Part 35
"Really, I'm fine, Pete," Zander said, talking to Peter on the phone. "Don't come all the way here. We'll see you in London soon enough."
"You're sure?" Pete asked. "You may as well not lie, because I'll ask Dad about your true condition. And Mom."
"It's all discovered and taken care of," Zander said. "They know what it is and what to do about it."
"I hope so, gee, Alex, I thought you were as strong as a horse," Pete said.
"So did I. I felt like I had been run over at first, but now I'm starting to feel normal. Like I shouldn't be here. Yet they made a big deal about me taking a walk today."
"Take it easy if they say to, Alex."
Zander looked up to see Carly, holding Ginny, at the door, with David right behind her.
"There she is," Zander said, smiling. "My little girl came all the way here to see me." He put his arms out and took her as Carly handed her to him.
"Say hi to Uncle Pete," Zander put the phone to Ginny's ear.
Ginny listened with wide eyes. The phone was one of those toys that talked. "Hi, little Ginny," said the voice. "How is my little niece?"
"Eeeeeeeeee-goooo," said Ginny.
Zander laughed. "That means Hi, Uncle Pete," he said into the phone.
"I'll call you back later," Pete said. "After I've talked to Mom and Dad and possibly the doctor on your case."
"OK," Zander laughed, and they hung up.
"We have a nice surprise for you," Carly said, looking back at David.
"She is a nice surprise," he said, kissing Ginny's head. "My little puppet."
"We mean something else," David said. "We took her EKG, and she's normal."
"You did?" Zander's eyes brightened up. "Already? I didn't even know you could do one on a baby."
"Sure you can," David said. "They turn out most accurate. Kid has no idea what it's all about and doesn't get nervous."
"So you're sure? Hers is OK?"
"Yes," David said, smiling.
"Good girl!" Zander said to Ginny, as if she had accomplished a great feat. He kissed her again. "That's my girl. A proper Q and T wave."
"Q-T interval," David corrected, laughing.
David left Zander playing with Ginny and went into the break room for a cup of coffee. He was thinking about beta blockers and wondering which one he would choose and whether or not Monica was likely to make the same choice, when one of the nurses said to him, "You're a cardiologist, aren't you?"
"Yes," he said. "Not on the staff here, though."
"Oh, I know. But it's lucky that you are one when your son has a heart problem."
He stared, wondering how she had gotten that information.
"At least, I assume he's your son," she said. "From that he looks like you and I've seen you and his mother talking."
"Oh," he said. "That's really a coincidence. I'm just a family friend, actually."
"Oh, sorry," she said, leaving. "Family friend, my foot," she said to one of her colleagues later. "He was a little more than a friend, I would bet."
David looked up now to see he was alone in the break room, but that Cameron loomed in the doorway. He had a chart in his hand. David realized it couldn't be anybody's other than Alexander's, unless one of the doctors on staff had suddenly taken to consulting with Cameron.
"So," Cameron said, slammed the door shut behind him.
David put down the coffee cup, and winced. Something was dead wrong, he could already tell. He wondered if Cameron had heard the nurse.
"So it's your belief, that adultery and a DNA test makes you into a father, whereas, 22 years of headaches does not."
"No," David said. "It just makes me the source of genetic information."
"And yet you've known this all along!"
"Not for certain, until a few weeks ago."
"That's why you're here all the time!"
"All the time? No, I came with a medical history of my side of the family, something we did for the baby's sake. Then this came up, and it obviously had genetic components."
"Yes, your father dying of a sudden cardiac arrest rather adds to the diagnosis here, doesn't it? But I don't suppose anyone was going to enlighten me."
"Not if we could help it, why should we? As you say, you're the one who spent 22 years on the job. I guess you look at it as a job, from your remarks."
"And you are to judge?"
"Yes. Like I would anybody."
"I didn't do a good enough job on the job you assigned me? I guess that's why you honored me with a visit in Florida 12 years ago."
"Yes."
"And why didn't you do anything then?"
"Donna didn't want to. I thought I did what was best for him, that's all. You might have agreed."
"And the effect on me and on Peter wasn't to be considered? Though I probably need a genetic test done of myself and Peter now."
"Cameron! Donna will tell you. You don't."
"I'm supposed to believe her?"
"I don't know about your relationship with her before I knew either of you, but you should have realized for yourself how bad it was by the time Alexander was born."
"And your interference has nothing to do with it! And now you think after 22 years you can suddenly take on the role of father?"
"No, I don't. And in fact I expected Alexander to dislike it greatly, to be angry at Donna and upset for you. But he's not all that upset. That should be what bothers you more than anything else."
"So now you think you know what should upset me. As you think you know how I should have raised my son. My son. For you have done nothing, nothing, in 22 years. Your little surreptitious visit to Florida 12 years ago does nothing. Your contributions 22 years ago do nothing."
"You're right. Nothing but help diagnose the Long Q-T Syndrome."
"As to that, your keeping it a secret could have killed him in his first 22 years."
"You could be right."
Cameron threw the chart on the table with a surprising violence. He opened the door and walked out.
David picked up the chart. Stupid, he thought. Why didn't we realize they might put this paternity test in here? He realized how old fashioned this hospital was. Anything whatsoever having to do with Zander Smith found its way there eventually into this chart with amazing efficiency, apparently.
David read the paternity report for Ginny. The one on himself and Zander had only their birth dates, but Cameron knew Zander's and could easily check up on David's, it was two and a half years behind Cameron's, and once suspicious, all Cameron had to do was call the State Medical Board of Pennsylvania and confirm it.
How he had gotten suspicious now looked incredibly easy to foresee. Donna herself had started being aware of the issue through physical resemblance. It had convinced David himself. And that nurse! Cameron must have overhead something even before.
He should warn Donna. And Alexander. Oh no, he thought, I hope Cameron has the sense not to bring this up with Zander now. He started to quickly walk back to Zander's room.