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Chapter 66: Home for the holidays
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2022-11-24 14:32:55Related chapters
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 67: Reunion, part 1
DEACONWell, now the decision of whether to stay or go had been made for me. Once Miss Sissie, my Sunday School teacher of old and one of my grandmother's dearest friends, had seen me, there was no way to make a quick escape. It was time to man up and face the music. I turned off the car, slid the keys out of the ignition and opened my door. Miss Sissie stepped back to give me room, and once I'd stood up and slammed the car door, she opened her arms. "Boy, if you aren't a sight for sore eyes," she murmured in my ear as I bent to hug her. "You've been gone too long. Why, this is the best Christmas present for Anna and Jimmy! They're going to be so tickled to see you." I eased out of her tight hug and straightened up. "Are you sure about that? I'm kind of feeling like the Prodigal Son, Miss Sissie. Like you could just slap me up on your flannel board with the pigs and teach a Sunday School class about bad choices."She tilted her head and skewered me with the same bright eyes tha
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 68: Reunion, part 2
DEACON"Deacon." She moved to the other side of the table as though she needed to have it between us for protection. That stung more than I cared to admit. "You're back." "Yeah." I stuck my hands in my pockets, mostly to keep from reaching for her. "I just got here. I didn't have any idea about the party going on today, but I wanted to come to see Gram and Pop right away . . . what're you doing here, anyway?" It hadn't even occurred to me initially that it was strange for Emma to be at the farm. She seemed at home, familiar with the kitchen. Oddly, I felt like the one who didn't quite belong. "Why shouldn't I be here?" She propped her hands on her hips and glared at me. "It just so happens that not everything stayed the same after you took off for Europe, Deacon. Your-Anna and Jimmy have been very good friends to me. They both helped me build my cabin and plant my gardens, and-""Wait. You built your cabin?" When I'd pictured seeing Emma again, it had always been in her little ra
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 69: Holiday mood
EMMA "Well, that was an interesting party." Noah kept his eyes on the road as we drove along the road that connected the farm with my cabin. "Lots of surprises." "Really?" I stared out my window. "I thought there was only the one." "You mean Deacon showing up, right?"I made a small noise in the back of my throat. "Yeah." I couldn't manage any more words. I'd been holding myself together by the thinnest of threads for several hours, and it felt as though I was on the verge of shattering. "That was the big one," Noah agreed. "But I was also kind of shocked by how calmly Jimmy and Anna took the news. And by the fact that he never ended up coming back downstairs. I mean, he's been away for over a year, and he comes home and takes a long nap?" Anna had gone upstairs to check on her grandson about an hour after he'd left Noah and me in the kitchen. She'd come back downstairs moments later, her face placid. "Poor thing's exhausted. He was on his bed in just a towel-I'm assuming
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 70: Not ready to make nice
EMMAI didn't sleep well at all that night. I tossed and turned, dreamed and woke up often. When I opened my bleary eyes again at a little after five, I decided to give up and go into the hospital. I was too tired and cranky to bother with dressing up as much as I usually did when I went to work. Ignoring my pretty sundresses, skirts and other doctor-appropriate attire, I tugged a pair of comfy jeans off a shelf. As I pulled them on, I decided a season-appropriate shirt would redeem my dress-down Sunday and went with a long-sleeved green cotton shirt and a cute little Santa Claus pin. There. Now I was not a slob . . . I was Christmas adorable. Twenty minutes later, thanks to non-existent traffic this early on a Sunday, I was walking down the hallway of St. Agnes' oncology wing, feeling a little more awake thanks to the coffee I'd sipped on my drive in. I heard my name coming from an open door and froze. The light was on in Deacon's office for the first time in over a year. And e
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 71: Christmas morning on the farm
DEACONDespite the fact that I'd grown up without either of my parents in my life, I'd always loved the holidays. That was entirely thanks to two grandparents who'd made sure that I had the best Christmases possible as a kid, with every bit of celebration and revelry imaginable. We did it all, and we did it up big: from the community party on the weekend before Christmas to the church service on Christmas Eve, from the huge fresh evergreen that took up residence in the corner of the living room in mid-December to the stockings hung on the fireplace, overflowing with gifts. This year, I didn't expect much. After all, Gram and Pop hadn't expected me to be home to spend Christmas with them, so they couldn't be blamed if they'd made other plans or if there was nothing under the tree or in those stockings for me. But to my surprise, when Gram had called me downstairs on Christmas morning-I always spent the night with them on Christmas Eve so that we could enjoy breakfast and gifts togeth
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 72: Hail and farewell
EMMA"Thank you all for this wonderful farewell lunch. I really appreciate it." Alison looked around the room, her smile warm. "Special thanks to Dr. Girard. With all due respect, if he hadn't felt the sudden urge to take off for Europe for a year, I never would've gotten the chance to come work with you all. I'm grateful that I did." She paused and then added, "And I'm also really thankful that he came back eventually, because that forced me to go figure out exactly what it is I want to do now. I'm excited about the next chapter." I slid a sideways glance at Deacon to see how he'd react to Alison's teasing. To my surprise, he was laughing along with everyone else, and it didn't seem to be forced. It appeared that he was genuinely enjoying himself. "Is it just me, or is Deacon a lot more relaxed since he came back from Slovenia?" Jenny's murmur was at my ear, since she stood behind me. "Like, less intense and more-dare I say it? Relaxed?" I shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. Maybe.
