Chapter Ninety-One

Sitting at the breakfast table with her head propped on her hand, Leah pushed her eggs around on her plate.

"It can't be the eggs. No one can mess up scrambled eggs."

She glanced up at him, sighed, and put a bite in her mouth, chewing slowly. "I'm not going to wear the ring just yet. I'd like to get used to the idea before anyone else finds out."

"You know, you're not making me feel very confident." He took a drink of orange juice, then continued eating. "You look like someone just died."

This time she gave him an earnest smile and reached out for his hand. "It's not that. I'm…"

"I know," he interrupted, taking her hand and returning her smile. "You're thinking. That's against your doctor's orders, you know. Look, I've got it all planned. There'll be a celebration when Arnold finds out how much of the grant the hospital will receive. We'll have a more private celebration party here with our closest friends invited, and they'll think it's because of the grant. That's when we'll tell them."

"Do you have our wedding planned, too?"

He chuckled. "No."

"Good. Because I don't want a big wedding, I don't want caterers and planners and…I don't want the hassle. Do you?"

"No." This time the smile that touched his lips and eyes made her blush. "Why don't we have a quiet ceremony at Antonio's? They have a private garden. After that, we can have dinner there. Just a few of our friends."

She perked up, thought for a moment, and then let a calm smile move over her face. "That sounds nice."

"Good. I'll call Antonio today and see what the calendar looks like. Are you finished? It's time to go." He gathered his dishes and waited for her answer before he took hers.

Before he could, she handed them to him. "I have to run upstairs for a minute. " She headed out of the kitchen, stopped and turned back. "Do you have a safe?"

"No."

"Then I'll be two minutes," she yelled as she ran up the stairs.

The minute Trapper and Leah stepped into the hospital lobby, the receptionist rushed over to meet them. "Mr. Slocum would like to see you both in his office first thing," she said.

Trapper smiled and offered his thanks, then guided Leah with a hand on her back to the elevator. "Don't you want to, at least, take your satchel and work to your office," Leah asked as they both turned to face forward in the lift.

"I'll leave them in your office and get them on the way back down."

"What do you think this is about?"

"Arnold probably wants to know how we think we did. I'll bet he's as anxious as a teenager going on his first date." As that picture materialized in his mind, he laughed.

After stopping by Leah's office on the executive floor, they walked to the end of the hall and knocked on Arnold's door. Hearing permission to enter, they opened the door, but stepped back at the loud "hip hip hooray!" that roared out of the room.

With dumbfounded looks on their faces, they were dragged in. Leah looked over at Trapper. "You don't suppose he's already heard from the committee, do you?"

Laughing, he answered, "It appears so."

With the two standing in the middle of all the smiling faces, including several members of the board, Gonzo, Dr. Riverside, all the other department heads, Ernie, Gloria and a select group of nurses, Arnold began to read the grant committee's awards. "It appears that some of the money was spread out widely, let's see…the University of California in Davis got five hundred thousand for DNA research…here's a big one…George Washington got one million for an MRI machine and three million to complete their laser surgery center. Duke University School of Medicine got two million to establish a microvascular curriculum. Omaha Children's Hospital got one million for an MRI machine. San Francisco Memorial got two million for two MRI machines."

Applause erupted, and Leah and Trapper smiled disappointedly at one another, both hoping they had gotten more for their efforts.

"Brookdale in New York, Cambridge Health in Massachusetts, St Vincent's in Alabama, Baylor Health Systems in Texas and Saint Anthony's in Colorado all received five hundred thousand for travel and training in microvascular surgery to be performed by San Francisco Memorial who got three million to set up and execute the program. It seems everyone who asked for money for microvascular training did so under the assumption that someone else would be doing the training. San Francisco Memorial was the only institution who showed any interest in offering the training."

Another applause began as Leah and Trapper exhaled a sigh of relief, both satisfied considering what everyone else had received.

"That just about covers the distribution of the grant money available," said Arnold.

Trapper creased his eyebrows, cocking his head at Arnold. He had been adding it all up in his head. "What happened to the other ten million?"

Arnold smiled and set the piece of paper he'd been reading on his desk. "Due to the vision of Dr. John McIntyre, Chief of Surgery, and the technical strength of Ms. Leah Haverty, Chief Information Officer, and her team backing him up, the committee feels that the needs of the country in the new field of laser surgery is best served by the location, ease of travel and the team of dedicated professionals at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Seven million dollars goes to build, equip and staff the new laser surgery center at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Three million dollars goes to increase digital storage capacity to support the anticipated increase in patients and the new educational programs."

A wide grin appeared on Trapper's face as he shook the offered hands around him. Leah bowed her head into her hands as those behind her squeezed her shoulders or gave her a pat on her back. Turning around, Trapper leaned back to see the forward view of her rather than the top of her head, moving his hands to her arms. "Leah?"

Looking up with a laugh and a triumphant smile, she stepped into Trapper's warm embrace and squealed as Trapper lifted her feet off the floor.

