Side Effects by Michael Palmer Read Free Book Online

they can or not, he thought. At least you'll know. Glumly, he began to close.
    Twenty minutes later, the two surgeons shuffled into the doctor's locker room.
    "Dr. Bartholomew, have you been able to remember where you might have encountered ovarian pathology like this woman's?"
    "Oh, yes, well, no. I ... what I mean is I don't think I've ever seen anything like them."
    "You look as if you want to say something more."
    "I may have felt something like them once. That's all."
    "When? On whom?" There was some excitement in Engleson's voice. D.K. Bartholomew, MD, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Diplomate of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shook his head. "I ... I'm afraid I don't remember," he said. Page 17
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    "What are you talking about?"
    "It was surgery for something else. Maybe removal of a fibroid tumor. The ovaries felt like this woman's did today, but there was no one around to consult, and I think I had another case or two left to do and
    ..."
    "So you just ignored them and closed?"
    "I felt they were probably a normal variant."
    "Yeah, sure. Did you mention them on your operative note?"
    "I ... I don't remember. It might have been years ago."
    The wall telephone began ringing. "Dr. Bartholomew," Engleson said, allowing the jangle to continue, "I don't think you should operate anymore." With that he turned and snatched up the receiver.
    "Dr. Engleson, it's Denise. I called pathology."
    "Yes?"
    "I couldn't find out who the resident is on surgicals, but the staff person is Dr. Bennett."
    "Good," "Excuse me?" "I just said that's good. Thanks, Denise."
    "Thank you for what you did in there. Doctor. You made my day." Kate's back was arched over the pillows beneath her hips as Jared knelt between her legs and used her buttocks to pull himself farther inside her. Again and again he sent jets of pleasure and pain deep into her gut and up into her throat. Her climax grew like the sound of an oncoming train--first a tingle, a vibration, next a hum, then a roar. With Jared helping, her body came off the pillows until only her heels and the back of her head were touching the carpet. Her muscles tightened on him and seemed to draw him in even deeper. He dug his fingers into the small of her back and cried out in a soft, child's voice. Then he came, his erection pulsing in counterpoint to her own contractions.
    "I love you," he whispered. "Oh, Katey, I love you so much." Gently, he worked his arms around her waist, and guided her onto her side, trying to stay within her as long as possible. For half an hour they lay on the soft living room carpet, their lover's sweat drying in the warmth from the nearby wood stove. From the kitchen, the aroma of percolating coffee, forgotten for over an hour, worked its way into the sweetness of the birch fire.
    A cashmere blanket, one of the plethora of wedding gifts from Jared's father, lay beside them. Kate pulled it over her sleeping husband and then slipped carefully from underneath. For a time, she knelt there studying the face of the man who had, five years before, arranged to have himself and a dozen roses wheeled under a sheet into her autopsy suite in order to convince her to reconsider a rebuffed dinner invitation. Five years. Years filled with so much change--so much growth for both of them. She had been a nervous, overworked junior faculty member then, and he had been the hotshot young attorney assigned by Minton/Samuels to handle beleaguered Metropolitan Hospital. The memory of him in those days--so eager and intense--brought a faint smile.
    Kate reached out and touched the fine creases that had, overnight it seemed, materialized at the corners of her husband's eyes.
    "A year, Jared?" she asked silently. "Would a year make all that much difference? You understand your own needs so well. Can you understand mine?"
    Almost instantly another, far more disturbing question arose in her