From Brooding Boss to Adoring Dad (13 page)

“His heart,” he confirmed. “ASD. Tests are conclusive.”

ASD, or atrial septal defect, was a deformity in the septum between the heart’s two upper chambers—the septum being the wall separating the heart’s left and right sides. Septal defects were commonly referred to as holes in the heart.

“Small, large?”

“The defect itself is on the smaller side, and that’s probably the best news I’ve got right now. It can be corrected by surgery, with a fairly good rate of total recovery, but only after they get all the other problems cleared up in him first. And right now they’re afraid the infection could spread to his heart, which could mean.” He stopped, looked up at the ceiling. “Right now, the biggest problem is curing the infection and preventing it from doing any more damage than it may have already done. Besides that, they have to get him into surgery for the burns because if they don’t he could lose his hands, but the damn surgery is a huge risk in itself, because he’s so sick, and it’s never good to operate on someone with the kind of systemic infection Tadeo has. So.” He shrugged. “It’s not good, Red. Not good any way they do it.”

Erin leaned forward, placed her hand on his knee. “Then we’ll take it one step at a time, and work with whatever comes up whenever we need to. That’s really the only way you can deal with a critical illness because if you think too far into the future, or plan on too many things, you could lose focus on the one single thing you should be concentrating on right now … which is getting Tadeo the surgery he needs for his hands. And I know that sounds pretty frustrating, especially when you’d like to jump right in and fix everything at once, but we both know that can’t happen. So for now we’ll do whatever the doctors think is necessary, and do whatever we have to minute by minute, if that’s what it takes. Trust the doctors, too, because they will take good care of him, Coulson. Uncle Serek’s overseeing
his case, and I trust him with Tadeo the way my father trusted him with me. The way I trust you, too.”

“You’re including me in some pretty fine medical company, Red.”

“Because you deserve to be included there.”

He didn’t reply to that. But he sighed heavily, probably finding it difficult to focus on anything but Tadeo. It was tough, being the parent of a critically sick child. She’d worked with those parents. More than that, she’d seen how it had affected her father, and what she’d seen in him was what she was now seeing in Coulson. Being a doctor made it worse, too, because you knew more, even though you couldn’t do more. Or, in this case, couldn’t do anything but be one of those forced to sit and wait, and pray for good news. “Don’t forget that Tadeo’s a tough little boy. He can fight the odds, and he will once he knows that he has people who love him fighting for
him … you
fighting for him.”

“It’s crazy, how one thing can set off a whole chain of events, isn’t it? I was teaching him how to work on the boat, do some woodwork, maybe help him with a skill that would come in handy later in his life, and now he’s on the verge of dying because of it.” He shut his eyes, leaned his head back against the wall. “Who the hell am I kidding, Red? I don’t have a damn thing to offer the people in Regina. Medical care on a shoestring doesn’t work, and that’s all I’ve got … a shoestring.”

“And a dream,” she said.

“Yeah, well … dreams
don’t
come true, do they? I’m the living proof of that!”

She withdrew her hand from his knee. “The thing is, Coulson, you’re wrong. Dreams can come true, but sometimes you have to work for your dream in ways you’d never expected to.”

“You think I haven’t been working? What the hell gives you the right to say that? Because all I do is work. And look how it turns out. Tadeo may die because of me …”

“Because of you?”

“Because I am a dreamer. I know I am. My first wife accused me of it, told me I didn’t have any idea how to be practical. But stupid me, I thought coming to a place that needed medical care as badly as Regina does
was
a practical plan. You know, operate a nice little clinic, open up a small hospital, get my boat restored. Perfect plan, perfect life. Turns out I was wrong all the way round because I don’t have any of that, do I?”

“So, what are you going to do? Quit? Turn your back on everything you’ve started here and walk away? Wish Tadeo better luck with his next guardian, tell Davion he’s going to have to find another way to get himself to medical school because his
scholarship
has decided to drop out, then go and start a different life in a place without complications? ”

“Sounds a hell of a lot better than the life I’ve started here.”

