I Cannot Be Your Shadow Puppet

Assisting labor

On the second consecutive day, Mia's doorbell rang early in the morning, before sunrise. Hell, it was 2 am, if you could call that a morning!

Andy opened the door on autopilot cursing under his breath wondering why Mia and Jenny didn’t take their keys along. He opened the door and was surprised to see a tallish man standing at the door.

Andy stood in the door frame in utter confusion and asked, “Yes?”

“Are Jenny or Mia around?” the well- built man asked.

Andy suddenly awake, “aren’t they already at the hospital? Who are you?” He had heard and read about Daund. He hoped the two girls hadn’t landed in any trouble. The hospital premises were pretty safe, but why was there an unknown guy asking for them at this ungodly hour?

“Dr Raj! It’s alright. I will go to the hospital,” Raj shrugged and turned around to leave.

“Wait a minute!” Andy glared, “Did you call on Mia’s phone sometime back? You sound familiar”.

Andy was suddenly super alert. When it came to Mia, he would not take any chances. Who was this man turning up at her flat in the middle of the night? What has she gotten into within a month that I was out of touch? He cussed under his breath as millions of questions raced through his head.

“I am Dane’s friend,” Raj stated and left before he was asked any more questions. He was in no mood to explain himself to a man who looked ruffled with sleep and clearly shared a relationship with the latest object of his fascination.

At the hospital he was informed that all three interns were in the labor room assisting the Doctor on call with a slightly complicated delivery. He grabbed a coffee and decided to wait in the Doctor’s room. Dane wasn’t on call today. It was going to be difficult for him to explain his presence here, especially because Raj could have just gone over to Dane’s new flat, which he had moved into after Jenny had agreed to be his girlfriend. He would cross that bridge when he got there.

Raj was still wondering what he was doing there when Andy sauntered into the room.

“We hadn’t finished talking bro. Why are you here? Dane is in his flat. Surely you would know if you were his friend!” he said stressing on the last part of the sentence.

It was clear that Andy had gotten ready really quick. He had only pulled over a pair of denims under his worn out t-shirt that he was sleeping in.

“That is none of your business,” Raj responded scowling at the guy.

“Anything that concerns Mia IS my business,” Andy raised his voice angrily. He was getting seriously pissed off at this man. He did not need any trouble around his best friend. She still had to spend four months here and Andy wouldn’t be around to protect her.

“How does it matter to you?” asked Raj, standing up to his full height of 6’1” with his shoulders straight and hands in his pocket to intimidate the boyish looking guy asking him uneasy questions.

Andy appeared to be close to Mia’s age and Raj was a good 10- 12 years older, a man who regularly worked out. He knew how to appear menacing when he needed to and right now he was spoiling for a fight with this young kid. How he wished he could beat the boy to a pulp!

Just then a nurse from the hospital came into the Doctor’s room, “Dr Raj, I am not able to get through to Dr Dane. A gyne is needed in the labour room. It is an emergency. Could you help, please?” She pleaded.

Raj immediately got into his professional mode.

He put on his scrubs, washed up and got ready to do what he did best. It was a good distraction in a way. He quickly strode into the labour room. As he entered he observed the tired patient on the table. Mia, Jenny and Sai were all there in their scrubs. He could still make out Mia easily.

The pediatrician was waiting with his paraphernalia for the baby to be handed over to him. Two nurses were assisting the interns and the Doctor on call, Dr Kale the dermatologist was with Mia but Mia was handling most of the work.

This was an issue with the rural hospitals. With the rotational Doc on calls, they did not have a full time Gynecologist, and interns were hardly equipped to handle difficult labor.

Mia was standing between the patients legs coaxing the patient to bear down. Jenny was next to the patient gently massaging the distended abdomen and Sai was ready to assist the pediatrician.

Raj briskly walked over next to Mia and said in a stern tone, “Dr Mia, what is the status of the patient?”

Mia looked at him. If she was surprised that it was Raj instead of Dane, she didn’t show it.

Equally professional, she replied, “Doctor, patient is a primae, full term, known case of anaemia, in labour for the last 15 hours. Right now the cervix is completely dilated and the fetus head is descended into the v****a. We are waiting for crowning” and she moved aside to let Raj take her place.”

He quickly did an examination. Something was amiss. The movement of the fetus wasn’t as expected. He needed to use forceps. As he shouted his orders out, the nurse and Mia gathered the required equipment and within the next hour, the child was delivered.

The pediatrician took over and Raj strode out leaving Mia and Jenny to handle the patient after delivery. He freshened up, changed and sat down to write his notes in the Doctor’s room. Andy was still sitting there but Raj was busy and didn’t bother.

Andy appeared to know when he had to take a step back. He glanced over at Raj writing and then concentrated on his messaging.

After about half an hour Mia and Jenny entered the room. Raj had already finished writing the notes. He passed the case paper over to Mia and went over to check the patient.

Mia was surprised to see Andy hanging out there. But she was busy writing her notes down. By the time she finished Jenny had left for their flat and Raj entered the room.

“Hi Mia” he said walking over to her.

Andy stiffened in his chair next to her. He was furious at Raj for ignoring him and talking to Mia directly.

“Hi Raj, lucky you were here! Where is Dane?” She asked while Andy pretended to be busy with his phone.

“I have no idea. Is everything alright with them? Jenny didn’t stop to say hello,” he pulled the chair next to her, planning to sit down. His hands itched to stroke her smooth cheek and push away the stray strand of hair from her face, but he controlled.

“Yeah, she was a little tipsy in the evening and then this patient arrived. I wonder how she even managed to function” said Mia with a hint of a smile. “Must have gone over to sleep.” She turned to Andy, “what are you doing here? I thought you must be fast asleep.”

“No Babe. Ask your friend Dr Raj here. He woke me up at 2!” Andy scowled.

Babe? That's f*cking under the belt! Raj thought. “Sorry, I came unannounced. Neither Jenny nor Dane were attending calls and your phone was picked up by some random guy, so I drove down,” he replied sheepishly, worried that Mia might get upset.

“Oh! Andy isn’t a random guy. He is my best friend. He works in Capgemini and came over for the weekend,” she said and then turned to Andy, “this is Dr Raj. Dane’s best friend. He is a gynaecologist and works in Gandhi hospital at Shirur.”

“Now why don’t you two bond while I go catch a wink before the OPD starts?” She smiled at them.

“Come on, babe. Stay with us. I won’t get time with you and it doesn’t look like you have an off over the weekends. I am sure Dr Raj would return to his work in the morning,” he looked at Raj intently.

“Actually, I have taken a leave for the day. I can go back tomorrow,” Raj replied looking at Andy amused. “I wouldn’t mind a coffee though. Have had a full working day and then had to work here too” he rolled his eyes.

“I guess I won’t be sleeping then!” Mia shrugged and asked them to accompany her. Shooting daggers at each other they followed Mia.

***