Dr. Destiny

‘‘Okay, give me a second.’’ For some reason Cassie felt the need to do a quick touch-up. She pulled a mirror and a tube of lipstick from her desk drawer. Unfortunately, her hair looked like the product of a screwdriver rammed into an electrical outlet. Not much she could do about it now.

‘‘Hurry up, Cassie.’’

Cassie shoved the drawer closed on the reminders of her bad-hair day and followed Michelle out the door. Michelle’s husband, Dr. Nick Kempner, joined them on the elevator along with two teenage girls.

‘‘Hey, where have you been all my life, beautiful?’’ Nick gave his smile and a kiss to Michelle. The girls giggled; Cassie grinned. She couldn’t help it. The couple’s joy over seeing each other was contagious, serving as fuel for Cassie’s fantasy that someday she might be as lucky as Michelle.

The elevator seemed too small to contain Michelle’s overt enthusiasm. She rocked back and forth on her heels and muttered, ‘‘This thing is so slow.’’

‘‘They’ll wait for you, Auntie Michelle,’’ Nick teased.

‘‘I know. But I can’t wait to get my hands on him.’’

After the teens exited on the second floor, leaving only Cassie and the Kempners, Cassie regarded Michelle with a curious stare. ‘‘Are you getting some maternal urges, Michelle?’’

Michelle and Nick exchanged a look. ‘‘I have some urges all right,’’ Nick said. ‘‘Cassie, mind getting off on three and walking up to five? I was thinking maybe I’d take advantage of my wife in this empty elevator.’’

Michelle sent him a playful look. ‘‘Nick, we just got back from our honeymoon yesterday.’’ She turned her grin on Cassie. ‘‘The man is greedy.’’

A bite of envy mixed with embarrassment fired up Cassie’s face. She felt like an intruder horning in on two lovers’ private moment.

‘‘Cut it out, you guys,’’ Cassie said when Nick buried his face in his wife’s neck. ‘‘This isn’t a nice thing to do to a single woman with no prospects.’’ She immediately thought about Brendan and fought back a rush of excitement and apprehension about seeing him again.

Nick looked at her with surprise. ‘‘Hey, Cassie, I happen to know more than a few guys—’’

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open, saving Cassie from Nick Kempner’s offer to rescue her from the cesspool of self-imposed celibacy by finding her ‘‘a man.’’ They traveled down the hall and pushed through the double doors and into the area immediately outside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In the nearby waiting room they found Dr. Jared Granger standing over his wife, Brooke, who was seated in a chair holding a bundle of soft blue blanket. Next to Jared stood Jeanie and Howard Lewis, proud-grandparent smiles plastered on their faces.

Cassie released a breath of relief when she noted that Brendan wasn’t anywhere around. That fact also brought about disappointment. Just as well, she supposed.

Michelle hovered over the baby, cooing like a mourning dove. Cassie made her way to Brooke who pulled back the blanket, revealing the tiny baby boy with a small cap of downy blond hair and one hand curled against his cheek, his eyes struggling to focus against the harsh fluorescent light.

Warmth flooded Cassie’s chest, and longing gripped her heart. ‘‘He’s beautiful, Brooke. I know you’re thrilled to finally be taking him home.’’

Brooke looked from her son to Cassie, her eyes misty. ‘‘Two months is a long time to wait. But it was worth it.’’ She gazed at her husband with adoration. ‘‘We did good, didn’t we, Daddy?’’

‘‘No, we did great.’’ Jared leaned down and brushed a tender kiss across Brooke’s cheek, then did the same to his son.

A few people might overdose on all the love radiating from this family, but not Cassie. She craved being a part of something so special. Thoughts of the mother she had never known filtered into her consciousness as she watched the group gather round to discuss who little Matthew Granger favored. The general consensus was Howard Lewis, due to the baby’s sparse hair and chubby cheeks.

Cassie shared in the laughter while wondering what her own mother had been thinking when she’d left three days after Cassie’s birth. Had she realized that her careless disregard had left her then-husband a bitter man who’d never been able to make an emotional commitment to his only child? And in turn, Cassie had tried to find love in all the wrong places, a mistake she still paid for even after years of trying to right that wrong by being a success in her career, a faithful daughter. Futile attempts to earn her father’s respect, even if she couldn’t earn his love. She never had, and she’d finally come to realize that she never would.

She had also come to terms with the fact that she’d never know her mother after learning through relatives that the woman who’d borne her, then deserted her, had died two years ago.

