Alejandro's Sexy Secret

by Amy Ruttan

  Perhaps John Doe would get a happy-ever-after.

  Alejandro was still standing there at the charging station, charting. He saw her coming and did a double take, glaring at her.

  “Kiri, what—?”

  Kiri cut him off. “They found John Doe’s mother.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

  “Dr. Prescott is positive. They ran blood tests. She came in because of a postpartum infection.”

  “Does she want to see the baby?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. She doesn’t speak English. Perhaps you could speak with her?”

  Alejandro nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They walked in uneasy silence side by side down to the emergency room. Which was fine.

  She had nothing really to say to him. If the mother wanted the baby back then maybe this whole situation with the John Doe and Alejandro could end. He’d no longer be the guardian and could do the surgery himself.

  Dr. Prescott was waiting for them when they got to the emergency room floor.

  “Dr. Valentino, thank you for coming down,” Dr. Prescott said.

  “No problem, Dr. Prescott. You said she doesn’t speak English?” Alejandro asked.

  “Not well. She could tell us sort of what was wrong. If you could translate for me that would be great.”

  Alejandro nodded. “Sure thing.”

  They all stepped into the isolation room. John Doe’s mother was very young. That was the first thought Kiri had when she saw her. She saw a frightened young girl whose eyes darted back and forth between the three of them. She was ready to run.

  “Hola, soy Dr. Valentino. Cuál es su nombre?”

  “Luciana,” she said, with a hint of relief in her voice.

  Alejandro went on to explain what Dr. Prescott was saying to her about the postpartum infection and the medication. Once that was done Dr. Prescott slipped from the room. It was then time to ask her about the baby.

  “Cuándo dar a luz, Luciana?”

  He was asking her when she gave birth. That was when the girl became guarded. Even though Kiri couldn’t understand what she was saying or what Alejandro was saying, she could see the change in personality. She was lying to him. She didn’t want anyone to know about the baby.

  Alejandro’s words became quick, blunt, and Luciana’s eyes narrowed. Then she turned her head and wouldn’t say anything more. She was done talking. Kiri’s heart sank. This was not the happy ending she was hoping for.

  Alejandro shook his head. He stood up and they left the room, shutting the door.

  “Well?” Kiri asked, though she knew.

  “She doesn’t want the baby. I’m going to send legal counsel and a translator down so she can officially relinquish her rights.”

  “Why doesn’t she want the baby?”

  Alejandro sighed. “She was assaulted. The father of the baby is unknown. She said looking at the baby reminded her of the assault. I’m going to have Prescott recommend a trauma counselor, as well. I told her what her baby was dealing with, but she doesn’t care. She’s only eighteen.”

  “She’s just a child herself,” Kiri murmured.

  Alejandro nodded. “So our little John Doe is officially a ward of the state of Florida. I asked her if her parents or any other family members would want him, but, no, her mother is the one who delivered him and dropped him off at a hospital. She didn’t know it was this one or she wouldn’t have come here.”

  Alejandro didn’t say anything further to her. He went to speak with Prescott. Kiri glanced back into the isolation room. Luciana was crying, but she was angry. And confused, of that Kiri was certain.

  She didn’t want or probably couldn’t afford John Doe anyway. With the complication of his congestive heart disease, it was probably better that the boy had been dropped off. Someone would want him when he was all better.

  Someone would love him.

  Why not you?

  * * *

  He’d managed to avoid Kiri for four days after she’d called him out and after being told the baby’s mother had been found. Luciana had officially signed him over to be a ward of the state and had given up all her rights.

  Alejandro had a lot of mixed emotions about it all. And it appeared Kiri did too. He was angry that the young woman had been assaulted, but it was sad the little boy had to suffer and be born as the result of something so violent.

  He just threw himself into his work and rarely went home. Alejandro picked up the chart in the neonatal intensive care unit to check on the child, who was intubated and hooked up to different monitors. He’d been avoiding the neonatal intensive care unit because he didn’t want to get attached. Only he couldn’t stay away.

  Not since that day Kiri had called him out, because before that he’d gone to the NICU and seen Kiri holding the baby close to her heart. Seeing her hold John Doe, her eyes closed and an expression of bliss and agony on her face, had been unnerving.

  And an image of Kiri holding his baby flooded his mind. Only he couldn’t have that. A bullet had denied him. An uncertain future had also decided his fate. He lived life to the fullest, but he was destined to be alone. He shook that thought away and focused on the child he was legal guardian to. There was so much wrong with his heart.

  Hang in there, amigo.

  He shook his head as he read over his chart. So young, born too early, no parents and to have so many problems. It wasn’t fair.

  Of course, life wasn’t fair.

  Alejandro knew first-hand what that was like, both personally and as a doctor. He set the chart down and then put on some gloves. Even though he knew he shouldn’t, he opened the incubator and touched the little boy, placing his hand over the boy’s little head.

  So tiny. So fragile.

  And then he ran his hands over the boy’s body, before that tiny fist curled in a reflex action around his finger. A strange rush of emotions flowed through him as he stared at the little baby.

