The Prodigal M.D. Returns Read online

  With an instinct for self-preservation, Ben had gotten very good at spotting the women with genuine complaints and those who fabricated symptoms and ailments in order to see him.

  After a siege of almost eight weeks, the numbers at the clinic became more manageable and life returned to business as usual. Ben wasn't the only one to notice or to breathe a secret sigh of relief.

  Picking up the chart that listed the appointments scheduled for that day, Shayne scanned the page. "I think your groupies are finally resigning themselves to seeing you in your off-hours." He glanced in Ben's direction as he returned the chart to Alison's desk.

  Finishing the glazed doughnut that represented his breakfast, Dr. Jimmy Quintano dusted off his fingers.

  "You say that as if it's a good thing." He dropped his crumpled napkin into the wastepaper basket beside Alison's desk. "Personally, I liked seeing some of Hades's lovelier residents stroll through the office, looking as if they'd all been moonstruck."

  Alison walked in from the rear of the building, a giant mug of coffee clutched between her hands. "I bet April took another view of that."

  Jimmy gave his younger sister his best reproving look. "And who told her about that?"

  They both knew that he'd never been happier since he'd left his roving bachelor days behind him. "Me. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat." She paused to take a long sip of the inky liquid before setting the mug down on her desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some charts to put away." Picking up the two folders that had belonged to patients who had come in after hours, Alison ducked out of the room.

  "How about you?" Shayne asked, turning toward his brother.

  They still had a few minutes before officially opening, although the waiting room was already full. For once, Shayne decided to take his time. Ben's answer was important to him. In the last few weeks, he'd been forced to reassess his opinion of his brother. Ben appeared to be earnest about atoning for his past transgressions. Earnest about making a life for himself here. But Shayne had been burned more than once by his brother. Somewhere deep in his soul, he kept waiting for a shoe to drop.

  "How are you dealing with the drop-off of adoring throngs?"

  "Just fine," Ben replied with no hesitation. His eyes met his brother's. "I'm here to practice medicine, not to date."

  Shayne nodded thoughtfully, as if still reserving judgment on the validity of that statement. "Speaking of dating, you've been seeing a lot of Heather Kendall."

  Out of the corner of his eye, Ben saw Jimmy lean back against the desk, making no secret of the fact that he was listening. "Are you spying on me, Shayne?"

  Shayne's broad shoulders rose and fell beneath his white coat. "You live in Hades. Very little of what any of us do can be kept a state secret. Not with Ursula Hatcher around."

  "Clever woman, Ursula," Jimmy volunteered.

  Both Kerrigan brothers turned to look at him. They waited, but there was no follow-up to the cardiologist's off-handed observation.

  "Okay," Shayne said, crossing his arms, "I'll bite. Why is Ursula clever?"

  A fondness entered his voice as Jimmy began to speak about his grandmother-in-law. Short on extended family himself, he, like the rest of his siblings, thought very highly of the lively older woman. They all regarded her like the grandmother they never had. For them, more than the Yearlings, who were her actual grandchildren, Ursula could do no wrong.

  "Well, for one thing, she found a way to kill two birds with one stone." Jimmy could see that Ben and Shayne were still waiting to be enlightened. "She got Yuri's cousin involved with someone and managed to win a bet at the same time."

  The latter was out of left field. "A bet? What kind of bet?" Ben wanted to know.

  Jimmy laughed. "She bet me that she could bring Heather's mother around. That she could get the woman to do something other than look bitter and spend her days complaining. Martha Ryan's one of my patients," he explained to Ben. "I've been treating her for a myriad of supposed heart ailments ever since I got here."

  "She has a bad heart?" Ben asked. Heather had never mentioned that, but then, she wasn't the kind to complain, and when they were together, they didn't exactly waste time talking about her mother.

