Broken Oaths in White Coats novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Nine Years

I did not answer him. Ben moved half a step in front of me, and that was answer enough.

Alastair looked at the two of us for a long moment.

Then he turned and went through the double doors into the obstetric wing, and they swung shut behind him.

"Do you want to leave?" Ben asked quietly.

"No," I said. "She asked for him. Somebody should be here when he can't be what she needs."

"Then we stay."

We stood at the far end of the corridor, away from the doors, with our stained sleeves touching.

A long time later the doctor on call came out, still in her cap.

Alastair was already in the hall by then. He had come out ahead of her, white around the mouth.

"Dr. Falkland," the doctor said to him. "I'm so sorry. We couldn't save the pregnancy."

He stood there with his stack of papers.

Then he sat down on the bench against the wall, very slowly.

I took one step toward him. I could not have said why.

He looked up, and I saw his face change.

"Don't," he said.

"Alastair."

"Ten minutes after a boardroom." His voice rose, and it was the first time in twelve years I had heard it do that. "She watched that feed. She heard what you told the board about her. She has been hunted in her own hospital for three weeks, and you stood there and said that to the board."

"I said what was true."

"You did this."

Three nurses at the station had stopped working.

"She asked for you, Alastair," I said. "You were paged three times. Where were you?"

He opened his mouth and nothing came out.

"I was at the board table, where you left me," he said at last. It sounded thin, even to him.

"No. You left her on a staircase."

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