by Amy Ruttan
“I hadn’t heard that she’d passed. I’m sorry.”
There was genuine regret there. Evelyn nodded, but couldn’t look Léelk’w in the eye. “It’s regulations. I’m bound by certain laws, and discussing Jennifer’s file without her presence is against them.”
Léelk’w crossed her arms. “I can wait until Jennifer comes. She wants me there when the baby is born. Just like I was there when your mother had you. We’re blood.”
Evelyn’s stomach twisted in a knot. They might be related by DNA, but she wasn’t sure that they were family. Not anymore. It was her fault that her father had died and she’d been was sent away.
They’d been estranged for so long.
She wasn’t sure she could ever go back.
You’re scared to try.
“That’s fine.” Evelyn turned back to her work and tried not to think about her mother or about her childhood.
If she hadn’t agreed to take over Stefanie’s practice she wouldn’t be here in Wolf’s Harbor. She’d thought that while she was here she might be able to lay some ghosts to rest, but she was finding it particularly difficult to do that.
It seemed that the ghosts of her past didn’t want to be laid to rest. They seemed to pop up unexpectedly and at the most inconvenient times.
“You have closed your heart,” Léelk’w said out loud.
“What?” Evelyn asked, stunned.
Léelk’w sighed. “I can’t fault you for that. You never got to grieve for your father and I don’t think you forgave him for almost marrying Jocelyn.”
That struck a chord, but she was about to make her excuses, because she didn’t want to talk about Jocelyn. If Jocelyn hadn’t existed then her father would never have gone out that night to visit her. But she’d ruined Jocelyn’s life, and there was no way Evelyn could make it up to her.
Maybe if you did you wouldn’t be so afraid of settling down and having a family.
She was going to say something to respond to that, but the door chimed and Derek walked in, carrying two coffees.
“Dr. Taylor,” Léelk’w said stiffly which caused Evelyn to raise an eyebrow in question.
“Katlian, good to see you.”
“Liar,” Léelk’w muttered, but there was a twinkle in the old woman’s eyes.
Evelyn shook her head and Derek set a coffee in front of her. “For you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“I felt bad that you were avoiding Sally’s because of possibly running into me,” he said.
Evelyn was going to respond, but she saw that Léelk’w was craning her neck, trying to listen. And she couldn’t help but laugh.
“Thanks,” Evelyn said. “I was just in a rush. I wanted to look over my charts for the day. Janet is back as well.”
Derek nodded, understanding that she didn’t want to talk about last night in front of Léelk’w. “Good. Well, I’d better start my day.”
He lingered, as if he wanted to say something more, but then looked over his shoulder at Léelk’w and walked into his room.
Evelyn made sure that he’d closed his door before she turned back to Léelk’w. “You chased him off.”
Léelk’w snorted. “He doesn’t like me much, but he’s a good doctor.”
“Why do you give him a hard time, then?”
“I give all doctors a hard time.” Léelk’w fixed her with a serious gaze, but there was a twinkle in her eyes. “I gave your father a hard time at first.”
“I see.” Evelyn ignored that, trying not to think of her father, and picked up Jennifer’s chart just as Jennifer and Joe Jr. came into the clinic.
“Dr. Saunders! No laboring women today?” Jennifer teased good-naturedly.
Evelyn smiled. “Not today. I’m all yours.”
“Léelk’w, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Jennifer said in surprise.
“I am here, and you will give Dr. Saunders permission to speak with me, yes?”
“Of course,” Jennifer said, and then turned to Evelyn. “It’s okay if Léelk’w knows about my file.”
“Okay, but I’ll only discuss your file with her in front of you. I’m bound by rules of doctor-patient confidentiality.”
Jennifer winked and Evelyn saw Joe Jr. was trying not to laugh.
“Okay, let’s get you to the exam room. I want to take another look at your baby and see how he or she is growing.”
“Sounds good!” Jennifer said excitedly as she got up and walked toward Evelyn.
They knew where they were going, and Janet was waiting for them in the exam room that held the ultrasound.
As Léelk’w passed Evelyn she squeezed her shoulder.
Evelyn took a deep breath.
You can do this. This is no different from any other patient with intrauterine growth restriction. This isn’t your family.
Not anymore.
Only it was. This was her cousin’s wife.
This was technically her family, but solely by genetics.
Evelyn had been on her own too long.
She didn’t have family. She just had herself.
And that was all she deserved.
* * *
Derek had wanted to get to work early so as to avoid Evelyn, but then he’d run smack-dab into her. He felt like a fool, thinking that perhaps he’d led her on and now she’d be clingy, but of course she wasn’t. She was trying to avoid him just as much as he’d been trying to avoid her.
Even though he should be relieved he was quite upset by that, because he wanted her. He didn’t want Evelyn to have to avoid him or vice versa.
He wanted more and that thought scared him.
What is wrong with you? Isn’t that what you wanted?
Except maybe it wasn’t.
When they’d collided this morning he’d been glad to see her, his body instantly reacting to her.
