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Part 83

“Wait, so you’re saying that you want me to challenge the sale of the hospital? Why would I do that? I wanted to get rid of it,” Greenlee asked her father.

Jack was sitting in the living room of Greenlee and Ryan’s penthouse, explaining the situation to them and trying to stress the urgency to his daughter.

“Because if David isn’t running the hospital anymore, he can’t ban you, me or anyone else from Bianca’s room,” Jack said.

“I’m with you on this Jack,” Ryan cut in, “But how quickly could that even happen? I mean, if what you’ve said is true, Bianca could die in a matter of days.”

“That assumes David is telling the truth about how much longer Bianca has, and not exaggerating the situation to make it look like Bianca is worse off so Erica will consent to this Orpheus nonsense,” Jack pointed out.

“Why would he lie?” Greenlee asked.

“It’s Hayward,” Ryan said. “When DOESN’T he lie?”

“Sweetheart, if you contest the sale of the hospital, we can file an emergency order tonight, requesting that the sale be invalidated and ownership transferred back to you because the sale was fraudulent. You ask the board to remove David,” Jack said.

“Yeah, but I DID want to sell the hospital to Erica. It turned out to be the wrong Erica, but when the real Erica came back, she never asked me to take it back. She never said a word to me about not wanting the hospital. And I’ve known for months that she had the power to invalidate the sale, but I never said anything,” Greenlee pointed out. “Isn’t that going to work against us?”

Jack rubbed his temples in frustration. “Yes, it might, but with what happened to Bianca, it’s reasonable to assume that you weren’t really in a position to sit and chat with Erica about the sale and how to handle it.”

“Plus you told me that if you’d known David would be brought back into the hospital as CEO and part owner, you never would have sold it in the first place,” Ryan added.

Greenlee looked at her father and her husband. Ryan had never liked David, and Jack wasn’t far behind in his dislike for the doctor she’d once married.

“So me invalidating the sale and taking the hospital back – that’s all about you wanting to oust David and stop him from using this Project Orpheus treatment, whatever it is, on Bianca. Is that right?” She asked.

Jack nodded. “There’s an almost 50% chance that she’ll go into shock and during the first infusion of whatever it is that he wants to put in her.”

“But she’s going to die in a few days anyway, right?” Greenlee asked.

Jack blinked back tears and tried to keep his voice steady. “According to Hayward, yes, but I don’t know how accurate or honest an assessment that is.”

“Has there been a second opinion or anything?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know for sure. Erica says yes, that she consulted other doctors who said they would do exactly what David was doing for Bianca, and she says that David has consulted with other doctors as well, but I don’t know names or details, and to be quite honest, I don’t know if Erica was telling the truth about other doctors or if she just said it because she thought it was what I wanted to hear,” Jack said.

Ryan and Greenlee looked at each other in confusion. “Why would Erica lie about something like that?” Ryan asked. “That doesn’t sound like her.”

Jack looked down at his hands. “When I tried to see Bianca today, Erica told me that I’m ‘dead’ to her. She never wants to hear from me or have anything to do with me ever again, and she wants me to stay away from her children and grandchildren.”

Greenlee winced at his words and at the pained expression on his face, and Ryan sat back on the sofa in shock. “That’s not Erica,” he said. “Hayward’s gotten to her.”

Jack looked up at Ryan. “What?”

“He’s gotten to her,” Ryan repeated. “I know Erica. I’ve known her for a long time.” He ignored the sharp look from Greenlee over just how well he’d ‘known’ Erica in the past. “Erica would never speak to you like that, Jack. She loves you. She ran after you at that party at the Chandler’s. I’m telling you, David’s done something to her.”

“That’s doesn’t make any sense, Ryan. What would David want from Erica, and what makes you think he’d DO something to her to get it?” Greenlee asked.

