Chapter 36: Full House

Mrs. Clavic's surgery had gone well. I had also removed a few other tumors that had made it past the uterus. I had to remove one of her Fallopian tubes completely as well. I'd have to grow a new one. It had been so engulfed in cancer, that I ended up taking a sample from the other one to grow a new tube.

Her ovaries were okay from what I had seen. I made sure they were clear of any cancer. I was too nervous to remove them, because I had not figured out how to make a new ovary yet. They were much more complex. From what I knew at this time, it was not possible to replicate eggs. My best bet would be to try and grow an ovary and then transplant the eggs of the existing one into the new one. It was a challenge I wasn't ready to tackle, but I took DNA from the ovary that was by the cancer-riddled tube and planned to attempt to make one. If cancer returned to her body, it would be very possible that it'd effect that ovary, and I wanted a somewhat clean sample to work from to replace it.

My new nurse, Taylor, seemed very excited about my work. He was nervous at first at the aggressive tactics I was taking toward the organ removal, but once I made it clear that I had plans to grow new ones and replace them, he was thrilled to be a part of my research.

Since people had been so dismissive about reading things I gave them, I decided to read the aftercare and recovery information to Mrs. Clavic word for word, before I sent her home. I would not let her just skim the material I gave her and then throw it away.

Of course, I realized I had gotten a little ahead of myself, after I had done the operation. Mrs. Clavic would have to stay in my care for the next two days, while I found a working pain regimen and made sure there was no hemorrhaging or infection.

It was odd, working with so many people in my lab. I felt the need to narrate what I was doing. Bella was used to this, but Mrs. Clavic wasn't and frequently asked questions. I finally made answering her questions one of Vicky's duties.

I had done some work on eradicating cancers before. I was pretty good at isolating and working with the genetic material that formed cancers. It could be a rather long and complex project, but I wasn't trying to eradicate the whole body of cancer, just the uterus. Changing the genetic makeup of a uterus wasn't impossible, just complex. I really only had to change a small portion of seed tissue and monitor the growth.

I was monitoring the patch of uterus I was growing for Bella. It was going well. It'd be ready for transplant, before Bella would be fully recovered.

"Dr. Cullen, when will you be ready to take on other patients?" Mrs. Clavic asked from her bed.

I startled and nearly dropped the vial of proteins I was holding. I looked over at her and then Bella. I really hadn't planned on doing more than just Bella, and Mrs. Clavic was a bit unexpected. "I only took you on because of the life-threatening cancer growing in your body. As you can tell, we aren't quite set up for multiple patients. Technically, I'm not even set up for one. I'd been caring for my wife at home."

"Have you looked over the other files? I'm sure I'm not the only one with a life-threatening illness," Mrs. Clavic complained.

"I wasn't going to look into taking anyone else on, until I was sure you and my wife recovered successfully."

"Successfully, as in we didn't die, or we're pregnant?" she asked, and I blushed.

"Carrying a child to full term is the best test of my work. Taking on more people beforehand would be irresponsible," I explained.

"But surely you could work on them and save what you need, and then do the final work after you've had confirmation. It'd stop some conditions from worsening and give you material you could work with immediately, when breakthroughs are made," Mrs. Clavic argued.

She did have a point...

"Sweetheart, some of the women may not even need your services. You can do much more aggressive cleanings, take more risks than a standard doctor, and possibly fix something that others are not willing to do," my sweet wife encouraged.

"Fine, let me finish here, and then I'll go over the files. Could you please call Emmett? I think we're going to need another nurse," I said and nodded over at where Taylor was sleeping with his head down on a lab table. It wasn't his fault. I had worked him nonstop for the past two days. I had napped with Bella for a bit, when I knew Taylor was awake to watch over Mrs. Clavic and monitor any alarms that might be triggered by my experiments. He was as excited as I was about the work I was doing and hadn't complained. He had been an excellent choice. I could only hope Emmett could come up with another one like Taylor.

