Stone Vows (A Stone Brothers Novel) Read online

  I wave at Chad through the glass and point to my phone. He knows what that means. He salutes me in understanding.

  “No. No ambulance.”

  “If you’re worried about the money—”

  “No ambulance,” she says, louder and more insistent this time.

  I blow out a frustrated breath. “Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

  “I . . . you can’t.”

  “Elizabeth, you need to get to a hospital.” I hear her crying now. She’s scared. Maybe I’m scaring her. “Listen, maybe the bleeding will stop once you get there, just like before. But for your sake and the baby’s, you need to let someone examine you. Please.”

  “But I haven’t even paid my bill from last time.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I say. “They still have to see you.”

  “Are you there? At the hospital?”

  “No. I’m on my way. I can be there in thirty minutes. Give me your address and I’ll pick you up along the way.” I hail a cab, wondering if it would be faster to walk considering it’s rush hour. But I’m hoping she’ll change her mind and let me swing by and get her.

  “I’m only a few blocks from the hospital. I can walk.”

  “You shouldn’t be walking, Elizabeth.”

  “I’ll see you there, Dr. Stone.”

  The line goes dead. I try to call her back but she doesn’t answer.

  Chapter Six

  “Hurry, please,” I tell the cabbie after rattling off the address of the hospital.

  He waves his hand at the traffic, looking at me like I’m stupid. “I’ll do my very best,” he says sarcastically.

  Damn it! I remember I’m supposed to start my new rotation today. I check my watch. But that’s not for a few hours. Surely the ER won’t mind if I step in on her case until then. After all, she was my patient the last time she was in.

  Thirty-five minutes later—so much for hurrying—I walk into the ER. Before I even change into my scrubs, I ask the charge nurse where Elizabeth is. She directs me to exam room six.

  When I enter the room, I see she’s been changed into a gown. I also see a sundress draped over the chair. The same damn sundress I followed home from work this morning. Fuck. It was her. I open my mouth to say something, but when I look over at Elizabeth to see her tearful face, I realize she’s terrified and she’s probably already feeling a world of guilt without me adding to it.

  As she’s busy answering questions for the admitting nurse, I pick up her chart to read some notes written by Dr. Redman, who will be my attending on my OB rotation.

  “Do you have an insurance card?” the nurse asks her.

  Elizabeth shakes her head. “No,” she says, looking guilty. “I promise to pay what I can.”

  “Your phone number?” the nurse asks her.

  Elizabeth spouts out the number she called me from earlier.

  “Your home address?” the nurse asks.

  “Uh . . .” Elizabeth shoots a quick glance over at me. “Is that necessary?” she asks her. “I didn’t have to give my address after my previous visit.”

  “Well, you’re being admitted now, dear, we have to have your address,” the nurse says. Then she studies her. “You do have an address, don’t you?” She raises her eyebrows as if to scold her.

  “Of course I do. But . . .”

  Elizabeth looks terrified. I’m not sure if she really is homeless or if she’s just ashamed about where she lives. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want me picking her up. Her hands start trembling and I swear she’s about to hyperventilate. That won’t be good for her or the baby.

  I walk over to the nurse and ask her for the admissions form. I write my address on it and hand it back. “Is that all you need?” I ask her, staring her down so she gets that I want her the hell out of here.

  She closes the folder. “I suppose I can get the rest later.”

  “Yes, thank you,” I say, walking her out and closing the door behind her.

  When I turn around, Elizabeth has her head in her hands, crying. She’s having a hard time catching her breath. I pull the chair over and sit next to her, putting my hand on her shoulder.

  “It’ll be okay,” I tell her. “This really is the best thing for you and the baby. We can monitor you continuously.”

  “I c-can’t af-afford it,” she blubbers. “What am I g-going to do?”

  “You’re going to stay in bed like we tell you,” I say. “You’re going to read trashy magazines and watch hours of mindless television. You’re going to eat crappy hospital food. You’re going to make friends with the residents and the nurses. You’re going to look out your window and watch the world roll by. And after all that, the hope is you’re going to walk out of here with a healthy baby. And that’s all you need to focus on. Not how much it’s going to cost. Okay?”

