Read The M.D.'s Surprise Family Online

Authors: Marie Ferrarella

The M.D.'s Surprise Family (4 page)

BOOK: The M.D.'s Surprise Family
10.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

But deep down she'd known it wasn't a mistake. That there was something very, very wrong with this perfect little boy.

Raven felt the sting of tears and instantly forced them away. She wasn't about to cry in front of Blue. If she was anything other than upbeat, he would sense it and it would make him worry. Worse, it would make him afraid. There was no way she was going to allow that to happen. He had to feel that this was just something he had to go through and that, at the end, he would be perfect again.

Just as he'd always been.

Peter glanced toward the boy's sister. For a second he thought he saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. But in the next moment that smile of hers was fixed in place and she was nothing short of confidence personified.

He only wished he felt half that confident.

Raven took a deep breath. “So, Dr. Sullivan, when can you operate?”

“You understand that the operation is extremely delicate?” he said.

If successful, the boy would heal faster than an adult, but there would still probably be therapy, still a painful recovery period to face. And that was
if
everything went right. There were no guarantees. A great deal could go wrong that was beyond anyone's control. He knew that better than anyone.

Raven nodded. She placed her hand over Blue's and gave it a squeeze along with an encouraging smile. She kept her voice cheerful. “That's why we came to you.”

“Yeah.”

Peter turned his chair around, looking at the CAT scan. Thinking. As with a great many neurological problems, time was of the essence, but they did have a little leeway. He wanted Raven to use that leeway to carefully think things over before she gave him the okay to go ahead.

This wasn't the kind of dilemma a boy of seven should be privy to, even if it was his body. Turning
his chair back around, he looked at Blue. “I'd like to talk to your sister alone.”

Rather than being upset, Blue looked resigned. “Whatever you tell Raven, she's only going to tell me later.”

“That's up to her.” And undoubtedly, the woman could couch this a great deal better than anything he could say to the boy. He'd lost the knack of talking to children, not that he'd really ever had it. It was just that Becky had talked to his heart and that was how he communicated with her.

“Okay.” Blue rose and crossed to the doorway.

“Wait for me in the hall,” Raven told him. After Blue let himself out and closed the door behind him, she looked at the surgeon expectantly. She supposed it was better this way, after all. Dr. Sullivan might say something to make Blue feel that the surgery wouldn't go well. “All right, we're alone. What is it you want to tell me?”

Without the boy to listen, Peter felt less restrained. “Are you aware of the risks involved?”

“I think I am. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on ever since Dr. DuCane told me what she suspected.”

He didn't bother mincing words. “If I operate, he might still become paralyzed.”

“If you don't, he definitely will.”

Like the rest of his body structure, the boy's spinal cord would be small, delicate. Peter had the
hands of a skilled surgeon, but he didn't like taking chances if he could help it. “There's a small chance—”

She knew what he was about to say. Raven shook her head. “Too small to take. I believe in meeting problems head-on instead of hiding from them.”

“There's also the fact that the tumors might be malignant—”

Her eyes met his. She could feel the air backing up in her lungs again. “Yes?”

“If that's the case, the operation might cause the malignancy to spread—”

“Let sleeping dogs lie, is that it?” She smiled, shaking her head. She wasn't about to place her head in the sand and hope for the best. She had to tackle this and
then
hope for the best. “It might spread anyway—
if
it's malignant and there's no proof that it is,” she informed him with feeling.

He'd found that when emotions were involved, the right decision was not always made. It was best to make decisions after the heat had left and things had cooled off. “Ms. Songbird, I want you to think about this—”

“My name is Raven,” she told him, “And I
have
thought about it.”

He sincerely doubted it. He heard the passion in her voice, the urgency. He didn't want her making a final decision like that. “Think about it some
more,” he countered. “We have a small window of time. Use it.”

She blew out a breath, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt. God, why weren't her parents here? She needed someone to lean on. “How long am I supposed to look through this window?”

Now she was being rational. “At least twelve hours, twenty-four would be better.”

