Tuesday Buildup--Excerpt Time!

Yeah, it's been a little while since we did a teaser for Harvest Moon Rising. Without further ado...



"Mr. and Mrs. Gravier." The genteel looking older man, whitedoctor's coat fluttering around his thin frame, extended a hand. "I'm Dr.Edwards. Thank you for coming in today.""Ms. Gravier. Mr. Sullivan." Mike shookEdwards hand. "We're divorced."

Edwards blinked, the handshake slowing."Well. This is different."

"You can't begin to imagine how." I sankinto the chair, dropped my bag on the floor. "Cari Gravier."

"Ms. Gravier." Apparently still stunnedby Mike's bombshell, Edwards straightened his tie, eased down into his ownchair behind a massive desk. Light bounced off the shiny dome of his head,blinding me until he shifted in his seat. "I've had a chance to look over yourfile."

"I'm sure it made for entertainingbedtime reading." I'd given up after two pages. Not because I couldn'tunderstand, although there were words and phrases I'd had to feed into Google.It just made my stomach turn to read about one of the worst nights of my life,reduced to dry, medical jargon. "I looked you up. The testimonials on your siteare quite impressive."

"New Life Fertility works hard to helpboth couples and individuals in their reproductive needs." Even though I'm surethe line was propaganda, Edwards delivered it with enough emotion to beconvincing. "We understand how difficult the road to conception can be, and doour best to ease it."

"Let's cut to the chase, Doc." Mikesettled back in his chair, propped one booted ankle on his knee. "Can youhelp?"

"Don't mind him, Dr. Edwards." The look Islanted Mike's direction was sharp enough to etch glass. "His bark is worsethan his bite."

"Uh, well." Edwards shuffled some paperson his desk, opened a file. "I'll be blunt, Ms. Gravier. Your uterus has severescarring, very severe. I will tell you I've seen worse, but not by much."

I nodded, swallowed once. Even Doc Morrisand his outdated sonogram machine had been able to tell me that much. "But?"

"But, the scar tissue is limited to onearea of the uterus." Edwards pulled out a grainy photo, flipped it around,pointed at a spot. "This makes things difficult, but not impossible."

"Makes what not impossible?" Mikestraightened, his foot dropping to the floor. I reached out blindly, bore downwhen his fingers laced with mine.

Edwards blinked, looked from me to Mikeand back again. "Why, conceiving, of course."

"The doctors told me I'd never conceive.Period, point blank, end of the road." My vision blurred and I closed my eyes,fought back tears before opening them. "What are you seeing that they didn't?"

"Well, your miscarriage and the resultingscarring occurred five years ago, Ms. Gravier. Five years ago, we didn't know anumber of things we do now." Edwards shuffled his papers around, tapped themtogether. "And like I said, conception isn't impossible. Merely difficult.Although even that is something of an overstatement."

"Overstatement? Doc, we're from a smalltown in Georgia. Understatement we get, overstatement?" Mike laughed, the soundshaky, hoarse. His fingers trembled against mine. "Break this down, okay?"

"We can surgically remove enough of thescar tissue to ensure a better than average chance of a fetus reaching fullterm." Edwards opened a drawer, withdrew a small brochure. "Nothing is onehundred percent certain, as I'm sure you can imagine, but there's a very highsuccess rate with surgeries like this."

"Surgery." I sagged back into the chair,sighed. "That may be a problem."

"She's allergic to anathesia. And painkillers. And pretty much anything you could give her to knock her out." Mikedropped my hand, rubbed the nape of his neck.

"How allergic?" Edwards picked up a pen,scrawled something on the top sheet of paper.

"She could die."

"If it's too strong, or stays in mybloodstream for too long." I wet my lips, dug my nails into my palm. "We'venever tried a local."

"Because it's too dangerous." Mike'svoice started to slide into a growl. He caught himself, cleared his throat."Sorry, Doc. It's good news, but not really."

"How do we know it's too dangerous ifwe've never tried?" I shot the question at Mike, turned my attention back toEdwards. "Can you do the surgery with a local?"

"I would have to check, to be honest withyou. I'm sure there have been other patients with similar allergies, it's justa matter of finding the case materials." Edwards blinked at Mike's snort. "Isthere a problem, Mr. Sullivan?"

Before Mike could answer, his phonesignaled an incoming text. Whatever he read on the screen made his face turn tostone. "Excuse me, Doc. We'll have to discuss the rest of this at some othertime. Cari, we have to go."

"Mike - ."

"Now,Cari." Without waiting for a response, he stood, pulled me to my feet. "We'llbe in touch."

I held my tongue down the hall, past thereceptionist, until we were in the parking lot. "What's the rush, Mike?"

He opened my door, booted me up into thepassenger seat. "Selene, Georgia just became a big blip on the government'sradar."