The Doctor's Christmas Proposal Read online

  “If I could get tickets, maybe we could all go.” The instant Dana had uttered the invitation, she grew excited at the prospect. She and her mother had often gone to see Christmas plays. She liked the idea of helping Jessica’s family experience this one Christmas tradition.

  Wendy’s eyes widened. “Even Mommy?”

  “Of course. Well, I’d have to get permission from Dr. Reynolds first,” she quickly amended. “But if we were only gone for a few hours and came right back here, maybe he’d let us go.” As she spoke, she warmed to the idea. “We can take a wheelchair and a portable oxygen tank. Since I’m trained to take care of Romadylin and bi-pap masks, I can’t see why a short field trip would be a problem.”

  “Really?” Wendy’s face lit up with excitement. “Wow, that would be so cool.”

  “Are you sure you’re up to this, Mom?” Chad, the responsible one, asked doubtfully. “We can wait until you’re better if you’d rather.”

  “I’d like…to see the play.” Jessica nodded. “If Dana…would come with us.”

  “I’ll clear it with Mitch, er, Dr. Reynolds when he gets back,” Dana promised. She glanced at her watch. “First I have to see if there are even tickets available. I’ll get back in touch with you as soon as I know for sure.”

  She left the unit without talking to Mitch as he hadn’t returned from seeing his patient on the floor. Although her mind was already formulating her argument as to why he should let her do this, she missed the closeness they’d shared last night.

  If she was honest, she had intended to use her visit with Jessica as an opportunity to see Mitch again. She truly hadn’t minded that he’d been forced to leave to deal with Trina’s miscarriage. Yet after his strange reaction to her unexpected arrival on the unit, maybe it was better to give him the space he so obviously needed.

  At home later on, when she listened to her messages on the answering-machine, her pulse spiked at the sound of Mitch’s husky voice. A tiny flicker of hope flared deep in her heart. He’d actually called to check on her.

  When she listened to the message a second time, she realized he’d called just after noon, but she’d gotten to the hospital about that same time. So the moment he’d looked at her with barely disguised antipathy had been after he’d left the message.

  What had transpired in the meantime?

  She had no way of knowing. With a quick movement she hit the erase key and deleted the message. She didn’t know what had happened to change his mind but, as much as she would have liked to spend her day off with him, she didn’t return his call.

  Dana set the phone down after almost two hours of planning. She’d finally gotten tickets, travel arrangements and equipment organized in order to take Jessica and her kids to the play that evening.

  The only downside was that Mitch had insisted on going with them. As much as she’d tried to convince him his presence was unnecessary, he’d insisted on coming or he wouldn’t allow Jessica to leave the unit.

  Left with no choice, she’d given in gracefully.

  Just as she was about to head to her room to change, the phone rang again. Figuring the caller had to be Mitch, she muttered something unkind under her breath and picked up the phone. “Now what? I told you I have everything covered. You have to trust me on this, Mitch.”

  There was a long pause, then a deep male voice asked, “Dana? How are you?”

  It took her a moment to recognize the voice of her father. She was glad he wasn’t there to see her blush. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

  “That’s all right. I just called to see how you were doing.” He cleared his throat. “I’m, uh, sorry to bother you.”

  “You’re not,” she lied. Actually, Brian was bothering her, had cost her many hours of sleep since he’d given her the letter. But after reading his words and seeing events through his eyes, she couldn’t seem to hold onto her anger. “But I am getting ready to go see a play with a patient and her family. Maybe we can talk another time?”

  “Yes. Any time you’re free would be great.” Her father sounded more than a little enthusiastic. “I’ll leave my number.”

  Dana dutifully wrote his number down, then said goodbye. Long after she’d hung up she stared at it.

  Talk about a total switch. After years of indifference toward her father, she was actually looking forward to talking to him again. And to think her mother had sent him a note some time last year, before she’d passed away.

  “Dana, promise you’ll always hold the joy of Christmas in your heart.” Her mother had gripped her hand on Christmas Eve. “Promise me,” she’d reiterated when Dana hadn’t answered right away.

