A Knight for Nurse Hart

by Laura Iding

  “The baby’s at Children’s Memorial, my wife is over there with their daughter now. Lora’s here, the doctor is seeing her now. As soon as they’re medically cleared, we’ll all be here waiting to hear about Greg’s condition.”

  “I’ll let the trauma surgeon know,” Caleb promised.

  “Thank you,” the young man said gratefully.

  He and Raine returned to the trauma bay. He made the call up to the OR, leaving a message with the OR circulating nurse about Greg’s family. She passed the word on to Eric Sutton, who reassured them he’d come to the waiting room to talk to the family as soon as he was finished.

  Satisfied, he hung up the phone. There was a lull in the action. Trauma was either busy or slow, and he found himself looking once again for Raine.

  They needed to talk. He just couldn’t let her go without a fight. Maybe it was crazy, but the awareness still shimmering between them made him believe in second chances.

  He found her in the staff lounge, sipping a soda. She looked surprised to see him.

  “I was surprised to see you earlier today. You never mentioned working at the animal shelter while we were going out,” he said, being careful to sound casual and not accusatory.

  She met his gaze briefly, before glancing away. “No, I didn’t. I’ve only been volunteering at the animal shelter for the past month or so.”

  The past month. Since their break-up. For some reason, the timing bothered him.

  “Your dad is a sweetheart,” she continued, staring down into the depths of her soft drink. “He’s a great vet, really wonderful with animals. Everyone at the shelter loves him.”

  Strange, Raine had never struck him as being an animal lover, although now that he knew she was, he wondered what else he hadn’t known about her.

  And why did it matter now?

  “Yeah, my dad has quite the female fan club,” he said dryly. “Just ask any of his ex-wives.”

  She frowned at him and he immediately felt guilty for the lame joke.

  “My dad is a great guy,” he amended. “He does have a special talent for working with animals.”

  Raine nodded thoughtfully. And then she suddenly jumped to her feet. “Look, Caleb, I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us on a personal level. But at least we know we can work together, right? We helped save Greg’s life. Surely that counts for something.”

  Her words gave him the opportunity he needed.

  “Raine, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accused you of seeing Jake behind my back.”

  She stared at him with wide blue eyes. “Why were you so ready to believe the worst?” she asked in a low voice.

  He swallowed hard, knowing she deserved the truth. “I had a bad experience with being cheated on in the past,” he finally admitted. “I walked in and found my fiancée in bed with another man.”

  “I see.” She frowned and broke away from his gaze.

  Did she? He doubted it. “Look, Raine, I know now that I overreacted. Jake explained everything.”

  She brought her gaze, full of reproach, up to his. “So did I, remember? The next day, when I called you?”

  He didn’t know what to say to that, because what she said was the truth. She had tried to explain, but he hadn’t believed her.

  “You listened to Jake, but you didn’t listen to me,” Raine murmured, her blue eyes shadowed with pain. “I guess that sums everything up right there.”

  Panic gripped him by the throat. “Raine, please. Give me another chance.”

  She sighed and rubbed her temples. “It’s too late, Caleb. There were a lot of other signs that you didn’t trust me, but I tried to ignore them. The way you kept asking me where I was going and who I was going to be with. The night with Jake only solidified what I already knew.”

  “I learned my lesson,” he quickly protested. “I promise, this time I’ll trust you.”

  But she was already shaking her head. “It’s not that easy, Caleb. Trust comes from within. You have to believe with your whole heart.”

  His whole heart? Her words nagged at him. Because he cared about Raine a lot. But had he loved her? He’d thought things were heading in that direction, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  Those feelings of intense betrayal, when he’d seen her with Jake, had haunted him. Had made him think the worst about her.

  He remembered how Raine had tried to explain how thrilled and relieved she’d been to be away from the overbearing scrutiny of her three older brothers. At first she’d teasingly accused him of being just like them.

  But then she’d become more resentful.

  And he’d accused her of cheating on him.