  Her breathing slows and her hands stop shaking. She nods. “Okay.” She takes some deep breaths. “Can I ask what you wrote on her form that got her to shut up?”

  “They can be pushy,” I say. “I just wrote down my address so she would quit bugging you.”

  “Oh. Do you really think I’ll have to stay until the baby comes? I’m not even thirty-four weeks.”

  I nod, looking at Dr. Redman’s notes again. “Yeah, I think you’ll have to stay. Your condition has become a threat to the baby. We need to keep the bleeding to a minimum, otherwise you’ll have to deliver immediately. The hope is to get you to thirty-seven weeks. That’s about three and a half more weeks. That’s when we consider it safe for the baby to come.”

  Dr. Redman walks in and sees me sitting next to Elizabeth. She eyes my hand on her shoulder and takes in my street clothes.

  “Well, Dr. Stone,” she says. “I see you’re eager to get started on your rotation. Am I to assume you know Ms. Smith personally?”

  I pull my hand away from Elizabeth and stand up, walking over to have a private conversation with my new attending. “No, I don’t. I was on call when she came in last week. I heard she was coming back and wanted to follow up myself.”

  Dr. Redman lifts her brow and steps back to study me. “Brilliant,” she says in her heavy English accent. “Then seeing as you have established a rapport with the patient, you’re elected babysitter.”

  “Babysitter?” My forehead creases into a frown.

  “Yes. She’s your patient now, Dr. Stone. Bed rest patients don’t interest me. Not unless their conditions become life-threatening. It’ll be your job to make sure that doesn’t happen. Are we clear?”

  I nod. I’d heard about her unconventional teaching methods. But . . . babysitter? Surely a nurse can do that. I can see it now; Cameron will have a heyday giving me shit about this.

  “Good,” she says, eyeing me up and down as if I’m an inconvenience. “Get her moved to the floor. And for Christ’s sake, find some bloody scrubs.”

  Dr. Redman leaves the room as a nurse brings in a wheelchair and a plastic bag for Elizabeth’s personal things.

  Elizabeth looks at me guiltily. “Are you in trouble?” she asks.

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “I heard her say you’ve been elected as my babysitter.”

  I laugh. “No. Not in trouble. Just a second-year resident. We tend to get the jobs nobody else wants.”

  She looks down at the bed. “Oh.”

  I berate myself. “Sorry, that came out wrong. What Dr. Redman meant was that your case isn’t bad enough to interest her, so she’s assigning a resident. That’s a good thing, you know. It means she thinks you’re not emergent.”

  She looks up at me and a luminous smile brightens her face.

  Holy shit.

  I’ve never seen anything so captivating. Her bright blue eyes are puffy from crying. Mascara is smudged down her cheeks, but her smile, it lights up the goddamn room. And I vow to do everything in my power over the next three and a half weeks to keep it on her face.

  Chapter Seven

  “I heard you got stuck on scut right out of the gat
e,” Gina whispers to me as Dr. Redman addresses us, along with the three other residents who are starting a new rotation tonight.

  I shrug. “No biggie. I doubt it’ll take much of my time.”

  “Doctors Stone and Lawson,” Dr. Redman says, staring us down. “Is there something more important than hearing about what I expect from you over the next four weeks? An interesting case that I haven’t been made aware of, perhaps?”

  Gina looks at me apologetically before turning back to our new attending. “No, Dr. Redman,” she says. “I’m sorry, I was just asking Dr. Stone about his exciting delivery last night. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “And yet you were,” Dr. Redman says, looking down her nose at Gina before turning to me. “I heard about it as well. You were lucky it all went off swimmingly.”

  “I’d say our patients were the lucky ones,” I tell her. “There weren’t any attendings or senior residents to help so I had to fly by the seat of my pants.”

