Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
CIARA
Alex stood in the corner of the exam room at the village clinic, glowering like a gargoyle. He’d wanted me to go straight to the hospital in Inverness, but I kept insisting I was fine. I mean, objectively, I wasn’t fine. But I didn’t think I was get-admitted-to-the-hospital bad. He’d only relented when I agreed that if the doctor here believed I needed further tests, I’d go without complaint.
Teagan Donaldson shone a light in my eyes.
I flinched away with a hiss and sensed rather than heard Alex take a step in our direction before he caught himself.
“Sorry. Necessary evil. But the good news is your pupils are reacting normally.”
I knew of Dr. Donaldson, of course. It had been big news when she’d joined Doc Albright’s practice a year and a half ago. But I didn’t know her. She seemed kind and more than capable as she asked me more questions and checked every inch of me over.
“Okay, I need to see what’s going on under your shirt now.” She glanced toward Alex. “Do you want your friend to step out?”
He hadn’t left my side since he’d made it to the accident site, and I definitely felt steadier with him here. Besides, despite the fact that we weren’t sleeping together now, there was nothing he hadn’t seen before.
“No. He stays.”
“I’ll turn my back.”
Sweet of him, but unnecessary. I wasn’t overly concerned with modesty just now. The doctor helped me off with my jumper and winced at what lay beneath.
“Definite bruising from the safety belt. Some other scrapes. That’s all to be expected.” She disinfected those scrapes, including several I wondered how I got. “I’m going to check your ribs now. Is that all right?”
“Go ahead.”
Very carefully, she felt along each rib, asking if anything hurt.
“I mean, everything hurts, but nothing more than anything else. Other than my head.”
She pressed the stethoscope to my back and chest and had me take several deep breaths. “No trouble breathing. That’s good. It’s possible your ribs on the right might come up bruised from where the belt caught you, but nothing’s broken.” After a thorough palpation of the rest of my torso, Dr. Donaldson finally stepped back. “Well, you’re banged up, to be sure. But all in all, you were very lucky.”
Lucky.
I supposed I was. Someone had tried to kill me and failed. At least, I assumed that was the point of running me off the road. That hadn’t been a case of overblown road rage. I didn’t know what it had been. I didn’t know why. And I was trying very hard not to think about any of that. Not yet. But I’d survived. And that was likely only because of Alex and his level head.
When everything had gone to absolute shite, my instinct had been to reach out to him. He’d been there for me. He’d come for me as fast as he possibly could. And in that moment when I’d gone off the road and thought I was going to die, my last thoughts had been that I hadn’t given him another chance. A real one. That was something I’d have to think about when my head was no longer ringing.
A scuffle sounded from the hall.
“Where’s our daughter?”
A softer-voiced nurse replied, but I didn’t understand what she said.
“I think that’s my da.” It was hard to tell with the yelling. That wasn’t his default state. “Mum’s probably with him.”
“Right, why don’t I handle that while you get dressed, and then we’ll talk? Do you want them to know what’s going on with you?”
“That’s fine. I’d be telling them everything, anyway.”
“Okay. I’ll be back in a little while.” Dr. Donaldson slipped out of the room.
Alex was still standing facing the corner.
“You can turn around now. I think I’m going to need a little help.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
There was heat in his eyes as he turned. Then his gaze slid down to the rest of me, and he swore.
“Did they offer you all a program in profanity as part of your training as a Royal Marine? You truly do have the most magnificent swears.”
Alex didn’t laugh as I’d hoped. He started to reach for me, then stopped himself, as if he were afraid I’d break. I knew self-recrimination when I saw it, and blame was written all over his face.
“This is all my fault.”
I reached for his hand, pulling him closer. “It would have been a whole lot worse if not for you. You kept me from panicking, and that gave me a chance I wouldn’t otherwise have had.”
He still looked as if he believed he should be jabbed repeatedly with a flaming hot poker, so I reached up to frame his face, forcing him to look into my eyes instead of at the array of bruises. “Look at me. I’m okay. I’m alive.”
With a choked sound, he pressed his brow ever so gently to mine. “You nearly weren’t.”
I held in the wince because I knew he’d curse himself all over again for thoughtlessness. “A near miss is as good as a mile.”
“I suppose the fact that you can still be sarcastic means you’re not too bad off.”
“Exactly. Now help me on with this jumper.”
I was fully dressed by the time someone knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Dr. Donaldson stepped back inside, followed by my parents, who were beside themselves. They rushed me where I sat on the exam table, brought up short when Alex stepped forward.
“Careful. She’s bruised.”
My mother blinked. “Alex. What are you doing here?”
Before I could decide exactly what to say about that, Alex answered for me.
“We’re together.”
So much room for interpretation in that statement. I decided that untangling the threads was a problem for Future Ciara. My head hurt far too much, and now that the adrenaline dump had faded, the only thing I wanted was a nap, if I could manage it.
Dr. Donaldson cleared her throat. “Right. We’ve checked her over. She has some bumps and bruises, scrapes, and that nasty wee gash on her forehead. But nothing’s broken, and there’s no sign of any internal injuries. She does have a concussion, but it could have absolutely been a great deal worse.”
My mother covered her mouth with a gasp. Had someone told her I’d been run off the road? I wasn’t prepared for that conversation yet. I’d already gone over it with the police briefly before coming here.
“Now, she’s going to be on a concussion protocol. Someone will need to wake her every hour, to make sure she can still answer questions, check her pupil reactivity and the like. And of course, if anything should suddenly start hurting or get a lot worse, you have my number. Call me. But otherwise, you’re free to go. I’ve got a prescription for some painkillers.” She plucked a sheet out of a drawer. “Who needs the list of concussion protocols?”
I saw Alex about to volunteer and rushed to speak first. “I’ll be staying with my parents tonight.”
A flash of hurt crossed his face before he blanked it again. This wasn’t about not wanting to be near him. It was, in fact, because I didn’t want to be away from him. I laid a hand on his arm. “They’re going to need that reassurance.”
And I was going to need some distance from him to figure out how I really felt when I wasn’t in imminent danger of dying.