CHAPTER NINE
The knock on his door woke him up. He’d fallen asleep on the couch. He looked outside. It was dark. He stood up. Several beer cans rolled off him. Apparently he had more than a six pack in his fridge. He rubbed his eyes. The knocking became insistent. “Yeah, yeah, I am coming.”
He had no idea whether it was the beginning or the middle of the night. Who would come by this late?
He picked up his cell phone, lying on the floor and turned on the display. It was late in the evening. The sun had just gone down. Sidnee’s surgery was twelve hours ago. He looked to make sure he was wearing clothes. His head felt groggy. His eyes were heavy.
He opened the door, ready to shoo away whoever it was.
“Kate!”
His pulse quickened.
Her eyes were wide, a rosy tint colored her cheeks. “I’ve done something, and I need to tell someone.” He stepped aside and let her in. What was she doing here? He tried to clear the cobwebs in his brain. He was glad to see her. Even as his brain told him he needed to stop whatever it was they had together, his heart wanted her here, near him. He wanted to touch her, to be close to her, to feel the comfort and peace that came with Kate.
She looked at him excitedly, like a kid who had just gotten exactly what they wanted for Christmas.
“Okay. I’ll help you move it.”
She furrowed her brows. “What?”
“I’ll help you move the body. Isn’t that why you’re here? To tell me you’ve killed someone and need my help moving the body? I can’t see any other scenario in which you’d be talking to me.”
She laughed. His heart warmed. It was a sound he liked to hear. She had a tinkling laugh, her eyes scrunched a little, and her whole face lit up. He could spend his whole life trying to make her laugh. Wait what? Back up Nick!
She shook her head. “That’s not why I am here. Wait, you’d help me move the body if I killed someone?”
He nodded. “There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you Kate.” His voice was husky, surprising both him and Kate. What happened to staying away from her?
“Except leave my patient alone.”
And there it was.
“I meant personally Kate. Just like I don’t expect you to cut me any slack professionally, I won’t do the same. Patient care can’t be dictated by personal relationships.”
He saw her throat move as she swallowed.
“I actually agree with you on that principle.”
She slumped into the couch. “I came because I did something today that I am rather proud of, and I wanted to share it with someone. And I realized that I didn’t just want to share it with anyone. I wanted to share it with you. Despite still being mad at you.”
He sat beside her. He reached out and took her hand. It felt good to touch her.
“I am so sorry Kate. I am sorry about Sidnee. Maybe you’re right. I may have been projecting what happened with Lucy on all my patients. I’ve just felt desperate to do something ever since she died. Like somehow saving someone else will bring her back.”
She took his hand. “I wish I’d been there for you, I wish I’d been there for her.”
He rested his head on her shoulder. She stroked his hair.
“I’ve been over it, I can’t figure out what went wrong with Sidnee.”
She nodded. “I went back to the ICU and combed through her chart. There was nothing in the pre-work, all the drugs she was given were at the right dose.”
He nodded. “And if it was an allergic reaction, the drugs should be out of her system by now. She is cycling through crisis after crisis, like it’s an ongoing reaction.”
Kate frowned. “What did you say?”
“It’s like she’s still having an allergic reaction.”
Kate stood up suddenly. “Nick….what if….” she paced. “We were in the latex free OR which is why we didn’t consider this, but what if there was a stocking mistake and a latex product was used. She’s still intubated. They wouldn’t re-tube her.”
He gave himself a mental slap to sharpen his thoughts. He stood. “Wait, we never considered that. If that’s the case…”
Kate nodded. She grabbed his hand. “We need to go to the ICU right now.”
He shook his head. “Kate, I’ve had too much to drink. Why don’t we call the on call doctor in critical care. They’ll take care of it.”
Kate looked at him with disbelief. “The Dawsons are still there. They’ve been there since we took her in. We need to go.”
He rubbed his head. He didn’t want to get involved any more than he already was. He had transferred the patient to the ICU. Sidnee technically was no longer his patient. “I can’t Kate.”
She grabbed her purse and pulled out her cell phone to call the ICU. “Well, I’m going.”
“What’s the news you wanted to share with me?”
She ignored him. She was already dialing. She opened his door.
“Let me know how it goes.”
She slammed the door shut.
***
Kate drove as fast as she dared to the hospital. She’d spoken to the on call doctor who’d promised to extubate Sid right away. She was disappointed in Nick. After all that had happened, he still wanted to maintain his distance? She shouldn’t be surprised but she expected more from him. Maybe he wasn’t the same warm hearted Nick she knew in college. She’d changed, maybe he had too and she was hoping for things that weren’t there.
She bypassed the waiting room to go right to the clinical treatment area. She wanted to know what was going on before facing the Dawsons.
She found the on call doctor. “How is she?”
“We extubated her. Without the packaging, I can’t tell whether the tube is latex or not. We are sending it to the nurse administrator so she can track it down by serial number. She’s not breathing on her own so we re-intubated her with a latex free tube. She was pretty hard to intubate, took us three tries, her airway was badly swollen which is actually consistent with your hypothesis about a reaction to the tube.”
“What are her chances if it was the tube?”
The doctor shrugged. “If it was the tube, she now has prolonged exposure. And her not waking up, and not breathing on her own is a bad sign. We’ll keep watching her. The next few hours will tell a lot.”
Kate nodded. She knew all this but was hoping she was wrong.
“I’ll go update her parents.”
When she walked out to the waiting room, Nick was sitting with the Dawsons. Her heart leaped. Kate provided an update of what was going on. The Dawsons looked exhausted. She encouraged them to go home and promised to call if anything changed. They reluctantly agreed.
Kate turned to Nick. “Thank you for coming.”
He nodded and reached down and picked up her hand. She felt the warmth and her heart melted.
“It’s been an exhausting day for both of us and I have to be back here in eight hours. Is there any chance that you’d be willing to come home with me. I just need to hold you tonight.”
Her eyes teared.
“Please Kate?”
She nodded.