  Jimmy shook his head. "No more than anyone else her age. What she has is an underused heart. And imagined chest pains. She's had Heather rush her in here a number of times since I've been in Hades. Each time, the woman swore she was having a heart attack. I'd check her over." He shrugged. "No heart attack. Just a bid for attention. I mentioned it to Ursula and Ursula said that if the woman had something to take her mind off her solitude, maybe it would do her some good. She had Yuri send for Jan."

  This was news to Ben. He wondered what Heather would say if she knew all this had been arranged. Probably send Ursula roses, he thought with a smile. "He didn't just arrive here for a vacation?"

  Jimmy gave him a penetrating look. "Would you come to Hades for a vacation?"

  "You did," Alison reminded him, walking back to her desk now that the folders had been put away.

  Jimmy turned around to face her. "That was different. I came here to see you. I called my visit a vacation because it seemed less emotional that way."

  Alison grinned. "And we all know how unemotional you are."

  "How long is Jan planning on staying here?" Ben asked. He could foresee some really hard times ahead once Martha was alone again.

  Jimmy thought for a moment before he answered. "According to Ursula, Yuri said his cousin was coming for three weeks."

  Ben glanced at the calendar on the wall, although there was no real need. "It's been almost two months," he pointed out.

  Jimmy laughed. "Yeah, I know. Seems that we've got milder temperatures than he's used to in Russia." He added, "And from what I gather, Jan really does like Heather's mother. The man's thinking of making Hades his permanent home."

  "Sounds good to me," Ben commented. Having her mother in a good mood had certainly taken a burden off Heather's shoulders. And the thought of her shoulders brought his mind around to the way she'd looked the other night in his cabin. Ursula had stopped by with Yuri and Jan and he had taken the opportunity to whisk Heather away for a few hours.

  A few hours of ecstasy.

  Shayne glanced at his watch. They were now officially open for business. "If you ladies are finished talking," he looked from one doctor to the other, "we have a roomful of patients to see."

  Jimmy looked at Ben. "Has he always been this bossy, or is it just me?"

  Ben laughed. "Yes to both."

  Shayne turned around to make a retort, but it was cut short by the sound of the front door slamming against the opposite wall. The sounds of a commotion immediately followed in the waiting room. A child wailed fearfully.

  One voice rose above the rest.

  "I need help."

  Ben felt his heart slam against his rib cage.

  Heather.

  He hurried over to the door that led out into the waiting room, but Shayne was already ahead of him.

  More than a few of the patients were out of their seats, surrounding a very pale-looking, trembling Heather. In her arms, wrapped in a dark-blue blanket, was her firstborn, unconscious and bleeding. Hayley was right next to her, holding tightly onto her skirt and sobbing as loudly as if she were the one who was hurt.

  "I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it," the little girl cried over and over again.

  Shayne cut through the crowd. "What happened?" he asked Heather.

  "She fell off the roof." Even as Heather told him, she could hardly believe what she was saying. This kind of thing just didn't happen, not to her babies. She was always so careful, always laying down the rules for them. But this time Hannah, her obedient Hannah, hadn't listened to the rules.

  "The roof?" Shayne echoed incredulously. Anger creased his brow.

  "I dared her," Hayley sobbed, her voice muffled against the folds of Heather's black and white skirt. "I called her a baby and said even baby birds fly. So she said sh
e could, too. She did it so I wouldn't call her a baby anymore. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

  Shayne looked at Heather, who could only shake her head. The details of what happened were muddied. She hadn't gotten a clear story herself. When her mother had called the restaurant, all she had managed to get out were the words that Hannah had been hurt. Heather vaguely remembered dropping the phone and rushing out. She didn't remember the drive home.

  When she got there, less than ten minutes after the call, she'd found the girl lying in the front yard, hardly breathing and unconscious. Hayley was huddled against the house, crying.

  Her mother was just about to summon Jan to pick up Hannah since she couldn't manage to do that herself.

  Heather remembered snapping something at her mother. It was the first time she'd ever done that. But cold panic had seized her heart. She'd wrapped Hannah in a blanket, then placed her in the back seat of her car and driven to the clinic as fast as she could. Hayley had all but thrown herself into the car as she was pulling out. She'd had no choice but to bring her, as well.

