PATIENT CARE (Medical Romance) (Doctor Series) (7 page)

James pedaled into the lot at six-thirty, and Melissa drove in on the dot of 6:45. He realized how tense he’d been, waiting for her. She gave him a cheery wave and a smile, and his morning brightened considerably.

Rudy had coffee ready, as well as a plate with a giant chunk of oatmeal coffee cake, raisins bursting from its fat golden sides and nuts thickly studding the sugary crumbs on top.

Just looking at it had made James’s mouth water, and even though he knew it was a coronary time bomb, he couldn’t resist.

“’Morning, Melissa.” She made his mouth water, too. She was wearing a short silky dress the color of chestnuts, and her long, lovely legs were bare. Her fiery hair was caught back in its usual knot, but tendrils escaped and curled around her ears. He liked her ears. He liked her hair. He liked her freckles. He especially liked her breasts. In fact, he concluded as she sat down beside him, there wasn’t anything about Melissa Clayton he didn’t like.

“’Morning, James. Rudy, thanks for the coffee. And your wife’s cake looks scrumptious.”

Rudy beamed. “I’ll pass that along to Thelma. And she said to tell you the prayer group’s gonna start working on your mom right away.”

“I’m grateful.” She sipped her coffee and took a nibble of the cake, then smiled at James. “I can’t believe you’re up and about at this hour of the morning. How come you’re not taking advantage of the time away from the operating room and sleeping late?”

“Too many years of scrubbing for surgery at the crack of dawn. It messes up your circadian rhythms.”

“What’s those, if you don’t mind me asking?” Rudy looked puzzled.

“Oh, circadian rhythms are our biological clocks,” James explained. “The natural cycles our bodies go through in a twenty-four-hour period, when we feel like sleeping, eating, that sort of thing.”
And having sex
. Melissa’s presence triggered that circadian rhythm, all right.

“Oh, like all that stuff about women’s clocks telling them it’s time to have babies,” Rudy said with a nod. “When Thelma and I were young, nobody worried over stuff like that. We expected to get married, have kids. It was the natural way of things. Still is, if you ask me. Only, nowadays you young folks put a lot of fancy names on it and set up more resistance than we did.” He laughed, and so did James.

Rudy leaned forward, chin resting on his hands. “You plan on having kids someday, Melissa?”

Rudy certainly had no qualms about asking personal questions. James waited for her answer.

“Not soon, as in this year or next,” she said. She blushed a little. “But someday, sure, I’d like to have babies.” She turned to James, a hint of challenge in her eyes. “How about you? Think you’ll ever want some little Burkes?”

“I’m not sure.” Six months ago, he’d have given a firm and definite no. But since his fortieth birthday, his ideas about being single were changing. He’d begun to notice families, in the supermarket, on the beach, surrounding someone’s bed at the hospital. And for the first time in his life, he’d begun to feel empty. “I suppose everyone thinks about having a family.”

“You come from a big family, Doc?” Rudy rested his huge arms on the counter.

James shook his head. “I was an only child. My mother died when I was fourteen. Dad remarried. He lives in San Diego. He’s a researcher for the U.S. Navy.” He hadn’t seen his father in two years. He’d never gotten along with his stepmother; she was possessive of his father, almost to the point of paranoia, and that possessiveness excluded James.

“How about you, Melissa? You have brothers and sisters?”

She shook her head. “Only child, same as James. But my mom and I have always been really close. Well, apart from a couple of years when I was a rebellious teenager.” She gave a small, sad smile.  “Mom told me from the time I was little that I could do anything I wanted in life, and that education was the key. My dad died when I was a baby. He had life insurance, and no matter how hard up we were, my mom never touched a penny of it.” Her voice wobbled, but she went on. “Mom worked as a clerk in a grocery store to support us, and she always told me the insurance money was for my education.” Her eyes filled with tears. “She was so proud when I got this job. I was going to take her to Hawaii at Christmas.”

With Melissa’s words, the detachment about his patients that James always strove so hard to maintain crumbled entirely. Betsy Clayton went from being the bowel obstruction who happened to be Melissa’s mother to a woman who’d had dreams and hopes and plans, a woman who’d sacrificed to give her daughter an opportunity at a better life than she’d had.

“Thelma and me are going to Hawaii in February,” Rudy said. “We been saving for a coupla years, and last month Thelma won a bundle at bingo that put us over the top. We got all the brochures, and I got Thelma a CD of Hawaiian music, told her if she learns the hula for me I’ll buy her a grass skirt when we get there.” He chortled. “I bet you get to Hawaii a lot, huh, Doc?’ ’

“I’ve never been.” James hadn’t taken a real holiday for three years. “Most of my time is spent here at St. Joe’s.”

