Page 41 of Fractured Reunion

But he didn’t agree. Obviously having a heart-to-heart talk in front of Joey wasn’t possible. There had to be another way to bridge the gap between them.

Then his pager went off. He felt Maggie’s gaze boring into him as he pulled the device from his belt.

“Go ahead, Aaron. I understand. You’re working.” She wasn’t being snarky, but a hint of resignation laced her tone. “I’m surprised you’re not in the OR today.”

“I have two cases tomorrow.” He clipped the pager back onto his belt, trying to find a way to salvage this. He’d have to answer the resident soon, but that call could wait a few minutes. They reached the seventh floor, and as the elevator doors opened, he felt the moment slipping away. “Maggie, will you have lunch with me?” He frowned. “You forgot to swing by the cafeteria to grab breakfast.”

“I’ll do that later.” She waved off his concern. “And no, Aaron, I don’t think there’s a reason for us to have lunch together while you’re working.”

“Maggie, wait…” But it was no use. She was striding purposefully down the hall toward Joey’s room. And his pager went off again anyway.

She was right, lunch while he was working was a bad idea. If he wanted to continue to have a heartfelt conversation with Maggie, he needed to find a way to spend time with her when he wasn’t bombarded by calls and pagers.

But how? As he turned away to reach for his phone, he tried to come up with a viable solution.

One that would convince Maggie to give him another chance.

* * *

Maggie tried to squash the flash of guilt that washed over her as she walked away from Aaron for the second time. If she were being honest, the shock and confusion in his eyes over how things had ended between them made her feel as if she’d been in the wrong.

Had she? It seemed so obvious to her back then that Aaron wasn’t seriously considering adoption, that he’d tossed that out there as a way to make her feel better, while being preoccupied with his patient situation, but maybe she had read into his comments.

Putting a negative spin on them.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that she could not give him the next generation of Monroe children. And she had felt certain he’d have moved on by now, finding someone who would be able to give him the children he wanted.

So why hadn’t he?

Because of his job, most likely. When they’d first met, she’d admired his dedication to his patients. He was still a phenomenal and skilled surgeon. It wasn’t that she wanted to take that away from him.

But there had to be more to life than a career. Even Aaron had mentioned how his parents had made things work over the years. She enjoyed being an anesthesiologist, but her work was different in that her responsibility started in the pre-op area, through the procedure, and then for the following recovery phase in the PACU. Once she went home, she was rarely called back to deal with a problem.

Shaking off the thoughts, she considered grabbing a couple of crackers from the kitchen to ease the rumbling in her stomach. Then she spied a woman dressed in an ill-fitting black suit approaching from the other end of the hall.

They met outside Joey’s room. Her visitor’s name tag read Francis Douglas, but Maggie also saw her state issued ID clipped to the other collar.

Francis Douglas was from the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Hello. I’m Dr. Maggie Dall.” She extended her hand to the woman. “I have been staying with Joey since the bus crash.”

“Dr. Dall, I’m social worker Francis Douglas,” the woman responded, giving her hand a firm shake. “I have heard a lot about you.”

Good or bad? The thought flitted through Maggie’s mind, but she didn’t voice it. “If you don’t mind, I need to let Joey know I’m back. Then we can talk.”

“Actually, I’m here to talk to Joey,” Francis said.

Maggie winced at her blunder. Of course, this woman wasn’t there just to talk to Maggie. She managed to keep her smile in place as she entered the room.

“You’re back,” Joey said, looking relieved. “You were gone a long time.”

“Sorry about that.” She crossed over to his bedside. “This is Ms. Douglas. She wants to talk to you, okay?”

“I’m watching Cars,” Joey protested, barely giving Francis Douglas a glance. “It’s a really good movie.”

“Joey, you can watch that when you’re finished.” She put a note of steel in her tone. “This is important.”

“But—” Joey started to argue, but she reached over and turned off the television. He scowled. “Hey! I wanna watch!”

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