Chapter 17

One and a half years later…

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to dinner with me?” Lyle asked once more, hope filling his eyes.

Hope is a crippling emotion, she wanted to say. But instead, Katherine said. “I just want to get out of these scrubs, go home and crawl into bed.” With AJ’s T-shirt on.

“If you are sure…”

“I’m sure.”

Lyle started walking away then turned back. “I hope you didn’t leave my service because of that Ross guy. You were good at Cardiology, and he’s gone.”

How was she supposed to say that losing her baby and her mother made her yearn for motherhood? That, to her, translated into caring for pregnant women and women who wanted to get pregnant. And as for her baby, she found hanging around a nursery, staring at almost exploding bellies and watching life grow in someone else’s body filled the gaping hole her miscarriage had left. AJ? Well, she was still waiting for him to call the apartment.

“No, I like what I’m doing. And I still do some cardio on the side.”

“So, Ob/Gyn is your wife and Cardio is your mistress.”

She chuckled, only Lyle would put it that way. “I guess so—”

“Katherine!”

“Katherine!”

The bellow of a man yelling her name followed by a combination of two terrified female shrieks made her jump nearly out of her skin. She whipped her head around toward the emergency room doors and there Reno stood, Lisette and an inconsolable Rosalinda at his side. So, who was in Reno’s arms? She took a step closer and saw Catalella’s paling skin and bloody cloths bound to her wrists. AJ would definitely never forgive her if she let his little sister die.

“Who are those people?” Lyle demanded.

“AJ’s mother, sisters and best friend.” She ran toward Reno and could hear Lyle’s thudding feet behind her. “I need a gurney. Now!” She pulled away the blankets they had wrapped around Catalella and felt the pulse point of her neck. She couldn’t get anything there. Her own heartbeat frantically against her chest. Katherine schooled her facial expression to be professional. But it was difficult with Rosalinda mumbling in Spanish and Lisette intently studying her. She tried once more and sighed when she found a faint beat, at least it was something.

Katherine had never felt so relieved when a gurney arrived, and Reno lay Catalella’s still body on it. “What happened?” Her bloody wrists were an obvious clue at what happened. But Katherine couldn’t make sense of it.

“I found this in the bathroom.” Lisette held out an empty pill bottle.

“Sleeping pills?” Katherine grabbed it and handed it to the nurse beside her. “Why did you do it, sweetheart?”

“Katherine, start chest compressions.” Lyle barked out an order. “Climb on, we need to get moving. Get me a stomach pump and her blood type. We’ll need to transfuse. Is she taking any other medications?”

“She had four weeks of Radiology and is now on her last week of her six-week chemotherapy.” Katherine had been keeping tabs on the Ross family. Her heart had sunk when she discovered Catalella’s leukemia was back. She made it her business to know everything that was going on with her. “Page Doctor Caplain, he’s, her oncologist.”

“Katherine?”

She looked up and met Lisette’s beseeching gaze. That was when she made what could have been the worst mistake of her career. With a look she promised to save Catalella’s life. Katherine pumped Catalella’s chest with all the strength she had. Bruised ribs would be a small price to pay for life. She straddled her as the gurney sped down the halls. She wasn’t going to give up. She was going to do at least one thing right by AJ.

* * * *

“I should throttle you,” Katherine said as Catalella slowly came out of her unconscious state. “You’d better be fully awake before I go brief your family.”

“You’re…” Catalella choked. “You’re mean.”

“If I were mean, I wouldn’t get you a glass full of iced chips, would I?” Katherine helped Catalella into a sitting position and slowly gave her ice chips to suck on. Katherine knew Catalella’s throat would feel raw, her chest too. But then again, she was alive, and the pain would fade.

“He left me.”

“Who, Michael?”

“Yes. Apparently, I’m not a ‘real woman.’” Catalella sobbed. “I can’t have children, Katherine!”

Katherine understood the pain of losing a child. But whereas she could still have babies, Catalella couldn’t. The odds had been against her. Her last round of chemo and radiation therapy had removed any chances.

Katherine understood wallowing in the loss of a child, but Michael wasn’t worth the dirt he walked on. But then again, he was Catalella’s first love. She couldn’t blame the young girl for crying. Hell, she still bawled up in a fetal position crying for AJ. But she had never thought of killing herself.

“I get that you loved him, but that was a shitty thing to do to your family. I’m going to let them in now. I wish your brother was here to throttle you, Catalella,” Katherine chastised. It hurt, seeing Catalella defeated. She wouldn’t want to see any of her brothers in this hopeless state. “But I guess it’s better he’s not here to see it. He’d be disappointed in you, you know.”