Rudy was perplexed. “But that’s work. So what d’ya do for fun?”

“I guess I see my work as fun.” James felt a little defensive. “I enjoy riding my bike to work. And sometimes I ride with a group on Sunday mornings, out toward Squamish.”

Rudy nodded and waited, and when James didn’t continue, he said in an incredulous tone, “That’s it, a bike ride now and again?”

“Well, I like to fly-fish,” James added. He hadn’t done any fishing since early spring, though, and then only for a long weekend. He hadn’t really thought about it much, but now he realized that surgery had eaten up his life. He had no close friends, no pets, and his social life at the moment consisted of an occasional movie or a few glasses of beer at the local pub on a Sunday afternoon.

Even his sex life had ended six weeks ago when Heidi Menzies, whom he’d met in the swimming pool just after she’d moved into his building, broke off the relationship they’d had for five months. She was moving to Las Vegas in the hope of becoming a showgirl, she’d told him, and she had a word of advice for him before she left. He needed to take a long, hard look at his priorities. Any guy who’d choose to hang around the ER just in case there might be a surgical emergency rather than go to a club with her— well, a guy like that had some major issues he ought to deal with.

He’d brushed her words aside at the time, reminding himself that it wasn’t Heidi’s brain that had attracted him in the first place. But these past few days, with job action making it impossible for him to immerse himself in his usual routine of surgeries, her words had come back to haunt him. If his work was factored out of his life’s equation, there wasn’t one hell of a lot left, was there.

James turned to Melissa. “How about you? What d’ya do for fun?”

“Fun? Gosh, I don’t know—”

She shrugged, and it was reassuring to James to see the confusion in her expression.

“I’ve been so busy these past few years, going to school and working at the same time, I guess I haven’t given too much thought to fun.”

“What did you guys used to like to do, when you were kids?” Rudy wasn’t letting either of them off the hook.

She pursed her mouth, thinking. She had a lush, full mouth, made for kissing, James noted.

“Roller-skate. And dance, I loved to dance.”

“There ya go.” Rudy sounded triumphant. “Why don’t the two of you go dancin’? It would do you both good. You need to get out more.”

James shook his head. “I don’t dance.” It was one activity he hadn’t been able to master right away, so he’d stopped trying years earlier.

Luckily, Melissa was also shaking her head. “I don’t have time enough these days to breathe, never mind go dancing.” She glanced at her watch and let out a squawk of horror. “My God, I’ve gotta run. Thanks, Rudy.” She flashed a smile at James. “See you later, Doc.”

James watched her hurry off, long legs making the flippy little chestnut skirt swing, red hair gleaming like brass in the morning sunlight.

“She’s one good-lookin’ woman,” Rudy said with an appreciative sigh. “How old is she, anyway, thirty, thirty- one, maybe?”

“Thirty-six.” James had made it his business to find out.

Rudy whistled. “She’d better get cracking with the babies. Her clock is on fast-forward,” Rudy said. “You got a lady friend, Doc?”

Although it wasn’t any of Rudy’s business, James shook his head. “Nope, not at the moment.”

“Then, why don’t you ask Melissa out? Sounds to me like she could use some R and R. Sounds like all she does is work, work, work. That can’t be healthy, right? In fact, you ask me, both of you are on the wrong track there. It’s kinda pathetic.”

Pathetic? Who did Rudy think he was, calling two professional people who took their work seriously “pathetic”?”

“I did ask her to dinner,” James snapped.  “She turned me down.”

“So you got rejected. It happens to the best of us.” Rudy gave him a disparaging look. “So ask her again, Doc.”

James’s temper flared. He didn’t appreciate being given advice. Didn’t Rudy know that meeting Melissa here at 6:45 in the bloody morning wasn’t exactly an accident? It had been an inspired move on his part, James felt. And he wasn’t exactly a charity case when it came to dating. Rudy needed to mind his own business.

A few days ago, James might have told him so. Now, though, he had to admit he’d grown fond of Rudy, in spite of the endless personal questions and the banal advice on life in general. He didn’t want to hurt him, so he swallowed his irritation.

“Maybe I’ll do that. See you later, Rudy.” James headed for St. Joe’s. He was a doctor, a surgeon, responsible and hardworking, and a benefit to society, he reminded himself.

