Solemn Oath

by Hannah Alexander

  Even the sound of her voice transfixed him. He reached up and touched her face again, then drew back again quickly, as if she might burn him.

  And she might. And she didn’t even realize the sudden power she had over him.

  “Maybe we should go back inside.”

  Chapter Ten

  Monday morning at three minutes to seven, Lukas pulled into the hospital parking lot and turned off the windshield wipers of the Jeep. A fine mist floated between the trees and branches of the hospital grounds, and the delicate washing of water brought out the beginning golds and reds of the leaves that would soon deepen into true autumn beauty.

  Lukas wrapped his stethoscope around his neck as he climbed out of the Jeep and pocketed his keys. He caught sight of his reflection in the window, and even with the blurring of moisture, he could see the dumb grin on his face as he thought again about Thursday evening with Mercy. He shook his head and walked toward the emergency entrance. It had only been a kiss. And a hug. And a hint of a future.

  But what future? His grin flattened. With things as they were, there could be no future. He’d thought about it all weekend, all along the two-and-a-half-hour trip to his dad and stepmom’s home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri, and all day Saturday, at Dad’s seventieth birthday celebration, complete with at least forty relatives and friends. He’d endured the good-natured teasing from his brothers and their families about his lack of a love life and didn’t once mention the fact that he thought he might be falling in love. About a month ago he’d talked with Dad about his friendship with Mercy, and he’d heard the concern in Dad’s voice when he discovered that Mercy was not a believer. So what was there to talk about?

  But Mercy’s heart was changing. She’d admitted it herself. She was on the verge of belief. Lukas could almost hear it in her voice. Any day she might—

  The sudden appearance of barrel-chested, big-eared Buck Oppenheimer standing at the glass entrance doors of the E.R. waiting room dragged Lukas from his daydreams.

  Buck pushed the door open for Lukas, his muscle-bound arm flexing like well-crafted stainless steel. “Hi, Doc. I’ve been waiting for you.” He glanced at his watch. “You’re almost late, you know.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m sixty seconds early.” Lukas slowed his steps, studying the look of eager anticipation in Buck’s gray eyes. “What’s up?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said the other day.” Buck turned to walk with Lukas through the quiet E.R. proper toward the call rooms in back. “How about I come to work here for you for a while? I can take a leave from the fire department, move back in with Kendra, and when we have to cut our finances and stop going out to eat every weekend and she can’t buy all the clothes she wants, she’ll realize how much better off I am with the fire department.”

  Lukas shot Buck a skeptical glance as he pushed his way through the door of his customary call room. “I thought you said the fire department was cutting back on expenses.” Sometimes the guy didn’t use common sense.

  “They’re not cutting my salary, just asking for more hours at the same pay because they’re not rehiring when someone quits.”

  “Doesn’t sound like they’d be willing to let you take leave.”

  “They’ve been relying more and more on the new recruits. You know those two eighteen-year-olds I’ve been working with? The chief wants to hire Alex as a trainee at minimum wage. He didn’t even ask Kyle.”

  “Why not?”

  “The chief actually listened to me when I told him Kyle didn’t have the aptitude. The kid’s a show-off. He’s always trying to upstage everyone and be a hero. He’s an accident waiting to happen. He trips over hoses, he slammed the door on Alex’s finger yesterday and he fell into one of my airplane models and broke it before the glue was even dry.”

  Lukas checked the tiny fridge, grabbed a can of Instant Breakfast and popped the top. He walked back to the main desk. “Have you spoken with Kendra this weekend?”

  Buck walked beside him, a new frown drawing down his features. “I tried Friday. When she found out I was still an employee of the Knolls Fire Department, she hung up on me.”

  “Sounds like she means business. Have you tried again since Friday?”

  “We’ve been too busy. I had to help a guy with another group of Explorers doing community service on Saturday, and that night we had another fire, this time down at the pool hall. It wasn’t very big, but they had some smoke damage. I just happened to be there when it started, so we got it out in time to save most of the pool tables and other furniture.”

  “But didn’t you even try to call her Sunday?” Lukas asked.

