Solemn Oath (18 page)

“So you met him a month or so ago?” Finally she was talking.

“A couple of months ago. He's from another town, and he's seventeen, so Mom and Dad wouldn't let me go out with him even if I asked.” She shot Mercy another glance, and this time held it longer. “You said you wouldn't tell Mom and Dad.”

“That's right.” Much as she wanted to warn them to protect their daughter, Mercy was prevented from doing so by the laws heaped more and more often on physicians.

“Well, I keep running into him on Friday and Saturday nights, and lately he's been taking me out driving.” Shannon continued to tangle her fingers around each other. She glanced again at Mercy, this time more bravely.

Mercy kept her expression composed, serene. “You really like him, do you?”

Shannon nodded. “A couple of weeks ago he drove me out onto this logging road in the forest, and we parked and kissed for a while. Then he asked me if I wanted to…you know…go further.”

Mercy did not allow herself to react like a parent but like a logical family doc. “Did you discuss birth control and VD histories?”

Shannon shook her head. “I just said no. It would be too embarrassing to…you know. Anyway, he kept looking at me…that way…like he liked what he saw.”

Mercy bit her tongue for a moment. She wanted to ask if this kid even knew what Shannon's face looked like, or appreciated her sense of humor, or knew how many brothers and sisters she had. “Why don't you tell me what you like about this guy.”

Shannon grinned and rolled her eyes, then shrugged. “He's cute, and he's older. He's got a great car. The guys at school don't even know I exist, but he's started looking for me in town on Fridays.”

“Has he taken you out to dinner?”

Shannon looked down at her hands. “It's not like that. We just kind of hang out.”

And for this she was thinking about sacrificing her body?

Shannon shrugged. “My girlfriend says it's just sex. No big deal.”

The phrase irritated Mercy. She knew she hadn't intended to lecture, but she couldn't help herself. “Shannon Becker, I've watched you grow from a sweet little five-year-old to a beautiful young woman, and I must tell you that you are very special to me.”

Shannon looked up at her. “I am?”

“Yes, and because of that I hate to see you give something precious away to somebody who probably doesn't even see
the beautiful flecks of gold in your gray eyes, or hear the lilt in your laugh when you're not too self-conscious to let loose.”

“But he's always telling me I'm pretty.”

“Do you laugh with this boy? Do you share your thoughts and dreams with him? Does he share his with you? Shannon, the physical intimacies between a man and a woman are life changing and beautiful—or they can be with the right person. It's never ‘just sex.' It's always a ‘big deal,' something to be anticipated and cherished.”

Shannon looked down at her hands, her face reddening again. “He thought I was weird because I'm still a virgin. Some of my friends do, too.”

“A lot of people will say or do anything to convince you that you're weird if you don't live the way they do. Don't listen to them. Your virginity makes you special.”

Shannon stared down at her hands as she thought about that for a moment. “Mom said something like that a long time ago, when she told me all the stuff about the facts of life. But kids at school say—”

“Not everybody at school has discarded their virginity. Those who have will try to convince you to join them because they know they've lost something valuable, and they don't want to feel they're the only ones.”

Shannon hesitated. She sighed deeply, slowly. “I really think this guy likes me. He says he does.”

“Lots of people
like
you, Shannon. It takes a lot more than that to share the most intimate part of yourself.” This girl was already beautiful, with a look of joyful anticipation that often came into her eyes when she talked. And in spite of her awkward adolescence, she had a graceful way of moving. Zach and Lee would have their hands full with her the next few years, starting now.

“Shannon, sex is more than just physical, but it affects you physically. You can get pregnant even if you do use birth
control. There are diseases out there now that can dramatically change your life or even end it. They're right here in Knolls, and teenagers are one of the highest-risk groups.”

Shannon's eyes widened. Okay, so fear was the best tactic with her.

“Your friends won't tell you about that even if they've got it,” Mercy continued. “Nobody talks about it, but it happens all the time. I know because I see it all the time, even with first-timers. And even if you talk to this boy about it and he tells you he's clean, he doesn't know for sure, not if he's been with anybody else.”

Shannon sighed and leaned back in her chair. “You're not going to give me birth control pills, are you, Dr. Mercy?”

