Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Wake up! Wake up!”
Marie groaned at her alarm’s demands. She really should change it to a melodic tune instead of the voice yelling at her to get her ass out of bed.
However, if she changed her alarm, she was more likely to tell it to snooze, and she’d fall back asleep making herself late.
Better to be hounded by a drill sergeant and get out of bed to face the day, than to get reprimanded for always being late.
A morning person she had never been, and considering her occupation and that sleep could be elusive, it was a wonder she’d survived her residency. She loved her job, and usually after her first cup of coffee she was able to face the day.
With a groan, she tossed the covers back and stretched.
Marie couldn’t deny that being back in her own home, sleeping in her own bed, was blissful.
She loved her time in Guatemala, but there was nothing like the familiarity of home.
After her time in San Carlion she also appreciated that she was lucky enough to be able to live in one of the most expensive cities in the United States.
But there was something about the simplicity of her living accommodations in Guatemala. How she was able to do without so many of the things she thought she hadn’t been able to. How to live simply and still be rich in other ways.
So while it was lovely to have her things around her, she knew that she probably had excess items that she could do some good with.
Her plan was to box up some of her towels, blankets, bed linen, along with some of the dishes she didn’t use, and ship them to Ophelia in San Carlion so that her former colleague could give them to people who needed them more than her.
It wasn’t like she needed five different towel sets when it was only her.
She could make do with two. One in use and one in the cupboard.
She made a mental note to keep a few boxes after she’d unpacked all her stuff to enable her to do what she wanted to do.
But that was a matter to be dealt with later, right now she needed to focus on getting ready for her first full day at the hospital.
It was going to be a long one, but she was eager to get back to helping people.
Marie showered quickly and was in the living room putting everything she needed into her bag when the doorbell rang.
A shaft of fear stabbed her in the gut. How had someone got up without her being advised she had a visitor.
The building may not have a guard twenty-four hours a day, but they were usually at their post by six in the morning before finishing at nine at night.
“Marie, it’s me, Isaac.”
Her panic eased at hearing his muffled voice, and she recalled that she’d told Felix to add Isaac to her approved visitor list. That was why she hadn’t had notification she had a visitor.
Putting a hand to her stomach, she took a moment to center herself before running a hand down her pale pink scrubs and heading toward the front door. She pasted a smile on her face when she pulled open the door. “Morning. I’m almost ready.”
His gaze traveled over her from head to toe, and she resisted the urge to fidget beneath his perusal. Her scrubs were the farthest thing from sexy, but with the way Isaac was looking at her, she felt like she’d answered the door in her sexiest lingerie.
Finally his eyes met her, and a slow smile spread across his face, making him look younger.
She had no idea how old he was, but suspected he was in his late forties.
He had that sexy silver fox edge to him, and after the kiss they’d shared the night before, the attraction she’d felt toward him when he had long hair and a scruffy beard intensified.
“Morning,” he murmured as he crossed the threshold, causing her to step back. Held under the spell of him looking her over, she hadn’t realized she was still standing with the door open for all the other residents in the building to see.
She closed the door quietly, aware of the sudden tension that filled the room. Her skin prickled in awareness, and the wish that he would kiss her, almost had her blurting the words out.
As if he could read her mind, Isaac closed the small gap between them and cupped her cheek. “Morning again, Doc.”
Any opportunity to respond was stifled as his lips gently pressed against hers.
Her hand landed on his chest, the same place it had been the night before, and she leaned into the kiss wanting him to deepen it.
Disappointment filled her when he pulled away.
This kiss ended far too quickly for her liking.
“If I kissed you for much longer you wouldn’t get to work,” he said, resting his forehead against hers.
Desire shivered through her, and she clutched his shirt a little tighter, the implication in his words not hard to miss.
“I like that idea,” she responded and patted his chest before stepping back.
“And if I had been at the hospital for years instead of not even one day, I might consider calling in sick, but…” She shrugged, her hands raised up with the palms facing the ceiling.
“You haven’t, and so you need to go to work.” Isaac finished for her.
“Yep.” She popped the P and, as much as she didn’t want to, she stepped away from Isaac and finished checking the contents of her bag to make sure she had everything.
Satisfied she did, she slung it over her shoulder.
“Let’s go,” she announced, pausing after taking one step.
“Why are you in the same clothes that you had on yesterday?”
She hadn’t noticed what he was wearing when she opened the door to him. When he’d kissed her she tasted a hint of fresh mint, as if he’d just cleaned his teeth. But if he was in the same clothes, how could have minty fresh breath?
The questions swirled around her mind, and he still hadn’t answered her first one. “Isaac, why are you in yesterday’s clothes?” she asked again, as a thought entered her mind.
He hadn’t?
He wouldn’t, would he?
“What did you do last night?” she demanded. “Did you go home?”
“Are you going to let me answer any of these questions, or are you going to keep throwing them at me?” There wasn’t any anger in his voice, if anything, there was amusement which annoyed her even more.
“This isn’t funny. Just answer the damn questions!” If he tried to placate her like she was a riled-up kitten, he was going to find out that she had claws and wasn’t afraid to use them.
“I’m in my clothes because, no, I didn’t go home last night, I stayed in my car and watched your building.”
Marie blew out a breath, all the fight leaving her.
Upon looking at him closer she could see the faint rings of fatigue under his eyes.
The lines bracketing his mouth were a bit deeper, but his brown eyes were bright and, apart from the crumpled clothes, he looked as handsome as ever.