“You know you don’t mean that. You love that little boy like he’s your own son, and right now he needs you to be his dad. As far as Davion’s concerned, he’ll save lives, be a great doctor who will make a difference in this world. He’s got heart and instinct for it like few people have, and you know it. You want to be part of it—why else would you be saving every penny you make, working every day and every night, just to get him into medical school?”

“You know about that?”

“Davion knows about that, Coulson. You’re not exactly good at keeping your secrets.” She smiled. “He wants you to be proud of him, the way Tadeo does. And that’s impact, like it or not. You’re important to these boys and they’re
important to you, and you don’t have the heart to walk away. Deep down, you don’t even have that secret desire because you’re a true humanitarian. I came here thinking I was, and I was also being pretty pretentious about it. But there you were, doing the good things in quiet ways.”

“Not pretentious. Just stubborn.”

“That, too.” Glancing up at the clock on the wall, she sighed. The wait was so long, so agonizing. She’d never been on this end of it before. She’d been the patient, the doctor, but never the one who was supposed to sit and wait patiently, and she wasn’t doing a very good job of it. In fact, she was about ready to jump out of her skin. “You know, I need to get out of here for a few minutes.”

“Want to go for a walk?”

“You don’t have to go with me.”

“Maybe I need to. I don’t do this very well either.”

“You were reading my mind?” she asked.

“Didn’t have to. Everything shows on your face.”

Erin stared at him. Now Coulson was telling her she wasn’t as good at hiding her emotions as she’d believed, and she didn’t know what to think about that. Didn’t have time to think about it, actually, because as she stood to leave the cramped room, the ominous call of Code Blue burst over the loudspeaker system. Adam and Erin responded instinctively, running out the lounge door and heading to.

“No,” Erin choked, stopping abruptly in the hall when she realized where the other medical personnel were heading. It was to Tadeo’s room. She couldn’t let Coulson be there, couldn’t let him see. “You can’t go down there,” she said, spinning around and physically shoving her palm into his chest to stop him.

“He needs me,” Coulson said, trying to push past her. But she stepped in front of him, three times to be exact. Planted her full body weight down as an obstacle and
shoved him back. But he kept coming right back at her, trying to get through.

“You can’t do this.” This time she shoved him back with both her hands. “Coulson, you can’t go in there! Do you hear me? You can’t go into that room and if you try, I’ll have the security guard remove you.”

This time he stopped. Then he simply stood in the middle of the hall, looking like he didn’t know what to do. “Maybe it’s not Tadeo,” he finally whispered.

“It’s Tadeo,” she said as steadily as she could, even though all she wanted to do was cry. But for Coulson, and for Tadeo, she had to be strong. “They wouldn’t put another patient in a burn room due to the high infection risk.”

“They could have transferred him …”

“It’s Tadeo,” she said again, as much for her own benefit as his.

“How could this be happening?” he asked, his voice so deep in anguish it was barely recognizable. He backed up to the wall, slumped against it, and shut his eyes. Waiting. Forcing himself to breathe. “How could so many things be going wrong? ”

Honestly, she didn’t know. She’d seen that downward spiraling in some of her own patients … that chain of events where one unfortunate circumstance triggered an avalanche. But to see it happening to someone personal to her … Dear God, the pain was unbearable, and the fear overwhelming. She loved that little boy. Not because she loved Coulson and Coulson loved him, but because he’d found a place in her heart she hadn’t even known existed. More than that, she identified with him. He was the abandoned child, the one tossed out, the one who was dying. She’d been that child, too. Been the one just left on that figurative doorstep to die if no one took care of her, or live if they did. Like Tadeo. “It happened because some people are miserable excuses
for human beings,” she said, surprised by the venom in her words. “They’re selfish. Heartless. Contemptible.”

Coulson opened his eyes, startled by the raw anger in her words. He’d seen her through a number of different emotions, but never this. “Are you OK, Red?” he said.

She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’m so angry I don’t know what to do. Pabla … she’s to blame. She threw him away when she could no longer ignore his physical condition. Dropped him off in a nursing home, a place with no children. A place children shouldn’t ever have to live, or even know exists. But she didn’t care about that. It was a medical facility, it assuaged her guilt, and she went on her merry way. They both did. Lied to me, then left me there to die!” She swiped back an angry tear. “They knew I didn’t belong there, in that awful place, but they just.” She looked up at him through a haze of tears.

