Crushed Promises, page 15
part #1 of Monroe Family Series
“Of course.” Wayne didn't go as far as to smile, but the gleeful light in his eyes was enough. “Don't worry about a thing.”
Jillian couldn't think of anything to say in her defense. Submitting to the humiliating process of giving a urine sample was the worst. Once she'd finished, the two security guards who'd searched her desk, her purse, and her car accompanied her along the route back to the emergency department.
“Wait. I need my purse from my office,” she said in a low voice.
The two security guards hovered in the doorway as she entered the small space. She stood there for a moment, wondering what would happen to her. Where could she go? What could she do? As much as she wanted to call Alec, she shied away from that idea, knowing he wouldn't be thrilled to hear from her.
Especially not under these circumstances.
The security guards sent her curious side-long looks. Did they think she was going to go off the deep end, do something completely irrational?
They didn't find the drugs because she didn't have them. Someone else did.
Being alone had never been so hard. She needed someone to talk to. Someone other than Alec. Lacy? Maybe. After all she'd been to Lacy 's house once for a house warming party. And the charge nurse didn't live too far. Lacy was upset, but so was she. They could console each other. And she also wondered if Lacy would remember if anyone else had been around the narcotic dispensing machine during the timeframe in question.
When she arrived at Lacy’s house, she noticed the nurse lugging a suitcase to her car parked in the driveway.
After parking on the road, Jillian pushed out of the driver side door, and called out, “Lacy? Do you have a minute? I really need to talk.”
Lacy's gaze darted to the street behind her. “No, I'm sorry. You caught us as we're getting ready to leave. My brother and I are going out of town.”
They were? On a Monday? “Just a few minutes? Please? This time it was my password used to steal narcotics.”
Instead of being shocked and horrified, Lacy tossed the suitcase into the back seat and shut the door. “Don't worry, you have an excellent reputation, Jillian. There isn't a single person there who will believe you're taking drugs.”
“Are you kidding? That’s not true. I've been suspended. This is serious, Lacy.”
“I know it’s serious.” Lacey's eyes filled with tears. “I can't talk about this now. You don't understand. I have to go. I have to take Eric and go.”
As Lacy became more and more agitated, Jillian began to understand what was happening. Seconds later a police car pulled up in front of the house, blocking the end of the driveway. A quick glance proved she was right. Alec and Rafe were there.
Lacy was the one who'd taken the drugs.
Chapter Fourteen
Alec couldn't believe Jillian was there, talking to Lacy. He tried to tell her with his gaze to step back and get out of the way, but she didn't move. It was as if her feet had been fused to the cement.
“Lacy, it's over.” He tried to keep his tone non-threatening, especially because Lacy looked as if she might bolt. “We've arrested Nelson Collins and he told us he obtained the percocets from your brother Eric. Which he in turn, got from you. We had you at the top of our suspect list because of how frequently you used the narcotic dispensing machine. And one of your coworkers thought she saw you placing percocets in your scrub pocket.”
To his surprise, Jillian rounded on him. “Alec, there must be something we can do. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for Lacy’s behavior.”
“She's right.” Lacy's eyes filled with tears. “Eric didn't want to give Nelson the drugs. Nelson forced him. He threatened to hurt Eric if he didn't cooperate.”
Alec silently conceded that may have happened. During their interview with Nelson he was quick to point the blame at Eric. Of course the guy had not admitted to blackmailing or threatening anyone. Still, it would be nice to have proof. “You're sure Nelson was blackmailing Eric to getting the drugs?” He kept talking, while maneuvering around Jillian to get her out of the way, but she was not helping.
“Nelson stole the percocets from Eric the first time.” Lacy crossed her arms over her chest as if she were cold. It seemed that now that she'd started talking, she couldn't stop. “I took them for Eric, only because he was injured. Not to sell.” Her eyes flicked to Jillian, pleading for understanding. “Our mother just lost her job just after we moved here and we were broke. I wanted to help Eric get a scholarship. But then Nelson saw Eric taking them and forcefully took the remaining pills from my brother. Then Nelson threatened to get us all in trouble if he didn't get more narcotics. I didn't know what to do. Eric is one of the best players on the team.” Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I just didn't know what to do.”
