A Brand New Twist, Chapter 35
by Luvin_Evian
Chapter 35
“Even after your fit this morning, your second round of tests still look
good, Julian.” Matt flipped the chart closed. “I think you’ll be going home
tomorrow.”
“You sure this time?” Julian grumbled.
Eve touched his shoulder. “Julian,” she chided, not happy with the snippy
tone he always seemed to take with the doctor.
“It’s okay, Eve, I’m getting used to his pleasant demeanor,” Matt quipped.
“Actually, Julian, I was sure this morning you’d be going home tomorrow,
but you felt the need to argue the point with me.” Matt pulled his stethoscope
from around his neck. “Eve, if you could give us a few minutes, I need to
examine him.”
“Sure, I’ll go to the cafeteria and grab a bite.”
“Have some real food, my love,” said Julian. “I’m sure our baby would
appreciate it.”
A smile touched Eve’s lips. She knew Julian still had reservations about
telling Sheridan they were her parents, but he was getting back to his old
self, and that was progress. “I promise I won’t ask Grace to bring over a
slice of tomato soup cake, how’s that?”
Julian shuddered. “It’s a good start.”
Eve kissed his forehead, and brushed her forefinger against his cheek.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
Eve spotted Ellen Harmon at the nurse’s station as she made her way to
the cafeteria. She touched the woman’s arm. “Hello, Ellen.”
“Eve. How’s Julian’s doing?”
“I’m happy to say he’s doing much better.” Eve motioned toward the elevator.
“I was just about to grab a bit downstairs. You want to join me?”
Ellen checked her watch and nodded. “Sure. I think I can go for a cup
of coffee.
A smorgasbord of mouthwatering flavors engaged Eve’s senses as she strolled
into cafeteria. Her stomach rumbled in anticipation. Everything looked so
good, and considering it was the hospital cafeteria, either she was really
hungry, or her pregnancy cravings were getting even more intense. Loading
a red plastic tray with, tossed salad, chopped steak and mashed potatoes,
baked fish, mixed vegetables, two dinner rolls, and strawberry gelatin topped
with a healthy serving of whipped topping, she made her way to the table
where her companion sat.
Ellen eyed the loaded tray. “Somebody’s hungry.”
“It feels like I haven’t eaten in days.” Eve shoved her fork into the
small mountain of potatoes capped with thick brown gravy and took a bite.
She frowned. “It needs a little ketchup.”
Ellen laughed as Eve turned down the ketchup bottle and doused her steak,
potatoes, and fish with the condiment. “I’m going to lay bets you’re having
a girl.”
“I think so, too.” Eve said with a smile. “What gave you the idea?”
“Ketchup and fish. I lived on it when I was pregnant with my daughter.
Oh, and ice cream and popcorn.” Ellen added a yellow packet of artificial
sweetener to her coffee and took a sip. “The fact you have such a healthy
appetite tells me things are going very well with Julian. I could barely get
you to take a vitamin before. When is he being released?”
“Tomorrow. Matt’s examining him now, and so far everything looks good.”
Eve took a pause between bites of fish. “Julian told me about your discussion.”
“He did?”
Eve took a drink of her iced water and nodded. “I imagine you have questions
about his questions.”
“It’s not my place to wonder, although I was a bit curious about the nature
of his concerns.” Ellen stirred the spoon in her cup. “It’s clear he loves
you, but he seemed so preoccupied with knowing if a biracial child could
look more like one race than another. I would think he’d just be happy about
the baby and not care how it looked.”
“He doesn’t care. Julian asked those questions for another reason,” she
explained, cutting into her chopped steak and taking a few bites.
Eve continued to eat while Ellen silently sipped her coffee. Sensing the
woman wanted more details but well aware she’d never ask, Eve wiped her mouth
with a paper napkin and met Ellen’s questioning gaze. “Julian and I were
involved many years ago, and a pregnancy occurred,” she explained. “Recently,
Julian discovered I didn’t give birth to just the son I believed, but I had
another child, one who looked more like his family.”
“White? That’s why he asked about twins?”