Wasn't the kid listening? But then, what if she didn't get the pills, and then she got pregnant? “Okay, let me give you some information about oral contraceptives. You have to take them faithfully, every day, or they aren't reliable. They do not protect from venereal disease of any kind. Also, there have been studies lately linking breast cancer later in life to an extra surge of estrogen now. Remember the lump your mother had last year? Breast disorders run in your family.” Mercy reached toward her prescription pad. “However, if you still feel you must have this medication in order to prevent pregnancy, I'll write this out for you—”

“Um, well, Dr. Mercy, wait.”

Mercy paused and looked at Shannon across the desk.

Shannon bit her lip, thinking. “Maybe I
could
have another talk with Mom about this. You know, before I decide for sure. Maybe I can get Mom to herself for a few minutes away from my brothers and sister, and when she's not working, or not cooking. Maybe.” She made a face. “Or maybe I could even corner Dad.”

Mercy nodded, relieved. “That's good, Shannon. If you want me to talk to them, I'll be happy—”

Shannon gasped. “No! I don't want them to know it's
me
I'm talking to them about. I mean, I've got great parents, but get real. They'd spaz.”

Mercy thought again of her own daughter. Was it possible Tedi could have a future relationship with her
own
father?

And then as she said goodbye to Shannon and watched her walk out the door, thoughts of Lukas came bursting through. She thought about last Thursday night and the sudden, powerful awareness that had caught them both. She smiled and allowed the warmth to seep back through her, allowed the hope to lift her. They were more than just buddies—a lot more. She even appreciated Lukas moving cautiously, because it meant their relationship was something very important to him, too.

She would give him more time.

 

“Temperature is going back down from 93 to 92.4,” Lauren said sadly.

“Stop CPR.” Lukas placed his stethoscope once more on the young woman's chest. He heard nothing. No heartbeat, no breath sounds. He looked at the monitor. The rhythm was asystole, flatline, as it had been for the past fifteen minutes. He checked the pupils. Fixed and dilated. He felt that old specter of grief catch him. “Claudia, what time is it?”

Claudia, the official recorder for the code, looked at her watch. “Nine-thirty a.m.”

“Time of death 9:30 a.m. Sorry, everyone. This one wasn't meant to be.”

A collective aura of disappointment echoed through the room. Slowly, as if in shock, code team members removed gloves and other gear and gathered up scattered plastic and paper containers that had held the equipment they'd used.

Lukas stood looking at the wreckage of the body that had belonged to a young girl with a future just a few hours ago. He knew that technically she was dead long before she
reached the E.R., but he couldn't help wondering, as he always did in cases like this, if there was something he could have done to change the outcome. Her temperature had been only 86 when she came in. It looked as if she'd fallen into the lake and probably hit her head against some rocks and inhaled water.

The three fishermen who had found her were now back at the lake with the police, scouring the shoreline for some kind of ID so they could locate and inform the girl's family.

A gasping sigh registered behind Lukas, and he turned to find Buck standing by the doorway, his hands clasped in front of him, his face drenched with tears as he stared at the dead girl's white face.

“Buck?” Lukas took a step toward him. “Are you okay?”

He nodded, but the tears continued, his face reddening with the effort to control his emotions.

Lukas looked again at the face of the dead patient. Of course. Why hadn't he noticed? She looked like Buck's wife.

“Kendra's father was a fireman,” Buck said at last, sniffing and wiping his face with the back of his hand. “Year before last he was killed in the line of duty down in Mountain Home, Arkansas. He was pulling a little kid out of a burning house, and a wall fell in on him.”

Lukas watched Buck continue to struggle with his emotions. “I didn't know about that, Buck. I kind of picked up on some of the things you said, but I didn't realize—”

“He got the kid out, though. Fred's death kind of sent Kendra off the deep end for a while. She was upset one night after I came in from a big fire, and she said she might as well just kill herself now, because she didn't want to live if the same thing happened to me.” Buck shook his head. “She almost succeeded, too, before I caught her with an empty bottle of sleeping pills her doctor had prescribed for her after Fred's death. She looked as
dead as this gal.” He reached over and grabbed some tissues, blew his nose with a loud honk and then wiped his face. He jerked his head in the direction of the patient. “What happened here, Doc?”

“I don't know.” Lukas patted his friend on his broad, muscular shoulder. “But I know this isn't Kendra. You still have a chance to try to convince her how good life can be. You obviously love her. Make sure she knows it.”

