“I was just wondering if there were some place I could lay down? I’m really nauseous and the pain in my side is getting worse.” Ugh, Kara could hear how pathetic her own voice sounded, but at this point, hunched over in front of the surly front desk attendant, she didn’t care. If Laura was affected by Kara’s evident discomfort, it did not show in her demeanor.
“I’m sorry,” Laura answered, although her tone portrayed differently, “this is a triage; the critical patients are seen first. You’ll have to take a seat in the waiting area.” She waved toward the chairs and turned back to her computer, once again ignoring everyone and everything around her, and left Kara standing at the window, mouth hanging open.
“Laura,” a tall nurse with dark hair pulled back in a severe bun spoke with authority, as she walked up to see what was going on. “We have a gurney in the triage bay she can lay down on.” Turning to Kara and pointing to the doors to the right of the reception area, she continued, “Come around to the doors and I’ll hit the button for you.”
Kara slowly shuffled over to the automatic doors as they began to slowly open. She turned back to Eric, who motioned for her to go ahead, saying he and Evalyn would hang out in the waiting room, then made her way back to the triage area, where thankfully she was finally able to lay down.. The relief did not last long however, as Kara still could not find a comfortable position, and laying flat seemed to make the nausea worse. The nurse, whose name tag announced that she was named Melinda, helped Kara back into a sitting position.
Melinda motioned to the reception area, “I’m going to go get your chart from the front desk and then we’ll get your medical history and vitals, okay?” She quickly hurried to get the file. Returning, she pulled out a pen and began asking the regular preliminary questions of a typical ER visit and making notes, all the while taking Kara’s blood pressure and temperature. Once Melinda was finished, she handed Kara a specimen cup for a urine sample and showed her to the bathroom. When Kara emerged from the bathroom, Melinda took the urine sample and labeled it for the lab, then led her down the hall to the trauma room they would be setting up. As Kara settled onto the bed, she watched as her nurse began pulling different items from the drawers, prepping her for an IV.
~*~
Jason walked to the front desk and picked up his next chart, flipping through the quick history. He read the patients name, preparing to enter the room but stopping short. Kara Baker? Jason knew that name, but from where? School, he was sure of it. College? He entered the room and drew the curtain back, still looking through her chart. She was twenty-seven so for all he knew, they went to high school together. With great effort, he controlled the shock on his face when he saw her.
Kara Baker, from Houston. From high school.
He'd been a senior and she a junior when they were in high school. He knew her, or rather knew of her, but they’d never actually spoken. She was quiet and kept to herself and a small group of close friends. He'd seen her in the library during lunch on more than one occasion. Jason spent a great deal of time in the library studying. His parents had moved from Seattle to Austin his senior year; he'd begged them to let him stay to finish school, but his parents wouldn't hear of it. They were a family and they were moving together, they insisted. They were convinced he'd make new friends and everything would be fine. They thought maybe he would let go of his determination to head back to Seattle for college, but they had underestimated just how determined Jason had been.
While he had made a few new friends, Jason kept to himself and continued with the plans to return to Seattle for college. Instead of sports, Jason did homework in the library and maintained an A average. He was a good looking guy and while he was modest, he knew girls found him attractive. They flirted, and at times he even flirted back, but in the end they really held little interest for him. The girls were just distractions. Besides, he had a girlfriend in Seattle, Kate. He had promised to remain faithful to her, with the knowledge that they'd be reunited the following fall.
Jason was faithful, never once even interested in being with another girl. It helped that nobody had really captured his interest; that was until she started at the end of the fall semester. A transplant from Denver, she had moved after her mother died to live with her father in Houston. Jason had managed four months without temptation in his new school, but now he was intrigued by Kara; nevertheless, he kept his promise to Kate. Instead, he watched Kara from afar, during lunch in the library, and in between classes in the halls.