When he was younger and had felt that way he would usually sleep with the woman to work her out of his system. Then he’d met Vivian and those roguish ways of his youth had disappeared. Vivian had been the only one for him.
Yeah, and she’s dead. She’s been gone for five years.
Derek groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d sworn when Vivian had died and torn open his heart that he would never allow himself ever to think of another woman that way again. Yet here he was, doing just the opposite. What was wrong with him?
Well, whatever was going on with him he had to get control of it.
There was a knock at his office door.
“Come,” he said, regaining his composure.
Evelyn opened the door. That glorious dark auburn hair that was just as soft as he’d imagined it to be was tied back.
Seriously, dude. Get a grip.
“Do you have a moment?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
She slipped inside and shut the door, crossing her arms and frowning as she stood there. “It’s Jennifer Yazzie.”
Derek’s heart sank. “She has intrauterine growth restriction, doesn’t she?”
Evelyn closed her head and nodded.
“Damn,” he cursed. “What’s your course of action?”
“Monitor weekly. I explained kick counts and put her on bed-rest. So far the baby looks to be doing well, but it is small for gestational age. I don’t think it would survive the stress of a vaginal delivery, so at thirty-five weeks I want to get to her Sitka and do a C-section. In the Sitka hospital they have a great NICU and that’s the baby’s best chance. Did she ever have rubella as a child?”
“Jennifer? No, she didn’t have rubella. She was vaccinated.”
“And all the tox screens come back clean?”
Derek frowned. “She’s a good kid...er...woman. She doesn’t smoke or drink or anything like that—as we discuss
ed before.”
“I know, but I’m trying to rule out reasons for intrauterine growth restriction. I think there might be something chromosomal going on, and it could be the baby.”
“You want to do an amniocentesis, don’t you?”
Evelyn nodded. “I want to test the baby’s lung maturity and whether the baby will require blood transfusions. Also, Jennifer is RH negative. I would like to administer Rhogam as she lost her first pregnancy at twenty weeks.”
“Right, I do remember that.”
Evelyn nodded. “So there are a lot of factors that put her in the high-risk category. Not to mention the intrauterine growth restriction.”
“Has she given permission for you to do an amniocentesis.”
“She has, but you don’t have the right gauge needle in stock. Nor do you have Rhogam. Sitka can’t take her—their genetic department is overloaded and they don’t currently have any Rhogam. But Juneau does, so I want to go to Juneau and get what I need, then fly the sample to Sitka, where they’ll test it. I’m hoping you’ll let me off for a day or so to get to Juneau and back. Joe Jr. has a car I can borrow.”
Derek couldn’t believe he was about to offer, but he didn’t want Evelyn driving to Juneau and getting lost. And he had an “in” at the Juneau hospital. He could get everything she needed—including a place to do the procedure.
“I’ll take you to Juneau. I’m going there on Saturday.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can arrange my own transportation. I don’t want you to go out of your way.”
“I’m not going out of my way. I was going there anyways. Tell Joe Jr. to get Jennifer to Juneau by Sunday and I can get you access to a safe site to do the procedure. Sunday is an off day, and you’ll have access to the lab.”
“You can get access to the Juneau hospital?”
“Yeah, an old schoolfriend of mine is Chief of Surgery at Juneau General. I can make a call.”
“What about Mo?” Evelyn asked.
“She’s the reason I’m going to Juneau. My late wife’s parents are there and they take Mo every other month for a couple of days. So, do you want to go? Shall I make a call to the chief?”
Evelyn grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll call Jennifer and Joe right now.”
Derek nodded. “Okay. Tell them to be there Sunday evening and we’ll get the amnio done. Then she can rest in the hospital for a couple of days while the results come. I know she won’t want to stay there if you’ve made arrangements in Sitka. It’s hard for her family to get there.”
“Well, if it’s a danger to the baby the Juneau obstetrician can handle it.”
Derek cocked an eyebrow. “You mean Dr. Pearson? He’s the head of obstetrics.”
Evelyn frowned. “Well, I guess I will have to go back to deliver the baby, then, if she’s told to stay put. I hope Dr. Pearson is around Sunday. I would like to speak to him. Thanks, Derek.”
Evelyn left the room and he shook his head, chuckling to himself as he thought about the fire and brimstone that Evelyn was going rain down on Dr. Pearson’s head if she ever got hold of him.
Another reason why he liked her so much. She didn’t seem to back down or shy away from uncomfortable situations, and she was willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help her patients. His patients.
If she had been any other obstetrician he knew that she would have just packed the patient off to Juneau or Sitka and had the obstetrical team there deal with it. But not Evelyn. She was so involved in taking care of her patients.
She would be the perfect physician for this town.
Come on—a surgeon of her caliber, specializing in maternal fetal medicine, is not going to stay in some rinky-dink town.
Janet opened the door. She looked panicked.
“Janet, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Mr. Schilling. He was out on his fishing trawler and there’s been an accident. The trawler is about five minutes out and they’re going to bring him here to get him stabilized before even attempting to fly him to Sitka.”
Derek leapt up and grabbed his jacket. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t say.”
