“I’m not sure what to believe. But I’m being careful so she doesn’t start to clue her brothers or cousins in. At least not yet. I mean, let’s be honest. If Jolene’s plan works with her, it wipes our hands of it. She’d never suspect us of having a part in that.”
“But she is going to know someone did.”
“Let them get the blame if Jade chews him up and spits him out.”
“Do you really think that could happen?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. That one is going to be tough and lots of fireworks.” He grabbed more plates at the table and helped her clean up. “I’m not worrying right now. We can focus on Wyatt. He seemed off tonight.”
“I know. It was killing me to find out more of what is going on. But I couldn’t ask. Our kids know me as the mom that stays out of it unless I think it will work out. If I started to ask too much he’d get nervous or think I’m talking to Maggie.”
“That hadn’t occurred to me so you handled it well.”
“Glad to know you think I did something right,” she said, turning around. “But you know as well as I do he is trying to find out more about her. So she must not be saying much either.”
“Which will bother him. Those two are going to butt heads a lot. More than Drake and Kara.”
She laughed. “It is funny to see Drake and Kara go at it. But you can see the love in their eyes too.”
“What did you see in Wyatt’s tonight?” he asked.
“Frustration. Annoyance. He was anxious.”
“He’s always anxious waiting for something to do,” Garrett said.
“He is. The question is, what will his next step with Adriana be?”
“Whatever it is,” Garrett said, “I doubt we’ll be privy to it anytime soon.”
26
Worked for Him
Wyatt was walking out of the locker room changed into his scrubs and ready to go. He met up with the doctor who’d called him in. “Is the patient awake? What’s going on?”
Sometimes he’d get called in and didn’t need to meet with the patient prior as they were already sedated or in critical shape and out cold from pain or for their own safety.
“Awake and upset,” Dr. Landson said. “We’ve given her something to take the edge off. The patient has needed to have a valve replacement surgery for months and has been fighting me on it. She kept wanting to wait and see. Her husband said she passed out earlier and they brought her to the ER. After tests, her valve is leaking enough that it can’t wait.”
“Okay, I’ll go in and talk. So she’s eaten recently.” He’d have to explain the risks of food or drink being regurgitated. The risk of her heart valve not being replaced outweighed all of that though.
“They are opening the OR now, so we’ll be ready to go soon,” Dr. Landson said.
Wyatt nodded his head and made his way to the patient. When he got there he pulled up her chart and looked over her history, then introduced himself. “I’m Dr. Fierce and will be your anesthesiologist today. I know this is a shock to you, but we’re going to make you as comfortable as possible.”
“I can’t stop shaking,” she said. “I just want to go to sleep. Can’t you let me go to sleep?”
“Soon. I just need to give you some information and get your consent and make sure you understand what I’ll be doing,” he said calmly and in a low voice, his hand rubbing over her foot under the blanket.
“Give it all to my husband,” she said, starting to cry.
He patted her hand that was out of the blanket to try to reassure her. To be human and not a robot as so many could be in this field. He couldn’t detach himself enough to not care, but didn’t have it in him to be a doctor that saw patients over and over and got to know them personally. He did what worked for him to keep him sane. Being any kind of a doctor could drain the emotions out of you.
“I’ll explain it to both of you. It won’t take long.”
He went through everything, got her to verify her information, sign her name and pulled out what he always called the magic juice. It only made patients happy because they didn’t remember anything. It was more magic to him. “What’s that?” she asked.
“I’m sure you’ve heard it called Happy Juice before.” He started to push it in her IV. “You’re going to feel really sleepy and relaxed very fast. Then you’ll wake up in recovery.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I need it.”
It was the last thing she said before her eyes were rolling back and she was relaxing. She wasn’t out, but she wouldn’t remember anything else.
“I wish you could have done that sooner,” her husband said, standing up.
“I understand,” he said. “We’ll take good care of her. Do you need someone to show you to the waiting room?”
“I know where it is.”
He watched the husband leave as the patient was brought to the OR. When he got in himself he saw Adriana moving around and knew his night had picked up.
The surgery lasted a little over two hours. Dr. Landson was fast. “Don’t go anywhere just yet,” he was told. “I want to make sure things are fine after she wakes up.”
“I’ll go hang out in the lounge until you let me know what is going on,” he said.
He looked over at Adriana when he said that hoping he’d be able to find her. He doubted she’d seek him out in the doctor’s lounge.
Thirty minutes later he was walking around to see if she’d left or not. She might have been told to hang out for a bit too. Must be the ORs were packed if she was called in.
He was just on his way back to the lounge when he caught
