A Child to Heal Their Hearts

“I’m really sorry about this,” Keera said, feeling the need to apologize over and over because of what she was doing to Reid and his camp. It was an inconvenience at very best and a danger at worst.

“She’s sick. Bringing her all the way out here might not have been my first choice, but it’s a difficult situation. Can’t say I understand your decisions, but I’m not going to argue about them. So why the worried look?”

“I’m still concerned about exposing the other kids. I didn’t think about that before I came here, and I feel terrible.”

“See, the thing about being a pediatrician is you’re always in contact with something that’s highly contagious. In my office, I actually have separate waiting areas for kids with something catchy, as I like to call it. They never go to the general waiting room, never come near one of the other kids. Bottom line, I’m cautious and it works. So does the fact that we’re surrounded by the great outdoors so there aren’t any environmental factors that would help promote exposure.”

“You sure?”

He nodded, smiled. “Sure.”

“Do you have a solution for my fear of children as well?”

“Afraid of children, yet you’re a good doctor.”

“Definitely afraid of children. Don’t know what to do for them, or with them. I was a nervous wreck every time I had to rotate through Pediatrics when I was a resident.”

“Somehow I don’t picture you being a nervous wreck about anything.”

“I appreciate the compliment, but I’m serious about children. They’re not my strength. Speaking of which, there’s something you should know about Megan. And it’s not really her so much as the whole situation. But only because you’re her doctor.”

He motioned Keera to the door. “Tell me as you walk me out.”

She did, then stopped at the door as he stepped out into the night. “Without dragging out all the dirty laundry, what you need to know is that Keera is the child my husband conceived with another woman while he and I were still married, still going through the motions that made it look like a good marriage. We had our share of problems, like all couples do, but I didn’t know he was cheating on me. Didn’t even know his affair produced a child until she was a year old, and he was wanting out of our marriage so he could invest himself fully in his other family. That was a year ago. Haven’t seen him since except across the table at the lawyer’s office. And I’d never seen the child until...”

“Yet here you are with her, going above and beyond the call of duty to get her what you think is the care she needs.” Reid whistled quietly. “I’d say that’s pretty admirable in an uncomfortable situation.”

“It is uncomfortable. The authorities brought her to me...well, I’m not really sure how that worked out because once I realized they intended to leave her with me the rest of it turned into a blur. But there were some papers in the car—it was a car crash that killed them—and my name was on the papers. Papers from before we were divorced, I think.

“Anyway, the child was fine, so they brought her to me because they believed she was mine. Then they more or less coerced me into keeping her because they didn’t have a place to put her for various reasons, she got sick, here I am...”

Reid laid a steadying hand on her arm. “And here you are, frantic.”

“I’m sorry. In surgery I’m in control. But with Megan?” She shrugged. “It’s hard, Reid. And I really don’t have the right to be burdening you with all this. I wouldn’t have, except she got sick and...”

“And you fixated on me as your solution.”

“Not my solution. Megan’s solution. You’re her doctor. Which is a lame reason for me showing up here the way I did, but I panicked because my alternative was to take her to the hospital, and as a place to work it’s fine, but for a child...” She stopped explaining. “So, how are we going to deal with all these problems I’ve created for you?”

He chuckled. “Minor glitches.”

“I wouldn’t call them minor as it involves more than I ever expected. I mean, tying up your infirmary, keeping you away from your daughters. And your...wife?”

“No wife. Never married. Adopted daughters. Long story.”

“Well, whatever the case, I haven’t made things easy for you here, so...”

“So, that donation you mentioned?”

She nodded. “Happy to do it.”

“Money’s always great, but I’m thinking about some clinic time while you’re here. That way I can sneak off and see my girls.”

“I’m all for you getting to spend time with your daughters, and I’ll do anything I can to help make that happen. But seriously? You want me working with your kids after what I just told you?” It was probably the most uninspired thing he could have suggested.

“Think of them as future adults and you’ll be just fine.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I simply hired a temp to come help you? Two temps, three. However many you need?”

“But you’re going to have to stay here with Megan anyway. Or were you thinking about leaving her here with me and vanishing into thin air?”

She smiled an especially guilty smile, because that thought had crossed her mind a time or two. “Not thin air. I’m too easy to track down.”

“But she’s a ward of the state, and you, apparently, have been given some sort of temporary custody. Which means you can’t just walk away from her. At least, I wouldn’t think so. And I don’t think you’d do that anyway, otherwise you’d have taken her to the hospital in the first place and just left her there.” He grinned. “Or left her on my doorstep when you had the chance.”