“It's going to be okay, Lacy.” When Jillian stepped toward the nurse, Alec grabbed her arm. The woman had flat out admitted to stealing narcotics. They would have to sort out the truth from the lies later. For now, he didn't want Jillian to get in the way of their arrest. She tried to shake off his arm but he held on tight. “I promise, Lacy. We'll find a way out of this. I'll help you.”
Tears spilled down Lacy's cheeks. “I'm sorry I framed you, Jillian. I needed time to get away. When Daniel died, I knew I couldn't do this anymore. I never suspected anyone would believe you were guilty. I just couldn't find a way out…”
Alec felt bad for Lacy, but he couldn't let that stop him from taking her in. He hadn't known about Jillian being framed for the theft. Yet it didn’t seem as if Jillian harbored a grudge against her colleague.
Rafe stepped around them and approached Lacy. Before the nurse realized what was happening, his partner had both of her wrists pulled behind her back and handcuffs snapped around them. “You'll need to come down to the station with us. I am sure if you cooperate, the judge may go easier on you.”
Lacy didn't put up a fight. In fact, she looked completely defeated.
A movement caught Alec's attention and he noticed Eric had stepped out of the front door of the house. He kicked himself for not asking Lacy to bring her brother out here. He dropped Jillian’s arm and stepped forward, keeping Lacy and Jillian behind him.
“Let my sister go!” Eric shouted.
“Stay back,” Alec warned. He took another step forward, willing Rafe to get Lacy into the squad. With an abrupt movement Eric pulled a gun from behind his back and aimed it directly at Alec.
He froze. He could have reached for his own weapon, but feared that would only make Eric do something drastic. This kid was a football player, not a gang member. Taking a slow breath, he kept his hands up where the kid could see him. “The violence stops here, Eric. Don't make this worse than it needs to be. I promise we will let your sister go if you drop the gun.”
“Eric! Don't do this!” Lacy broke into sobs. “Stop, please, put the gun down.”
“You heard your sister.” Alec slowly, carefully edged closer to the boy, praying Eric might not notice. “Put the gun down, Eric. We will keep you safe from Nelson. No one needs to get hurt, here.”
“He's right. It's over,” Lacy said, pulling herself together for her brother’s sake. Eric stared at his sister as if unsure what to do. “Please, Eric. It's over,” she repeated.
“I can’t go to jail.” Slowly, he raised the gun. Alec knew what he was about to do before the barrel got close to his temple.
“No!” He rushed forward, grabbing the gun pulling it away from the teen’s head. But Eric didn’t let go. They wrestled for a moment and just when he thought he’d gotten control of the weapon, the gun went off, two shots in rapid succession.
A flash of pain blinded him, blazing a fiery path across his chest and down his leg.
His last conscious thought was of his daughter.
Shannon.
Jillian watched the events unfold as if in slow motion. Upon hearing the sound of gunfire, her heart lodged in her throat. Had Eric been shot?
But then she saw Alec's body going limp, falling to the ground.
“No! Alec!” Hardly realizing she was screaming his name, she bolted forward. In some corner of her mind, she heard Eric crying in the background and Rafe kicking the gun away and calling on his radio for backup, letting the dispatcher know there was an officer down.
She worked instinctively, ripping his uniform shirt open, searching for wounds. Instead of finding flesh and blood, she found the surface of a Kevlar vest.
For a moment she closed her eyes in relief. But then realized Alec was still unconscious. Had the bullet managed to penetrate the Kevlar? She felt along the thick material, finding a crease across the Kevlar made by the path of a bullet. Understanding the force of being shot in the chest at close range was enough to stop his heart, she checked for a pulse. It was there, faint and too fast. Intent on taking the vest off so she could examine the skin underneath, she belatedly noticed a dark wet stain on his uniform, along his upper thigh. With a sinking feeling, she touched the stain and looked down at her fingertips.