 

The evening sun still peered over the rolling Ozark hills in the western horizon when Lukas stepped out of the hospital for the first time in thirteen hours. The clouds that had begun on the ground this morning were now far to the east, just visible enough to reflect a brilliance of peach and mauve from one of the Missouri sunsets that were famous for their beauty and variety. Lukas wished he'd been out in the forest today, taking a long, much-needed hike on one of his favorite trails. Instead, he'd been busy here misdiagnosing a young E.R. employee. He had also filled out a death certificate on the drowning victim, young Julie Walters. The three rescuers had found ID at the scene of the accident at the lake. And that was before lunch.

On the upside, Lukas had discovered that the new full-time physician they had just hired would be worth the wait. Not only had Cherra Garcias caught Amanda's thyroid storm—which Lukas himself had missed—but she had covered most of the patients in E.R. for the rest of the day while Lukas plowed through hours of paperwork and committee meetings. Amanda was going to be fine and would improve quickly with proper treatment.

Which reminded him that even though tomorrow was covered and no one had canceled yet, he still had to come in for another meeting and a stack of—

“Lukas?”

The sound of Theodore's voice came from behind him.
He turned to find the man walking across the empty ambulance bay toward him.

“I just got off work, and I thought I'd walk over and try to catch you before you left the hospital.” Theo fell into step with Lukas. “Whew! That's quite a walk.”

“Working late?”

“We had an extra order that needed to get out tonight, and since I'm the newest employee, I got to stay and help.” Theo reached into the right back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small book. It was a New Testament. “Jack gave me this today.”

Lukas couldn't miss the sound of excitement in Theo's voice. They reached the Jeep, and he unlocked the passenger side. “Sounds like you've got a generous boss. Hop in, Theodore, and I'll drive you home.”

Theo stood at the open door, the glow from a nearby security light pole illuminating a smile on his face. “I found a Bible at work and read all the verses you told me to read, and everything fell into place. No wonder I've never been able to do anything right in my whole life. I've always tried to do it myself. I don't want to do that anymore.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I'm giving it all to Christ.” Emotion broke his voice, and the whiteness of his teeth showed in the glow of the light. “I believe.”

A
week later, on Monday morning, Lukas heard a squeal of car tires outside in the parking lot just as he was preparing for his first meeting with Mrs. Pinkley and the COBRA investigator. He glanced out the double glass doors of the waiting room and saw a man jump out of a late model Chevrolet with a small camcorder hanging from a strap around his neck. The man raced around the front of the car and opened the passenger door, then reached down to help a very pregnant woman out of the seat. An older woman emerged from the back, and the three of them walked toward the E.R. entrance.

Halfway across the parking lot, the pregnant woman stopped and grabbed the man's long, lanky arm with both hands. She bent over with a grimace of pain.

“Judy,” he called to the secretary, “better get a wheelchair. Looks like we've got a patient for Labor and Delivery.” Even as he spoke, the older woman also doubled over, hands to stomach. “Judy, make that two wheelchairs. Where's Lauren?”

The slender secretary with short salt-and-pepper hair jumped up from the desk and rushed toward the wall where the wheelchairs and gurneys were parked when not in use. “I think she's in the supply room helping Amanda restock.”

Lukas took the wheelchairs from Judy and aimed them toward the door. “Would you get them both, please? Have them meet me out in the parking lot.”

He managed to get both chairs out at the same time without breaking glass. Reaching the struggling man and two moaning women, he caught the pregnant woman just before she fell and eased her into the first wheelchair.

“Is Labor and Delivery expecting you?” he asked, then looked up to find, to his amazement, that the man was backing away from the scene and focusing his camcorder.

“Not yet.” The older woman grabbed the other wheelchair and sat down with a groan. She shot a wounding glance at the man. “Useless,” she muttered. “To him this is just one big movie scene.” She reached over and patted the younger woman's arm. “Told you not to marry the nut. But I'm here for you, Melinda. Just hang on.”

Melinda nodded, her face red and perspiring. She took a couple of deep breaths, then once more grabbed her abdomen and bent forward with another loud moan.

Lauren and Amanda came running out, and Lukas straightened to meet them. He gestured toward Melinda. “We need to take this one to Labor and Deliv—”

The older woman cried out and nearly fell out of the wheelchair. After a long, deep moan, she gasped. “Jeremy, get over here and help your wife before I choke you with the strap on that thing!”

The man nodded. “Just one more second, Mom. I want a shot of them wheeling her in.”

“Now!” Mom screamed loudly enough to awaken every patient in the hospital. She bent over again, eyes squeezed shut from the pain.

