The Doctor's Guardian

“This is why I keep him around,” Ericka confided to her new doctor. “He’s very good for my ego. Even if he lies really badly,” she added with a laugh. “Now, ask her what you want to ask her, then go before they realize they can do without you at the precinct.” Her thin lips pulled into a frown as she reviewed his attire again. “And maybe you’d better stop at your place to change,” Ericka added with a shake of her head. “What exactly did you rescue Dr. Pulaski from?” she asked, curious. “A garbage dump?”

When the detective didn’t look as if he would answer right away, Nika was more than happy to fill his grandmother in.

“The elevator I was on got stuck between floors and the repairman wasn’t going to be able to get here for a few hours.” She looked across her patient’s bed at the detective. “Your grandson very kindly shimmied down the elevator cables to get me out of there.”

Ericka nodded, as if there was no other course her grandson could have taken. “He is a good boy,” the elderly woman said proudly, giving his hand a squeeze.

Detective Cole Baker hadn’t been a boy in a very long time, Nika caught herself thinking. What she first saw coming to her rescue, his legs wrapped around the cables as easily as if he was climbing down a rope in gym class, was without question all man.

She noted that he appeared somewhat embarrassed by his grandmother’s simple declaration, even though he was trying not to show it. She decided one good rescue deserved another and came to his—verbally.

“So, what are these questions you want to ask?” Nika prompted.

He seemed surprised at her directness. Did she intend to discuss his grandmother’s case in front of her? “You don’t want to go somewhere private to talk?”

“Why? This is about your grandmother.” Nika nodded at the woman who was listening intently to every word. “She has a right to hear whatever’s said.”

Ericka’s thin lips spread even thinner in a pleased, wide smile.

“I like this girl, Coleman.” She looked at the young woman. “Most doctors treat patients as if their minds had already evaporated. That’s especially true if those patients are my age.”

“I think you have every right to know and understand what’s going on,” Nika told her simply. She knew she would want that in the woman’s place. “Dr. Goodfellow wants me to carry out a series of lab tests, and run an EEG to make sure that you’re strong enough to go through this procedure. By the way, when you do have the ablation procedure,” she continued as if passing the tests was a foregone conclusion, “you will have to remain awake.”

Cole eyed her sharply. “They’re not going to put her out?”

“No, but they will numb the area so that you won’t feel any pain,” she reassured both the patient and her grandson quickly. “They just want to know if something out of the ordinary happens. The best way is to keep you conscious and responsive,” she told Ericka. “You’ll be able to help guide them by saying if you can still feel certain things when they test different areas on your body.”

This was all news to the older woman. “Well, if I’m going to help, then I shouldn’t have to pay them the whole charge—” Ericka declared.

“G,” Cole’s tone cautioned his grandmother not to say something that could be construed argumentative.

“You won’t be paying anything,” Nika pointed out, opening the woman’s chart. “You have Medicare and a supplementary secondary carrier. They’re the ones who’ll take care of the bill.”

“Yes, well, it’s the principle of the thing that matters,” Ericka said, her voice trailing off slightly as she seemed to lose momentum.

“How long will it take?” Cole asked, turning his attention to her.

“The surgery?” Nika repeated, guessing what his question referred to. “Most ablations usually run about—”

“No, the tests,” he interrupted before she could finish. “How long before you know if she can have the surgery? The last attack she had was pretty bad. It lasted over two hours.”

“Tattletale,” Ericka accused with an annoyed pout.

Their roles, it occurred to Cole, had somehow gotten reversed and now he was the parent and she the child. He wasn’t used to this.

Nika glanced toward the woman in the bed. A hundred fifty years ago, Ericka Baker would have been viewed as the perfect prototype for a robust, determined pioneer woman. Pioneer women didn’t have time to be sick. It got in their way and annoyed them.

“She doesn’t like the way those palpitations have been restricting her activities.” It was an educated guess on Nika’s part.

He shook his head. “Not a hell of a whole lot, no. Would you?” he challenged.

“No, I wouldn’t,” she said honestly. “We should have everything back tomorrow, noon.”

“That long?”

Gauging the duration was all in the eyes of the beholder. Nika laughed. “There was a time when a simple appendectomy kept a patient in the hospital for two weeks,” she told him. “In comparison, this is pretty fast and streamlined.”

She could see that her answer didn’t satisfy him. Hard man to please, she thought. But he wasn’t her concern. His grandmother was. “I’ll call in a favor and we’ll bump you up to the head of the line,” she promised Ericka. “It’s the least I can do, seeing as how your grandson rescued me.”

Ericka nodded again, somewhat placated. “Sounds only fair,” she agreed, glancing toward Cole.

Time for him to go, Nika thought, even though there was something about his presence that was oddly unsettling and yet exciting at the same time. Neither had a place within the framework of her duties.

“And now, Detective, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to make yourself scarce,” she told him.

Not that he planned on staying any longer—the meeting was swiftly breathing down his neck—but having this snippet of a doctor push him out of the room like this raised red flags for him.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I’m going to have to examine your grandmother now,” she told him patiently, “and I think it would be more comfortable for her if you respectfully waited just outside the door.”

He looked at his grandmother and then quickly looked away. It was hard to say if he was more embarrassed for himself, or for the older woman.

“Oh, yeah, well—” Heat rose up along his neck, causing it to turn an unnatural shade of reddish-pink. He was already at the door, turning the doorknob. “I’ll come by after my shift, G.” He tossed the words over his shoulder, along with one last quick glance.

“Unless some pretty girl nabs you,” Ericka qualified, raising her voice to be heard.

He paused, shaking his head. The woman was always trying to get him to pair up with someone. “Not likely,” he told her. “See you tonight,” he added quickly, stepping outside the room.

And then he turned around to see if his grandmother’s doctor was behind him. She was.

“Doctor, here’s my card.” He thrust the small, white card with its dramatic black lettering at her. “Call me if something goes wrong.” It wasn’t a request but an order. “You can reach me at the last number on the bottom anytime.” He tapped it with his forefinger. “Anytime, night or day,” he emphasized.

Nika slipped out of the room for a moment, easing the door closed behind her. It touched her that he was so concerned. Looking at him, at his chiseled features and the hard set of his mouth, she would have said that he didn’t particularly care deeply about anyone—including himself. There was nothing soft about him, nothing vulnerable to indicate intense concern on any level.

Just went to show that you definitely couldn’t judge a book by its cover, she told herself. Not even after the first few pages were glimpsed.

Her hand closed over the card he’d offered her and she tucked it into her pocket.

“I won’t have to use it,” she assured him kindly. “Your grandmother strikes me as a woman who can more than meet any kind of curve that life has to throw at her and come out smiling.”

“She used to be,” he acknowledged and a strain of sadness, which he couldn’t quite cover, echoed in his voice. “But that was before she got this old.”

Nika had known her patient for a total of less than five minutes so far, but some things she could just instinctively sense from the very beginning.

“I wouldn’t let your grandmother hear you say that if I were you,” Nika advised. “Otherwise, you’re going to have to be sleeping with one eye open for the rest of your life.”

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to sleep lightly, he thought, thinking back to some of the undercover cases he’d worked. But he saw no reason to say anything about that to this woman. This wasn’t about him, it was about his grandmother. About keeping her well and thriving the way she always had been.