Weekend Fling with the Surgeon

They continued to examine the baby, working, prodding and poking.

Tubes seemed to be coming from every aspect of the baby’s body.

“I still don’t find any evidence of a clot, but her rhythm is jumpy.”

“I’m ordering an inotropic,” she told him, then did so.

Ryder glanced toward a nurse and gave a verbal order for additional medications.

“Ryder!” McKenzie couldn’t hold her cry in when Sawyer’s rhythm took a drastic drop.

But he was already responding, giving the baby a nudge.

Knowing time was of the essence, McKenzie pushed medication into the IV port, then got her intubated.

McKenzie and Ryder stayed with the baby over the next two hours, working with her almost nonstop to insure the tiny heart didn’t succumb to the strain of the excess fluid and ensuing shock.

Once the baby was stable, they transferred her to the neonatal intensive care unit. Kenzie and Ryder stayed close during the transfer.

“I can stay with her,” Ryder offered as they headed toward the unit.

McKenzie shot him an Are you crazy? look. “I’m not leaving, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“You’ve been here all night.”

He knew her on-call schedule? She supposed knowing would make it easier for him to avoid coming around.

“I’m fine.” Mostly, she was. She’d caught a few hours’ sleep here and there during the long night.

“I’ll be here, anyway, McKenzie. It seems crazy for you to stay past your on-call time when I know you’re tired.”

Don’t read anything into his concern. It wasn’t personal. He was just being nice.

Perhaps she was tired, or just cranky, but she didn’t want his nice.

Her chin lifted. “I’m staying.”

Ryder’s gaze narrowed and he studied her, then seemed to accept he couldn’t change her mind. “I get that, just hate that you’re doing so unnecessarily.”

She frowned. “And I get that you’d rather I not stay so you don’t have to be around me, but tough luck. Sawyer is my patient, and I’m staying.”

At her comment, Ryder winced ever so slightly, but didn’t deny her claim.

There wasn’t a need when they both knew what she said was true.

Too bad being here with him, even under duress and when she really should be feeling tired, had her feeling more alive than she’d been in...three weeks.

* * *

McKenzie should have gone home, Ryder thought for the dozenth time. Why had she had to be so stubborn? What had she been trying to prove?

Instead, she’d set up watch in Sawyer’s bay, determined to be close if anything changed on the baby’s status while they waited on test results.

Once Sawyer was settled into the NICU bay and her heart rhythm and oxygen saturation, lower than normal even with supplementation and breathing assistance, stabilized, Ryder had gone to check on another patient, the patient he’d actually come to the hospital to check, but had gotten side-tracked from by Sawyer’s arrival.

Coming back to the infant’s bay, he’d not been surprised to find McKenzie in a chair, half-asleep, but ready to jump into action at the first sounding of a vital sign change alarm.

She didn’t open her eyes at his entering the room, but her breathing pattern changed, so he knew she wasn’t asleep.