Security called me. "There's a Mr. Clavic here to see you, Dr. Cullen. Should I bring him up?" the guard asked.

I looked over at Mrs. Clavic, and she was smiling widely and fixing her hair. "Yes, bring him up."

I walked over to the door and waited for the buzzer, alerting me to their presence.

They arrived quickly, and when I started to open the door, Mr. Clavic burst in. "Bunny, Darling, where have you been? When I got home from my business meeting, your nurse said you went to a doctor's appointment, and you didn't return! She was worried sick!"

"I'm fine, sweetheart. I finally found a way to fix everything. We can have a baby, and I won't die," she said and waved me over.

"Did he find a cure for your cancer?" her husband asked hopefully.

"Well, not exactly. Mrs. Clavic is cancer-free at this moment, and I'm working to make her uterus cancer resistant, but it'll be a couple of months before she'll be ready to reproduce," I tried to explain without breaching confidentiality too much.

"He cured your cancer?" he asked Mrs. Clavic. I wasn't sure why he didn't understand what I had said.

"He removed my cancer," Mrs. Clavic explained.

"But your uterus was engulfed. The doctors said there was no way to save it, that you were crazy. Did my father pay them off or something? Had they been lying to us?" Mr. Clavic sounded like he was getting upset.

"No, sweetheart, settle down. We're in a very advanced lab. My uterus was bad, so I found someone who could give me a new one."

"Like a transplant?" Mr. Clavic asked.

"Sort of, but more complex. He's growing me a new uterus. Show him, Dr. Cullen. Show him what you're growing for me."

"This is very unusual, but since it's your wife who's funding the research, I think that'd be acceptable."

"You're Cullen, Edward Cullen?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yes," I answered nervously.

"You wrote him a fifteen-million-dollar check for his lab?" Mr. Clavic said in an accusatory tone. I wasn't sure what was going on.

"Jason, he's developing a new way to repair and replace reproductive organs. I did this for us!" Mrs. Clavic declared. I guessed she knew something I didn't.

"You're not having an affair with him?" he asked her sharply.

"I'm married, that's my wife," I said, pointing to Bella.

"Your father is filling your head with rubbish again. He was the one who insisted we produce an heir! I found a way to do it. That was why I sold the cabin on Carmel and the chateau in France. I needed to be a part of this work, so he could fix me!" Mrs. Clavic snapped.

He turned and asked me, "Can you fix my wife?"

"Show him, Edward, show him my uterus!" Mrs. Clavic insisted, and Mr. Clavic flinched in disgust.

"It's actually at a rather fascinating stage currently. Follow me," I said, leading him to the growth room.

"Are you going to show me an MRI or something?"

"No," I said with a smile. "You see this lattice? That light pink coating is the first visual growth of your wife's cells. I've made an outline of sorts and put your wife's DNA on it, and then I showered it in proteins."

"What kind of proteins?" Mr. Clavic asked, sounding suspicious, but since they were basically funding the whole experiment, I went ahead and shared with him the formulas I had developed.

I was halfway through explaining the development process of stage three proteins, when he stopped me. "Is it too complex to understand in this format? I can have Bella explain it to you. She has a way of making it sound much simpler. The methods are new, but the science is…"

"Edward, honey, he doesn't want to hear about your proteins anymore. He was just curious about where you got them."

"Oh, of course, I'd gladly explain that and how I cultivate them if you'd like?" I said, eager to share my knowledge with my investor.

"No, no, that's quite alright," he said, sounding annoyed, and for some reason, Bella and Mrs. Clavic were giggling.

"I don't understand, am I missing something?" I whispered to Bella.

"We'll discuss it later," she whispered back with a wink. That made it all seem even more confusing.

I decided to check over Mrs. Clavic and get her ready to go home. Now that she was stable, and her pain was managed, there was no need to keep her here. I had Taylor assist me, and Mr. Clavic stood brooding over me, while holding his wife's hand.

