Secrets of Forever

by Marie Ferrarella

  Dan offered the other doctor an encouraging smile. “That goes without saying, Neil.”

  “I have to come, too,” Harry told them, speaking up. “I’m her next of kin.” The phrase all but stuck in his throat and he nearly broke down as he’d said it, but he managed to push on. “I have to be there to give my permission so you can do whatever you have to do to save this cantankerous woman who is the love of my life. It took me years to convince her to marry me. I can’t lose her now.” Unable to hold it together any longer, Harry quietly began to sob as he struggled to get himself back under control.

  “I’m coming, too,” Zelda declared as she came back into the diner and picked up the thread of the conversation. “No way she’s going anywhere without me,” she informed the doctors. “By the way, the parking lot’s clear.”

  Hearing Zelda’s statement about coming with them, Neil looked as if he had his doubts. “How many people can Ellie’s plane hold?”

  “Six,” Ellie answered as she quickly crossed the diner floor back to Neil and Dan. “It can hold six.” She immediately looked at Miss Joan. She had never seen the woman look so ashen. “How is she doing?” she whispered, as if afraid that anything louder might affect Miss Joan in an adverse way.

  “Better once we get her to the hospital,” Neil answered. “You know how to get to Lincoln Memorial?” he asked, not wanting to take anything for granted at this point.

  “I know how to get to anywhere in this state,” Ellie assured him. Ready to go, she looked around. “Do you have something you can use as a gurney for her?”

  Neil shook his head. “We don’t have time to look for anything.” He made a judgment call. “I’m going to carry her. She doesn’t weigh that much.”

  But Dan moved in. “It’s better if I take her feet and you take the upper torso. Once we have her off the ground, then you can carry her,” he told his friend, adding, “No offense, but we don’t want to risk the chance of dropping her.”

  Neil opened his mouth to argue that, if anything, the woman was a lightweight, but he knew that Dan was right. He didn’t want to take any chances.

  Meanwhile, as the two physicians sorted out just how to carry Miss Joan to the plane, Ellie dashed out of the diner and hurried back to her plane. Opening the doors, she waited as Neil brought Miss Joan down the diner stairs and to the plane. Dan had quickly gotten into the plane so that he could help with the transfer.

  Harry hung back, not wanting to be in the way. But he stayed close enough to what was going on to be there for the woman he loved.

  “Miss Joan would have a fit if she saw this plane in her parking lot,” he commented to Ellie, struggling again not to let his emotions get the better of him. But it wasn’t easy.

  “She can take my head off once she gets well again,” she told Harry with a smile. Then she gripped his hand, squeezing it. “And she is going to get well, Harry.”

  Harry nodded numbly. “I know she is,” he answered even though they all knew there were no guarantees to be had.

  On her way to board the plane, Zelda paused only once, eyeing the small passenger plane skeptically.

  “Is this thing safe?” she asked uncertainly, the question intended for no one in particular.

  “It’s safer than walking there,” Neil told Miss Joan’s sister.

  Hearing him, Ellie smiled at Neil. Given his reaction when she had flown him here from the Houston airport, he had undergone quite an about-face in attitude.

  Neil and Dan were both now on the plane. Zelda had followed, reluctantly clambering on. She had taken a seat and then strapped herself in as if she expected to accidentally fall out of the plane in mid-flight if she wasn’t secured.

  Ellie turned her attention to Harry, silently offering to help him board the plane. But he shook his head, turning down her offer.

  “I can manage,” he told her. “You just concentrate on getting us there. Please.”

  “Consider it done,” Ellie told him. Saying that, she circumvented the perimeter of the plane, making sure she had shut and secured all the doors. Satisfied, she finally got onboard herself.

  “Okay, people, we’re about to take off,” she told her passengers. And then she looked over her shoulder at the one passenger on board who counted right now. “How’s she doing?” she asked Neil, nodding toward Miss Joan.

  “She’ll be doing a lot better once we get her to Lincoln Memorial,” Neil answered. “Did you already call it in, or whatever it is you have to do?” It occurred to him that he had no idea what the proper protocol was for bringing in a plane—or even if there was one when it came to landing it near a hospital. Some had helicopter pads on their roofs.

  “I’ve already alerted the hospital that we’re bringing in a critically ill patient and that we’re flying her there on a plane, not a helicopter. They gave me instructions where to land. There’ll be an ambulance meeting us there.”

  “An ambulance?” Zelda cried, frowning. “I thought the whole idea was not to have to waste time driving my sister there.”

  “It is, but there’s no place to land the plane,” Ellie explained as she swiftly went over her checklist in her head one last time. “Don’t worry, the landing field is half a mile from the hospital,” she told Zelda then promised, “They’ll have Miss Joan there in no time.”

  “Hope you know what you’re talking about,” Zelda commented, grabbing her armrests as the plane taxied the short distance and then took off.

  Neil focused on his patient and not the dip in his stomach just then.

  “Don’t worry, Zelda. She always knows what she’s talking about,” he assured the woman. For just a split second, he spared Ellie a quick glance and an even quicker smile.