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 73: Not all memories are happy ones
EMMA"Emma? Are you coming in?" Alison poked her head out of the door, her forehead knit together in concern. "Everything okay?" "Yes, sorry. Just . . . lost in thought, I guess." I followed her into the office, swallowing back a groan of frustration when I saw that Deacon was sitting on that damn couch. His eyes met mine, and fuck him to hell and back, I knew he knew what I was remembering. One side of his mouth quirked up, and he pointed at the chair opposite him. "I thought we'd be more comfortable sitting here." He managed to say it blandly, as though I wasn't fully aware of the game he was playing with him. "Sure. Good idea." Alison took the chair, which left me no choice but to sit on the other cushion of the sofa. I edged as far away from Deacon as I could. Alison swiped her fingers over her tablet and launched into a brief refresher history of George Brewer's illness. He was a forty-nine-year old male in good overall health up until a little over a year ago. He'd bee
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 74: Board meeting
DEACON"These board meetings are boring as hell, aren't they?" The woman who was sitting in the chair alongside mine had been shifting subtly toward me for the past twenty minutes. I'd been trying to ignore it-and her-but now she was upping the ante by whispering in my ear. I didn't care to engage in a muttered conversation like we were in junior high, so I only offered her a quick, tight smile and leaned back in my chair, hoping she'd take the hint. The treasurer was giving her report, and I did my best to focus on the numbers. Board meetings were not my favorite part of practicing medicine, but they were a necessary evil-or at least they had been since I'd approached the board about building an oncology wing at St. Agnes almost five years ago. I'd had to convince the board that the wing was needed and possible. I'd had to show that I could spearhead the effort to fund its building and its continuation. Tonight, though, I wasn't sure why I'd been invited-a fancy way of saying c
Last Updated : 2022-11-24
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Diagnosis: Love Chapter 193: As long as we both shall live
NOAHNoahIt was a beautiful day for a wedding. We gathered at mid-morning under the covenant oak on Jimmy and Anna Girard's farm. Alison and I had decided that since Emma and Deacon's wedding had been the start of our love story, we should say our vows under the canopied branches of that same steadfast tree. We hadn't wanted anything grand or involved, but it was important to us that the special people in our lives were present. So when Alison and I joined hands and made our vows, among those surrounding us were Emma and Deacon, Darcy and Jackson, Jenny and Nico, Mira Hoskins, and all of the people who worked with Alison in her practice. Maggie Corning, the midwife, and Brooke Slater, Alison's therapist, were there, too. My family had flown down en mass from Wisconsin and other key points around the country. My mother couldn't stop smiling, and my dad looked proud. Even my brothers and sisters and their families were behaving themselves. And then of course, there was the Tam
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 192: Happily Ever After part 3
ALISONA human being can accomplish almost any task while sobbing her eyes out. I'd known this from experience in my past life, but after Noah left that afternoon, I went about proving it all over again.I cried as I wiped the table and counters. I wept as I took out a frozen macaroni and cheese to eat for dinner. I sobbed as I climbed the steps and listened at the baby's door-she was still asleep in the crib. I sniffled as I switched a load of newborn clothes from the washer to the dryer.He was gone, and I was alone. Again. Naturally.The hell of it was that even as he'd pleaded his case to me, even as he'd told me that he loved me, I'd known he was telling the truth. I believed him. But I couldn't trust what he thought he felt, not when people changed their minds about being in love all the damn time. People claimed to love a friend or a child or a lover, and then they changed their minds. It happened. I knew it first-hand. I'd experienced it over and over again before I was t
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 191: Break
NOAH"Where's the baby?" Alison walked into the kitchen, her face etched with fatigue. We'd had a long and trying few days as Evangeline had apparently been going through a growth spurt: she nursed almost constantly and was difficult to console the rest of the time. She'd fought sleep, and she'd cried piteously no matter what we'd tried to do. The pediatrician had assured us that this was normal and we'd get through it, but privately, I thought he was a heartless imbecile who clearly didn't understand that our daughter was advanced and needed more attention than the typical newborn. But finally, today we'd caught a break. Alison had gone upstairs to take a shower-her first in three days-and somehow, I'd managed to get the baby to sleep without the benefit of a boob. More than that, I'd actually laid her in the crib without waking her up. I was pretty satisfied with myself, all in all. I was also crossing my fingers that she'd stay asleep long enough that her mother and I could d
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 190: Parenthood
