Snodgrass, Catherine

by Another Chance AnotherTime (lit)

  Then why did she feel so sad?

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  "I'm telling you, Alec, this is it. She's the one."

  Alec ignored the impassioned plea and focused on his cup of coffee. It was the first time he had had the chance to speak to Kevin without Renee at his side, and he didn't like the answers he was getting any more than when she was with him.

  "Kevin..." Alec knew reasoning with him would do no good. Still, he had to give it a shot. "How can you know something like that? How can you plan the rest of your life with this woman when you only met her last night?" He could understand wanting her, but marriage this quick?

  Kevin leaned forward. "I just know. I knew from the instant I saw her, the second I put my arm around her. I can't tell you how and, frankly, I don't want to analyze it. I love her, I want her, and I'm going to marry her. It's the most liberating feeling I've ever experienced. It's beyond sex. It's peaceful... comforting."

  Alec could say nothing to change his mind. He watched Kevin's gaze wander beyond his shoulder. By the light in his eyes, there wasn't much doubt that the object of their discussion had just walked into the cafeteria.

  Even he had to admit they looked good together, like they fit. Still, it was hard to get used to this rapid change in events. Kevin had gone from a single to a couple in less than twenty- four hours. The entire dynamic of their friendship had shifted. No more spontaneous road trips to Mexico or skiing in the mountains. Every action would be made in consideration of her feelings- forever. Alec didn't know whether he had just lost a friend or gained a new one. He prayed it was the latter.

  So far, he liked her. She was friendly, easy to talk with. Her devotion to Dani was unwavering.

  "How is Dani?" he asked when she slid into the booth beside Kevin.

  "She's resting. A nurse came in to take her temperature and stuff so I left. She tired out awfully quick. Is that normal, Alec?"

  He wanted to say no. Once the effects of the anesthetic wore off and she was up and around, he expected Dani to be awake the rest of the afternoon.

  "Everyone reacts differently." Alec polished off the remains of his coffee, then crumpled the Styrofoam cup in his hand. "I'd better go check on her. I'll catch up with you two later."

  "Wait."

  He was nearly to the door when Kevin called out and then hurried his way. "I almost forgot. I ran into Norma earlier. Andrea's been looking for you again."

  Hunting him down was probably more like it. "I swear it is going to take a restraining order to keep her away from me."

  "Yeah, and it's not going to do you a bit of good around here. She'll say she came to see her father." Kevin clapped his shoulder. "Just thought I'd warn you."

  Andrea was obsessed, possibly insane, and now it looked like he wasn't even safe at work. He refused to allow it to bother him, to take his attention away from patients who were depending upon him. If necessary, he would go to Walt Rushmore directly and tell him what his daughter was doing. Alec thanked Kevin and headed for Dani's room.

  Dani lay much as she had earlier that day-deep in sleep. He left her undisturbed and walked to the nurse's station to look at her chart.

  The nurse on duty was new, fresh from school, and easily intimidated by those senior to her. Her dark hair defied taming. Short curls framed her face. She tensed when she saw him, and for a moment Alec would swear she was going to snap to attention.

  He smiled, trying to put her at ease, and waved her back in her seat. "I just want the chart for Dani Morgan, Betty."

  Yanking the record from its slot, she jumped up and slapped it into his palm. Alec bit back a laugh while he flipped it open. His humor faded to irritation when he saw nothing new there.

  "Why didn't you record the stats you took?"

  Stretching on tiptoe, she pointed to notations made two hours before. "I did, Dr. Edwards."

  "Not those. The ones you just took."

  Her eyebrows inched together. "I didn't take any. It wasn't time to do so. I haven't left this desk in hours."

  "And no one else was down there?"

  Betty gave a quick shake of her head. "Not that I'm aware, but then I can't see her room from the station. Do you want stats taken?"

  Alec nodded absentmindedly. Betty was more determined in her actions. He watched her work, admiring her gentle efficiency, which couldn't have been easy considering her nervousness around superiors.