“OK, I’ll admit it. Leaving her here might have crossed my mind...”

He chuckled. “You’re too transparent, Keera.”

“And you’re too perceptive, Reid. But I meant what I said about children. So if you still want me to work with your kids here, knowing what you know about me, I’ll give you a couple of days as I’m the one who messed you up. You’ll have the right to terminate my services, with no notice, though. Just thought I’d throw that in there for your protection.”

“What happens if you discover you don’t mind working with children? Or, better yet, even like it?”

“I’ll return to my blessedly all-adult practice with the memories. But you’re not converting me, Doctor. If that happens, I’ll concede a slight change of heart after the ordeal is over, if I have to—which I don’t expect I will have to do. But that’s all you’ll get from me.”

“OK, then. Now that the ground rules are established...”

“What ground rules?”

“The ones where I’m going to work super-hard to change your mind and you’re going to fight me off every step of the way.” He smiled, mimicking a gauntlet sliding over his right arm. “You threw down the darned gauntlet, so don’t blame me for picking it up and seeing what I can do with it.”

She couldn’t help it. She liked this pediatrician, in spite of his choice of medical specialties. Liked his humor, liked his rather frazzled look. In fact, while the prospect of children underfoot didn’t exactly appeal to her, spending a few days with Reid underfoot suddenly seemed like a nice way to pass time that would have been time lost in books and sleep. He was cute.

“Fine, I’ll do what I need to do. But I wouldn’t be putting on that other gauntlet just yet.” To honor the deal, she extended a hand to him then had to bite her lower lip to keep from gasping when he took it, as the smooth feel of his skin on hers ignited a spark that arced all the way up her arm.

“So, about that IV...” he said, rather reluctantly. “Let me run over to the dorm for a minute then I’ll be right back. In the meantime, maybe you could check over supplies. I’ll start the IV as you don’t do kids and you could get everything ready.”

Backing his way down the steps, he only turned round when he’d reached ground. Or maybe he lingered. In her mind, the uncertainty she saw there most certainly had to be over his routine gone horribly wrong, but she wished it could have been more. And while she wasn’t open to a relationship of any lasting sort, a nice flirtation from time to time wasn’t off her list. Except this man ran a camp for kids, and he had kids of his own—a reality that slammed her back to earth in a fraction of a breath as she went looking for IV supplies.

But a little while later, after his round of goodnights had been said to his daughters, and as she watched him skillfully master the insertion of an IV catheter into such a tiny vein, she was almost changing her mind again. No flirting allowed! Admire the man, admire his skill. Every bit of this was trouble and if she was smart, she’d turn round, go home and hire him some temps.

But she wasn’t smart. Not about the kinds of things going through her mind, anyway.

* * *

“You don’t spend much time away from them, do you?” Keera asked, catching Reid staring out the door at the cabin where the girls were sleeping. Megan was tucked in for the night, resting as comfortably as she could under the circumstances.

“Try not to. I mean, I work, have to take call when it’s my turn. But I have fantastic friends who look after them at home, which makes life easier for me. And now, even when they’re here at camp, in the dorm, I can visit them when I want.”

“If you want to be free to go over there whenever, I can spend the night with Megan.”

“That’s not it. I know they’re safe, and just a few hundred yards away. But I’m over-protective. Can’t help it. Emmie had leukemia when I adopted them. She was a little over two and Allie was still a baby. Their mother...” He shrugged.

“I never really knew what happened. Apparently, she brought Allie into the world so her umbilical cord stem cells could be used in treating Emmie. They’re only half-sisters, but the match was perfect. Their mother—her name was Maria—stayed around long enough to see that Emmie was responding to treatment, and then one day she didn’t come to the hospital. I’d heard she’d come here seeking medical care for Emmie, and once she’d found it she’d gone home to Mexico, but I really don’t know.

“Anyway, after that...” He shrugged. “Emmie improved, Allie was placed in foster-care for a while, but there was always a thought that if the stem-cell therapy failed, there was still potential for a bone-marrow transplant, with a sibling donor. So, Allie was brought back to the hospital to stay, and that’s where I met the girls, actually. Allie wasn’t sick but she was put on my service to care for.”

“And you adopted them?”

“It became legal six months ago. But I’ve had them for nearly four years. Because they had to stay together, and because of Emmie’s leukemia, they weren’t considered highly adoptable. Then the restrictions for adopting parents were huge because of the medical considerations. One thing led to another and I took them. I don’t regret it.”

“And Emmie, is she in remission?”

“I like to think of it as full recovery because she’s so healthy now. But, yes, she’s in remission. We’ve got one more year left before we can celebrate her recovery.”