  “Well, I would have, but my cousin Reese asked me to go out to his farm and help him vaccinate some cattle. We didn’t get finished till late.”

  Lukas shook his head. “Buck, I know I’m just an inexperienced single guy, but I get the feeling you’re avoiding the issue with your wife, and if I get that feeling, then she does.”

  Buck shrugged. “Why should I keep trying to call her when all she does is hang up on me? She’s not even trying. Why should I? Do you have any jobs for me here?”

  Carol looked up from her work at the central desk as the two men approached. “Are you looking for some work, Buck? Our tech for today just called in sick.”

  “Oh, really?” Lukas asked. “Who’s scheduled?”

  “Amanda. She’s got the flu. I can’t find any of the other techs to fill in.”

  “I can do it,” Buck said eagerly. “Can’t I, Dr. Bower?”

  Lukas shook his head at the puppy-eager quality of Buck’s expression. “Fine with me, since you’re already part-time with our ambulance service. Monday is traditionally a busy day, and Dr. Garcias is supposed to come in for her first shift. I want to break her in gently, and a full crew would be nice. Find some scrubs, Buck, if you can get any to fit over those football pads you call shoulders.”

  A huge gap-toothed grin spread across Buck’s face. “All right!”

  “That doesn’t mean we can hire you full-time,” Lukas warned. “And I don’t think you’re going to fool Kendra by just taking a leave from the station.”

  “You’re not suggesting I actually quit the fire department?” Buck exclaimed.

  Lukas shook his head. “Go get your scrubs on.”

  As the young man turned and rushed toward the back, Carol looked at Lukas and leaned toward him, lowering her voice. “Dr. Bower, you know they’re looking for an arsonist, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I heard that.”

  “It makes sense. I wonder if they’ve got Buck on the arson team again.”

  “Again?”

  “Oh sure. He teaches fire safety, you know. He’s helped them catch three in the past. No wonder they’ve got him teaching those kids.”

  The glass entrance door flew open, and Lauren McCaffrey raced through it, tying her long blond hair back with both hands while trying to carry her purse and a lunch bag under her right arm. “Sorry I’m late. My freezer went out on me last night, and I had to find a way to store all those fish I’ve been catching this summer. I’ve got packages stored at the kitchen at church, but they’re going to need the space tomorrow for the side of beef they’re having—Ouch!” Her hands got tangled in her hair, and her lunch bag and purse dropped to the floor.

  Lukas went over and picked them up for her while she untangled her hair. “I’ve got a brand-new refrigerator,” he said. “You can use the freezer in it if you want to. Catch any fish yesterday?”

  “Seven white bass. Thanks for the offer, Dr. Bower, but I’ve decided to have a fish fry tomorrow night. I’ve got the day off. You like fish, don’t you? I’d love to have you—”

  “Excuse me, Dr. Bower!” Carol interrupted, swinging around in a frantic motion toward him. “We have a frightened caller on line one. He and his buddies just pulled a woman out of Norfork Lake, and they’re bringing her in by private car. They’re calling from a cell phone.”

  Lukas stepped over to the desk and
took the phone; a man’s shaking voice shouted from the receiver. “Hello? Is anybody there? I think the line’s—”

  “This is Dr. Bower. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Oh, thank goodness! We’ve got this girl in the backseat of our car. We found her lying at the shore of the lake, and she was barely breathing, so we just loaded her in and took off instead of calling for help and waiting for it to get here. Now she’s stopped breathing, and we don’t know what—”

  “She isn’t breathing? Is anyone doing rescue breathing?”

  “We don’t know how! She looks bad, and her skin’s turning blue. She’s cold, like death!”

  “Is anyone in the seat with her?”

  “Yeah, Chuck’s back there. There’s three of us. We just came down to fish for a—”

  “Listen very carefully,” Lukas said. “I want Chuck to lay her flat and gently tip her head back, then lift her chin up, then tell me if you hear her breathing. Put your ear next to her mouth so you can hear, and have someone watch to see if her chest is rising and falling.”

  He waited while the confused men chattered, held silent, then came back to the phone.

