Lakeside Hospital Box Set

by Cara Malone

  She left her mother pouting in the kitchen and got out of the house as fast as she could. By the time she was finally on the front porch again, she was breathing heavily, leaning more toward the being sick option. She had to stop and put her hands on her knees, taking a few long, deep breaths. Fresh air never felt so good filling her lungs and she couldn’t seem to get enough of it.

  My mother is mentally ill and I haven’t been here for her.

  There was nothing about what just happened that had gone according to plan and she had no idea how she’d make it through the next four months. Jewel was so much better at dealing with their mother – why couldn’t she just keep handling this?

  When she could breathe again, Mercedes got in her luxury rental car and drove away as fast as she could. Seattle had never felt farther away. Hell, even the Evanston apartment that she’d meticulously organized felt too far away in that moment.

  8

  Lily

  Lily went to visit the Vanderbilt Burn Center in September.

  Dr. Marsh met her at the Nashville airport on a sunny Wednesday morning and they went straight to the Vanderbilt campus, where Dr. Marsh - an older man with a full, white beard that reminded Lily of Santa Claus - led her around the Burn Center like a proud parent. And there’s the finger painting that little Billy did… and there’s the million-dollar Graft 3D printer that’s going to revolutionize burn treatment.

  During her whirlwind forty-eight-hour trip, Lily met doctors whose names she’d read on all the top research articles in her field, observed cutting-edge debridement procedures and barely had a chance to catch her breath. Dr. Marsh was true to his word, stuffing her full of the best barbeque in the city on her first night in Nashville, and Lily said a silent thank you to the baby because her morning sickness seemed to finally be abating.

  As exciting as all of that was, the real treat came on Thursday afternoon, when the very first 3D-printed live graft was ready to be taken out of the lab and applied to a patient. More than a dozen doctors gathered to observe the procedure and the treatment room was filled with a reverent sense of awe as Dr. Marsh himself carried the lab-grown graft to the patient’s bedside.

  The recipient was a man in his mid-forties with a third-degree burn on his forearm where a machine had malfunctioned at his workplace and he’d been caught in the crossfire. His wife held his good hand while Dr. Marsh lay the specially-calibrated graft on top of the wound, and Lily held her breath through the entire procedure.

  She was pretty sure no one else breathed either – not even Dr. Marsh.

  When it was all done, she followed Dr. Marsh back to the lab to help him clean up.

  “Well?” he asked expectantly while she circled around the Graft 3D machine, admiring the technology. “What did you think?”

  “It was incredible,” Lily said. “A graft made of live tissue, formulated to be the exact size, depth, and composition to aid healing and reduce the risk of rejection to almost zero – it’s incredible that something like that is even possible.”

  “I’m sure Lakeside won’t be too far behind Vanderbilt in that area,” Dr. Marsh said. “I can see the determination in your eyes.”

  Lily looked down at her stomach. At three months, she had a distinct bump that she was really enjoying when she caught glimpses of it in the mirror, or in her reflection as she passed windows throughout the day. She wouldn’t trade it for the world, but a small part of her felt guilty for actually conceiving on her final fertilization attempt.

  If the embryo hadn’t implanted, she was planning to lose herself in her work and console herself with the knowledge that bringing the Graft 3D machine to Lakeside would help – and maybe even save – so many kids. Now she was almost certainly going to need to put off the project until next year.

  “Can I ask how much the facility cost?” Lily asked. “I mean, on top of the Graft 3D machine?”

  “We’ve been building it for the last five years,” Dr. Marsh said as he led her around the room. The lab was large, with crisp white walls and overhead lights that exuded cleanliness and expense. Lily was afraid to touch anything as she followed closely behind Dr. Marsh and he ran some numbers in his head, making multiplication gestures in the air with his fingers. Finally, he said, “I’d put it in the five-million-dollar ballpark.”

  “That’s a big ballpark,” Lily said. She circled closer to the machine and asked hesitantly, “May I?”

