Saving Forever - Part 5 (Saving Forever #5) (7 page)

“You may start to feel repeated ‘blips’ in your abdomen. Don’t worry, it’s just your baby having hiccups. It’s completely harmless and usually begins at the end of this trimester, around twenty-four weeks or later. Just want to prepare you in case I don’t see you for another six weeks.” He chuckled. “Book your appointment and I’ll have Sarah call you three days before it, and then again the next day. We’re a little off regular schedule now so let’s book for twenty-four weeks and if anything shows up on the ultrasound, I’ll contact you ahead of schedule.” He wrote some things down in her chart. “Will Dr. Bennet be with you during your ultrasound?”

Charity tossed the paper towel in the waste bin. “I don’t think he’d miss it.”

“Then we definitely can wait until twenty-four weeks for your next appointment.” He opened the door and continued chatting as they walked down the hall to the reception area. “How is your residence going?”

“Busy.”

“I believe it. There are not many who can handle it, let alone doing it while pregnant. I hear you are doing an excellent job. Like you never left.”

“Just a six-year hiatus, followed by a quick, intense month recap and a few strings being pulled by my father and husband.” She laughed. “I guess you can see where the craziness comes from.”

“Definitely not your mother.”

Charity smiled but didn’t respond. She felt her eyes fill and she blinked the wetness away. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I-I didn’t know you knew my mother.”

“She volunteered when you were in university. She used to help take teenage mothers or whoever needed aid. She’d bring them here for their appointments and make sure they had their vitamins and prenatal classes. She was a good woman.”

“She was. I didn’t know she did that.”

Dr. Govender smiled kindly. “She didn’t do it so people knew.”

“Let’s hope I have some of her in me.”

“You do, sweetie.” He chuckled. “And a heck of a lot of your father. All the best parts of both of them.” He handed Sarah the file. “Book her an ultrasound for next week and then to see us four weeks after. She’ll need call back reminders for both of them.” He winked at Charity. “When this baby is born and you’re interested in spending some time on my floor, I’d enjoy teaching and working with you. However, let’s wait until after the baby’s born.”

“I would love to!” Charity couldn’t believe he was offering to let her spend some time under him, teaching her. She appreciated his suggestion to wait till after the peanut was out. She didn’t think she could handle seeing emergency C-sections, fetus dangers or anything that would worry her. “I’ll hold you to that after this peanut pops.” She patted the lower part of her stomach. “I’m going to tell my father and husband you said I could.” She winked, enjoying the chance to tease him.

Charity’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out. “It’s probably Dr. Bennet checking up on me.”

Dr. Govender laughed. “I would do the same. Have a good day.” He left the waiting room, heading through the door that led to his examination rooms.

Charity glanced down at her phone. It was a message, but not from Elijah.

Dr. Fulton wanted to see her in his office. Right away.

In the stairwell, Charity paused to send Elijah a text letting him know the baby was doing well and she had booked her ultrasound for next Monday. She gave him the time so he could block off surgery or do whatever he had to do. He wouldn’t want to miss the ultrasound.

She slid her medical card that hung around her neck through the key entrance to the fourth floor and stuffed her phone into her pocket. She headed to Dr. Fulton’s office and let his secretary know who she was.

His office was empty of patients so she paced the floor slowly, trying to catch her breath from running up the stairs. She tried not to worry why Dr. Fulton would send a personal text. That never happened unless someone was in trouble. She attempted to think of something she had done.

“Dr. Fulton will see you now.” The secretary looked to be the same age as the doctor. Maybe she was his wife. Somewhere in the back of her mind Charity thought Mandy or Elijah, or someone had mentioned that.

Inside his office Charity glanced around, surprised at the simplicity of the room. It almost looked like a ward floor but had a desk instead of a patient’s bed. He didn’t even have pictures on the wall.

He sat behind a massive looking metal desk that reminded Charity of an examination table. He harrumphed when she stood in front of him. He wore his reading glasses at the end of his nose, writing and signing forms and files. “Dr. Thompson-Bennet you are on my service, am I right?”

“You are, sir.” She scrunched her nose when she called him sir but knew he would expect it.

“You are older than the others, am I right?”

Why would that matter? “Probably.”

“Being older, you are expected to set an example for the others.”

She frowned. She thought she had been in surgery. Hadn’t Elijah said Dr. Fulton wanted her to continue on with him when her residence was finished?

“I don’t appreciate you taking off after surgery without consulting me. You are expected to stick around.”

“I was late for an appointment.”

He scowled at her. “You don’t make personal plans during hospital time.”

“I missed it last week and couldn’t cancel it today.”

