Another Man's Child

At Lisa’s nod, the young nurse helped Lisa lift herself from the bed.

“You okay here, or would you like me stay?” the nurse asked as she let go of Lisa in the bathroom.

Lisa swayed on her feet for a moment and then took a step, moving cautiously as she felt the pull from her stitches. “I’m fine,” she said as soon as she knew it was true.

“Feel free to take a shower, then, and call if you need me.” The nurse closed the door behind her when she left.

Lisa was just soaping down in the shower when she heard the door open again.

“Lis? You okay?”

Marcus. “Yes.” Now that you’re here. “Would you mind waiting, though, just in case?”

“I’m right here, sweetheart. How do you feel?”

“Physically a lot better than I thought I would,” Lisa called back. She finished rinsing and shut off the water. Marcus handed her a towel as she pulled open the shower curtain.

His blue eyes warmed her instantly. “She’s alive, Lis.”

“I know.” She wanted to ask him if he knew any more than that, but she couldn’t. Not now. Not yet.

Debbie Crutchfield came in as Lisa was pulling on the loose denim jumper Marcus had brought her, and after a quick look at Lisa’s stitches, announced that Lisa could go home whenever she was ready.

“I’ve ordered an injection to dry up your milk,” she said, as she was signing off Lisa’s chart.

“No!” Sara was going to need that milk.

“It’s going to be quite a while before your baby’s even able to suck, Lisa, if ever. You’ll be miserable.” “I’ll pump six times a day if I have to. My milk will be better for her than anything else once she’s ready for oral consumption.”

Marcus walked over, putting his arm around Lisa’s shoulders. “Will it cause Lisa any harm to do as she wishes?” he asked.

Debbie shrugged. “No harm. Just a lot of discomfort.”

“I have a feeling,” Marcus said, “that the discomfort you refer to will be nothing compared to what it would do to Lisa to miss this chance.”

Lisa smiled up at him. Her knight in shining armor. She could only imagine what this was costing him, being a part and yet wanting no part of the tragic events of the past hours. But he was here for her. Just as he said he’d be. How was she ever going to find the strength to send him away?

Just as Debbie was leaving, Randal Cunningham arrived. The silver-haired doctor gave Lisa a report too detailed for her mother’s heart to handle. Not her baby. How could he just sit there and discuss her little Sara’s chances, or rather, lack of them, like that? Like she was just another case.

Except that, even as her soul protested, Lisa’s doctor’s mind understood that Randal was handling things in the only way he could—impartially, professionally. He couldn’t allow himself to become emotionally involved with his patients. It could mean the difference between life and death, the making of a tough decision that could save a life—or lose one.

And so Lisa listened to the things she needed to know, her mind already jumping ahead to probable crises and ways to fight them.

“Because of the risk of infection, it’s best that only the few personnel taking care of her be near her right now, but I’m not going to tell you you can’t go in there, Lisa. I will ask, however, that it not be for more than an hour twice a day.”

Lisa nodded, realizing the necessity for Randal’s request. But one hour twice a day! It seemed like a prison sentence.

Please, dear God, don’t let it be a lifetime one.

Marcus helped Lisa gather her things together as soon as Randal was gone, putting Oliver’s teddy bear in her lap as she got settled into the wheelchair the nurse had left outside the door. He began to push her slowly down the hall.

“I need you to take me to her, Marcus,” she said, afraid he’d freeze on her again. But her need to be with her baby was too great.

“I know. That’s where we’re headed.”

He wheeled her down to the nursery window and then turned the corner, entering the nursery viewing room. He let go of her chair, and Lisa panicked, afraid he was going to

leave her. She needed to draw on his strength to help her through whatever she might discover when she looked through that window.