  “Of course,” Dr. Marsh said. “That’s what you came down here for.”

  Lily examined the Graft 3D machine, trying to imagine how a big hunk of metal and plastic could incubate living tissue to help save lives. While she looked, Dr. Marsh tidied up the lab, and when Lily was finally satisfied, her jealousy apparent in her eyes, she turned around to find Dr. Marsh grinning at her.

  “You like it, don’t you?”

  “It’s amazing,” she said. “The whole Vanderbilt medical campus is amazing.”

  “Sure would be nice to have one of these puppies at Lakeside, huh?” he said.

  “Yes,” she said wistfully. “Someday.”

  Dr. Marsh led her out of the lab. Goodbye, Graft 3D machine. She had a plane to catch and she needed to get to the airport soon. It had been an inspirational trip and it made Lily hungrier than ever to secure one of those machines for Lakeside, but it also served to illustrate just how far out of her reach it was.

  Dr. Ross had nearly laid an egg when she asked for a million dollars for the device itself – the cost to upgrade the entire lab would be out of the question.

  When she arrived at Lakeside on Monday morning, Lily was floating on a cloud of possibilities. Dr. Marsh and the generous budget at Vanderbilt had proven to Lily that unless something miraculous happened, the Graft 3D device would have to remain a pipe dream – but she could dream.

  She was standing at the nurses’ station a little before seven a.m., waiting for her interns to show up for rounds and thinking of how much she could accomplish with a lab like Vanderbilt’s, when a bag of pretzels slid across the counter toward her. She caught them and looked up.

  “Hey, stranger,” Mercedes said, one elbow propped casually on the counter. “I thought you might want those in case the baby didn’t enjoy flying over the weekend. How was your trip?”

  Lily smiled.

  Mercedes had been coming by the pediatric ward periodically for the last couple of months, showing up whenever they went too long without bumping into each other in the locker room or the cafeteria, and Lily always had to remind herself that it was nothing more than professional courtesy. Mercedes was an obstetrician, although not her obstetrician, and she seemed to have a sixth sense about when Lily needed a bag of bland pretzels, or a roll of Tums when her lunch didn’t sit well, or just a reminder to sit down for a few minutes and rest.

  She would have been a perfectly fine choice for Lily’s obstetric needs if it wasn’t for the fact that she set butterflies alight in Lily’s stomach every time she looked at her with those smoldering eyes.

  “It was good,” Lily said. “Dr. Marsh says hello.”

  “And?” Mercedes demanded, a twinkle in her eyes. She wanted details.

  “The facilities were a dream. I got to see Dr. Marsh place the very first graft and it was incredible,” Lily said, tearing into the pack of pretzels just to give her something to do that would take her attention away from Mercedes’s curious gaze. She added, “But the cost is outrageous – I’d never convince Dr. Ross it was worth the investment.”

  Mercedes slid a little closer along the counter and Lily glanced around them. She’d arrived early, eager to get back into the swing of things, and most of the patients were still asleep. The overnight shift nurse was in room seven with a post-op tonsillectomy patient who’d been taking the all the popsicles you can eat offer as a personal challenge.

  And Lily and Mercedes were alone.

  “You look defeated,” Mercedes said. She was frowning but her voice had taken on a seductive tone – or maybe it was just he
r proximity.

  “I’m just tired, I guess,” Lily said. She put one hand on her belly, making the mound of her baby bump more pronounced as she smoothed her dress over it. “It’s not a good time to be taking on such an enormous project, anyway. Once I go on maternity leave, there would be no one to oversee it.”

  “You could always figure something out,” Mercedes said. “That resident of yours, Chloe Barnes – she seems sharp and she’s certainly enthusiastic enough. I’m not saying it wouldn’t suck to take a step back right as you’re getting started – I think about my clinical trial in Seattle about as much as a scorned teenager thinks about their unrequited love. But if you want something, you should make it happen.”

  She slid just a little closer and Lily bit her bottom lip. What was it that Mercedes wanted?

