Mount Mercy

“Will my parents be here when I wake up?” asked Rebecca.

My chest contracted. The poor kid. “I’m sorry. The snow might last a while. But they’ll be here as soon as they can.

She suddenly grabbed my hand. “But you will be, right?”

I blinked down at her and started to say something, but there was suddenly a huge lump in my throat. “Of course,” I managed.

“Count backwards from ten for me,” said Lina.

I sat there in silence as Rebecca counted, that protective urge welling up in me again. She’s my responsibility. I was the world’s least suitable person for the job. I have no idea how to be a mom! But I knew I’d better figure it out fast because, for as long as we were cut off, I was the closest to a mom she had.

“She’s under,” said Lina.

I swallowed and looked down at the sleeping face with its blonde curls. I don’t normally get to know my patients. I meet them for maybe a minute or two before the operation. This was going to be like operating on my own child.

“Amy, you okay?” asked Krista.

I nodded. “Fine,” I said, my voice tight. “Let’s do this.”

* * *

Four hours later, I staggered out of the OR. Krista slapped me on the back but I was too mentally exhausted to do more than nod and weakly pat her. Holy shit. The operation had gone perfectly but I’d had to work with all those new feelings flooding through me. Rebecca would be fine, but I was an emotional wreck.

I tried to call her parents to give them an update, but the hospital phone had no dial tone. I ventured downstairs to the ER in case it was just our floor, but when I got there, I found Maggie talking to Bartell. “Every phone’s dead,” she was telling him. “And it’s not just us. I walked down the street and the whole town’s the same. The wind must have brought down the phone lines.”

I hurried off towards the locker room to get my cell phone. Then had to pull up short when Corrigan stepped out of an exam room, right into my path. We came to a stop with our sneakers touching, my breasts a hair’s breadth from brushing his chest. I opened my mouth to apologize, but when I looked up and saw his face, that was forgotten.

He looked exhausted. His scrubs were soaking wet in places and there was still a little snow in his hair. But he looked happy. Not that fake, loud happiness he’d shown at the bar, his party persona. He looked satisfied. Fulfilled. For just a moment, that sadness I always saw in his eyes was gone. “What happened to you?” I asked.

He sighed and grinned. “A lady pulled up right outside the doors. Went out to see why she wasn’t getting out of her car, turned out she was nine months pregnant.”

I caught my breath. Obstetrics was shut down! Everything was shut down! “What happened?”

A baby’s cry came from the exam room. “Well, she’s not pregnant anymore.”

Now I knew why he looked so happy. A stupid grin broke across my face. “You delivered it?”

“Taylor helped.” He kept looking towards the exam room and his grin matched mine. The baby’s cry died away and it sounded as if it was feeding. Corrigan’s grin grew even wider.

Emotion welled up inside me, hot and powerful. It was something about the look on his face, the fact he could be so big and strong and still be so...doting. And between that and what had happened upstairs with Rebecca, I suddenly felt a wild rush of hormones. He’d make a great father.

“You okay, Beckett?”

I realized I was staring. “Yep.” And I told him about Rebecca coming through the operation well, and wanting to call her folks.

He reached into his pocket and handed me his cell phone. “Use mine.”

I thanked him and got out of there before I did anything else weird. What’s wrong with me? Ever since I’d met him, I was discovering whole new parts of myself. I’d never wanted kids before because I didn’t think I’d make a good mother. But now….

I shook my head and called Rebecca’s folks, who were still stuck in a motel waiting for the roads to clear. Her mom broke down when I told her that Rebecca had had another operation, but I managed to reassure them that everything was okay. “We’ll monitor her closely, but she should be fine. She may need an operation on her kidneys at some point, but that can wait until we can get her to a specialist unit.”

“God bless you, Doctor Beckett,” said Rebecca’s mom with feeling.

“You’re welcome,” I managed. I wasn’t used to this stuff. I stayed in the OR so I didn’t have to meet patients. I was starting to see how much I’d been missing out on.