Healing Her Heart (Crystal Lake Series Book 1) (9 page)

Bruised or broken ribs? Or something worse? She glanced up again at the heart monitor, but his vitals continued to be stable.

Before she could call over to Dr. Allen, a large hand reached out to grab her wrist. She gasped, her gaze clashing with his as he stared at her intently. His hard, blue, uncompromising gaze caused a spurt of fear.

“My daughter. Lexi,” he said hoarsely. His pain-glazed eyes bored into hers, and his grip on her wrist tightened painfully. “Where’s Lexi?”

The flash of fear faded when she realized he was concerned about his daughter. She glanced over to where Merry and Gabe were examining the young girl. “Don’t worry. Lexi is right here in the gurney beside you. My name is Julie and I’m your nurse. Merry and Dr. Allen are taking good care of your daughter.”

Lexi must have heard her father’s voice, because up until now, the silent child created a sudden commotion from the gurney next door as she struggled to get away from where Merry was trying to hold her down. “Daddy! Let me up! I wanna see my daddy!”

“Lexi.” Derek dropped Julie’s wrist and struggled to push himself upright as if intending to go to his daughter. He didn’t get far before he let out a harsh sound and grabbed the right side of his chest, swaying dangerously. His face went pale, beads of sweat popping out on his forehead.

“Take it easy. You’re going to hurt yourself more,” Julie told him, trying to keep calm, knowing she didn’t have the strength to hold him down if he chose to get up. Derek Ryerson was a big man, at least six feet tall and broad shouldered—his entire body was solid muscle. Whatever he did for a living, he kept in shape. “You have a couple of bruised or broken ribs, and we haven’t cleared your spine yet, either. We also need to make sure you don’t have a head injury.”

For a moment, he stared into her eyes, as if trying to decide whether or not to believe her. Considering the strength with which he’d grabbed her wrist, she thought he couldn’t be too badly injured. She waited, simply looking back at him, secretly amazed at how brilliant his blue eyes were.

Good thing she was immune to good-looking men.

After what seemed like a long time, he dragged his gaze from hers. “Lexi, listen to what the doctors and nurses are telling you to do, okay, honey? They’re only trying to help. I’m right here next to you. I promise I won’t leave without you.”

“Daddy, I want my daddy,” the girl cried out between heartbreaking sobs, repeating herself over and over again, seemingly inconsolable. The poor child must be traumatized from the accident.

“Gabe? I might need a chest X-ray here,” she called out, doing her best not to be distracted by Lexi’s sobbing mantra, even though she wanted nothing more than to cross over to offer comfort.

Gabe walked to her side. “His vitals, along with his oxygen saturation, are stable, so let’s do a CT scan of his head, neck, chest, and abdomen. That way we’ll have the big picture.”

“Sounds good.” She picked up the phone and called over to radiology to put in the request for the CT scan. When she finished, she turned back to Derek. “How does your head feel?”

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. The lines bracketing his mouth indicated suppressed pain, but whether from just his ribs or his head, too, she couldn’t say for sure. He closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t stand the bright lights. “I’m fine, just take care of my daughter.”

She frowned. Was his head injury worse than she thought? Hadn’t she already told him that his daughter was being cared for? “Merry and Dr. Allen are taking good care of Lexi, remember? Does your back hurt anywhere? I need you to be honest with me, because if you have a cracked spine that goes undiagnosed, you could become paralyzed.”

He opened his eyes and glared at her, but she refused to back down. She couldn’t understand why he was downplaying his injuries. “No, my back doesn’t hurt. My neck is sore, and my head hurts a bit, too. The right side of my chest feels like it’s on fire, but nothing hurts as much as listening to Lexi cry.”

She smiled gently, feeling bad for him. She could only imagine how difficult it would be to stay on a gurney if her niece had been injured. “I know, and I’m sorry. But the best thing you can do for your daughter is to make sure you’re all right. She needs you.”

“I’m fine, nothing a little aspirin won’t cure. Bruised and battered from the airbag and the crash, but fine.”