He waved his hand. “I don’t care about your excuses. You don’t leave without clearing it with me first.”

Irritating little –!
“Dr. Fulton, I don’t need to clear my doctor appointments with you.”

“You do if you want to stay on my rotation.”

She exhaled a hot breath. “Fine!” She wanted to tell him she didn’t need his bloody rotation. “I have my twenty-week ultrasound next Monday.
If
that’s alright with you. Dr. Bennet’s coming, shall I let Dr. Govender know you are coming as well? Maybe I should contact my father too, get him in the room and you can all discuss the baby and my incompetence?”
Take that jack-ass!

Dr. Fulton’s mouth dropped open.

Charity regretted the words. She wished she could take back her overreaction to his reprimanding. He was a teacher, she the student; she shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.

“You’re twenty weeks?”

“Nineteen actually,” she said meekly.

“Does anyone know?”

“Elijah, of course. And Dr. Govender.”

“Your father?”

“We’re telling him, and my mother-in-law, who is arriving from New Zealand in the next hour, tonight.”

“You’ve been pregnant while doing your residence?”

She nodded. She couldn’t read his face or the tone of his voice. Was she in trouble now for being pregnant as well?

“I didn’t know.”

“No one did…does. I didn’t want special treatment because of it, nor did I want anyone to think me unprepared to finish my residence.”

“I highly doubt anyone finds you incompetent, Dr. Thompson-Bennet.”

“I’m getting shi—crap for a doctor’s appointment that I squeezed in between surgeries. An appointment that took fifteen minutes! Other residents take longer than that in the bathroom!”

Dr. Fulton stood, apparently annoyed. “I didn’t call another resident in here, I called you in.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Had you been honest with me from the start and told me about your situation, I may have been a lot more understanding. There are protocols to follow when medical staff are pregnant. I assume Dr. Bennet knows this and was taking precautions for your fetus?”

“The baby is doing fine.” Doctor or not, the little peanut growing inside of her had always been a baby… or a peanut. She thought about when Elijah had kicked her out of the room to run the navigational X-ray. “Dr. Bennet is very aware. So am I. We’re both careful.”

He strode around the desk and slipped his white lab jacket on. “Good. However, since you are twenty weeks, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep this secret much longer. I’m happy for you and Dr. Bennet, but don’t let it get in the way of your work. You’re here to learn and right now it’s with me.” He headed toward the door.

“It won’t.” She turned to follow him.

“Good. I had high hopes for you.” He shook his head. “Shame it’s not going to happen now.” He sighed. “Come now, another surgery awaits.”

Pardon?
Charity hesitated before hurrying to catch up with him. Had he just hinted that he wasn’t going to take her on next year? She wasn’t supposed to know, so she shouldn’t be disappointed, right? Then why was she? She straightened.
Screw it!
She didn’t want to get into cardio anyway.

Three more weeks under him and she would be moving on to the Emergency rotation. She tried to make herself feel better. She grinned behind Dr. Fulton’s back. It wouldn’t be her begging to have her back.

Mandy and the other three interns on their rotation were waiting for them just outside a patient’s room who was about to go into surgery. Mandy mouthed, ‘
What happened?’
when Dr. Fulton had his back to her. Charity crossed her finger by her neck and pretended to make a dead face, and then she shrugged.

The surgery took two hours and Dr. Fulton had another intern lead. He barely spoke to Charity, which only infuriated her more and more throughout the surgery. As Tyler, the other intern, was closing, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket for the sixth or seventh time. She stood by one of the medical staff and ignored the look he sent her. For some reason, the vibration sounded loud, like a bee flying in the room.

“Sorry,” she whispered using her hand to cover the phone in her pants and shifted her weight to her other leg. She also needed to pee. The entire stupid situation had her wondering why she had even decided to come back to do this. It wasn’t for the money. It wasn’t so she could see Elijah more. She had a decent job that she could do working from home. She was having a baby! Why did she think this was a good idea? Her jaw clenched tightly. She did not plan on dropping out of med school again. Her father and Elijah had pulled strings to get her in, and she restudied and worked her butt off the past four months.

“… and we are finished.” Dr. Fulton clapped Tyler on the back. “Well done.” He checked the patient’s stats. “Those of you on call today can stay back. Those of you who are finished, there are a stack of mock patient’s files that you need to asses. I want them on my desk before you leave. Grab them from the nurse’s station.”

Another hour of work. Charity checked her watch. Her father would be at the airport now and Elijah’s mother should be somewhere at customs or baggage claim or just coming out now.

Charity followed Mandy out of the OR and to the nurse’s station to collect the rather tall looking pile.

