Page 10 of Eight Naughty Notes

6

TORI

“You’re avoiding me. “

I looked up from my notes from my rounds this morning. I had been comparing symptoms to the results from the labs drawn this morning. To find the man I had in fact been avoiding standing in the doorway to my office made me feel off-kilter and something else.

“That’s not true. I’ve just been busy.”

“So busy that every time I came within a ten-foot radius you run away from me and find something else to keep you … busy?”

I shrugged. “The timing was poor.”

He nodded. “And what about now?”

“What about it?” I swallowed hard as he started to enter the small space I shared with another physician when she was on call. There was no chance Dr. Porter would be able to rescue me from Christian, however, as she had taken a job with Doctors without Borders. Yes, she is the reason Christian was here, figuratively and literally, I thought as his presence loomed.

“Is the timing poor right now?”

I gave him a nervous laugh even as I tried to portray coolness. “We are doctors, Christian. When is there a moment we’re not busy?”

“I seem to recall a resident who wanted to find balance even in this no stop world we live in.”

His words snapped me out of the daze I’d been in since his presence started to warm up parts of me that had long gone cold.

“And we both know how reality slapped that resident in her face.”

He stood looking down at me and I wasn’t sure if it was sadness, pity, or something else entirely on his face but whatever it was, it made me feel prickly.

“I assume you came to see me for a reason.”

He seemed to shake out of his own daze. “Yeah. Dr. Hughes wanted us to get together to discuss some of your most high-risk cases that no one else would risk taking on. I want to review their files to see if I can be of help. If I can come up with a targeted plan to manage aftercare, it might make a surgical approach a viable option for at least a few.”

While part of me was dreading having to work so closely with him, the other part and admittedly the larger part of me, was delighted that there was someone qualified and maybe bold enough to help these children that had been told there was no hope in saving.

“I take it, you’ve been hoping for someone to help with a few cases?” His thick eyebrow raised as he waited for me to respond.

“Yes. One of my patients has a rare congenital heart defect that requires surgery. Jordan Davies. No surgeon at any of the hospitals around the country will operate because the enlargement of her heart increases the risk of clipping the right artery and cutting off the blood supply to her lungs.”

“Tell me more about her.”

That’s exactly what I did for the next ten minutes. Filling him in on her situation and how the surgery would be completely funded by money from the Christmas Dreams Do Come True foundation. While they usually only focused on non-monetary-based gifts, Jordan’s only wish was to have a chance to live and her mother’s insurance was unable to pay for the cost of the surgery. State-issued assistance considered the procedure to be elective due to many medical opinions writing the surgery off as too risky. They said she’d have a better shot of living the rest of her years in need of hospital care when her heart got “too weak” from pumping blood throughout her little body. I shared all of this with Christian and how despite what seemed hopeless, Jordan’s attitude still remained positive.

I watched as he scribbled down a few notes on the pad he pulled from his white coat. He nodded and looked up at me.

“I’m sure they had good reason to decline the surgery,” he said as my breathe caught, “but I’m a bit of a rebel in this field because these children are often expected to live inside these white walls without a joy, without truly living life, just because we’re afraid they won’t make it off the table. They won’t make it out if here either.”

My heart filled with emotion. That he understood exactly how I felt made me feel something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“That’s exactly it. They’re not living.”

“How about we meet for coffee tomorrow morning, bring a few files with you, which is easy with this technology we have, and we’ll wake up while we work.”

“I’d love that.” Even though the thought of sitting across from him sipping coffee and chatting away like he didn’t know every inch of me inside and out, terrified me, it was for the children’s good. So I’d deal with it.

I had a full schedule that day between regular office visits in the clinic and my afternoon rounds to patients that required extra filling up after I reviewed test results. When I came up for air and checked the phone for the time, I saw I’d missed a call from Carina. She’d left a message.

I know you’re busy, but I know that’s not the only reason why I haven’t heard from you. You’re avoiding me and think I know why. I’m so sorry you heard me and Salik in the kitchen but I wanna see you again ‘cause there’s something I need to talk to you about. Give me a call. I love you, Sis.

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