  She didn’t know what had made her do it, but she had turned around just then and caught the look that Neil gave her. There were no words to describe how that made her feel or how empowered.

  She realized just how much Neil had come to mean to her in an incredibly short amount of time. She would have one hell of a time trying to come to terms with life once he went back to New York.

  Now wasn’t the time, she told herself.

  “It’s going to be all right,” she promised Harry and Miss Joan’s sister, who had grown eerily quiet. “We’re almost there already.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not going to be happy until this flying matchbox lands in one piece,” Zelda commented.

  “Amen to that,” Ellie thought she heard Neil murmur under his breath.

  She had no idea why, but both comments made her want to laugh—but she didn’t.

  “Hang on, everyone. Just a few more minutes,” she promised. “I can see the airfield up ahead.”

  “Make sure you land in it,” Zelda told her sharply.

  No doubt about it, Ellie thought, this woman was definitely Miss Joan’s sister. She wouldn’t have thought that the world had room for two Miss Joans, but obviously she had thought wrong.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As she sat there in the Lincoln Memorial OR waiting room, Ellie concluded that waiting was very possibly the hardest thing in the world to do. She felt as if she had been sitting in that room an inordinate amount of time, waiting for the surgery to be over and for Miss Joan to be wheeled into Recovery.

  Until that came to pass, she wouldn’t be able to breathe easily.

  For the most part, she and Dan had spent the time since Miss Joan had been wheeled into the OR attempting to comfort Harry and Zelda, assuring Miss Joan’s husband and her sister that everything would be all right. Though he tried it hide it, Harry looked as if he was really frightened about the outcome while Zelda just appeared to be in varying states of anger.

  Ellie had a feeling that if the tables had been turned, Miss Joan would have handled the situation pretty much the same way.

  Ellie was also very glad that Dan had elected to remain at the hospital
with everyone once Miss Joan had been taken into surgery. He was able to bring the voice of reason and common sense to the scene, helping Miss Joan’s relatives cope.

  Because of his familiarity with Miss Joan’s condition, not to mention his rather high standing in the cardiac surgeons’ community, Neil was allowed to be part of Miss Joan’s surgical team. The last she had seen of him, Neil had disappeared behind the operating room doors to scrub up.

  By her watch, that had been over five hours ago.

  During that time, Zelda had come close to wearing a path in the tiled floor with her endless restless pacing. For the umpteenth time, the woman looked toward the doors that led into the operating room.

  “Something’s gone wrong and they don’t want to come out to tell us,” Miss Joan’s sister accused nervously.

  Ellie glanced at Harry, wanting to shield the man at all costs.

  “Don’t go there,” she told Zelda, her voice sounding a great deal stricter than it normally did. “Not until we know that for a fact—and we don’t.”

  Zelda opened her mouth, looking at Ellie in surprise. But then she closed it again, backing off. However she continued to look disgruntled.

  “Nicely done,” Dan whispered to Ellie, who was sitting next to him. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Ellie’s mouth curved slightly. “Neither did I,” she admitted. And then she quickly jumped to her feet when she saw the OR doors opening. Neil came into the room.

  The heart surgeon was instantly surrounded by the five people in the waiting room.

  “How is she?” Harry asked, clearly afraid of the answer but even more afraid of continuing to be in limbo.

  Neil did his best to summarize what had gone on in layman’s terms. “Miss Joan’s had an angioplasty and I also performed a partial ablation. That should take care of her blockage as well as get her atrial fibrillation under control,” he told Harry and Cash, who had driven to the hospital to be there for his grandfather. Neil forced a smile to his lips. “With any luck, she should be up and about, chewing everyone out in next to no time.”

  Cash breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

  “Heaven help me, I can’t wait,” Harry said. And then he surprised Neil by throwing his arms around the surgeon and hugging him with all his might. “Thank you,” he cried, his voice all but breaking. “Thank you!”

  Zelda nodded, although she remained where she was and didn’t attempt to hug Neil. “What he said,” was all the woman added.

  Neil nodded, beginning to understand the way the woman operated. “Miss Joan’s in Recovery now, but you can all go see her once she’s out.”

  Suddenly feeling wiped out, Neil sank onto the closest chair. A lot of time had gone by. Beyond the hospital windows, dawn was beginning to slowly give light to the world.

  Ellie changed seats, taking one next to Neil. Dan, she noticed, tactfully let them have their space, choosing to remain with Harry, Cash and Zelda.

  “Can I get you anything?” she asked Neil. “Coffee? Tea? Something to eat from the vending machine—although I have to warn you, the selection is rather limited.”

  Neil shook his head, turning her down. “Just sit here with me and let me savor the moment.”

  Her mouth quirked into a quick smile. “That, I can do,” Ellie responded. “I’ve always had a weakness for heroes.”

  Neil shook his head, rejecting the label. “Just doing my job.”

  “And being a hero,” she insisted, pointing out, “It’s not everyone who can ride to the rescue.”

  Neil was too tired at the moment to argue.

  * * *

  Less than ten minutes later, Cash’s wife, Ramona, finally arrived. The vet had driven in following an emergency surgery of her own.