“He’ll get his chance when he arrives tomorrow.”

“Wh…what?” she stammered.

Katherine tried not to notice the confused look Catalella gave her. Was she supposed to be in the loop about AJ’s comings and goings? She had thought his family would know they’d broken up.

“He didn’t tell you he was arriving tomorrow. He’s going to be my donor.”

“Of…of course.” Katherine stood frozen, confused how to react to AJ’s homecoming, Part of her was happy, excited even. She had missed the sound of his voice, the way he strongly carried his body when he walked into a room. But she was angry that he hadn’t done a better job of insisting on seeing her. The memory of her mother’s interfering made her blood boil. “I’ll just let your family in.”

“Are you going to come back?”

Katherine smiled. “Sure, in a while. I’ll just let you have some time with your family.”

“Thank you for not letting me die.”

After Katherine had briefed the Ross’s, she had to find a place to sit down. Her body still seemed to be in shock. The millions of emotions rushing through her made her feel weak and lightheaded. But she couldn’t ignore the excited thump of her heart. The love of her life was coming back, and this time she wasn’t going to let him go without a fight.

Catalella hadn’t told Katherine where AJ intended to stay. But when she got home, she spent most of the night cleaning. It didn’t bother her when her housekeeping went into the early morning. She was determined not to let AJ to walk into a dirty apartment. Katherine felt her heart tug when she replaced his sheets. It wasn’t totally hygienic, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to wash away AJ’s scent. But now AJ was coming home, she didn’t need to hold onto them anymore. Once she was done, she stepped back and admired her work, then fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * * *

AJ knew something was up by Reno’s downcast face. His shoulders drooped as if they had taken on the weight of the world. He didn’t ask what was going on, he couldn’t bring himself to. Instead, they drove in a blanket of silence all the way to the hospital. AJ didn’t know how he would feel returning home.

When he had landed at the airport a sense of nostalgia had taken over him. He had missed his family, his mother’s cooking, his sister’s nagging, his late nights with Reno and his father’s wisdom. And even if it was hard for him to admit, he had missed Katherine—the way her blue-gray eyes changed from sweet to dark with desire each time she looked at him, her quirky faults, the melodic sound of her voice and the way her tiny body felt under him as she writhed in pleasure. That last memory had his erection fighting against the zipper of his pants.

When AJ caught sight of the hospital he sobered up. Now that he was close to his domain, to the scientific medical words which made more sense than the layman’s terms, he could take whatever Reno had to tell him. Obviously Catalella wasn’t dead—there wouldn’t have been a reason for Reno to take him to the hospital.

“What’s going on?” he asked cautiously.

Reno cleared his throat and shot him a quick glance. “Catalella tried to kill herself.”

AJ felt his heart freeze in his chest. A sliver of cold ran down his spine. He couldn’t make up the right combination of letters or words that would express how he felt at that moment. But once the shock subsided, anger sizzled beneath his skin, the chill forgotten. An angry hiss left his lips. “What?”

Reno shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it either. “Your mother went to see Catalella. She found her in a bloody bath, and she wasn’t moving. Lisette and I were close by so when Rosalinda called, we rushed there. Rosalinda was losing her mind by the time we got there. Catalella was really determined because Lisette found an empty pill bottle. I couldn’t get her to open her eyes, so I lifted her out of the bath and rushed her to the hospital. We were just lucky that Katherine was around. Her and some doctor guy helped her. She could have died.”

She could have died. Those words turned his body into a glacier. But Katherine had been there to help his little sister.

“Why did she do it?” AJ asked. “Was she tired of all the treatments? I know she’s going through this a second time, and this round of treatment is more aggressive than the last. But that doesn’t mean she should give up. I flew all the way here to give her my bone marrow—”

“Michael asked for a divorce.”

AJ drove his fist into the dashboard of Reno’s truck.

“Hey, watch it!” Reno protested. “I would also like to drive my fist into the S.O. B’s face, but I’ve been at the hospital all night. Your father had gone on a business trip but should be on his way back. Once Senior is here, we can launch a vigilante hunt for the bastard.”

“I can’t wait,” AJ ground out.

AJ ran into the hospital, ignoring the myriad of greetings sent in his direction. Right now, the only thing he wanted to see was his sister. He walked into the room and froze at the door.

There she was. Even with four other people in the room all he could see was Katherine. Her long blonde hair was held in a ponytail, with wisps curling around her face. Her blue scrubs fitted loosely, with a white lab coat over them. His eyes raked her from head to toe then held her gaze with an intense look. The words jammed in his throat. What exactly was he to say?