Lukas helped Amanda push Melinda's wheelchair onto the sidewalk, then turned back to Lauren. “Would you please take the mother to the E.R. She's apparently in pa—”

“Oh no you don't!” the woman shouted. “I'm part of this
package. This is my first grandbaby, and I'm not going to miss it. Ever heard of
couvade
? Jeremy, get over here!”

Lukas nodded in understanding. Of course. Melinda's mother-in-law was having sympathetic labor pains. It was a little unusual—usually if anyone suffered with
couvade
it was the husband—but other family members had been documented.

Reluctantly, the son powered down his precious cargo, and Lukas walked toward him, relieved. “We'll need you to provide some information for us over in the E.R., since our admitting office isn't open yet. Who's you obstetrician?”

The man grinned. “Dr. Mercy. Can you call her for me?”

 

“Hello, Mercy.”

At the sound of Theo's voice over the telephone, Mercy nearly spit out a mouthful of coffee. She swallowed instead, and it burned all the way down. Setting her cup on the counter, she looked over to see Tedi wandering into the kitchen in her pajamas, her tangled dark brown hair falling across her shoulders, her brown eyes muzzy with sleep.

“I hope I didn't wake you” came Theo's voice as Mercy pushed a bowl of hot cereal across to Tedi's place at the breakfast bar.

Be nice. Don't alarm Tedi. Keep it polite.
“No, I've been up awhile.” Mercy poured some orange juice with extra pulp and placed it beside the bowl of cereal, then motioned for Tedi to sit down and start eating.

“I was just getting ready to leave for work, and you probably are, too,” Theo said. “I wanted to apologize for barging in on Jarvis's party. It took me this long to work up the guts to talk to you again.”

Mercy frowned. There was no hint of sarcasm in his voice. He sounded sincere—but then, how many times had he fooled her and everyone else?

Still…she'd been thinking about things, and Mom was right. If she kept putting him off, he could get mad and go back to court and demand visitation rights. She did not want that.

“It's okay,” she said.

There was a shocked silence from the other end of the line.

She reached down and pushed Tedi's hair back from her face so it wouldn't fall into the cereal. “Actually, I know there are some things we will need to discuss.” She heard a swift intake of breath over the line, and she felt her own heart beating faster. Was this a good idea? She still despised the man, but her own personal feelings were not as important as Tedi. “I'm still off on Thursdays. Do you suppose we could have a telephone discussion? Or we could meet—”

“Yes. Anything. Name the time and I'll be there. I've been putting in some overtime, and if I explain to my boss—”

“That's not necessary, Theodo—” Too late, she caught the slip. She saw Tedi drop her spoon at the sound of his name, saw her eyes widen. She sighed inwardly. “When is your lunch hour?”

“I get off at eleven-thirty. I have thirty minutes, but I could take long—”

“No, that's okay. Little Mary's Barbecue is next door. I'll be there at eleven-thirty on Thursday.”

“Would you make it eleven, please? I told my boss everything, and he understands how important this is to me.”

Mercy rolled her eyes. Everyone in town knew about their situation. “Okay. Eleven.”

“I'll buy lunch.”

“No.”

There was a pause, then, “Thank you, Mercy.” She thought she heard a catch in his voice. “This means…so much. Thank you.” There was another pause. “You probably won't believe me, but I've been praying about this for the past week.”

Oh sure, and Billy Graham is a Hindu.
“I'll see you
then.” She hung up and looked down at her wide-eyed, openmouthed daughter.

“Mom, you're going to see Dad?”

“I need to talk with him.”

“Can I go with you?”

Mercy sank onto a stool at the breakfast bar. Had she lost her mind? What was she putting into motion with this meeting? Why was she even agreeing to talk to him? The fear of losing custody of Tedi still stalked her thoughts like a nightmare that wouldn't go away.

Tedi stepped over and took Mercy's hand. “Mom?”

Mercy sighed and drew Tedi forward. “Do you want to see him, honey?”

Tedi stared at her with big solemn brown eyes for a moment, then nodded. “I think so.”

The telephone rang again, and for an instant Mercy entertained the wild hope that it was Theo calling back to tell her it was all a mistake, that he was leaving the country, never to be heard from again.

When she answered, it was the feminine voice of a stranger. “Hello? Is there somebody there by the name of Dr. Mercy?”

“Yes, that's me. May I help you?”

“Well, I live over here on Monroe Street, and this huge, half-naked man just came and knocked on my door and asked to use my telephone.”

Mercy caught her breath. Clarence.

