Sophie's Path (23 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

S
OPHIE
ASSISTED
N
ATE
with back-to-back ablation procedures that were as textbook as expected. Both patients were in recovery, each with two nurses pressing on the femoral artery for the prescribed ninety minutes to avoid a bleed-out. Initial reports were that there were no complications in either case.

Sophie finished the last of her notes and set up the equipment for the next operation. She then disposed of her surgical gown, mask and gloves, left the ablation room and went to her locker at the back of the break room. She was pleased with her work today. Because she'd wisely cut back on her hours at the Alliance, her nursing career was back on track. Perhaps even improving. She was proud of her accomplishments at the ablation center.

Though it was early Friday evening, she wasn't heading home; she only had about an hour before her shift in the ER. She'd have most of Saturday to rest, and on Sunday she intended to spend the day with her parents. She might even tell them about Jack. She wasn't quite sure what she would call her relationship with him, but she considered their dinner the other night a date. The attraction and emotion were there. But things were complicated. He'd said he wanted to try to understand her. Support her in all that she did. But he couldn't guarantee it.

Still, Sophie thought about him all the time. When the last ablation was wrapping up, she found herself looking forward to this moment—returning to her locker and checking her phone. Had he texted her a selfie or one of his funny pictures of Frenchie? She had never, ever been a “wait by the phone” woman. She was the one who made men wait.

Until now.

Sophie unzipped her purse and pulled out her phone. No texts, but she had one missed call and a voice mail from an unfamiliar local number. That had to be Jeremy—he tended to call her from pay phones or wherever he could entice someone to let him make a call.

Still, it was odd. He never left messages for her.

She tapped the play button.

“You're not there. I, er, was hoping you would be. But you're not. No one ever is. At least not for me. That's okay. I get it. Guess I was dumb to think anything would change. That's the thing. Nothing is going to change—not for me. Not ever.”

Sophie's fingers shook as she tried to play the message back again. Jeremy's voice was filled with desperation. She'd never heard him this low.

She redialed the number he'd used, but it rang incessantly.
Pay phone
.

She dropped her chin to her chest, trying to think of where he might be.

“Sophie? Are you in here?” Monica, one of the receptionists, called from the door to the break room.

“Yeah. I'm here,” Sophie replied, coming around the corner from the locker area.

“You're scheduled to work in the ER tonight, right?”

“Yes, I am,” Sophie said, glancing down at her cell. She needed to find Jeremy to make sure he was all right. Her instincts went Code Red. She didn't have much time before her shift. “Why do you ask?”

“They need you now. I just got a call from Dr. Caldwell. He wants you stat.”

“Let him know I'm on my way.”

Sophie reluctantly slid her phone back into her purse and closed her locker. Jeremy would have to wait.

* * *

S
OPHIE
SHOVED
HER
hands into a pair of nitrile gloves as she swung into Bay 8 in the ER. It had been a quiet week, but all that had changed when an unattended campfire ignited not one, but two houses north of town, burning both to the ground. Monica had filled Sophie in as they raced to the elevator.

Two children and one adult had been badly burned. The children were being treated for smoke inhalation. Dr. Caldwell was trying to save the adult grandfather.

“What do you need, Doctor?” Sophie asked as she looked down at the elderly man, who was clearly not breathing through the oxygen mask.

“V-fib. Get the cart. We're three nurses down here. The rest of the staff is helping the kids.”

Ventricular fibrillation was life threatening. The lower chambers of the heart quivered and the heart could not pump any blood, causing cardiac arrest. Dr. Caldwell asked her to get the defibrillator machine.

“Got it.” Sophie shot down the hall to get the equipment.

As Sophie returned to Bay 8, she heard the sound of an approaching ambulance. The doors banged open and EMTs were shouting at hospital staff.

“We got a possible DOA here!”

A gurney rattled across the floor.

Sophie couldn't let the commotion distract her. She didn't have time to waste. A man's life was on the line. Every second counted.