He certainly wasn’t pathetic. But as he showered and changed into the fresh pants and the newly laundered golf shirt he kept in his locker, Rudy’s words troubled him, and they were still with him when he arrived at Betsy’s bedside.

“Any change?” He couldn’t remember the nurse’s name, although he’d seen her often enough. “No more incidents that involve my patient falling out of bed, I hope.”

“No on both counts, Dr. Burke.”

He waited until she moved away, and then James leaned close to his patient.

“You can wake up whenever you choose, you know, Betsy,” he told her, feeling like an idiot as he did so. He was aware the nurses advised relatives to speak to comatose patients in this manner, but he’d never done it himself, and it felt strange. He glanced around, but there was no one to hear him. “You have a beautiful daughter who cares about you. She’s very upset because you’re not getting well,” he said in a stern tone.

Maybe stern wasn’t the way to go. The lack of any response was strangely freeing, and in a softer tone, he added, “I like your daughter very much, Betsy. And I feel responsible for what’s happened to you, which really complicates the situation between Melissa and me. So it would be much better all around if you just woke up.”

He looked down at her, for the first time recognizing in Betsy’s features faint echoes of her daughter’s beauty. “I brought you some tapes I had lying around.” He fumbled in his medical bag. He’d actually searched them out in one of the secondhand bookstores he frequented. He slid one into the portable player by the bed and turned it on.

“You Are My Sunshine” began playing, and like an idiot James watched for a response. None came, naturally, which annoyed him.

“Damn it all, why don’t you just quit this nonsense, Betsy? We need you awake,” he said forcefully. “Melissa does, and I sure as hell do, too, if I’m gonna get anywhere with her.”

A sound behind him made him turn. The nurse he’d spoken to was standing there, an expression of utter amazement on her freckled face. Why the hell did nurses wear shoes that allowed them to sneak up like that?

James’s face burned, and he beat a hasty retreat into the corridor.

Three days passed for Melissa in a frenzy of activity. Every moment of every day was crammed. Meetings were the worst; she met with the ministry in an effort to come to some agreement about the conflict. She met with the press, and because the strike was attracting province-wide attention, there were swarms of radio and television stations vying for interviews. She met with the union heads of the various departments; they were worried about nonunion people moving in on their jobs. She spent endless hours on the phone trying to get patients to other facilities, and their families often insisted on speaking directly to her, concerned about the care their loved ones were receiving.

Every time she could steal a few moments, she raced upstairs to be with Betsy. And every time she entered her mother’s room, she prayed silently and hard that there would be some change, some little thing that would be cause for hope.

There was nothing. Betsy remained in stable condition but unresponsive, and with each day that passed, Melissa’s hopes grew fainter and her spirits sank.

The only bright spot was meeting James. Each morning as she pulled into the parking lot, he was there, waving at her from the front of Rudy’s trailer. Seeing him, finding out more about him, became something to look forward to, something that took her mind off both her mother and her work for just a while.

They talked about everything, and sometimes about nothing at all. He told her and Rudy about a boy who’d died from a medication he’d prescribed, and how it had almost ended his career as a doctor. She found herself able to talk about her marriage to Nadim and how it had affected her. Rudy acted like a catalyst, asking the bold questions that neither Melissa nor James dared put to each other.

She learned that he liked eating fish and chips from a certain vendor in Stanley Park, that morning was his favorite time of day, that he collected old medical journals and loved prowling through dusty bookshops.

She heard herself confiding that she’d always wanted to learn to ride horses, she broke out in hives from shellfish and she liked watching Oprah. That confession brought a lump to her throat; Betsy had always taped the shows for her.

On the afternoon of the tenth day of the physicians’ job action, Melissa was sitting through yet another meeting, when her pager sounded. Glancing at the number, she saw that it was Arlene. Melissa excused herself and hurried down the hallway to a phone.

“It’s your mom,” Arlene said, and Melissa’s heart gave a lurch. “The nurses called down a few moments ago. She’s become very restless. She’s moving around and she seems agitated.”

Heart racing, Melissa hurried up to her mother’s room. Two nurses were with her. Betsy was tossing and turning. She was also mumbling, although the sounds made no sense.

“We’ve called Dr. Burke. He’ll be along any moment.” The nurse met Melissa’s troubled glance. Neither of them needed to verbalize that this change in Betsy’s condition could be one of two things: either she was improving, or she was exhibiting signs of brain damage.

