The Doctor Who Made Her Love Again

by Susan Carlisle

  China studied his profile. Straight backed with wide shoulders, Payton looked as if he’d been born on a boat. His ability to make her come alive when he touched her made her shiver to think about it. China smiled. She really couldn’t resist him.

  Payton showed her how to tie the boat firmly at the bow and had her do it at the stern, guiding her through the steps. China waited while he hopped aboard again and got their lunch trash. He climbed back onto the dock, tossed the bag in a nearby garbage can, took her hand and they walked toward his car. They passed a group of deep-sea fishing boats along the way. On one, a couple of men looked as if they were working on some fishing gear.

  “Have you ever been deep-sea fishing?” Payton asked.

  “N—”

  The air was suddenly scorched by a four-letter word. They both stopped and looked back.

  One of the men was holding his hand up and jumping around.

  “Pete, stand still and let me have a look,” the other man said in an annoyed voice.

  “Wh’ta you need to look for? You’re the one who pushed the damn hook through my finger.”

  “I’ve got to get it out,” the other man said in a high voice.

  “You’re not touching me. You’d kill me,” Pete yelled.

  “Then I’ll take you to the emergency room.”

  “That’ll cost too much. No insurance.”

  China and Payton walked over to the boat. “Can we help? I’m Dr. Payton Jenkins and this is China Davis. She’s a nurse.”

  Peter stopped pacing, his face contorted in pain. “Yeah.” He held up his meaty finger for them to see. Between the first and second knuckle of his index finger the bright gold eye end of a nook jutted from his skin. There wasn’t any blood but the tight white line around Pete’s mouth told it was painful.

  “You have a first-aid kit?” Payton asked.

  “Yeah,” the man without the hook in his finger said.

  “Get it, please.”

  “Right away.” He disappeared into the cabin of the boat.

  The dimming lighting along the pier necessitated that Payton and China climb aboard in order to see. The light of the cabin overhang was better, otherwise she would have insisted that Payton work on the dock. Compared to Payton’s immaculate sailboat, this one was a trash dump. He stepped onto the boat then helped her. In short order, which China was astonished by, the man returned with the first-aid kit. Apparently things were more in organized inside the cabin.

  “Okay, Pete, you need to sit down.” Payton looked around as if unsure where that would happen.

  The man pushed the stuff piled on a raised captain’s chair off onto the deck with a clatter. Pete dropped into the chair without question, looking far too pale in the faint light.

  With a raised eyebrow of bewilderment that was almost comical Payton said, “All right, then, let’s see what we’ve got.” Payton took the man’s hand in his and examined the wound site. He looked at Pete. “You know I can’t pull this back. The barb will get more securely stuck in your finger. That will require surgery.”

  “I was ’fraid of that,” he said in a tight voice as he glared at his friend.

  “I’m going to have to push it though. The one promise I can make is that it’s going to hurt like the devil.”

  “Just do it, Doc. I can’t walk around with this.” He glanced at China as if reminding himself to watch his language. “Blasted hook in my finger.”

  “I’m going to need some wire pliers. Got any?”

  “Sure,” Ralph said. “What kind do you want?”

  “The sharpest will suffice.”

  “Coming up.”

  Payton turned his attention back to Pete. “I’m going to clip off the eye end of the hook and use that end to push it through.” Payton rubbed the spot on the finger where the hook should come through. “The skin on our fingers is some of the toughest of the body. Yours is especially thick because of the type of work you do. This won’t be fun.”

  “Never thought it would be,” Pete announced stoically, but a look of fear showed through his bravado.

  “So, Pete, how long you been a fisherman? China, would you see if you can find some alcohol that we can use to sterilize this with?” Payton was referring to the hook.

  She opened the kit and located a few alcohol pads.

  “Aw, about twenty years or so,” Pete answered.

  The other man returned with the pliers and handed them to Payton.

  “China, open one of those and wring the liquid out over the hook and the pliers. It may take two.”

  She tore the alcohol package and did as he instructed over the hook. As the liquid ran over Pete’s finger he winced.

  “Now the pliers,” Payton said.

  China squeezed all she could out of the first pad and then opened another.

  “Okay, we’re ready to start. China, hold Pete’s hand down against the arm of the chair.”

  She moved around beside Payton and took Pete’s wrist securely in her hand.

  “I think I’ll go see about something in the cabin,” the friend stated.

  “Yeah, that’s just like you, running from a little blood.” Pete looked at Payton and nodded his head toward the man. “He faints at the sight of blood.”

  Payton stopped what he was doing. “Go into the cabin. I don’t need to have to stitch you up if you hit your head.” Payton waited for the man to disappear into the cabin. “All right, Pete, you may feel a tug when I cut off the eye.”

  “I’m ready when you are, Doc.”

  Payton snipped off the end of the hook quickly and surely. Pete let out a yelp.

  “Okay, this is going to be the hard part. China, hold him tight. Pete, grip the armrest. Here we go.” Putting the flat of the pliers against the top of the hook Payton pushed. China watched as his chew tightened in his effort to not hurt the man and still get the hook to move through the skin.