NOAHParenthood was amazing, fulfilling, beautiful, awesome . . . and exhausting. The first few weeks of baby Evangeline's life at home were a blur, a constant, never-ending whirlwind of feeding, and changing, and washing, and catching whatever small bites of sleep we could whenever she slept. People came to visit and brought gifts and food, and I was pathetically grateful for that, because I didn't have the energy to cook, and both Alison and I were tired of takeout. The one factor that made everything survivable was the baby herself. God, I hadn't known how much I was going to love this ten-pounds of tiny, perfect human. I'd never anticipated that staring at her sleep for an hour was better than four quarters of football. Or that catching what might have been a smile could make me feel as though I'd just witnessed greatness. What was some missing sleep compared with noting how well my two-week-old daughter could lift up her head?Even so, as much as I was ga-ga over my baby gir
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 189: New life
ALISON"Congratulations, mama! You're at six. I think it's time to break your water and get things really going." It sounded like a great idea to me, but I saw Noah's lips go white. "Are you okay?" I asked, rubbing my fingers over the back of his hand. "You look a little green." He swallowed, his throat convulsing. "This is the only part I'm a little, uh, squeamish about. I watched that birth online, and breaking the water looked-intense." Maggie chuckled. "Stay up there by Alison and keep your eyes on her face. We don't need papa hitting the floor and suing the hospital." Noah did as he was told, watching me intently as if waiting for me to show some sign of distress. "Does it hurt?" he asked quietly. "The water part, I mean." I shook my head. "It feels a little weird, but not-oooooh!" I gasped as I felt the gush hit my inner thighs. "Okay, then. Eyes here, Noah. Come on. We're in this together." After that, it felt as though everything got a lot more serious. The con
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 188: Giving in
ALISON Spoiler alert: having sex with Noah did not start my labor.But it sure was worth the effort. Two days after that monumental night-and after we'd given it the good old college try several more times-we went to Maggie's office. I was in a rotten mood-being a million years pregnant can do that to a person-and poor Noah looked a little haggard. He'd been sleeping with me in my bed (we both clung to the excuse that if I went into labor, I'd want him closer than across the hall), which meant that he woke up whenever I had to climb out of that bed to pee. He thought I'd been exaggerating about how often I had to go. He was quickly disabused of that notion. After a quick exam, Maggie made some notes on her tablet and then turned to the both of us. "So listen," she began. "Do you want to have this baby?" I stared at her as though she'd lost her mind. "What the hell do you think I've been trying to do for over three weeks now, Maggie?" I bellowed. "Of course, I want to have th
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 187: Finally, at last
NOAHNow I got it. The night we'd first had sex-the night after Emma and Deacon's wedding-we'd challenged each other to come up with the sexiest, most outrageous names for cocktails. Alison was playing the game again."Ohhhhh." I grinned. "I still don't believe that last one is legit.""It totally is. The bartender confirmed it." With a smile that was deceptively seductive for an extremely pregnant woman, she reached down to grasp the bottom of her oversized T-shirt-which was not so oversized just now-and lifted it over her head. I helped just to make sure she didn't topple over in the process. It was the first time I'd really seen her without a shirt in many months. My first few impressions were awe at the size of her swollen middle. I knew she was huge, but damn. The skin was stretched as tight as a drum, and her belly button looked like a cork just about to give way. And her boobs-they were incredible. Within the utilitarian maternity bra, they were still the sexiest breasts
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 186: Things you shouldn't ask
NOAH"What's the world record for the longest pregnancy ever?" I glanced up at Alison from the book I was reading. We were both lying on her bed while a movie that neither of us was very invested in played on the TV. The couch downstairs had become too uncomfortable for her over the past week or so, so we'd begun hanging out here in her room. It was strictly for comfort, though; we stayed on top of the covers, with Alison on one side while I stuck to the other. It was a king-sized bed with plenty of room for us. But while we hadn't hesitated to cuddle and kiss on the sofa, something about being on the bed made us more cautious. I didn't know why, exactly; Alison was so tired of being pregnant that she wasn't up for much of anything other than television lately. She'd stopped going into the office after her due date since she'd already arranged with Dr. Johanson to cover her hours. So we were both at home now all the time . . . just waiting.She really was huge. While the ultraso
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 185: Trust love
ALISON"Read me that last part again?" Noah and I were sitting in the nursery, surrounded by boxes, gift bags, and about a million pieces of a pine crib. He had spent the last two weeks focusing on the nursery. He'd painted the room a lovely pale yellow color, insisting that I stay with Emma and Deacon at the cabin for the two nights after he'd completed the first and second coats so that I didn't have to inhale the paint fumes. Together, we had selected the crib and the dressing table. Noah's mother had sent us the cradle that all of her children had slept in, and that was already set up in my bedroom.Now, with my due date less than ten days away, we were finally tackling the project of building all of the furniture that hadn't come pre-assembled. I squinted at the paper in my hand, trying to decipher the words."I'm pretty sure that this was translated directly from Swedish by someone who didn't speak English," I commented. "It doesn't seem to make sense.""Does it say at wh