“Yes.” Eve nodded. “Anyway, Alistair, Julian’s father, hated the idea
of Julian and me being together, and had no intention of letting me keep
my child. He forced Julian to leave me, and when I delivered a second child,
one that didn’t look black or biracial like the son I had just given birth,
he somehow had the second birth erased from my memory, and took both my babies
away. Julian asked the questions of you to see if what his father told him
had any truth.”
Ellen shook her head, sighing. “I had no idea Alistair Crane was so…”
“Vicious? Ellen, there’s no limit to this man’s cruelty. We found out
the identity of our daughter and plan to tell her today.”
“You know her?”
“Yes, we know her quite well. In fact, I’m a grandmother, too,” she shared
with pride.
The dimples in Ellen’s cheeks deepened with her smile. “That’s great.”
“Yes, it is. Anyway, for reasons I can’t get into right now, Julian is
concerned about how she’s going to react to this news. I’m hopeful she’ll
understand how and why everything happened, and when my daughters come around
and we find our son, we can all be a real family.” Eve closed her eyes and
sighed. “That would be my dream come true.”
~*~
“So, is everything working?” Julian asked, buttoning his pajama top.
Matt scribbled some notes onto his chart. “Apparently so.”
“Have you reconsidered your stance from a few days ago?”
“My stance?”
“Yes. You just gave me a clean bill of health, so I’m wondering if that
six-week waiting period is off the table.”
Matt chuckled. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not,” Julian answered, not understanding the doctor’s doubt or
his little laugh.
Matt dropped the chart to his lap and leaned forward. Julian groaned.
The man was going into deep doctor mode again. “You want to explain what
this morning was about?”
“Do I have to?”
“No, as you’re all too quick to point out to me, you don’t have to do
anything. You’re Julian Crane. However, as your doctor, I would advise you
not to do whatever it was you did, and adhere to the waiting period. All
six weeks of it,” Matt said, stressing the time frame.
“Why do you have it in for me?”
“I don’t have it in for you, Julian. My job is to see you get well.”
“I’d get well a lot faster with some TLC from Eve.”
“That kind of TLC can get you D-E-A-D. Is that what you want? Your ribs
are still sore, and a bullet went into your chest a few days ago.”
Julian scoffed. “I feel fine.”
“You wanted to die this morning, and now you’re dying for something else.
It’s clear you love Eve, but I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to do anything
that would endanger your life. So, please, keep your pants on.” Matt propped
his left ankle on his right knee. “What happened with you this morning?”
“You back to that?”
“Yes. Earlier, you were feeling tense and hopeless, and now you’re calmer,
but a bit edgy.”
“You’re a psychiatrist, too?”
“No, I just recognize the symptoms of a man in conflict with himself.”
Julian grunted. He was in no mood to be psychoanalyzed. “Harmon, you’re
a great surgeon, but you can’t begin to understand what I’m going through.
However, you could make things easier by not putting me on medically enforced
abstinence.”
“Look, I’ve explained that, but what you need to know and understand is
your emotional well-being plays a huge role in your physical well-being.
Especially after what you’ve been through.”
“I’m trying to look out for my emotional well-being, but you keep taking
me off my path. I’m feeling much better, and I think to wait six-weeks is
ridiculous.” Julian rubbed his temples. The anger he felt at having to wait
that long was doing him a lot more harm than that gunshot ever could. This
wait would probably kill him.
“I take it you told Eve what you’ve been wrestling with.”
Julian dropped his hands from his head. “What?”
“Whatever it was that brought about your anxiety attack. You told Eve
about it, right? Now, you’re wondering about the fallout. Drowning in a
sea of sex could help you forget. In fact, it’s a pretty good distraction,”
he said with a smile, no doubt thinking of the unbridled passion he could
engage in without a six-week wait, “but it won’t last. You’ll still have
to deal with whatever it is you’re hesitant about dealing with.”
“How, uh…how did you come to this conclusion?”
“Experience. That cocksure attitude disguising the fear threatening to
drown you is one I’m familiar with. If not for Ellen, I’d probably still
be acting the part.”
