***
The Coles had just sat down in Jeb’s office when there was a sudden knock on the door. It opened and Bernie appeared with an apologetic smile. “Excuse me, folks, but I wanted to be here for your meeting.” He closed the door and lowered his large frame into a chair beside Jeb’s desk.
“Good to see you, Bernie,” Marcus greeted with a smile while Morgan avoided looking at the older man entirely. “Today’s the big day!”
“I’m glad you could join us, Bernie,” Jeb acknowledged the presence of his mentor and friend. He folded his hands on Angela’s file and looked at her parents. Marcus was obviously excited, unable to stop smiling. Morgan, on the other hand seemed distracted and Jeb noticed she looked pale, even sullen.
“I’m not really sure how to tell you this,” he said softly and focused his attention on Marcus. “All of Angela’s test results are in.”
Morgan felt herself tense, and the pain in her stomach knotted tighter.
“And?” Marcus asked anxiously. “Good news, please?”
“Angela is free of any trace of leukemia; there is absolutely no evidence of any disease. She is in complete and total remission. This is the best possible news.”
Marcus sighed and closed his eyes, aware he had been holding his breath. It was more than he had hoped for. Angela was cured. “Thank God,” he breathed, and tears misted in his eyes.
Morgan shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t know there was such a thing,” she said quietly. While she hadn’t paid attention to most of the medical jargon Doctor Hastings spouted, the bottom line had been that Angela had leukemia and kids with leukemia died, just as Miranda had.
“Remission isn’t completely unusual in children with leukemia, Mrs. Cole,” Bernie explained. “That Angela’s test results are pristine is truly an awesome miracle. Looks like you’ve got a priceless Christmas present this year, I’m so happy for you both.”
“You mean she’s cured?” Morgan asked, still not believing it. Something inside her fought accepting that her daughter would be fine from now on. “’Just like that?” She snapped her fingers.
Jeb nodded. “It didn’t happen overnight, obviously, but essentially, yes. As we’ve been telling you for some time now, Angela has been doing very well and the tests confirm it. This is a new development as the tests from a week ago were not entirely clear as they are now; we’ve repeated the tests to be sure. You can take your daughter home now and enjoy her. We’ll still monitor her every few months or so, but your daughter officially has a clean bill of health.”
The phone on Jeb’s desk buzzed. “Excuse me,” he apologized to the Coles and picked up the receiver. “Doctor Hastings. Yes! Thanks, Kenni. They’ll be down shortly.” He hung up the phone and smiled at Angela’s parents. “Angela is prepared to leave us. Whenever you’re ready, your little girl is waiting for you to take her home.”
Marcus stood to his feet and extended his hand to Jeb. When their hands met, he clasped his other hand over Jeb’s. “Doctor, I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for my daughter. You and your wife have treated Angela with so much love and respect. I simply can’t thank you enough.”
“You had it right the first time, when you thanked God,” Jeb said. “We’re His tools to use as He sees fit, but it’s the Lord who directs what we do.”
Surprised, Bernie’s eyes widened at the younger doctor’s words. What had Jeb just said? He knew that Jeb and Kenni went to church and professed to be Christians, but he had never heard him talk like one.
Marcus and Bernie shook hands as well.
“Thank you, Bernie, for everything.”
Bernie smiled. “I think my colleague said it best,” he replied softly, and was surprised by his own choice of words. “Angela’s waiting for you, folks. From what I’ve heard, she is all dressed up in a fancy purple dress and raring to go.”
***
Morgan remained sullen and quiet. They rode the elevator in a hushed silence except for the unsettling clanking sounds coming from elevator cables as the car descended. She wasn’t sure how she was going to smile happily, despite the doctors’ news that Angela was cured. Something inside her would not allow her to believe that the illness was over, that Angela had a limitless future ahead of her. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. As Morgan stepped out into the hallway, she felt a stabbing pain like a jab from a hot knife in her lower abdomen. The intensity of the pain doubled her over and made it impossible for her to stand upright, and she cried out as she clutched the area and sank to her knees. Tears stung at her eyes and a nauseating wave of panic came upon her, causing her heart to race.
