Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 141

Theo POV

The home was a place I loved to be, even better than Thomas's peaceful home. In my private sanctuary, I can be myself, walk around n**e, and just be; plus, it is where Bethany is, and that is what makes it even better. I get a thrill just looking at her, though the black eye still stands out and makes me sad I was not there for her.

But regardless of the bruised face, she could not look more beautiful to me than at that moment while she stood by the window and looked out at the city below; the way the light hit her body, silhouetting her in the sun glow, made me suck in a breath and stare at her.

We had to be at the hospital in an hour. She was dressed in her favorite slacks and had her hair traveling over her left shoulder. If you did not know Bethany, you might have thought she was staged for a photo shoot. But this was her, and she most likely does not realize how gorgeous she is having always been made to feel less than Cynthia. But I prefer Bethany's natural beauty. She does not need makeup to cover what is already perfect.

'Ready?' I asked, breaking the quiet of the morning. She turned and looked at me, her eyes still a little red from some tears she had shed earlier. Bethany has these sudden moments of tears; she won't talk about them. All I can do is be there for her and comfort her the best I can.

'Yes. I should be okay, and you will be in there with me, so all should be fine! We had a call from Robson; we needed to operate on the child today, or we would lose her. He made the call, so here we are off to put Bethany's experimental heart in the child. It all sounds fanciful and hopeful. If you had asked me only a few months ago if this was possible, I would have laughed at the suggestion.

We took the service car, and neither of us felt like walking; when we arrived, many eyes followed Bethany and looked shocked at her bruised face; she did not try to hide it; she said why should she? It is proof she had gone through a rough moment and survived. It was an exciting way to look at it, wearing her scars with pride. That's my girl, and I am proud to walk alongside her.

Robson greeted us as we headed to the scrub's room after Bethany went to her lab, picked up the heart still in a unique solution, protecting it from airborne germs, and filled us in on what had transpired over the last few days as they tried to strengthen the child. She was going downhill too fast. There was no fight left in her. The parents have accepted that this might be the end and have said their goodbyes before she is wheeled into the theater, but it does not stop them from hoping that Bethany can pull off a miracle. Seeing the little one lying there on the bed, looking so frail, breaks the heart. Bethany sucked in a breath and looked at her staff, all looking at her for the go.

'Drake, how is she?' Bethany's voice was calm and polite; you would not know she was shaking like a leaf and worried about this operation. Not just the experimental heart, but the condition of the child was not ideal.

The operation took an hour longer than predicted; once inside her chest, there was a lot to repair, and fortunately, Bethany had grafts ready for this. I marvel at the ability to predict possible outcomes, things you can't correctly see till you are in the chest. Robson was watching from above; I glanced up once when a nurse put a straw in my mouth, his concentration on the operation, watching every move, every stroke with the knife; it was as if he was the one doing the operation. Bethany POV

I was struggling towards the end of the operation; it had been very long hours and challenging for my first operation back. This child needed me to stay concentrated and give her the best chance of survival, but all I wanted to do was put the scalpal down and go to bed. But I still had a long way to go; at least I could get Theo close, which would give me the break I needed.

Internally, I cheered when it was time to close, and the child survived so far. I had my doubts once we opened up her chest. I had little to work with, and putting her on a heart machine to keep her going while I replaced the organ that was supposed to be her heart was a miracle she had lived this long. Being born with heart disease is hard on both the child and the parents. The mother usually questions all she had done through the pregnancy as if something she had done caused it; more often than not, it is genetic, and there was little they could have changed in pregnancy to make any difference to the outcome. I want to research the genetic side of things and see if there is some way to change that outcome, but the need for replacement hearts has been pushing me to continue with that and leave the other side to other hospitals that are looking into the DNA side of it. Though I am happy to continue creating better hearts, finding a way to stop its genetic side should be highly important. I feel I am putting a bandaid on when I should be looking to prevent it from happening.

I was exhausted and needed to lie down. My head was spinning, and my back was aching; I leaned into Theo and whispered.

'Got to go lay down, wake me if something happens. Theo nodded and continued to talk with the family and Robson.

My room could not come into view fast enough. It was the same room I had been occupying while I was on the mend, and without even taking off my shoes, I fell into bed and fell asleep quickly.

Theo POV

It was done, and it is now left to the child. The heart was pumping blood around the body, and Bethany left me to close the chest as she headed to her lab and the computer. She wanted to check that it worked at the right rates, which needed to be tweaked.

They wheeled the child to the recovery room in the lab, in the isolation section, where Mr Green had been. I headed to Robson, who would chat with the parents; Bethany would join us after she had checked the computer reports. The child was still alive, which was a good start; now, it is up to how much fight is left in the child. Robson had just told them she had made it through the operation when Bethany entered the room. The parents rushed over to her, and the group hugged her, startling her out of her thoughts. She looked over at Robson with questions in her eyes.

'They did not expect her to come out of the operation; they are grateful that she might have a chance to live now she has the new heart. Robson filled Bethany in and waited for the parents to release her.

'The reports show that the heart is operational and working as it should. It's too early to know if there will be complications, but the oxygen levels in her blood are already on the way up, so far so good.' Bethany looked at the parents, expecting questions. 'When can we see her?' I had expected that question, but not the first one.

'She is in the research isolation ward. You can see her through the window.

Robson led them to the research wing, and we looked at the young child in the bed. Bethany organized a smaller bed for herself and decorated the room with cartoon characters and other children's themes to make it less hospital and more homely. The child's mother whimpered and put her hand on the window as if trying to touch her daughter through the window; it was a touching moment. The father wrapped his arm around the wife, and both stared at the child briefly. 'How long before we can enter her room?' The mother asked softly.

'This room, not at all; when Bethany gives the all clear, we shall move her to Dr Theo's hospital side, and he will take over her again. Don't worry. Bethany will continue to monitor the heart and discuss any changes with Theo, but once out of this room, she signs over the aftercare to Theo, and he will make the call as to when you can hold your child again. They nodded, never looking like they wanted to argue, and did not bring up the fact that the child could still pass away. Standing here looking in the window, they looked hopeful.

'Can we come and look in this window anytime?' The father asked, and I was surprised it was him who asked that question.

'Yes, any time. Saun, our media representative, might like to talk to you again. I believe you have met him already and have given an interview; he will be here to take photos. As he has with all the research patients, he is documenting the before and after. Robson was careful how he worded this; he did not want to make it sound like he was making promises that he could not keep, at the same time, giving the impression that this was a total success.

I looked at Bethany as she looked at something on her tablet. Her fingers tapped on something every now and then watched her screen a bit longer. She had a graph up that I had never seen before, and it had many different colored lines moving up and down, a lot like a heart monitor, but this heart does not work the same way, so it was a little confusing for me, and I was looking forward to hearing all about it later.

Bethany was starting to look tired; this was the first operation since her incident, and her muscles must be aching. I had worked hard on getting them stretched and nimble again, but only time will tell how she had recovered from the car accident and subsequent harm done to her.