“I’m headed there, Janet. Tell Dispatch at the docks that I’m coming.”
“I restocked the blood supply while I was in Sitka. Don’t forget that,” Janet said as she left the room.
Derek went into the supply room and began to grab things he might possibly need for a trauma. Including a cooler with the blood.
He couldn’t think about Evelyn right now, or the fact that she’d be gone by the end of three months. One of his patients needed him.
And that was why he stayed.
It was what kept him going.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS EARLY Saturday morning, and even though Mo was extremely excited to be spending a couple of nights with her grandma and grandpa it was still too early in the morning for her. She was not an early riser, and for that Derek was extremely grateful.
It had made all those feedings in the middle of the night that much easier on him because she’d let him sleep in. Not that he’d got much sleep in the days after Vivian had died. He had just existed, because he’d had to for Mo, but sleep had been elusive and he’d only slept when his body had collapsed.
Still, Mo would fall asleep again today, which meant the three-hour trip to the ferry terminal would be so much easier. Right now she was chattering happily about Evie coming with them to Juneau.
“Will she come back with us when we come home, Daddy?”
“Of course. I’m her ride.”
“Good. I like her. Do you like her?”
The question caught him off guard. “Yes, she’s nice.”
“Yes. She’s super-nice.”
“Mo, you barely know her—why do you like her so much?” he asked, curious.
“She’s the same as me,” Mo said.
“How so?”
“I don’t know. She’s just like me.”
And that was the last thing Mo said before she fell asleep in her booster seat.
Derek was surprised at how easily Mo had taken to Evelyn. Mo was usually shy with strangers, but not Evelyn. It would hurt her when Evelyn left. He had to make sure Mo understood that Evelyn wasn’t here to stay.
Evelyn was waiting in front of the clinic with a small bag for the overnight stay and a tray with two coffees from Sally and a small box.
Derek parked the car but left it running as he got out and took her bag from her, putting it in the trunk next to his and Mo’s luggage.
Evelyn slipped into the front seat and Derek closed the trunk, returning to the driver’s seat.
“She’s asleep,” Evelyn whispered, peering into the back seat.
“Yeah, she’s not a morning person.”
Evelyn set the coffee into the cup-holders, but held onto the box. “I bought her some chocolate chip cookies.”
“Well, it’s a long trip. They’ll keep. Chocolate in the morning? Would you enjoy a three-hour car ride listening to an endless stream of shrieking?”
She laughed quietly. “Yeah, well, Sally said they were her favorite.”
“Thanks—and for the coffee. It’s appreciated, but unnecessary.”
He pulled out onto the main road and headed out of town to the dense forest road that wound its way through the island and headed for the ferry terminal in Hoonah. From there it would be another three hours or so until the ferry docked in Jordan Springs and then it was a short drive to Juneau.
“So who is going to watch the practice for the couple days we’re gone?”
“There’s a young resident who flies in from Sitka when I need to make a Juneau run. I scheduled this trip long before you showed up. He arrived the same night as I set Mr. Schilling’s leg. Dr. Vance has family here.”
Evelyn winced. “I heard about Mr. Schilling’s accident, but Janet didn’t tell me everything and we’ve been so busy at the clinic since.”
“Well, he got a hook in his hand, and just as he was about to get it out a wave struck the side of his trawler. A boom wasn’t fastened properly and it came down on his leg. He’s lucky it wasn’t crushed. But it was a pretty simple break and I stitched up the hand.”
“For a fish hook?”
Derek chuckled. “It’s not some angler’s fish hook you can buy at the store and use at the old fishing hole, Evelyn. It was a large commercial fish hook.”
Evelyn winced again. “Okay. Got it. I don’t need to hear anymore.”
Derek chuckled. “That makes you queasy?”
“Yeah, your description of it does make me queasy. This is why I didn’t pursue trauma surgery. It’s not my forte. I can lend a hand in a trauma situation, but fish hooks...no, thanks.”
He grinned and then shook his head. “It’s a way of life up here.”
“I know. My dad was the doctor here and... I remember some interesting accidents.”
“Like what?”
Evelyn shook her head. “I’m really not going to talk about them.”
“Come on,” he teased.
She shuddered. “Fish hooks were some, I guess. But the most interesting one was a bear mauling.”
“I’ve had one of those.”
“Oh. Was it a tourist?”
“Yes,” he said in surprise. “How did you know?”
“They get in too close to the wildlife. I remember Dad talking about it. It used to frustrate him, because once a bear loses its fear of a human it ends up getting destroyed. It was a pet peeve of his.”
“I get that.”
They didn’t say anything else, but he knew that Evelyn understood the way of life up here. It was nice that she got it. That he didn’t have to explain things to her. She just knew and he could talk to her openly about life up close to the sixtieth parallel. Which was so different from anywhere else—except further north, perhaps.
I wish she’d stay.
And that thought caught him off guard.
“Anyways, Mr. Schilling will make a full recovery. He’s at home for the rest of the season and Dr. Vance will check in on him while we’re gone,” Derek said, changing the subject.