CHAPTER TWO
“IT’S OK, MEGAN,” she said, barely creeping along the mountain highway. “We’ll be there soon, and Dr. Adams will take good care of you.” She hoped so, even though she wasn’t sure the message had gotten through because he hadn’t called her back. Something about mountains and cellphone interference.
“You’ve seen him before, and he’s very good.” Not that the sleeping child cared. But Keera did. She wanted some familiarity for Megan, and Reid Adams was the closest thing she could think of. And maybe, just maybe, he’d have a solution for the child’s situation. “We’re not far away now, so you just sleep there, and when you wake up things will be better. I promise.”
What was she promising, though? What, really, could a trip to an isolated camp in the mountains in the middle of the night do for Megan? Nothing. That’s what! But it made Keera feel better. Feel like she was doing something rather than simply sitting around waiting for something to happen or, worse, doing the wrong thing. Reid Adams was all about children, he had children. And for some strange reason, he seemed like her best port in the storm. A beacon of light.
“He’ll know what to do,” she reassured the sleeping child. “Yes, I’m sure of it.” Because if he didn’t...well, Keera didn’t want to think about the alternative, since it wasn’t acceptable. That was something she knew in profound ways no child should ever have to know. Confusion, fear and long, empty days and nights when the futility threatened to eat you alive. “He’ll fix you up, and he’ll help me help you, too.”
Those were mighty big expectations for one pediatrician to fulfill, but it’s all Keera had to cling to. Reid Adams had to come through for both their sakes. He just had to!
* * *
He wasn’t sure who she was, but for some reason he thought he could wager a pretty good guess. Carrying a child in her arms, she was trying to make her way up the dirt path without stumbling, and she was quite obviously not a woman of the woods. Determined, though. With the scowl of a mighty huntress set across one of the softest, prettiest faces he’d ever seen in his life.
Which was what had brought Keera Murphy to mind. She’d tracked him down and she was bringing him the child. He wasn’t sure why, wasn’t even sure that he liked the idea that the huntress had set her sights on him. But something about a woman who would trudge all the way out here in the middle of the night just to find him did fascinate him.
“You would be Dr. Murphy?” he asked, as she approached the porch of his cabin.
“I would be. And this is Megan Murphy. She’s sick. Since nobody knows her, nobody knows a thing about her, well, with you being her physician and all, I thought you’d be the best one to take a look.”
“You couldn’t find another physician closer to you? Or even track down one of my colleagues?”
“You didn’t get my phone call?”
“Mountains and cellphones aren’t always a good combination, even in this day and age. Reception out here is spotty, which is why we still rely on the landline.”
“Well, I called because I hoped she’d remember you. With everything she’s gone through, I thought that would be good. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but...” Keera started up the wooden steps and Reid took the child from her arms, immediately seeing how sick she was.
“How long has she been this way?” he asked, turning and nearly running into his cabin.
“Just the last few hours. She’d been getting progressively sicker and I wasn’t too worried about it at first, but when I listened to her chest a little while ago, the congestion had more than doubled from earlier and her temperature had elevated two degrees.”
He laid Megan carefully on the sofa then dashed into the next room after his medical bag.
“Well, I hope I didn’t do the wrong thing bringing her here.” She shrugged. “And I’m sorry for the intrusion. Maybe I panicked a little.” Panicked because she’d known what would happen if she’d taken Megan to the hospital. The system would have gotten her. As much as she didn’t want the child, she also didn’t want the child to end up in the system, which was what would have happened because a trip to Emergency tonight would have started that process. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You followed your instinct. Did what you believed was best. It’s not a bad thing, Keera.” He took a quick blood-pressure reading, followed by the rest of Megan’s vitals, then pulled off his stethoscope and laid it aside.
It was a simple action yet so sexy. And she wanted to kick herself for noticing. “I may have overreacted, but—”
“Look, I don’t know the dynamics here. Don’t know why social services left the child with you when, clearly, she’s not your responsibility. Don’t know why you avoided a quick trip to an emergency room rather than driving all the way out here. But I’m not going to ask. We all have our reasons for the crazy things we do, and I don’t mean crazy in a literal sense but more from a point of observation. Seems crazy to me because I don’t know what makes you tick, but obviously it doesn’t seem crazy to you because you understand the situation. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s all good.”
“I appreciate that,” she said sincerely. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I want to keep Megan for a day or so. It’s probably a slight upper respiratory infection, although I want to make sure before I let her go as I don’t think she’s up to another trip back with you so soon. So I’d like to keep her in the infirmary here for a little while, if you don’t mind. It’s empty and I can quarantine her there just to make sure the other kids don’t come in contact with her. Then I’ll get her hydrated and start her on some medication to make her feel better.” He frowned. “Unless you’d rather admit her to a local hospital because she is a little dehydrated. Your choice.”
No choice. This was where Megan had to be, at least for the night. “And the infirmary is...?”
He pointed to a door at the rear of the living room. “Through the kitchen, out the door, first building you see beyond my cabin. The clinic is on the other side of the compound.”
“Why do you keep them separated?”
“These kids are very susceptible to illness. Don’t want sickness anywhere near regular medical duties.”
“Makes sense.”
“Also, I bought the camp as is. Didn’t have one place large enough to house both the clinic and infirmary. Anyway, there’s always someone on duty. Usually me, sometimes Betsy, the camp nurse, who stays in the cabin adjacent to this one. We alternate nights taking call.
“As far as the infirmary, I think you may have to help a bit there because Betsy’s pregnant and I don’t let her near the sick kids. Which means it’s basically you and me, and I do have a volunteer who isn’t medical but who had leukemia when she was a kid and enjoys helping out where she can.”
“You need to know I’m not good at pediatrics.”
“Maybe not, but I don’t have a lot of options if we’re going to keep Megan here. Like I said, there’s always the hospital...”
An unacceptable choice. That was her first thought. Her second was that she could leave Megan here, go home and let Consuela, the social worker, deal with the rest of it. This was certainly her chance to step aside and know Megan was in good hands, but something inside her was stopping her from taking it. “So you want me basically quarantined with her?”
“Not quarantined as in locked up. We have