  Not a day had gone by since Mercedes followed her out to the parking garage that she hadn’t stayed true to her word – I’m going to keep flirting with you if that’s okay – and every day, Mercedes wore her down just a little bit more. Those eyes, that sultry tone, the confidence with which she talked and moved and worked and stared Lily down… it was all conspiring to make her wonder why the hell she’d rejected Mercedes in the first place.

  Oh, right, I’m three months pregnant and she’s halfway through her sabbatical.

  “It’s not just the logistics,” Lily said, taking a step back where the air was less electrically charged. “Dr. Marsh said his lab cost $5 million to set up properly – I was pushing it when I asked for a million for the device itself. Vanderbilt has wealthy alumni benefactors, but Lakeside can’t afford that kind of budgetary hit for a single department, even if it would change lives.”

  Mercedes frowned, then the first of Lily’s interns arrived for the day. She was a tall, lanky kid who looked too young to be a doctor, and even though she was physically her opposite, the girl reminded Lily a lot of Ivy Chan. She had a thousand questions, she was always the first into the ward and the last one out, and she had the same ever-present gleam of determination in her eyes.

  “What’s on the menu today, Dr. Ellis?” Lily asked, challenging her already.

  “Brandy Jones in room three is hydrated and almost over the flu, Nick Benson in seven is still complaining of a sore throat but should be ready to be discharged… and Dr. Weston and I are still waiting for Scotty Hargraves to pass that shooter marble.” She said that last bit with the resigned fatigue of a soldier hardened by battle and behind Lily, Mercedes snorted.

  “Well, it sounds like you’ve got your day cut out for you,” she said, resting her hand briefly on Lily’s shoulder as she stepped away from the nurse’s station. “I’ve got a pre-diabetic mother coming in for a checkup in about twenty minutes so I’ll leave you to it. Have a good day, Dr. Thomas.”

  Dr. Ellis smiled at Lily as she watched Mercedes walk away – maybe for a moment too long – and then she looked at her watch and frowned at her intern. “Where is everyone? I shouldn’t be here before you in the mornings.”

  The next time Lily ran into Mercedes, it was Tuesday and Mercedes caught her stuffing a banana into her cheeks and looking wistfully through the doorway to an old treatment room that had fallen out of use since most of the pediatric burn patients started filtering over to Lurie Children’s Hospital.

  It was where she envisioned the Graft 3D machine would go, right after she won the lottery or found the gold at the end of a rainbow.

  “Whatcha doing?”

  Lily startled as she heard Mercedes’ voice behind her, then shot her a disapproving look. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

  “I was simply taking a stroll down the hall,” Mercedes said innocently. She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “What’s all this?”

  “My hopes and dreams,” Lily said, then she smiled and added more helpfully, “We used to have the largest pediatric burn unit in the area, until Lurie Children’s Hospital did a major upgrade and opened their own burn center. Now most of the patients that would have come to us are going to them, and I can’t remember the last time we had so many patients that we needed this room.”

  There were four beds there, arranged around the perimeter of the spacious room along with chairs for the parents and a large television mounted to the wall where the kids used to play games to distract themselves from the hospital setting. What Lily didn’t tell Mercedes was that Dr. Ross was considering using the space as another delivery room for the obstetrics department down the hall.

  “I like the animals,” Mercedes said, nodding at a large mural painted on the wall behind the television. It was a zoo scene, with lions, elephants and giraffes all living in harmony, but the colors had faded after years of the sun beating in on it from the windows.

  “I think that’s from the seventies,” Lily laughed. “It could probably use a refresh.”

  Mercedes stepped into the room and looked around. “This space is huge. And it just goes unused? What a waste.”

  Lily felt a surge of protectiveness as she followed Mercedes inside. “I wanted to use it for the Graft 3D machine. It wouldn’t take much effort to remove the beds, freshen up the space, and turn this into a cutting-edge laboratory.”

  “But then you’d have to get rid of the giraffes,” Mercedes said, giving Lily an irresistible pout. She watched her extend her bottom lip and wondered what it would feel like to kiss her.