  Betty made her annotations on the chart and then handed it to him. Alec glanced at it. This wasn't good. It wasn't good at all.

  * * *

  Alec braced his head on his arm and stared blankly at the paperwork on his desk. It didn't matter how many hundreds of times he looked at Dani's chart or her lab work, he still couldn't find an explanation for the fever that engulfed her body.

  The temperature climb had been innocuous at first, nothing more than a tiny click upward. She had rested comfortably for hours. Dani had slept on through the constant fussing when her vital signs were measured. Her fever had climbed steadily.

  He blamed himself for not acting sooner-when her temperature was only one hundred. But it had taken another degree to alarm him. And while he checked for signs of infection, her body added three more.

  A flick of his finger closed her record. Nothing. Absolutely nothing to explain why this was happening. And there was no one to provide answers. According to Renee, Dani had always been healthy except for a bout of chicken pox and having had her tonsils removed as a child. Dani's family doctor was away for the weekend, so any questions for him would have to wait until Monday.

  That left one alternative Alec didn't want to approach-her parents. They had talked to Dani earlier and were assured she was well on the mend. Now to tell them she had relapsed...

  He let his head drop, shaking it. There was no way he could keep them from being alarmed. They would have every right to be. This was not a good sign. How could he, in good conscience, tell them not to board the next flight home?

  Alec punched in the numbers and waited. The answering machine picked up.

  "We're having the baby...right now. Do whatever at the beep." The man ended with a cheer.

  So much for that.

  He hung up. This needed a personal voice, not a frightening message to call a doctor. Still, the joy in the other man's voice made him smile. New babies were an exciting event. He'd always been thrilled with the arrival of a new niece or nephew. If he ever became a father himself, Alec imagined he would be euphoric.

  Not that that was likely to happen any time soon. There had never been any woman he considered having a lifelong commitment with, much less children. Unless Da...

  Alec snorted. His priorities were skewed once more. Here he thought he had his thoughts in check, and then at the least provocation they went rampant on him again.

  His conscience wasted no time nagging him about it either. Keep this up and you'll live to be nothing but a dirty old man.

  "Yeah, as opposed to a dirty young one," he muttered to himself.

  The door to his office eased open. Kevin poked his head through the opening. "You say something?"

  Alec's chair squeaked out a protest as he eased back. "Just talking to myself. How is she?"

  "Same." He shut the door behind him, stretched out on the worn leather sofa, and draped an arm over his eyes. "I gotta tell you, Alec...I'm stumped. I've looked over all the test results for you...twice. Nothing. Even had a couple of the guys down in ER with me to look them over. Still nothing. I haven't felt this inept since I was an intern."

  That was a feeling Alec could sympathize with. "Was Renee able to think of anything more?"

  Kevin didn't bother to shake his head. "Nope. They talked. Dani called her parents. Renee told her about us, then Dani said she was tired and went back to sleep."

  And she hadn't awakened since. "Why don't you go home and get some rest? This is your weekend off, remember?"

  "Renee won't leave her side." He stifled a yawn. "I'll be all rig
ht in a few minutes."

  He was asleep before the allotted time passed. Alec left him alone and wandered down to Dani's room. Perhaps if he took up the vigil, Renee would be more agreeable to leaving her side. After all, one of them needed to get some rest, and it damn sure wasn't going to be him.

  Renee sat in the semi-dark room, hands folded on her lap as she stared at Dani's bed. Worry and exhaustion made her numb-at least that was the impression she gave even if she never uttered one word of complaint.

  Alec checked Dani's pulse, blood pressure, and temperature. No change. At least she was holding steady and not getting worse.

  "Still the same?" Renee sidled up to him and peered anxiously around his arm for some sign of change.

  There seemed no sense replying to the obvious.

  She folded her hands under her chin. "She's stirred a few times, glanced my way and then drifted back to sleep. I kept hoping she would say something. Sometimes in her sleep she'll mumble something about forevermore. Kevin said she's conserving all her energy to fight this fever."

  A nice, simple way of putting it. Alec slid his arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the door.

