“Not without the epinephrine,” Seth responded caustically. “Why is there none available?”
“Becca told you my receptionist is looking for one.” His tone was sharp. “And I’m beginning to panic here, as I can’t get this tube any deeper.”
This entire exchange lasted no more than a few seconds, during which Becca had moved to stand beside the doctor in case he needed her. Both she and John looked up when Seth spoke again.
“He’s not getting enough air,” he said urgently. “He needs a tracheotomy…now, or there could be brain damage.”
John’s eyes widened and his face drained of color. “I never…I’m not a surgeon…” He glanced at the boy, swallowed, straightened his shoulders and said, “But I’ll do my best.”
“I am a surgeon, and while I’ve never performed this procedure, I know how it’s done,” Seth said. “Would you prefer I do it?”
“Please.”
“Is he sedated or did he pass out?”
“Passed out,” John answered. “He was terrified.”
Seth nodded. “Where can I scrub?”
“There’s a sink behind you.” John inclined his head.
Seth turned, saying, “Becca.”
That’s all he had to say. Becca got busy. By the time Seth turned from the sink, with his hands up, she was masked. She held a lab coat out and he straightened his arms for her to slide it on backwards. Moving behind him, she closed two buttons to hold the makeshift scrub top in place. The next second she was shoving plastic gloves onto his hands, and tying a mask on his face.
“Anesthetic?”
“I’ve administered a low dose,” John said. “We don’t need another reaction.”
Seth nodded, and without saying another word, or asking any more questions, he moved to the side of the examining table, as if he knew without doubt Becca would have everything he needed prepared for him to begin.
And, of course, she did. Still not speaking or looking at her, he held out his right hand. Becca slapped a scalpel into his palm.
Concentrating on the job at hand, Becca was still vaguely aware of a light tap on the door, the quiet voice of Mary, the receptionist, saying, “I found it, Doctor,” and John’s equally soft voice thanking her. He then told her to call at once for an ambulance, and also said to tell the boy’s mother he would be all right.
In short order, working with his accustomed precision, Seth set aside the instrument and inserted the breathing tube Becca handed to him into the child’s trachea. The boy’s breathing eased noticeably at once and slowly returned to a normal pattern. John handed the syringe to her and she plunged the needle into the boy.
As Seth stepped back, away from the table, another tap sounded on the door, and a voice said, “Ambulance crew.”
Glancing at John, Seth said, “He’s about ready to go.”
With her usual calm efficiency, Becca dressed the wound around the tube. Just then, the boy’s eyelids fluttered and opened. She smiled into his startling and blessedly clear green eyes.
“Mommy,” the child cried in a rough whisper.
“I’m here.” Tears streaming down her face, the woman from the waiting room shouldered her way by the ambulance crew. “I’m here, baby, Mommy’s here.”
While the crew gently slid the child from the table to their litter, the woman grabbed John’s hands. “Thank you, Doctor, thank you so very…”
“I did very little, it’s Dr. Andrews you should thank.” He turned her to face Seth.
She repeated her gratitude to Seth, and impulsively grabbed and hugged him.
Not unused to being hugged by grateful patients and family members, Seth patted the woman’s back gently. “You’re welcome, now go with your boy.”
With tears still trickling down her face, she gave him a brilliant smile and rushed after the ambulance crew.
Becca felt misty-eyed but exhilarated…for all of three or four minutes. Then she crashed. Exhaustion, part physical but mostly emotional, struck like a blow. With a last surge of energy, she pulled off the lab coat and the mask from her face. Heaving a heavy sigh, she dropped like a stone onto the chair at the doctor’s small desk.
Seth heard her sigh and he turned to give her a probing look, in exactly the same piercing way he would gaze at one of his still shaky patients.
“You look beat.” His tone was not kind, more accusing. “You shouldn’t be working yet. It’s obvious you aren’t strong enough.”
“I’m okay,” she insisted, abruptly standing to prove her point. For a second the room spun around her and her stomach lurched, proving only that she was completely played out.
“Right.” Seth shook his head, showing his impatience with her. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t go now,” she protested, feeling the need to sit down again. “I have to clean up in—”
“Seth is right, Becca, you’ve done more than enough for one day,” John interrupted. “You look about ready to collapse. Mary and I will do the cleaning up.”
“But—” Becca began once again, and again she was interrupted, this time by Seth.
“Don’t argue,” he said, moving to her to gently but firmly take hold of her arm. “And be still,” he went on as she tried to shake his arm off.
In truth, Becca was too tired to argue. She allowed Seth to lead her from the clinic to his car. It was a nice one, too, and expensive. But she was even too tired to comment on the vehicle.
Becca nearly fell asleep on the drive back to the cabin. Fortunately, she thought, as she roused with a start when the car came to a halt at the house, she hadn’t drifted deep enough for her to dream.
The very idea of Seth witnessing her in the throes of one of her erotic dreams was embarrassing. Whatever would he think? She didn’t want to find out.
Seth was out of the car and at her door before Becca finished undoing her seat belt. Pulling the door open, he again took her arm, guiding her from the car and up the porch steps.
The door swept open, revealing a concerned-looking Sue. “What happened, Becca? You look awful.” She leveled a narrow-eyed look at Seth. “What have you done to her? You, of all people…” That’s as far as Seth let her get.
“She’s all right,” he said, brushing past her to lead Becca inside to a chair. “There was an emergency at the clinic. A child stung by a bee had an allergic reaction. He was asphyxiating when I got there.”
Sue’s eyes widened and her one hand flew to her chest. “Oh, my lord,” she exclaimed. “Is he…” She paused, as if afraid to voice her fear.
“No.” Seth shook his head to reassure the woman, but kept his intent gaze on Becca, who had her eyes closed and was resting her head against the back of the deeply padded chair. “He’ll be fine. He’s being ambulanced to the hospital.”
“Thank goodness,” Sue murmured, her anxious gaze also fixed on Becca. “She overdid it, didn’t she?”
“What else?” Seth’s tone was wry. “I believe she thinks she’s indestructible…but…” He hesitated before adding, “She was magnificent.”
Becca blinked her eyes open. “I was no such thing,” she protested, scowling at him. “I didn’t perform the surgery.”
“Surgery?” Sue jumped on the word. “John performed surgery on the boy?”
Becca