I worried about sending her home at first, but her tests all came back good. I read word for word the discharge papers and emphasized the importance of calling me if there were any, ANY, signs of infections, or if she just didn't feel right. I told her husband to not let her brush anything off and made sure he had my number as well.

I had Taylor help them out to their car, as I sat nervously by Bella's bed. "I don't know if I should take on more patients. What if more than one has complications at one time? I wouldn't have anyone to assist me in helping them."

"You have Vicky," my wife reminded me, and I smiled. She was right. I could program default instructions for when she observed certain complications.

"You're a genius," I said and kissed her. I was so lucky to have her working with me. "Would you mind helping me go over the case files? I really don't want to have to take on any more people unless it's absolutely necessary. If they have complications from something life threatening, like Mrs. Clavic, I'll take them on now. Otherwise, I think it'd be best to wait until I have you back in one piece."

I called Taylor over and had him help me sort through the files as well. We made three piles…urgent fixes, easy fixes, and more complicated but not urgent fixes.

There was only one other woman who should be seen immediately by me, a Ms. Donovan. I decided to wait until I had the new nurse on staff, though, before I took her on.

"What did Emmett say, when you asked him to hire another nurse?"

"He thought you weren't happy with Taylor, but I reassured Emmett that Taylor was a golden pick and to please find another who was just as good. He promised to get another one to us asap."

The next morning, the security guard called me and let me know a Nurse Rachette was there to be interviewed. I told him to send her up, and I was a little surprised by the stern-looking older woman who walked in the door. I took a puff on my inhaler, feeling slightly intimidated by her, and looked over at Bella, who was frowning at the inhaler in my hand. I wouldn't be able to work with someone who upset me, and she knew that.

I motioned for Nurse Rachette to take a seat, unable to get words out to welcome her. I sat across from her at my desk, trying to pull myself together. What surprised me was when Taylor sat down next to me and asked for her resume.

She raised an inquisitive brow at me, but she handed it over to him, and he promptly set it in front of me and leaned over, so he could read along with me.

She did have a rather impressive resume. She had spent the last twenty years of her life working at a hospital, dealing mostly with patients recovering from abdominal surgery and childbirth.

"Her experience makes her a good fit, Edward, do you think you could handle her?" Taylor asked.

"Handle me?" Nurse Rachette scoffed.

"Edward, or Dr. Cullen, is a brilliant research scientist. He's really working miracles in here. He can be a bit timid, but that doesn't make him stupid. The question is, can you work respectfully with him and be kind?" Taylor asked, truly shocking me.

"Be kind?" Nurse Rachette said, like the words were foreign to her.

"Yes, above all, kindness is very important in this lab," Taylor insisted.

"To him or the patients?" she asked.

"Both, keep in mind, his wife is one of his patients," Taylor informed her.

"Isn't that a conflict of interest? He shouldn't be operating on family," she insisted.

"This isn't a hospital, this is HIS lab, HIS company, and it's HIS wife. She's very supportive of his work," Taylor defended me. I should give him a raise.

Nurse Rachette made a little harrumph noise and then said, "What would my duties be, if I took the job?"

"Edward is doing research on organ replacement, specifically, female reproductive organs. I assist him during the operations and then help monitor the patient's recovery, and I also help monitor the experiments he's doing. They have alarms, so we just have to wake him or call him if one of them goes off. That hasn't happened yet."

I finally was able to find my voice. "You'd have to read the discharge instructions, word for word. You can't just hand them the papers. People just don't read them. It's their life, why wouldn't they read them?"

"That, I have experience with. It's a pet peeve of mine as well. One would think the world was illiterate! I hand them the paper and ask them to read it. They swear they have, but when I quiz them on it, they fail."

"I like that. That's a good idea. We should have discharge quizzes," I said excitedly. "You're hired." I stood up and shook her hand.

Taylor seemed a little wary of it, but he knew I was a stickler for paperwork. I brought out the appropriate forms, and I was extremely pleased, when she actually sat down to read them. I smirked at Taylor, and he grimaced.

I was sure Nurse Rachette would be the perfect addition to our project.