  “We don’t hear anything, Doctor. Is she dead? What can we do? We don’t want a girl dying right here in the car!”

  “About how old is she?” Lukas tried to keep his own tension from his voice.

  “She’s probably about eighteen or twenty.”

  “I want someone to pinch her nose closed, then take a deep breath, cover her mouth with his mouth, and exhale into her mouth deeply and slowly. Do it two times.”

  The caller repeated the instructions to his buddy while Lukas waited. He looked up to find Dr. Cherra Garcias walking through the entrance and saw Lauren greet her. Good, Lauren would take care of the preliminaries. Claudia should be here by noon for double coverage when it got busy. He caught sight of three cars pulling into the E.R. patient parking area at about the same time. Maybe Claudia could come in early.

  “Hello?” he said over the phone. “Is she breathing?”

  The caller came back on the line. “Not yet.” His voice rose with increasing panic.

  “Check for a pulse at the neck. How far out are you?”

  “Probably about thirty miles, and it’s foggy, so we can’t drive very fast.” There was a pause, then, “Hey! Chuck says he thinks he felt a pulse, but he just felt it once. He doesn’t feel it now.” There was a fumble, and then, more distant, “Chuck, don’t let her die! Hang on!”

  “Listen to me!” Lukas called. “Hello, are you there?”

  More fumbling. “Yeah, help us, Doc!”

  “Try to stay calm. You’re going to have to do complete CPR. Is there someone else in the backseat?”

  “I’ll climb over. Just tell me what to do, Doc. I don’t want to let this girl die!”

  “Tell me where you are and which route you’re taking. I’ll dispatch an ambulance crew in your direction. I think we have one in the area out there. Turn on your flashers and lights and tell me what kind of car you’re in.”

  The man breathlessly gave that info as he climbed over the seat. Lukas then turned to Carol, who hovered anxiously beside him. “Call an ambulance.” He gave the details he had just received. “Do a weather check and get a chopper on standby if the fog doesn’t have them grounded. Then call Claudia and see if she can come in early.”

  “Gotcha.” Carol picked up the ambulance phone and punched a speed-dial number.

  Lukas returned to his own phone and gave brief, concise instructions for CPR. He could hear them begging her to wake up.

  Carol turned to him and nodded. “The ambulance is on its way out. I’ll call for Air Care.”

  Lukas nodded and informed the rescuers, “An ambulance will intercept you shortly. Stay on the line until they arrive so I can answer any questions you might have. I also want to ask you some questions so I’ll know how to prepare.”

  “Okay, but I’m handing the phone to the driver so I can have my hands free.”

  The rest of the phones at the desk rang one after another, and Carol was kept busy for the next few minutes answering them. “Sorry, Dr. Bower, but nobody’s flying because of the fog,” she said at one point before answering another call.

  “Hello, are you there?” Lukas asked into his receiver, hoping the rescuers had made the switch.

  “Yes, Doctor, they’re doing the CPR back there,” said a new man with a lower, calmer voice, apparently the driver. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this thing floored.”

  Lukas could hear the roar of a motor in the background, and then the sound of rubber tires squealing on blacktop. “Getting yourselves killed won’t help anyone. Watch those curves and slow down, especially since they can’t wear seat belts in the back. Tell me exactly how you found this girl. Was she lying in the water? Was her head out?”

  “We just went down early to fish, and Chuck saw something down by the rocks. She was lying with the lower half of her body in the water, and her face looked pretty beat up, like maybe she’d fallen on the rocks. But her hair was wet, like she’d been in the lake and had crawled out. We couldn’t get her to wake up, so we just lugged her to the car real quick. Calvin called you right afterward.”

  “Is she breathing yet? Can they feel a pulse?”

  The driver conferred, then came back on the line. “No, they can’t! What do we do now?”

  “Keep going. I’ll hold.” Lukas saw someone step up to the desk and recognized the curly-haired E.R. tech Amanda. He pivoted the mouthpiece of the phone and put a hand across it. “What are you doing here, Amanda?” he asked softly. “I thought you called in sick.”

