Lost and Found

Chapter 31

Enjoy!

In the exam room, Maggie watched the pulsating black and white image from the echocardiogram. The image gave her a good idea of what was growing in April's unborn child. "Well," she said, "It is a cardiac mass. Fortunately, these things have a history of being benign, most often, and it does look like something we could operate on if we had to." She turned to the OB. "Connie, if you could get a needle biopsy of that mass and put a rush on it, I need to know exactly what type of tumor this is."

"Tumor?" April whimpered, her voice shaky. Beside her, Jackson swallowed and squeezed his wife's hand.

Maggie noticed her anxiety. It must be terrifying to find out that there is something wrong with your child who is growing and being nurtured in your body. She wanted to support her new friend and colleague. She mustered a little confidence in her voice, bringing the thunder in a calm assertive manner. "To you, it looks scary, but to me, it's a challenge, and I never give up on a challenge, okay? Just hang in there. Once I know exactly what I'm dealing with, I will make a plan, and we'll go from there." She glanced from April to Jackson and back. "The good news is that so far, the tumor hasn't invaded the heart itself, so your child's heartrate hasn't been affected. These types of tumors are usually slow to grow, if at all and are usually benign."

"Benign?" April said.

Maggie nodded. "Benign. I'll know at the end of the day."

"See?" Jackson's voice was hopeful. "It'll be okay. Maggie's got this."

April just nodded numbly as she stared at the screen. "Can you get my mom?" she asked.

"Of course," Maggie replied, removing the wand and wiping off the gel. Then she remembered the thing about Zola, "April?" she asked.

"Hm?" April answered distractedly, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Never mind, it's not important" Maggie decided that now wouldn't be a good time. "I'll go get Karen."

She walked out of the room and sighed heavily. Outside, in the hallway, April's sweet mother Karen looked up from her seated position. "Mag- uh, Dr. Pierce?"

"We still have to run some tests, but you can go and see her," she said.

"Oh, bless your soul," Karen said. "I'm praying for a miracle..."

Maggie smiled stiffly. Benign or not, cardiac tumors weren't something to mess with. "Of course," she said.

"Do you believe in Miracles?" Karen asked.

Maggie blinked, considering this... She wasn't naïve enough to believe that there wasn't a spiritual side to medicine, although she had yet to see her own 'miracle'. Definitively, she was a doctor, a scientist...

But things sometimes happened that were unexplainable.

"I believe..." she paused, "I believe that faith is a part of medicine," she said finally.

Karen stood up and reached for the door, "I Believe in Miracles. The good Lord brought Meredith back to us... he can heal a baby in utero."

Maggie nodded. "I hope so."

xxx

Jo sat with Stephanie at the Joe's. Since her talk with Alex earlier, she'd done some digging, and now she might have an answer for him. Hoped anyway. At least she could say she tried. Impatient, she ran her fingers along the neck of her bottle of beer.

The bell jingled, and a man walked in. "Is that the guy?" Stephanie nodded her head at the man who just entered the bar.

Jo looked over to see if she recognized him, "um, no."