  “I promise.” Dana had choked back her tears.

  “Ah, Dana. Don’t cry.” Her mother, weak from disease, had smiled. “I’ve had a wonderful life. My only regret is leaving you alone.”

  Dana had bent her head to hide her tears and when she’d looked up again, her mother’s eyes had slid closed.

  Then she had gone.

  Her mother hadn’t pined after her father when he’d left, at least not that Dana could tell. She wished her mother was here now, to talk through her confused feelings for Mitch.

  Dana had no idea what she was going to do about the man she’d given her heart to.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MITCH COULDN’T BELIEVE he’d let Dana talk him into this cockamamie idea of taking Jessica and her two kids to see some Christmas play in downtown Milwaukee. He’d tried to get her to drop the whole idea, but when Dana latched onto something, he discovered there was no way to convince her to let go.

  The thought of spending the whole evening with her was pure torture. At least they wouldn’t be alone. In fact, the only reason he’d finally given in and given the go-ahead had been because Jessica hadn’t looked very well and he hadn’t been able to ignore the bad feeling in his gut that told him her days were numbered if she didn’t get a transplant soon.

  Trust kind-hearted Dana to figure out the same thing for herself. He thought it was great, the way she wanted to give the family something fun to remember during the holiday. But he hadn’t been able to shake his bad feeling about Jessica’s condition, so he’d spent an hour getting someone else to cover his call for the evening, so he could go, too.

  As he met up with Dana outside Jessica’s room, he glanced around in amazement. She’d gotten Jessica into a high-backed wheelchair and was hooking up the bi-pap mask and machine to a portable oxygen tank mounted to the back of the chair. Jessica was securely tucked into the chair with pillows for maximum comfort, covered up to her chin with a warm blanket. There was only one tiny problem that he could see. “Uh, Dana? How are we going to get the wheelchair transported to the theater?”

  “I have a transport van waiting for us downstairs, courtesy of Horizon Homecare.” Dana finished setting up the oxygen tank and stepped back to give the connections one last look. “They were happy to give us a special discounted holiday rate.”

  He imagined there was more to that story, but didn’t ask in front of Jessica’s kids. “Sounds good. We probably need some emergency supplies, too, just in case.”

  “I already have everything we need.” Dana held up a small red plastic box. “I have intubation supplies in here, and the respiratory therapy department is letting us borrow their portable suction machine. I also have first-line emergency meds, the same variety we take with us on road trips.”

  He had to grin. The ICU nurses described taking critically ill patients to Radiology for tests and procedures as road trips. Having coded his share of patients in Radiology, he knew the nurses preferred to be prepared.

  Dana certainly had everything under control for this extended road trip.

  “I guess we have everything we need, then.” He gestured to the door. “Let’s go.”

  They were a funny-looking entourage as they headed down to the main lobby. Little Wendy was so excited she skipped alongside her mother’s wheelchair, chatting a mile a minute about nothing in p
articular.

  Chad was quiet, but Mitch could see the boy shared a bit of his sister’s excitement, especially when he saw the oversized van outside. “Hey, check this out, Mom. It’s practically a limousine for patients.”

  Jessica smiled and nodded. The driver of the van came around and greeted Dana with such familiarity Mitch figured they had to be friends away from work. Must be how she’d gotten her special holiday discount. After opening the van doors, the driver took a remote control and unfolded the wheelchair lift.

  Dana helped get Jessica’s chair loaded onto the lift and secured in the back of the van without any difficulty. Then the rest of them climbed in behind her, leaving Mitch to sit up front with the driver.

  Mitch listened to the kids and Dana as they headed downtown. There was a rather lively discussion about the merits of A Christmas Carol as compared to The Christmas Story. Since he’d never seen the latter, he didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.

  They arrived at the theater in record time. He took some of the heavy supplies from Dana while Chad steered his mother’s wheelchair. Dana led the way to their seats, located in the back of the theater where Jessica’s wheelchair wouldn’t block anyone’s view.