  Other than working with children, he didn’t have much experience with babies as he was the youngest of the brothers. He still remembered the first time he’d handled a sick preemie. He’d been so afraid that he was going to break the little girl, but his teacher had given him confidence.

  Now he had no problem holding even the most fragile of babies. Which was good considering that he was going to be an uncle soon and he’d have to show Santi a thing or two about holding a baby.

  He chuckled to himself, thinking about Santiago becoming a family man.

  Santiago was the last person in the world he’d thought would settle down. Saoirse had certainly tamed his brother.

  Perhaps you can be tamed?

  “Do you want to hold him?” the NICU nurse Samantha asked as she finished charting on the incubator next to infant John Doe. “You should.”

  He should say no, but instead he said, “Sure, I think that would be good for him.”

  Samantha nodded. “Yes, it would be, Dr. Valentino. Skin-to-skin contact is sometimes the best therapy for these sick little mites.”

  Alejandro took back his hand and then sat in the nearby rocking chair. He peeled off his white lab coat.

  Samantha looked up from where she was readying baby John Doe. “Dr. Valentino, skin to skin means you need to take your scrub shirt off.”

  “Do you think that’s wise? I understand the importance of skin-to-skin contact, but I’m not related to the baby.”

  Samantha fixed him with a stern stare. “You’re his guardian. He has no one else.”

  Alejandro understood how that felt. So he peeled off his scrub shirt.

  Samantha raised her eyebrows at the sight of his large tattoo, which hid his heart-transplant scar, but she didn’t say anything. As a nurse, she’d probably seen worse.

  She broug
ht the baby over to him and with a lot of finesse because of the different cords and lines attached to him she placed baby John Doe against his chest and then covered the infant with a blanket.

  Alejandro gently place his hands against the baby’s back, holding him there. And even though the boy had a bad heart, just holding him like that did something. The monitoring tracking the baby’s heart started to stabilize a bit into a steady rhythm, which was saying a lot for an infant with a bad heart.

  Samantha smiled at him. “You know, miracles do happen. It’s a good thing the parents dropped this little guy off at Buena Vista and that you found him, Dr. Valentino. We all know what you’re doing and we want to help any way we can. We heard that the hospital is cutting the pro bono fund.”

  “It’s not the hospital cutting the fund, Samantha. It’s the board. Snyder in particular, who is currently president of the board of directors.”

  “Not surprising, but still you can’t bear the financial burden on your own. We all want to help. We want to do a collection. We want to do something to help this poor baby.”

  Alejandro smiled. “That is very kind of you.”

  “My son was born with congestive heart failure. They told me to let him go so many times when he was a baby, but I didn’t listen to them. He had a heart transplant when he was ten years old and he’s just started college.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Samantha. You never know what can happen. Miracles do happen.” He said it all the time, but he wasn’t sure if he believed it. The statistics didn’t lie.

  Samantha nodded and moved away to the next incubator.

  Alejandro stared down at the little boy against him, so tiny against his chest. It was like holding a delicate bird.

  “You’ll be fine, amigo. You’ll see. We’ll get you a heart and you’ll be fine.”

  “You should name him, instead of calling him amigo.”

  Alejandro looked over to see Kiri standing in the door of the NICU, her hands deep in the pockets of her white lab coat. She wasn’t wearing the dark-framed glasses that she usually seemed to sport when she was wearing scrubs and working on patients. Instead she was dressed in business attire, a tight pencil skirt and heels, which elevated her from five feet five to maybe five feet seven.

  “How can you walk in those things around here?” Alejandro teased.

  She glanced down at her feet. “With difficulty, but I find when I’m addressing the board of directors I want to appear a bit taller, or taller than Snyder, at least.” She stuck out her leg and he admired her shapely calf. “That’s why I bought these shoes. They were expensive.”

  “Designer, then?”

  She nodded. “I much prefer my sneakers or sandals. And I definitely prefer wearing scrubs and not having to wear panty hose.”

  Alejandro chuckled. “So why are you lurking around the NICU today if you’re supposed to be in meetings?”

  “I was checking on a couple of my patients.” She nodded in the direction of the other end of the NICU. “They’re not as badly off as your little John Doe.”

  “I don’t think any baby currently at Buena Vista is.” He glanced down at John Doe. “You’re right, though, I should name him. John Doe and amigo don’t suit him in the least.”

  “No, he needs a name and an identity if he’s going to win his fight. He’s got a long road ahead of him.” Kiri took a step closer and reached out as if to touch the child, but then thought better of it. She put her hand back in her pocket and stepped back again, which made no sense as he’d seen her holding him a few days ago. “So do you know any good names?”

  “My mother always said that names give us strength and pay homage to our culture. I would like to name him something like that.”

  “I can’t help you with naming. Unless you’d like a completely boring name like John Doe.”

  “How about an Indian name? Why don’t we both name him? We both found him, let’s both have a hand in naming him.”

