LITMIR.BIZ

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had love. Maybe her mother hadn’t shown love as much as she’d wanted, but they had shared some wonderful, very special Christmases. And if they’d moved around a lot, from one seemingly better job to another, at least Alyssa hadn’t gone hungry.

      Constantly making new friends hadn’t been easy, and that had been why once she’d come to Cedar Bluff she’d immediately fallen in love with the town. The people were exceptionally nice and friendly. From the very first she’d felt as if she’d come home.

      If she hadn’t experienced the nomadic upbringing she had, she might never have found Cedar Bluff.

      Or Jadon.

      She smiled down at Grace, who’d suckled hungrily that morning at her breast. Grace was by far the stronger and healthier of the twins. Gretchen still wore the mask, but Alyssa told herself that was better than coming in to find her on a ventilator.

      Once Grace had taken her fill, which admittedly wasn’t a lot, Alyssa used the breast pump so she could freeze the extra milk for both twins and then spent some time holding Gretchen.

      Leaving the nursery, she returned to her room to eat her own breakfast and to wait for Kim to come and formally discharge her. While she knew this would mean spending less time with the girls, she was anxious to get back home.

      Not to her apartment, but to Jadon’s house.

      “Good morning,” Kim greeted her cheerfully as she entered the room. “Are you ready to go home?”

      “Absolutely,” she agreed, although she thought it was odd that Jadon hadn’t returned. Where was he?

      “And how is your bladder? Are you still experiencing some burning when you go?”

      “Nope, that’s all fine.”

      “Good. That means the antibiotics are helping.” Kim made a few notes on her clipboard. “All right, then, you’re free to leave. I have a prescription here for your antibiotics. You can get it filled right here at our outpatient pharmacy.”

      “Sounds good.” She took the prescription Kim held out. “Thanks again for everything.”

      “You’re very welcome,” Kim said with a smile. “Don’t forget, no sexual activity for a while, until you feel up to it. And you’ll need to come and see me in six weeks.”

      “I will.” Alyssa put the prescription near her purse and reached for her suitcase. Once Kim had left, she changed out of her nightgown and into the clean clothes Jadon had brought for her.

      She was disappointed that she still needed to wear her maternity clothes. All the nurses had assured her she’d lose the extra weight faster if she breast-fed the babies and she really hoped they were right. Not that Jadon had said a word about her pudgy shape, but she still wanted to get back into her old clothes.

      And where was Jadon? She frowned and then decided there was no need to sit here and wonder about Jadon. She should spend every minute she could with the girls instead.

      On the way to the nursery, though, she abruptly stopped as an idea occurred to her. Maybe Jadon had been called in to work. He’d been off for several days already so she certainly understood if he needed to pick up a shift.

      She turned and headed down to the emergency department to see if he was there, working. The charge nurse on duty would know which attending physicians were scheduled to work.

      The ED was bustling with activity when she walked into the arena. Muted Christmas music was playing through the loudspeaker, but the tunes could barely be heard through the normal sounds of monitors beeping, staff talking and the occasional patient yelling.

      Wistfully, she glanced around, realizing she missed the place. As soon as a few of her nursing colleagues saw her, they rushed over.

      “Alyssa! How are you? How are the twins?” Susan asked, reaching her first and giving her a quick hug.

      “We heard you have two girls,” Melanie added, coming up behind Susan.

      “I’m fine and the twins are fine, too,” she said with a laugh. “Their names are Grace and Gretchen, and of course they are the most beautiful babies in the whole nursery.”

      “Of course they are,” Susan agreed staunchly. “What are you doing down here? Looking for Theresa?”

      Theresa Williams was their nurse manager and with a shock Alyssa realized she hadn’t exactly kept her boss informed of the events surrounding her delivery.

      “I should probably talk to Theresa,” Alyssa agreed, glancing around the arena. “Do you know where she is?”

      “I think she’s in her office,” Melanie said helpfully. “But if not, we can have her paged.”

      “Thanks. I’ll chat with you both later.” Alyssa hurried to her boss’s office, spending a few minutes going over the terms of her medical leave of absence. She felt a sense of relief when she’d finished all the paperwork, including the form she needed to complete in order to add her infant daughters to her health insurance plan.

      Considering the bill they were running up in the nursery, it was a good thing she’d stopped by or she might have forgotten all about it.

      “By the way, which physician is on duty tonight?” she asked her boss.

      “Let me check.” Theresa pulled up her computerized physician schedule. “Unless there have been any changes, Dr. Carter is on for the second shift and Dr. Taylor is on for third shift.”

      So Jadon wasn’t on the schedule, not even on third shift. Unless either Simon or Seth had called him to cover their hours at the last minute.

      Trying not to dwell on where Jadon might be, she left Theresa’s office. As she walked past the trauma bay, she noticed there were two trauma resuscitations going on at the same time, and curiosity caused her to stop to watch for a few minutes. It quickly became apparent that the two victims had been involved in the same crash.

      “Here’s the chest X-ray you asked for, Dr. Torres.”

      An attractive, tall, dark-haired, rather Europeanlooking doctor glanced at the computer image of the film and turned back to the patient. “This guy’s left lung is collapsed,” he said in a sharp tone. “I need to insert a chest tube, stat.”

      Maureen, the new trainee she’d worked with a week ago, was rummaging through the trauma resuscitation cart, anxiously looking for the chest tube he’d asked for.

      Alyssa didn’t recognize Dr. Torres, but as Maureen was looking in the wrong places for the tube, she darted in and opened the correct drawer. “Here,” she said, pulling out the chest tube and handing it to her. “Drawer six for chest tubes and instruments.”

      “Thanks,” Maureen said in obvious relief. Evidently, the new physician had her on edge. “Here you go, Dr. Torres.”

      He took the chest tube, but then his attention centered on Alyssa. “Who are you?” he demanded. “If you’re not a part of this resuscitation team, get out or I’ll call Security.”

      Alyssa glanced around, but realized with a shock that he was actually talking to her. Not that he didn’t have every right to question who she was, as she obviously wasn’t wearing the proper attire or her ID tag, but his threat to contact Security seemed a bit extreme. Hadn’t she just helped out a coworker? What was his problem?

      “I’m sorry,” she started to apologize, but Leila Ross, one of the trauma surgeons, quickly came to her rescue.

      “Alyssa Knight is one of our ED nurses—there’s no reason to call Security.” By the acid contempt in her tone, it was easy to deduce that Leila didn’t particularly care for the new physician. “Thanks for your help, Alyssa. We’re fine now.”

      “Sure,” she murmured, taking the hint and stepping out of the trauma area. She glanced at Dr. Torres, but he’d apparently already forgotten about her, his attention centered on placing the chest

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