  The four of them sat in the last row, with Jessica in her high-backed wheelchair directly behind them. Mitch found himself seated beside Chad, with Dana on the opposite side next to Wendy, reminding him of the way his parents had purposefully seated his brothers and sisters between them.

  The perfect family.

  Guilt stabbed his heart when he realized he hadn’t seen his family since his divorce. They’d been close, but their constant sympathy had gotten to the point where he’d felt he needed to escape. He knew they blamed him for the divorce because he’d dealt with his grief by burying himself in his work, neglecting Gwen. He hadn’t been able to explain that Gwen had avoided him as much as he’d avoided her.

  He wondered what his brothers and sisters were doing now. Spending time with their own families and his parents, no doubt, going through the last-minute rush of preparing for the usual Christmas celebration.

  He needed to call them. Although he was scheduled to work through the holiday, he should at least make contact with his parents. Maybe he could squeeze a quick trip in to see them after he had finished working his stint in the ICU.

  Mitch didn’t pay attention to the play at first. Instead, he listened to Jessica’s audible breathing from behind them. Every few minutes he glanced back to make sure she was doing all right, only to find her attention was riveted on the action unfolding on stage. Soon the story sucked him in. Hearing Wendy and Chad giggle along with Jessica’s soft laugh, muffled behind her bi-pap mask, warmed his heart.

  Dana’s instincts had been right when she’d arranged this little outing.

  When the play ended, he rose to his feet like all the others, applauding the actors, who returned to the stage to take their final bow. The young child actors were the best and even Chad let out a loud whistle when the young teenage heroine of the play took her bow.

  “That was so good.” Dana surreptitiously wiped her damp eyes. “I’m glad we came.”

  He was too choked up himself to do anything but nod in agreement.

  “Me, too!” Wendy hopped up and down from one leg to the other. “Mommy, did you like the play?”

  “Very much.” Despite the bright excitement in her eyes, Jessica’s voice was faint, causing Mitch to glance at her with concern. They gathered around Jessica’s wheelchair, waiting for the crowds of people to diminish before heading out to where the van waited.

  “We’d better go.” Mitch exchanged a long, knowing look with Dana. She picked up on his concern and quickly nodded in agreement.

  “All right, Chad, you get to steer your mother’s chair.” Dana picked up the portable suction machine case and slung it over her shoulder.

  Mitch tried to take it from her, but she shook her head and handed him the red box instead. They took the elevator to the main lobby and headed outside.

  “Look, Mommy, it’s snowing!” Big fat flakes were falling from the sky. Wendy lifted her face to the sky and stuck out her tongue for a taste.

  The snow must have started a while ago because a fresh layer of glistening white snow covered every surface, including the horses that stood attached to the carriages along the side of the street.

  Wendy saw the horse and carriage rides at the same moment Mitch did. “Look at the horses, Mommy.” She frowned. “They shouldn’t make the horses carry people for rides in the snow. They’re gonna get cold.”

  “They have thick winter coats, Wen.” Chad rolled his eyes. “The horses will be fine.”

  Mitch half expected Wendy to ask for a ride, but she didn’t. Dana was busy loading Jessica’s wheelchair in the van, and soon they were all packed in and ready to go.

  Jessica’s breathing seemed to echo loudly in the tight confines of the van as the driver pulled out onto the snow-covered streets. Mitch glanced back and saw Dana was just as worried.

  “We’ll be back at the hospital in no time,” Dana reassured Jessica. “Do you need to be suctioned?”

  “No. I’m…fine.” Jessica responded.

  Mitch didn’t like the way Jessica looked, and the last thing he wanted to do was to intubate her in front of her kids. Despite the rapt expression on Jessica’s face as she’d watched the play, he hoped this trip hadn’t been too much for her.

  Mitch glanced back at Jessica, who sat back in her wheelchair with her eyes closed. Dana stayed close, her fingers resting along Jessica’s wrist, monitoring her pulse.

  He leaned close to the van driver. “Whatever you do, don’t slide off the road, but get us back to the hospital as quickly as possible,” he murmured.

