Chapter Twenty
For a second, Jess hesitated at the door to the cath lab. The last time she’d been here, she’d seen the floor up close. And Kayla and Scott had needed to shock her to treat her arrhythmia. Coincidentally, those two were working together again.
Jess squared her shoulders. “Someone called for backup?”
“Sorry?” Scott did his trademark impression of a puppy, looking as if she’d yelled at him.
Which she hadn’t. All day she had kept her temper at bay and reminded herself she’d be back at Ella’s side soon. Only seventeen minutes until my shift ends. And Scott was wasting precious seconds of it. “And?”
“The patient had episodes of mild angina, and we suspected a routine case. But the stenosis of his left main coronary is ninety-nine percent.” He swallowed. “I want to attempt PCI but thought I should clear it with a senior attending. Or do you think I need to call cardiac surgery?”
“Let me see the films.”
Scott pressed a few buttons on the tableside control panel to call up the X-rays on the monitor.
Jess studied the anatomy of the coronaries and grinned. Definitely a problem she could solve. “Let’s do PCI. I’ll scrub in.”
“Oh. Do you want to take over?” The sad puppy look was back. Scott had still been a cardiology fellow during Jess’s pregnancy, but he’d started his interventional cardiology fellowship weeks ago and was eager to snatch up as many interventions as possible.
Kayla, who stood half a step behind him, tapped her gloved index finger to her left wrist with a grimace.
Mentally, Jess agreed. It would be so much faster if Jess did it herself. Then she could be home on time. She sighed. But that wouldn’t be fair. “I’ll talk you through it.”
For the next fifty minutes, Jess put all thoughts of Ella from her mind. As they were finishing up, her work phone rang beneath her sterile paper gown. “Can you two manage the rest on your own?”
When Scott nodded and Kayla gave her a thumbs-up, Jess quickly pulled off her gown and gloves and left the room.
She opened her lead vest to fish the phone from her scrub pocket. “Riley.”
“We need to talk about the TAVR schedules.” Dr. Huong had never been one for small talk. “Do you have a few minutes?”
As he was Jess’s boss, the question was entirely rhetorical. “Yes. Do you want me to come up now?”
“No. In thirty minutes.” He hung up before she could answer, as usual.
Jess sighed. No way would she make it home in time to give Ella her dinner. In her experience, a thirty-minute wait would turn into forty or fifty. But getting back on the schedule to perform the most complex procedure in the cardiology department was worth any waiting time.
She slipped off the lead vest and skirt and hung them up. She hadn’t noticed it during the intervention, but her prepregnancy set had fit without chafing. When had she lost weight?
To walk off some of her frustration about the delay, Jess went downstairs to slip out back. Calling the small patch of grass with a handful of trees and shrubs a garden was an insult to her mom’s, but the scent of something blooming in the late evening air calmed her somewhat. As she reached the bench where she’d given birth to Ella, someone was already sitting on it. Jess was about to leave when the woman turned her head. Diana, of course.
She greeted her with a smile. “Hey, Jess. Back at work already?”
“It’s my second day, but it feels as if I’ve been back for a month.” Jess rounded the bench and sat. “And what are you doing here, Dr. Rock Chick? Shirking your duties?”
“Nah. I’m on the night shift and got here early. I tried to sneak in a visit with Emily, but she’s busy.” Diana sighed. “I haven’t seen much of her the last couple of days.”
A few months ago, Jess would have reacted to the lovesick expression on Diana’s face with a smirk and a sarcastic comment, but today she felt with her. “I’m sorry.”
Diana shrugged. “It is what it is. I knew what I was getting into. And when I finish my residency next year, I’ll have better control over my schedule, and then we can sync our shifts. Are you on call tonight?”
“No, I’m waiting for a meeting with my boss.” Jess looked at her watch. “I hope it doesn’t take too long. I still have to pick up Ella from my mom’s before I go home.” She yawned. “Sorry. Driving back and forth to my mom’s place takes a couple of hours from my day I’d rather invest in sleep.”
“Is Ella sleeping through the night?”
“You’re joking, right?” Jess snorted. Diana clearly didn’t have much experience with babies.
“I guess that means no.” Diana grinned.
“Honestly, I’m pretty lucky from what I’ve heard. But you can’t plan on it.”
Jess’s phone rang. Huong again. She groaned.
“Give me another hour. Budget meeting.” He hung up before she could protest.
Jess clenched the phone in her hand. “Does he think I have nothing to do but wait? Fucking idiot.”
Diana looked at her with a raised eyebrow, so Jess explained.
“I need to let my mom know.” She picked up her private phone.
Her mom answered after the first ring. “Jess, are you okay?”
“Yeah, sorry I didn’t call earlier. I’m stuck at work and was hoping for some good news before I called. But it seems I can’t make it to your place at a decent time. It could get late.” Jess yawned.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Why don’t you head home to sleep, and we’ll take good care of Ella. She’ll be sleeping anyway and won’t notice you’re gone.”
Sleep. That was really, really tempting. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Come by tomorrow after work. Or should I bring her
