Caught by the Complicated Doc: Love RX, page 17
“We need to move her inside. Her neck shows no signs of fracture or pain, but she has a huge gash on her scalp. She’s going to turn hypothermic if we don’t warm her up.”
“Hannah, does your neck hurt?” Clark asked, kneeling by her side.
She turned her head and could finally pry her eyes open to look around. Clark was dripping wet, and his teeth were chattering, but so much love and worry filled his eyes as he gazed at her. “Clark? My neck? No.”
Hannah tried to sit up but was stopped immediately by the doctor on her right. He wore a tuxedo, but she recognized him from the earlier roundtable discussion. “Dr. Robarge?”
“That’s right, Hannah. I’m glad you remember me. Hopefully, that means the knock to your head only did superficial damage. We’re going to take you inside to warm up. Your neck doesn’t hurt?”
She shook her head to clear it and show them that her neck was fine. Someone draped warm blankets across her then, and she sighed from the pleasure of something breaking the chill of the night breeze.
“I can sit up and walk,” she said, and Dr. Robarge finally allowed her to sit up slowly. Her head spun, and she struggled to lower herself to the ground again. “Dizzy,” she murmured, praying she didn’t throw up in front of everyone.
“She can’t walk. Her leg is at the bottom of the lake, but I couldn’t take the time to find it,” Clark said, grasping her hand. “Let’s get her inside.”
Why was her leg at the bottom of the lake? Her leg wouldn’t fall off unless the liner filled with water and slid off her skin. How long was she underwater? Strong arms lifted her before she could puzzle it out, and another doctor wrapped a blanket around her.
“Grab Frankie’s leash,” Clark said to Dr. Robarge, who spoke softly to the dog as he followed them into the resort.
“Bridget,” she whispered to Clark, who tenderly carried her in his arms.
“I know you saw the kiss, but it’s not what you think. I love you, Hannah. No one else but you.”
Hannah closed her eyes as her head started to pound and leaned it against his chest. She would have to talk to him but couldn’t keep her thoughts straight. She was cold, and her head hurt so much.
“He’s right,” Kristie whispered into her ear. “He loves you fiercely. Without him, you’d be dead.”
Hannah hadn’t even realized Kristie was there, but she opened her eyes again and gazed straight into his ice-blue ones. His eyes were filled with so much fear and love that she couldn’t look away. All she could do was mouth thank you and offer him a shaky smile before her eyes fell closed again.
Hannah struggled to get her eyes open to see the alarm clock. When she could focus, she saw that it was seven p.m. All she remembered was Clark bringing her home at four a.m. from the hospital with fourteen stitches in her head. Her chest burned with every breath, but the doctor promised that it would improve once she took the antibiotics and prednisone he’d prescribed. She’d fallen asleep as soon as Clark had put Frankie on the bed and snuggled them into him. She was too out of it to argue, but she hadn’t forgotten what she’d witnessed at the dance. Unfortunately, she needed help with everything, so she allowed Clark to come home with her … for now.
Paws clicked on the hardwood floor in the kitchen, and then a scoop of kibble fell into Frankie’s dish. Hannah smiled. Her weenie was never one to miss a meal, even when his girl was in distress. She was thankful Clark was here to care for him since her leg was still drying out in the shower from its dunk in the lake. Some kindhearted soul from the resort, who was also a scuba diver, had donned his gear in the dark and jumped in to save her twenty-thousand-dollar leg from a watery grave. Hannah was grateful because she was too dizzy even to attempt using crutches.
She struggled to sit up, but dizziness overtook her as Clark returned to the room. He grabbed her and held her to his chest so she didn’t fall. “What do you need, baby? The doctor said you can’t use those crutches yet. Remember? You’re too unsteady.”
“I know. I’m dizzy, but I need to use the restroom.”