Every now and then he'd catch her eye, on the quad or while walking to class, and give a small smile, barely hinting at the dimples he had, as if merely out of courtesy. She always returned his small smiles briefly before shifting her eyes to the ground and walking past him without a word. He readily admitted he found her beautiful, with her long auburn hair cut to frame her delicate face, and her quiet demeanor. Above all that, she was exceptionally smart. It had not escaped his notice the books she read, or the classes she took. Jason found intelligence extremely attractive. The fact that many of the girls in school didn’t seem to care about their academics had made them less attractive and easier to reject. Kara was in the advanced program. Had he ever given himself the opportunity to get to know her, he was sure he would not have been able to stay committed to Kate, and Kate was waiting for him in Seattle. So, Jason kept his distance. Kara would remain his fascination; his unrequited high school crush. And that would have to be okay.
Only now, here she was, in the emergency room of Mercy Medical Center as his patient, with what looked like probable appendicitis. The moment was surreal.
~*~
"Kara? Kara Baker?” A gorgeous man dressed in a doctor’s lab coat looked up from her chart as he entered the room, a hint of recognition in his eyes. He did look familiar. Where had she seen him before? He had dark, short hair that curled a little at the ends and looked slightly messy, as if he’d been running his hands through it all night.
“I'm Dr. Jason Dietrich." The young doctor reached out and Kara shook his outstretched hand. His grasp was warm and firm, yet gentle and soft at the same time. Their hands lingered for a second longer, before he blinked his eyes and looked away, breaking the connection. He had beautiful eyes, Kara noticed, a very soft greenish blue, or perhaps they were hazel? They were the kind of eyes that seemed as if they could change with the color of his clothes, or even his mood. Drawn to his eyes Kara couldn’t shake the feeling that they were familiar.
"Hello," Kara gave the doctor a shy smile, then looked away quickly. Her cheeks flaring with heat over her situation. This was too much. Here she was in pain, half naked in a hospital gown, with vomit breath to boot, and this is when she gets the hot young doctor?
"So what brings you here today?" hot young doc seemed to be asking more to himself than to her, as he looked down and perused Kara's chart. "Ah, stomach pain, lower right quadrant." He nodded while continuing to read. "Okay, let’s have a look." The beautiful man placed Kara’s chart on the end of her bed and approached her side to gently help her stretch her legs out.
~*~
Jason noticed Kara’s reluctance to keep her right leg flat on the mattress. Typical symptom, and one more indication this was a simple case of appendicitis. After he helped get her legs straight and relaxed, he gently lifted her gown and pulled the sheet up to keep her lower half covered. Working in pediatrics he quickly learned to warm up his hands before an examination - babies don’t like being startled by cold hands. As was his practice, he quickly rubbed his hands together to warm them slightly, then pressed down gently but firmly on the left side of Kara's lower abdomen. He was careful to watch her expression, and noticed a slight unease, but she did not mention pain. Slowly he moved his hands around her abdomen, pressing carefully in several places; finally reaching the lower right side of Kara's stomach. Her reaction was instantaneous; her right leg came up as she flinched away and let out a howl of pain.
Jason glanced back at the nurse and quietly saying, "Guarding wi
th pain in lower right quadrant." Turning back to Kara, he looked at her intently and asked, "Rating the pain on a scale of one to ten, what would you give the pain in your side?"
Kara paused, seeming to think his question over. She obviously didn't want to look weak, but by her reaction, he could tell the number would be high. "Um, a seven maybe?" It came out as more of a question, and surprised him.
Jason couldn't help but smile. He could see by her expression she wanted to use a higher number. "Just a seven?” he questioned, eyebrows raised, before adding, “You don’t have to be brave here, we’re going to try and make you comfortable as soon as possible.”
"Okay, maybe an eight," Kara amended. Jason just grinned in return, his dimples showing, and shook his head slightly. He gently placed his hands back over the area and as tenderly as he could, pressed again, releasing quickly. "Does it hurt more when I press in, or when I let go?"
