He’d said that sometimes patients didn’t get second chances. That horrible day, theirs nearly hadn’t. And maybe that really did mean he’d been right. That she hadn’t deserved a second chance either.
Still absorbing all that and letting it sink into her brain, she pulled her attention from the fierce focus on his face. When she looked at the baby’s vital signs again, she sat straighter and stared.
“Doctor, your blood loss is ahead of where it needs to be.”
“Okay. Working on it.” He nodded, keeping his intent attention on his work.
Her throat tightened as she glanced at the blood-pressure monitor again, not liking one bit the continued drop in pressure. Not only did they clearly need more blood to compensate, they might need even more than she’d originally thought. Thank God she’d brought a good supply.
She hurried to retrieve a bag from the blood box, along with a second bag so it would be ready to hang if the first one didn’t do the trick. Trying to work as fast as possible without making a hasty mistake, she got the first bag attached and released more blood and medicine into the child’s IV lines.
“I’m having some trouble controlling the bleeding,” Daniel said. “Hang another five hundred cc of blood.”
“Just did. I have another one here ready to go. I’m pushing some meds to help.”
For a split second his brown gaze lifted to hers, before he gave her a short, nodding salute.
“I’m going to need it. Wait just a couple minutes then go ahead and hang the second bag.”
“Will do.”
Relieved that the baby’s blood pressure had normalized but still keeping a careful watch, the surgery took one hundred percent of Annabelle’s focus. Two more hours passed until finally Daniel had the wound closed and secured, with Luciana helping to finish the bandaging. When they were ready, Annabelle removed the IV lines and slowly awakened the infant.
Daniel snapped off his gloves and pulled down his mask. The slow, deliberate way he lifted off his scrub cap showed he felt as dead tired as Annabelle did, which was hardly a surprise since it was almost 4:00 a.m. Despite the lines and shadows etched around his eyes, their brown depths looked elated as his gaze met hers for a long moment before turning to the nurse. “We did it, ladies. Luciana, great job assisting. Where have you worked?”
“I’ve been a surgical assistant at two different hospitals in Lima for a long time. But Huancayo is my hometown, so I was happy to come here to help get the clinic open again.”
“Is there another nurse who can come here tomorrow to help care for him post-op?”
“I don’t know. I’ll see if I can find someone, but I’ll take care of him if I can’t.”
“I’ll also talk to Eduardo to see if he has anybody. There’s no way you can take care of this little guy and deal with more patients all by yourself once the clinic is open. Not to mention you’re going to need some sleep.”
“All of us do,” Luciana said with a tired grin. “But for tonight I’ll stay here with him.”
“No, we’ll stay. Or I will, at least,” Daniel said. “Do you have a place close by you can sleep?”
“I have relatives here, and have been staying with my mama since I arrived. I want to thank you both again for coming so fast. For being here at all. The little one might not have lived long if you hadn’t decided to open the clinic. It’s been closed for such a long time. I can tell you the people here appreciate it more than you can imagine.”
Daniel’s eyes met Annabelle’s for a long moment, and she saw they were lit with emotions. Satisfaction. Appreciation. And a slight smugness that told her that he was remembering what he’d said to her when she’d been so angry about being sent off to this place to work. That when her time here was finished, she’d be glad to have taken care of the patients in need, and whether she did it at the other clinic or here didn’t matter.
And, yeah, she couldn’t deny she was glad.
“I need to call the parents. Do you have their number?”
Luciana recited it, and Daniel went into the other room to speak to them. Annabelle could hear his low, lilting Spanish and let herself enjoy the cadence of it, the warmth she hadn’t noticed enough before.
She and Luciana again checked the baby’s IV lines, oxygen, breathing and other vital signs, before finally stepping back and smiling at one another.
“Not out of the woods yet, but he seems to be doing really well,” Annabelle said. “He’ll have to be carefully monitored, of course, and I feel like we should stay part of the day tomorrow to help you.”
“I know you have surgeries scheduled at the other clinic, but a little time here would be good. But didn’t Dr. Ferrera say you were going to be here to work with Dr. Diaz at some point anyway?”
“I assume that’s still the plan, but we’ll see.” Maybe a certain arrogant and extremely talented surgeon was finally ready to acknowledge that she knew what she was doing, even during the most intricate surgeries.
On the other hand, maybe she should ask to come here after all. The peculiar feelings rolling around in her tummy whenever she looked at Daniel might mean working with Dr. Diaz would be a good idea.
“I told the parents there was no need for them to come back right now, that sometime in the morning would be fine as he’ll be sedated for quite a while,” Daniel said as he came back into the room. It seemed he was talking to both of them, but his eyes were on Annabelle.
“Isn’t it already morning?” Annabelle joked, trying to cover up the way her heart pitter-pattered at the way he was looking at her. Or how she imagined he might be looking at her. In a way she shouldn’t want him to be looking at her.
Or maybe she could, but for very good reasons she absolutely wasn’t going to go there if he was.
One side of Daniel’s mouth tipped up as he glanced at his watch. “Definitely morning. Just a couple of hours earlier than your usual wake-up time, Dr. Richards. Maybe not too early for some yoga to get you mentally centered for the day?”
“Only if you join me. I’ll teach you some moves that’ll help you with that grouchy controlling streak of yours.”
“Moves?”
“Yoga moves,” she hastily supplied, her face heating at the way the other side of his lips curved at the same time one eyebrow rose. Who would ever have thought the grim and ultraserious Dr Ferrara would make a quip like that? “A few of my favorite asana poses, then we’ll end with the corpse pose to relax you.”
“Corpse pose? What doctor dealing with life and death would want to do that?” He stepped closer. “Isn’t there any yoga that would energize me? Because that’s what I need right now.”
Annabelle’s stomach quivered at the teasing glint in his eyes. What in the world was happening here? Had she fallen into some alternate universe where Daniel was like a normal man and not the intense perfectionist who was always so serious?
Luciana looked from one of them to the other, obvious confusion on her face. “You wish to do yoga? I have some extra blankets in the back if you want to put them on the floor.”
“No, no, Dr. Ferrera and I are just kidding. Probably. We’re both half-delirious from lack of sleep.”
“Yes, we all need a little sleep,” Luciana said, smiling again. “There is just