He scooped her up and carried her to the attached bathroom, setting her down carefully on the toilet. She grasped the grab bar beside the toilet to steady herself. “You can go. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
“I don’t want to leave you. What if you get dizzy? You don’t have your leg on for balance.”
She raised a brow at him. “I will not pee in front of you.”
“I’m a doctor.”
She pointed out the door, and he sighed but did as she asked. She struggled through the motions of something as simple as using the toilet, but she refused to admit he was right. When she was finished, she flushed and called him back in. He brought her a warm washcloth to wash her face and hands and then settled her back in bed. Frankie was already there waiting, and Hannah hooked an arm around his neck and kissed the top of his head.
“I owe you one, little guy.”
Clark climbed across the bed and settled against the other pillow. “If I hadn’t heard him barking, I may not have found you in time. Kristie called and told me what was happening, and I stepped outside to talk to her. I’d never heard him bark that way before. When I reached the dock, Bridget was there. He was so frantic even she was afraid of him.”
Hannah tried to focus on what happened, but all she could remember was the kiss and then a bunch of foggy stuff that she couldn’t bring into focus.
“He never liked Bridget, and you know what they say about dogs knowing the truth about people. I can’t believe you like Bridget. You had me fooled.” She braced her hand on her forehead. She would not cry. Her heart might be smashed into smithereens, but she would not cry in his presence.
“Honey, I never liked Bridget.”
“Don’t lie to me!” she exclaimed as the tears started. She swiped at them angrily. Frankie rested a paw on her leg and his sad eyes said he wished he could do more for her. “I saw you kissing her!”
“No,” he said, running a hand through his hair. Hannah could tell by the tears in his eyes that he was suffering. Probably guilt for lying to her face while shacking up with another woman. More tears fell, and she couldn’t stop them if she’d tried. She rubbed her chest, the pain building there again, too. “Hannah, she kissed me.”
“But you were dancing with her. I saw you.”
“I was,” he admitted with a nod. “Bridget came onto me again, and rather than make a scene, I decided it was easier to have the conversation civilly if we had to have it. If you noticed, I wasn’t holding her close to me or whispering sweet nothings in her ear.”
“Ha!” She pointed at him. “I remember that you were. I heard you say you don’t love me, and then you bent down and whispered in her ear right before you kissed her.”
“No, no. You have it all wrong, Hannah. She told me I thought I loved you because I hadn’t explored the love between her and me. I told her that I didn’t love her, and then I bent down into her ear so she’d hear me when I told her that I loved you, and her eyelash batting and fancy dresses couldn’t make me love an ugly soul like hers. When I went to stand back up, that’s when she kissed me. I’ve done a lot of terrible things in my life, but kissing that woman made me gag worse than anything I’ve done as a doctor.” The shudder that went through him wasn’t forced. It was real. “Did you see me push her away and yell at her?”
Hannah carefully shook her head to keep from rubbing the stitches. “I left when she put her lips on you. It was too painful. I was losing the man I loved, and I had no control over it.”
“I told her she needed counseling and to stay away from work until she was ready to be part of the team. Then I went looking for you. Baby, you have to believe me. I already called Dr. Hampton and the rest of the board and reported her behavior. I was also honest about ours. I told them I love you and I’d leave the hospital before I let anything come between us.”
“Ours? But Dr. Hampton already knew about us.”
“He did, but the rest of the board deserved to hear it from me. Listen to me now when I tell you this. Are you listening?” She nodded, and he took her hand, brushing kisses across her bruised and scraped knuckles. They figured she probably banged them on the dock the same way she hit her head on the way down. “They were all happy for us. Apparently, after the gala at Steve’s, they saw something special between us and had already discussed how to handle the situation should it arise.”
“How will they handle it?” she asked nervously, biting her lower lip. “Especially after what happened this weekend.”
“They assume we’ll conduct ourselves like adults in the workplace, and it won’t be a problem.”