Dr. Caldwell grabbed the paddles from her and she turned on the machine, waiting for the beep.

“Clear!” Dr. Caldwell called as the electrical shock jolted through the elderly man's body, causing his back to arch.

Sophie took his pulse and shook her head. “Nothing.”

At that exact moment, a young nurse, who couldn't have been more than twenty, rushed into the bay.

“Dr. Caldwell!” she said anxiously. “We need you in the next bay. It's a drug overdose or suicide. He's not breathing.”

Dr. Caldwell placed the paddles on the elderly man's chest once again. “I'm saving someone now.”

“Yes, Doctor, but I don't know what to do.”

“CPR till I get there,” he ground out. “Now back away. Clear!”

Sophie hit the defibrillator button again. The patient's body arched even more intensely this time.

She and Dr. Caldwell both took their stethoscopes and listened to the man's heart.

It was faint, no more than the whisper of a dragonfly's wing, but it was there. The beat of life.

Dr. Caldwell looked at Sophie. “You get the epinephrine ready. He may need it. He's barely alive. If he reacts to the pain from the burns we could lose him all over again.”

“Yes, Doctor.” Her eyes slid to the frantic face of the young nurse who had just appeared in the doorway again. She was practically wringing her hands. Sophie remembered being that new to the job. Fresh out of nursing school. There was no terror greater than a critically ill patient.

Still wasn't.

“Doctor. They said they need you. Stat,” the young woman said.

He continued listening to the old man's heart. “Give me the particulars on your patient. How old?”

The nurse's voice hitched with anxiety. “He's twenty-four. We found an ID. Jeremy—”

“Hawthorne?” Sophie could barely get the name out before a tidal wave of anguish ripped through her.

Dr. Caldwell looked up. “A friend of yours?”

“I'm his sponsor,” Sophie replied without thinking. A split-second later she realized what she'd just admitted to.

“His what?”

She shook her head to wave off his questions.

“We'll talk later,” Dr. Caldwell said.

Sophie turned back to her patient. One part of her wanted to rush to Jeremy and do all she could to save him. Yet as she watched the older man fight for each breath and heartbeat, she was glued to the spot. She made her decision.

“Doctor, go. I've got this,” she assured him as he threw her a questioning look.

“Code Blue. Bay 9. Code Blue.” The alarm in the hall sounded.

Sophie struggled to focus, to stop herself from racing to Jeremy's side. She'd been here before. With Aleah.

Why was fate testing her again like this? Paths of decision. Forks in the road with life-or-death stakes. She'd known that becoming a nurse would mean facing mortality. She just didn't think it would be like this.

Suddenly, her patient stopped breathing again. She began CPR and pressed the Code Blue alarm.

She had to stop feeling sorry for herself. If she'd learned one thing from Aleah's death, it was that no matter what she did for her patient or for Jeremy—all the eventualities were in the hands of God.

“Come on, sweetheart. Don't you die on me,” she whispered to the man she'd met only a few minutes ago. His chart said he was seventy-eight. Old. But not that old. Was he the only world those two kids had? If he died, was there another family member who would be responsible for them, or would they end up in Child Protective Services? Orphans. Wounded physically from the fire. Mentally and spiritually from the loss of their grandfather, whose life Sophie held in her hands.

She had to save him. Locking her elbows, she bent into her work. She counted the depressions.

The man inhaled deeply as if sucking in a breath after being underwater. A drowning man breaking through the surface.

Tears filled Sophie's eyes. She felt the sob ratchet through her lungs and happiness radiate through her like dawn. “There you are!”

She didn't know this man from Adam, but in that moment she felt as if she could read his heart and mind.

His eyes flew open, and he stared at her with intense clarity.

“You're going to be all right,” she assured him, while gently placing her hand on his forehead. “Everything is going to be all right.”

He winced and then closed his eyes. He tried to speak, but the words came slowly. “My grand—children.”

“They're here with us. The doctors are helping them.”

“Alive?”

“Yes, they're alive.”