The woman continued, “Said his phone's disconnected, and he needed to talk to you real bad. Well, this guy was so big I wasn't about to let him in my house. I mean to say, this man is—”

“What did he say?” Mercy snapped. Did this woman think Clarence was contaminated or something? “Is he okay?”

“He wanted me to call an ambulance, but I thought they
might bill me for the call, and I don't have extra money lying around for other people's emergencies—”

“For goodness' sake, this is an emergency and they're in danger. Just make the call!” She slammed down the phone and turned to Tedi. “Honey, get your clothes on now. We've got an emergency, and I've got to take you to Grandma's.”

In five minutes, Mercy and Tedi were out the door. The last thing Mercy grabbed as they left was her cell phone.

 

The E.R. secretary hung up her phone in distress. “Dr. Bower, Dr. Mercy doesn't answer at home. At first when I called, it was busy, and now I'm getting her answering machine.”

“Try her work number. She'll be around somewhere.”

Lukas's phone rang, and he picked it up. “Emergency room.”

“Dr. Bower, could you please come down to Labor and Delivery?” It was Lauren, who had accompanied the soon-to-be mother. “This baby's coming fast, and we need a doctor.”

“How far apart are the contractions?”

“Every one to two minutes.”

“I'll be right there.” He put down the phone and looked up to see Mrs. Pinkley walking into the E.R. with a grimfaced, silent woman with a briefcase. It didn't look as if he was going to make his first meeting. Great first impression with the terminator.
Mercy, where are you?

He turned to Judy. “Do you have Dr. Mercy's cell number?”

“Yes. I'll try it if she's not at the office.”

“Good, and meanwhile I'll go down to see if I'm needed to catch a baby or run interference.” With a helpless shrug at Mrs. Pinkley and guest, he rushed out the door, leaving Judy to explain his departure.

 

Using well-known shortcuts, Mercy delivered Tedi to Ivy's house and drove across downtown Knolls in ten minutes. She reached the Knights' dilapidated home, screeched the car to a halt in the driveway and grabbed her bag. Just as she reached the front door, her cell phone sounded in her pocket. She pulled it out and checked the calling number as she barged through the front door. A quick glance told her the number belonged to the E.R. desk. She flipped open the phone, gave instructions for an ambulance, acknowledged the news that she was needed for a delivery, but Lukas would have to take this one, then she disconnected.

“Clarence? Darlene? Where are you?” she shouted, trying to keep the alarm she felt from her voice.

“Doc!” came Clarence's deep, frantic voice from Darlene's bedroom. “In here. Hurry!”

Mercy raced down the short hallway to Darlene's tiny room, which was crammed with a twin-size bed and a chest of drawers on one wall, with a computer, desk and filing cabinets completing the cramped space. Clarence crouched in the tiny floor space between the bed and the closet door.

He was battling valiantly to continue holding his massive arm up and balance his weight to keep from falling as he helped his gray-faced sister with her inhaler. He was losing the battle, and fear and pain covered his face like an open wound.

Darlene was barely sitting up in bed, leaning back against the headboard, eyes closed. What Mercy noticed first was the silence. No wheezing, no breath sounds at all in the room except for Clarence's loud, frantic panting. Darlene looked as if she hadn't slept in two days.

“Take it in, sis!” Clarence turned pleading dark brown eyes to Mercy. “I can't help her. She won't do it for me. Can you do it, Doc?” His arm gave out, and the heavy load it had balanced now slumped back against the closet door
with a groan of wood. His gaze reverted back to his sister's sagging form.

Mercy stepped in and squeezed past the computer to the other side of Darlene's narrow bed. She pulled the stethoscope from around her neck, but she knew what she would hear before she even placed it on Darlene's chest and back. She pulled out her breathing equipment and set it up, then placed the pulse oximetry unit onto Darlene's finger and waited for the O
₂
sat and heart rate readings to kick in.

Nothing happened.

She took Darlene's pulse, and it was 125 BPM. To be expected. She removed the attachment from Darlene's finger to her ear and watched for a tiny
blip, blip
of reading to jump on the screen. It was disappointingly low. Darlene had maybe a reading of 75, and normal was 95 or better for a nonsmoker.

“What's it say, Mercy?” Clarence asked, still huffing, beads of sweat dripping from his face.

“Not good.” Mercy glanced over at him. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Just take care of her, Doc. Please save her. Are they coming? Is the ambulance coming? I told the neighbor to call them.”