  No wonder she’d wanted a break.

  Still, he wanted another chance. Even though there was something different about her. A shadow in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. The Raine he’d worked with tonight didn’t seem to be the same person she’d been a month earlier.

  Because of him?

  Caleb’s stomach twisted with regret. He hadn’t told her about his mother abandoning him and his father, taking off to follow her dream of being a dancer. Or the string of stepmothers and almost stepmothers. Obviously, he should have.

  “Raine, I’m sorry. I know I don’t deserve another chance, but—” He stopped when their pagers went off simultaneously.

  Sixty-nine-year-old male passed out at home, pulse irregular and slow, complaining of new onset chest pain. ETA three minutes.

  “How about we focus on being friends?” she said. “Excuse me, but I need to make sure everything is ready for our new patient.” Raine brushed past him to head towards the trauma room.

  He followed more slowly, watching as Raine and Sarah double-checked the equipment and supplies they had on standby.

  They didn’t have to wait long. When the doors from the paramedic bay burst open, he was assailed by a strange sense of déjà vu as the paramedic crew wheeled in their new arrival.

  Raine’s sudden gasp made him frown. And in the next second he understood as he recognized the patient too.

  His father.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  RAINE glanced at Caleb, worried about his reaction. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have your father being wheeled into the trauma bay.

  She grabbed the closest ED tech. “Ben, run to the arena and ask Dr. Garrison to come over.” She stepped up to put the elderly vet on the heart monitor. Caleb couldn’t function as his father’s physician. Especially when Dr. Frank’s face was sweaty and pale, his eyes closed and his facial muscles drawn, as if he was in extreme pain.

  Caleb surprised her by stepping up and taking control. “He’s still bradycardic. Raine, start oxygen at two liters per minute. Send a cardiac injury panel and then we’ll run a twelve-lead EKG.”

  “He’ll need something for pain, too.” The paramedic had placed the oxygen on, so she concentrated on drawing blood, knowing they needed the results stat in order to determine if he should go straight to the cardiac cath lab. But Dr. Frank’s pain was her next priority.

  “Dr. Garrison can’t come,” Ben announced when he returned from the arena, a tad short of breath himself. “He’s about to deliver a baby.”

  “A baby?” Raine echoed in shocked amazement. Good grief, could things get any worse? She shot a quick glance at Caleb before giving his father two milligrams of morphine. And then called for the EKG tech.

  “I’m fine,” Caleb said in a low tone, answering her unspoken question. “We’re going to need to call the cardiologist anyway, since I’m sure my father is having an acute myocardial infarct.”

  “Can’t you…just call it…a heart attack?” his father asked in a feebly sarcastic tone.

  “Dr. Frank, you need to try to relax,” Raine urged, putting a reassuring hand on his arm. “We don’t know for sure that you’re having a heart attack, but we’re going to do all the preliminary tests just in case.”

  The vet ignored her, his gaze locked on his son. “I should have…told you.”

/>   Raine glanced up at Caleb, who’d come up to stand beside his father. She continued to record vital signs as they spoke.

  “Should have told me what?” Caleb asked urgently. “Have you had chest pain before?”

  “No. Dizzy spells.” Caleb’s father spoke in short phrases, his breathing still labored. Raine cranked up the oxygen to five liters per minute as his pulse ox reading was only 89 percent. “I got dizzy-and fell off…the ladder.”

  Caleb’s breath hissed out between his teeth. But his tone was surprisingly gentle. “Yes, you should have told me.”

  “Denial…can be…very powerful.” His father’s eyes were shadowed with regret.

  Raine stepped in with a bright smile, trying to ease the tension between father and son. “Well, thank heavens you’re here now. Don’t worry, Dr. Frank, we’re going to take good care of you.”

  “You’re…a sweet girl…Raine.”

  Caleb’s smile was strained. “Dad, Geoff Lyons is the cardiologist on call, he should be here to see you shortly. How’s your chest pain? Any better?”

  “Not much,” his dad answered.