Melissa tried to be optimistic, but Betsy had now been in a coma for more than a week. Brain damage was the most probable diagnosis, and when James arrived, he reluctantly admitted that he, too, thought Betsy was exhibiting classic signs of trauma to the brain.

He took Melissa into the same little office in which he’d spoken to her after her mother’s operation. The difference this time was that his words were gentle, his tone regretful, and when Melissa nodded and then felt her chin wobble, he reached out and drew her into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, holding her against his chest. “I hope this diagnosis is wrong.”

She hoped so, too. Very much. Being in his arms was comforting, but it wasn’t soothing. Even through this new worry about her mother, she was aware of his warmth, of the now-familiar smell of his aftershave, of the strength of his lean body against her softness and the surge of desire it brought. She allowed herself extra seconds before she drew away. She liked his arms around her.

He let her go, but she could feel his reluctance. Attraction, sexual attraction, was humming between them like white noise, but this wasn’t the time or the place to indulge it, and they were both aware of that. She had to get back to the meeting, and then she had two other urgent appointments this afternoon.

“I wish I could just sit with her for a while.” She was torn between obligation and love.

“I will. I’ll page you if anything significant occurs,” he promised.

“Oh, James, thank you.” She felt overwhelmed.

“My pleasure.” His grin was wry. “It’s not as if I have much else to do.”

“Maybe this thing will end soon, and you can get back to the OR.”

“I hope so. I’m at loose ends not working.” His dark eyes met hers. “Although I’ll miss our mornings together at Rudy’s.”

“Me, too.” Melissa smiled at him, thinking how attractive he was. He’d become a good friend, and she was grateful for that. She was far too busy to get involved with anyone, and so was he. Ironically, when he went back to work, her own schedule would ease, which reinforced the fact that they were totally incompatible when it came to timing.

They were totally incompatible when it came to romance.

It was ridiculous to contemplate anything other than friendship.

She certainly wasn’t responsible for the wild sex they shared in the dreams she’d been having about him nearly every night. She knew the difference between fantasy and reality, and she’d never allow one to influence the other. She prided herself on being a realist.

She was in the midst of one of those dreams at four the following morning, when the phone rang. In the dream, she was in her office and James was there with her, and neither of them was wearing clothing. For some reason there was a convenient examining table with a pillow.

Melissa needed a few seconds to figure out that the ringing wasn’t just an unwelcome interruption in her office fantasy. She finally sat up and dragged the receiver to her ear.

“It’s Angela from Four West,” the nurse said, and Melissa’s stomach contracted with dread. Her fingers clenched the phone, and she bent over, hugging her knees, forming a defensive ball against what could only be disaster.

“It’s your mom, Melissa. She woke up a few minutes ago and asked us for a cup of tea. She seems absolutely normal. Of course, we won’t know for sure until Dr. Burke confirms it, but I’d be willing to bet there’s no brain damage. She’s complaining of being hungry and accusing us of trying to starve her to death, and she asked for you right away. We’re all so thrilled. We knew you’d want to know right away.”

For a moment, Melissa couldn’t even speak. She had to swallow hard to get past the huge lump in her throat.  “Oh, my God. Oh, that’s such good news. Please tell her that I’ll be right there.”

“I certainly will.” Angela laughed. “And I think we’d better get her a cup of tea and some toast before she lodges a formal complaint.”

Melissa hung up, hands trembling, heart so full of gratitude that her chest felt as if it would burst. She shrieked, “Yes!” and jumped out of bed. She showered quickly, pulled on jeans and a top, and raced for the car.

The nurses were changing shifts when she arrived, and they all grinned and gave thumbs-up signs to her as she rushed into her mother’s room.

“Mom?” The tears Melissa had been holding back began to pour down her cheeks when she put her arms around Betsy, who was sitting propped against a stack of pillows, faded blue eyes open, expression alert. “Oh, my God, Mom, it’s so good to have you back.”

“The nurses say I had some trouble waking up,” Betsy said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Last I remember was not feeling too good after that damn operation.”

Melissa sniffled and wiped her eyes on the sheet. “You’re fine now, Mom. You’re soon going to be absolutely healthy again.”

“That I am.” There was determination and conviction in Betsy’s tone. “I’ll feel lots better soon as I get home. When can I go home, Lissa?”

“You’ll have to ask Dr. Burke.”

“Ask me what?”

