Code Triage Read Online Free PDF Page A

appearance shouldn’t affect her like that anymore. The ER was her territory. She was in charge, could deny him access. She could ask Cappy Thomas to restrict anybody but medical personnel. And then he couldn’t look at me like that, and . . . “I’m finished here.” She turned to Kristi. “Do you want to visit with him?”
    “Oh yes, please.”
    “Well, then, fine.” Leigh picked up her clipboard, willing her hands to stay steady. “I’ll order your labs and X-rays. And see how things are going with your son.”
    She walked toward the doorway, glanced down as Nick stepped out of the way, hated it that her pulse quickened. Two more steps and I’m out of here. She brushed by him, and he caught her elbow.
    “Leigh, may I talk with you?”
    +++
    Nick released her arm reluctantly, the first time he’d touched her in more than nine months. Since she packed her things, loaded her horse into the trailer, and took off to Pacific Point without a word. And now her eyes, brown like his own, filled with wariness. “Just for a minute?”
    “Well . . .” Leigh glanced toward the nurses’ desk, where a middle-aged man was engaged in earnest conversation with the clerk.
    Nick’s gut tensed as Sam walked past the desk, head down and searching her briefcase. He had no choice but to warn Leigh. She’d recognize Sam’s name.
    “I’m busy,” Leigh said finally. “Is this regarding the baby you rescued?”
    “Yes,” he said, after glancing quickly toward the desk again. “Can we go somewhere?” Home?
    “Okay, step over here. But I only have a minute.”
    Leigh walked toward the doorway of an empty patient exam room and he followed, watching the way she walked. Back straight as when she sat in her saddle, graceful but strong, her dark hair, caught back in a ponytail today, swinging with her movement. The ache to grasp her arm again, stop her from walking away—from leaving him—was almost unbearable. One week was all he had left. And now Sam was here.
    She stopped inside the room. “I saw you on the news clip. And the paramedic already reported that you started rescue breathing on the baby. Was there something else you wanted to tell me?”
    That I love you; I’m sorry—and I can’t stand this. He cleared his throat and let his gaze linger on the curve of her jaw a few seconds longer. “Only that the propane heater was running off and on for two days. She didn’t want anyone to know, but her power was turned off for nonpayment. She’s taken on a second job to help pay expenses—working nights at a nursing home—and had an arrangement with a friend who slept over and watched the kids.”
    Leigh glanced out the doorway, toward sounds at the desk. The man’s voice had escalated. She turned back to Nick. “But I heard that the daughter called 911. That she and the baby were alone.”
    Nick scraped his fingers across his mouth. “The friend didn’t show and Kristi didn’t get word. She arrived home, and right after, her building was surrounded by police . . . and Child Crisis.” He kept himself from looking to see if Sam had returned, though from the noise it was clear there was some sort of problem out there. He had to get this said. “Kristi’s worried that her kids will be taken away; she’s been questioned before. By the same Child Crisis investigator who’s here today.” This time he did look; no sign of Sam, but Cappy Thomas was talking to the man at the desk, who’d begun pacing back and forth. Clearly agitated.
    “So you’re warning me that anything I reveal to this Child Crisis investigator—” Leigh stopped as Nick took hold of her arm. Her expression was wary. “What?”
    His heart pounded in his ears. “You need to know something.”
    A barrage of curses exploded outside the door; then there was a flurry of voices—Cappy’s, a nurse’s, the clerk’s—before the man shouted again: “I want to see my wife! Let me . . . see . . . my . . . wife!”
    Nick bolted through