Neurosurgeon, Single Dad...Husband? by Charlotte Hawkes

Author:Charlotte Hawkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-12-13T14:56:11+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

‘OKAY, LET’S START the cortical stimulation, starting at two-point-zero milli-amps, please.’

Andrea observed, fascinated as always, as Seth worked on a low-grade glioma in their patient’s right parietal lobe. Her own mind was grateful for something tangible to concentrate on, if only to stop her from dwelling on Seth’s shocking offer.

Had it really only been twelve hours ago? It felt like a lifetime.

He wanted her to move in with him.

Well, not with him per se, more with Noah. But the entire notion was preposterous.

Wasn’t it?

Every time she replayed it in her mind, the sheer shock of it walloped into her. For the longest time, she hadn’t answered. She’d waited for him to make a joke. To take it back. He’d almost looked appalled. But he’d looked something else, too. Something that she couldn’t name, but that had set off detonations inside her chest. No matter that Seth had made it all sound so rational, so logical—a quid pro quo, with her helping him with Noah, and him giving her a temporary accommodation reprieve.

It all made perfect sense despite the part of her brain still attempting to rationalise what he was suggesting. And, even though she wasn’t sure she’d quite processed it, there was a strange, reckless part of her that wanted to agree.

That wanted to leap at the offer.

Though not, she suspected, for the right reasons.

‘Andrea.’ Seth’s voice pulled her up from her thoughts. ‘Want to tell us why we’re doing this?’

Her face hot, Andrea snapped back to attention.

They’d already been operating for some time, working meticulously from their first incision in the man’s front temporal lobe and removing the section of scalp and the dura, to localising all the significant structures inside the brain.

And, as much as she knew they were fighting to save a patient’s life, there was an undeniable beauty in what Seth was doing that was almost mesmerising to watch. It made learning from him something like a joy.

So far, she’d already seen how he’d used neural navigation to identify the tumour limits, and now he was mapping the motor cortex and sub-cortex to try to reduce the risk of post-operative neurological deficits.

Guilt weaved through her at allowing herself to be distracted, as well as something else she pretended not to understand.

Steeling herself, Andrea stepped forward and answered his question. ‘The location of this particular tumour is near the eloquent tissue, so neurological deficits could include loss of sensory or motor functions in the patient’s face, arms, legs or even cause speech deficits. You’ve already established the limits of the tumour, as we saw before, and now you’re going to map motor functions over multiple assessments using the asleep-awake-asleep method of anaesthesia.’

Whilst they were mapping the involuntary motor functions, the patient would remain under light anaesthesia, but once Seth was ready to map the language centre he would need voluntary functions, so they would wake up the patient.

She already felt more a part of it than she’d ever felt before, so how would it actually feel

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