“AJ.” Catalella’s weak voice brought him out of his frozen state. He looked at her and immediately had to try and hide his frown at how weak she looked. She had lost a lot of weight and the bed seemed to be swallowing her. He needed to see her chart. And as if Katherine was tapped into his brain, she walked toward him and put the chart in his hands.

AJ was thankful for the ability to switch into doctor mode when he was reading a chart. Katherine’s proximity and the sound of her voice would otherwise have driven him into lust-filled frenzy. He listened as she gave him a brief Catalella’s status. He was surprised at how well informed she was about his sister’s cancer and the progress of her treatment. Katherine told him things even his parents wouldn’t know, things that doctors didn’t say out loud to their patients.

“What happened last night?” he asked as he flipped to the last page of the chart.

“Catalella was brought in unconscious. We had to be careful since she had had her treatments earlier in the week. We pumped her stomach, gave her some blood and put her on fluids.”

“We?”

AJ sensed Katherine’s hesitation. “Lyle helped.”

“Thank you. Aah…do you mind giving my family and me a minute?” He caught the hurt in her eyes before she looked away.

“Call me if you need me,” Katherine said before she left.

In a minute AJ was in his family’s arms. He stepped back and looked toward Catalella. He saw the guilt on her face. He wanted to give her grief, lecture her, or even beat some sense into her. But he thought the guilt for her actions would be enough punishment for her.

“What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Now we just have to focus on getting you better.”

* * * *

Katherine still couldn’t get the sound of her heart thumping in her ear to stop. A zing of awareness zipped through her body when AJ walked into the room. Even behind the bushy beard and the long hair, she could still see her AJ. It was her AJ in a mountain cave man version. The embers of love simmering low in her body flared to life at the sound of his voice. She had hoped he hadn’t seen the panic in her eyes. The worst part was when she had to bring up Lyle. No doubt that was the reason he chased her out of the room. But she couldn’t forget the look of desire as his eyes swept from her head to her toe, the burning trail touched her like warm flesh. Maybe there was hope after all.

“I heard he’s back.” Lyle didn’t say AJ’s name. To him AJ was like a myth such as little children were told about to scare them into obedience. Saying his name out loud would be like calling up the myth.

“Yes, AJ is back.” Katherine craned her neck to look over his shoulder. She was standing at the nurse’s station a few meters away from Catalella’s room. She had hoped to catch AJ when he left, and maybe force him into talking to her. But now Lyle was here, she was watching and hoping AJ wouldn’t catch them together.

“Are the two of you getting back together?”

“I don’t know.” She shivered with fright when she realized that was the truth. She didn’t know if AJ had used those months away to forget about her. What if he had another woman? Katherine saw AJ walk out of Catalella’s room and tried to escape, but he had already seen her. Any attempt to hide or run away would be admitting guilt to something she wasn’t really doing. But when Lyle reached to take her hand, she drew back and shot him a menacing look. What the hell was he trying to do?

“Lyle.” AJ’s voice boomed in greeting. “I just want to thank you for what you did for my sister.”

“You should thank Katherine here, she wouldn’t give up even when the girl flat-lined,” Lyle said.

Katherine felt the warmth creep into her cheeks, but she didn’t dare move away from AJ’s perusal. “It was Catalella, I couldn’t give up.”

“Thank you. She asked for you.” When AJ smiled at her for the first time since he arrived, Katherine thought she would crumble to the ground. Relief was what she felt—maybe they did have a chance. “My family and I are going home for a while. I need to get some sleep before I meet up with her oncologist.”

“I’ll tell Doctor Chaplain to expect you.”

“Thanks again, kitty kat.” AJ winked at her before turning away and leaving with his family.

“The nerve of that guy.” Lyle hissed, once AJ was out of hearing range. “He thinks he can just come back after ignoring you for almost two years, wink at you and you’ll fall into his arms.”

“If he had held out his arms, I would have climbed into them,” Katherine spat back. “AJ is the love of my life. I don’t care how long it takes me to get him to realize that. I’ll wait.”

“Like I have been waiting?”

“I didn’t ask you to.” Katherine did feel bad for Lyle wasting his time and intentions on her. She didn’t encourage him but after a few months of being chased around the hospital she figured he wouldn’t give up.

His persistence had been one of the reasons she’d decided to branch into a different department of medicine for her fellowship. Soon she would take her board exams and get him out of her hair. “I need to go see Catalella.”

“I thought you were going to follow your master home.”

Katherine resented the tone in his voice. But his words did make her think. Which home would AJ go to?