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Chapter Three
Vital Importance
"Please? It's really important that I speak with Dr. Shephard."
Kate was nearly to the point of begging. It was the second day in a row that she'd called his office, only to be told that he doesn't take appointments without referrals.
"Like I told you, Dr. Shephard doesn't accept phone calls of this nature. He has a very busy schedule and is in high demand. If you can get a referral, call us back to make an appointment," the receptionist had told her. Kate was hoping that if she called back today, she might get a hold of a nicer receptionist, but she had no such luck. They were both well trained in phone etiquette. The office must get calls with people begging them for appointments all the time, Kate thought.
Dr. Holland still hadn't returned her call about referring Sam to Dr. Shephard. When Kate asked the receptionist at Dr. Shephard's office, she said that they hadn't received any files about Sam, even though Kate remembered that Dr. Holland promised she would send them.
At first Dr. Jack Shephard hadn't seemed like the logical choice. He was young, a little hotheaded and very choosy with his patients. But then Kate had turned to the magic of the internet, and found out why this guy was so hard to get to. A number of his surgeries produced near miracles, and gave Kate the hope that he could do something for Sam, too.
If only she could reach out to him. Kate was prepared to deliver a whole sob story if necessary: "But he's my father, and I just found him and he told me that he's dying. You're the only one who can give him a chance to survive. All I've ever wanted was a father! Are you going to take that away from me?"
There were several variations; she hadn't decided which one to use yet, but hoped she didn't have to.
However, after more searching, Kate had located where exactly Dr. Shephard worked. If he wouldn't take her phone calls, then it was time for an office visit.
Dr. Shephard's office was tucked into the surgical wing of St. Sebastian's Hospital. Before arriving, Kate thought it would look more imposing, but if anything, it mirrored images she had seen on medical dramas.
The floor was shiny white, the walls painted a soft green color. It all looked fine, but the moment she stepped inside the unmistakable scent of hospital overwhelmed her. Kate hadn't been inside one since her mother had died, but in her quest to track down Dr. Shephard, she hadn't even thought of the possible flashbacks.
But now, here it was, flooding her nostrils with a smell she could only associate with death, and toward the end, suffering. She was here, she had to remind herself, to do the right thing for Sam. Her personal feelings weren't of importance—only Sam's life was.
The receptionist gave her a friendly smile when she approached the desk. Just wait, Kate thought. She read the nametag attached to the blonde's sweater. Pamela—the two had spoken only an hour before.
"Does Dr. Shephard happen to have a spare minute?"
Pamela blinked. "Do you have an appointment? Because he's out to lunch right now so he shouldn't be seeing anyone." She looked to the computer screen and Kate could see her scroll down.
"Uh, no, I don't. I was just hoping to speak with him quickly. When's he supposed to be back?"
Pamela raised her eyebrows. "M'am, I'm sorry, but you'll have to make an appointment. Are you a patient of his?"
"No," Kate said quickly, averting her eyes to the office down the hall that had his nameplate on the outside. The door was open. He wouldn't have left it open had he really gone to lunch, right? "I know he's still here," she tried, seeing Pamela flinch minutely. "I'm an old friend of his," she lied. "From high school. Can you tell him Kate from high school is here to see him?"
Kate hoped that this could be one of those situations where it panned out to have an ordinary name.
"Kate who?"
"Shit," Kate mumbled, before gathering herself. "Smith?"
Kate Smith was generic enough, and before she could stop it or consider that it wasn't the right situation, she thought of the fact that Sam still didn't know she'd grown up with his last name. For thirty years the only attachment to Sam she had was the name Austen.
Praying that her excuse would gain her a moment of face time with the sought out doctor, Kate pleaded with Pamela. "My sister is a patient down in the ER right now, and someone mentioned Dr. Shephard's name and I just had to come see him. I'm just visiting, you see. I'd love to catch up and get his information. So I can stay in touch." She added a smile to the end, hoping to convince Pamela how serious she was.
It helped that she and Dr. Shephard had to be around the same age, and that Pamela wasn't clever enough to ask her any questions.
"He's really not in at the moment." She looked at Kate with a pregnant pause. "But since you're an old friend, I can give you his email if you'd like."
Beggars can't be choosers, Kate reminded herself, but she doubted that having his email address would be all that helpful. Emails were too easy to ignore.
"Thanks so much, but do you possibly have a phone number for him? I'm only in town until tomorrow afternoon and I'd love to catch him before then. Plus, I don't have internet access until I head back home."
Kate had to admit that she was a fantastic liar, especially for being on the spot. Whether or not that was such a good thing, she couldn't decide.
Pamela hesitated, and Kate suspected that she was beginning to doubt her story. "Please?" she asked, softer this time. "It would mean a lot to me. We were such good friends and we've just lost touch over the years."
Finally Pamela scrawled down a number on the back of a business card that already contained his email. "That's his cell. He'd kill me if he knew I gave it to you, so you better be who you say you are."
Kate smiled and snatched the card from Pamela's hand before the blonde could change her mind. "Thank you so much, Pamela. I'm sure he's going to be thrilled to hear from me."
"Kate, hi," Sam said and opened the door to her.
Truth be told, it was all still awkward, but the last thing Kate wanted was to be scared of having a relationship with Sam, even if he was dying, even if the relationship might not last long.
"There's some snacks over on the counter and help yourself—"
"I think I found you a surgeon," Kate said breathlessly. "Do you mind if I use my laptop?"
Sam raised his eyebrows, surprised. "Better tell me what's going on."
