Carrying The Surgeon's Baby

He was unbuttoning his shirt to put on his scrubs and Emily tried not to watch. She wanted to believe him.

“I’d had a lot to drink that night. I don’t remember you telling me that.”

“I remember, sort of. I guess we’ both had a lot to drink that night because an Elvis impersonator married us? Really? That sounds tacky.” It was a joke meant to break the tension and it did.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips and she couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “Right. Completely tacky.”

“I’m glad you decided to keep the baby,” he said softly.

“Of course I would.”

A strange expression crossed his face as he slipped off his shirt and then pulled his scrub top over his head. For a moment Emily thought that he didn’t quite believe that she would’ve kept this baby. Everyone had a choice, but she knew she’d wanted this child the moment the stick had turned blue.

Was it planned? No, but she was happy to be pregnant. She liked kids, which was why she’d become a pediatric surgeon.

“After this surgery we really need to sit down and talk,” he said.

“Right. About the conjoined twins. I have to go over the chart...”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What’re you talking about?”

“The conjoined twins case. What’re you talking about?”

“I’m talking about our marriage and the baby.”

Her heart skipped a beat and she could feel the warmth creeping up her necks into her cheeks. “Ryan, we don’t have a marriage.”

“We’re still married. We can’t get an annulment and I’m not sure about signing the divorce papers.”

Of course.

He had to make this difficult by not signing the papers. It was frustrating.

“Is that what you want to talk about? You want to talk about the divorce? It’s all laid out in the papers.”

“No, I don’t want to talk about a divorce, Emily,” he said in frustration. “I want to talk about you and me and the baby. About what we should do.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “There is no you and I, Ryan. We made a silly mistake in Vegas.”

“I don’t think it was silly,” he said seriously.

“What? You can’t be serious.”

“I am serious, Emily. I want to raise our baby...” He paused and looked a bit uncertain. “I want us to raise our baby together.”

CHAPTER THREE (#u966b18f1-6ea3-54ca-8b76-92d7e0a996f1)

EMILY DIDN’T WANT to talk about it. She thought the whole idea was absurd. He wanted to talk about their relationship? He wanted to make it work? To raise a baby together? They didn’t have a relationship. They’d met, had a few drinks and had a one-night stand. And she wasn’t even sure she totally believed him about not getting her emails.

He’d acted surprised, though.

Although Robert had been a good actor too. She’d been duped before. Emily bit her lip. She wasn’t sure what to think.

Other than the work he’d published and the talks she’d listened to, she knew nothing about him and he knew nothing about her. That was not the basis for any kind of relationship. Her parents were best friends. They’d taken their time to get to know each other and they’d had a long, happy marriage.

They still had a good marriage.

Ryan and she didn’t have that.

They’d had one night together. That was the basis for nothing.

There was a tiny kick and she looked down at her belly. Well, maybe it wasn’t completely nothing, but still she didn’t want to talk about this with Ryan. They didn’t have a real marriage. Why did he seem so keen to get involved now?

“We’re not talking about this,” she said quickly. “I’ll meet you down in the OR.”

“I don’t know where the OR floor is and I don’t have access to it.”

Dammit.

“Finished getting dressed,” she said through pursed lips.

“Emily—”

“No,” she snapped. “The only thing we’re going to talk about after this surgery is the conjoined twin case. It’s a very important case and the mother is arriving tomorrow. If the babies survive the birth and make it through their first week of life, we have to talk about a plan to do the separation. That’s all I want to talk about right now. Just patients, just cases. That’s it, Ryan. That’s all I can handle.” And it was true. She was feeling overwhelmed. She hadn’t felt this way since Robert had betrayed her and she hated this feeling.

His eyes narrowed and he undid the buckle to his jeans. “Fine.”

Only she had a feeling by the way he’d said “Fine” that this wasn’t over and that this discussion was going to continue. He was persistent enough. It was something she’d admired about him. He was driven and that’s why he was the best there was in neurosurgery and why she’d striven to continue to rise in her chosen field.

There had been so many people who’d said she couldn’t be a surgeon when she struggled with Asperger’s, when she struggled with social anxieties, but she had risen above so much to get where she was. She worked longer hours. She worked hard.

To be perfect. To be the best.

Her pregnancy made her human and that had been a hard pill to swallow, but she’d never shied away from her mistakes, but to think that she and Ryan had something more than just a momentary attraction was silly.

It’s not momentary. You’re still attracted to him.

And her cheeks heated as he picked up the scrub pants. She cleared her throat and looked away. “I’ll be out in the hall and then we can head down to the OR.”

“Fine,” he said, but there was a devilish twinkle in his eyes as if he knew that he was affecting her and she hated that.

She slipped out of the attendings’ lounge and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes and trying to catch her breath. When she opened them again, she could see a few of the interns, nurses and even physicians watching her, whispering as they looked at her belly.

Dammit.

She hated being the center of attention when it came to gossip. She didn’t mind it when it was about her work, but when it involved her baby and now her supposed marriage to Ryan, it bothered her.

The door to the lounge opened up and Ryan stepped out wearing scrubs instead of his street clothes. He looked good in the dark blue of the SMFPC attending colors. The color brought out the intensity of his cerulean eyes.