Obstetrix(44)

I’m a good doctor, but I’m really not much of a nurse. Postoperative care at this point was solidly in the nursing domain, and if I’d shown up in a patient’s room post-cesarean to sit with her, get her up and walking, and help her initiate breastfeeding, the nurses would have made it extremely clear that I was overstepping. (There are doctors who will tell you that the nurses aren’t supposed to yell at you. Let me just assure you that nurses do not have to raise their voices to let you know you’re out of line and in their way.)

Sarah, though, was off hunting for Janet, so Joy had me. And I wound up just sitting down, exhausted, on the second bed, because I realized looking at the empty vial in the trash that Sarah had given her enough morphine to thoroughly knock her on her ass; she wasn’t going to be up and walking for a while yet.

So. Jason and Emma had taken Bethany and JJ—along with Janet, and Joy’s baby—and made a run for it. They’d taken, of all vehicles, the golf cart. I thought they’d probably planned on the minivan, only to be unable to get the keys because they were in Brandon’s pocket. If they’d taken the minivan, they’d be in town by now.

I wondered how fast the Gator went.

This would have been a much better plan if they hadn’t taken Joy’s baby. I wondered if this had been one of the conditions Joy set, to have her baby removed to safety? Or if this was a byproduct of Janet being the person who was supposed to take charge of the infant, and Janet wanting to leave?

But it had been an hour and ten minutes from the time Janet left with the baby to the time David had taken off in the minivan. That might have been enough time for them to get to town. To safety. It probably depended on how quickly they’d given up on finding the minivan keys.

In the distance, somewhere far from the compound, I heard a single gunshot.

My whole body went cold. Immediately outside, I could hear nothing. Everyone had heard the gunshot; everyone was waiting. It might have been some nearby rancher taking out a wolf, I thought, knowing that I was lying to myself and doing it anyway because there was no point in letting myself freak out until it was really, truly time to freak out.

Outside, the sky had lightened to the gray twilight of just before sunrise. I heard the sound of the minivan coming back.

I stepped outside the clinic and David climbed out, Joy’s infant in his arms. Ethan had been driving, and he came around to fling open the sliding door; he yanked Emma out by the hair and shoved her to the ground, where she huddled, her face a rigid, ashen mask. Jason climbed slowly out after her, and Bethany and JJ followed. Bethany was sobbing, big noisy sobs, and clutching JJ’s hand.

Pastor John walked slowly down the gravel path toward them.

Jason dropped to his knees. “I gave in to temptation,” he said, his voice shaking. “I put myself in the hands of the Elders for discipline. Emma—Emma was faithful. All she did was obey me, the fault is mine, not hers. I led my family astray.”

I did not see Janet, and tried not to think about why she wasn’t here.

Some of the older men stepped forward and took Jason by the elbows. “Emma, you should go back to your cottage with the children,” one of them said. “Pray for your husband.”

“Not her,” Brother Ethan said, as Emma started to lead Bethany away. “You’re not pouring any more of your poison into my wife’s ears.” He grabbed Bethany by the arm.

“She’s not your wife yet. She’s thirteen. She’s a child!” Emma said.

Bethany clung to her mother with one hand and her brother with the other and looked from face to face. “Dr. Liz,” she choked out. “Can I stay with you and Sister Joy?”

“Go to Dr. Liz,” Emma whispered, and let go of Bethany’s hand. She yanked her arm free from Ethan’s grip and ran to me. I wrapped my arms around her; she was shaking. I led her back into the clinic and let her sit on the clean bed. There was a plug-in electric kettle in the corner, which I filled and started; Bethany needed to be treated for shock, and we had some herbal tea in a drawer that Sarah liked to bring out for prenatal visits. Once she’d calmed down slightly I could distract both of us by talking about postnatal care.

David came striding in, Sarah at his heels. I did not trust him with Joy. I didn’t trust any of these people with Joy. But David seemed calmer now, with his son in his arms. He sat down on the bed beside her.

Joy was still sleeping off the morphine. David rocked the baby gently as I silently made a cup of tea for Bethany. Gray dawn light was coming in through the clinic windows, and I could hear a drone again, outside. Joy stirred slightly, and David nudged her. She roused. “Do you want to see our son?” he asked.

She shook her head, still half asleep. “No,” she murmured. “Janet was going to take him to safety.”

David looked at her, and then looked at me. And then gently handed the infant to Sarah, stood up, and grabbed my arm in an iron grip.

“No!” Sarah shouted. “We need her! We need a doctor, David!”

“Don’t tell me she had nothing to do with this,” he snarled. “I saw the look on her face, she knew. She was in on it!”

“Brother David, it is a risk every time we take someone. It is a huge, huge risk, we could get caught, we could bring Harvest to ruin, it’s not safe. You have got to just leave her be! She’s the reason you have a healthy baby. Sister Joy will never be able to deliver naturally, ever, you know that, she has to have a doctor.”