Christmas with the Best Man

by Susan Carlisle

  She sensed more than heard him move to stand over her.

  “What would that price be?” Still she hadn’t opened her eyes, preferring to soak in the deep sound of his voice. It was fun to be flirted with.

  “A kiss would be a step in the right direction.”

  Helena barely opened her eyes. “Do I dare take the chance of being caught in a lip lock with the boss just for a moment of rest?”

  His lips curved slightly as he studied her closely. “I think you’ll find the kiss worth the danger.”

  “And what happens if I agree and find myself further enslaved?” Being around Elijah was helping keep her mind sharp. And her heart unsure.

  “I guess that’s a chance you’ll have to take.” He raised his chin as he tugged her up and into his arms. His lips found hers instantly. They were hot, enticing and sure. Her hands buried into his hair, urging him closer. His tongue dove into her mouth. She greeted him with enthusiasm. A few moments later he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. “I think the slave driver is in the perilous position of being enslaved and caught in a compromising position if we keep that up.”

  She, who had been concerned about people knowing about her and Elijah, hadn’t given a moment’s thought to getting caught. When she was in his arms it was as if she forgot everything but what she was feeling.

  “If I buy my own soda, will you share some of those chocolate ball things with me?”

  Helena was breathing hard. She wanted to drag Elijah into a corner and have her way with him but she knew he was right. This wasn’t the place or the time. “If I must.”

  Elijah grinned. “Sweetheart, I know what you mean.”

  They spent the next few minutes discussing their morning. Helena had just shared one particularly interesting case when a nurse opened the door, a grim look on her face. “You two are needed. The paramedics are on their way with a homeless teen who’s in labor.”

  A sick feeling bubbled in Helen’s middle as her chest tightened. These types of cases were the worst. She hated them above all others.

  “Are you okay?” Elijah asked. He was studying her intently.

  She’d let too much show. “I’m fine.”

  “Then let’s go.” Elijah was on his feet and headed for the door before the nurse could shut it. He pitched his drink can in the trash on his way out.

  Helena followed. The teen pregnancies reminded her too much of her past. Only her professional training banked her emotions. She had a job to do and she would do it. No matter how difficult it was.

  At the unit desk, Elijah started issuing orders. “Notify Labor and Delivery and NICU.”

  The ambulance siren filled the air. It suddenly stopped, indicating it was pulling up to the entrance of Emergency.

  “Were they just next door?” Elijah muttered.

  “Almost. Only a couple of blocks over,” the nurse said. “She’s close to crowning.”

  Helena hurried toward the outside door behind a tech and ER nurse, with the sound of Elijah’s footsteps right behind her. She didn’t have time to let the spinning feeling in her middle take hold. Each member of the staff had a job to do and she wouldn’t let anyone down. She hurried through the door, a cold, damp wind hitting her in the face.

  The paramedics were unloading a gurney from the rear of the ambulance. A thin fragile female lay on it. The girl looked as if she had been wearing the same clothes for weeks. The stench was almost breathtaking as Helena approached. From the girl’s weary look she must have been in labor for hours.

  “My baby?” the girl murmured. That note of terror in her voice was one Helena remembered all too well.

  Taking a fortifying breath to stabilize her emotions, Helena placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. In a calm, reassuring tone she said, “Your baby’s going to be just fine.” That might not be true but Helena knew from experience that was what her patient needed to believe. Something to harness the fear. “You’re both in good hands.”

  Helena quickly assessed the girl’s appearance. Her lips were purple. Even from the light touch she had given her, Helena had felt the coolness of the girl’s body through her thin clothing. Pulling her stethoscope from around her neck, Helena inserted the ear tips and placed the bell over the girl’s heart. Her heart rate was weak and her respirations were rapid as she shivered uncontrollably. There was a rattle to her breathing. The teen had been in the cold for a long time. Not to even mention being malnourished.

  With sad, scared eyes the girl stared at her. “Please help my baby.” Her face twisted into a grimace before she groaned as another contraction squeezed her middle.

  “We’ll do everything we can.” Helena patted her shoulder again. She wished she could do more. Even with modern medicine, bad things still happened. At least Helena’s mother and father had been there for her when she’d lost her baby. This girl had no one but the strangers around her. She had so many things going against her.

  Helena registered a few words of what Elijah was asking the paramedic as he went about listening to the baby through his stethoscope then doing a visual check.

  They each had a patient barely hanging onto life.

  Elijah gave her a clearly concerned look as he grabbed a corner handle of the gurney. “She’s crowning. Let’s get her inside or this baby will be born out here.”

  They raced alongside the gurney as other staff members pushed their patient and her cargo into the building.

  Another nurse met them in the hall with a question on her face. Before she could ask it Helena said, “Exam Two Six.”

  The nurse ran down the hall and opened the glass doors wide. Seconds later they were pushing the patient into the room.

  “I need an IV with glucose. CBC and panel. Get a warming blanket in here stat. Let’s get her clothes off.” Helena started giving orders in rapid succession. She checked the teen’s heart rate again. It was the same but it wouldn’t be if they didn’t get her body temperature up.