“Morgan!” Marcus was immediately at her side with his arm around her shoulder as he knelt next to her. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Kenni was coming around the corner with Brownie when they noticed that something seemed wrong with the Coles. “She needs your help,” Brownie whispered. “I’ll go to Angela.”
Kenni nodded and quickened her pace toward the couple. “Mr. and Mrs. Cole, is something wrong?” she asked and knelt down on the other side of Morgan. She immediately saw how pale the normally radiant-looking Mrs. Cole appeared.
“I’m having very sharp pains,” Morgan managed breathlessly while perspiration began to form above her upper lip. Kenni Hastings was at the top of her least favorite person list, but at the moment she didn’t care. Something was definitely wrong and she was scared.
“We were getting off the elevator when she just doubled over,” Marcus explained, looking at Kenni with a confused expression. “I’m not sure what’s wrong.”
Kenni saw a quarter-sized spot of blood on the pale-blue tiled floor located almost directly behind where Morgan knelt in obvious distress. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Cole.” Kenni smiled reassuringly at Morgan. “Can you stand?”
Morgan shook her head. “I don’t think so! I know the second I move the pain will get worse.” Tears spilled down her million-dollar cheekbones, a veil of perspiration glistened on her cheeks. “I’m bleeding,” she whispered. “I thought it was my period, but I think I passed a clot. Could I be hemorrhaging? I think I’ve already soaked through my pad.”
Kenni patted her arm. “Let’s get you a wheelchair so we can get you out of the hallway,” she reassured in a soft, yet firm voice. She gave Marcus an encouraging look, not quite a smile, but an expression most medical professionals develop to reassure their patients. “I’ll be right back.”
Kenni moved quickly down the hall and disappeared briefly inside a room. She emerged with the wheelchair and pushed it in the couple’s direction.
Bernie and Jeb arrived on the scene, and without a word the doctors assisted Morgan into the wheelchair. “There’s no one in room three,” Kenni said as she looked at Jeb. “I think she might be more comfortable lying down, it will take some pressure off her pelvis.”
Bernie turned to Kenni. “Would you please call Cara Phillips over at Valley Hospital for me? And also request a transport for Mrs. Cole?”
“Right away,” Kenni acknowledged and immediately headed back to her office.
Bernie looked at Morgan who was sobbing and in obvious pain as Jeb wheeled her toward the room Kenni had recommended they use. Her eyes reminded him of the multitude of frightened children who had traveled through treatment at Brannan’s over the course of his career and he sought to assure her that she was in good hands.
“Cara Phillips is the best O-B-G-Y-N in the county, and a very good friend who went to high school with my wife.” He spoke calmly using a soothing voice while his hand rested supportively on her shoulder as the wheelchair was pushed along. “Doctor Phillips will take excellent care of you, I promise. Let’s get you out of the hallway until we can transport you over to Valley.”
“My God, what about Angela?” Marcus asked. He doubted Morgan would ever forgive him if he left her to go to their daughter, but he knew Angela was waiting for them to take her home. He didn’t know what to do.
“Marcus, Angela is
with Kenni and Brownie; you know she’s in good hands,” Bernie assured him in response to the troubled expression on the other man’s face. “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.”
Marcus was a man who always thought ahead, and liked to be prepared for whatever might come at him next. He was thinking he could call his mother, or Jackson, to pick her up and stay with her. He figured once Morgan was in transit to Valley Hospital, he could see Angela before leaving the hospital.
“Marcus, why can’t we drive there?” Morgan pleaded as she wiped at her tear-stained face with her hand. Ambulances reminded her of the last time she saw Miranda. A shiny, red ambulance came to their house where Miranda lay unconscious on the couch in the living room. She was pronounced dead in route to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.
“Do you think you can make it to the car?” Marcus asked. His wife looked pale and even a bit helpless, so unusual for her. If he could do anything to make this less stressful for her, he was willing to try.