"In, definitely IN!" she answered as tears sprung to her eyes and she tried to curl up away from his touch. Kara closed her eyes and took shallow breaths, her nausea seeming to return full force.
"Sorry about that,” Jason murmured a sincere apology. He pulled the gown back down over Kara's exposed stomach and swept her hair off her shoulder tenderly, while leaning over her slightly, and continued, “Your blood work came back with a high white blood count and ketones in your urine. Something is definitely going on in there. It looks like a pretty clear case of appendicitis. The direct pressure pain was more intense than rebound, so I think the odds are good that it hasn’t burst. Now, we just have to rule a few other things out first, to be sure. We'll want a CT scan and possibly an ultrasound, and a pelvic.” He explained everything clearly, watching for any sign she might be confused and saw none. He turned to the nurse, “Melinda can you call in the CT and prep for the pelvic?"
Jason’s words seemed to finally register with Kara, "Wait, what? A pelvic? I'm sure I don't need a pelvic!" Her face flushed bright red with embarrassment.
Jason shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot for just a moment, but then cleared his throat, and taking a calm but authoritative tone, said, "It’s important to rule out everything, Ms. Baker. Cysts, for example, can present as appendicitis; I won't go cutting you up unnecessarily. You'll need a full exam to be certain everything is clear.”
His words, intended to inspire confidence in his abilities as a doctor, were wasted on Kara; she appeared far too distracted by his left shoulder. He glanced down and noticed the words she'd been staring at embroidered on his left breast pocket. Dr. Dietrich, Pediatrics. "You're a pediatrician?!"
~*~
Kara watched as Dr. Dietrich tilted his head slightly and nodded, his eyes flashing with amusement. "Yes, I'm a resident in the peds department, but I assure you, I'm fully qualified to treat adults, too. The anatomy is all the same,” he added in a hushed tone, as if he were telling her a secret. “You never know what specialty you're going to get in an ER rotation,” he continued, “this is a teaching hospital -- just be glad you didn't get stuck with an intern!" he teased in mock horror. He grinned and gave a small chuckle, then turned to the nurse and instructed her to let him know when they were ready for him, before grabbing Kara’s chart and leaving the room.
Kara groaned and nodded her head, acquiescing. Well, this was it, the epitome of her life, she was about to be spread eagle in front of Adonis himself. Did she shave? She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she had. Good thing she lived by the golden rule: always have on clean underwear, and keep the downstairs tidy, just in case you're in an accident and sent to the hospital. She hadn’t been in an accident, but she was definitely in the hospital.
The nurse was speaking and brought Kara back out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"We're going to have to move you to another room with an exam table." The nurse pulled the curtain to Kara's hospital bay and walked into the hall to retrieve a wheelchair then braced Kara's back and helped lift her off the bed and slowly down into the wheelchair. They made their way quickly down the hall to another exam room where Melinda quickly set the equipment they would need for the pelvic on the metal tray. Then she pulled out the stirrups.
“Okay, you know the drill, scoot down to the bottom of the table, and put your legs in the stirrups.” Melinda patted the end of the table and Kara did as instructed, grunting with the movement. Her insides felt as though they were being squished. That feeling alone caused her nausea to kick back in and she had to take deep breaths to avoid vomiting on the floor.
The nurse tugged on Kara's gown, pulling it up above her pubic bone while securing the drape across her stomach for modesty. Kara pushed the sheet a little further up her thighs, giving her a greater sense of coverage, even though she knew it really covered nothing. Melinda smiled down at her and finished prepping the instruments preparing for Kara's pelvic. Just as she was finishing up Doctor Dietrich entered the room and Kara let out an internal groan. There would be no end to her humiliation today.