Mandy waited for Charity. “What happened earlier? It sounds like the star pupil is in the dog house.”

Charity rolled her eyes. “It’s ridiculous.” She saw the lady’s bathroom sign. “Can you hold this a second?” She handed her files to Mandy and nipped into the toilet. She washed her hands and after drying them remembered to check her phone.

Elijah had texted several times.

Glad to hear all is good with the peanut! Heading home shortly to prepare for Mum’s arrival.
He made a shark at the end of the sentence.

He texted again an hour later:
Just leaving now. Got pulled into a surgery.

Her father sent a message as well.
At the airport. Margaret’s plane is on time. I’ll take her back to my house since you and Elijah are both at the hospital.

Elijah messaged her again:
Ordering Thai. What will your father want? Or should we do something else?

Two minutes later he sent another. Charity scrolled through.
Changed mind. Going to pick up steaks and BBQ. I will take care of everything…

Or we can go to the Twisted Cork. What do you think?

Ten minutes later came his last text:
Let’s not do Twisted Cork. No fair if you can’t drink. I will buy steaks… and chicken in case you feel like it instead of red meat. Love you.

Charity sent him a text to say she was out of surgery and had files to fill out. She would be done in about an hour.

She made her way out of the bathroom as she typed. Her phone vibrated as she headed toward Mandy. She checked it again.

Her father messaged:
Margaret arrived. About to head to my place.

An image Charity knew she would never be able to erase formed in her head. She sent Elijah a text to let him know dinner would have to be at her dad’s. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Mandy handed her the stack of files back. “Was that you in the room buzzing away?”

Charity nodded. “Elijah—Dr. Bennet’s mom is arriving today from New Zealand.”

“Fun. I think. Is she the right kind or bad kind of mother-in-law?”

Charity pursed her lips. “Not as bad as I initially judged her. She’s nice. I don’t really know her all that well. I’ve met her twice. Once for a funeral and once for a wedding.” Elijah’s dad’s funeral and Charity’s wedding, but she didn’t disclose the details.

“Is she getting a taxi from the airport?”

“Actually my dad offered to pick her up. Elijah’s taking care of dinner.” Charity shrugged. “Apparently everything is organized.”

“Except for the stack of files Dr. Fulton gave us, which he is never going to check except to see if we finished. What’s his problem today? He’s always tough on you, but it’s like he went out of his way this afternoon” Mandy pushed open the door that led to the library/office style room they worked in.

Charity sighed. Everyone was going to know by the end of the week now. “I’m pregnant.”

Mandy nearly dropped her stack of files. “You’re jokin’.”

Charity nodded. “Nearly twenty weeks.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup. We haven’t told anyone. First we were waiting till we hit the three-month marker and then we decided to wait until Elijah’s mom arrived. We’ll tell them tonight and by tomorrow everyone in the hospital will be buzzing about it.”

Mandy held her hand up. “High-five sister! Congrats!”

Charity slapped Mandy’s hand.

“You don’t even look pregnant. I can’t believe it.” Mandy made a face. “That’s going to be hard. Having your baby while trying to do your residence.”

“I know. I wanted to try and get in as much as I could before and then take a bit of a break before I came back. You doing your boards this year?”

Mandy nodded. “You too?”

“I figured I would wait till next year. I need more surgery practice time and I have no idea what I would like to specialize in or how it’s all going to work once the baby’s born.”

“You don’t need to wait. You’re a good surgeon.”

She didn’t feel ready. Not even close. “We’ll see.” She flopped down into one of the hard plastic chairs and opened the first file. She glanced at the same file in front of Mandy. “Want to do these together? Maybe try and cut the written work in half?”

“Heck yeah!”

Three-quarters through Charity sent Elijah a text:
Can you pick me up in half an hour? Maybe swing by our place first? My black dress is hanging in the closet, I can change here so we can head straight to my dad’s place. Pretty please?

Elijah replied:
At your dad’s now. I’ll come grab you and then we can swing by the house.

Shoot!
She should have figured he would head over there. Her dad had probably been texting both of them updates and if he had the whole afternoon off, he had most likely headed to their house after picking up steaks. She felt bad he had to come pick her up. She should have driven separately into work this morning.
I can take the subway and then catch a cab. Saves you having to drive to come get me. It’s fine.

His reply came back instantly.
It’s not okay, silly. You are not taking the subway. I’m already on my way. See you in 25min.

“Lover’s quarrel?” Mandy teased.

Charity rolled her eyes and tossed the next finished file into her pile. “Terrible, terrible fight.” She grinned.

“Those ones have the best make-up sex.” Mandy pointed her pen to Charity’s mid-section. “That’s probably where that came from.”