Edible Delectables (2 page)

“We’ll be there in ten babe, just sit tight,” Eva assured her.

“Thanks, Eva.”  Kara hung up the phone and moaned into the pillow as she gently tried to roll herself off the bed.  The pain in her side flared.

~*~

The ER was busy, as it always was on a Friday night.  The problem was that this Friday, they were down two residents and one attending due to the recent flu outbreak.  Tonight it was going to be all hands on deck, regardless of department.

Dr. Jason Dietrich’s shift started at eight that morning and it was now closing in on ten o’clock at night.  Most of the patients had the flu, or some complication resulting from having had the flu, but there were also a lot of the typical Friday night cases.  Jason knew the later it got, the more they’d see of those; the drunks making bad decisions and hurting themselves or somebody else.  Working in pediatrics generally spared him from these cases, but on nights like tonight it didn’t matter your department or specialty, you hit the floor running and didn’t stop until there was another doctor there to cover you.  Of course, when a child came in Jason handled the case, but thankfully there weren’t many minors in the ER tonight.  As much as he loved his specialty, he hated to see children suffering, especially during the flu season and this close to Christmas.

Jason was just finishing up in the bathroom when his pager once again sounded.  Sighing deeply, he washed his hands and braced himself against the sink, leaning slightly to relieve the pressure on his feet.  Staring at his reflection, he could see light circles under his eyes.  His face was pale in contrast to his dark hair and his fatigue was clearly written in his features.  He was tired, but this was nothing new to him - although lately he’d been feeling quite a bit older than his twenty-eight years.  Standing up straight he stretched his arms above his head and popped his neck and back as best he could before heading back into the pit.

Chapter Two

Kara grunted as Eric helped her out of the car.  The ER appeared busy.  Evalyn and Eric shared a concerned look and crossed their fingers they wouldn’t have to wait too long to get called.

“Have you called Paul yet?” Evalyn asked, as they made their way inside the building.  She dug in her purse for a hair band and quickly pulled her long strawberry blonde hair into a pony tail.  Eric walked beside her, his arm around Kara’s midsection, trying to help ease the discomfort caused by walking.  Paul was Kara’s father, her mother had passed away while Kara was in high school, and ever since her father had raised her alone  He’d done a fine job and Kara had grown up happy, but he tended to overreact where Kara’s health and well-being were concerned.

“Hell no, you know how he worries.  It’ll probably end up being…” Kara waved her hands in an offhanded gesture.

“Gas?” Eric snickered.  Kara groaned and swatted at Eric’s arm as he and Evalyn helped ease her into the waiting room chair.  Eric scrubbed his nails through his blond hair and rubbed his face vigorously.  It had been a long day, and Kara knew the last thing her friends wanted was to be sitting in an ER waiting room.  Kara was one of their best friends, though, and she needed them right now. She was grateful as she watched him shift in his seat and get as comfortable as he could, settling in for the long haul.

“I’ll go check you in.”  Kara nodded and Evalyn walked to the window at the front of the room where a receptionist sat behind the glass.  As Evalyn talked to the receptionist, Kara continued to try and find a comfortable position, sitting up straight, slouching, then stretching out her legs, but nothing alleviated the pain in her side.  Finally, she pulled herself from the chair and leaned with her back against the wall in obvious discomfort.

As her pain intensified over the last hour, Kara’s nausea returned.  Evalyn returned with a clipboard full of forms and began asking her questions.  They were still working on the forms when Evalyn’s cell phone rang.

“Hi, Vicki,” Evalyn answered, handing the clipboard off to Eric to complete then walking outside to take the call.  Eric took over asking questions, but when they got to the section asking about her last menstrual cycle and whether or not she could be pregnant, he got flustered.  With a huff  Kara yanked the clipboard from his hands, to finish by herself.

Eric returned the completed forms to the receptionist and asked if he could get an estimate on their wait time.  He was given the standard clipped reply, “This is a triage, and the most critical patients are seen first.”  Nodding his head in understanding, Eric returned to Kara, looking slightly concerned that she was obviously getting worse.

After an hour of shifting, leaning and groaning Kara could take no more.  Slightly hunched, she made her way to the receptionist.

“Excuse me,” Kara spoke quietly, trying to get the woman’s attention.  The brown haired receptionist, whose name tag read Laura, glanced up looking slightly annoyed.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her bored voice obviously reflecting her disdain for her job..  Kara couldn’t help but think perhaps Laura was working in the wrong field.  Surely, there was a small dark file room someplace in the hospital where her professionalism would be more suited.

“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 with 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.