“I suppose there’s no point in me telling you it was unnecessary, is there? ”
“None at all. I wanted to do it.” His hand cupped her cheek, and she turned her face and kissed his palm.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He took a step back taking the warmth from his hand with him. “Are you ready? Traffic is likely to be a bitch, even at this early hour.”
“I’m ready.” She hitched her bag a little higher and followed him to the door, admiring the way his pants fit around his ass.
He really was an attractive man, and she couldn’t believe that he wanted to be with her.
Her ex had constantly belittled her. Commenting how frumpy she looked in scrubs.
How her hair was always messy. And she always looked haggard.
Not once had her ex ever looked her over the way Isaac had when she’d been wearing her scrubs.
He hadn’t even given her admiring glances when she’d been dressed to the nines for whatever event he wanted them to attend.
“Marie? You good?”
Isaac’s voice pulled her from thoughts of her ex, and she was annoyed at herself for allowing her thoughts to drift to a man who didn’t mean anything to her anymore.
Who was inconsequential in her life. “Never better,” she said, smiling with the hope it didn’t look as fake as it felt.
Even after all this time, her ex’s barbs had a way of denting her self-confidence, even when she’d worked so hard to forget everything he’d ever said to her.
Strong arms closed around her, and she found herself locked into a tight hug from Isaac.
Her arms automatically went around him, returning the embrace, sighing at the rightness of it all.
After one last squeeze, Isaac released her, but he kept hold of one of her hands, linking their fingers together.
“Thanks, I needed that,” she said as they headed out of her apartment.
“Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”
Marie didn’t doubt Isaac’s words. She’d somehow got herself an alpha protector and she didn’t mind one little bit.
Marie’s gloved hers were covered in blood as she tried to staunch the stab wound on the unconscious man’s leg.
She wasn’t the lead doctor on this case, she’d just finished with a patient when the door slammed open and this man was wheeled in.
A paramedic was on his chest, doing compressions.
Marie and another colleague leaped into action, but considering the placement of his wound, she knew there wasn’t anything they could do. He was going to bleed out.
“Time of death, fifteen thirty.” Dr. Jones, her colleague, called out. Marie knew she should remove her hands. She’d known that the case was hopeless, but she still kept applying pressure even as the blood flow appeared to slow.
“Dr. Hughes, you can let go now.” The nurse beside her said quietly, as if she wasn’t sure she should say something or not.
It was enough for Marie to become aware that everyone was looking at her.
Dr. Jones had left the cubicle, no doubt dealing with the paperwork that a death of a patient required.
Or perhaps he’d gone and told the relatives of the man that they’d done all that they could but were unable to save him.
Hollow words. Words she’d spoken many times, in different variations, as if that would make it any better.
In a flash she wasn’t in the ER, she was back in a makeshift hospital, with a man glaring at her. A different situation entirely, but the outcome the same.
Your son was shot in the chest. Even if you’d brought him to the hospital as soon as it happened and we were able to operate on him, it wouldn’t have made any difference. The injury was too severe for him to have survived.
The memory threatened to suck her in down into the abyss, but she grasped at the tenuous threads of the present and hauled herself up. Her breaths came out in short, sharp gasps.
“Dr. Hughes, are you okay?” The nurse asked. “Do you need me to get someone for you?”
Marie mentally shoved the specter of Alfredo Vargas out of her mind and straightened her spine, aware her hands were dripping the patient’s blood on the floor. “I’m fine. Thank you.”
The last thing she needed was for the staff to think she was a basket case on her first day. She wanted to show them that she was the competent doctor she was. Crumbling at the first death in her new job wasn’t the way to achieve that.
Nodding at the nurse, she peeled her gloves off and tossed them in the hazardous waste container by the cubicle’s screen.
Marie headed toward the staff locker room, needing to change out of her bloody scrubs into a clean set.
These ones could be salvaged, but she didn’t want the reminder of her sudden onset PTSD attack, because that was what it was. There was no denying it.
In the quiet of the room, she leaned against her locker and blew out a breath, before sucking in another one, and another until she felt more in control.
Once she was sure that she wasn’t about to freak out again, she pulled open her locker and extracted another pair of scrubs.
She always came on shift with extras, because there was every chance that what just occurred could happen on more than one occasion and the need to change clothes became paramount.
Why was something that happened months ago affecting her now when it hadn’t before?
Over the years of her career she’d seen many gruesome injuries. Car accident victims that were unrecognizable because of the trauma they’d gone through. People who’d lost limbs. The hollow stare of someone who didn’t get help until it was too late.
Marie cradled her face in her hands as she attempted to push what she'd seen over the years down so deep that it would need an excavator to dig it out.
After a few more minutes she felt more in control of herself and ready to face the rest of the shift.
She couldn’t be seen to be weak, not on her first day in her new job.
Granted, working in the ER wasn’t easy, and many doctors burned out quickly, needing to move to another department, or for some, another career for their mental health.
That had never been a problem for her in the past, and she wasn’t going to make it one in the future.
Most likely her reaction to what happened was because of all the other stuff going on in her life. The possible threat. That’s why her emotions were running close to the surface and she reacted the way she had. Nothing more than that.
Pleased that she’d rationalized her minor panic attack to make sense, she stood and headed back to the ER, hoping that her absence wasn’t noticed, and if it was, when they saw her in fresh, clean scrubs it would all make sense to everyone.
With confidence that she was partly feeling and partly faking, she strode up to the triage desk. “What do you have for me?” she asked the harried looking nurse.
The noise level was the same as when she’d left, voices yelling out what they needed.
The moans of people hurting. The beeps of heart monitors.
Familiar sounds that surprisingly soothed her frayed emotions, giving her hope that what she experienced was a minor blip and everything would be fine from now on.