Divorced! Now what?

Chapter 49

Theo POV



It was hard to leave the hospital. I wanted to stay and give comfort to Bethany. It must be hard for her. This is her baby, so to speak. This is either the beginning of something great or a failure, and it will be back to the drawing board, but if it fails, it will cost a life and doctors. That is not good; we may often look as if we are unfeeling and as hard as stone, but we are far from that. We have to separate ourselves from the pain so the family does not see how it really affects us. Bethany has a kind heart; if this fails, it could cause more than one lost life. 

Dinner was back to being lonely again, and the last thing I wanted was to be alone at the moment. The operation went well, but so many complications can still arise. I ate my leftovers from yesterday. I was glad that Bethany had bagged up some for Dad and me. I did not feel like going out. Part of that was because I feared Cynthia might still lurk around and would corner me again. She left me with a bad taste in my mouth. If I see her again, I might look for a restraining order on her. If she persists, but for the moment, I have only one meeting to go by, but I won't put up with that sort of behavior. Others might tolerate it, but I know people like her, and the more she can upset you, the more you empower them, and I will not give in to that. If I remember rightly, Bob is a detective. I need to get him to look at his own daughter, or is that a conflict of interest? 

This has to suck for him too. He is such a nice person. It is a pity he has a bad apple in the tree.

I somehow managed to fall asleep, and when I woke up, it annoyed me that the last person on my mind when I fell asleep was Cynthia and what she was up to next.

After my regular routine, I headed to work and wondered how things had gone last night. Did Mr Green make it through the night? I enjoyed the walk differently than I did. I was watching out for my stalker, Cynthia, and it pissed me off that she was already causing so much interruption in my life by just one interaction. 

My first stop was Robson's office. I knocked, entered, handed him a coffee, and waited for him to speak.

'He lives.' was all he said before draining a large part of the coffee.

'Bethany?'

'Did not sleep much; she spent most of the night getting up and checking on Mr. Green and then back to bed. I have taken her off any operations today, and she has not slept enough to be able to concentrate enough for my liking.'

'I agree; this must be weighing on her.' I had been worried about how it would affect her.

'Yes. The pressure of the heart being a success is great; a failure is not in her; she is determined to succeed.'

'Do you know much about her past?' Robson looked at me speculatively.

'Why do you ask?' 

'Cynthia cornered me in the café yesterday and was not happy when I sent her away, saying it was not over.'

'That girl is not a very nice piece of work. I was surprised to see her doing a presentation. I told her employer I was not impressed and that if we were to ever work together in the future, I would never send that woman again.'

'If she persists, I will get a restraining order on her, but I am worried about what she might do to discredit Bethany and the hospital in some kind of vendetta.'

'Yes, she is a woman who would do that. I will get security to keep an eye out for her. She is not welcome in this hospital.' Robson was not happy, and I don't blame him. That woman is a piece of work.

'I have to go and have some rounds to do before surgery. Congratulations that the patient survived the night.'

'Thanks, he is doing better than I had expected.'

My day I was moved quickly. The operations and ward rounds kept me busy, and it was time to head home before I realized it. I popped over to Bethany's wing and looked through the window at Mr. Green and was surprised to see he was awake and sitting up. He was alert and smiling. He waved at me through the window, and I waved back, smiling. Robson had given me access to this area, and the place was in lockdown from everyone while Bethany was getting the heart ready. She did not want to be disturbed and could not risk germs entering the room where she was creating them, so Robson locked everyone out; now, only her research room, where to make the hearts, was under lockdown.

Bethany was in her lab, looking at some program on her computer.

'What is that Bethany?' I looked over her shoulder and saw a lot of numbers and graphs that made no sense to me.

'This is the heart; here is the oxygen rate being pumped through the body; here are the beats it makes per minute and the blood flow.'

'Wow, show me that graph again; now I know what I am looking at.' Bethany flicked through some graphs and pointed out some things.

'He is doing very well, still early for rejection, but dam, that is a good figure.'

'Yeah, he should not reject it, as it is not organic, and that is part of why we have had rejections before.'

'Talk me through this.'

'When was the last time you heard of a hip replacement rejecting the part put in, or pins or staples in a body?'

'Rarely.'

'That is the secret of the heart. This one is early, and I am making better ones as I go along, but it is not organic, so rejection is less likely.'

We talked more about the heart, how it was made, and how it beats.

'Are you coming home tonight?'

'Yeah, I am pleased with Mr. Green's progression; he might get out of this wing earlier than planned. If he is like this tomorrow, I will let him go to the main ward in your wing. That way, his family can come and visit him and not stare at him through the window.'

'Come on, then, save that, and let us get something to eat,' I said. 

'Okay.' She replied absently.

We went to a French restaurant, and I sat at a table at the back of the room, away from the windows. I sat so I could see the door, still paranoid that Cynthia was lurking around somewhere. The food was okay, not the best I have had, but then my mind was distracted, so maybe that was why it was not as good as I wanted it to be.

A little rain marred the walk home, but there was nothing we could not laugh about as we dodged the puddles that had formed on the ground. I offered her coffee at my place, but she declined, wanting nothing more than to climb into her bath and have an early night. I did not blame her. She had a bad night last night and must be exhausted.

Sitting at home watching the news, I saw a story about Mr Green, and so far, the response from the people has been good. One wanted to hear how he was doing and hoped for a good story ending. Saun was doing a great job of covering it and added a nice touch, having both Mr Green's side and his family's side of the wait and hopeful finish line. I was pleased that, so far, nothing bad had come out of this. 

Deciding I wanted an early night, I climbed into bed with a good book. I am not sure how long I had been reading, but the sound of a thud on the floor woke me, and I was relieved that my book had fallen. I switched off the light and rolled over, not bothering to pick up the book.

Chapter 50 - Divorced! Now what?