  The girl groaned as another contraction came. She grabbed Helena’s forearm and squeezed. Fear and pain showed in her eyes.

  Helena’s heart went out to the girl. “What’s your name?”

  “Marcy,” she whispered.

  “Marcy, can you tell me how far along you are?”

  “Eight months, maybe. Not sure.”

  That sick feeling had moved to Helena’s throat. The baby was nowhere near the size it should be. It would be tiny, she was afraid too tiny.

  The nurse began taking Marcy’s blood pressure. The tech was in the process of putting more blankets across the girl’s lower half.

  Helena picked up Marcy’s hand, pushing her fingertips to check her circulation at her nailbed. They were a dark blue. Marcy’s core temperature must be brought up or they would lose her.

  “Marcy, is there anyone we can call for you?”

  The girl lifted terrified eyes to Helena. “My parents put me out. I had no place to go.”

  That look Helena recognized. It had been the same one she’d had when the pain had started and she’d realized she’d been losing the baby. Helena broke their gaze.

  “I’ve tried to take care of my baby. If I can’t, please tell it I’m sorry,” Marcy murmured.

  “Don’t worry you can tell him or her yourself.” Helena kept her voice soothing and reassuring as she worked.

  Marcy went limp after the next contraction. In her weariness and depleted physical state, she was barely surviving.

  The OB nurse and others around Helena were hooking her patient up to monitors. Two Labor and Delivery nurses had shown up and were strapping a fetal monitor around the girl’s distended belly. Soon the sound of the baby’s erratic heartbeats filled the room.

  Helena let her training take over so she wouldn’t think of how much this young girl reminded her of herself
. She wanted to make it all right for Marcy but feared she couldn’t. Sometimes things just couldn’t be fixed. The guilt the girl felt was the same heaviness Helena had carried around for so long.

  She glanced at Elijah, who was at the end of the stretcher, doing a physical exam of the baby. “We need to get her up to surgery ASAP. The cord is looped around the neck.”

  Helena felt the panic raising. They could lose the baby. Or the mother. She couldn’t let that happen.

  “Are you all right?” Elijah’s eyes narrowed.

  She nodded and continued to hold his gaze. She nodded down at Marcy and shook her head, conveying the mother would never make it through surgery. “Can’t you get it off?”

  “It may be too late.” Elijah sounded unsure.

  She gave him a pleading look. He had to try. For the baby’s sake. For the mother. For Helena’s sanity. “Please try.”

  Elijah nodded. “Where’s that OB doc? Do an overhead call!” To no one in particular he said in a louder voice, “Get a bed warmer in here stat.” Frustration surrounded his every word.

  A tech arrived with the warming machine for the mother. Helena helped him place the blanket part over the girl’s chest, set the temperature and watched it inflate.

  One of the OB nurses said, “Contraction coming.”

  Helena watched Marcy’s face tighten. She reached for Helena’s hand again. She took it. Marcy’s grip was so weak.

  “After this one I’ll go after the cord,” Elijah announced. “Let me know when it’s over and the next one starts. I’ll work between them.”

  Helena watched the monitor as Elijah went into action. She glanced away long enough to see the intense expression on his face as he operated by touch to save a small life. Helena glanced at Marcy then back at the monitors.

  “Contraction starting,” the OB nurse announced. Helena looked at Elijah, hope filling every fiber of her being. He just had to do this.

  Elijah sat back, relief written on his face and smiled at her. “Got it. Put out a call for the neonatologist on call. We’re going to need one.”

  Relief flooded her as well. Elijah had no way of knowing he’d become her hero.

  “How’s the mother doing?” he asked.

  “Temperature is still low, but heartbeat stronger. Warmer, vitals are stable,” Helena said.

  He looked at her. “Apply pressure at the next contraction. She’ll need help. Let’s get this baby into the world.” Elijah’s focus returned to the infant.

  “Marcy, I’m going to have to help you some. Listen to the nurse and she’ll tell you when to push.”

  “Is my baby coming?” The words were little more than a whisper from Marcy.

  “Yes, almost here.” Helena already had her hands on Marcy’s epigastric area.

  Seconds later the OB nurse said, “Contraction starting.”

  While watching the monitor for Marcy’s vitals, she pushed as the line indicated the top of the contraction.

  “Head’s out.” Seconds later Elijah held a dusky, tiny baby in his large capable hands.

  “Marcy, you have a baby girl,” he announced, lifting her up high enough for the girl to see. He had a tender look on his face. His gaze met Helena’s. He smiled. There was something special about the moment.

  “A girl,” Marcy said softly.

  Helena’s knees went weak. Only by force of will did she remain standing. She returned Elijah’s smile and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Elijah nodded, his eyes letting her know he was pleased as well.

  The OB doctor rushed into the room, drawing on gloves.

  “Glad you could join us,” Elijah quipped as he handed the baby over to the other doctor.

  The alarm of the heart monitor attached to the mother went off. Helena’s attention was jerked away from Elijah and the baby to her patient. “She’s in V-fib. Get the defibrillator and start CPR.”

