physically intimate. He’d realized how much he was starting to care for her at the same time his family crisis had torn him away. He’d thought the distance would help.
But he’d missed her. Had thought about her a lot. Had missed their physical closeness.
A closeness he’d considered resuming once he’d returned, since he’d learned a lot about his brother’s illness while he’d been gone. He’d spent time with Jack’s doctor, who’d put some of his old fears to rest.
And, truthfully, he’d liked their hot, steamy nights together.
Alyssa’s pregnancy changed everything. He didn’t know anything about being a father. The idea of raising children, twins on top of it, secretly scared him. He knew, only too well, how things could go wrong.
With a sigh, he rubbed his aching temple and then decided to head for the shower. He was on for another night shift tonight, then had only one day off before working again on Wednesday night. At least he had Thursday and Friday off before being back on for the weekend. He’d been assigned the less-desirable graveyard shifts and weekends, but since the physician team had covered for him while he’d been gone for the past four and a half months, he couldn’t exactly complain.
Even though he personally would have rather stayed here, he understood there were feelings of resentment among the others.
Simon Carter had been pretty decent toward him. And there was a new guy, Quinn Torres, scheduled to start soon, to replace Ed Cagney, who’d just retired. But Seth Taylor had been another story. Seth couldn’t have made his feelings any clearer.
Monday night started out fairly quiet. He had to admit he was glad of the chance to ease back into the work he’d loved and hadn’t been able to do for so long.
At midnight, a woman carrying a small infant rushed in.
“He aspirated and started turning blue.” The woman was talking fast, but with the way she used medical terminology, he thought she was probably a doctor or a nurse. “I didn’t do any CPR, but used the bulb suction to keep his airway cleared.”
“Okay, let’s take a look.” They must not have called 911, but had driven here themselves. He reached for his peds stethoscope. “How old is the baby?”
“Ten days old.” Her voice shook as he gently took the baby and placed him on the infant table. Melanie, one of the nurses, placed a pulse-ox device on his forehead and then stripped off his little outfit to put tiny EKG patches on his chest.
“Pulse ox 86 percent,” Melanie said in a low tone. She fiddled with the heart monitor. “Heart rate 176.”
He nodded and used his stethoscope to listen to the little guy’s lungs. He definitely must have aspirated as Jadon could hear rales in the bases of his lungs.
“Did you witness the aspiration?” he asked the visibly upset mother.
She nodded. “It was my fault. All my fault. I had him propped on his side after his feeding, but I couldn’t have tucked the blanket securely enough behind his body. Next thing I know, he’s lying on his back, turning blue.” She momentarily closed her eyes. “It was awful.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “Well, his pulse ox is coming back up, he’s almost at 90 percent. And his heart rate was pretty tachy, but that’s coming down, too. So far he’s not running a fever, but that probably won’t happen until tomorrow. Who’s your pediatrician?”
“Dr. Piterle, in the Pediatric Care Group.”
Jadon gave Melanie a nod and she left to get in touch with whichever pediatrician in the group happened to be on call. “Are you a nurse?”
“Yes, although I haven’t worked since having my daughter.”
“I thought so. What’s your son’s name? We need to get him admitted into the system.”
“Never mind, Dr. Reichert.” Wendy, the night shift admitting clerk, came into the room. “Dad’s here and gave us all the information we need. This little guy is Aiden Crosby.”
“My name is Diane and my husband is Steve.” Diane introduced her husband, who came into the room with a cute toddler in his arms. “And my daughter, Katie.”
Melanie returned. “Dr. Piterle was on call and he didn’t think Aiden needed to spend the night, but he does want to follow up with the baby tomorrow morning.”
Diane nodded with relief. “Okay, that’s fine.”
“Now, remember, if he runs a fever tomorrow, he’ll probably need a full course of antibiotics,” Jadon warned. “IV antibiotics since he’s so young. But for now his pulse ox and heart rate are back to normal, so he should be in the clear.”
“Thank you,” Diane said gratefully.
Jadon was glad the ten-day-old Aiden would be all right, but seeing the tiny baby only made him think about Alyssa and their twins. He was more convinced than ever that it would be best for her to move in with him. He took his responsibilities seriously. He needed to convince Alyssa to let him support her.
In the morning, he decided to stop at the grocery store for her, since she obviously couldn’t do it on her own. Rather than guess what she wanted to eat, he headed over to her apartment to get a list.
But when he pulled up, he saw Kylie, Seth and Ben hauling some grocery bags out of their car and trooping up to Alyssa’s apartment building. He was too late.
Alyssa didn’t really need him after all.
The ED was unusually quiet on Wednesday night when he entered the arena. When Jadon saw Alyssa standing near Susan, the charge nurse assigned to the night shift, discussing the various patient assignments, he was shocked.
How was it possible she was back at work already? Sure, she’d mentioned something about only being on bed rest for a few days and being scheduled to see Kim Rayborn today, but to already be released to work? It had to be too soon.
What if she started having contractions again?
“Hi, Alyssa,” he greeted her, careful to keep his tone light. “I see you’re back at work.”
“Jadon.” Her smile was fleeting. “It feels good to be back. I was going crazy sitting at home.”
He nodded, barely refraining from pointing out she didn’t have to be at her apartment all alone. He’d wanted her with him.
“Who wants to cover the trauma room?” Susan asked.
“I will,” Alyssa volunteered. She smiled at the new nurse, Maureen, who was learning the ropes. “Maureen can work with me.”
“Okay, I’ll put you guys down as first trauma coverage.” Susan scribbled on her clipboard.
“Did you see the full moon out there?” Alyssa said to Susan and Maureen. “It was so
