Solemn Oath

Lukas let her go. It was easier on the child for the parent to leave the room than to pass out or become sick right there by the bed. He returned to the wounds, noting with concern that there was still some active bleeding, but since there was no involvement of the muscle, he didn’t worry too much about it.

“Jason, when was Abby’s last tetanus shot?” he asked. “Does she have any drug allergies that you know of?”

The man glanced at the wounds, then at Lukas, looking helpless. “I’ll have to go ask Lindy.” He left to find his wife.

Lukas gave Claudia instructions for skin prep and topical anesthetic, then left to get more information from the parents. He had just reached the central desk when he heard low, angry voices in the entrance to the first trauma room.

“You have to blame me for everything, don’t you?” Jason Cuendet spat. “But you can’t even be there for your own daughter when she needs you most.”

“You know how I hate the sight of blood. I just can’t stand to see her like this.”

“It’s always about you, isn’t it? Why don’t you think of somebody besides yourself for once?”

“That’s precious, coming from you. When do you ever think of—”

Lukas cleared his throat. “Um, excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt. Is Abby’s tetanus up to date?”

In a voice still filled with anger, Lindy replied that it was.

“Good,” Lukas said. “And how about drug or antibiotic allergies?”

Lindy shook her head, glaring at her husband.

Lukas took a couple of cautious steps closer to the couple. He hated interfering in what appeared to be a deep-rooted family dispute, but he often saw parents blame each other when a child was injured, and it always made the situation worse.

“Your daughter is going to be fine. We’ll stitch her up and have her out of here in good time. Has Abby had other accidents like this?”

Jason switched his brooding gaze from his wife to Lukas. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, stop it, Jason,” Lindy snapped. “You’re always trying to start something with somebody.” She turned to Lukas. “She fell and cut her knee at school last year. That’s when she had the tetanus shot.”

“When was the last time her eyes were checked?” Lukas asked. “I had to have my glasses changed frequently when I was her age, and I was always tripping over things.” He saw Jason relax. The suspicion of child abuse never seemed to be far from anyone’s mind lately.

As they talked about that, he slowly led them back toward Abby’s room, where Claudia had everything ready to go.

“It’ll be okay,” he assured Abby and her parents as he washed his hands and gloved.

But when he turned back to Abby, Lindy walked out into the hallway again.

Her husband’s loud, disgusted sigh filled the exam room. “I don’t believe this,” he muttered.

Abby tensed, and Lukas repressed a strong urge to ask him to leave, as well. At times like this he had to remind himself that he needed to learn more patience. Looked like Jason Cuendet could use some, too.

He picked up the anesthesia syringe. “Claudia says I’m not too bad with stitches, and she wouldn’t say anything nice about me if she didn’t have to.” He shot the nurse a teasing glance, then redirected his focus to Abby. “If the sight of blood bothers you, why don’t you just look the other way?”

Abby shook her head. “I’m used to it. I’ve had some nosebleeds.”

“Why don’t we play my favorite Popsicle game?” Ordinarily Lukas didn’t use this tactic with a child as old as Abby, but she could be a little less secure than others her age. Her parents were behaving quite immaturely, and he found himself wondering if they acted like this all the time. “If these shots hurt after the first little sting, you let me know and you get a Popsicle. What flavor do you like?”

Abby looked from him to the nurse, her lips pressed together, eyes narrowed, as if making a monumental decision. “Grape.”

“I think we have that, don’t we, Claudia?”

Claudia grinned at the girl. “Sure do.”

“Good.” He raised the syringe once more. “Now, we’ll numb you up, and everything will go smoothly. Abby, you can’t watch me when I do it, because that would be cheating.”

She turned her head and looked away, but her father hovered in an almost-threatening stance, watching every move Lukas made.

Lukas slid the point of the needle just underneath the edge of the skin cut.

“What’re you doing it like that for?” Cuendet snapped. “Trying to kill the kid?”

Abby whimpered and drew back.

Lukas shot an irritated glance at the father, fighting the urge to plunge the needle into the wrong person. “Due to the nerve endings on the noninjured skin,” he snapped, then took a breath and tried to slow his words and his annoyance, “it’s actually more painful to inject through the skin surface. As long as the wound is not grossly contaminated, I prefer to do this so it won’t hurt the child.” He looked more closely at the man’s pale, moist skin. “We have a water cooler and some paper towels out in the waiting room. Would you want to step outside for a moment?”

The man shook his head, but he didn’t hover so close to his daughter. Lukas had barely stitched the first cut when Jason took a deep breath, released it and walked out of the room.

With both parents gone, Claudia managed to divert Abby’s attention from the procedure. She asked about Abby’s brother and sister and encouraged her to talk about her favorite sport, baseball. Then Abby’s attention caught and held on something past the open threshold of the exam room. Her eyes widened, and she stared for a long moment.

“I don’t need that grape Popsicle now,” she said at last, her voice soft, almost reverent.

Lukas finished tying off a stitch. “I’m that good, huh?” He winked at Claudia.

“That’s not it.”

Claudia laughed.

Abby looked back at the sutures Lukas had placed, then looked up at him. “I’m too old for stuff like that. You won’t tell Tedi how scared I was, will you?”

“Of course not. You don’t act scared now.”

“Nope. Mom and Dad are more scared than I am.”

“I noticed.”

“At least I didn’t get in trouble for making them miss work. I guess all that blood got to them. Wait’ll I show Tedi my stitches. Are you going to marry Dr. Mercy?”

Lukas nearly dropped the needle driver he was using. “What?”

“She likes you. She always talks about you, and so does Tedi. You’d sure be a better father than Tedi’s real father was.”

He glanced at Claudia, who was at least keeping her laughter to herself.

“Are you sure you don’t want a Popsicle?” he urged. Children were growing up too fast these days. “Aren’t sixth-graders supposed to still like Popsicles?”

Abby shrugged. “Nah, I’m not hungry.” She glanced again out the exam room entrance.