  Over the next few minutes Helena’s attention was absorbed by the mother. She forgot her personal problems and focused on saving Marcy’s life. She did register the infant’s feeble cry as she and the other staff members labored to stabilize the mother. By the time the monitor showed a steady beat again Elijah and the baby were gone. Had the baby survived?

  “She’s stable. Let’s get her up to ICU,” Helena ordered.

  * * *

  Half an hour later she returned to the ER. Helena’s shoulders slumped. She was wrung out, both emotionally and physically. The young girl was so ill. It would be weeks before she was healthy enough to take care of her child. If the child lived. All Helena wanted to do was find a place to hide and try to recover. The horror, the memories, the guilt flooded her. She paused at the unit desk long enough to say to the secretary on duty, “I need to take a few minutes.”

  The trip to an on-call room was a blur, not registering if she passed anyone or not. All she could think about was hiding behind the door and letting flow all the emotion she’d been controlling. She closed and locked the door. The tears she’d been holding in check started to fall. With her back pressed against the door she sank to the floor, letting her head drop to her knees. She cried for the teen and her baby, and for the girl she’d been when she had lost her own child. Helena grieved like she never had before until there was nothing left in her. No tears, no thoughts, just emptiness.

  She needed to get up. Return to work. There would be patients to see. She only had an hour before her shift was over. Then she could go home, climb into bed and disappear. There she could struggle to pack the memories, anger, hurt back into the suitcase in her mind so that she could cope with the next pregnant patient she had to care for.

  The doorknob rattled. Elijah called, “Helena, are you in there?”

  She wiped the last of the tears from her cheeks with her finger. He didn’t need to see her like this. Despite the intimacy between them she didn’t want him to think she couldn’t handle her job. She didn’t want him to know she fell apart with every baby she saw delivered.

  The knob was jiggled again. “Helena, I know you’re in there. Let me in or I’ll call Security.”

  She had no doubt that he would. Elijah could be that determined. “Go away. I’ll be back on duty in a few minutes.”

  “Please let me in.” He was pleading, yet with an undercurrent of steel. Elijah wasn’t going away.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’d like to see that.” He shook the handle once more. “Open the door.”

  She unlocked the door then headed for the bathroom. If she could help it he wasn’t going to see her red-rimmed and puffy eyes. As he entered, she turned on the cold water and splashed it on her face.

  He pushed into the tiny space behind her. “Are you ill?”

  Helena continued to apply water, hoping it would ease her swollen eyes. She glanced into the mirror. Elijah watched her with a look of concern she could only attribute to someone who truly cared. It wasn’t just the typical look of a doctor—it was the concern of a lover.

  “I’ve told you three times I’m fine. I guess those Christmas goodies didn’t agree with me.” It was a weak lie but it was the best she could do without revealing more. She patted her face with a towel off the stack on the shelf.

  His cellphone buzzed. After looking at it, he said, “I’ve got to go. Are you going to be all right?” He searched her face. “The shift is almost over. You can head home now, if you need to.”

  “I’m feeling better. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  He gave her a long searching look that implied he wasn’t convinced. “Okay. If you change your mind, let me know.”

  She squared her shoulders and said, “I won’t.”

  After Elijah left she ran her hands through her hair and considered her eyes. Thankfully they were now pink instead of red. Helena straightened the collar of
her lab coat and opened the door. She could do this. All she had to do was put a lock on that suitcase.

  With a determination she’d practiced from the time she’d lost her baby, she stepped out into the hall and walked with her head held high back to the ER.

  * * *

  Elijah didn’t believe for a minute that Helena’s problem had anything to do with the cookies they’d shared. He knew better. She’d been crying. A lot. But why? She obviously didn’t want to tell him but he planned to find out.

  He’d seen the stricken look on her face as he’d been delivering the baby. Cases like that were always tough. Especially when a choice between the mother or the child had to be made. Helena knew that, had been trained to make those decisions. So why this case? They had worked equally hard ones before.

  She returned to the department soon after him but she still wouldn’t meet his gaze. When he thought they might have a minute to talk she saw to it that she was busy elsewhere or someone was nearby. Elijah couldn’t remember the last time he’d been glad to see his shift come to an end. He was worried about her. Since when did he get this troubled over a woman he was dating? Something was happening to him that he hadn’t counted on.

  Thankfully the doctor who was his relief arrived early. Elijah gave him report then went to his office to take care of a few details before he could go. He was confident Helena had every intention of leaving without speaking to him and no intention of seeing him. That wasn’t going to happen.

  His timing was perfect. As he entered the locker room she was headed out. “Hey, wait up and I’ll walk out with you.”

  “I’m really tired. I’ll see you in the morning.” Helena tried to push past him.

  He caught her wrist, stopping her. “Don’t do this, Helena.”

  She looked beyond him. “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Yes, you are. It was a tough shift. Come home with me. We’ll order in. Talk or not. But don’t run from me.” Why did this matter so much to him?

  “I don’t—”

  “Come on. You can be under a hot shower in ten minutes versus forty if you come to my place. No pressure. You don’t even have to talk to me.” She gave him a weary look but he could tell she was weakening.