“Erica owns the other half of the hospital. Maybe Hayward wants that, and he’s manufacturing some life or death situation for Bianca to put Erica in a position where she feels like she has to do or say whatever he wants if she wants Bianca to live. Maybe he wants the prestige involved with saying that he saved the life of Erica Kane’s daughter with his miracle treatment. I don’t know… but I’m telling you, Jack, Erica would NOT say something like that you if Hayward hadn’t gotten involved in this,” Ryan insisted.

Jack thought about it for a moment. “Erica does own the other half of the hospital, or at least, she does thanks to Jane. You think Hayward would try to force Erica to trade ownership of the hospital for some manufactured miracle for Bianca?”

Ryan looked at Jack with a wide-eyed and intense gaze. “Of course he would. Jack, the man faked his own DEATH to stick it to Greenlee and me. Of course he could make it look like Bianca’s dying so Erica’s scared enough to do whatever he wants.”

Jack swallowed hard, bile rising in his throat at the idea of Erica being backed into a corner by Hayward. He was well aware of just how much his ex-fiance hated David Hayward. “I should have tried to intervene sooner,” He said quietly. “I shouldn’t have let it get this far. I should have said something, anything, to convince Erica to let another doctor take over Bianca’s care.”

Greenlee squeezed her dad’s hand. “You and Erica aren’t together anymore. It’s not your job to monitor everything she does. I mean, David is Marissa’s father, and Marissa and Bianca are together – I’m sure Erica thought he really was doing his best to help Bianca.”

Jack looked up at his daughter. “So you’ll help me?”

Greenlee hesitated for a moment. “Dad, have you really thought this through? I mean, REALLY thought about what could happen if you’re wrong?” She asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked sharply.

“I mean, what if David has been on the level with Erica? What if Bianca really is dying? And what is this treatment, while not a guarantee, is the only option she has to survive?” Greenlee asked with a worried look on her face.

“You don’t really believe DAVID do you?” Ryan asked incredulously.

“I don’t know,” Greenlee admitted. “I know he’s done horrible things to a lot of people, but I also know that I’m ALIVE because of him. And it’s not just me. Zach, Dixie, Stuart, Maria… they’re all alive because of David.”

“How many bodies do you think he’s left behind working in this mysterious treatment?” Ryan asked his wife. “How many times do you think he’s lost patients? None of us ever hear about all of the times he screwed up and people died.”

Jack nodded at Greenlee. “That’s exactly what I said to Erica.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Greenlee asked again. “Can you live with yourself if you go forward with this lawsuit, if you oust David from the hospital, and Bianca dies? Look, I don’t really like Erica, but can you handle what losing Bianca would do to her?”

Jack blinked back tears again at the thought of Bianca dying. “Sweetheart, I don’t want Bianca to die. That’s the absolute last thing I want. I know that it’s probably inevitable at this point though, and I want to be able to look into the eyes of her little girls and know that I did everything I could to help their mother. Will you help me do that?”

Greenlee watched as her father finally broke down, tears streaming down his face. She squeezed his hand tighter. “I’ll help you. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

Part 84

In the wee hours of the morning, David checked Bianca’s monitors and reduced the amount of oxygen she was on yet again. He shook his head in disbelief at the latest round of lab work on his patient. He had never seen anyone recover as quickly as Bianca was recovering. He was beginning to wonder if he’d made a mistake by not offering Orpheus therapy to Erica earlier. Because of the high risk of adverse effects it was a last ditch treatment he didn’t like to use if the patient had any other options.

His physician’s mind was running on high speed as he began to ponder the various experiments he wanted to do with Bianca’s blood samples. He wondered if there was some way to identify what it was about Bianca that made her body respond so well to the therapy, if there was so way to use that knowledge to develop tests to screen patients in the future, focusing on the ones like Bianca who were likely to benefit the most from Orpheus.

Beside him, Erica stirred in her sleep.  She’d insisted on spending the night, and he’d done his best to make her comfortable. Like Erica, he’d spent most of the night at Bianca’s bedside, waking regularly to begin a new round of infusions, draw blood or examine her test results. Erica would doze for a short period of time and then awaken usually when he did before falling asleep again.

