Page 39 of A Doctor's Promise
Edie kissed him back, his lips were warm and soft after the cool morning air. She placed her face on the top of their daughter’s head and breathed in her baby scent.
“That’s okay,” she said, muffled through the hair. “It’s going to be another fresh one out there today.”
“Good job we’ll be working in a nice warm hospital then,” Finn said, taking the basket of eggs.
“Mmm-hmm,” said Edie, smiling.
As Finn scrambled the eggs, Edie warmed herself at the table by the range cooker as she fed Elizabeth. They had named their daughter Elizabeth Rachel Cooper, only a few hours after she had been born at a healthy eight pounds. During the months before her birth, Edie and Finn had been backwards and forwards with names they liked, for both girls and boys. But when they saw her they were both in agreement almost immediately. And Rachel was a fitting tribute to Finn’s ex-wife. Luckily, they hadn’t needed such a tribute for Edie’s ex. It had turned out Robert’s email was letting Edie know he was asking for a divorce because he was expecting a child with his new partner. Perhaps unsurprisingly he had wanted nothing to do with his and Edie’s baby. It had been saddening for Edie, but she had vowed to let Elizabeth find her biological dad if ever she wanted to. Finn had signed her adoption paperwork within days of her birth, and their little family had been born.
Unfortunately, their little family had less luck in blending their pets. Archie the dog and Alma the cat had squabbled constantly when Edie had ditched her new build rental for Finn’s country small holding. They had learned to live with each other over time, as Edie’s bump had grown. And now they spent most of their days in the kitchen, giving each other the side eye if one decided to move without warning the other. It was funny to watch.
“Here you go, my love,” Finn said, placing Edie’s breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of her. “Tuck in.”
Edie carefully lifted forkfuls of food over Elizabeth’s head as both of them fed. She heard the back door open and a familiar voice shout their greetings.
“Hello all, freezing out there today,” Mary said, as she poked her head into the kitchen.
Anna ran into the room and went straight for Archie who was curled up next to the range cooker. His tail wagged frantically as he spotted the girl. Alma the cat rolled her eyes and went to sit with Edie.
“Here you go Mary, Anna,” Finn said, putting plates for each of them on the table too. “Freshly laid, as always.”
“Is it from Barney or Betty?” Anna asked, rushing over to her plate and sitting down. Her every move was still like a whirlwind.
“Betty, as always,” Edie laughed. “Barney is still a boy who doesn’t lay eggs!”
In actual fact the egg could have been from any number of the hens they had, but as Betty and Barney were Anna’s favourite, she had taken to only eating their eggs. It was a joke that they told every work-day morning as Mary came to pick up Elizabeth. It was the best arrangement that Edie could have imagined. Anna was at school now, and Mary was in convalescence and fighting the cancer that was once threatening to take her life. So, Mary looked after Elizabeth while Edie and Finn were at work.
And as work was increasingly busy with the continued success of the trials, Edie was grateful to have the confidence of a friend to watch over her most precious child.
Edie and Finn were due to meet the next round of clinical trial patients; the last round before the trial was to be written up and sent to the journals for publication. So far, they had a sixty percent survival rate which had defied all the odds. They weren’t complacent, but they were hopeful that Finn’s work in the surgery was going to be recognised as the pioneering treatment needed to one day eradicate malignant primary cardiac tumours for good.
Elizabeth stopped feeding and looked up at Edie with a happy milky face. Edie felt her heart swell with her own happiness. She looked around the kitchen at Finn, busy loading the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher, at Anna and Archie playing together with Monty, at Mary who looked well and rosy cheeked, and at Elizabeth, who had brought them all together again.
Edie felt like the luckiest person alive with her perfect blended family and friends. Finn looked up from the dishes and smiled back at her.
“Are you ready to go and save some more lives?” he said, coming over and kissing the top of Elizabeth’s head.
“Let’s do it,” she agreed.
She kissed Elizabeth goodbye and her and Finn headed off for Norfolk Coastal General.
The End
