Virgin River (Virgin River #1)(53)

“He should be here any minute. We’ll wait for him here.”

Within ten minutes, Connie was wheeled past them and down the hall. Another ten minutes brought Ron with Joy into the emergency room doors. “Where is she? Is she all right?” Right behind them were Ricky and Liz, straight from school.

“They’ve taken her for an angiogram—it’s like an X-ray of blood vessels. Based on what that test tells them, they’ll decide whether or not she needs surgery. Let’s go to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee and I’ll try to explain it to you—then we’ll go see how they’re doing on that test.”

“God, Doc, thank you,” Ron said. “Thank you for getting her help.”

“Don’t thank me,” he said. “Thank Melinda. She saved Connie’s life.”

Mel’s head jerked toward him in surprise.

“It was her fast action—that aspirin and calling for help—not to mention her ride in the back of my pickup, that I believe allowed us to get her to the hospital so fast.”



It was nine o’clock before Mel and Doc got back to town, and of necessity they both headed for Jack’s, more than a little grateful he had stayed open. And she knew he’d stayed open for them. Doc asked for his whiskey and Mel said, “I think I better have one, too. Maybe something a little smoother than that.”

Jack poured her a Crown Royal. “Long day?” he asked.

“Shew,” Doc said. “We spent most of it waiting for a decision. Connie’s going to have bypass surgery in the morning. We waited around until they transported her to Redding.”

“Why didn’t we just take her to Redding?” Mel asked. Both men laughed. “What? I looked at the map before I even came up here. It’s just over a hundred miles of highway.”

“It’s about a hundred forty, Mel,” Jack said. “Narrow, two-lane, over the mountains. Would take about three hours to cross at best from Eureka. Probably closer to four. Coming from Virgin River—five.”

“Jesus,” she moaned.

“I think Ricky is taking Liz to her mother’s for the night while Ron and Joy will make the long drive to Redding to spend the night at Connie’s bedside. They’re a little on the nervous side,” Doc said.

“No doubt,” Jack said. “I saw you flying out of town. I couldn’t tell who you had in the back—I just saw Mel hanging on for dear life.”

Doc took a sip. “She came in kinda handy.”

“What would you have done without a little help?” she asked him.

“I probably would’ve thrown Joy back there. But who knows if we’d have gotten that far. You know how great one little aspirin is for a heart attack?”

“Hmm.” Mel took a sip of her drink and let her eyes slowly drift closed appreciatively.

“Connie’s going to be all right?”

“Oh, better than all right,” Doc said. “People go into that surgery a little gray around the gills and they give them nice fresh, clear arteries to float their oxygen through and they come out rosy cheeked and brand-new.”

Mel took another sip. “Oh, God, I didn’t think I’d ever be warm again.”

“You want me to light the fire?” Jack asked her.

“No, just let me drink this. Tell Doc I caught a fish today.”

“She did,” he said. “Wasn’t much of a fish, but she caught it herself. Even if she couldn’t take it off the hook without help.”

Doc peered at her over his specs and she lifted her chin a bit defiantly. “Careful, Melinda,” he said. “You could become one of us.”

“Not likely,” she said. “Not until you at least get a camper shell. We’d have been better off in the back of my BMW.”

“You’d have been better off,” Doc said. “That piece of shit isn’t big enough for a patient having a heart attack and a practitioner trying to keep her alive.”

“I’m not going to fight with you for saying that,” she said. “Because you at least called me a practitioner and not a nurse. You seem to be coming around, you old fart.” She looked up at Jack. “We keeping you up?”

“Nah,” he said, chuckling. “Take your time. In fact, I’ll join you.” He reached behind him and selected a bottle, tipping it over a glass. He lifted it in a toast to both of them. “Good team work, amazingly. Glad everything’s okay.”

Mel was exhausted, most of which came from the ride and long afternoon of tensely waiting at the hospital. Connie, she realized without much surprise, was more than a patient to her—she was a friend. And when you do this kind of work in this kind of place, your patients are almost always your friends. Must be hard to maintain objectivity. On the other hand, success was that much more gratifying. Fulfilling.

It wasn’t like this in L.A.

Doc finished his whiskey and got up. “Nicely done, Melinda. We’ll try to have a dull day tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Doc.”

After the doctor left, Jack said, “Sounds like maybe the two of you have started to bond or something.”

“Or something,” she said, sipping.

“How was that trip to Valley Hospital?”

“Like Mr. Toad’s wild ride,” she said, making him laugh a little. She pushed her glass toward him and he gave her another splash of Crown.