  She nodded and leaned against the desk. Her narrow face was flushed, and beads of perspiration coated her brow, moistening the soft brown bangs. “Guess I got the flu everybody had last week. I’m really weak and shaky, and I have diarrhea. Can you check me out, Dr. Bower? I feel bad.” Her breaths came in rapid succession.

  Lukas cradled the receiver against his shoulder and stepped over to take her pulse. Her skin felt hot, and her heart rate felt rapid and weak. “You’re not still taking the ma huang for your diet, are you?”

  She shot him a quick, guilty glance and nodded.

  “Still drinking caffeine?”

  “Not as much. But, Dr. Bower, I’m sick to my stomach. It’s the flu. I know it is.”

  “How long did you say you’ve been taking the ma huang?”

  “Since I started working here. A month.”

  Lukas shook his head. “You’d better go lie down in exam room seven. I’ll have Carol check you in as soon as she gets off the phone, and we’ll see if we can get you feeling better.” He glanced in Carol’s direction and found her still juggling two separate calls.

  A deep phone voice shouted out at him from the receiver on his shoulder. “I see lights up in the fog! It’s the ambulance. I think they’ve found us!”

  Lukas sat back with relief. “Keep your flashers going. Pull well over to the side of the road and get out and wave them down, but let your buddies keep doing CPR until the crew can take over.”

  Lukas held the line open until the ambulance crew rendezvoused with the three amateur rescuers, and then he thanked the men and disconnected. A cordless headset would be nice for situations like this when he had other patients to treat and other calls coming in.

  To his relief, he saw Buck come back into the E.R., along with Lauren and Cherra Garcias. He also glanced through the window that overlooked the parking lot and saw another car pull into an Emergency Patient Only spot.

  Carol turned around. “Dr. Bower, Claudia says she’ll be here as soon as she can get here.”

  “Thank you, Carol.” He stepped forward and greeted the new doctor with an outstretched hand. “Hello, Cherra.” Her grip was as firm as he remembered. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.” Her smile was as bright as he remembered, too.

  “You’re welcome. I’m sorry I’ll only be able to do a few shifts these next few weeks,
but my contract in Arkansas ends in October. Then I can come full-time.”

  Carol finally disengaged from the phone and began checking in the three new patients who had come in. It wasn’t even eight in the morning.

  “Is it always this busy here?” Cherra asked Lukas.

  “The numbers fluctuate. Mondays can be pretty hectic, and overall volume has been increasing steadily since I came in April.”

  Cherra smiled again. “So you’re a popular doctor.”

  “No, that’s not—”

  “He’s a great doctor,” Lauren said as she stepped up beside them at the desk. “Some of our frequent flyers call to make sure he’s on duty before they come in. Some of them recognize his Jeep in the parking lot, and word gets around the neighborhood.”

  Lukas felt his face flush. “My presence here is not the reason volume has increased.”

  Lauren shrugged. “You have your theories, I have mine.”

  Cherra’s dark-eyed gaze went from Lauren to Lukas and back again, and she grinned. Lukas felt his flush deepen. He picked up a clipboard, went to the case template stand, with all its different pockets that held forms covering only a small gamut of human suffering, and pulled out the proper form for the flu, even though he didn’t think that was Amanda’s problem. The rest could be added later.

  He placed the T-sheet on the clipboard and handed it to Lauren. “Would you please assess Amanda? She’s in room seven.” He jotted down orders for blood tests and a urine drug screen. He also gave orders for a tilt test on the tech to see how dehydrated she was. “She might need IV fluids. Be on the lookout for reaction to ephedrine.”

  “You think it’s that ma huang she’s been taking, don’t you?” Lauren asked.

  “Yes, I do.”

  Lauren shook her head. “I told her that stuff was bad news. Nice to meet you, Dr. Garcias. I’m looking forward to working with you.” She left them and went to tend her patient.

  Another patient came in the door to be seen, and Lukas and Cherra overheard him telling Carol he’d had a rash for a month and finally decided to get it checked out. Lukas met Cherra’s wry expression and saw her shrug. It was going to be one of those days.