The Mafia's Babies by Kaycee Romano (little readers TXT) 📕

"Please doctor! Save my son!!" A lady came forward, holding River's hands between hers. Her head had a deep cut which was bleeding profusely and her arm had a second-degree burn

River nodded earnestly. "We will do everything in our power. Now please get yourself treated." She squeezed her hands giving her a reassuring smile before she took out her stethoscope and walked over to an unconscious patient.

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"Mommy!!!" Kiara cried her eyes out while Lucas hugged her from the side, asking her not to cry. "Mom! I wanna see you!"

"Yeah baby, I know I know, Mommy miss you both too." River tried to shush her but she just wouldn't listen.

River was at the cafeteria getting coffee between surgeries and treatments when her mom called and her little Kiara was crying her eyes out.

She had been in the hospital for four days now and Kiara had fallen from the swing at school and had injured her ankle.

And since she was just four, they couldn't give her any strong pain killers, and the painkiller she was prescribed just wasn't doing its job. It didn't help that Kiara had a very low pain tolerance. Not that she expected a four-year-old to endure it.

It was all just terrible timing.

"Baby, don't cry.." River said helplessly, her own eyes tearing up.

She hiccupped and wheezed and continued sobbing. And then her watch beeped. Kiara looked up, knowing exactly what that meant.

"NOO!! NO!! MOMMY!!!" She started screaming.

River looked down at her watch.

[OR09, female, 17, subdural hematoma, left vertebral rib fractured, unconscious, convulsions]

"I am sorry honey." She hung up the phone, wiping away her tears before pocketing her phone and hurrying to the OR wing. She hoped her mother would be able to calm her baby down. Only she could do anything right now.

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River walked out of the OR, nodding at the patient's parents, giving them the best smile she could muster.

"She'll be fine. We will keep her under observation for forty-eight hours but you can meet her once she's shifted to the ICU." She said while the parents thanked her profusely.

She gave them another smile before going to get her things and change into her regular scrubs and coat.

She had thirty-seven missed calls from her mom's phone and twenty-nine from the home phone. It was surely her little girl.

Can't we go home for a bit? Her inner voice whined. My little girl needs me and you don't even care!

River felt all the worse when she heard that in her head. The bitch really needed to shut up.

Before she called back, she checked her phone to see if there's any other emergencies she had to attend to.

River had one message.

[VIP Room 07]

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It had been four days since Dr. Johnson came to check on Mateo and he was getting restless and impatient for reasons Adam termed as "schoolboy crush". He didn't believe he had such immature feelings towards her but he did admit to himself that he wanted to see the surgeon who had saved his life. It was always her intern, that dumb timid Fentell, who made the rounds or sometimes other residents.

They all kept saying she's busy at the ER. He didn't know whether he should believe them or investigate whether that nurse opened her mouth or not.

Mateo turned to look at his cousin, Leonardo typing away on his phone, a cigarette in his mouth.

Motherfucker had to do it front of me. He thought bitterly. First it was his stupid best friend and now his brother. He wondered if he had such shortage of sensible people in his life that he was being tended to by idiots like the pair.

It had been almost a week since he drank, smoke or did drugs. It was taking a toll on him.

He couldn't wait to get out of the hospital and off medications and get back to work and the life he loved. But he had to endure about seven more weeks of it before he could do that. He suddenly felt respect for pregnant women who had to restrain from all of it for forty weeks.

Mateo stared at the puff of smoke his cousin exhaled

One puff won't hurt, will it?

No it won't. He decided

"Give me a smoke." Mateo forwarded his hand in his cousin's direction.

"Nope." Leonardo said, not even looking up.

"Leonardo-"

The door opened and Marsileo entered.

" Doctor Johnson is here, capo." He announced.

He moved aside to reveal the goddess, who looked barely like herself today. Though she did still look like a goddess.

Mateo found himself lost in her.

The motherfuckers weren't lying after all. She looked like she would drop dead any second now.

"Evening Mr. Adesso." She said, more like whispered and turned to Leonardo, frowning at the sight of the cigarette.

"You want a puff? Looks like you could use one." He said, holding it out to her.

Leonardo hadn't had a proper introduction with her though he was there the second time she had visited Mateo. The last few days, Leonardo was back in Chicago so it was mostly Adam or no one who stayed over.

But Leonardo should have figured out how capable and professional Dr. River Johnson was so Mateo was pissed he talked so casually and disrespectfully towards her. Mateo refused to admit that there were other feelings involved which made him irritable towards people who talked to her like that.

Mateo glared at his cousin but to his surprise, River just blew out a deep tired breath and took it.

"Let's keep it between us." She said before she took a puff. But she started coughing.

Leonardo was ready to take it back from her when she put it back in her mouth, this time exhaling smoke rings as if she had been doing it for ages.