  Silently, he prayed. Hang on for a little while longer, Jessica.

  Dana held her breath during the entire trip back to Trinity Medical Center. If anything happened to Jessica en route, she’d never forgive herself.

  The way Mitch kept glancing back at them told her he was concerned, too. Jessica’s features had grown even more pale, and her breathing was slightly irregular.

  Dana tightened her grip on the emergency box containing the intubation equipment and mentally counted Jessica’s heart rate again. Why had she thought this would be a good idea? What if this trip ended up costing Jessica her life?

  Dana swallowed hard and sought to get a grip on her rioting emotions. Jessica hadn’t exactly been the epitome of health today—hadn’t Mitch increased her Romadylin infusion that morning? The trip to the theater had been made with the least amount of stress to Jessica as possible. Her breathing could have changed for the worse while Jessica had been lying in ICU.

  All of which might be true, but Dana had a hard time making herself believe it.

  Finally her friend Jake, the van driver, pulled up to the front doors of Trinity Medical Center. Dana had never been so glad to see the brightly lit hospital in her entire life. Moving quickly, she jumped out and waited impatiently as the lift lowered Jessica’s wheelchair to the ground.

  “Thanks so much, Jake.” Dana said, quickly taking possession of Jessica’s wheelchair. “I’ll settle up with you later.”

  Jake simply nodded, understanding the undertone of urgency that hovered beneath her cheerfulness. “See you later, Dana. Merry Christmas, everyone,” he added as she pushed Jessica’s wheelchair inside.

  They didn’t run back up to the ICU, but if Dana could have made the elevator move a little faster, she would have. Soon they piled back into Jessica’s empty room.

  “Chad, would you and Wendy wait outside while I transfer your mother back into bed?” Dana asked, moving the wheelchair into position. “Should only take a few minutes.”

  “Sure.” Chad gave her a quick look, as if picking up on her worry, but ushered his sister out of the room.

  Dana lowered the back of Jessica’s wheelchair and then poked her head out the door. “I need lifting help in here.”

 
“Did you have fun?” Amber, the nurse assigned to Jessica on second shift in Dana’s place asked as she entered the room. “Was the play good?”

  “The play was great.” Dana couldn’t bring herself to look at Mitch who stood in his smart slacks and sweater, watching their patient like a hawk. Was he blaming her for Jessica’s turn for the worse? She couldn’t blame him if he did. “But help me get Jessica back into bed. Her breathing sounds labored.”

  They made the transfer easily enough, with the help of Mitch’s strong arms and the sliding board. Once Jessica was safely back in bed, Dana reconnected her to the heart monitor above her bed.

  Mitch took out his stethoscope and listened to Jessica’s lungs. Dana got rid of the rest of the equipment, then waited for him to finish his exam.

  “I think we’re going to have to intubate her,” he murmured half under his breath. “We can hold off for as long as possible, but her lungs are definitely worse.”

  “My fault.” Dana gripped one of Jessica’s side rails, her knuckles white. “I shouldn’t have taken her out into the cold.”

  “You’re smart enough to know the cold air didn’t cause this, Dana.” Mitch glanced down at Jessica, who was still lying with her eyes closed, as if to concentrate on her breathing. “Jessica? Can you hear me?”

  She nodded, then opened her eyes and turned towards them. The silent plea was almost Dana’s undoing. “I can’t breathe.”

  “I know.” Mitch placed a hand on her arm. “We’ve maxed the dose of your Romadylin infusion, Jessica. The only thing left is to do an elective intubation to hold you over until you can get a double lung transplant.”

  Jessica gave a resigned nod. “Do it, then.”

  Dana had to turn away and blink back sudden tears. Jessica’s silent bravery made her want to cry. She quickly gathered the supplies they’d taken on the trip so Mitch could perform the intubation.

  Amber called for respiratory therapy assistance and they brought up the ventilator. Because Amber was the nurse on duty while Dana was technically off duty, Amber gave Jessica the medication to relax her for the procedure.