy, whereas he’d barely scratched the surface. Declan was his son! He had a son! A son who was so like him in many respects it scared him. Joe wanted to show the kid how to loosen up a bit, to have some fun, smell the roses, and he knew if he voiced those thoughts out loud, Rachael would take it as a criticism, which it wasn’t.

  It made him think that if he’d been around while Declan had been growing up, perhaps he wouldn’t be having nightmares at the age of fourteen. Joe felt it was a kick in the gut to male pride to still be having bad dreams at such an age. That only happened to little kids. He surmised that Rachael called them nightmares because she didn’t want to face that Declan was fast becoming a man. During the next few years, that’s exactly what would happen, and Joe felt a sense of pride at the thought.

  Paternal pride? Where had that come from, and so quickly? He’d only found out about Declan less than forty-eight hours ago and already he was feeling pride?

  Joe turned into her parents’ street and started checking the house numbers. It was then he noticed Rachael’s eyes were closed and her face relaxed as she dozed. Something twisted in his gut at seeing her sitting there, so peaceful, so lovely.