Complications - 1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Greg returned to the front desk and checked in on a special patient of his. He slammed down her chart and shook his head.

“Dammit! I was hoping that’d work on her.”

The duty nurse shook her head. “I’m sorry, Dr. Marshall. She’s in exam room four waiting for you.”

Greg ran his hand over his beard and took a deep breath. “Wish me luck, huh, Hannah...this is never the kind of news I like to deliver.”

“Luck,” she whispered.

After a half-hour, a noticeably somber Greg trudged back to the nurse’s station, his shoulders slumped. “I’m gone for the day.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

He pulled out his cell phone and called the one person who’d understand the most.

It was an early day for Josh; he was ready to leave and it was only three pm. He walked to the front desk and dropped off the file for his last patient. “Ladies, looks like a light load today, let’s call it a day, shall we?”

The eyes of his medical secretary, Lacey, lit up. “Thank you, Doctor!” The phone rang and she picked it up instantly. “Lakeside Doctors' Group.” Her lips turned to a smile. “He’s right here.” She handed him the phone. “It’s Dr. Marshall.”

Josh grinned. It’d been two weeks since he’d even spoken to his best friend due to their conflicting schedules, and a year since they'd gone their separate ways--Greg staying at the hospital and Josh starting his own practice. “I’ll take it in my office, Lacey. Thanks. You can go now if you’d like.”

“Thank you.” She set to tidying up as he walked away.

Josh briskly walked back to his window office in the corner and picked up the blinking line. “Greg? Hi, buddy! How are you?”

“Not good…I really need to talk. Can you come soon, like right now?”

“What is it? What’s happened?” Josh’s pulse picked up.

“Please meet me at the park, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Josh stood up and unearthed his keys. “You got it. I’ll be right there. Are you okay? Is everything alright?”

“I’m physically fine, just please ... hurry.” Click.

Josh locked his office door and flew past reception. “Good night, Lacey.”

“’Night, Doctor.”

Five minutes later, Josh rushed up to where Greg was sitting at their usual park bench.

“What is it, bud? I came as quick as I could.” Josh was almost out of breath.

Greg turned to his best friend and took him into a snug embrace, sobbing.

Josh rubbed his friend’s back. “Shhh, hey. What’s going on? I’m here.”

Greg pulled away and wiped his eyes. “This has been the worst day in a long time. I’d prayed and prayed, even with her oncologists, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Josh gasped. “You mean, Mrs. Fisher? Oh no….”

“Her cancer treatment isn’t working. This is her third bout. I had to tell her she had no options left. We’ve gotten so close. I hate when death just deals someone a blow like this! She’s got a month at most.”

”I’m so sorry. I take it she knows?”

Greg pulled back and nodded. “Yes. I just told her. She was crying, and I was too. I had to leave. She’s going to die, and I can’t help her at all. All the specialists in the world couldn’t save that wonderful woman’s life," he growled angrily, running his hands over his head in frustration. She’ll be in the hospital soon, dying. I don't know if I can watch it again.”

Josh groaned. “I knew this would happen. I really hate seeing you go through this all the time. Come on, I’ll ask you one last time. Come into the practice with me. You and I can split everything! Bill wants to open his own practice; it would be just you and me. You’d be so much happier! I’m home every night to see the kids and rarely go on call anymore.”

“But that’s just it. I almost feel like I’d be missing the people that really need me the most. Come on, admit it. Don’t you miss the adrenaline rush? The excitement?” Greg inquired.

“Nope, not really. Look, I’m almost forty years old, and you’ll be there yourself in a couple more years. Think about it, seriously?”

“I’ll think about it. Thanks, Josh.” Greg raised his head and shook back the long, brown bangs from his eyes. He looked up into his best friend’s face and smiled. Josh’s large brown eyes looked him up and down. There was a speck of gray hair beginning in Greg’s beard, but otherwise he looked the same.

Josh put his arm around Greg’s shoulders. “Look, I know it’s tough; losing a patient always is.”

Greg sighed aloud. “I know, but I’m a healer. I should be able to help more. Cancer makes us so powerless. It’s like fighting a seemingly endless battle.”

“The numbers are getting better.”

“Not for Mrs. Fisher. She’s only sixty-seven years old! Her fifth grandchild was just born, and her other grandkid is graduating college. These are all things she’ll miss.”

“A wise man once said to me that death is only the beginning of a life. She’ll be gone from the mortal world, but her soul will live on in her family, her legacy. She has a terrific set of doctors.” He nudged his friend in the arm, garnering a smile. “Come on, I saw that smile starting.”

“Eh…it was a baby grin. I feel so bad for her.”

“Greg, you’re gonna drive yourself crazy over this. Every single time you have a terminal patient, you go through this bout of doubt as I call it. I do it too. It’s natural for doctors to wonder about their chosen profession when they have someone they can’t help. But you know what?”

“What?”

“You did your best for her. You care about her, a lot. That’s what counts in the long run.”

Greg’s brown eyes glinted a bit with unshed tears, which he blinked away. “Thanks, Josh.”

“Anytime. That’s what buds are for, aren’t they?”

“Absolutely. Come on, I’m feeling better. Let’s get home to those wonderful families of ours and hold them tight. You never know when something could happen.”

Josh frowned at him. “There’s a lovely thought.”

“It’s the truth.” He began to walk ahead, Josh fell behind.

“Hey, wait up, alright. You’re going like a speeding train.”

“I just want to get home. I need them to help me get through this next month. I have to be able to deal with it too, along with my patient.”