“Hi,” he said softly as he saw Erica’s brown eyes blinking at him. He wondered for a second why she was looking at him with a strange and slightly panicked expression on her face when he realized that he’d taken off his scrub mask.

“It’s ok – her t-cell counts are really good. You can take off the mask if you want,” he explained.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

He nodded and reached out, gently removing her mask and brushing his fingertips across her cheek. Her eyes met his for a split second and then immediately turned to her daughter.

“Oh David!” She breathed. “She looks so much better!”

He grinned. “I know.”

“Is she? Better, I mean,” Erica asked, her eyes not leaving her daughter’s still form.

He nodded and pulled a chair up next to Erica. “She’s much better. All of her vital signs are stabilizing, her organ function is improving. She’s getting stronger and stronger by the minute.”

She finally peeled her eyes away from Bianca to look at David. “You’re sure? I mean, there hasn’t been a mistake in the test results, has there?” She didn’t want to get her hopes up only to have them dashed.

“I’m very sure. To be completely honest, I can’t really explain why she’s improving this rapidly, but there’s a lot about the human body we still don’t understand,” he said. She could hear the awe in his voice, could sense the pride he felt over the role he was playing in Bianca’s recovery, a recovery that was apparently nothing short of miraculous.

“I don’t need to understand it,” Erica said breathlessly. “I’m fine with considering it a miracle.”

He nodded. “Bianca is definitely a fighter.”

Erica beamed. “Of course she is – she’s a Kane!”

He laughed lightly and pulled her into his arms as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. “I would expect nothing less from any child of yours.”

She smiled a little bit awkwardly and extricated herself from his embrace. “When… when do you think she’ll wake up?” She asked.

David looked down at Bianca’s chart again. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I never expect her test results to be this positive this soon. I know I said maybe within the next 24 hours. I still think that’s possible, but we’re in such uncharted territory here. I really don’t know,” he admitted.

“Do you think she can hear me?” Erica asked as she took her daughter’s hand in her own.

“I think so. Coma patients who’ve later awakened have frequently said that they could hear what was going on around them. Talking to her certainly can’t hurt,” he said. He glanced at his watch. “I’m going to need to run back out to my lab again soon, but I don’t think I’ll be gone long.”

She looked at him in concern. “David, you really need SLEEP. You’ve been awake every time I’ve opened my eyes.”

He raised an eyebrow at her and tried to keep his breathing steady. “Is that concern I hear in your voice? Does this mean you care what happens to me?”

Care what happened to him? Of course she cared – he could very well be the father of the unborn child she carried and so desperately loved and wanted.  

She smiled up at him from Bianca’s bedside. “Of course I care what happens to you,” she said, debating how much meaning there was in his words. She decided to go for casual. “I mean, Pine Valley doesn’t exactly have a wealth of evil genius doctors hanging around. Who would I go to for miracles if anything happened to you?” She asked with a grin.

He laughed and shook his head. She was toying with him, but he was just so damn happy to see a genuine smile on her face that he’d take it. He leaned in and kissed her quickly on the lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

Part 86

Erica put in a visible appearance in the ICU, making sure several nurses saw her before going to “Bianca’s” ICU room. She gave Maya a quick break from the bed and her comatose act before slipping past the guard and heading for Bianca’s real room.

She stepped into the room just as Cara was changing the bag on Bianca’s IV.

“How is she?” Erica asked the younger woman.

“Much better,” Cara grinned. “See how her pallor has changed? That’s a visible sign that there’s more oxygen circulating in her blood, which means that her heart and lungs are improving. Her respiration isn’t as labored as it was. David should do another blood draw in a few hours, and we’ll know for sure just how much she’s improved, but so far, I’d say it’s nothing short of miraculous!”

Erica blew out a sigh of relief.