Raven nodded her head. “All right,” she told him even though she already knew what the decision was going to be.

Chapter Four

“W
hat did I ever do to deserve you?” Renee smiled warmly at her son-in-law. Then, grasping the wheels of the wheelchair she'd been forced to use today, Renee scooted herself back from the front door.

“You had Lisa.”

Peter entered, his arms full of the groceries he'd stopped to pick up. He'd called her earlier to see if he'd left his jacket at her house the other night. It had been an excuse to talk to the one person who made him feel comfortable, the one person he didn't feel he had to keep his guard up around. The tired note in Renee's voice had alerted him. He knew that this was one of her bad days.

Being Peter, he'd asked about it. She'd been slow to confirm his suspicions. Further pushing on his part had informed him that she hadn't been able to get out of the house to go to the store. He'd volunteered to go for her, picking up the few things she'd admitted that she needed.

Peter made his way to the kitchen and placed the three grocery bags on the counter. Without waiting for Renee to say anything, he began to unpack them. He knew his way around her kitchen as well as she did.

“Have you taken the anti-inflammatory medication I prescribed for you?” he asked casually.

Renee came to a stop directly behind him. She'd gotten far better at managing her wheelchair around corners than she was happy about. But she'd resigned herself to the necessary evil.

“No.”

He looked at his mother-in-law over his shoulder, noting that she avoided eye contact. “Have you even bothered to have it filled?”

“I will, I will,” Renee assured him, and then she sighed. “It's just that I don't like being foggy.”

He gave her a look. They both knew she was just being stubborn. “It won't make you foggy.”

Renee waved her hand dismissively. “They
all
make me foggy, or nauseous or something.” With another resigned sigh, she said to him what she always said at times like this. “It'll pass, it always
does.” And then she smiled. “But thanks for worrying.”

He mumbled something unintelligible as he got back to unpacking and storing. “You know that patient I told you I lost?”

Immediate interest entered her eyes. He knew she liked something to chew on. “The one who walked out with her brother because of your less than warm-and-toasty bedside manner?” He nodded in response. “Did she have a change of heart?”

Heart, that was the word that best suited Raven Songbird, he thought. She displayed a great deal of it in every word she uttered. “She showed up at the hospital yesterday, said she'd changed her mind.”

Placing the carton of milk on her lap, Renee propelled herself to the refrigerator to put the item away. “Guess she knows quality when she sees it, even if you have to make a cactus seem warm and cuddly sometimes.”

It felt as if he fought a two-front war. “It's not my job to coddle them,” he reminded her.

The look Renee gave him showed she was completely unconvinced. “Well, there we disagree. Sometimes that
is
part of the job.”

Peter paused, shaking his head. “That's what she said.”

Approval shone in her hazel eyes. “Smart cookie. What's her name?”

Peter had to think for a second. He'd never been
very good with names. “Raven,” he finally said. “Raven Songbird.”

The second half gallon of milk on her lap, Renee paused in midroll to look at him with something akin to surprise and awe. “Like the clothes?”

He nodded. “Exactly like the clothes.” He figured Renee might get a kick out of it. After all, the woman could have been a contemporary of hers. “Her mother started the company.”

Slipping the milk onto the shelf, Renee closed the refrigerator door again. “Well, I guess she can afford the best—and you are.”

It was no secret that he didn't come cheap. His fee was right at the top of his field, but then, the amounts that he charged enabled him to do his volunteer work for Doctors Without Borders. The fees he collected from his wealthier clients help to fund the operations that he performed on the devastated citizens of Third World countries. In so doing, he wound up bringing hope to the hopeless. Given that he felt no hope himself, he was struck by the irony of the situation.

Peter paused to kiss the top of his mother-in-law's silver head. “Flattery will get you everywhere,” he told her with a smile.

“Oh, good.” She said the words with such feeling, he stopped folding the paper bags and looked at her. “Because I have something to tell you.”

Putting the empty bags on the side of the table,
he pulled a chair to him, straddled it and looked at her across the table. “Okay, what?”