“I didn’t think it would be, but then—”
He put a finger to her lips to hush her. “But then Bridget kept causing problems. I called her father and suggested he help her find someone to talk to about her feelings. I don’t think she’s a bad person, but she’s struggling with something that’s taken control of her.”
“I think she’s lacking any kind of real love in her life,” Hannah said to finish his thought. “She’s desperate for someone to love her, but she’s going about it the wrong way. Bridget used to be so loving and gentle with our patients. I don’t know why that’s changed, but she does need help.”
“I knew you’d understand.”
He held her hands and rubbed his thumbs across the back of them while she closed her eyes and tried to focus on what had happened after she left the room. He mentioned Bridget had been on the dock and that Frankie had been barking at her. Hannah gasped and opened her eyes. “Bridget was there on the dock.”
“I told you that. She was afraid of Frankie and didn’t want to approach him.”
“No, she was trying to get away from him! Clark, she pushed me into the water.”
“What now?” He put his hand to her forehead to check for a fever, and she took it down, holding it in hers.
“I was on the dock with Frankie, waiting for Kristie. Bridget approached me, and I got upset. I told her she’d already taken my man and she should leave me alone. Then I called you both liars. She started shrieking about how she’d make sure you were hers one way or the other, and then I flew backward. She was shrieking, Frankie was barking, and then there was silence. That’s all I remember until I woke up on the grass.”
He ran a hand down his face while keeping his other hand under her little leg. “Baby, if that’s true, Bridget could be in big trouble.”
“I don’t want her to be in trouble. I want her to get help.”
“She tried to kill you!” He sucked in a deep breath and let it back out. “She didn’t tell me you were in the water until I asked her outright. She was standing there with a blank look on her face when she knew you were in the water!”
He grabbed her and pulled her to his chest, being careful of the stitches in her head. She melted into him, his strong arms taking away her pain so she could relax. “How do you want to approach this, Hannah? One way or the other, we have to talk to someone.”
“I can’t right now, Clark. It will keep until morning. I’m too tired.”
He gently rested her back against the pillow and caressed her cheek, his gaze holding all the emotions he couldn’t describe. She saw the pain, fear, love, and devotion in his heart, just waiting for her to accept it again.
“Do you love me, Clark?”
“So, so much, Hannah. I was so afraid I’d lost you that as I swam to the bottom of that lake, I begged the Lord to take me and spare you. You’re my love and my life now, baby.” His whisper was quiet in the room but resounding in her heart as it filled again with love-infused blood. “I would give up my life for you, Hannah. I know that you’re the true healer. You healed me, and I didn’t think anyone had the power to do that.”
“Can you seal that promise with a kiss?”
He leaned in and hesitated momentarily, mere inches from her lips. “Today, tomorrow, and always, Miss McCallis.”
When their lips connected again, so did their hearts. Their love was a bond. A bond she was now confident would never be broken. All the complications in their lives were gone, opening all the space they needed to build a life together forever.
Epilogue
The sun was out on the seasonably warm October evening, but Hannah didn’t mind. She was happily helping some young ladies from Clear Meadows Middle School prepare the ice cream for the patients’ dessert. It was a beautiful Wednesday evening, and five groups of kids from the Stronger Together program were hanging out with her patients under the party tent to enjoy fun, food, and recreation for the annual Clear Meadows Rehabilitation Picnic.
They’d played games, visited with each other near the lake, and then enjoyed a traditional picnic with all the fixings. It was time for ice cream sundaes while the Clear Meadows Community Band entertained everyone with a rousing evening of patriotic music.
The Stronger Together program had grown by leaps and bounds so quickly that not even summertime could keep the kids away. Of course, that might have something to do with the program's new director, Mrs. Harriet Lakeman. The board loved Hannah’s idea to offer their patients outpatient therapy and agreed to let Harriet be the first.
Then, once she had spent more time learning the program, Harriet accepted the director’s position and took it over seamlessly. She ran it better than Hannah could, considering her limited time. Now, six months after arriving at Clear Meadows, Harriet was completely healed and confident on her prosthesis.