“That’s not a good idea, and besides, the ambulance will be here in a few minutes,” Jeb advised solemnly. “Mrs. Cole, when you go by ambulance, the paramedics will radio ahead so they can bring you right into an examining room in the ER. Do you really want to sit in the lobby and wait to be seen with the way you’re feeling?”
Morgan was still clutching her lower abdominal area. “No, I suppose not. I don’t know if my going to the hospital is really necessary. Maybe I just need to go home and rest.”
Marcus shook his head. “Darling, there is something wrong. You were doubled over with pain and there was blood on the floor.”
Morgan drew in her breath, mortified to hear that she had bled onto the floor, that somebody actually saw it. She blinked back hot tears of embarrassment. “Marcus, please clean that up before someone else sees it.”
“Kenni will take care of it,” Bernie reassured her. “This is a hospital and these things happen. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
As Jeb wheeled Morgan into the unoccupied room, his cell phone vibrated. Kenni had texted him the ETA of the ambulance. “The ambulance is only a few blocks away, he told her.”
As Morgan renewed her protest over going to the hospital by ambulance, another sharp pain hit and caused her to cry out while Marcus looked helplessly at the physicians.
“Marcus, please don’t leave me,” Morgan cried inconsolably. “Please, Marcus, promise me you’ll come with me!”
Jeb and Bernie looked at each other, neither of them envying Marcus’ position. Angela was waiting for them to take her home and Morgan wanted him to ride with her in the ambulance.
“Mrs. Cole, I’m sorry but Marcus won’t be able to ride along on the ambulance with you,” Jeb told her softly. “Besides, I’m sure he’ll need your vehicle to take you home.”
She began to cry harder, clutching her husband’s hand. “Promise me you won’t leave me, Marc?” Pleading, her eyes searched his. “Please? I know that things haven’t been right between us, but don’t use this against me.”
“Morgan, you heard Jeb. I’ll be only a moment or two behind in the car; I promise.” Marcus took his cell phone from the inside pocket of his overcoat and quickly speed-dialed his brother’s number. He didn’t know where Jackson was, but hoped he was somewhere accessible. A moment later, arrangements were made and he sighed in relief.
Chapter 12
After his wife was settled in the ambulance, it sped off to transport her across town to Valley Hospital leaving Marcus Cole a few moments to spend with their daughter. He had no idea what he was going to say to her. The last thing he had expected was for Morgan to develop a physical problem requiring her to be transported to a hospital for treatment.
“Daddy!” Angela let out an excited cry when she saw her father standing in the doorway of her hospital room. Nurse Kenni had explained that Mommy wasn’t feeling well, and she needed to be patient a little while longer. When she saw her father, Angela forgot all about what she had been told, thinking only that she wanted to go home.
The little girl ran to Daddy who immediately scooped her up in his waiting arms, held her close and planted “daddy” kisses on her cheeks. Then he sat down and held her on his lap while Kenni and Brownie looked on.
“Sweetie, Mommy got sick this morning with a bad tummy ache, and I have to go over to the big hospital, the one for grown-ups,” Marcus did his best to explain as he brushed his fingertips against the smoothness of her cheek. “I’m sorry, Angela. Nothing has changed, Babydoll; you’re coming home today. It’s just going to be delayed a little bit, that’s all.”
The exuberant smile instantly vanished from the little girl’s face. “Is Mommy okay?” she asked and Marcus nodded. “But why can’t I come with you?” Beguiling blue eyes, wide and innocent, searched his. “Daddy, please take me with you. I don’t want to stay here anymore. You said I was coming home. I’m all better now, even Nurse Kenni says so. Please don’t leave me here, Daddy!”
Kenni’s heart ached for Marcus who was trying so hard to be there for both women in his life. He couldn’t be in two places at one time, she thought, but how did one explain it all to a little girl who wanted only to go home?
“Angela, you won’t be able to see Mommy in the hospital,” Kenni offered delicately as she knelt beside her and looked into her eyes. “Not right now. You see, it’s different over at Valley Hospital. They have different rules about children visiting, even when it comes to visiting your Mommy.”
Tears welled in Angela’s eyes as she looked from Kenni to Marcus. “But I thought I was going home today.”