Arnold shouted over the din of excitement in the room as trays of glasses were carried into the crowd. "Champagne for everyone!"

By midday, Trapper had gone through all the mail and reports that waited for him on his desk, separating them into piles by priority. After looking at the first three, he sat back and looked at the stacks of paper, deciding he would start in earnest after lunch. On his way to Leah's office, he was stopped several times by members of the hospital staff wanting to congratulate him after hearing news of the grant from their department heads.

Leah had glass windows at the front of her office that were usually covered by blinds. Today, the blinds were open. Trapper watched before he knocked on her door, dismayed at the piles of paper he saw on her desk…and behind her on her credenza. She was sitting back in her chair with an open file resting on her crossed knee, holding a piece of paper in one hand while her other elbow was propped on the chair arm, and her other hand was spinning a pencil up close to her ear. She'd stop spinning the pencil every now and then and write something on the paper she was reading.

He tapped on the glass, and though she sat up in the chair and turned her body, it took her another minute to take her eyes of the paper. When she saw him, an instant smile appeared on her lips as she nodded at the door.

"What's so interesting?" he asked as he entered the office.

"I have a lot to do. So do you. But I need to be way ahead of you so the systems are in place to support what you need to do when you do it."

He chuckled and looked over the piles. "What is all this?"

As she pointed to each stack of paper, she explained what they were. "These are resumes split by candidates for technical lead, programmer/analysts, computer operators, library attendants, hardware support, and desktop support. These are all the change requests we got from the departments in priority order. These are the current schematics, and these are blanks because I have to draw some new ones for the silo, and these are forms for ordering the equipment that I'll fill out as I do the new schematics. That first stack over on my table is work that David and my staff did while I was out that I need to review, and the second stack is all the information I've gathered for the children's wing."

"And the one you're holding?"

"Ah, this. This is the final settlement from the logging company. Albert wants me to sign it and overnight it back to him."

Trapper looked down at the open folder she set on the desk. "You haven't signed it."

Taking a deep breath, she flipped the folder closed. "No, I haven't. I chose to read it first. That might have been a mistake."

Taking her hand, he pulled her from behind her desk. "Come with me. It's time for a break."

"Trapper, I really don't have time for…"

"For me?" he interrupted.

She gave him a wide-eyed stare. "I didn't mean…"

"What you meant was that you are going to take time for breakfast every morning…" he took her hand and led her out of her office, "…a break between breakfast and lunch, lunch, and an afternoon break, and then you are going to leave work behind on time and go home with your husband."

"Ssh! Someone might hear you."

"I don't care." He twirled her into his arms once they were in the elevator, reached around her and pushed the button, and then kissed her until the elevator slowed, stepping away from her just as the door's opened.

"You'll be eating those words within a week. People will be coming out of the woodwork to congratulate you. You'll care then."

Glancing at her over the top of his glasses, he motioned for her to step in the cafeteria line in front of him, and then followed her to a table. "We need to have the party at the house soon," he said, cutting his sandwich in half.

"Why so soon?"

He looked up at her and hesitated, then continued cutting his sandwich. "Because Arnold has already announced the grant, so a celebration party needs to happen fairly quickly. I can reserve a room and the patio at Antonio's for the following week."

She had just brought her sandwich to her mouth, but stopped.

"Why wait?" he asked, answering her open mouth.

Putting her sandwich back on her plate without taking a bite, she leaned back, wrapped her arms around herself and looked away.

With a mouthful, he explained. "Leah, work isn't going to slow down, especially for you with those piles of paper you already have in your office. If we don't do this now, we might not get another chance. Now, who do you want to invite?"

She continued to look toward the windows. "To the party or to the wedding?"

"There you go again. We're not planning a funeral. What's wrong?"

Looking back at him, she raised her hand to her mouth and bounced her fist on her puckered lips. Thoughts of Doug Manning still crept up in her mind. "I was hoping I'd have a chance to get used to the idea before the reality of it. But you're right. There will never be a good time once all these projects get started." She quickly glanced up at him. "Unless…"

He had raised his glass of soda to his mouth, but stopped. "Unless what?"

"Unless we both retire," she said, twisting her mouth. "We can afford it."

Still frozen in place, he asked, "You're kidding, aren't you? You have to be because neither one of us is ready to retire. After the first month, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves." Her eyebrows shot up. Exhaling heavily through his nose, he set his glass down. "Look, you and I are alike in that respect. We do what we do because we're driven to it. Neither one of us would be happy without it at this point in our lives."

"Dr. McIntyre to emergency stat. Dr. McIntyre to emergency stat."

Looking up at the ceiling, he tightened his lips and swore under his breath. "We'll talk about it tonight." He stood and leaned over the table to kiss her. "Think about who you want to invite," he said, rushing out the door.

She watched him go wondering if this was how her life would be…always putting things on hold while watching him run to his next emergency. And then, there was Doug. Would Doug try to get revenge because of Xanda and his dismissal from the committee, and if he did, would he dare to come after Trapper?