There was no point in arguing. She glanced over at the next gurney, where Gabe and Merry where in deep conversation.

“I don’t see any sign of serious injury,” she heard Merry saying to Gabe. “The paramedics believe she was likely in a proper booster seat in the back on the passenger side, opposite from the point of impact. When they arrived, they found her out of the seat and clinging to her father. Apparently, they had a heck of a time getting her away from him, and they had to give her a mild dose of Versed to get her onto the gurney. She’s probably fine, but we should get a chest and abdominal CT scan, just to be sure there is no internal bleeding from the straps of her car seat.”

Julie waited until Merry finished. “Since they both need CT scans, I should take them down the hall to radiology together. I think Lexi will be calmer if she can be with her father.”

“She can’t go into the scanner with him,” Gabe pointed out with a frown.

“No, but I could sit with her in the viewing room, behind the lead glass,” she argued. “And once Lexi sees her father going through the scanner, maybe she’ll cooperate when it’s her turn.”

Gabe and Merry looked at each other and shrugged. “Fine with me,” Gabe finally agreed.

Satisfied, Julie waited for Gabe to finish his exam of Derek and then entered the necessary radiology orders for both patients into their respective charts.

She made the arrangements and then quietly told Derek the plan. “I’m going to put Lexi in a wheelchair and have her sit with me in the viewing room to watch you go through the scanner first. The machine makes some loud noises, which can be scary. I want to reassure her it doesn’t hurt.”

His expression was guarded. “Are you sure she’s well enough to sit in a wheelchair?”

His protectiveness for his daughter made her smile. “Amazingly, Lexi doesn’t seem to have any injuries at all,” she assured him. “But we’d like to get a body scan just in case there’s some internal bleeding. Kids aren’t always good about being specific with their aches and pains. Or maybe she gets that streak of stubbornness from you.”

For a moment, a flicker of grim amusement flashed in his eyes in response to her gentle teasing, and he subtly relaxed. “All right,” he agreed. “If you think it will help. Can I talk to her while I’m in there?”

“Not while they’re scanning. You’ll need to stay still and hold your breath when they tell you to. You can talk to her before and after, though.”

“Okay.” He lifted his hand and gingerly rubbed the right side of his chest.

“Show me exactly where it hurts,” she said, noticing the gesture.

The stubborn look came back into his eyes, and she feared he was going to deny any pain at all, but he gently fingered the area where his lowest ribs were. “Right here, mostly. You were probably right about the cracked ribs.”

“Maybe. Or you could have some damage to the lower lobe of your lung or damage to your spleen.” She figured blunt honesty was best, so he would understand the seriousness of his situation. “Your breath sounds were a bit diminished on the right side, but the CT scan will tell us everything we need to know.”

He reached out to grasp her wrist again. “If they have to take me to surgery, I need you to promise you’ll look after Lexi.”

Stunned, she gaped at him. Look after Lexi? What on earth did he mean? “Is there someone I can call for you? Her mother? Grandparents? Friends?”

“There’s no one to call,” he said flatly. “Lexi and I are on our own.”

She swallowed hard and nodded, desperate to reassure him. “All right, but try not to worry. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

He didn’t let it go. “Promise me. If something happens, I want you to look after her. Don’t let strangers take her away. Promise!”

____________

Derek knew he probably sounded like a lunatic, but he didn’t care. The pain along the right side of his chest was bad, far worse than he’d let on, and after what the petite brunette nurse had said about the possible damage to his lung, he was very much afraid that, once they’d completed the scan, they’d whisk him off to surgery.

He’d downplayed his injuries because he didn’t want to stay overnight in the hospital, unless, of course, Lexi needed to be observed. No matter what, he was not going to leave his daughter. Lexi had already been through so much, more than any six-year-old should have to handle. With her mother dead and buried, she needed him now, more than ever.

If only he’d stopped for something to eat earlier, he wouldn’t have been driving through the intersection at the same moment as the idiot who’d run a red light, slamming into them.

“Daddy?”