A large teardrop escaped, cascading down her cheek. Marcus wiped it away with a slightly trembling fingertip before several more followed. “You are, my darling; you are,” he assured her. “Uncle Jack is on his way right now to bring you home. He’ll stay there with you until I get there. I know that you’re disappointed, but I also know that you’re my big, brave girl.”
Angela sniffed back her tears and nodded her head. “I’m always your big, brave girl, Daddy. I just want Mommy to be okay.” She turned toward Brownie. “My Mommy will be okay, won’t she?”
“Yes, Angela,” he answered. “Grown-ups get sick sometimes, that’s all.”
Feeling better after hearing Brownie’s take on things, Angela smiled at her father. “Don’t worry, Daddy. Mommy will be fine. Would you tell Mommy I love her?”
Marcus’ eyes welled with tears. His daughter’s words touched him deeply within his heart. “I promise that I will tell Mommy how much you love her the second I see her. She’ll like that a lot.”
***
When Marcus arrived at Valley Hospital, he was escorted to an examining room in triage. He found Morgan in bed, wearing an austere, standard issue blue-and-white checked hospital gown. She looked like a fragile figurine, pale and frightened as she looked up at him when he entered the room. Her eyes were reddened from crying, wide with apprehension. She had drawn her legs up to her stomach and he was relieved that she appeared to be in less pain than before.
“I’m sorry, Morgan. I got here as soon as I could,” Marcus apologized. “I couldn’t leave without letting Angela know that she’s still coming home today. Everything is set and Jack will be picking her up soon. Angela loves you, and I promised our daughter that I would tell you that as soon as I saw you.”
Morgan nodded as he stood at her bedside. “It’s okay, I knew you couldn’t leave without seeing Angela,” she said in a tired voice. “I can’t wait to see my sweet baby; she must be heartbroken. Was she okay? Do you think she understands?”
Marcus noticed a tall, sturdily built woman with chin length gray-hair. She wore a clean white lab coat over pink scrubs. The tag she wore on a lanyard around her neck identified her as Cara Phillips, MD, the doctor Bernie had referred them to. She was writing on a clipboard, then looked up and smiled at him.
“Hello, Mr. Cole,” she greeted warmly as blue eyes twinkled from beneath her grayish-blonde bangs. “I’m Doctor Phillips and we’re going to
do an ultrasound on your wife in a few minutes so we can see what’s causing her all this pain. Once we know that, we’ll do whatever is necessary to make her better.”
Morgan winced again and looked fearfully up at Doctor Phillips. She knew without having to look that she’d had another bleed. “I think I just passed something.”
“We’ll take care of it, Mrs. Cole, don’t you worry about anything. We’re going to get started with an ultrasound. Mr. Cole will have to leave us for a few minutes.”
A dark-haired, pony-tailed technician in bright yellow scrubs rolled a portable ultrasound machine into the room. She immediately came around to the side of the bed where Doctor Phillips stood and began preparing for the examination.
Marcus leaned over and planted a kiss on his wife’s lips while she looked up at him with eyes like a unique mosaic of shattered glass, the same ones that had captured his heart what seemed an eternity ago. He had been running on pure adrenaline for the last half-hour or so, but it was beginning to wear off and he felt the first twinges of fatigue. “I’ll be in the waiting room, Love. It’ll be okay, Angela said so.”
“Marcus, do you still love me?” Morgan’s voice was soft, child-like. She was afraid of the answer but had to know where she stood.
Marcus grinned as he shook his head. “Silly girl, why would you even ask such a thing?” He kissed her again. “I love you, Morgan. Let the doctors do what they need to. Our daughter is waiting so let’s get you better as soon as possible.”
***
About an hour later, Marcus was putting his cell phone away when Doctor Phillips came from the examining area to the waiting room, which was surprisingly empty. Jackson had called to report that he had picked up Angela and was taking her to Culvers for frozen custard. She was happily looking forward to her reunion with her beloved Lovebug, and Jackson had assured him that everything was fine.
BROWNIE: An Angel's Visit Page 16