"We're ready." Melinda looked up at Jason and stepped to the side of the exam table, patting Kara on the arm for support. Jason sat down in the chair and talked his way through the exam. Kara couldn’t help but wonder how often he did this. Being in pediatrics, he couldn’t possibly do many pelvic exams, but he seemed to know what he was doing. "I'm going to put in the speculum, it'll be a little cold and you'll feel pressure." Kara just nodded her head, her cheeks flaming red. Doctor Dietrich took the samples he needed, set the specimens down on the tray and removed the speculum.
And now for the ultimate embarrassment: the feeling of the ovaries.
Jason stood up between Kara's legs and grabbed the lubricant.
He carefully squeezed a small amount from the tube and rubbed it on his fingers, then gingerly inserted two fingers while pressing down on Kara's abdomen as she stared at the ceiling and imagined she was anywhere else but where she was, or that it was an elderly doctor with gray hair and bottle top glasses between her legs.
"Left ovary...Right ovary..." Jason pulled his hand out and peeled the gloves off, tossed them in the trash, then looked over at Kara. He reached over and placed his hand on her arm. "Everything looks fine, we're sending the samples off, but that is just procedure and I'm pretty sure this is a clear case of appendicitis. We'll get you down to CT as soon as possible, and after we get those results back, we'll call surgery down for a consult." He then turned to the nurse, "Go ahead and give her seventy-five ml Demerol for pain.” Looking at Kara he gave her a small, understanding smile, “We'll try to get you a little more comfortable."
"Thanks, Dr. Dietrich." Kara gave a small smile in return as she slowly sat up on the table, preparing to get in the wheelchair for the ride back to her trauma bay room.
That's when it dawned on her who he was. Dr. Jason Dietrich, MD specializing in pediatrics was Jason Dietrich from Lake High School. Just when Kara thought she couldn't be more embarrassed, she realized that the light of her junior year had just minutes before had his hands all up in her business. Those very hands that she'd fantasized about while watching him write on an assignment or read a book in the library, the slow way his fingers would linger on a page before smoothly turning to the next driving her to distraction.
Kara had noticed Jason immediately upon arrival at her new school. He was gorgeous, with his unruly hair and sharp features. Time had not changed him much, that was for sure. Kara remembered Jason didn't date in high school, everyone made sure to point that out immediately if his name was ever brought up. Like it had mattered. Kara knew if he did date, it would have never been with her anyway, why should she care if he turned all the desperate girls in their school down?
While she may have known she would never be with him, it didn't stop her fascination. Every now and then she would see him in the hallway walking to class and just as they would pass each other, he'd smile, showing a hint of dimples. It was the highlight of her day when that happened.
Now here he was, back in her
life in the most absurd way. So why did she feel like maybe this was a new chance
~*~
"Dr. Dietrich?" Melinda called out walking up to him in the hallway. "Ms. Baker's test results are back."
"Thank you." Jason glanced up in acknowledgement and gave her a polite smile. He retrieved the CT and ultrasound results and quickly looked them over. After checking everything out he placed the call to surgery for a consult and returned to Kara's room to give her the news.
When he walked into her trauma bay Jason found Kara resting, the pain meds he had prescribed earlier having finally taken affect. A tall woman was leaning on the shoulder of a blond man in the chairs against the wall; they too appeared to be asleep. Jason softly cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, but nobody seemed to notice.
"Kara," Jason said quietly, gently shaking her arm to wake her.
She slowly opened her eyes but they remained droopy from the effects of the Demerol.
"Your tests are back, looks like it is appendicitis. I've called surgery down for a consult; they should be here in the next thirty minutes. After they take a quick look they'll probably take you on back."
Kara nodded her head slowly, a small smile forming, "Thank you, Jason." Her eyes closed and she turned her head away, falling back asleep.
Jason. Not Dr. Dietrich. Did she remember him, too?
Chapter Three
Kara woke up to the rhythmic beating of the heart monitor and turned her head to look around. She spotted Evalyn sitting in the visitors’ chair next to the bed flipping through a magazine.
"Hey," Kara croaked.
"Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?" Eva put the magazine down and grabbed Kara's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.