Grumpy Doctor’s Holiday Twins (Forbidden Doctors #17)

25. Melody

25

MELODY

A fter a very long lecture from John and a very late night with a fussy child, I called in sick to work today. Holly had been up all night crying and grumpy. She'd fall asleep on my chest and the moment I dozed off, she'd wake back up crying and rubbing her eyes and belly. I didn’t know what it could be. She wasn't running a fever, so my guess was something viral for the moment, but I started to get worried around lunchtime when she refused to eat.

"Maybe you should call John," Dad said, rolling his wheelchair up next to me. I sat in a kitchen chair near Holly's highchair trying to feed her bites of food. She'd been feeding herself for a year now, but all she wanted to do was push the plate away and tell me no.

"I don't want to bother him at work." I also didn't want another face-off with him. He'd been so upset with me and screamed at me for how Ethan would only break my heart and leave town. He would never understand the bond we had or why.

"John is a doctor, baby. I know you have some medical training, but nurses don't know everything." Dad's soft touch on my arm irritated me. I hated that he thought John could fix this, but only because I was so upset with my brother, I could scream.

Looking into the eyes of my sick baby girl who sat in her chair for almost twenty minutes longer than her brother had for lunch, I knew Dad was right. Noel was happily playing and Holly just curled up and closed her eyes. It was bad enough that I had put a diaper on her and they'd been potty trained for almost four months now.

"Fine, call him," I told Dad. Then I picked Holly up and left her plate sitting and carried her to the couch where she curled up on my lap and sniffled. I cradled her as I listened to Dad asking John to come over. My focus was on my daughter, but in the back of my mind, I prayed John would just leave the conflict between us out of this space and just help me.

When Dad hung up and rolled over to me, he said, "John's on the way. He's going to come on his lunch break." Dad locked the wheels as Noel tried to climb on his lap, and I sighed.

"I think she just has a tummy bug or something. I don’t think it’s that serious." My wishful thinking was partly based on years of nursing and partly on blind hope. It was winter. Cold and flu season was on us, and I couldn’t think of any reason she'd be sick besides that. When Ethan took us for that carriage ride, she'd already been fussy, but maybe she picked up a bug being outdoors when it was so cold.

Dad opted to take Noel in the kids' bedroom to play and give Holly a more peaceful atmosphere. I just rocked back and forth and sang her songs while she tried to rest, but her sleep was fitful, and she woke every few minutes to fuss.

John knocked but he didn’t wait for me to open, and I was glad. With Dad in the bedroom, I knew he wouldn't hear it and I was occupied with something more important. John breezed in and loosened his tie, then sat down next to me.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and he rested his hand on my knee. I was grateful that the only expression on his face was one of concern and compassion.

"She's just lethargic. I know her belly hurts. She keeps saying so, and she's so fussy, and she won’t eat or drink anything." I looked into my big brother's warm brown eyes and prayed he would help me figure this out. I could have taken her to a pediatrician, but the benefit of having a doctor in the family was that if it wasn’t serious, he could just give me good medical advice.

"Is she using the toilet okay?" I heard the professional edge to his tone and knew he was putting his doctor cap on. I loved that about him, able to compartmentalize away the emotional stress between us and just help.

"Uh, I don’t know. I put a diaper on her because she just doesn’t want to sit on the toilet. She probably needs changed." I shifted her to my other side and she got really fussy. My soft touches and light kisses on her face didn't quiet her down, and I felt like crying myself. Nothing hurt me more than when one of my kids was suffering.

"Alright, well let me have a look over her. You go get a new diaper or whatever. You can change her when I’m done." John scooped her up and pulled her onto his lap, and I left him to work while I went into the bedroom to get a diaper, praying we had just a few more here from months ago when the kids stopped using them.

"He's here," I told Dad, and he looked up from the floor where he'd gotten himself out of his chair to play with Noel more easily.

"What does he think?" Dad asked, looking up at me with doe eyes.

"Not sure," I told him, rifling through the dresser. I didn’t know if I'd find a diaper. It looked like we were completely out, and when I dug to the bottom of the drawer and there were none, I sighed in exasperation.

"Mel!" John called, and I heard the tone of his voice. It was unsettling. I raced back into the living room and saw him. He had Holly lying on her back and her diaper was folded back. Inside it was stained with dark brown urine, and my heart almost stopped. "Melody, I think her kidneys are shutting down. We need to get her to the hospital now." John tucked Holly's diaper back up around her and I started to panic.

"What? Why? What's wrong?" I dropped to my knees next to the couch and thought I might vomit. The fear was instantaneous, like a jump scare but worse, because this was real. This wasn’t a horror movie meant to make my adrenaline surge.

"I'm not sure. I'll drive. get your coat." He worked on dressing her again while I sat there shaking and staring at my baby, running my hand across her forehead to smooth her hair back. "Mel! Coat. Now."

John's order hit my ears and made me react. I was terrified. Only a few things could make a child's kidneys shut down, and I knew so little about it. I wasn't a pediatric nurse, but I knew toxins could do this. She hadn't gotten into anything, though—no poisons, no pills or chemicals.

"John, what is it?" I whimpered as I reached for Holly's coat, then mine. I tossed her coat to him and he continued dressing her, then grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch to wrap around her.

"I don't know. We need tests and we need them quickly." He handed Holly to me and barked, "Get in my car now."

Now I was on sensory overload. I pressed kisses to her forehead and followed him to the car without even telling Dad what was going on. When I murmured, "Dad," John assured me he'd make a call. I was dumb, but I didn't even buckle her into a seat or worry about it. The car seats were still in my car at the hospital and there was no time for that.

I climbed into the back seat and curled myself around her as John raced to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital, Holly was unresponsive, though in my panicked state, I feared the worst. John pulled her out of my arms and she roused a little, too tired to respond to my light brushes on her cheeks.

"Come on," he said, and darted through the sliding doors of the ER department as I tried to keep up. He left his car running and the doors open and shouted, "I need a bed now!"

Three nurses rushed to our side, taking Holly from him and laying her on a bed. "What's wrong, Dr. Winters?"

It was all a blur. Time passed in fragments, broken by tears and hysterics, and John had to coax out every symptom from me—belly aches, dark urine, abnormally tired, small for her age. I didn't know what it could be, so I listed off everything and then I thought of the one thing I could do that would help.

"Ethan," I breathed, and John nodded, though I saw the storm in his eyes when I said the name.

"Call him."

I had my phone out, already dialing his number. He was the best pediatric doctor in the city and I needed his help, even if everything fell apart and my secret was revealed. I couldn’t lose my baby.