  "Let me handle this," Ben said.

  His older brother eyed him uncertainly. Shayne was the one who always took charge in these cases. "I don't think—"

  "Shayne, please." Ben struggled to sound dispassionate. "I'm trained in emergency pediatric care."

  Making up his mind, Shayne stepped back. "All right, go ahead. I'll be your backup."

  Very carefully Ben took the still child from Heather's arms. "Alison, get the main exam area ready."

  The main exam area was larger than the other rooms. It doubled as an operating room whenever necessary. This was where they performed minor surgeries and whatever had to be done before a patient could go to Anchorage General for more intensive care.

  Heather stiffened. The main exam area was where they had brought Joe when they'd dug him out of the cave-in. Tears sprang to her eyes. The room had seen death. But it had also seen life, she reminded herself fiercely. And Hannah was going to be all right. She had to be.

  As Ben began to walk away with her daughter, Heather shadowed his steps quickly with Hayley still clinging to her. Ben turned just before he entered the room. Heather's face was ashen.

  "You need to stay out here, Heather," he told her gently.

  A sob tore at her throat. "She's my baby, Ben. I just can't abandon her."

  He wanted to put his arms around her. To tell her that it was going to be all right even though he couldn't tender such guarantees. But Hannah's needs outweighed Heather's and he had to think of the child first.

  "You're not abandoning her. You're allowing me to do my job. I'll let you know how she's doing as soon as there's something to know," he promised. He looked down at the sobbing child clinging to Heather's skirt. "Hayley." He made himself sound stern in order to break through her sobs. "Look after your mother."

  The little girl nodded solemnly, using the back of her hand to wipe away her own tears. Letting go of Heather's skirt, she took hold of her mother's hand instead. "C'mon, Mama." She led her toward a chair. The crowd parted around them. "We can wait here."

  Heather felt as if her very heart had been ripped out of her chest.

  * * *

  "She's lost a lot of blood," Ben told Shayne as the latter entered the main exam room less than five minutes later.

  Jimmy, wearing surgical livery, jerked his thumb toward the front of the clinic. "I've got a roomful of volunteers. Say the word and they'll start rolling up their sleeves."

  "Might not be a bad idea," Ben agreed. "Type her," he told Alison.

  They didn't have to take the time to do that. "Her mother can donate a pint or two," Shayne said, beginning to leave.

  But Ben shook his head. "Heather's got a cold. If we do a transfusion, the blood is going to have to come from someone else."

  Shayne agreed with Ben's assessment. Heather had sounded nasal, but he'd just assumed that was because she was crying. "I've got everybody's blood type on file," he told his brother. "Shouldn't be a problem finding matches for Hannah."

  Alison had already made a smear of Hannah's blood and was hurrying into the lab in order to type it.

  "Shouldn't be," Ben echoed, looking at the still child on the table. Despite all of his training, a feeling of helplessness pervaded through him. He struggled to hold it at bay.

  She's going to be all right, he promised. Whether he was promising himself or an absent Heather, or even the little girl on the table, he didn't know. But it was a promise he fiercely meant to keep.

  Hannah's blood was AB positive. Five of the patients in the waiting room who matched the blood type were well enough to volunteer a pint of their blood.

  Surgery was performed as soon as Ben had X-rays to apprise him of the extent of the internal damage. He would have preferred conducting the operation in a hospital, but airlifting Hannah would take time—time they might not have to spare. Despite the X-rays, he wasn't a hundred percent certain what he would find. An MRI would have given him far greater insight, but they didn't have one of those machines on hand.

  Maybe a fund-raiser was in order. One conducted in Seattle amid the people he used to rub elbows with, he thought.

  But all that was in the future. Right now the only thing that mattered was getting Hannah to open up her big green eyes and look at him again.

  And smile at him again, he added.

  * * *

  There was a clock on the wall opposite where she sat. Every time she looked at it, she could have sworn the hands had remained glued in place. Heather had never known time to move so slowly, even as her heart raced within her chest.