  Then she turned away, taking another bite of her banana and saying with full cheeks, “Not necessarily. This is the pediatric ward, after all – whimsy is part of the job.”

  She went over and sat down on one of the beds. Her mother had warned her that her feet would start to swell the farther along she got, and although she hadn’t expected it so soon, she spent a lot of time on her feet and she found herself really enjoying opportunities to sit down and rest throughout the day.

  Mercedes sat down next to her, boldly close, and they shared a couple moments of silence as they looked around the room and Lily let her imagination loose on the space. Then Mercedes said, “What if you could raise the money on your own?”

  “Five million dollars?”

  “It’s not out of the question,” Mercedes said. “When I started my research, I applied for a million-dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I didn’t think I was going to get it – they’ve got so many more high-profile research projects to fund. But they liked my proposal and the preliminary work I was doing, and they funded me. The Graft 3D machine itself is only about a million, right?”

  “Yeah,” Lily said, afraid to let herself be hopeful about the idea.

  “The other four million is fluff, then. You could raise that later, after everyone figures out that you’re a rock star,” Mercedes said. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

  “That machine would help so many kids,” Lily said. Damn it, Mercedes was really making her want this, and she was sitting so close Lily could feel the slightest movements of her body shifting on the mattress they shared. Her proximity was scrambling Lily’s brain.

  Yes, she did want it. All of it.

  “I’ll help you write the grant proposal,” Mercedes said. “It’s not as intimidating as it sounds.”

  That was it – the last straw. Lily was at critical mass and before she could talk herself out of it, she leaned across the bed and kissed Mercedes. It was brief, almost childish in its innocence, and then she was leaning away, muttering, “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Mercedes said, turning and putting her hand behind Lily’s head. “I’ve been waiting for you to make a move.”

  Then she drew Lily back in for another kiss. This time, it was longer, deeper, and it set Lily’s whole body on fire.

  At the end of the week, Lily met Mercedes outside the medical library to start working on the grant proposal. Her palms were sweaty and she felt a little bit of nausea cloying at the back of her throat – another wave of pregnancy sickness, or more likely, the nerves that she’d been feeling ever since
their kiss.

  It had been fiery and intense, one of the best kisses Lily had ever had… and she’d been avoiding Mercedes ever since out of a juvenile desire to keep her from seeing the embarrassment that rose in her cheeks every time she thought about it. She couldn’t afford to let herself fall for someone who had an expiration date in her life, but she was struggling ever since that kiss.

  “When do you want to work on the grant proposal?” she’d asked as Lily slid limply off the treatment bed. Her feet felt better but her legs had turned to jelly.

  “I’ve got a lot going on this week, but Friday afternoon would work,” Lily had answered. “The earliest I’ll be free is six o’clock-”

  “Six o’clock on Friday sounds perfect,” Mercedes said, a conspiring grin on her lips as she added, “Meet me back here in your future lab?”

  Yes, Lily thought, her mind going immediately to the kiss. But there were doors that could be closed, as well as beds, and Lily wasn’t sure she could trust herself right now not to let her heart get carried away and then broken. She blamed it on the hormones – a convenient excuse for a lot of things, she found - and said, “We’ll need a computer – better make it the medical library.”

  And that was what brought them to the hallway outside the library on Friday afternoon. Lily only had to wait a couple of minutes for Mercedes, and then she sidled around the corner, saying, “Fancy seeing you here, Dr. Thomas.”

  She’d taken her white coat off and she was wearing another pair of those expensive, pleasingly tight trousers she’d had on during the staff meeting when they first met. On top, she wore a black button-up shirt and a pair of suspenders that Lily had a sudden urge to grab onto. She could use them for leverage, pulling Mercedes in for another kiss to show her that it hadn’t been merely a one-time moment of weakness.

  Mercedes noticed the look in Lily’s eyes – she noticed everything – and she grinned. “Ready to get busy?”