A Christmas Kiss With Her Ex-Army Doc / Second Chance With The Surgeon

Pulling the phone free, he put it to his ear. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I need you down here.”

“What?” His brain stalled for a second, almost missing her next words.

“We have a problem in Maternity. Can you come?”

His thoughts sidestepped back to reality, although he couldn’t imagine why they would need him. But she wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t urgent. “I’ll be there in three.”

Hanging up, he changed his route and headed for the elevator.

He reached the third floor and exited, glancing in both directions before seeing Hollee waving at him from the end of the hallway. She looked pretty upset. “What is it?”

“We have a situation. A newborn with a cleft palate. The mom came in with full-blown eclampsia and gave birth. She won’t believe us when we say it can be fixed. If we can’t get her blood pressure down, we’re in danger of losing her.”

Now that he listened, he did hear a disturbance down the hall. “Is her obstetrician here?”

“He’s in there. But he thought if you came, you could explain the repair procedure to her and it might calm her down.”

“And the baby?”

“She’s in the nursery. Every time she caught sight of her, she just started up again. The husband is in there, but he’s not much help. He almost passed out during the delivery.”

“Okay. Can you bring the baby but stay just outside the door? Let me talk to her, and then we’ll go from there.”

She touched his arm. “Thank you. You’ll understand when you see her.”

Clancy knocked on the door she’d indicated and then pushed it open. Dr. Brouchet waved him over. “Marilyn, I’ve asked our plastic surgeon to talk to you about Sara, okay?”

The wailing he’d heard outside the door decreased in volume, becoming pained whimpers instead. The young woman was curled in on herself but shifted her eyes to look up at him. Her face was wet with tears.

“Hi, Marilyn, I’m Dr. de Oliveira. Congratulations on your new little one.” No answer, but the crying had stopped, so she was listening. “I hear that she might need a little surgery. I haven’t seen her yet, but I assure you I can help her.”

“It’s my fault.” The soft voice was filled with a terrible conviction that tugged at his gut.

“Why do you say that?” He didn’t want to jump to offer platitudes before he knew the situation.

“I… I…”

Her husband, who’d been standing silently beside her, touched her shoulder. “Tell him. It’s okay.” His voice was shaky—hesitant—like he knew something awful was coming.

“I—I was on drugs…heroin…when I got pregnant. Only I was too high to realize I wasn’t having a period.” She glanced at her husband. “We both were. And—Oh, God! It suddenly hit me, and I took a test. Afterward, we both went to rehab and got clean, but it was too…too late. My baby is paying for what I did. For what we did.” Tears spilled over onto the pillow, but the hysteria wasn’t there, like it had been.

Unfortunately, she was right. Addiction of any type during the first trimester could interfere with fetal development. But the fact that they’d both quit—had gotten help—showed how much they cared about this baby.

“She wasn’t born addicted, because you both did the right thing. That’s huge,” he said. “And from what I’ve been told, she just has a cleft palate. Something very, very repairable.”

Marilyn blinked up at him. “You promise?”

“I’ve asked the nurse to bring her, so I can look at her with you in the room. Is that okay? I’ll give you my honest assessment.”

Her hands started twisting together in a way that said she was about to get agitated again, so Clancy cut her off. “I can help her. Your baby isn’t suffering, and I admire you, both of you…” He glanced up at the man. “…for getting help. You have to promise to keep up with whatever counseling sessions you’ve set up.”

“We will.” Her husband reached down and took one of his wife’s hands and squeezed it. He knelt by the bed and looked into her eyes. “Let him show us. She’s our responsibility now. Our little girl. We need to do right by her.”

Marilyn nodded then looked up again, a sudden frown appearing. “What happened to your face?” As if realizing what she’d said, she quickly apologized, but Clancy waved it away.

“I was injured by a piece of shrapnel in Afghanistan.” He smiled. “And, no, that isn’t my work. I promise she won’t look like me when I’m done.”

She laughed. “It doesn’t look that bad.”

“Hey, I have to look at this mug every day in the mirror. I know exactly what it looks like.”

Glancing at the monitors behind her, he saw that her blood pressure was coming down. It was still above normal, but not in the danger zone like it’d been when he arrived.

“Can I ask the nurse to bring her in?”

Marilyn nodded, while her obstetrician came forward. “I’m going to check on another patient. You’ll be in good hands with Dr. de Oliveira. I’ll be back in about a half hour to look in on you.”

“Okay.”

He gave her a smile and headed past Clancy. “Call me if you need me.”

“We’ll be fine,” he said. “Can you tell Hollee to come in?”

Dr. Brouchet shot him a quick look before nodding.

Since Clancy had only been at the hospital for a few weeks, the OB/GYN was probably wondering how he already knew one of the nurses well enough to call her by her first name. But it was too late to try to cover the slip.

A minute later, Hollee came in with the baby swaddled in a blanket that was pulled up on the side of her face. Smart move. That way, the family’s second introduction could be done a little more gently.