Blood.
No. Dear, Lord, please…
Understanding Alec had been hit below the vest, she quickly unbelted his pants and shoved the material out of the way to assess the damage. There was so much blood, she knew his femoral artery must have been hit.
Balling up Alec’s uniform shirt she pressed it over the seeping wound, leaning on her hands with all of her weight to help slow the blood loss.
“The paramedics are on the way,” Rafe said reassuringly. She glanced up at him, noting he'd gotten both Lacy and Eric in handcuffs. They were sitting side by side in the back of the squad. She couldn't worry about Lacy anymore, not now. Her attention was riveted on Alec, who was losing blood at a brisk pace.
Please Lord, save Alec's life, she silently begged as she waited impatiently for the paramedic unit to arrive. Alec needed blood and fluids as soon as humanly possible.
And if they were to save his leg, he'd need surgery as well.
But there was nothing she could do without help. Without supplies. She never felt more helpless in her entire life.
Her faith crumbled as she silently begged. Don’t die, Alec. Shannon needs you. I need you. Don't die. Please, don't die...
When the paramedic unit finally arrived, Jillian continued to hold pressure as the two paramedics started large bore IV’s in both of Alec's arms. She directed them, even though they knew what to do.
“Please secure an airway. Hang the fluids wide open. Get him on the heart monitor.”
As she continued to hold pressure, the paramedics followed her commands, then removed Alec’s vest. She could see the skin was badly bruised, but nothing had penetrated his chest. Then they asked her to let up on the bullet wound in his leg so they could examine the arterial bleed.
Throughout the interminable waiting, Jillian let up on the pressure every few minutes to help encourage some profusion of Alec's leg. Saving his life was the first priority, but if there was also a way to save his leg, she intended to do it.
The older paramedic wanted to use a mechanical pressure device, but Jillian shook her head. “Manual pressure is better. And it's easier with manual pressure to remember to let up long enough to perfuse his limb.”
When the guy looked as if he might argue again, she pinned him with a narrow look. “No. I'm the doctor I'm giving you an order for manual pressure. I'll hold it myself all the way to Trinity Medical Center if I have to.”
“Okay.” The paramedics exchanged a surprised look, but let the issue go. They took her up on her offer so she held pressure on Alec’s leg wound throughout the ambulance ride. It wasn’t easy to balance on the gurney, but she managed. Staring down at his still features was difficult. She tried to reassure herself that he was still alive, but it wasn't easy.
“Call ahead, tell them to have a vascular surgeon available when we get there,” she instructed the paramedic. “Let them know Dr. Jillian Davis is on scene arriving with a critically injured patient with an arterial bleed.”
The paramedic nodded and made the call.
What else could she do? Nothing. Thankfully, his heart was stable, the reassuring beat on the portable monitor helped calm her nerves. Giving fluids wide open, holding pressure and transporting Alec to the hospital as quickly as possible was all they could do to save him.
She remembered that night—had it only been three weeks ago?—when Alec had done the same thing, holding manual pressure over their Evergreen Doe’s bleeding chest wound. She remembered being surprised at how Alec had taken the boy's death so hard. He seemed to take his job very seriously, almost to the extreme of doing whatever necessary to save a life. Maybe it was his medic training.
Tonight, grabbing Eric's gun had been risky. He'd saved the boy's life, but at the possible expense of his own.
The screaming sirens echoed in her head as the ambulance rushed to Trinity Medical Center. It didn't take long, and as soon as the ambulance stopped, the second paramedic jumped out, opened the back door and prepared to move Alec inside.
Still straddled on the gurney, Jillian continued to hold pressure as the paramedics slid Alec out of the ambulance and into the emergency department. Wayne would be surprised to see her, but she didn't care. No matter how she felt about Wayne on a personal level, he was a good doctor.
“Is the vascular surgeon available?” Jillian asked.