Renee took a deep breath. It wasn't a subject she was looking forward to, only one that she knew needed broaching. Until now, she'd allowed him to have his bleeding heart. But she knew her daughter wouldn't have wanted him to continue grieving this way, not for this long. There was no easy way to begin. “It's been more than two years since Lisa and Becky were taken.”

Peter could feel himself tensing as he looked at her warily. “Yes?”

Renee reached across the table and touched his hand. “And I think it's time you moved on.”

“Moved on? Moved on how?” He knew exactly how she meant, but he wasn't about to give in to that. “I'm working.”

Renee left her hand where it was, feeling that her son-in-law needed the human contact. “Yes, I know, but I think that you should do more than work.”

Peter shrugged as he glanced away. “There's not enough time—”

She watched him pointedly, remembering another Peter. A happier Peter. She missed him. And she had a feeling that Peter missed him, as well. “There was when you were married.”

“There was a reason to have time when I was married,” he informed her flatly.

Because he understood what Renee was attempting to do, he forced a smile to his lips. The woman's heart was in the right place, if a little off kilter. “I have my work and I have you, Renee.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it in the courtly fashion he knew she loved. “That's enough for me.”

Renee was not about to be dissuaded. “It shouldn't be. Not that I'm undermining what you do,” she was quick to explain. “Your work is very, very important. You perform miracles. But
I
am a poor substitute for what you really need.” And she knew that he couldn't fight her on that score.

He truly loved Lisa's mother. She was the mother he had never known as a boy, so he humored her where he wouldn't anyone else. “And what is it that I need?”

Renee set her mouth firmly. “Female companionship.”

He gestured toward her. “In case you missed it, you're a female, Renee.”

She snorted at the weak attempt to deflect her focus. “I'm old enough to be your mother.”

His smile was broad as he took her hand in his. “I like older women.”

Renee pulled her hand away, giving him a stern, motherly look. “Peter—”

“Don't,” he warned her quietly. He saw compassion enter her eyes. “Maybe someday I'll be ready.” Although he sincerely doubted it. “But
right now, this is all I can manage.” In a rare, unguarded moment of honesty, he admitted to her what he barely admitted to himself. “I'm lucky to be sane.” And then he shrugged off the moment. “I didn't exactly have a thriving social life before Lisa, so this is business as usual for me.” Peter took his mother-in-law's hand in his. “I know you mean well, Renee, but this is something that'll work itself out.”

Renee closed her hand over both of his. “Don't hide from life, Pete,” she told him. “You have far too much to offer—and so does life,” she added pointedly. Then, she withdrew her hands and looked at him through the eyes of a mother. “Now then, have you eaten?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I didn't come here for you to feed me, Renee.”

“Well, you're not leaving until I see you have something.” She pulled away from the table, pivoting the wheelchair so that she could access the refrigerator. “It's the least I can do.”

Peter rose to his feet. He hated seeing her relegated to that chair. “No,” he contradicted, “the least you can do is let me get that prescription filled for you.”

She turned from the refrigerator and sighed, surrendering. “I guess one of us has to stop being stubborn first.”

He grinned back. “Guess so.”

With a resigned nod of her head, Renee propelled herself over to the drawer beside the sink where she kept all the miscellaneous things that she had no given place for. Opening it, she riffled through myriad papers and odds and ends until she found the prescription he had written for her. It was dated several weeks ago and was for a brand-new anti-inflammatory drug that had hit the market.

She held the paper out to him. He knew which pharmacy she frequented. “Go—” she waved Peter on his way “—fill it.”

Triumphant, he gave her a knowing smile. “Thought you'd never ask.”

“By the way,” she called after him. On his way to the front door, he turned to look at her. “Before I forget, next time you see the Songbird girl, see if you can get a scarf for me.” Her face softened and she looked like a young girl, he thought, not an older woman imprisoned in a wheelchair. “I always loved their colors.”

“I'll see what I can do,” he promised before heading out.