He was struck by the soft glow of her eyes as she cradled the baby, murmuring softly to her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her hair slid over the side of her face, and she tucked it behind her ear before her glance came up and caught him staring. She bit her lip, color flooding her cheeks.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. She would have made a great mother. Her babies would have been gorgeous and, oh, so…

Cut it out. You’re not here for her. Or for yourself.

He dragged his gaze away and forced himself to do what he’d come here to do, moving closer and studying the baby’s face. The cleft was unilateral. He met Hollee’s eyes, keeping a tight rein on his thoughts this time. “Do you know if it includes the palate?”

“Yes, but it’s not a large space.”

“Good. Let’s bring her over to the bed.”

Marilyn’s husband was again on his feet, a wariness in his demeanor that needed to be addressed. It was really important for him to show support and love for his child, or he would risk Marilyn blaming herself for that as well. He caught the man’s attention. “Your baby is beautiful.” He said it with meaning, hoping that the man would catch his drift. He evidently did, because he gave a slight nod.

“Okay, Marilyn. I’m going to tell you how I normally repair babies with clefts like… Sara, wasn’t that her name?”

“Yes.” The response came as a whisper that was barely discernible.

“I like it. It fits her, don’t you think so, Hollee?”

“Yes. I do.” Her smile was warm and genuine. “I’ve always loved that name.”

Would she have named her own baby Sara?

And here he was back where he’d started: on shaky ground.

He got down to business, detailing how he would go about closing the cleft and repairing the lip. He used general terms so that the mom wouldn’t be more frightened than she already was. “Do you think you can hold Sara so I can show you?”

Marilyn’s throat moved, and she glanced at her husband and then at Hollee and the bundle she held. “I think so.”

Clancy nodded. “Go ahead and help her hold her baby, but stay close in case she needs a little extra support.”

Doing as he asked, she carefully placed the baby in her mother’s arms, keeping the blanket pulled high on the side closest to Marilyn. Then, much to his surprise, the baby’s mom eased the cover down, looking into her newborn’s still face.

“She’s just…sleeping, isn’t she?”

The heartbreaking question threatened to breach the wall of detachment he’d built after years of working in combat areas. “Yes. She’s sound asleep. See? Her lip doesn’t hurt her, but it will need to be fixed so that it’s easier for her to nurse and eat.”

“You’re sure you can?”

“This is an easy fix.” Unlike his mixed feelings about working with Hollee. “We’ll put her under anesthesia so she can’t feel anything, and in an hour or two she’ll be as good as new. She won’t remember a thing. She might have a tiny scar here…” He pointed from the open area of Sara’s lip to her nose. “…but it will be barely noticeable. Not like mine.”

Hollee gave him a sharp look that he ignored.

“Can I nurse her?”

“Let me talk to her pediatrician and see what his thoughts are, but I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Her face showed immense relief. “Can you do surgery today?”

“No. Not today. We want to give her a little time to adjust to her world. You’ll be able to take her home once you’re released, and then we’ll probably do surgery when she’s six to eight weeks old.”

“That long?”

“We want to make sure she’s strong and healthy. It’s not dangerous to leave it for a bit.”

Sara’s mom kissed her baby’s forehead, as her blood pressure continued to drop.

“Do you have any questions?”

“No.” Marilyn looked at Hollee. “I’m so sorry for grabbing your arm like I did. I was scared.”

“Don’t worry about it. Giving birth is scary under normal circumstances and everything happened so quickly that you didn’t have a lot of time to process what was going on.”

Clancy frowned. Had she been hurt? She hadn’t mentioned there being an altercation, just that Marilyn was upset. Her concern had been wholly for her patient and the baby. Not for herself.

He’d known Hollee when she was just beginning to know who she was. Now he was seeing her standing here as a competent, self-confident nurse who was good at what she did. If Jacob hadn’t reinforced what Clancy had already believed about himself, would she be where she was now? Would she have fallen in love with him instead?

It was a question no one could answer. Maybe they would even be divorced by now. He doubted he was the easiest person to live with. He didn’t show his emotions easily. Even now. Especially now, after everything he’d seen in the world.

He pushed all those thoughts aside. “Do either of you have any more questions?” He probably needed to get back to his first patient, as he was now running a few minutes late. But this had been important.

“I want you to do the surgery.”

He smiled. “I wasn’t planning on letting anyone else do it, so that’s a good thing.”

There was something about this young family that touched him. Sara’s parents had a lot of growing to do, but he saw a lot of hope in the situation.

Marilyn reached over and gripped her husband’s hand, tugging him closer. And, thank God, there wasn’t an ounce of revulsion or fear in the man’s face.

“Hollee, can you let me know when Sara is getting ready to be discharged? I have a little something for her from Santa’s visit.” If anyone deserved a fresh start, it was this couple.

“I will.” The smile she sent him contained gratitude, relief and a touch of something else. Attraction?

Maybe he wasn’t crazy after all.

As she walked him toward the door, Hollee peered up at him. “When did you want to meet with Mom about Gordy?”

“I guess it needs to be soon, since we’re less than a week out.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know.”

“That would be great.” He nodded at the couple and said goodbye to them, and to Hollee, who mouthed, Thank you, Clance.

“Anytime,” he said aloud. And for the first time since they’d met again he actually meant it.

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