  “Are you blaming my department for not getting there quickly enough?” she asks defensively.

  “No, ma’am, not at all. It happened very quickly. I meant I was flying solo because none of my immediate supervisors were anywhere to be found.”

  She walks over to me. “First off, I’m not just some lady off the street who is here to teach back-alley medicine. I believe I’ve earned my title and I expect you to use it.”

  I furrow my brows at her. I’ve heard as attendings go, she’s a pain in the ass. But I thought maybe she was misunderstood because she’s British and sometimes Brits get a bad rap for being stuck-up just because of the way they speak.

  “Doctor,” she says. “I’m not ma’am or professor or supervisor. I’m Doctor Redman.”

  “Yes, Dr. Redman, of course. I’m sorry.”

  I resist the urge to turn to Gina and roll my eyes. Misunderstood my ass, she’s a certifiable Nazi.

  “And secondly. If you have an issue with staffing, you need to take it up with the residency director. But as a second-year, I’ll expect you to be able to handle those kinds of situations should you find yourself in the middle of one again.”

  “I did,” I say, defending myself. “I will.”

  “Very well, then. Would you mind terribly if I continue with your orientation?” she says sarcastically.

  “No, ma—” I get a swift kick from Gina. “No, Dr. Redman.”

  “Brilliant.” She walks back towards the other residents. “Now that Dr. Stone has given me permission to carry on, I’ll introduce you to your senior resident, Dr. Anders, who will be your immediate supervisor for this rotation. If she is unavailable, you may report directly to me. But only if she’s unavailable. And only if it’s extremely urgent.”

  An hour later, as we leave orientation with glazed-over eyes, Gina says, “What a grade-A bitch. I wish we could have Dr. George from our last OB rotation.”

  “I think he only gets first-years,” I say. “I’m starting to understand why. I don’t think Red would have the patience for interns.”

  Gina snorts. “Red. I wouldn’t let her hear you call her that. She’d assign you to enemas for sure.”

  “I’ve had worse. If four weeks with her gets me further in the program, then I say bring it on.”

  She studies me. “Have you always been this glass-half-full, Kyle?”

  I laugh. “I guess I have. Why, do you have a problem with it?”

  She shakes her head and wrinkles her nose. “No. I kind of like it.”

  Her stare lasts a little longer than I’m comfortable with. Her eyes rake over me as if she’s looking at me in a new light. We pass by the on-call room and she nods to it before tapping on the charts Redman assigned to her. “Want to meet up later, after we make our nightly rounds?”

  I check my watch. “Sure, if we can fit it in.”

  She smiles. “Page me, okay?”

  She scurries off to check on her new patients. Her four patients. I meander down the hallway towards my one.

  I look down at the sole chart Redman assigned to me, wondering what I did to have her dislike me so much. Redman is older, my dad’s age. She’s a pit-bull. Worse than Manning even. But I can handle it.

  Someday I’ll run my own clinic and have to answer to no one but myself. This is all a means to an end. A necessary road I must follow to get to where I want to be. But as I walk down the hall, breathing in the sterile hospital smell along with the occasional aroma of flowers, I know there is no other place I’d rather be. Redman can kiss my young American ass. Ma’am.

  I walk into Elizabeth’s room and catch her watching ESPN Sports Center. I laugh. “Can’t work the remote yet, huh?”

  “I can work it,” she says. “I love this show.”

  I tilt my head and study her. Then I start to ask her a question but she holds her hand out to shut me up. “One second,” she says.

  I stand back and put her chart on the table. I cross my arms in front of me and watch the television with her as the announcers go over the scores of some baseball games. I’m amused by how her eyes are glued to the screen.

  When they go to commercial, she apologizes for being rude.

  “No, you’re good,” I say. “It’s refreshing to see a woman so into sports.”

  “Why can’t a woman be into sports?” she asks.

  “They can,” I say. “But most aren’t.”

  “Then most are missing out.”

