Everlasting (Unrestrained 6)

"A sandcastle. You can't tell by looking at it, because each time I put a pail of sand there for a turret, Sophie demolishes it."

"That's my girl," I said and patted Sophie's head affectionately. Then I turned to Kate. "Just to let you know, I got a text that I'm needed to cover a shift at three."

Kate's face changed and I knew she was disappointed. Before she could respond, I added: "I talked to Elaine and you can drop Sophie off at their place before you go to the studio. I didn't want to ruin your plans at least."

"Aww," Kate said with a frown. "That's too bad. I had hopes of us spending five whole days together." She pouted.

"I know," I said and stroked her cheek. "Me, too. But duty calls. It's because I agreed to be really flexible and cover shifts that I was hired in the first place. I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me..."

"Drake, you don't need to ever worry about money," Kate said. "If you wanted, you wouldn't have to work at all."

"I'm a neurosurgeon," I said and shrugged. "What would I be if I didn't cut into people's brains?"

"You'd be a philanthropist and a bass player and a wonderful human being. Isn't that right, Sophie?" Kate bent down and peered at Sophie's face under the brim of her floppy sunhat.

Sophie smiled up at Kate and proceeded to slap her shovel against Kate's latest attempt at a sandcastle.

"My cheering section," I said with a sigh. "We still have two days after today. Hopefully, Wallace will be back to do his shifts tomorrow, although I doubt it. I don't want to have to miss two days with you but we may only have one."

"Can't someone else cover for him?"

I shrugged. "I either say yes or no, and if I say no too many times, they'll find someone else."

"It's not like neurosurgeons with loads of experience are a dime a dozen, Drake."

"I know," I replied, helping build up the sand around the single turret Kate had managed to construct before Sophie could destroy it. "But I signed a contract. I have to live up to my end."

Kate sighed audibly, which made me feel good that she wanted us to spend time together as a family – and as a couple.

"It's really not so bad. We've had a nice two days together, haven't we?"

She smiled. "We have. But I need more Drake," she said, climbing over to where I sat and snuggling into my arms. "I don't get nearly enough Drake."

"Drake is all yours," I said. "Hopefully, tomorrow and the day after. I promise you lots more Drake. Six feet two inches and even more inches of Drake. Tomorrow, okay?"

We kissed and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Beside us, Sophie pounded the lone turret until it fell onto nothing.

I changed into a clean set of scrubs and then kissed both Kate and Sophie goodbye before driving off for my shift at the hospital. My shift was busy, and almost immediately, we were inundated with several head injuries coming from a multiple car accident on the freeway. After we were finished triage and I took my patient to the OR, I spent the next two hours doing delicate surgery t

o relieve pressure on the man's brain. An elderly man in his eighties, he and his wife had been traveling north when a drunk or drugged driver crashed into them and sent them careening into the path of a semi-trailer. There were five cars involved and several traumas due to the high speeds involved.

When the last of the surgeries was finished, we gathered in the staff room and had a break, trying to decompress during whatever down time we had before the next cases came in.

"Your dad was a trauma surgeon in Philadelphia, right?" Pete, one of the trauma surgeons said. "I remember him. He did a lot of work with Doctors Without Borders, right? Died in a plane crash in Ethiopia? He was legendary. He developed these crazy good surgical clamps that we use today."

I nodded and we discussed my father.

"He was really good with tools," I said. "He had his old Lada that he bought from someone who immigrated from the Soviet Union and used to tinker on it every weekend. He always had trouble with that car, but he made it run. He always said that if he couldn't have been a surgeon, he would have been a mechanic."

"He was in Vietnam, right?" Pete asked.

I nodded. "He was."

Our discussion made me melancholic and I missed my father in a way I hadn't for a long time. The truth was that he was always in the back of my mind, but there were few opportunities to discuss him in any depth. Doing so brought out a deep ache in my chest. I was lucky to have Ethan in my life as a father-substitute, but it wasn't the same.

It made me even more determined to apply for joint custody of Liam. I wanted to make sure he knew and felt that I was a father to him. Chris had been a father to him all this time and I knew he was a good father, but I suspected that finding out Liam wasn't his had put a damper on his feelings for the boy. It was cruel if true. Liam didn't know anything different other than Chris was the only father he had known his entire life. I was still just a stranger, becoming more familiar to him as time passed. But I knew I wasn't a father – not yet.

I promised myself that I would become a great father.