  A strange expression passed over her face. “No, you name him. I—I wouldn’t know... You name him.”

  He couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t want to help name him, but he didn’t press the matter. “Gervaso, it means warrior. He needs a strong name.”

  Kiri smiled. “That’s a nice name and very different. I don’t think I’ve heard it before. How do you spell it?”

  “G-e-r-v-a-s-o. Gervaso.”

  “It’s nice,” she whispered.

  “My mother liked it. It’s my middle name, actually.”

  “Well, it’s better than baby John Doe and definitely better than amigo.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to give him another name?” Alejandro asked.

  “Positive. I’d better go check on my patients.” She turned and headed to the far side of the NICU, picking up a pair of gloves before she opened an incubator.

  He didn’t know what had got into her and he didn’t care.

  Right now his focus was Gervaso and getting him healthy again so that he could get adopted and live a long, happy life.

  You can live a long time. You can be happy.

  Only the moment he thought about Gervaso going off with someone other than him it caused him a pang of pain. Would it be so bad if he became the boy’s father?

  Yes. You can’t. What if you die? What if your heart fails? What if...?

  It wouldn’t be fair to the baby. He needed parents. He needed a stable home.

  And Alejandro couldn’t give him those things. Everything was so uncertain.

  “Samantha?” Alejandro called out.

  “Yes, Dr. Valentino?”

  “I have to finish my rounds. Can you help me put him back?”

  “Of course, Dr. Valentino.” Samantha put on fresh gloves and gently took little Gervaso from him and they got him settled back into the incubator.

  “Also, make sure you change his chart and the application for his birth certificate. His name is Gervaso, not John Doe. G-e-r-v-a-s-o.”

  Samantha smiled. “Will do, Dr. Valentino.”

  Alejandro pulled on his scrub shirt and picked up his white lab coat from the back of the rocking chair. He briefly glanced at Kiri’s back and then got out of the NICU as fast as he could, because he was scared of the emotions little Gervaso and Kiri were stirring in him.

  They were unwelcome.

  Were they?

  * * *

  Kiri had been completely unnerved when she’d walked into the NICU and seen Alejandro holding that wee baby boy skin to skin. It had stirred so many emotions in her. When she’d first found out she was pregnant and had been trying to get hold of Alejandro she’d pictured him holding her child like that.

  It was one of the silly fantasies she’d clung to.

  She hadn’t cared if he didn’t want her, but she’d wanted her baby to have a father.

  Of course, he didn’t want kids and she’d lost her baby and she hadn’t thought about that little fantasy in a long time. When she’d walked into the NICU and seen it playing out live it had made her feel weak in the knees. He was so sweet, holding that small baby against his chest. So gentle, so kind.

  It had completely unnerved her.

  She’d wanted to reach out and touch the baby again, but she’d stopped herself. She didn’t want to get emotionally attached to a child who was going to be adopted by a loving family after he pulled through his heart transplant.

  And then Alejandro had asked her to help name him. It was almost too much.

  She didn’t want to grow attached to a baby she was going to lose again. A baby who wasn’t hers.

  There were a lot of names that she’d thought of when she’d been considering names for her child, but those names were too precious and had been buried along with their son.

  She knew that Alejandro
had been avoiding her and, truth be told, she’d been avoiding him too. Kiri didn’t know what had happened at Vizcaya, but those walls that had been coming down had been built up fast again.

  And it had reminded her too that he was able to get past her defenses easily.

  She’d known it was better for both of them if she kept her distance so she’d thrown herself into her work. She’d planned meetings, begun to see patients and had got very good at navigating the halls without seeing him.

  Until today.

  Kiri finished checking up on the babies in the NICU and then discarded her rubber gloves. She made quick notes and instructed the NICU nurses on care. As she was leaving the NICU she glanced at Gervaso’s incubator.

  He was so small.

  She took a step closer and her heart skipped a beat as the image of Alejandro, holding the wee baby skin to skin, invaded her mind and overtook her senses.

  And, though she shouldn’t, she pulled on a pair of gloves and reached inside to touch the baby. Her eyes filled with tears as she ran her fingers over his little back, over his legs to the tiny feet curled under his bum. The hospital identification bracelet looked so large on his skinny little ankle. There was a hint of dark hair on his head...

  This was what she’d imagined her baby to look like and it was almost all she could do not to start sobbing in the NICU.

  She pulled her hand out of the incubator quickly and discarded the gloves in the receptacle. She’d thought that by leaving New York she’d been escaping the ghosts that haunted her. Walking the halls of the hospital where she’d lost her son had been too hard for her, and she’d thought that by coming to Miami she’d escape.

  Kiri had never counted on the father of her baby to be in Miami.

  She left the NICU and headed to her office, until she got paged to the emergency room. There was an incoming trauma. Children were hurt.

  Kiri’s stomach flip-flopped and she ran as fast as she could in her heels toward the emergency room. There was no time to change. It didn’t matter. This was her job. Children needed her. When she got down to the emergency room, it was in chaos.