Page 14 of Doctor's Surprise Twins

5

ALLY

Iwalk into the apartment I share with my best friend, Grace, and she sits up on the couch.

“Hey, you’re late. I was starting to worry. How was your day?”

I hang my purse up on the hook and slip out of my coat. “Not great.”

Her brows lift and she pats the empty spot on the couch. “Sit. Tell me about it.”

I move across the room and have a seat next to her. She has a bowl of popcorn in her lap and offers some to me, but I wave her off. I don’t have much of an appetite after the day I’ve had.

“Before lunch, everything was fine, but after lunch… everything went to shit.”

“What happened?”

“A teenage boy went into cardiac arrest, and I froze.”

Her face softens.

“Everyone was rushing in to work on him. His parents were standing there. His mother was sobbing, and his father was holding her back. The pain on their faces was unbearable. And there I was, frozen, just watching everything unfold. I couldn’tdo anything, Grace. I mean, I looked like I didn’t care about their son. They probably think I’m such an asshole.”

“They do not,” she assures me, rubbing my arm. “It was your first day. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“I’ve been training for this for years,” I remind her.

“It takes years of schooling and years of hands-on training to be good, Ally. Everyone starts out just like you. That first big emergency hits and it’s like every piece of knowledge you have just flies right out of your head.”

“Yes! Exactly.”

She nods. “I know. I’ve seen it happen to every nurse that’s come through there. I’ve even seen it happen to new doctors. Nobody is immune. You just have to learn to trust yourself, and trust your instincts.” She tucks her red hair behind her ear. “Those parents didn’t even notice that you didn’t react. They were too focused on their child to see anything else in that room, trust me.” As the hospital’s child life specialist, Grace has dealt with many grieving parents, so I know she knows what she’s talking about.

“Thankfully, Dr. Cole saw me and knew what was going on. He pulled me out of my panicked state.”

“He’s a good doctor.”

“He is. He even gave me an amazing pep talk.”

Her brows lift. “He didwhat?”

I nod, now reaching over and taking her bowl of popcorn. “I was sitting on the bench in the lobby, having an existential crisis, and he came over, sat down beside me, and talked to me. He asked me what was wrong, and when I held back, he pushed until I spilled the beans. Then, he talked me into coming back to work. I’ve heard how rough he can be, but I’ve only seen the soft and caring side.” I shrug before popping a piece of popcorn into my mouth.

“Huh,” is all she says. She turns her head to the side and stares into space, lost in thought.

“What?”

She shakes her head. “It’s just that…” She looks at me again. “I’m just wondering who you met because that doesn’t sound like Dr. Cole.”

I laugh.

“No, I’m serious. You’re sure it was Dr. Cole?”

I laugh again. “Yes, Val introduced me to him this morning. We had a whole conversation about how he gave a graduation speech at my school last year.”

She nods. “Yeah, that’s Dr. Cole. So weird.”

“Why is it weird?”

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