Hannah had healed well from her unintended swim in the lake, even if her hair still hadn’t recovered from the fourteen stitches she’d needed in her scalp. That night when Clark promised they’d never be apart, he hadn’t been kidding. He’d returned to his place, packed his things, and let his lease go. Now, he resides at 277 Huckleberry Lane full-time.
As for Bridget, she was no longer employed at Clear Meadows Rehabilitation Hospital. Guilt-ridden by what happened, she’d turned herself in while Hannah was still in the emergency room. To her credit, she accepted responsibility for pushing her into the water. Her jealousy of Hannah was out of control, but she couldn’t live with herself knowing she’d caused harm to someone else. Hannah refused to press charges, instead requesting that the board reconsider her employment at the hospital and asking her father to get her the therapy and help she needed.
Last she’d heard, Bridget had moved back in with her family and was seeing a counselor weekly regarding a traumatic event she’d told no one about until now. Hannah was just glad she was getting the help she needed before anyone else got hurt. Bridget had sent a heartfelt apology to Hannah in June that tugged at her heartstrings, but not in a manipulative way. Bridget was hurting and was asking for forgiveness. Hannah had granted that easily and assured Bridget that putting in the hard work now in therapy would make it easier to put all of this behind her and go on with life. Once Bridget was gone, the staff slowly returned to normal, and everyone started working together as a team again.
Tonight, the patients and their families clapped along as the band played Seventy-Six Trombones. It brought a smile to her face. The picnic was always a lot of preparation and work, but it was worth it for the patients to enjoy the lake and feel like life was normal again. They got to visit with Clear Meadows graduates who had gone through what they had and were thriving. It helped their recovery when they understood they weren’t alone in their struggles and that everyone progressed at their own pace.
Arms went around her waist, and she smiled, accepting Clark's kiss on her cheek. “Frankie is in the office now. He’s not a fan of the tuba.”
She chuckled as she turned in his arms and kissed his lips discreetly. “He has an even stronger hatred for the clarinet. The poor guy. Thanks for taking care of him for me.”
“It’s the least I can do, considering he’s the reason you’re still with us. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” she assured him. He almost vibrated with fear again, and she rubbed his back patiently. “We’re fine now, remember that. From now on, the only person I trust is you.” Clark had been seeing a therapist for a few months to help him work through his guilt, as misplaced as it was, about what happened. He still woke up in a sweat at night, thinking he’d lost her under the water. His terror was improving each month, and she was confident he’d eventually find a way to put it behind them. He leaned in and kissed her again as the band played the final note.
“What a great night to share music and laughter together, am I right?” the band director asked, and Hannah turned in Clark’s arms to face the band again and clap along with the rest of the patients. “Where is Hannah McCallis?”
She waved from where she stood near the tent, and he motioned her to come up. Clark walked her over and stepped back while she finished the walk across the grass to the band director.
“Hannah, we just wanted to thank you for organizing such a wonderful event.”
Everyone started clapping again as she brushed her hand at the crowd. “Actually,” she said, leaning into the microphone. “The applause belongs to the activity director, the director of the Stronger Together program, and all the young people here tonight who jumped in and helped me plan the best Clear Meadows Rehab Picnic yet!”
Another round of applause filled the night air as Hannah pointed out their directors, but they refused to join her. When the applause died down, the band director motioned at the band behind him, who opened into the beginning strains of a love song, which, if she wasn’t mistaken, was Love Like Ours.
She eyed the director, who smiled widely. “We heard from a trusted source that the last time this song played, some miscommunication resulted in quite the situation. Someone would like you to dance with him, but first, he wants to make sure there’s no miscommunication about how he feels.”
The crowd gasped, and Hannah slowly spun on her heel as her heart said her life was about to change. It was right. When she finished the spin, Clark knelt before her in the grass with the light of the setting sun glinting off the diamond ring he held.