  After anxiously asking about her husband’s stepgrandmother, and finding out that Miss Joan had responded well to the surgeries, she hugged Cash and looked extremely relieved.

  Turning to Ellie, Cash told her that he could take Harry and Zelda back with them when they were ready to leave, freeing Ellie up to leave now.

  “I know that Dr. Dan probably wants to get back to the clinic and you probably need to get back, as well,” he said to Neil.

  “As long as you give us a ride to my plane, I can take it from there,” Ellie told Cash.

  Ramona glanced at her husband, noticing that some of the color was returning to Harry’s face. “Is Miss Joan conscious yet?”

  Zelda spoke up before Harry or Cash could. “She’s still in Recovery.”

  Ramona nodded. “Then we have some time,” she said. Cash looked at Ellie and the two physicians. “Ready whenever you are,” he offered.

  All three were on their feet immediately.

  * * *

  “Are you sure you’re up to flying?” Neil asked Ellie once they had arrived at the airfield and Cash and Ramona were on their way back to the hospital.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I can do this with my eyes closed.”

  “If it’s all the same with you, I’d really rather you did it with your eyes open,” Neil told her.

  Ellie laughed. “I can do that, too,” she responded with a grin. “Besides, I’m not the one who was on my feet for over five hours in the operating room, saving a life.”

  “Like I said, just doing my job,” he told her. “Now, I know of two pretty tired men who would really be grateful if you went ahead with yours and got us back to Forever,” he said, glancing at Dan. The latter merely nodded his agreement.

  “Gentlemen, your chariot awaits,” she told her passengers whimsically, gesturing toward the front of her plane.

  * * *

  Compared to their flight to the hospital, the return flight seemed completely uneventful and over before it had gotten underway. Suppressing a smile, Ellie noticed that Neil hadn’t turned pale even once during the trip. By the time the man was ready to go back home, he would be an old hand at this. She had no idea why that made her feel so incredibly sad, but it did.

  * * *

  Neil, Dan and Ellie were unprepared for the fanfare that greeted them when they finally returned to Forever. It seemed as if half the town converged around them, seemingly popping out of nowhere.

  They were immediately beset with questions about Miss Joan and it felt as if everyone wanted to buy each of them celebratory drinks at Murphy’s. Most of the offers were politely declined after the first one or two had been placed in front of them.

  Nothing dampened the celebration, though. Everyone, it turned out, had been extremely worried that Miss Joan wouldn’t make it.

  The questions and impromptu celebrating didn’t die down until way into the evening.

  Dan never managed to get back to his clinic. To compensate, most of his patients demurred, saying that whatever had brought them to the clinic could definitely keep for at least another day if not two. The patients unable to wait were seen by Dan’s associate, Dr. Cordell.

  When the celebrating finally wound down and everyone began returning to their homes, Ellie turned to Neil. “I can drive you over to Dan’s house,” she offered. Dan and his wife had already left, but Neil had been prevailed upon to hang back awhile longer.

  Instead of saying yes, Neil laced his fingers through Ellie’s and suggested, “Why don’t you drive us over to Dan’s cabin instead? I think I’ve gotten my second wind.”

  It wasn’t hard to read between the lines. Ellie smiled at him. “Oh, so I take it you still feel like celebrating?”

  “You could say that, yes,” Neil answered, a sexy, incredibly mischievous smile curving his mouth.

  “Works for me,” she told him. Walking to her vehicle, they got in and Ellie started up her Jeep. “I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed by a hero.”

  “Oh, I intend to do a lot more than that,” he told her. “And I’m not a hero,” he said a
gain. “Just a guy who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.”

  “I don’t think Miss Joan will see it that way,” Ellie told him as she pulled up in front of the cabin. “Trust me, as long as you’re in Forever, you’re going to be on the receiving end of a whole lot of free meals at the diner.”

  “Then I’d better look into having some of my pants let out,” he said as he unlocked the cabin door and led the way inside.

  For just a moment, Ellie could feel her heart leap. But the next moment she warned herself not to read too much into Neil’s words. All the surgeon was saying was that he would be here for a little bit, nothing more. He definitely didn’t mean what she wished with all her heart that he meant.

  Just for now, though, she decided to pretend that he did. After all, she had nothing to lose.

  Neil closed the door behind him, flipping the lock and hearing it click into place.

  “It occurred to me that if Miss Joan hadn’t been as hearty as she was—and if you weren’t there to fly all of us to the hospital, she could have easily died.”

  “But she was, and I was, so she didn’t,” Ellie said, catching her breath as Neil started undressing her.

  She would really miss this when he left—

  Ellie immediately upbraided herself for focusing on negative thoughts. She needed to focus only on the good parts, she silently insisted. There would be time enough to focus on negative thoughts later.

  “But what about the next time?” Neil asked.

  Her pulse launched into double-time.

  “Dan and Alisha will deal with that when it comes up.” This wasn’t where her head was at right now, she thought, responding to Neil. She started to remove his clothing. “Stop talking.”

  His grin was positively wicked. “All right.”