  “I agree,” I say. “I missed out for a lot of years myself. My schedule doesn’t always allow for sports. But I’m trying to make time for them again.”

  “Good. You should,” she says. “Everyone needs something besides work, no matter how important work is to them. Sports are a good outlet. Even if you only watch.”

  “Do you play one?” I ask. Then I motion to her belly. “I mean when you aren’t almost eight months pregnant?”

  “I did a long time ago. But not anymore.” She looks up at the TV and then down to her bed, sad, like there is so much more to the story.

  I don’t want to pry, so I look over at the whiteboard on the wall where her nurse’s name is listed. “Has Abby gone over everything with you?” I ask. “Do you have any questions?”

  She shakes her head and then nods to the fetal monitor on her right. “Abby said I’m pretty much going to stay hooked up to this the entire time. I guess that means I have to get permission every time I need to pee.”

  I laugh. “Yeah, you can’t do anything here without someone knowing about it. I hope you left your modesty at the door.”

  She smiles. “Modesty has never been a problem for me.” Then her smile fades. “Being held prisoner, that’s another thing entirely.”

  I feel for her. Being confined to a hospital room for weeks, or even a month in her case, has its fair share of issues. “Don’t worry, I’ll see if I can parole you from time to time. The hospital has a great courtyard.”

  “Really?” she says, perking up. “With flowers?”

  I nod. “Yes. There are flowers and trees and benches and a cobblestone path. Sometimes I sit out there to eat on nice days. I think they wanted it to have a Central Park feel.”

  Then I look at her hospital gown. I know she wouldn’t want to be paraded around the grounds in it. “Do you have a friend or family member you can call to bring some of your things by?”

  She follows my eyes down to her gown. “No, that’s okay. I’ll just wear this. I think I look good in blue.”

  “You do,” I agree. Never have I thought a hospital gown was anything special to look at. And they aren’t. But maybe it isn’t the gown. Maybe it’s the woman wearing it and the way it brings out the blue in her eyes. “But don’t you want someone to bring your personal stuff over? You’re going to be here a while.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t need much,” she says with a forced smile that lets me know it’s anything but true.

  “You know, I don’t mind going to your place. You could give me a list of what you need.”

  “I’m
good, Dr. Stone. I carry makeup in my purse. Like I said, I don’t need much.”

  Much? This girl literally only has the clothes on her back and the small purse she came in with. My eyes are drawn to her wrist when I notice the chunky metal dime-store bracelet on it that reminds me of one of those house-arrest ankle cuffs.

  “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, Elizabeth, considering I’m your babysitter and all,” I say with a wink. “So how about when no one else is around, you just call me Kyle.”

  “Kyle.” She tries out my name and I find that I like the way it rolls off her lips.

  “Yes. And what should I call you? I mean, what do your friends call you? Liz, Beth, Lizzy?”

  For a second, she looks like I asked her to explain quantum physics. “Uh . . .”

  “Elizabeth,” I say, making my own choice in the matter. “Do you have a home?”

  She seems scared, protective of any personal details. Protective of her name even. She doesn’t look homeless, yet everything points to it.

  “Of course I do,” she says, shifting uncomfortably in the bed. Her movement dislodges the fetal monitor and I walk around the bed and reposition it on her belly.

  “I saw you this morning, walking some dogs,” I say.

  She puts her hands on her round stomach, looking guilty. “I did this, didn’t I?”

  “It doesn’t matter how it happened. You could have started bleeding again even if you’d been in bed all week. No point in beating yourself up about it now. Maybe it’s fate; a blessing in disguise, you being here. It gives you and your baby the best chance at a healthy delivery.”

  “Do you believe in that? In fate?” she asks.

  I think of my friends, Griffin and Skylar Pearce and the horrifying experience they had to go through to get where they are today. I think of the chance meeting that brought Chad and Mallory back together after nine years apart.

  I nod. “Yeah, I think I do.”

  Her lips fold together thoughtfully. “So, you think the things we go through are all just a way of getting us to where we need to be?”