  “Raine, start him on a nitroglycerine drip. If that doesn’t help, we’ll give him another two milligrams of morphine.”

  She was already crossing over to the pharmaceutical dispensing machine to fetch a bottle of nitroglycerine and more morphine.

  The phone rang and she could hear Caleb crossing over to answer it. She listened as he repeated the critical troponin level of 2.4 and gave his name before hanging up.

  His father was more alert than he let on. “Guess I’ve…earned a trip…to the cath lab.”

  “Yes.” Caleb glanced up in relief when Dr. Geoff Lyons walked in.

  “What’s going on?” Geoff asked.

  Raine gave Dr. Frank more morphine as Caleb and Geoff discussed the results of the EKG and the lab work. She stayed by his side as Dr. Lyons made arrangements for Caleb’s dad to be transferred to the cardiac cath lab.

  “You’ll be fine,” Raine told him reassuringly, as she connected him to the transport monitor.

  “I’ll see you after the procedure, Dad,” Caleb added.

  “Caleb…take care of Grizz for me,” his father whispered.

  “I will. I’ll run and get him after my shift.” Caleb squeezed his father’s hand and then stepped back.

  “Is there someone else we should call?” Raine asked him softly, as the cardiac team whisked Caleb’s dad away. “Your mom? Brothers or sisters?”

  “No.” Caleb gave a deep sigh. “My dad isn’t married at the moment and he’s recently broken up with his current lady friend, Sharon. My mother took off years ago, and she has her own family now.”

  The way he spoke of his mother, so matter-of-fact, wrenched her heart. He’d never mentioned his mother leaving before. What sort of mother abandoned her son? No wonder Caleb found it hard to believe in women. “I’m sorry,” she said helplessly.

  “Not your fault.” Caleb brushed her sympathy aside as if determined to make her believe he was over it. “We’d better get ready for the next patient.”

  “The next patient?” She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Caleb, your father is having a heart procedure. I’m sure one of the physicians would be willing to cover for you.”

  “I’m fine. There’s nothing I can do until after his procedure is over anyway.” His dark, stormy gray eyes warned her not to say anything more, before he turned and walked away.

  Caleb was determined to finish his shift, even though his thoughts kept straying to his father.

  He didn’t blame his dad for not telling him about the dizzy spells. Rather, he was upset with himself. He should have forced his father to go in to be checked out when he’d fallen off the ladder in the first place.

  If he’d have listened to his gut instinct, it was possible he could have prevented the additional damage to his father’s heart.

  He could feel Raine’s concerned gaze following him as they worked on their next patient, an abdominal stabbing sustained during a bar fight. The tip of the blade had just missed the diaphragm, which was lucky as that meant his breathing wasn’t impaired, but Caleb was certain either the stomach or the intestines had been hit.

  “Raine, we need to explore the depth of the wound,” he informed her.

  She nodded her understanding and quickly began prepping the area with antimicrobial solution before spreading several sterile drapes around the wound. Once he’d donned his sterile gear, he reached for a scalpel. “Hold the retractor for me, will you? Like this.”

  She did as he asked, opening the wound so he could see better. The damage wasn’t as bad as he’d expected, although the laceration in the small intestine meant the patient would need surgery. He irrigated the wound with sterile saline to help clean it out. “Okay, that’s all we can do here. Put a dressing over this, would you? I need to get in touch with the general surgeon on call. This guy needs a small bowel resection.”

  Once he’d gotten their stab patient transferred to the care of the general surgeon, he checked his watch, wondering how his father was doing. A good hour had passed since he’d been taken up to the cardiac cath lab.

  “Caleb? There’s a phone call for you.” Raine’s expression was troubled as she handed him the receiver.

  The display on the phone indicated the call was from the OR, not the cath lab. Was this regarding his stab-wound patient? “This is Dr. Stewart.”

