His good looks couldn’t erase their former animosity, and certainly didn’t replace his ongoing doubts about her skills. Sure, he’d said he was finally coming to respect her more, but it had been too little too late, as far as she was concerned.
No, she’d shake off whatever it was that was making her feel so weird and just be glad they were forming a better working relationship. Because taking the best care of patients they possibly could was their whole purpose for being here.
Once inside the door, Annabelle tried to adjust her eyes to the space, lit just slightly by a small table lamp. Obviously, it was a small entryway that probably served as the greeting room for patients and families, the way the bigger space at the other clinic did. A wooden desk sat in front of a row of folding chairs, and the room had an antiseptic soap smell to it.
“Luciana’s obviously been at work cleaning this place up, probably with the help of locals. Last time I came, I was with the first crew to arrive and it was quite a battle to sweep out all the cobwebs and dust, along with a nest of baby opossums and their mother, who was not happy to have her family disturbed.”
“Is that what you meant by creatures coming in? Good heavens. Where were they?” That the man had actually helped clean this place and chase out marsupials was a surprise. She’d always viewed him as a guy who thought of himself as the holier-than-thou king of the OR, and not someone who would pitch in with that kind of grunt work.
“In a mostly empty supply box in the back. Got to admit, the tiny ones were cute, though the mother looked like a huge gray rat, with some seriously sharp-looking teeth.”
Annabelle couldn’t help an involuntary shudder. She’d never seen an opossum in real life, but she’d seen more rats than she cared to remember. Lying awake at night, wondering if one would jump onto her bed and run across her, was one of her least favorite childhood memories.
“Um, not to be a wimp, but I don’t think I’d be good at rounding up wildlife. I’d prefer scrubbing the floors on my hands and knees any day.”
“Doesn’t look like either one of us will have to work on our hands and knees tonight, which is a very good thing.”
She saw his gaze slide down her body and stop at her derriere, and his expression had a teasing quality to it, a little glint even, that took her by surprise and inexplicably made her heart start beating a little faster.
Stupid heart.
“Dr. Ferrera?” A small, dark-haired woman appeared in the doorway from the back room, and Daniel stepped toward her.
“Hi, Luciana. Nice to see you—it’s been a long time. Thanks for seeing the child and getting this place ready. Is our patient in the back?”
“Yes, and his parents, too. How about you speak with them, then I’ll send them home during the surgery?”
“Do they live close?”
“In town, so not too far. Since the surgery will take many hours, I told them they’d be more comfortable there. They didn’t want to agree at first, which I understand. Perhaps you can reassure them that it’s better if they go home and get some rest? That we’ll contact them when it’s over?”
He nodded before turning to Annabelle to introduce the two of them. From that moment on he was all business, moving into the back room to talk with the parents, who looked like they couldn’t be older than twenty or so. Clearly worried, they also looked intimidated, standing to talk to Daniel when he approached them. Annabelle couldn’t understand very much of what he said to them, but whatever it was had their faces relaxing slightly, their unsure expressions turning to gratitude as they both shook his hand.
Annabelle worked to get the equipment out and set up while Daniel looked at the EKG that Luciana had done, then examined the fussy baby. For long minutes he carefully listened to the child’s heart and lungs with his stethoscope, his brows lowered in deep concentration.
“Definitely heart failure,” he said, his gaze meeting hers. “Good thing we came. Thanks for being willing.”
“No thanks necessary. You know that.”
But it warmed her heart a little to be thanked anyway, silly as that was. Didn’t people thank one another all the time, barely noticing it? Lord, had the man made her become all needy for a little praise? Surely she wasn’t that pathetic.
Daniel listened to the infant’s chest again, and even from several feet away she could hear the wheeze as he cried. Maybe the baby would have lived quite a while with congestive heart failure, but it was more likely that he wouldn’t have. And that’s why they did these missions, wasn’t it? To save lives.
Finally, Daniel pulled his stethoscope from his ears and raised his head to look at Annabelle again. “I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery. Good call, Luciana. In an ideal world we’d do more testing, but we have no choice but to open him up and see what we find, then get it fixed.”
“Ready with the gases and IVs, Doctor,” Annabelle said.
He gave her a nod then shocked her with another knee-weakening smile—had he ever smiled even once in the OR at the other clinic at any of the team? She was pretty sure she would have remembered if he had. Then again, for some reason his lips and jawline and those warm brown eyes were attracting her attention in a whole new way. Something she absolutely had to squelch.
Annabelle sucked in a meditative breath as he turned away to speak to the parents again, his voice a calming rumble. More hand shaking, then the couple were gone, leaving the three of them to scrub, gown and finish prepping the space.
“Do you know this family, Luciana?”
“I didn’t know them, but I do know the baby’s grandmother. She goes to my church, and I’d posted there about the clinic opening in a few days, which is why they came up.”
“Sounds like it was all meant to be that we’re here doing this tonight. You two ready?”
Luciana nodded, and Annabelle placed the mask over the baby’s nose and mouth. Once he was asleep, she put the IV lines into his tiny arms and legs, and the central line into his neck. After carefully checking his vitals, she nodded at Daniel. “All set.”
Together, they all did their jobs meticulously, with Daniel exposing the baby’s small heart and beginning the intricate surgery with steady hands, Luciana assisting. “Looks like he already has some tissue death from lack of oxygen, poor little guy. But we’ll get him fixed up, as close to perfect as we possibly can.”
* * *
Long past midnight and hours into the surgery, Annabelle quelled a big yawn, wishing she had a giant cup of coffee. She blinked hard, briefly moving her attention from the baby’s vital signs to look at Daniel’s intense eyes above his surgical mask. No sign of fatigue there, just an impressive, unwavering focus.
She’d participated in many delicate and skilled surgeries, though most had been more like what they’d been doing in Ayllu, and not quite as complicated as this. And every single time she felt awed by the steady hands, the years of training it took to perform such detailed work.
She loved her job but honestly couldn’t imagine doing what the cardiac surgeons did day in and day out. A special breed of doctor, for sure.
He literally held this baby’s life in his hands. She did too, but it was different. Administering then carefully monitoring the anesthesia throughout surgery kept the child safe and made the procedure possible. But to be able to restructure a tiny heart so it could function normally?
Truly amazing.
He’d talked about a surgical team needing to respect one another and the admiration she felt for him at that moment welled up in her chest as she watched him work.