Melissa hadn’t heard him come into the room. She turned and gave him a wide, tremulous smile. He, too, had obviously thrown on the first clothes at hand, a pair of worn jeans and a blue T-shirt. His hair was mussed and damp. He looked vital and alive and unbearably sexy. Melissa blushed. How could she be thinking of sex, with her mother right here, barely back from death’s door?

“Hello there, Mrs. Clayton.” He was staring at Betsy with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “It’s, um, it’s wonderful to see you so well.”

“So when can I go home?” Betsy was already back to being her single-minded self.

“Let’s check you over, and then I can give you an educated guess.”

He did a routine but intensive examination, and Melissa waited, hoping against hope that he’d find nothing wrong.

He didn’t. He straightened and shook his head, and his smile was wide and jubilant. “I’d like to run a few more tests, but basically, I think you’re well on the way to recovery, Mrs. Clayton.”

Betsy nodded as if that was a foregone conclusion.  “So you can take this awful thing out—” she gestured at her IV “—and I can go home today.”

“Well, I’d say in a few days, as long as you have someone there with you until you’re stronger.”

Melissa envisioned her killer schedule, and tried to figure out how she could bend it. “I could probably—” she began, but Betsy shook her head.

“You’ve got too much to do as it is,” she said in a trembly but firm tone. “Gladys will come and stay with me. She’ll be glad to get away from that daughter of hers for a few weeks. You call her for me, Lissa.”

“I will. She’ll be glad to hear that you’re awake. She’s been so worried she’s phoned every day,” Melissa said.

“Prob’ly scared I won’t make it to Reno for Christmas like we planned,” Betsy said. “Gladys really likes the slots,” she explained to James. “Me, I’m more for poker.”

“I didn’t know you were going to Reno with Gladys.” Melissa had been going to surprise Betsy with tickets to Hawaii.

Betsy grinned, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “A person’s gotta have some secrets.”

James laughed, and Melissa had to giggle. Her mother was definitely better if her contrary nature had returned full force.

Betsy yawned, patting her mouth and settled back on the pillows. “I think I need a little nap,” she said. “Hard to get a minute’s peace in this place.”

Melissa straightened the sheets, and her mother was already snoring lightly when she and James walked out of the room.

“There’s no chance she’ll drop back into coma?” Melissa knew her worried question wasn’t fair. James wasn’t God, after all.

He shook his head. “She seems perfectly fine. I think your mom is over the crisis and, as I said, well on her way to recovery.”

Melissa felt like throwing herself into his arms for a massive hug, but there were staff everywhere. She settled for a swirling little solitary dance down the hall and back. “It’s a miracle, James,” she crowed. “Oh, I’m so happy I just don’t know what to do.”

“How about a coffee at Rudy’s to celebrate?”

Melissa looked up at the clock behind the nursing station. It wasn’t even seven.

“I can’t wait to tell Rudy. He’s going to be thrilled.”

They made their way out to the parking lot. The sun was already coming up, and the morning air was sweet. Rudy was in his lawn chair beside the trailer, one massive leg crossed over the other. The moment he spotted them coming, he leaped up and disappeared inside. By the time they sat down he’d reappeared with two mugs of coffee and a plateful of sugared doughnuts.

“The wife didn’t bake this morning, so I bought these from that Greek fella on Broadway. He makes the best doughnuts in town,” Rudy announced. “I wondered where you’d both got to. I saw your car over there,” he said to Melissa as he lowered himself into his lawn chair.

With a lilt in her voice and much joy in her heart, Melissa told him about Betsy.

Rudy shot to his feet and threw both fists high in the air. “Hallelujah,” he shouted, attracting the attention of people hurrying to work along the sidewalk.

“I knew Thelma’s prayer group’d come through for your mama,” he crowed. “Wait’ll Thelma hears this. She’s gonna be beside herself.” He sat down again, held his coffee cup high and insisted they both take a doughnut. “To Mrs. Clayton’s continued good health,” he toasted.

Melissa echoed his words, as did James, and took a nibble of the doughnut. Rudy was right. It was one of the best she’d ever tasted.

“Well, this settles it,” Rudy announced, talking through a huge mouthful of doughnut. “No way around it. You two gotta come to the church social Friday night.”

“Oh, I don’t think I could—” Melissa began, but Rudy held up a hand, palm out, and leaned forward until his face was only inches from hers.

“You—got—no—choice,” he drawled. “Miracle happens. You gotta come along and rejoice, both of you.”

“When you put it that way, we’ll just have to do as you say,” James told him. “Don’t you think so, Melissa?”

It was a chance to have an honest-to-goodness date with James.