“They didn’t care, Coulson. All they wanted was to get rid of me, and they didn’t even say goodbye. They just walked away. Said they’d see me tomorrow, and walked away. And I waited, Coulson. For days, for weeks. Sometimes at night I’d think I hear them sneaking into my room to kiss me goodnight, but it was always a night nurse, making sure I was tucked in or bringing me medicine.” She swallowed hard. “You’re not supposed to put children in places like that. The nurses there took good care of me because no one knew what to do with me and Mrs Meecham wanted to find someplace else for me, maybe a foster home. But no one wants to take in a child with leukemia. And the courts decided that because I was already getting good enough care, I had to stay in the nursing home until other arrangements could be made. But the thing is, there were no other arrangements. That was it for me. I had a roof, three meals, my medicine, and that was good enough. Until my dad found me. Until you found Tadeo.”

Without a word, Adam stepped forward and pulled Erin into his arms. “He’s going to have a lot to overcome when he’s better, isn’t he?” he said. “Emotionally, as well as physically.”

“He will get better. He has to. And I’m sorry,” she said, not willing to step away from him. His arms felt good around her. She needed to be here, just like this, with him holding her, and her holding him. Because, deep down, they both knew what could happen with Tadeo in the next minutes. Or hours, if he got past the minutes. Or days, if he got past the hours. “I made this about me, and it’s not. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“But it is about you, because you care for him, and you understand him in ways no one else can.” Adam tightened his embrace on Erin as Serek Harrison stepped into the hall, his face wearing as grim an expression as Adam had ever seen on a doctor.

He wasn’t ready for this. Couldn’t be ready for this. All he could do was hold on to Erin and hope.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Serek started out. He laid a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “I didn’t think we were going to pull him through it, but we did.”

“He didn’t.” Erin started, but couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“He’s not in good shape. Not at all. But he’s still with us, fighting to stay with us as hard as his little body will let him fight.”

Finally, Adam let out the breath he’d been holding for what seemed like for ever. “So what happened?”

“He’s weak, the septicemia got to his heart. As his heart was already weakened from his untreated murmur, it just gave out. But … he’s in normal sinus rhythm now. Breathing on a ventilator but holding his own as best he can. And that’s about all I can tell you at this point. We’re going to
get him into the operating room in just a few minutes and get his hands cleaned up, because until we get at the source of the infection, it’s only going to get worse. Given his current condition, I don’t have to tell you how risky that’s going to be. But we’ve got to start somewhere with him, because his heart surgery isn’t going to be put off too long. Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to take a huge risk in a number of different ways, and do it all within the next day or two … the first round of surgeries and treatments of what I think will be several rounds. And I hate like hell opening him up when he’s so infected, but the only thing I can promise you at this point is that if we don’t, he’s not going to survive another crisis.”

“His guardian abandoned him, so what kind of permissions do you need?”

Serek shook his head. “We’ve already taken care of that. For now, he’s in the custody of the hospital. The magistrate’s concern was for the child first. But, Adam, since you seem to be close to the boy, we do want you to be in on the decisions we’re going to be making.”

He would do that, of course. But he wasn’t sure he was steady enough at this point. It was for Tadeo, though. Anything to get Tadeo through this. “Whatever you say,” he said.

“I say let’s get Dr Freeman notified that the surgery is a go. He’s the best we’ve got, and that little boy of yours deserves the best.”

“Just like I got the best,” Erin said, pushing away from Coulson’s chest to give Serek a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You know how much I love you, don’t you, Uncle Serek?”

“Oh, I know. But I think there are other people who might be needing some of that, too. And one more thing. I talked to Algernon not five minutes ago.”

“Breeon?” Coulson asked.

“Doing well. Baby wasn’t breech. Healthy little boy, named …” he shook his head and smiled “… Algernon Adam Edward. Now, if that isn’t one big mouthful. Mother is fine, baby is fine and the doctor is sounding better than I’ve heard him sound in months.”