Stephanie Dees - A Baby For The Doctor

“He’s her new foster son. Let’s get the two of them in a room.” Ash stripped off his white lab coat and tossed it over a chair before picking up Levi’s thin chart. He opened the door to the waiting room. “Ms. Conley?”

Jordan’s eyes widened and darted around the room to the other moms, but she hastily made her way to the door. Jordan glanced out at the people lining the walls in the waiting room. “I think they’re planning a mutiny. Might want to send out some snacks or something.”

Ash laughed. “I’ll take that under advisement. We thought waiting in a room might be more comfortable for Levi.”

“You thought right. Thank you.”

“Hey, buddy.” Ash reached into his pocket for a sticker. He held it out to Levi, who looked at him from under Jordan’s chin.

The little boy’s eyes were huge in his thin face and seemed to question Ash’s motives, but he stuck his hand out and took the sticker from Ash’s hand. Ash considered that a victory. “You’ll be waiting in the red room, better known as the Giraffe Room. I’ve got just a couple of patients to see before Levi, but I won’t be long. Marissa?”

Ash’s nurse showed Jordan to the red room and followed them in. After an eight-month-old with an ear infection and a two-year-old with eczema, Ash knocked on the door. He pushed it open to find that Jordan had sketched roads on the paper cover of the exam table and was showing Levi how to make sound effects for his Matchbox cars.

When the toddler saw Ash, he pulled his car close to his chest and narrowed his dark brown eyes.

Tucking the pen and extra cars back into the diaper bag, Jordan smiled at Levi. “It’s okay, buddy. Dr. Sheehan is just going to give you a checkup. Remember how we watched the little girl give her stuffed animal a checkup on TV?”

“Time for a checkup, time for a checkup!” Ash sang the song from the kid’s show.

Jordan laughed. “See, Levi? He even knows the song.”

Ash pulled a couple more stickers out of his pocket, once again the pediatrician’s secret weapon. He held them out to Levi. “We’ll do as quick a check as possible today so I can fill out your form for the caseworker. I’m hoping he’ll get used to me so he’ll let me do a full exam soon without it being too traumatizing.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“If you’ll pick him up and put him on your shoulder, I’ll look in his ears.”

Jordan lifted Levi, and Ash took a peek in one ear and the other.

“Great job, Levi. Jordan, if you want to hold him in your lap with his back against your chest, I want to get a look in his throat and nose. I’ll try to be fast.”

Jordan held Levi’s arms and hands still and Ash took a quick look in the little guy’s nose. Just as he was gearing up to yell, Ash got a look in his throat. “All done. Let’s put him on the table and we’ll see how far we can get with an exam. I want to check those burns if he’ll let me.”

She laid Levi on the table and Ash held his exam light up, pretending to blow it out. No laughs, but at least he got a little smile from the somber little boy. He gently checked one fragile arm and then the other. The burns looked better.

A quick check of reflexes and he would call it a day. Ash slid his thumbnail up the sole of Levi’s foot. His big toe curved back and his toes spread. Babinski in a three-and-a-half-year-old?

He tested the other foot. The primitive reflex was not as strong, but it was still there. With long practice, Ash hid his concern, smiling at Levi. “You did awesome, little man!”

“So, rainbow fingernails are in now?” Jordan pulled a T-shirt over Levi’s head.

Ash glanced down at his hands and yes, his fingernails were painted in rainbow pastel shades. His face flushed hot, but he laughed and shrugged. “It’s the latest thing, didn’t you know? I have a little patient going through chemo right now. She has specialists overseeing her care, but when I can, I go by to see her. Last night she was bored and her mom needed a nap, hence my new fashion statement.”

Jordan’s eyes were soft. “I’m sorry. That must hit home for you.”

“It does, a little,” he admitted. “And she’s a real sweetheart of a kid. I hate it for her. You ready?”

She pulled some soft knit pants over Levi’s scrawny legs and picked him up. “Now I am.”

“Good. I want to run a few tests on Levi. Because he’s so small and isn’t crawling or walking, I want to rule out some more serious issues. Marissa will call you once the appointments are set up, okay?”

Jordan stopped halfway out the door. “Should I be worried?”

He smiled into her already very concerned eyes. “Not yet. I’ll tell you when to worry. I promise.”

She nodded. “It’s just—He’s been through a lot, you know?”

“I do know.” Ash opened the door because feelings were churning in his chest. He saw dozens of patients every day and never had he wanted to take one of the mothers in his arms and reassure her that everything would be okay. He cleared his throat. “Jordan, I promise we’re going to take good care of him.”

He watched as she walked down the hall toward the reception area, her red head bent toward a dark, curly one.

“Doc?” Marissa shook his arm, startling him. “You have a patient waiting in two.”

“Right. I need to make some notes first. And I want you to go ahead and make an appointment for a CT scan for Levi—spine and hips.” Marissa noted his request and walked away. He stood there a second longer.

Jordan was so different from other girls—women—he’d known. She hadn’t had an easy time of it but she wasn’t waiting for life to come to her. Instead, she took life by the reins, making it be what she wanted it to be. There was a part of him that deeply desired that kind of determination and definitely admired it.

He called after her, “Jordan!”

She turned back and he was at her side in a second, before he had time to think about it, consider the consequences.

“Go out with me. Dinner on Friday?”

Jordan stared into his eyes as if scrutinizing his motives and he wondered what she thought she saw there. He didn’t even know what his motives were.

After a long minute, when every eye in the place seemed to be trained on him, she said, “No, thank you.”

No, thank you. That was what you say when someone offers you Brussels sprouts and you hate them, not what you say when someone you like invites you to dinner.

Over the rushing in his ears, he heard her say a few more words, and then over it all, the sound of an infant screaming in the room to his left.

Marissa put a merciful hand on his arm. “Room two is waiting, Dr. Sheehan.”

He turned and went to the door of the exam room. With his hand on the doorknob, he stopped. Struggling to come up with appropriate words, he finally said, “Okay, then, I’ll see you around.”

Color high in her cheeks, Jordan nodded and fled.

* * *

A week later Jordan was still thinking about that moment. He’d closed in on her with long strides, blue eyes smiling at her, those tiny crinkles in the corners. Stupid rainbow fingernails, making her feel all warm and mushy about him.

In her mind, when he’d asked her to go to dinner, she didn’t blurt out that he wasn’t her type. She didn’t even hesitate. She smiled slowly up at him and said, What took you so long? Or That sounds like fun.

Was that so hard?

She scowled and shoveled fresh pellets into Bartlet’s stall. “Yes, thank you, that sounds like fun.” See, how hard was that?

“Who are you talking to?”

She went still. She knew that deep voice. Slowly, she turned around, her cheeks burning. Ash leaned on the door to the barn, a bakery bag dangling from his relaxed fingers. He was absolutely spotless, as usual. Nary a crease would dare to mar his perfect khakis.