“Lucky girls,” Keera commented.

“Lucky me. They slowed me down, forced me to look at life differently. I was on a pretty self-destructive path, indulging in just about every unhealthy kind of lifestyle habit there was. Smoking, fast foods three times a day, little to no sleep, amphetamines when needed. But when you have kids, you have to be...better.” He smiled. “Or else they’ll beat you down to a bloody pulp and walk all over you.

“Anyway, we have some choices here. The camp doesn’t wake up for several more hours so, like I said earlier, you can go find the guest cabin and take advantage of the time while I stay here. Or you can stay with Megan while I take advantage of the next few hours. Your choice.”

“My choice would have to be the noble thing, wouldn’t it?” she said as she headed back into the clinic. “So save whatever’s left of the night, and I’ll be fine in one of the infirmary beds. Besides, I think it would be better if I stay closer to her because if she wakes up there’s a chance she’ll remember me.”

“No arguments here. So, there are clean scrubs in the supply closet. Feel free to use the kitchen in the back of the infirmary and help yourself to tea, coffee, anything you want. And if you need me...” He held up his cellphone. “Or lean out the window and shout. I sleep with my windows open, and I’m a light sleeper.”

“Literally?” she said, grabbing a pair of scrubs from the closet then pulling the curtain around the bed next to Megan’s to afford herself a little privacy while she changed.

“Dad training is good for a lot of things,” he said.

Megan’s response was to whimper then turn on her side. Keera’s response to that was to sit down on the edge of the bed next to Megan, lay her hand gently to her cheek to feel for a temperature then go immediately for a cold compress.

Reid, on the other hand, stood back and watched. Then decided that for someone who didn’t like children, and who claimed she didn’t have a way with them, Keera had a way with them. A very nice way, when her guard wasn’t up.

* * *

One o’clock, two o’clock, and now it was going on three and he hadn’t gone to sleep yet. In fact, he wasn’t even sleepy. Which was highly unusual, because most of the time he was worn out by the time his head hit the pillow. His head had hit the pillow at least twenty times in the past three hours, but hadn’t stayed there. All because Dr. Keera Murphy, the avowed child-hater, was next door, and she was all he could think about. Pretty, with her coppery long hair and her green eyes. Feisty with her opinions. But compassionate, in spite of her blustery no-kids-allowed attitude.

He’d seen the way she’d held Megan, and protected her. He’d heard the way she comforted her. Nothing about that showed any kind of dislike for the little girl, so he wondered why the attempt at an outward persuasion against children when he didn’t believe that was her inner feeling.

We all have our fears, he reminded himself, returning to the bedroom window for at least the tenth time to look over at the infirmary, to the single light shining inside it. Fear. Such an immense word. His biggest fears were for his daughters. Always. And specifically for Emmie’s health. What were Keera’s fears?

He wondered about that as he thought back over the years, back to a time when his own life had been fearless. Or, as some might describe it, stupid. Actually, as he might describe it now that he’d grown up. He’d been typically bachelor-selfish, making his various conquests along the way. Doing nothing so different from the majority of hotshot interns and residents. Bad life, bad attitude, all changed for the love of two little girls.

And out of that love had grown his fears. But he wouldn’t trade what he had now for anything from his old life because even now, thinking about the way he’d been made him shudder.

Or was he shuddering because he could see the silhouette of Keera in the infirmary? She was awake, like he was, and standing at the window, too. Looking over at him perhaps?

CHAPTER THREE

“I’VE GOT YOU set up in the guest cottage,” Reid said, giving Keera a gentle nudge.

Keera opened her eyes, looked up and there he was, looking down at her, almost as disheveled as she felt. “What time is it?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes, trying to focus, and hating the fact that the sun was already up to remind her she’d only gone to sleep a little while ago.

“Going on to eight. Did you sleep well?”

“Like a baby. For three hours. Megan had a restless night. She kept waking up, calling for her mommy.” She glanced over at the child, who’d finally gone to sleep after several fussy intervals. “And she was spiking a pretty high fever for a while, which finally broke around four. Poor thing was miserable.”

“Well, there’s a nice shower waiting for you in the guest cabin, if that’ll make you feel any better.”

“If there’s a bed in the shower, that’ll be perfect.”

“I don’t know about you, but I used to have nights when three hours of sleep were a blessing.”

“Back in my residency,” she said, sitting up and stretching. “Which, thankfully, has been over with for a while. And my hospital had a very strict policy with its surgical residents about taking care of ourselves. If we came in and looked the least bit tired or sluggish, we’d get bumped out of the OR and they’d put us on chart duty and paperwork for the entire shift. Once or twice doing that and you learned to get your sleep.”

