Chapter 8

-"Has the husband shown up yet?" I asked as I left the room.

-"Not yet, but he has already called twice. Last time he told me he was about 2 blocks away. Shouldn't be too long... This one is more than a worrier." Frank had hardly finished his sentence, as Mr. Harper arrived at the admission desk. He was flushed and out of breath.

-"How is my wife? And the baby? Are they okay? I need to know!" This frantic speech left us all out of breath. Frank seemed lost for words. I could just stare at him still struggling to catch his breath.

-"Mr Harper, I'm Dr Lockhart. I have been treating your wife..." His eyes were immediately on my belly. Yeah so what? Couldn't doctors be pregnant? I tried to get his attention up north. "Your wife is fine. All the tests results show that the baby remained unharmed by her little fall. We will keep her here for observation for the next hours, but you should be able to take her home tonight."

-"I told her to be careful and to never go upstairs when she was alone. I asked our housekeeper to never leave out of her sight. But she wasn't in today, one of her grand-children is ill. I knew I should have asked, my mother to stay with Melissa." The housekeeper? Young, rich and impatient.

-"Mr Harper, I understand your concern, but your wife is certainly capable of taking care of herself. At seven month pregnancy, there is no need for her to be monitored at any hour of the day. Unless of course she has a medical condition requiring assistance." I understood his concern, but there is a big difference between worry and sheer madness. This guy looked like a control freak. No wonder his wife had been so distressed.

-"She fell, didn't she? She could have died. What if she had been unconscious? What if she hadn't been able to call 911?" He dared me to say anything.

-"Naturally, that would not have been good. But I'm sure your wife has always been very careful. Please don't put that out of proportion." His look told me that I wasn't getting through. I turned around and look at her calmly lying on a bed. Poor girl, it was doubtful that she was allowed to pee without a two-hour notice. As I turned to him again, I realized that his eyes were again on my belly. Great!

-"Of course you would say that." Yeah that was reason trying to make a point with panic. So duh!

-"I mean, you're pregnant and you're still working here at ER. Do you think about all the dangers you're putting yourself into? The illnesses, the potential traumas… What does your husband say to that?" I felt my smile freeze on my face. Yeah I thought about all the dangers, and the biggest one I had to face today was to stay calm enough and not slap this madman.

-"I'll thank you for your concern, but I assure you that I'm very careful. As far as your wife is concerned, she only tripped in the stairs. At no time she has been in real danger of losing the baby. You should relax. You don't want to distress her. That couldn't be good for the child." Homerun! His face turned from accusing to anxious again.

-"Yes of course not. I'm sorry, I just got carried away. But you can't imagine what I've been through since she called me. I couldn't stand losing them, I just couldn't…" With that his voice broke and tears started forming in his eyes. I felt bad, he probably had a hell of a day so far. And so yes he was controlling, but he seemed really, really in love and extremely caring. I found him sweet. Sweet? Okay I guessed my hormones were speaking. No way would I accept to be treated like that. Except… Well I was pretty much pampered the same way. I didn't have a housekeeper to check on me, but probably about the whole ER staff.

-"Do you want to see your wife? I'm sure she's been waiting for you."

-"Yes of course." He still looked absolutely devastated.

-"You have to pull yourself together. If she sees you like that, she might think that we were hiding something from her earlier. I assure you, she is fine. I'll take you to her."

-"Where is she? I hope the room is germ-free. We had the whole house sanitized, when we found out about the baby. You can't imagine what one can catch. It's terrifying." Yes, I had to agree, this guy was terrifying! His words were bringing back horrible pictures, I had seen in my medicine books about bacteria in 3rd world countries. Thank God, I wasn't in constant contact with someone like him. I would probably spend the day cleaning around me!

-"Oh, I can imagine." I finally muttered, willing those memories away. "Of course, everything is perfectly clean. Why don't you join her, you'll see by yourself." Okay I needed distance between us. I wanted contact with normal people, with normal fears, like what would happen if I ran out of chocolate ice-cream? You could forget what I had said earlier. This guy was not sweet, this guy was a maniac!

-"Shouldn't I wear one of those yellow overalls?" He pointed at Ray who was busy with an accident victim in Trauma 2. "And maybe those protections you put on your shoes, I've seen that on TV. You know to prevent infections." Okay reason and rational thinking were lost on him. So I gave in. One last dance and I could finally steer clear from him.

-"Sure! Haleh, could you take Mr Harper with you and give him what he needs?" I saw relief on his face and he managed a half-smile. I looked as he was leaving with Haleh.

-"See some men are really bad." I turned and looked at Frank and Jerry.

-"Yeah, sure! Not everyone is losing it like him! I wondered what will happen once their baby will be born. I can only hope that he will calm down."

-"Doesn't this make you thankful that your boyfriend isn't like that?"

-"Luka is a doctor and above that chief of ER. If he would behave like Harper, I would make sure he meets a shrink as soon as possible. Not to mention tell Kerry that she should look for replacement."