Page 2 of Rules of the Heart

“Then borrow from next year’s pro-bono surgeries. It’s only two months away. Wendy can’t wait two months, though.”

“It doesn’t work like that. I’m sorry, Ella, but that’s my final word.”

Ella turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. What kind of fucked-up world was this where people put profit above lives?

Well, she wasn’t going to stand for it. James may not be on her side, but she knew people who would be. She only needed one fellow neuro surgeon, a resident, an intern and two surgical nurses. She would prefer a full team, but she could make do with those five.

Ella went through names in her head, wondering who would be most willing to break the rules with her. She would need to get at least two or three extra nurses on board, of course, to cover up the absence of five staff members should James question their absence.

Ella spent the rest of the day in clandestine negotiations. She called in every favor she was owed and made promises that were going to be hell to keep, but she would do it. What was a month of doing a resident’s charts when Wendy could have her whole life ahead of her?

The sun was setting by the time Ella returned to Wendy’s room.

“You were turned down, weren’t you?” Wendy’s eyes were dull and lifeless, like she had given up already. “I heard you shouting earlier.”

“One way or another, you are getting the surgery,” Ella growled. “We can do it, but we have to do it right now. Are you ready?”

“What? But I thought they turned you down?”

“It’s a long story and we don’t have a lot of time. We need to do this at the change of shift if we’re going to—look, I’ll explain it afterward. Do you still want the surgery?”

“I—of course! Yes. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“All you need to do is lie back and let us do the work. You’ve fought this cancer for months. Now, it’s my turn.”

Ella wheeled Wendy’s bed down to surgery herself while one of the nurses kept watch. Everyone snuck into the OR one at a time, scrubbing quickly and stepping into the main room whileglancing back over their shoulders, clearly worried about being caught.

“Alright, everyone. I know we’re all anxious about what’ll happen if anyone finds out we’re missing, but we can’t focus on that now, not if we’re going to help Wendy. We need to concentrate on doing our jobs. If this goes south, I will take full responsibility for it. For now, just think about what you need to do. We can deal with all the rest later.”

There were murmurs of agreement through the room. Ella looked down at Wendy. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready, Doctor Ashton.”

“Then count backward from ten.”

Wendy got to seven before she was out like a light. Ella took the scalpel that one of the nurses handed to her.

From that moment onward, she was in her zone. When she was doing a surgery, nothing else mattered. It was just her and the scalpel and the brain in front of her.

Ella went over everything she had learned in her head, applying the techniques to Wendy’s brain.

There it was—the tumor. Now, she just needed to extract it without destroying any of the surrounding tissue. She had planned this surgery with great care. She could do it, she was sure she could do it.

Ella fought the urge to hold her breath. It was an urge she still had, even though she had defeated it as an intern. She breathed slowly and steadily as she used her scalpel to work carefully around the tumor, going under the main brain stem.

Tumors like Wendy’s were usually considered inoperable, but with this new technique of using cameras to cut under the brain stem without cutting into the stem itself, Ella should be able to excise the tumor.

Shouldbeing the operative word.

Just a little bit more… There. Ella plucked the tumor out and examined the surrounding brain. She couldn’t see any damage, but that didn’t mean much.

“Alright, the tumor is out. It’s time to run the scan.”

The scan was a new development that the hospital had spent a fortune on, at Ella’s insistence. It allowed them to scan for damage to specific brain functions before closing a patient up. This way, they would be able to tell now whether or not Ella had messed up, and if she had, she still had a chance to fix it.

Ella may not be holding her breath, but everyone else in the ER was. She attached the probes to Wendy’s brain and turned on the scanner. One by one, lights started to flash. Green. Green. Green. Not a single splash of red that would indicate damaged functions. Green and more green.

When the last light flicked to green, everyone cheered, Ella included.

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