Page 12 of The Holidays with Dr. Mitchell
“Oh, you know how we operate,” Cam laughed, “but I don’t think tonight is the night to give Jake shit for anything.”
“Oh, no,” I said, not liking the change in his tone. “Did he lose a patient?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “After Jessa called and told me you were on your way, I tried to get ahold of Jake. I mean, it’s obvious that we’re hit and miss with availability when working on-call shifts, but Jake just texted back for me to take care of Kaley.”
“Damn it,” I said, folding my arms and wishing I could be there for my husband right now. “He never does well when he loses someone, even if they aren’t a regular patient.”
“Dr. Stone was with him. He’s the one who told me when I was in the cafeteria getting a coffee. It was a pretty tragic one due to the family’s situation. I don’t know much, but I’m sure Jake will tell you.”
“Well, maybe a little light-hearted humor about what his daughter did tonight will help ease the pain he must be feeling,” I said.
“Yeah, probably,” he nodded. “I just wanted to let you know. You can go to the cardiac wing and check in. I’ll goof around with the kids if you’d like?”
“I’ll leave him with his medical team,” I said. “I don’t want to distract him any more than he already is. I’m thankful you told me, though.”
“Not a problem,” Cam said, and then the intercom paged Dr. Brandt to an emergency operating room. “It looks like this night is just getting started, and that’s my cue.” He hugged me quickly, “It’s good to see you and the kids, Ash.”
“You too, Cam,” and with that, Cameron was out the door in a flash.
Being called into a life-saving emergency in the pediatric unit was never a good thing. Nothing was worse than having a sick or injured child, and I hoped to my core that Cameron’s patient would be okay. One thing I knew was that whoever was on the table would get the best care available since Cameron was on-call.
It brought to mind Jake’s patient and how I’m sure their family didn’t wake up this morning and expect to lose a loved one. I suddenly felt overcome with gratitude that the reason for my visit was silly instead of serious. I suppose we all take things for granted when life is going well, especially our health. That was something I’d gotten a crash course in when I found out I had cancer, and it was a lesson I would be remiss to forget.
Tonight, I was grateful that nothing serious had happened to either of my children. I walked out and saw them happily playing with the toys they’d carefully selected from the toy chest, and my resolve not to take them to McDonald’s on the way home faded. Why the hell not? A happy meal might be the perfect way to heal jellybean trauma.
CHAPTER 7
Jake
It’d been a week since my daughter shoved half a dozen jellybeans up her nose, and the fact that I was clocking time by this incident was truly pathetic. I’d gotten a mountain of shit for it from everyone around me, but I expected nothing less.
“Dr. Mitchell,” my nurse said, walking through the opened door of my office, “there’s a delivery for you?”
I frowned. “Are the monitors I requested finally here?” I questioned.
“It’s a bouquet of?—”
“Hey gorgeous,” Collin said, walking into my office carrying a candy-filled jar wrapped in cellophane with a large blue bow. “Got you a little something since I haven’t seen you since you lost the patient last week.”
“Thanks, Jackie,” I said. “Would you mind keeping an eye out for those monitors? I’m afraid they might end up on the wrong floor.”
“No problem. I’ll ask admin if they know anything,” she said.
“You’re the best,” I said as she rolled her eyes, waved her hand at me, and walked down the hall.
I looked at Collin, standing there like a party clown who’d come bearing gifts. “Thanks, buddy, but you brought that to the wrong recipient,” I said, leaning back in my office chair and running my hands over my face.
I was so fucking tired. I’d felt like this since I lost my patient in the ER the night that Ash brought Kaley in to have Cam extract the jellybeans from her nose.
“Kaley didn’t laugh when I told her I had a side business growing candy from my nose,” he chuckled and sat in the chair across from my desk.
“Yeah, well, I think she’s scarred for life from the total humiliation she suffered after her ER fiasco. You know our kids can’t handle being teased and pranked like we can,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him.
Collin rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He seemed to be in a great mood when he walked in, but I’m sure my lack of amusement was taking the wind out of his sails.
“Come on, Jakey. Are you still wearing the G-string Ash likes when you two get kinky, or are you just being a dick because you enjoy it?”
I smiled. “That thong rides up too high when I wear my slacks,” I half-laughed, knowing I was just edgy because it had been a long week.