  “Caleb, it’s Geoff Lyons. I’m sorry to tell you that your father’s condition took a turn for the worse. We had to abort the attempt to place a stent. I called a cardiothoracic surgeon in for assistance. Dr. Summers has taken him to the OR for three-vessel cardiac bypass surgery.”

  Raine watched the blood drain from Caleb’s face and feared the news wasn’t good. When he hung up the phone, she crossed over to him. “What’s wrong? Your father?”

  “In the OR, having cardiac bypass surgery.” Caleb’s expression was grim. “They couldn’t get the stent placed and his condition grew very unstable, so they called in the surgeon.”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured, feeling helpless. “Do you want me to call Dr. Garrison to cover you? There’s only about an hour and a half left of the shift.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Caleb said. She was somewhat surprised he’d given in. Of course, there was a huge difference between having a cardiac cath procedure and full-blown open-heart surgery.

  Dr. Joe Garrison agreed to cover and luckily the steady stream of trauma calls seemed to dwindle. At the end of her shift, she transferred her last patient to the ICU and then was free to go.

  Raine couldn’t bring herself to head home, though. Instead, after she swiped out, she went to the OR waiting room to find Caleb.

  He was sitting with his elbows propped on his knees, his head cradled in his hands. He looked so alone, she was glad she’d come.

  “Hey,” she said, dropping into the seat beside him. “Have you heard anything?”

  He lifted his head to look at her, his forehead furrowed with lines of exhaustion. “Not really, other than a quick call to let me know this could take hours yet. Is your shift over already?”

  “Yes, and don’t worry, it was relatively quiet. Not a problem at all for Dr. Garrison to cover.”

  Caleb nodded. “I’m glad. I was just thinking about whether or not I should leave for a while to pick up Grizz. I’m sure he’ll need to go outside soon.”

  “I can run and let him out if you like,” she offered. “I’d take him home with me, but my apartment doesn’t allow dogs.”

  “Thanks, but I need to get him moved into my house anyway, now that Dad’s going to be in the hospital for a while.” Caleb rubbed the back of his neck and slowly stood.

  She stared at him, wondering about this sudden urge to pick up the dog. Was he looking for an excuse to get away from her?

  And, really, could she blame him? He’d asked for a second chance, but she’d refused.

  But they could stil
l be friends, couldn’t they?

  “Do you want some company?” she asked lightly.

  He hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. “Sure.”

  Okay, so maybe Caleb wasn’t looking for an excuse to avoid her. She had to stop second-guessing his motives. She stood and followed him to the parking structure where all the ED employees parked. “Do you want me to drive?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll drive.”

  She wasn’t surprised—her brothers would have said the exact same thing. She didn’t understand the macho need to drive, but figured it had something to do with wanting to be in control. She slid into the passenger seat, remembering the last time she’d ridden with Caleb.

  On their last date before the Jake fiasco. A romantic dinner and a trip to the theater to see Phantom of the Opera. She’d never enjoyed herself more.

  Regret twisted like a knife in her heart.

  Caleb didn’t say anything on the short ride to his father’s house. She pushed aside her own tangled emotions, understanding that at this moment, Caleb was deeply worried about his father. And she certainly couldn’t blame him.

  She was worried too.

  “Your dad is strong, Caleb. He’s going to pull through this just fine.”

  He glanced at her and nodded. “I know. It’s just…” His voice trailed off.

  “What?” she asked.

  He let out a heavy sigh. “My dad and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love him. I just wish I would have told him that before he left to go to the cardiac cath lab. I should have said the words.”

  Her heart squeezed in her chest. She reached out to lightly touch his arm. “He knows, Caleb. Your dad knows how much you love him.”

  He didn’t respond, but pulled into his father’s driveway. She’d been there earlier that day, when she’d driven Dr. Frank home from the animal shelter. He got out of the car and she followed him into the dark house.

  “Hi, Grizz.” Caleb smiled a bit when the dog greeted them enthusiastically, trying to lick both of them in his excitement to see them.

  “Grizz, you’re just a big old softie, aren’t you?” Raine said, stroking his wiggling body.