“Right here.” She glanced over to see Dr. Travis Smith. He eyed her curiously. “What do you have?”
“Femoral artery bleed from a gunshot wound. He's lost several units of blood.”
Wayne snapped out orders for O negative blood to be given through the rapid infuser. When Travis asked her to let up on the wound, she did.
“We’ll take him directly to the OR.” Travis quickly agreed with her assessment. “Draw a full panel of labs and let's get ready to move.”
William Patterson was already filling numerous tubes of blood. Jillian placed her hands back over the wound to apply pressure. Marianne added blood products to the rapid infuser. Watching the blood being infused into Alex veins was somewhat reassuring.
It was almost another ten minutes, which seemed like ten hours before they wheeled Alec up to the OR suite. When they arrived, Jillian let up on the pressure, awkwardly jumped down from the gurney and stepped back to let the surgical team take over.
She wanted to stay. If she put up enough of a ruckus, they'd probably let her. But she turned away, knowing it was best to let the experts do their job. She wasn’t a surgeon, but Travis Smith was excellent. If anyone could save Alec’s leg and his life, Travis could.
After washing Alex's blood from her hands, Jillian headed back down to the waiting room in the emergency department. When she walked in, she was surprised to find Alec’s parents, Shannon, Andrea and Amber, along with Amber's husband Nick. How they had gotten there so quickly, she wasn't sure. Apparently, Rafe had let them know about the shooting and they must have literally dropped everything to get here.
When Shannon saw Jillian, she broke free of Amber's embrace and rushed over, sobbing. Jillian caught the little girl close and hugged her hard.
“I'm so sorry, he'll be okay. The surgeon will fix his wound. I promise, your dad will be okay.”
As Alec's family clustered around her, including her in their group embrace, crying as they offered silent support and audible prayers, Jillian silently hoped and prayed she was telling the truth.
Three hours later, Travis came to let them know the operation was over. He was cautiously optimistic that Alec would regain full function of his leg, and that the bruising to his chest and heart wouldn't leave any permanent damage.
Shannon, who had clung to Jillian the entire time, visibly brightened. “I can see my Daddy?”
“Not just yet,” Travis cautioned. “Give us a little time to get him settled. He's going to spend the night in the ICU, so we can keep a close eye on his circulation. I don’t want to take the breathing tube out yet. If all goes well, we should be able to remove the breathing tube in the morning. And if he's stable enough, transfer him to a regular room by the afternoon.”
“Thank you, God,” Amber whispered in a heartfelt prayer, clutching her husband’s hand. Then she turned to Andrea and Jillian. “We should take turns staying with him. I can take the first watch if you'd like.”
“Adam will be here soon,” Andrea pointed out. “He was called in to see a patient but planned to come here, afterwards. He’ll want to take a turn, too.”
“I’ll volunteer,” Nick offered with a smile. “We have plenty of medical help here to keep an eye on things.”
Jillian was humbled by the offers to stay with Alec. The Monroe family was really something, pulling together in a crisis in a way she'd never experienced before.
But falling in love with Alec, with his entire family—especially Shannon, didn't change the facts. She wouldn't impose her illness on them. And this was exactly why. If she were in a relationship with Alec, his entire family would rally around her in a similar situation. Her multiple sclerosis would affect everyone.
Shannon most of all.
It was time for her to leave.
She waited until Adam arrived, looking haggard and concerned, before trying to break away. She didn't get very far, because Shannon ran over to grab her hand.
“Are you still mad at Daddy?” The little girl asked her eyes red and puffy from crying.
“No, Shannon, I'm not mad at anyone.” How could she explain why she needed to leave when she really wanted to stay?
“Jillian.” Amber left Nick’s side to come over, a frown puckering her brow. “We'd really like you to stay. I'm sure you'll want to see that Alec is all right. And I know Alec will want to see you, too.”
Her determination to leave wavered. Between Alec’s family and the hopeful expression on Shannon's features, she caved. She couldn't leave the little girl now. She'd stay, at least until Alec was safely out of the ICU.