Kate explained her conversations with his two doctors, and that even though the two opinions differed, Dr. Holland had given him a chance.
"So you've already made me an appointment with this Dr. Shephard?" He looked mad almost, and Kate wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't want to piss him off already. "You mean well, but this just isn't what I want."
Despite her previous insecurity, Kate rolled her eyes. "So I've been told. I don't even have an appointment yet. He's really hard to get into."
"Fate," Sam grumbled.
"Just humor me, why don't you?" Kate snapped. "What if he can help you but you won't even take the chance? I know that you've given up and maybe that's fine for you but it's not fine for me. I came all the way out here and I'm hit with this and I'm doing something about it. What the hell do you have to lose? You're the one who's walking around like you're already dead!"
Sam's eyes hardened momentarily, before he let out a tense, "Fine. I'll go if you can manage to get an appointment."
Kate was silent and stared at the carpet. She hadn't thought it would be that easy to convince him. "I think we just survived our first fight."
Sam walked back to the kitchen and began tearing a head of lettuce. "Looks like it."
Not letting their little tiff bother her longer than it ought to, she pulled out her laptop, powered it on and searched in her bag for the business card Pamela had given her. For several minutes, she fiddled with the wording of her email to Dr. Shephard. She figured a brief introduction might be better than bombarding him with a call on his personal phone.
Satisfied enough, she pressed send. Then she waited.
Patience was no virtue for Kate; hearing nothing from Jack in the few hours after she sent her email, at a time she figured he would check it, she'd sent four more, each with a different, begging, tone.
Today she would call.
Deciding to leave Sam alone for the day—she didn't want her presence to be too much—she moseyed around the hotel before it progressed to a tense pace, while she debated whether or not to call Dr. Shephard.
Her resolve held only until noon, when she figured that he may be at lunch and more likely to answer his phone.
Punching ten numbers that belonged to the only and only Dr. Jack Shephard into her cell phone, she waited, holding her breath. It rang six times before his voicemail picked up.
At first disappointed, her attention was again grabbed at the sound of his voice. It was sort of deep, tired sounding, but without the nerdy, uptight tone she expected from a man who was so admired at such a young age.
So entranced by his voice, Kate was surprised by the beep that signaled her to begin her message.
"Um, hi Dr. Shephard. Um, this is Kate. I emailed you yesterday. Kate Austen, I mean. My name is Kate Austen. And I haven't heard back from you about my father… anyway I was just wondering if you thought about taking an appointment with him? His name is Sam Austen and I really want to meet with you to discuss his options. Please let me know."
She babbled on further, eventually giving him her number and pleading with him to call her back.
He didn't, at least not during the next two hours, and Kate wondered if all hope was lost. She pored over information on other area spinal surgeons, but none of them were quite as willing to perform such risky elective surgeries.
She'd never felt so desperate in her entire life, and she called three more times, leaving other rambling messages.
Just when she'd gone off to the aquarium on the recommendation from the concierge, hoping that it would take her mind off things for a bit, she felt her phone vibrating.
It was him.
"Hello?"
"You sound a little bashful considering how frantic your messages were."
His voice was smooth just like the voicemail greeting, but he sounded more confident live.
"Dr. Shephard?"
"Kate Austen?" he asked in a similar tone, and Kate wondered if his tone was professional enough.
"Umm, yeah." Now that she was speaking with the man of the hour, for some reason she couldn't spit the words out.
"Ahh, to hear the voice of my stalker."
Kate froze, gazing into the aquamarine in front of her, unsure if he was joking. "That's not what I meant to do, it's just that I couldn't get an appointment and I just wanted a chance for Sam—"
"Speaking of your father," he interrupted, "his files were sent over just a few minutes ago, and now that I have a referral, you can set up an appointment with the receptionists."
Kate wanted to tell him that perhaps he should think twice about who he hired to work the appointment counter, given that Pamela had handed out his personal information after a pretty unbelievable lie.
"So I—"
"Did all that begging for nothing? Yeah," he said, and Kate laughed. "That funny?"
"I'm just relieved, that's all. I was beginning to think I came all the way out here for nothing."
She stared at the sea turtle floating through the water and pondered Dr. Shephard's personality. There was something mysterious about him, something that inanely piqued her curiosity.
"All the way out here? From where?"
"Iowa," Kate said. "I actually just tracked down Sam and told him that he's my father. We just met two days ago."
Right after it had shot from her mouth, Kate flushed with embarrassment at the reveal and wondered why their conversation was flowing like they were two friends catching up, instead of what they were: the daughter of a potential patient and a potential lifesaving surgeon.
Eventually Jack let out an, "Oh. That's intense," and Kate knew he was thinking the same thing.
An awkward silence fell over them before Jack jumped in.
"Well, Ms. Austen, I look forward to meeting you and your father."
Twirling a strand of her long brown locks through two fingers, she found herself smiling. "Please, call me Kate."
A shy chuckle came through the line. "Okay, Kate, I look forward to meeting you."
"And what about Sam?"
"Your father? Well, I guess if he has to come too, he can," he joked.
Kate figured it would be the only joke about Sam's illness that she could laugh at. "No, I mean, what do you think? From seeing his files?"
Jack sighed. "I can't discuss his medical records over the phone. I'm sorry. We'll talk about it when you come in."
"Thank you so much," Kate said. "For agreeing to see him. It means a lot."
"Persistence gets you places," he laughed again. "I'll see you when I see you?"
"Yeah," she agreed, slow to snap her phone shut, wondering if before they'd even met, if they hadn't already crossed a line.
Up next: A face to face meeting. Will sparks fly? ;)