“You were lucky, then. Where I did my Pediatrics residency, they were so short-staffed we were always tired and sluggish.” He smiled. “Makes for a better story than well rested and perky, doesn’t it?”

Keera laughed. “Want to hear about all the paper cuts I got the first time I had to spend a day on chart duty?”

“Good try,” he said, holding out his hand to pull her out of bed. “But I can top that with the time I worked thirty-six hours straight in the middle of a blizzard, and I was the only pediatrician in the hospital. Didn’t even get a nap in.”

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, then stood, and immediately brushed her hair back from her face. “Yes, but did you get physically wounded, the way I did? Paper cuts can get infected, you know.”

“Do leg cramps, aching feet and a sore back count?”

“Six paper cuts, Reid.”

“And the only food available the whole time was from a vending machine.” He smiled. “Can’t top that, can you?”

“Yuck. Vending machines? Seriously?”

“Nothing but snack cakes and candy bars and potato chips for thirty-six hours.”

“Enough!” she said, holding out her hand to stop him. “You win. I can’t top that because we had a catering service...even though I was barely able to hold a fork to eat my shrimp Louie salad.”

“You just don’t give up, do you?” he asked, leading her to the tiny kitchen in the rear where a fresh pot of coffee was awaiting her.

“Where I come from, giving up came with serious side effects,” she said, pouring a cup for Reid first then one for herself.

“And where would that be?” he asked lightly.

“The streets,” she said, quite surprised how that had slipped out so easily. Normally that was a piece of her life she didn’t put out there for other people to know about. Too often they judged or pitied her. Gave her funny looks or were wary. None of which she wanted. “Growing up was rough. My mother and I had a hard time sometimes,” she said, then took a sip. “I made it through, though, probably because I’m too stubborn to give up.”

“Then I’d say stubborn suits you.”

“Most of the time,” she conceded. “Look, I need that shower you mentioned.”

“Take all the time you need, as long as it’s not longer than an hour. I’ve got clinic this morning after breakfast, and the kids will start lining up in about an hour. So I can watch Megan only until then.”

“Clinic?”

“We do basic checks, vital signs, that sort of thing, just to make sure we’re not wearing them out. Most of the kids are in early remission or recovery, and they’re not always the best judges of how they feel, so we keep a pretty close eye on that.”

“I could do that if you want to stay here for a while and rest, because you look about as strung out as I feel. And as that’s my fault, the least I could do is some of your work.”

“Sounds like an offer I shouldn’t refuse,” he said. “You take the clinic, and I’ll stay here with Megan, get some paperwork done, do a supplies inventory, answer some long-overdue e-mails from parents interested in sending their kids to camp here.”

“Do you have more than one session a year?”

“Actually, we run eight, various ages and stages of recovery.”

“And you personally oversee them all?”

He shook his head. “I oversee the one Emmie attends. Which will probably change in another year or two when she’ll be old enough she doesn’t want Dad hanging around her all the time. For the other sessions I have some of the best medical help in the country come in.” He smiled with pride. “People are generous.”

“I’m impressed.”

He shrugged off the compliment. “Kids need to be kids, no matter what their medical condition. Camp Hope simply facilitates that.”

“And you’re too modest.”

“Not modest. Just grateful something like this worked out in my life. Like I told you, I was a real screw-up before the girls.”

“Then good for the girls for bringing out all the potential in you. Anyway, let me go grab a quick shower then...what, exactly, will I do in clinic?”

“Vitals, a few meds.”

“Anybody on chemo?”

“No, we don’t do chemo here. Our kids have, for the most part, already gone through that stage a time or two. Although giving chemo’s an option for the future because even kids who are that sick need a diversion, which Camp Hope would give them. Right now we just don’t have the facilities for it. Someday, though...maybe a chemotherapy facility. Who knows, maybe even an entire hospital devoted to leukemia.

“Anyway, right now we do follow-up therapy with drugs for nausea, and a couple of our kids are getting prednisone and methotrexate. It’s all basic stuff, pretty much. Each kid has a chart. Medicines are stored away according to the child.” He handed her the key to the medicine storage. “So check their ID with the chart and, well...you’ll figure it out.

“Betsy can come in later and help after her morning sickness has ended for the day. Just let me know if you need her, and I’ll give her a shout.”

“Basic stuff,” she repeated. “I guess I find it difficult to believe you’d leave me alone with your kids. You don’t even know me.”

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