Josh caught his arm and turned him around. “Stop…hey. I’m here with you too. Don’t you ever forget that, alright?”

Greg nodded and patted his friend’s shoulder. “I won’t forget. I know you’re always just a phone call away.” He backed away and began to walk again, but at a slower cadence. “You know, I just wanna be able to give so much more of myself to everyone I love, and I wonder if I’m spread too thin sometimes. So much of me has died inside from losing my father and watching my patients die….”

Josh caught his arm again and held him. “I don’t believe that. I think you’re very alive and just hurting right now. You’re still a very loving person, Jonathon Gregory.”

Greg’s face froze as he stared into his friend’s eyes with bewilderment. “Jonathon? Wow, only my mom ever called me by my first name, and that was when she was really trying to get through to me.”

“I am trying to get through that tough exterior of yours. That concrete must be about a foot deep on the cranium.” He lightly rapped on Greg’s head as if he were knocking on concrete, which earned him a light shove.

“Quit it. I’m not as tough as I’d like to be anymore. Guess that changes with age, huh?” He looked deeply into his friend’s brown eyes.

“Josh?”

“Yeah?”

Greg sighed. “I wanna go get drunk or at least buzzed. Drink a toast to Mrs. Fisher’s life.”

“I’ll join you.”

I was hoping you would. You’ve been my best bud for ten years. Damn, where did all that time go?”

“You’ve heard of a commode flushing? It’s called being married, having kids, having a life!”

“Speaking of families, we need to get going. My two should be home from school by now. I think I’ll surprise Amber.” He played with the golden ring on his left hand and smiled to himself.

“You guys good after all these years?”

Greg nodded and brushed his hand along a nearby shrub. “Yeah, mostly. Had our rough patches which I bent your ear on until dawn, but for the most part, we’re good. You?”

“Eh. It’s alright. Kids are fine; Ben has become the apple of my eye. He’s so much like me, and I see the way he emulates me. I don’t want to disappoint him. Nati is such a cutie. Just like her mother.”

“Hmm, sounds like there’s trouble in paradise? You and Kim alright?”

Josh hesitated. “Sure.”

“Not very persuasive. Something I can help out with?”

Josh opened his mouth to reply, but shook his head instead and kicked at the grass. “No. We’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”

“What’re buds for? We’ll get together say, 8 o’clock?”

“Make it 9:00. Give us more time with the kids.”

“Deal.”

The two walked back to their cars and headed for their respective homes.

Greg walked into his house and was greeted warmly by his wife, Amber. She hugged him tight and smoothed his back.

“You feel so tense, baby.”

He pulled back from her. “I have a patient that’s dying. We can’t do anything else for her.”

Amber gasped. “I’m so sorry! How awful!”

“Yeah, it is. She’s only sixty-seven. Nice lady, very sweet. She took it well. I think she’s just tired of dealing with the pain and uncertainty anymore.”

“Even so.” She kissed him softly. “I hope you don’t go anywhere for a long time.”

He kissed her back. “Same here. I love you so much, Amber.”

“Love you too.”

Renee and Jon scurried into the room to greet their father.

“Hi, Dad!” Eleven-year-old Renee spouted. “How was your doctoring today?”

Greg stifled a laugh. “It was not a good day today, sweetie.”

Nine-year-old Jon scowled. “Why not?”

He gathered them to his sides and hugged them. “Daddy wishes he could save everyone but that just isn’t possible. A lady under a lot of doctors’ care is going to die.”

Renee gasped. “Is she old, dad?”

“No, not very old.”Amber interjected. “Only sixty-seven.”

Jon wrinkled his small nose. “That’s old.”

Greg shook his head. “Old to you, yes, but not to your mother and I.” He kissed his children’s heads. “We love you both very much, you know that.”

“Yeah dad, you tell us about every five minutes.” Renee shot back.

“Side effect of being a parent. We’ll love you forever and ever. No matter what.”

“Even if we drop something in the toilet that we shouldn’t have?” Jon asked wide-eyed. His brown eyes mimicked his father’s.

Greg and Amber shared a look. “What’d you drop in there now, son?” he asked.

“Uh…something of Renee’s.”

His sister shot him a dirty look. “Would you leave my stuff alone? Why’d I have to have a little brother anyway? I’d like a dog better!”

Greg shushed her. “Hey! Don’t talk like that to your brother! Jon, leave your sister’s things alone. What’d you drop in there?”

“Um…a doll head.”

“A head?” Amber squeaked. “Just the head?”

“Um…yup.”

Renee put her palm to her face. “You little rat!”

Jon knew that look and ran off, but his mother stopped him. “Go to your room, young man. Now. We’ll deal with you in a minute.”

Greg patted his daughter’s arm. “You go on to your room.”

“Why me? I didn’t do anything,” she retorted.

“Go on, young lady,” he replied sternly.

“Fine.” She bounded past both of them and shut the door to her room.

Amber leaned on her husband’s shoulder. “Ah, the joys of parenthood. Come on, let’s go dole it out.”

“Such a wonderful day. I’m definitely going out tonight.”

“With Josh?”

“Yes. We’re toasting my patient and chilling out a bit. There’s something odd about him lately; I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Leaving me here with the warring factions again?” Amber protested.

He stood up and sighed. “Amber….”

“It’s alright. You two go on. Kim and I’ll live it up next time. You owe me.”

“Yes, I do. For making my life unceasingly exciting.” He stood up and kissed her. “Thank you.”

She looked deep into his eyes and winked at him. “Anytime.”