 

The phone was ringing by the time he walked into his apartment later that evening. An emergency? he wondered. Undoubtedly it was his answering service. He'd just left the only person who would have called him privately. After Lisa and Becky had died, people didn't know what to say to
him and he had no idea how to field their pity. Eventually, all the friends he and Lisa had had together drifted out of his life.

Pushing the door closed behind him, he quickly crossed to the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall and picked up the receiver.

“Sullivan.”

“You don't keep banker's hours, do you?”

He knew it was
her.
Even though he'd never spoken to Raven on the telephone before, he could tell it was her. The sound of her voice over the line was a little deeper than it was in person, a little like brandy at room temperature, swishing along the sides of a glass. But it was unmistakable.

Now what? he wondered. And how had she gotten his number? While his office numbers were a matter of record, his home line was not listed. “Ms. Songbird?”

“Raven,” she reminded him. “We agreed that you were going to call me Raven.”

“You agreed,” he pointed out stiffly. “I said nothing.”

The momentary pause on the other end told him that she'd decided not to argue the point. Instead she got to what he imagined was the crux of her phone call. “You told me to think about it.”

“I told you to take your time.”

“Time is relative,” Raven informed him, her
tone blithe. “I've used enough of it. I'd like to come talk to you.”

He tried to figure out where to fit her in. For that matter, he was going have to do some heavy juggling to fit the boy's surgery into his schedule. “You could come by the office tomorrow, or the hospital—” As he spoke, he reached into his pocket for his P.D.A. He needed a clearer idea of what tomorrow looked like before telling her a time.

“Are you free right now?” When he made no immediate response, she added, “because if you are, I'd like to meet somewhere now.” Her voice picked up a little momentum as she spoke. The image of a locomotive, leaving the station, flashed across his mind. “I want to talk to you as a person, not a doctor.”

Her request was highly irregular, but then, in the very short time that he'd known her, he had gotten the impression that Raven Songbird was by definition highly irregular.

His first instinct was to refuse her request. He wasn't going to be operating on her brother as a person, but as a doctor, a surgeon, and it was in that capacity that he could advise her. He had the feeling that she required something different, something more of him, and even without naming it, he knew he wouldn't be able to accommodate her.

So it was with complete surprise that he heard himself saying, “Where?”

There was relief and pleasure in her voice when she answered. “A restaurant or a sidewalk, doesn't matter. You name the place.”

The woman was nothing if not highly unorthodox. “A sidewalk?”

“Yes.” She made it sound as if it was the most natural suggestion in the world. “We could go for a walk.” There was the tiniest hesitation before she added. “I just don't want you thinking that I was fishing for a free meal.”

“Never crossed my mind.” And it hadn't. From the limited information he had about Songbird, Inc., her company could buy any one of a number of restaurants out of petty cash.

“Restaurant,” he said, not wanting to be put in the position of endless wandering around with a woman who could quite probably talk for all eternity.

“Okay.” She'd called prepared. “Are you acquainted with the Hawaiian Inn? It's a little restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway down in Laguna—”

How, with all the places in the area to chose from, had she landed on that particular one? “I'm acquainted with the restaurant,” he responded stonily.

“Is it all right with you?” she pressed. “Because if it's not—”

He didn't want her speculating about why the restaurant wasn't acceptable to him. The simplest thing
was just to agree to it. “It's all right with me,” he told her.

“Perfect. I'll see you there, say, in about half an hour.”

“Sounds fine,” he responded before hanging up.

But it wasn't.

 

As he drove to the Hawaiian Inn, Peter tried not to remember the last time that he had been there. Tried not to recall the sound of happy voices inside the car as he'd driven to the restaurant.

BOOK: The M.D.'s Surprise Family
10.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Split by Swati Avasthi
Pandora's Keepers by Brian Van DeMark
The Painted War by Imogen Rossi
Plague: Death was only the beginning! by Donald Franck, Francine Franck
A Tradition of Victory by Alexander Kent
Anonymous Sources by Mary Louise Kelly
Saving You by Jessie Evans