The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,56

the shelter and didn’t have time to cook, and Austin had four new cases, and was swamped, so takeout from local restaurants worked well for them. Sashimi, sushi, Thai, Italian, Chinese, roast chickens from their favorite deli, and pizza in a pinch. The spaghetti and meatballs had been delicious and Jaime ate a lot of it, and so did they.

Everything seemed fine, until Jaime woke up in the middle of the night crying that her stomach hurt. She threw up shortly after, all over the room, and then screamed that her stomach hurt even worse. It was four in the morning, Jaime was crying, and Zoe was trying to clean up her room when Austin came in to see what was happening. Jaime said she had a terrible stomachache, and Austin looked at Zoe, exhausted.

“Should I call Cathy?” he asked her.

“I hate to call her at this hour,” Zoe said, as she took the towels to the laundry room to soak them, and when she came back, Jaime was crying even more. At first Zoe thought it was stomach flu, but this seemed worse, Jaime was writhing in pain, which she had never done before.

“Maybe we should go to the ER,” Zoe said, trying to assess the situation.

“At least we haven’t been in a while,” he said sleepily, but he was starting to get worried too. Jaime’s face was very pale.

Zoe gently tried to touch her abdomen, and with a question in her mind, she touched her on the right side, and Jaime screamed in agony. Zoe glanced up at Austin and they both had the same thought at the same time. Appendicitis, with her abdomen tender on the right side.

“I’ll get dressed,” he said without further comment, and was back in two minutes in jeans and loafers and a heavy sweater, and Zoe dressed just as fast. They wrapped Jaime in a blanket and Austin carried her. She continued to cry all the way to the hospital, and she was doubled over in pain when they walked into the ER, which was bustling with activity at five A.M.

Austin sat down holding Jaime, while Zoe spoke to the nurse at the desk and told her that her daughter had severe stomach pains, and then suggested appendicitis. The nurse nodded and said that the pediatrician on call would be with them in a few minutes. He was admitting a six-week-old with pneumonia, and Zoe went to fill out the familiar forms. A nurse’s aide took them to an examining room they had seen before as soon as she got back.

“This is where I got my pink cast,” Jaime said, remembering. It had been a landmark in her life, and whenever she got hurt, she asked for another one.

The doctor walked in five minutes later, and was a resident on call that night. Zoe reported Jaime’s symptoms and said that she was experiencing acute pain, particularly on the right side, and this was much worse than the stomach flu she’d had two months before. And as though to illustrate it, Jaime let out a scream, followed by a long whine, and was crying.

He talked to Jaime for a minute and then to Zoe again. “Has she complained of pain lately?”

“No, she hasn’t.”

“Nausea?”

“Yes,” Zoe confirmed, and Austin frowned.

“When was she nauseous?” He was surprised. “She ate a huge dinner of spaghetti and meatballs last night.”

“Which she threw up eight hours later. She’s complained of nausea a couple of times in the last few days, but nothing came of it, so I didn’t think much of it, until now.”

“I think we have a hot appendix here,” the resident said seriously, and Austin felt his own stomach turn over, worried about his daughter. “We may not have time to lose, we don’t want it to perforate. I’d like to get it out fast, these things can move quickly.” He was very definite about it, and Zoe nodded in agreement.

“I agree,” Zoe said quickly, she didn’t want to waste time either, and suddenly Austin intervened.

“I want a second opinion before we move on this. Is there an experienced surgeon in the house?” He was cold and calm and serious. He didn’t want to be railroaded into surgery by a panicked resident with limited experience.

“Of course,” the resident said, visibly offended, and left the room to page a surgeon on call.

“If it’s her appendix, we need to act fast,” Zoe whispered to him.

“Not that fast. That guy looks twelve years old. I’m not agreeing to