The Secret Heart

Melanie Hoffesetter entered her one bedroom condo that was seventeen blocks away from UCLA medical center. It had been a good if slow week the three surgeries she had done all were recovering. Two had been valve repairs the other had been an emergency repair on a kid whose heart had been damaged in an auto accident. She was ready for her month of helping out back home Hal Birch and Jamie Greer were eagerly awaiting her as were the rest of her clan.

She wondered how the efforts to get another clinic on the reservation were going, as a specialist she made very good money but she lived a simple lifestyle. She gave away twenty percent of her income to miscellaneous charities runaway rescues shelters, NRDC, WWF, women shelters and the reservation.

The last two got the largest percentages for one reason they were where she had come from. She and her mom had moved away from the reservation after her father drank himself stupid and crashed his truck. Her mom had hated being around her family because she lacked the distinguishing clan feature, the ability to do magic. Her mom had also been an alcoholic and had died by the time Melanie was ten. Her grandparents had taken her in and had always treated her the same as her magical cousins, teaching her the importance of working hard and studying, not that she'd appreciated it at the time. It wasn't until after her brief ill-fated marriage to an abusive husband, that she truly appreciated what her grandparents had done for her. Her grandfather had never been a wealthy man, but he and her Grandmother had scraped together the money to send her to medical school. Admittedly she had gotten scholarships and grants but they had paid rather than her taking out loans and going into debt.

She noticed her phone message light was flashing, groaning she stood went over and hit the playback button. One call from Joanie at the shelter thanking her for coming and helping with a health clinic last weekend. Call from Sierra asking if she was joining them for clubbing this weekend. Call from the garage the maintenance on her car was done she could pick it up in the morning on schedule. The last message had her scrambling.

"Melanie sweetie it's Gramps, I need you to plan on doing something for me when you come out here. You probably won't like it much; in fact I suspect you'll hate it, but sweetie you're about the only one I'd trust to do this. Call me."

Melanie called her Grandfather's number. "What is it you are asking me to do Gramps?"

"I want you to stop and restart the heart of a nine year old boy."

"Why would I do that there instead of here?"

"Because he is a magical child with a dark curse on him, not a child with a faulty heart."

"You are out of your mind. I won't stop the heart of a healthy person. It's counter to my Hippocratic oath. Not to mention it would cost me my license if anyone found out."

"But Melanie he is a wizard that cannot live as one. In fact as his magic reaches maturity the curse on him will make him sicker."

"I won't do it!"

"Melanie you know a healer has a duty to allow the patient to live a full life. This boy is being robbed of that. He knows the risks and accepts them."

"Fuck, grandfather it's fucking wrong!" As much as she hated it Melanie knew she would do as her Grandfather asked.

"Language my dear. I realize you will want a full medical history but I thought you would also want some tests done. If you give me a list his guardian will see it done."

"The kind of tests I'll want no doctor will order on the say so of a guardian. I'll have to… Gramps are you sure there's no other way?"

"Yes."

"Fine," Melanie snarled. She hated the rare occasions when the magical world her grandparents lived in part of the time crossed over into the everyday realm. "Where does he live?"

"A little ways outside of Washington D.C."

Melanie thought for a moment. "Tell them to go to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore tell them to talk to Dr, Jonathan Reinhold. He's a pediatric cardiologist as well. I went through cardiology training a year ahead of him I can ask him to run the tests and forward me the results, I'll think of something to tell him."

"If it would help I could arrange for the memory of the tests to be removed afterword."

"It would be better if the memory of the results could be blurred."

"I suspect that could be arranged. Thank you Granddaughter."

"You're not welcome. Shit I can't believe you talked me into this grandfather."

Melanie swore non stop for the rest of the night. She made a list of the needed tests and formulated the excuse she would use to talk Jonathan into the tests.

The next morning she called Jonathan's office, "Hello this is Dr. Melanie Hoffesetter at UCLA is Dr. Rienhold available."

"He just got back from rounds. Hold for a moment please." Five seconds later another voice came on the line.

"Melanie, good to hear from you. What's up, Doc?"

Reminded of why she hadn't liked him when they were residents together Melanie bit back her initial response. "I was hoping you could do me a favor."

"Not illegal I hope?"

"No, not illegal. I'm doing some heart related research comparing hearts of young healthy kids with the hearts of some of my patients most of my comparisons are local but There's a kid out in your neck of the woods that heard about it and wanted to participate. The thing is it would get me another data chunk for my study without costing me or you anything cause the kid's family is wealthy enough to pay for all the tests without insurance and without cutting into my study budget. I just need someone certified out there to order the tests and forward the results, You game?"

"Sure why not? So what tests you looking for CBC, EKG, what?"

"Those and echocardiogram, chest x-ray, stress test a complete blood panel."

"Sounds like an interesting study. When do you want it by?"

"In three weeks, I'll have them call your office to schedule the tests and get instructions."

"No problem. Glad I could help you out, just be sure and share the results."

....

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