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Emily had had the same thought when the ER nurse had told her the girl’s mother had left. Emily tried not to judge, but sometimes it was darn hard not to.
Lucas nodded. “Go with me to check her?”
Emily didn’t want to go anywhere with Lucas, but she couldn’t refuse the unit’s medical director.
When his eyes touched on the child in the hospital bed, his disgust emanated.
“There are several consults already in the system besides yours,” Emily told him. “The ER physician just felt having you look over her brain scans and getting her ICP down was the most imperative once they had her otherwise stabilized.”
“She’s going to need surgical repair of some of her injuries.”
Emily nodded. “Jeremiah Franklin reset a bone and closed a few wounds prior to her transfer to the floor. He plans to take her back to surgery once you feel it’s safe for him to do so.”
“Noted.” Lucas did a neuro check on the child from head to toe so he could assess the extent of her injuries. Emily had already completed a similar examination but watched Lucas’s highly efficient but gentle exam. The child was unconscious and yet, still, his touch was nurturing and caring.
The girl moaned in pain, the sound barely above a tortured whimper.
“I’ll kill the guy myself if he ever shows his face here.”
Emily nodded. She felt the same. The absolute protectiveness Lucas was showing over the child stunned her, though.
He’d have made a great father.
A tortured whimper escaped her own lips at her thought and she turned away.
“I’m sorry, Emily. I shouldn’t have said that out loud.”
Forcing herself to face him, she shook her head. “No, for once, we agree on something. I’d like to introduce him to my dad’s baseball bat.”
A small smile toyed on Lucas’s face. “I’ve heard about your dad’s baseball bat.”
Emily’s gaze flickered to the child. “Yeah, well, too bad she doesn’t have a dad with a baseball bat to have protected her from the world’s bad guys.”
“Agreed.” He touched her shoulder, then let his hand fall away as if realizing he shouldn’t be touching her. “I’m off to get prepped for surgery to release the pressure in her head.
Pray all goes well and I have her back to you before your shift ends.”
* * *
With more wires and bandages than she’d left with, Jenny returned to the unit about an hour before time for Emily’s shift to end. She got the child settled, with all vitals checked and recorded.
Lucas looked over the information in the computer, then went to the girl’s room and found Emily standing next to the child’s bed and holding her hand.
His heart squeezed at the image, at the compassion on Emily’s face. The look that said had this been her child she’d have protected her until her dying breath.
Once upon a time, Emily had wanted a child. His child. Did she plan to have children someday still?
As much as she’d talked about having a baby and starting a family, he was surprised she hadn’t already.
Any child would be blessed to have her as a mother.
If only they were meeting now for the first time, without the past between them, how different would things be? Would he be looking at her right now and admiring her beauty, her compassion, her heart, and wondering at the emotions she elicited within him?
Would he ask her to dinner and commiserate over life’s injustices that a child would suffer such a cruel fate? Would they bond and hold hands, hug each other, share their first kiss? Would they—
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Emily interrupted his thoughts, pulling her hand free from the child’s and moving away from the hospital bed. “She’s resting peacefully at the moment and her ICP pressure has improved a lot from prior to surgery. You used your new procedure on her. It seems to be working.”
“So far, at any rate. She has a long way to go to recovery.”