  Pete hissed. Payton leaned into the effort. Time seemed to creep by before the barbed end of the hook made a bump in Pete’s skin and then popped through. Pete had turned white.

  “Oh, hell,” Payton said.

  “What’s wrong?” China asked, looking at the hook.

  “The tip of the hook is missing. It may have broken against the bone or been that way before it went in but either way it’s missing.”

  “What’s the problem?” Pete asked in a tight voice.

  “It means that I have no choice but to take you to the E.R. It has to be x-rayed.”

  “I can’t pay.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now. You could get an infection and it could kill you if that tip stays in your finger.”

  “Come on, Doc. Is there no other way?”

  “No.” Payton said the word as if he was a general giving orders. “China, we’ll take him in the car. Let’s get the finger covered and get moving.”

  China pulled out what bandage and tape she could find in the kit and used them to cover the finger, hook and all.

  “Hey,” Payton called into the cabin to Pete’s friend. “We’re going to have to take Pete to the E.R.”

  “What?” the man stuck his head out of the cabin.

  “I’ve got to go to the hospital, man. Come pick me up,” Pete said.

  “Hold your hand up above you heart and it will help the throbbing,” China told Pete, as they walked up the pier. Payton had jogged ahead to get his car and meet them at the entrance of the pier. Payton was pulling up when Pete started to sag beside her. She put an arm around his waist but with his girth she had little chance of holding him upright. The car screeched to a halt and Payton came running to help.

  Together they steadied Pete and helped him into the back seat of the car.

  “Let’s go before he does more damage to hi
mself or one of us.” Payton took his seat behind the steering wheel.

  With Pete seated and his head lying back against the top of the seat, China said, “I’ll ride back here and make sure he doesn’t pass out.” She climbed into the backseat.

  Payton didn’t break any laws but he didn’t hesitate to move as fast as possible through the traffic. At the hospital, he pulled under the covered emergency entrance. China had her door open and was coming around the car to help with Pete by the time Payton was opening the door. Together, supporting Pete on each side, they walked into the building.

  As one of the nurses came toward them Payton announced. “I’m Dr. Jenkins from the walk-in clinic downtown. I need an exam room.”

  “This way,” the nurse said, and directed them to a space.

  With Pete’s help they were able to get him on the bed and settled.

  The E.R. doctor on service that evening entered the room. “What we got here, Payton?”

  “Hey, Rick. This is Pete and he had a fish hook in this finger. He needs an x-ray to find the tip.”

  China was already in the process of removing the bandage as they spoke. When she had it off both men looked at it.

  “Well, you’re in luck. We aren’t busy tonight and therefore neither is X-Ray. Should be able to do one right away. We might want to finish getting that hook out first, though,” Rick said.

  “Hey, Doc.” Pete looked at Payton. “I’d like you to do it.”

  Payton looked at Rick. He shrugged. “Sure, Pete. If that is what you want.”

  “I’ll get the supplies,” China said, and started across the room to the cabinets.

  “When’s the last time you had a tetanus shot, Pete?”

  “Heck, I don’t know.”

  “Then you’ll need one before you’re released. I’ll add it to the chart.”

  China joined them again and placed what Payton would need on the stand beside the bed. Payton picked up the needle with the lidocaine in it. “Pete, I’m going to deaden your finger then we’ll get this hook out of it.”

  Pete flinched and moved away. “Hey, I don’t like needles.”

  “You’ll like the alternative less. I need you to lay your hand on the bed and look out into the hall. And don’t move.”

  Slowly Payton pushed the thin needle under Pete’s skin near the hook. To Pete’s credit he didn’t cringe and Payton was soon finished. Picking up the pliers China had brought from the supply cabinet, Payton said, “Okay, let’s get this done.” Payton seized the angry end of the hook with the nose of the pliers and pulled.

  As soon as the hook was removed, China placed one of the alcohol pads over the wound.

  Pete flinched but didn’t jerk away.

  Payton dropped the hook in the red biohazardous box. “How are you doing, Pete?”

  “Fine.” There was a thin white line around Pete’s lips.

  “Now off to X-Ray. Hopefully we got it all.”

  “If not, what happens then?”

  “I’m afraid surgery.” At the puckering of Pete’s lips, as if a complaint was forthcoming, Payton said, “Let’s not worry about that until we see what an x-ray shows.”

  The X-ray tech wheeled Pete off.

  Twenty minutes later Payton entered the exam room, where China was bandaging Pete’s finger. “Well, the radiologist says everything looks great. No foreign objects visible.”

  Pete’s buddy entered the room with a searching look and wide eyes.

  “Well, I see your ride is here. When the desk nurse is finished with the paperwork you’re free to go.”

  “Thanks Doc,” Pete called, as she and Payton were going out the door. “You ever want to go fishing, me and my buddy are the ones to come to.”

  Payton waved a hand above his head in acknowledgment.