“I can appreciate whatever it is you’ve gone through, Harmon, but you
can’t begin to…”
“I landed in this chair when I was sixteen years old. My father was a
real bastard. A bastard with a lot of power. Well, I decided I didn’t want
to be caught up in the world he lived in, and because he didn’t agree, he
had my brother try to kill me.”
“He what?”
“Oh, yes. My brother, Bobby, failed in his attempt, but he put me here.”
Matt patted the big black wheels of his chair. “Years later, after a prison
stint for Bobby and a new identity in Witness Protection for me, Pop sent
him after me again. After Bobby almost killed Ellen in his zeal to get to
me, I killed him.”
Julian looked on, speechless. A paraplegic murdering doctor. He would
have never guessed.
“Not what you expected, huh?”
“No,” Julian said with a shake of his head. “Why did you tell me this?”
“To show you that even when things look hopeless, they can turn out well.
I don’t know what’s been eating you these past few days, but I can’t begin
to imagine it’s as involved as what I’ve been through.”
“Humph. You’d be surprised.”
“I probably would, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve done some things in my
past I wish I hadn’t, but I’ve also done what I can to make up for them,
and most of all, I’ve forgiven myself. What I did was what I thought I had
to do, and even if I wanted to, I can’t change what’s already done.”
“So, you’re telling me I should what?” he asked, curious as to what advice
the good doctor would give. The man had an upbringing that seemed extremely
comparable to his. Maybe he did know what he was talking about.
“Purge yourself, Julian. Clear your conscience and deal with what happens
afterward. I assure you, it’s a lot better than stressing and pretending
everything is fine when it’s not. I have a great life -- a beautiful wife,
three fantastic children, and a successful career. Had I not faced my demons,
I wouldn’t have any of this. You have Eve and a baby on the way. Pretending
everything is great while you’re waiting for this shoe hanging over your head
to drop won’t help anyone. It’s clear you made a big step in dealing with
this. You need to make the other one. Fear only lasts as long as you let
it.”
Three quick raps on the door drew Julian’s attention from Matt’s sage
words. Eve stuck her head inside the crack of the now slightly open door.
“Is the check-up over?”
“Yes, I’m done,” Matt said, waving her inside.
“He got the all clear?” Eve asked.
“So far. I’ll be back again in the morning. As for that protocol we discussed
earlier, Julian, let’s try my way for about two weeks, and then we’ll see
about other methods, okay?”
Julian smiled. “Okay. Thank you for everything, Doctor. I mean that.”
“You’re welcome.” Matt touched Eve’s arm on the way out. “Keep your eye
on him.”
“I will.” Eve walked over to the bed after Matt departed. “It’s good to
see you being nice to him.”
“We had a good talk. Harmon’s an admirable man. He makes me a little crazy,
but he’s all right.”
“I actually ran into Ellen in the hallway and she joined me in the cafeteria.
I didn’t go into specific details, but I told her about what’s been going
on.”
“I did the same with her husband. I don’t think we should wait for Sheridan
to come over. I’m ready to talk to her now.” Julian picked up the phone handset
and extended it to Eve. “Why don’t you give her a call and tell her I’m
up for a visit.”
***
Tek took Sheridan’s arm, stopping her reach for the handle to Julian’s
door. “You sure this is going to be alright? The nurse said your brother
had an episode earlier.”
“Yes, but she also said he’s doing much better now. Besides, Julian called
for me. Eve is with him and they both need to hear what you have to say.”
Sheridan studied the hesitant man. “What’s wrong, Thomas?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just have a strong feeling everything is
going to change once I go into that room.”
“Of course it’s going to change. You’re going to see two extremely happy
people when you tell Eve and Julian you have proof they had two babies. This
news is going to be the best medicine in the world for Julian.” Sheridan
smiled, barely able to contain the excitement she felt. She couldn’t wait
to see Eve and Julian’s faces when she shared what she knew. “This is so wonderful.
We’re this close to discovering my niece and nephew, Thomas. I can just feel
it.” She reached for the door handle. “Come on, let’s go."