He turned his head, hiding a wince, to look at his daughter. True to her word, the pretty nurse—what in the world was her name?—had gotten Lexi into a wheelchair and brought her over to the side of his gurney. He forced a broad, reassuring smile. “Hey Lexi, how are you feeling?”

Her solemn gaze didn’t waver from his. “Fine,” she whispered. “Can we leave now?”

If only they could. He’d been all set to leave without the scans until the nurse had mentioned the possibility of a cracked spine. At this point, he needed to know exactly what he was dealing with. Besides, he needed to be sure Lexi was all right, and if that meant getting a scan first, so his daughter could see it wouldn’t hurt, then that’s exactly what he’d do. He held his daughter’s gaze, holding his smile in place. “Afraid not, baby-doll, first we have to get checked out by the kitty-cat machine.” Lexi wasn’t easily distracted, especially when she wanted something. But that didn’t stop him from trying.

“I don’t want to stay here.” Lexi’s eyes, blue like his, revealed a hint of fear. “It’s scary.”

The pretty nurse, he couldn’t read her name on her ID badge because his vision was blurry, another tidbit he hadn’t fessed up to, came over. “Lexi, we need to make sure your daddy’s not seriously hurt. So we’re going to take him for a CT scan, but you can watch from behind the glass the whole time, all right?”

Lexi barely spared the nurse a glance. He wanted to apologize for his daughter’s behavior, but there was no point, since Lexi had no idea she was being rude.

“Okay, let’s go,” the woman said in a cheerful voice. She went behind Lexi’s wheelchair to push her forward, while his gurney was maneuvered by a tall guy who was likely some sort of orderly. When the gurney went over a bump, he had to clench his teeth against a surge of pain. He focused on the nurse, who was talking to Lexi.

“We’ll be finished with these scans in a half hour, Lexi,” she was saying in that same cheery tone. “See the clock on the wall up there? It’s seven o’clock in the evening. Do you know how to tell time?”

Derek was surprised when Lexi’s head moved in a barely discernible nod. His daughter was listening, even if she didn’t appear to be paying attention.

“The big hand is on the twelve, and we’ll be all finished before the big hand gets down to the six.”

Lexi glanced at the clock but said nothing more. The lack of response didn’t stop the nurse’s rather one-sided conversation, and he was grateful she didn’t pass judgment on his daughter the way so many others had.

The way Lexi’s grandparents had.

The CT scan didn’t take long, and as soon as they were finished looking into his head, he talked briefly to Lexi, reassuring her. Then he had to stay quiet until the rest of the scan was completed. When the scan was complete, he heard the nurse encouraging Lexi to take her turn.

His daughter, bless her stubborn heart, wasn’t too keen on the idea. When he saw Lexi’s wheelchair come closer, he turned his head toward her. “Lexi, we can’t leave until I know you’re safe and healthy. The kitty-cat machine doesn’t hurt. All you have to do is to close your eyes and let them take pictures. Once I know you’re fine, we’ll leave.”

He could see the instant flare of protest in the nurse’s eyes at his rash promise, but he glared at her, silently threatening her not to contradict him. She pressed her lips together firmly but didn’t say anything.

Lexi finally agreed to the scan, and he watched protectively as the nurse allowed his daughter to climb down from the wheelchair and up onto the CT table by herself. He had to give the woman points for being astute—she seemed to instinctively know that Lexi wouldn’t tolerate being touched or carried by a stranger.

After the orderly came back to push his gurney out of the way, his nurse crossed over. She locked her gaze on his and spoke in a low tone. “Derek, the lower lobe of your right lung has collapsed. Dr. Allen needs to put a small catheter in between your ribs to re-inflate your lung.”

“Can he do that right here? Or do I have to go to the operating room?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“He can do that right here, but it’s going to hurt.” Her large chocolate-brown eyes held sympathy.

“Let’s get it done fast, then, before Lexi is out of the scanner.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” she confessed. When she leaned closer, her nametag came into focus. Julie. He remembered now, her name was Julie. The pretty name somehow fit her dainty frame and cheerful personality. “I need to prep the side of your chest, first, okay?”