  "You need to take Kevin home so he can get some rest. It's been a long time since I've seen him this tired. He won't leave without you."

  She held back, glancing over her shoulder to where Dani lay. "She said she had dreams of dying. I told her that meant rebirth and a sign of recovery. Maybe I should have listened to her."

  Alec gave her a tiny squeeze. "Nonsense. We'll help her beat this. Go home and rest. I'll be here with her through the night. When you come back in the morning, I'm sure you'll see an improvement."

  At least he was hoping the fever would disappear as mysteriously as it began. Alone with Dani, Alec filled a basin with cool water and set it on the nightstand.

  "We're right back where we were last night, Dani. I wish you could tell me why." He dipped the cloth into the water. "Well, this worked once-we'll try it again."

  But it wasn't the same. Whereas the night before she had been frighteningly still while he wiped the cool cloth over her skin, this time she was responsive. Small sounds, sighs and snippets of words let him know she was aware of what he was doing.

  Her eyelids fluttered open, and she focused glazed eyes on him. "Feels good. Cool."

  Alec blotted the cloth over her forehead. "Then you just relax and enjoy it."

  She replied with a tiny nod and sank further into her pillows. "Is Renee gone?"

  "She and Kevin left a little while ago to get some sleep."

  Dani's eyes opened to a slit. "Who's Kevin?"

  Now that was a difficult question. Alec still wasn't comfortable defining their relationship as they did. In his opinion, it was too new to assign it the importance they felt it had in their lives.

  "He's one of my closest friends. It appears as though he and Renee have formed a strong attraction to each other."

  She made a sound that came close to a laugh. "She told me. I thought she was talking about you."

  Alec didn't know whether to laugh or demand how she could make such an assumption. Renee was nothing like her, yet Dani had no idea how he felt and he couldn't tell her. He dunked the cloth into the basin and swished it around. "I'm definitely not interested in Renee."

  She rolled her head his way. A semblance of a smile curved her lips. "Are you going to wring that out or wait until your hand turns into a prune?"

  Laughing, he wadded the material in his fist and then shook it out. "Awful talkative for a sick person."

  "Let's just say I find you less exhausting to talk to than Renee." Dani turned her face into the cool cloth. "What's wrong with me, Alec?"

  "That's what we're trying to find out. Now that you're awake, maybe you can answer a few questions."

  He ran through the list of possible symptoms-sore throat, headache, stiff neck or joints, stomach distress. Again, he found nothing. A quick check of her vitals revealed no change.

  "What about..."

  She painstakingly raised her fingers and covered them over his mouth. "Enough. If there were something, anything, I'd tell you. Jeez, forget what I said about finding you less exhausting."

  Alec twined his thumb around hers and drew her hand down before the temptation to kiss her fingers overtook his senses. "Sorry. Rest. I'll be right here if you need something."

  After a slight nod, Dani closed her eyes. Still, Alec waited until sleep relaxed her hand before slipping free of her grip.

  A movement from the corner of his eye caught Alec's attention. He glanced up to find Kevin standing in the doorway-a plastic grocery bag dangling from his fingers.

  "I thought you went home."

  "I did," he said, walking in. "Renee spoke to Dani's parents. The same thing happened when she had her tonsils out as a child-high fever with no explanation. Her dad said orange juice was the only thing that helped. Even with her throat as raw as it was, she kept asking for it. Finally, when the doctor had exhausted all other efforts, he gave it to her. By then it had been several days and she was terribly dehydrated, despite IV fluids." Kevin lifted the bag. "So...orange juice. Care to give it a try?"

  At this point there was nothing to lose. Alec punched the button to raise her bed to a sitting position.

  Dani opened one eye and glared at them. "Now what? Who are you?"

  "He's the infamous Kevin." Alec slipped his arm around her shoulders to steady her. "We're trying your father's remedy for what ails you."

  Dani grasped the plastic cup as if she were starving and closed her mouth over the straw. Before Alec could caution her to sip, the contents were drained.

  "More?"