“I can only imagine how worried you must be,” Cara said sympathetically.

Erica nodded. “You’ll understand, soon, when you have your baby. It doesn’t matter how old your child is, she’ll always be your little baby, and you’d do anything for her,” She said with a slight smile. “Even trust David Hayward.”

Cara laughed at Erica’s last comment. She’d heard plenty of “Evil Dr. Hayward” stories since coming to Pine Valley. She still wasn’t sure how to reconcile those stories with her own interactions with a man who’d been nothing but kind and compassionate to her.

“Well, from what Kendall has told me, you have plenty of reasons to distrust David Hayward,” Cara said with a slight shake of her head. “I understand you don’t exactly get along with each other.”

“David and I have…we have a long and tortured history,” Erica said carefully as she sat down at Bianca’s bedside. “It probably defies categorization or explanation.”   

Cara raised an eyebrow in curiosity. David had indicated that he and Erica had once been close friends and that he’d cared very much about Bianca, but he hadn’t elaborated beyond the tale of Bianca’s baby.

“You were once close, right?” Cara inquired, hoping she wasn’t overstepping any boundaries. David had asked her not to talk about her own pregnancy, but he hadn’t said anything about his prior friendship with Erica being off-limits.

Erica brushed a lock of Bianca’s hair away from her pale face. “Yes, you could say that. I would have married him if things had been different… if they’d worked out,” she said quietly.

Cara stared at Erica in surprise. “David asked you to marry him?”

Erica looked up at her. “Yes. We were, I guess, sort of engaged for a little while before we broke up,” She said with a slight shrug. “It was a long time ago. Regardless of how I felt about him then or how I feel about him now, I don’t dispute his genius as a doctor.”

“I’d say ‘genius’ is a pretty apt word,” Cara admitted, still shocked by the revelation that David and Erica had been far more than just close friends. David had loved this woman and her daughter. He’d wanted to marry her. Cara glanced up from Bianca’s chart to see Erica squeeze Bianca’s hand. David was going to such lengths for Erica’s daughter… why? Why her? Why now?

“He performed Kendall’s heart transplant too, didn’t he?” Cara asked.

Erica nodded. “Yes, and he saved my life after we were in a car accident in the middle of a blizzard. I would have bled to death from a chest injury. David is a brilliant doctor, and Kendall and I – and now Bianca – are alive because of him. But he’s also… ” Erica’s voice trailed off as she considered her words. She knew she couldn’t say anything that would arouse Dr. Castillo’s suspicions about her relationship with David, but at the same time, knowing that the baby she carried might be David’s, Erica also didn’t have it in herself to completely vilify the man either. “He’s also a very complicated and complex person who isn’t always easy to like or to trust."

Cara wasn’t sure what to make of Erica’s description of David. “Well, I guess it’s good then that you can trust his medical skills.”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Erica said softly. Cara knew she wasn’t expecting an answer.

“Has David talked to you about next steps?” Cara asked.

Erica shook her head. “I don’t think so. What do you mean?”

“Once Bianca’s tests indicate that she’s reached close to normal organ function, the next step is to try to bring her out of the coma through the use of medication. That’s a very simple explanation for what’s actually a very complicated process. I’m sure David will let you know when he thinks Bianca’s ready for that, because he’ll want you here for that. It’s best for the patient to see a familiar face when he or she wakes up,” Cara said.

“Is that soon? I mean, are we close to that?” Erica asked, almost afraid to get her hopes up.

“We’ll know more after the next round of lab work. I’m sure David’s told you – Bianca is defying all of the odds and all of our expectations. I’ve gone through all of his case files, and there’s never been an Orpheus patient regain organ function this quickly,” Cara said, a sense of awe apparent on her face.

“That’s what David said,” Erica said.

“Well, then I’d plan on hanging out in the hospital tonight then. I’ve got more work to do, but I’ll come back to check on Bianca soon. Page me if you need me,” Cara said to Erica as she left the room.