At least the Granger baby would never have to experience such heartache, never lack in the love department.

‘‘You ready to go, Brooke?’’ Jared asked, drawing Cassie out of her melancholy remembrance.

‘‘Sure, but I want to thank Dr. O’Connor first.’’

‘‘No thanks needed. Just send me a picture now and then to add to my collection.’’

Cassie looked from the baby to Brendan, and her heart took a plunge. She routinely came in contact with him on a daily basis, but today was different. He looked the same, still gorgeous with that even-tempered aura everyone had come to respect and admire. His staff adored him and so did his patients’ parents. Though the stress level in the NICU was off the scale, morale was high on that unit, all because of Dr. Brendan O’Connor’s grace under fire.

Brendan shook Nick and Jared’s hand then his gaze met Cassie’s. He gave her a slight smile and a guarded look that told her he was remembering last night, too. Or maybe she was reading too much into it.

After handing Jared a vinyl case, Brendan said, ‘‘Here’s the apnea monitor. Any questions?’’

‘‘Millie gave us instructions,’’ Jared said. ‘‘We’ll let you know if anything comes up.’’

Jeanie Lewis stepped forward, wringing her hands. ‘‘Doctor, do you think he’s well enough to go home? Since his lungs—’’

‘‘He’s fine, Mrs. Lewis.’’ Brendan sent her a reassuring smile, revealing his little-boy dimple. ‘‘The monitor’s a precautionary measure. It’s only for a little while to make sure everything’s okay. Try not to worry.’’

Howard Lewis laughed, taking Cassie by surprise. The man rarely got a word in edgewise with his wife’s penchant for chatter. ‘‘That’s like telling a politician not to make promises.’’

They all laughed then, except for Jeanie Lewis. But the laughter died when a nurse rushed through the NICU doors. ‘‘Dr. O’Connor. The Neely baby’s crashing.’’

Brendan spun around and said, ‘‘Good luck,’’ then disappeared through the unit entrance.

A heavy silence settled over the group until Jared said, ‘‘Let’s get out of here.’’

Cassie followed the party down to the lobby and said her goodbyes, then returned to her first-floor office. She made a few necessary phone calls, all the while worrying about the Neely’s critically ill baby, and Brendan.

An hour later she received the news that Brendan had pulled the baby through the latest crisis and that the Neelys were waiting on five, in dire need of some consolation.

Cassie returned to the fifth floor and spoke with the frazzled parents, doing her very best to assure them that their daughter was receiving excellent care under Dr. O’Connor’s expert guidance. She encouraged them to go to the cafeteria for some coffee; they would be paged if anything changed. When they insisted on staying nearby, Cassie set out to find Brendan.

She donned a paper gown and entered the NICU. Once inside, she conducted a visual search and encountered the usual flurry of activity among the staff, several she acknowledged with a brief greeting. Sounds of periodic alarms and the hiss of ventilators rang in her ears. In the most critical area, rows of transparent incubators held babies of all sizes and conditions, some so small they were barely visible among all the lines and tubes. A few parents sat near the tiny beds, touching with care in an attempt to bond with their babies, infants who could not be held because of the detriment to their fragile conditions.

Time suspended in this place of heartache and hope. Cassie had seen it all before, the sadness, the joy, the precious battle for life from the smallest of warriors. She had dealt with disheartened parents and provided bereavement counseling when necessary, all facets of her job. Yet she didn’t know if she could deal with the stress of caring for sick babies on a daily basis. How did Brendan do it, day in and day out?

When she didn’t immediately see Brendan, Cassie approached one of the nurses crouched in front of a supply cabinet. ‘‘Excuse me, Millie.’’

The woman looked back, and recognition dawned in her expression. She smiled. ‘‘Hi, Cassie. What can I do for you?’’

‘‘I just finished speaking with the Neelys. How’s their little girl doing?’’

Millie glanced at a nearby crib where another nurse and respiratory therapist stood close by monitoring the baby girl. ‘‘Okay, for now. Dr. O’Connor worked like the devil to bring her around. That guy is amazing.’’

Cassie couldn’t agree more. ‘‘Do you know where he is?’’

‘‘He left a while ago after talking to the parents.’’ She nodded toward a man at the end of the aisle. ‘‘Dr. Segovia’s relieving him.’’

‘‘Did Dr. O’Connor say where he was going?’’

Millie shrugged. ‘‘Home, I guess. He wanted to stick around but Segovia told him to get out of here.’’

Cassie’s concern increased ten-fold. ‘‘Is he okay?’’