  Licking her lips, she held out the cup. "Please."

  The way she drank, Alec began to wonder if the straw would do better service right in the carton. In fifteen minutes, the quart was empty. Dani set the cup aside and drifted off to sleep.

  "I'll bring more in the morning," Kevin said. "You should probably go home and get some rest."

  "In a little while."

  Alec was barely aware of his response or of Kevin leaving. By some instinct, he felt a crisis had passed or was passing. Still, common sense insisted he be sure.

  He dragged the chair from its niche. A syringe skittered from beneath and rolled under the bed.

  "What the hell?"

  No nurse he knew of would have been so careless. And if that possibility had occurred, the janitorial staff was particularly meticulous. Every piece of furniture was moved, wiped down, the floor mopped daily, so there was no chance it could have been missed.

  Retrieving it, Alec took it into the hallway to study it more closely. A small portion of the contents remained.

  Insulin? Could it have rolled out of Renee's purse?

  He shook his head. Diabetics were more careful than that. Besides, considering the amount of chocolate she ate that morning, she couldn't be diabetic. But the syringe was under the chair, and she had been the only one in the room that day.

  Alec trudged down to the nurse's station. Betty glanced up and her gaze fell to the object in his hand. Irritation flared in her eyes for the first time.

  "Dr. Edwards, you should have told me you were going to give something to one of the patients first."

  Alec leaned over the counter and held the hypodermic out to her. "I found this under the chair in Dani Morgan's room."

  Her eyes widened. "Doctor, I didn't-"

  "Take it to the lab. I want the contents analyzed stat."

  There was no argument, not that Alec expected any. Betty would carry out her mission while leaning on the lab personnel to hurry up if necessary.

  He passed the time pacing in front of the nurse's station and running horrifying scenarios in his head. Drug use? What else could it be? What did they really know of Renee Spencer? What was Kevin getting himself into? And how in the world could he tell him?

  Betty snatched up the phone on its first bleep. There was a flicker of a shocked expression
on her face. She masked it quickly and replaced the receiver.

  "Morphine mixed with dirty water, Dr. Edwards."

  "Holy shit!" He raked his fingers through his hair. "Run her blood for opiates."

  She was on her way to Dani's room before the last word could die.

  Dani didn't take kindly to being awakened by having a needle shoved in her arm.

  "I hope you have a good reason for this," she said, her voice husky with sleep.

  "Just a test," Alec said, forcing a smile.

  She levered herself upright. "Then you fail. A big fat F."

  Alec gently pushed her shoulder back down. "I'd expect nothing less from a teacher. Go back to sleep. We won't bother you any more tonight."

  After delivering a drawn out sigh of frustration, Dani rolled to her side and tugged the covers over her head.

  "This one might take awhile," Betty whispered.

  "Go on. I'll stay with her."

  "Shouldn't we remove the IV...just in case?"

  "Yes. I don't want to wait for the lab results. We could be wrong, but I'd rather be safe."

  In his heart, Alec knew he wasn't wrong. Someone had injected the substance into Dani's IV line in a deliberate attempt to harm her. And it looked like that someone was Renee Spencer.

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  Alec picked at a prune danish as he sucked down his fourth cup of coffee. Which, as far as his stomach was concerned, was about four cups too many. It would have been wiser to have something more nutritious at the cafeteria. But the possibility of running into Kevin and Renee was a prospect he couldn't deal with for now.

  So he tucked himself into the staff lounge and hoped to pour enough caffeine and sugar into his system so he could drive home without falling asleep at the wheel. It wasn't working. In fact, the couch in his office was looking pretty good-even if he did have to curl up into a pretzel to fit on it comfortably.

  He and Betty had reported the incident to the chief of staff. Once his shock faded, Walt Rushmore called the police and alerted security. At least Dani was all right for now. She was awake, alert, hungry, and now occupied a room across from the nurse's station. With the IV removed, the means to surreptitiously administer any more hypodermic cocktails was gone, should anyone try to slip by security. She would feel it if someone tried to stick her while she slept.