Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Grace
I was sound asleep, drifting in and out of a dream and only hearing the words “Time of death.” My eyes flew open as the beeping and buzzing noise from my pager drowned out the words and my heart raced at an unbearable speed.
“Is that mine or yours?” Jamieson asked in a sleepy voice.
“Mine.”
I reached over and grabbed my pager from the nightstand.
“I have to go. There’s a trauma coming in,” I spoke as I climbed out of bed.
“Do you need me to help?” he asked.
“No. Go back to sleep. I’ll leave my key on the counter. Lock up when you leave.”
“Will do.” He rolled over and went back to sleep.
I brushed my teeth, threw my hair up in a ponytail, got dressed, and flew out the door.
“What do we have?” I asked as I entered trauma room one and put on a pair of gloves.
“Twenty-five-year-old male with three gunshot wounds to the abdomen. BP is holding in the low eighties.”
“Hi there. I’m Dr. Harper. Can you tell me your name?”
“Chris,” he mumbled in pain.
“Dr. Harper, there’s a lot of blood in his urine,” Dr. Cortez, one of the residents, spoke.
“One of the bullets must have hit his kidney. Call the O.R. and let them know we’re on our way up. Dr. Cortez, you can scrub in.”
“Thanks, Dr. Harper.”
As I was scrubbing in, I let out a yawn.
Thoughts of Jamieson sleeping in my bed, in my apartment, ran through my head.
This was not how my new life was supposed to go.
I shook my head as I finished scrubbing in and then walked into the operating room and performed surgery on my patient.
Three bullets out with one kidney and one lung to go with them.
“Dr. Harper, the patient’s girlfriend is in the waiting room,” one of the nurses spoke.
“Thank you. I’ll go talk to her. Can you close for me, Dr. Cortez?”
“Of course, Dr. Harper.”
I sighed as I removed my scrub gown, mask, and cap and scrubbed out before heading to the waiting room.
“For Chris Major?” I asked.
“How is he?” a frightened young woman in her twenties asked.
“He’s stable. He had three gunshot wounds to the abdomen. One of the bullets traveled and lodged in his lung, and another nicked his kidney. We had no choice but to remove his right lung and his left kidney.”
“Oh my God!” she cried as she placed her hands over her mouth.
“I know it sounds scary, but Chris can live a full life with only one lung and kidney.”
“Can I see him?”
“In a few minutes, you can. I’ll send Dr. Cortez out to get you as soon as Chris is in his room.” I gave her a small smile.
As I was walking back to the ER, a police officer stopped me.
“Excuse me, are you Dr. Harper?”
“Yes. I am.”
“I’m Officer Wade, and I need to speak with your patient, Chris Major. We have some questions for him regarding the shooting.”
“You can talk to him when he’s awake, officer. But that won’t be for a while.”
“I’ll wait, then.”
I gave him a nod and talked to Darcy behind the desk.
“I’m going to the on-call room to get some sleep. Page me if you need me. My shift starts in three hours.”
“Okay, Dr. Harper.” She smiled.
I lay on the pillow and placed my hands behind my head. As I stared at the ceiling, I thought about my dream. The same dream that used to plague me as a child. It had been years since that dream invaded my sleep, and I knew it had something to do with being back in Los Angeles and this hospital.
Jamieson
I climbed out of bed and being the gentleman I was, I made it for her.
Pulling on my pants, I ran down to where my car was parked and grabbed my bag with a change of clothes from it.
After I showered, I got dressed and noticed a picture of her and her parents sitting on the nightstand.
I picked it up and looked at it. It was taken on the Santa Monica Pier, and she couldn’t have been any more than ten years old.
Suddenly, I heard a phone beep, and it wasn’t mine.
Looking around, I noticed her phone sitting on the dresser.
Picking it up to put it in my pocket, I noticed there was a text message on her lock screen.
“Stop blocking my numbers and call me! I need to.”
That was all the message showed. Whom was she blocking? I really needed to find out what was going on with her. I shoved her phone in my pocket, grabbed my bag and her key off the counter, and headed to the hospital.
“Good morning, Jackie.” I smiled as I walked into the ER.
“Good morning, Dr. Finn.”
“Where can I find Dr. Harper? I need to give her key back, and she left her phone on her dresser.” I winked with a smirk.
Jackie sat behind the desk and narrowed her eye at me.
“She’s sleeping in the on-call room. Her shift doesn’t start for another thirty minutes. You can leave her key and her phone with me, and I’ll make sure she gets them,” she spoke with a slight attitude.
“No need. I’ll give them to her. Have a great day.” I grinned.
I walked to the on-call room, and when I opened the door, Grace opened her eyes.
“Good morning,” I spoke. “Sorry if I woke you.” I pulled her key and phone out of my pocket. “I was just going to set these down.” I held them up.
“Thanks.” She yawned and sat up. “I didn’t realize I left my phone at home. Thanks for bringing it.”
“You’re welcome.” I walked over and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “When I picked up your phone to put it in my pocket, you had a text message from someone asking you to stop blocking their number.”
She closed her eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath.
“You read my text message?”
“Not really. That was all I could see. It was on the lock screen. You can change that setting only to show the number or the name. Who is he?” I asked as I handed her the phone.
“Just an ex-boyfriend who won’t get the hint.”
“I see. Is he the reason you left New York?”
“Listen, Jamieson,” she spoke as she got up from the bed. “I’m not talking about this. Okay? I need coffee bad.”
I followed her out of the room and onto the elevator.
“How was your trauma last night?” I asked as I pushed the button to the rooftop.
“Three gunshot wounds to the abdomen. I had to remove a lung and kidney.”
“Eventful night, I would say.”
She sighed as she stepped off the elevator and walked over to the coffee station.
“Seriously, Grace. Who is he? He had to do something bad for you to pack up and move across the country to escape him.”
“Jamieson, leave it alone. I’m not talking about this.”
Her pager went off.
“Damn it. I have to go. It’s my patient from last night.”
I took my coffee to my office and grabbed my patients’ charts to start my morning rounds. I was going to find out who this guy was and why she left New York.