  Everyone was being very kind. Jimmy had sent for Ursula. Yuri and his cousin had been dispatched to stay with Martha Ryan, who blamed herself for the accident. Ursula had come to the clinic to console and comfort Heather, giving her a much-needed shoulder to lean on.

  Heather couldn't remember the last time she had been able to lean on anyone. Accustomed to braving everything on her own, she at first resisted the woman's efforts but found herself caving very quickly.

  Though she did her best not to cry, it was difficult not to as she poured out her fears to the postmistress. Ursula merely listened, stroking Heather's hair and letting her unburden herself. Her oldest granddaughter, April, Jimmy's wife, had come with her to take Hayley away. April took the little girl to Marta's where the latter's daughters distracted Hayley, keeping her mind off what was happening at the clinic.

  And still time dragged by as if each second had been dipped in molasses, then mounted on the back of an arthritic slug.

  "I hear he's a damn fine doctor," Ursula told her after she'd sighed again. "Like his brother," she added. "But of the two, Jimmy says that Ben is the more skilled surgeon." Ursula patted her shoulder. "He'll take care of your little girl."

  Heather raised her head from the woman's ample bosom. Her eyes were swollen from crying. "He's not a miracle worker."

  "Miracles come in all sizes and shapes, honey. They don't all involve moving mountains. Don't go selling him short just yet," Ursula cautioned. She patted Heather's hand. "You have to believe," she told her seriously. "Believe with all your heart."

  She was about to say something else, but she stopped abruptly when she saw the rear door open. Ben came out, removing his surgical mask as he walked.

  Heather was on her feet like a shot, but her legs wouldn't work, wouldn't carry her to him. She was afraid to ask. Afraid to breathe.

  "Hannah sustained a number of broken bones—two cracked ribs, her right arm and wrist—and her liver and spleen were bruised. But she came through the operation like a trooper," he told her proudly.

  Her poor baby. "Is she awake? Can I see her?"

  "Not yet," he told her, answering her first question, "that's going to take some time." And then he smiled, more relieved than she could possibly know that he could say this to her. "But she's going to be all right and of course you can see her."

  "Oh God, thank you." Dissolving into a sto
rm of tears, Heather threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you."

  "She's a strong little girl," he told her above the cheers of the other patients in the waiting room. They were all one big family when it came to things like this, and one of their own had just been spared.

  "I knew that," Heather murmured against his neck before she sobbed again.

  * * *

  Inside his office, Shayne pulled out a file from the back of the bottom drawer of his file cabinet. Having given in to Alison's insistence, he had allowed his active files to be input on the computer. In the bottom drawer, he kept the files belonging to the handful of people who had died before Alison had a chance to cajole him into getting a computer to keep track of his patients.

  And that was where he kept Joe Kendall's folder.

  Holding it now, he flipped it open. Joe Kendall had died in this clinic despite all of his best efforts to save the man. The wounds the miner had sustained in Hades's last major cave-in had been too extensive, too massive. Joe never stood a chance. Even so, he hadn't given the man up without a fight.

  Joe had lost over two pints of blood by the time they'd found him and brought him to the clinic. The first thing he'd done after stopping the bleeding was to start a transfusion going.

  Shayne looked at the page where Joe's blood type had been entered. Something had been gnawing away at him ever since Ben had told him the little girl's blood type.

  He frowned.

  Joe's blood type had been O.

  Chapter Thirteen

  They were running behind more than usual at the clinic.

  Shayne had never believed in roller-skate medicine, where the physician would look in on a patient and quickly treat a symptom rather than take the time to get as much information as possible and find out the real problem. A credit to multitasking, Alison ran the technical end of the office as well as performing her nursing duties. She usually scheduled four patients an hour per doctor. But a great many times the visits ran over the allotted fifteen minutes, making them fall behind. With Hannah's emergency surgery tying up both Ben and Jimmy for the better part of two hours, they were running about three hours behind.