The Surgeon's Convenient Husband

“You okay?”
“What?” he asked, as if he had been zoning out.
“You look like you’re ready to fall asleep.”
“Yeah, I feel like I could sleep.”

Aran had sat quietly in the meeting not saying much. He looked a little tired and she wasn’t surprised, since he’d told her that he hadn’t slept much the night before.

ARAN GOT UP early and went outside to chop some wood. It had been cold in the night and there was no wood by the fireplace because they’d been trapped in Whitehead. It was still kind of damp and drizzly, but he didn’t mind going out and chopping some wood.
Besides, he couldn’t sleep anyways.

Ruby glanced at Aran. He looked completely uncomfortable in that chair. “How long has he been there?”
“About an hour. He was up waiting for the Medevac to come and take Mitchell to Juneau.”
Ruby’s eyes widened. “Juneau? I was supposed to fly him down to Anchorage.”
Lacey sighed. “Mitchell developed a post-operative fever last night that Joanna was unable to bring down with ibuprofen or antibiotics. His pulse-rate increased and she was worried. She found Dr. Atkinson leaving your room and asked for help. He found thrombophlebitis in Mitchell’s leg and, given the family history of pulmonary embolism, he felt it would be better if the Medevac helicopter came and took him. There’s another storm rolling in—this time off the Bering Sea. It’s headed straight for Anchorage, so the Medevac decided on Juneau.”

The couch in the lounge room would be the perfect place to crash. If anyone asked he’d just tell them Ruby snored.
Aran chuckled silently to himself, thinking about how Ruby would react to that. He headed into the lounge and stared at the couch.
You’ve slept on worse.

She needed the rest. It had been a long, busy day and flying up to Whitehead from Anchorage had meant that they’d started early. Ruby had definitely clocked up over eighteen hours and she needed sleep.
He was okay. He was tired, and a bit sore, but there were many nights when he couldn’t sleep. When his PTSD was working in overdrive and the nightmares just wouldn’t stop. He could sleep later. He didn’t have to fly a plane back.

Aran stood.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I need to take a little walk, and then I’ll do a round on the patients. You rest.”
Before she could stop him he’d opened up the door and slipped out into the hallway.

“You should try to sleep. I can’t fly the plane tomorrow.”
She smiled. “I know. I’m just not used to sharing a bed with anyone.”
“I’m not used to this constant daylight. Although the storm helps to darken the room a bit.”
“You get used to it. It’s why I have blackout blinds.”
“I still can’t sleep. I’m exhausted, but...”

Aran was exhausted. He hadn’t pulled such a long day since before his injury.