“Then I saved them.” His head rolled on the gurney. “Fire. Everywhere. Gretchen was burned.”

He clamped on to her forearm and with strength she would not have expected, he asked, “How bad is it?”

“I'll find out for you, but you have to promise me that you'll rest. Your heart can't take much more. At least, not tonight.”

Sophie patted his hand with the same gentle, caring touch she gave all her patients as she listened to his heartbeat once again.

Dr. Caldwell entered the bay and stood at the end of the gurney watching Sophie. “I couldn't get back any sooner. Sorry. But apparently you didn't need me, after all. He's doing well?”

“Yes.” She flipped her stethoscope around the back of her neck as she turned to him. “And...Jeremy?” Sophie didn't have to ask. She sensed from Dr. Caldwell's drooping shoulders and the shadows in his eyes that the news wasn't good.

“No response. He didn't make it.” He put his hands on his hips, never taking his eyes off the elderly man. “I'll never understand it. These kids have everything to live for and they throw it all away.” He snapped his fingers. “Poof. Gone. Outta here. Like life was nothing to them.”

Sophie was numb. “So, you think it was a suicide, not just an OD?”

“I believe so.”

Sophie was numb. She stepped past Dr. Caldwell, but he kept talking. “You want to tell me about your, er, relationship with Jeremy?”

The truth could get her fired, but she didn't see any way around it. Dr. Caldwell was her superior. He'd warned her about working too hard. He knew about her missteps in surgery with Dr. Barzonni. He would report what he knew to Emory Wills.

“I was his sponsor. He'd call me from time to time. I saw him on my time off to counsel him. The usual things.” Sophie's voice cracked, but she didn't feel the tears she expected. She was in shock. Empty. Devoid of emotion.

She gazed at the old man resting peacefully. She knew in the marrow of her bones, no matter what, she wouldn't have left her patient.

Sophie flashed back to the night with Aleah. Both then and now, she had made a choice. It didn't matter who was an addict or not, who had a family, whether the patient was a stranger or someone she knew intimately. She'd made her decision based on who she thought she could save. But had she done the right thing? Had she chosen correctly?

Was she even fit to be nursing these critical patients?

Self-doubt swung a mighty blow.

“I'm sorry, Sophie,” Dr. Caldwell said again, his tone sincere. “You did great here. Really great.” He jerked his head toward the doorway, signaling that she should follow him.

“Take some advice, Sophie. For your own good and that of your career, drop this sponsorship thing you're doing. You belong here in this hospital with me and Dr. Barzonni, saving lives like you did tonight.” He ducked his head so that she could see his piercing, stern expression. “I'm serious, Sophie.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. He was absolutely right.

* * *

T
HE
TECHS
HAD
covered Jeremy up with a sheet and were about to wheel him downstairs to the basement morgue. She was the closest person he had to a friend in Indian Lake and she didn't even know his parents' names or how to phone them. The Alliance might have some information. Either way, she would find a way to contact them. It was the least she could do.

As per protocol, the hospital had undoubtedly already notified the police. Eventually someone would question her. Probably Detective Trent Davis, the cop she'd met the night Aleah died. She'd have to tell him about Jeremy's “friend” Buddy. There might or might not be some arrests. That wasn't her purview.

She stopped the young male orderly with the shock of red hair and an enormous rhinestone stud in his ear who was pushing the gurney out into the hall. “Can I have a minute?”

“He a friend of yours?”

She nodded. She believed she'd been a friend to him, even if he hadn't always wanted her friendship.

Sophie pulled back the sheet just enough to see him one last time. Shockingly, he looked absolutely normal, though at peace, with a slight curve to his lips that told her his last minutes were good ones. For all the pain he'd gone through in his life, in the end, he'd found some kind of solace. She stroked his forehead and felt tears in her eyes. The emotion in her throat carved a path as deep as a mountain gorge. She couldn't speak. All she could do was talk to him with her heart. She told him she was sorry she had failed him. She told him she was sorry she hadn't forced him to reconcile with his parents.