LITMIR.BIZ

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hero-worshipped the man who didn’t deserve it.

      “And handsome! So good looking, like a doctor on TV. I’m sure a young thing like you can hardly resist a handsome surgeon like Dr. Armstrong.”

      “He’s my superior here at the hospital, Mrs. Roberts.” Long ago, she’d agreed. She’d thought everything about him gorgeous—his football-player physique, his warm amber eyes, his thick dark hair. Funny and smart, with a teasing grin that was irresistible.

      But no more. A man had to be beautiful on the inside as well as the outside to appeal to her. Not that she appealed to him anyway, which he’d made abundantly clear.

      “I’m feeling a little tired.” The woman snuggled down into her bed as Katy continued her examination. “Can you come back later?”

      “I’m almost done for now, Mrs. Roberts. May I pull your sheet down a little? I just want to take a listen to your belly.”

      Katy glanced up when she didn’t respond and was startled to see that her head had lolled to one side of the pillow, her mouth slack and her eyes closed. Had she fallen asleep, just like that?

      “Mrs. Roberts?” Katy’s heart sped up and she spoke louder, shaking the woman’s shoulder. “Mrs. Roberts?”

      The monitor the patient was hooked up to began to screech and Katy looked at the screen. Her oxygen level was dangerously low, but there was no change in her heart rate. That couldn’t be right, could it? Quickly, she rubbed her knuckles against Mrs. Roberts’s sternum.

      Nothing. No response. Katy put shaky fingers against the woman’s carotid artery. Her pulse was so slow and faint Katy knew this was beyond serious. Heart pounding in her ears now, she leaped up and smacked the red code button on the wall then ran back to the bedside.

      “Okay, Katy, you’ve got this,” she said out loud to herself as her mind spun through the advanced cardiac life support protocol she’d finished during orientation just yesterday. “It’s as easy as ABC, right? Airway, breathing, circulation.”

      Her own breath seriously short and choppy, she shoved the pillows from the bed to get Mrs. Roberts lying flat and lifted her chin to open her airway. The woman’s chest still barely moved.

      Damn it! Katy knew she had to get a bag valve mask on her immediately, then noticed the EKG wires had been disconnected, probably when she’d gone to the bathroom. Stay calm here, you know what to do, she reminded herself, sucking in a deep breath to keep from fainting along with Mrs. Roberts.

      Fumbling with the equipment, she managed to stay focused as two nurses ran into the room. “We need to get her back on the monitor. I need to bag her. Can you get me a bag valve mask? And another IV.” She could practically smell their alarm and forced down her own. Do not panic, Katy. This woman’s life could depend on you.

      The loud sound of a cart rumbling down the hall and into the room made Katy sag in relief. The cavalry had arrived.

      “Give me the patient’s history,” a guy said, as he moved from the crash cart to the head of the bed, quickly getting a bag on Mrs. Roberts to provide the oxygen she desperately needed. He was probably from the ICU team, but Katy wasn’t about to waste time asking questions.

      “Patient is eighty-two, with cholecystitis, her surgery is on hold until she’s medically cleared by Cardiology.” Katy gulped as she stared at the still-unresponsive Mrs. Roberts and forged on. “She was talking to me and just kind of collapsed. She has fainting spells and we’re trying to figure out why.”

      She stared at the monitor as the ICU guy attached the last EKG lead. Involuntarily, Katy let out a little stressed cry when she saw the heart rate was alarmingly slow at only thirty-five beats per minute. “Sinus bradycardia,” she said. “Atropine point five milligrams and we need pads for transcutaneous pacing.”

      Had all that really come right out of her mouth? No time to give herself a pat on the back as the ICU guy barked to the nurse, “Get Cardiology on the line. You, Doctor, get her paced as I intubate.”

      Katy blinked and a touch of panic welled in her chest that she resolutely tamped down. He’d just called her “Doctor”. She was part of this team, which would hopefully save this woman’s life. Concentrating intently on getting the pads placed amid a flurry of activity by the nurses, she didn’t even notice the tall, broad form that came to stand next to her.

      “I’ll take over now,” a familiar deep voice said. “Good job, Dr. Pappas.”

      Alec Armstrong brushed past her as she moved to one side, allowing him to deliver the electricity to Mrs. Roberts’s heart. Katy stood there, stunned, her hands now shaking like a tambourine. Beyond glad it wasn’t her trying to get the pacing finished and giving orders to the nurses.

      Which wasn’t the right attitude, she scolded herself, since she wanted to be a doctor—was a doctor. But, dang it, how many newbies had to deal with their very first patient coding on them?

      She watched Alec work, and couldn’t help but notice how different he was, and yet somehow the same as when she’d known him years ago. As a boy and teen, he’d practically lived in their house as Nick’s best friend. While he’d been as fun and adventurous as anybody she’d known, he’d always become calm and focused when there had been an important task at hand, his eyes intent, just like they were now. His hands moved swiftly and efficiently, as they had during all the crazy science experiments they’d done together. All the times he and Nick had worked on projects with her, teasing about her endless quest to learn new things and solve weird problems.

      Her hero-worship of Alec was over. But the moment that thought came into her head, as she watched him work, she knew it wasn’t true. How could she not admire how capably he dealt with a critical situation? But she didn’t have to like him as a person to admire how good he was as a doctor and doubtless as a surgeon.

      In a short time the frantic flurry of activity was over and the ICU guy began to wheel Mrs. Roberts from the room. As he left, he said over his shoulder, “I’ll dictate my procedure note. You got the code note?”

      “I’ve got it,” Katy and Alec said at the same time. Their eyes met, his the amused, warm amber she remembered so well, and she felt her face flush. How could she have thought the guy was talking to her when attending surgeon extraordinaire Alec Armstrong had taken over?

      “So, Katy-Did.” His lips curved as he folded his arms across his chest. “What the hell did you do to my patient to make her code like that?”

      “Please call me Katherine or Katy. I’m not a kid anymore,” she said with dignity. Which he should know after her ill-advised behavior at her brother James’s wedding five years ago. Her cheeks burned hotter at the memory.

      “Fine, Dr. Katherine Pappas.” His smile broadened, showing his white teeth. “How did you almost kill her?”

      “I didn’t almost kill her, and you know it. I didn’t do anything.” Katy’s voice rose to practically a squeak on the last word and she cleared her throat, forcing herself to sound somewhat professional. “I was talking with her and giving her an exam, and she just fainted. I think she probably has sick sinus syndrome, which is why she’s sometimes fine and other times faints.”

      “Do you, now?” He laughed. Actually laughed, and Katy felt her face heat again, but this time in annoyance.

      “Yes, I do. I may be a total newbie, but I’m allowed to give my opinion, aren’t I? Isn’t it part of my training to form an opinion, even if it’s wrong?”

      “It is. And you are. Right, I mean, not wrong. And why am I not surprised that on your first day you’ve figured out this woman’s likely diagnosis?” He stepped closer, touching his fingertip to her forehead and giving it a few little taps. “Some things never change, and one of them is that amazing, analytical brain of yours.”

      Some things never changed? Wasn’t that the unfortunate truth? In spite of him making clear he had no interest in her as a woman, in spite of everything she knew

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