  “No way I’m I getting on that tub again,” he whispered to China.

  “Thank goodness. I was afraid you might invite me along.”

  They laughed. Minutes later, Payton opened the car door for China and she slid into the seat. An air of uncertainty settled over her as he drove through the almost empty parking lot. Would he ask her to come home with him? Did she want to? At the exit Payton paused and looked at her for a long moment before he said, “China, I won’t assume but...would you come home with me?”

  All that confidence Payton had shown just a few minutes earlier as he’d handled the removal of the hook had gone out the window. He was as insecure about their relationship as she was. Somehow that reassured her.

  She nodded. A huge smile covered his face as he took her hand and placed it on his thigh before he pulled out into the traffic.

  Somewhere after midnight Payton rolled over and kissed her shoulder before his mouth found hers. His hand cupped a breast, teasing the nipple. This time their lovemaking was slow and easy. Later, much later, China curled up next to his warm body and inhaled deeply. Her eyes slowly closed on an exhalation.

  Life could be safe and secure.

  * * *

  “So, do you want to go parasailing with me today?” Payton asked, as he placed kisses across her belly midmorning of the next day.

  “What?”

  “You know, where someone pulls you behind the boat and you’re attached to a parachute and you go up in the air.”

  She rolled her eyes and said in a sarcastic voice, “I know what parasailing is. I just wanted to know why you would want to do it.”

  “Because I never have.”

  “Do you have a death wish or something?”

  Payton tensed.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. It hard for me to imagine you having had cancer. You seem so hearty.”

  “I am hearty.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Payton sat up and looked at the majestically beautiful woman before him who had no idea how much she affected his world. “I know. I just like giving you a hard time.”

  “Will you tell me about it?” she asked softly.

  Payton hesitated. Did she really want to know all the gory details? She deserved to. With a resigned release of a breath he said, “I worked long hours in the E.R. in the largest trauma center in Chicago. I didn’t mind. I loved what I did. Everything gave me an adrenaline rush. I’m from a long line of doctors. In fact, my great-grandfather was on the board when the hospital opened. My father sits on the board today.”

  “You were headed that way, too,” China said, as a statement of fact.

  “Yeah. I was on the fast track with the in-crowd ticket. But I got sick. I didn’t see it coming or maybe I didn’t want to admit it. I started feeling tired. Then I found the lump in my neck.”

  He couldn’t miss the soft intake of China’s breath. To her credit, she didn’t say anything.

  “I couldn’t ignore any longer that something was seriously wrong. If I had been one of my patients I would’ve chewed me out for not going to the doctor sooner. I went to see my best buddy and...” Payton grinned “...he did chew me out. There was a biopsy, the bad news radiation and chemo. My parents came unglued. My fiancée handed my ring back.”

  “Not much of a person, in my opinion.” She sounded like a warrior fighting for her family. He liked the sound of it.

  “Thank you. I agree. It hurt at the time but in hindsight I don’t think we would’ve made it anyway. She was far more interested in my family name and its influence than me.”

  China smiled at him. “Well, I’m glad she let you go, otherwise I might not have met you.”

  He gave her an appreciative kiss. “Thank you. I feel the same way about you.”

  “So how did your family react to your diagnosis?”

  “The same way they do to everything. He’ll overcome this.’ My mom became my major caregiver. I’ll forever be grateful to her
.”

  “I hear a but in there.”

  “Well, Mom almost became oppressive with her help. She was worried about losing me and I understand that, but when I began to get better she had a hard time accepting I needed her to back off.”

  “I’m guessing she didn’t take it well when you decided to move down here.”

  “No, and neither did my father. They wanted me close because they love me and are concerned about me but they were also upset that I would give up all they considered important, like my position at the hospital, my influence in the community, to move down here to nothing.” When China stiffened he was quick to say. “Sorry, those are their words, not mine. To say they didn’t understand I had changed or I needed to move my life in a different direction would be an understatement.”

  “I know that this isn’t any of my business but are you seeing someone regularly for check-ups?” The note of concern in her voice didn’t escape his notice.

  “Yes, Nurse China. I’m taking care of myself. I have regular bloodwork done. I’m going to Chicago next month for a checkup.” His look met hers. “Hey, why don’t you go with me?”

  China was surprised to find at she rather liked the idea of meeting Payton’s family. “How about we see when the time comes?” If she made that step, she would be trusting that there was something more between them than just being bed friends.

  “Okay, I’ll let it go for now but what about that parasailing?”

  “How about I watch you?”

  “It would be a lot more fun if you went up with me. We could make out, maybe try a little something else.”

  China laughed and swatted him playfully. “You’re trying to live dangerously again.”

  Payton ran a hand from her foot up along her calf and smiled when she shivered. “Yes, maybe I am, but it sounds like fun, doesn’t it?” He dropped his voice to a sexy persuasive tone.

  She smiled. “I could just kiss you before you go up.”

  “That’s not the same. Come on, China. I think it would be fun.” He gave her a pleading look.