Free HER BABY'S SECRET FATHER by Lynne Marshall

on. Terrance did the same.
    “Call the mother—let her know what we’re doing,” Dr. Shrinivasan said to the nurse.
    Consulting the X-ray, he drew an “x” where it would be best to insert the tube, into the space between two ribs on Tara’s side. She’d already settled down from the sedation, but squirmed when Terrance put a cold betadine swab next to her skin.
    He wiped in a circular motion, starting at the center and moving concentrically outward. Then he repeated the process two more times, to make the procedure as close to sterile as possible. He put a blue paper sterile field with a hole in the middle over her body.
    Dr. Shrinivasan worked like the skilled professional he was, and in no time the chest tube had been expertly inserted. Terrance taped it in place. The results were immediate and amazing. With the tube and suction relieving the excess air pocket, the compressed lung would be able to re-expand. The leaking air sacs would now have a chance to heal over the next couple of days.
    Tara’s oxygen saturation moved back up over the ninety percent mark and the ventilator quit squawking.
    While Terrance readjusted the settings on the ventilator, Dr. Shrinivasan approached.
    “You were very helpful today. As always. I’m glad you have decided to attend medical school.”
    “Oh, hey—thanks, Doc S. Your vote of confidence means a lot to me.”
    “If you’d like, I will make a recommendation at the University Medical School affiliated with Mercy Hospital. Instead of having to leave the state, you could continue living and working here.”
    The compliment was greater than Terrance could ever have imagined. He shook the doctor’s hand and thanked him profusely.
    “Now,” Dr. Shrinivasan said, “do you want to call this baby’s mother and tell her the successful news? Or shall I?”
    Under normal circumstances only Dr. Shrinivasan would have done any updating on infant conditions. Terrance realized even the doctor had figured out that something more than the ordinary was going on between Terrance, Jaynie and Tara.
    “You better do it, doc,” he said, gathering his equipment and moving on to the next incubator, with plans to be out of the unit before Jaynie arrived.
    He wasn’t yet ready to face the woman who unknowingly had changed the course of his life.
    * * *
    As Dr. Shrinivasan had promised Jaynie, the chest tube got removed three days later, and Tara seemed surely set on the road to progress. But Terrance was nowhere in sight. The good doctor had explained everything to her so thoroughly, she couldn’t even manage to come up with a fake question as an excuse to call Terrance.
    Another few days passed in comforting routine. Jaynie never so much as glimpsed Terrance, and chose to concentrate on her new life and daughter.
    The following Monday morning, her phone rang, waking her up. She looked at the clock, surprised by how late she’d slept: seven-thirty a.m.
    When she answered, Terrance’s deep, soothing voice vibrated on the other end. “I thought you’d want to be the first to know that I just extubated Tara.”
    Jaynie gasped.
    “She’s off the respirator and breathing on her own,” he said. “Beautifully.”
    “I’ll be right over,” Jaynie said, throwing back the covers and sitting up with lightning speed.
    An hour later, when she entered the NICU, Terrance had stuck around. With dark circles all the way to his cheeks, he looked exhausted. Avoiding her stare, he smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He seemed tentative and distant. Too excited about Tara to stop, Jaynie disregarded his troubling appearance and flew past, brushing his hand on the way to her daughter’s incubator.
    Sure enough, in no sign of distress, her baby slept with a knit cap perched on her head and the tiniest pacifier Jaynie had ever seen plugged into her mouth. Her tiny lip twitched and drew intermittently on the rubber binky, sucking like a newborn on a learning curve. The respirator had been replaced