Chapter 38 #3
“What-” His blue eyes go from my face to my leg to the bloody sheets before he looks at me again. “Who did this to you?” He rushes to my side, kneels and grabs my hand. “Who was it? Tell me.”
I shake my head. “Not here,” I tell him softly. How the fuck am I supposed to explain the windows exploding and some entity floating outside. Adding to that, I think the fucking house saved me with a closet door.
His brow furrows and he looks behind me at the rest of the room. “Who put you here? It was that infernal nurse, wasn’t it?”
I smile and squeeze his hand. “If by infernal, you mean Donna, then yeah. She’s Billy’s aunt and hates my fucking guts. I think she hoped I’d bleed out before I finished this intake form,” I say, nodding at the clipboard in my lap. I look around with a frown. “Fuck, I lost my pen.”
Julian grabs the clipboard. “Fuck the pen. You’re not filling this out. I’ll take care of this.”
“But it sounds like the ER is full. Aren’t you supposed to be doctoring?”
He waves a hand. “No one is more important than you. They don’t matter.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Why does it sound like a bunch of kids?”
“Because it is. There was some accident, a bus I think.”
“Julian, you have to treat the kids first.”
“Fuck those kids.” Julian rises from the floor and immediately starts looking over my leg. “Glass? Did you go through a window?”
“More like the window went through me,” I mutter and then hold up a hand when he looks like he’s going to demand an answer. “I’ll tell you tonight.”
“At home,” Julian says what I don’t.
I nod. “At home,” I agree.
“Doctor Vale! You’re needed for-” Donna’s words get stuck in her mouth when she sees him at my bedside. “Doctor Vale. This patient has not completed her intake paperwork.”
Julian doesn’t look up from my leg. “I thought you told me it wasn’t serious.” He looks up at her and the temperature around us drops. A chill settles over me and I know the second it hits Donna. She backs up and looks around like she thinks she’s going to spot the source. Holy shit, it’s Julian.
“Well, it’s not. Those lacerations are superficial and-”
“She’s had significant blood loss and there’s glass still in her,” Julian says. “I would have expected better care for my wife than this.”
Donna goes pale and I nearly choke on my own spit when he says that.
“Julian…” My voice trails off when I realize I don’t know what to say. If I try and deny I’m his wife then he’s going to lose it. I can tell from the way he’s holding himself. He looks like he’s about to take Donna’s head off.
The air grows colder still and Julian speaks. “I’m going to see to my wife. The rest of the patients are not critical enough to warrant me seeing them prior to seeing to my wife’s health.”
Donna’s lips press into a thin line. “Another nurse can see her.”
“Evidently not,” Julian corrects. My drops open in surprise with Donna’s. Even though I know what Julian is and even though I witnessed him throwing Billy around like a ragdoll, I didn’t expect the sass from him. If I’m surprised, Donna’s worldview must be getting sucker-punched right now.
She looks to me and back to Julian. She’s nothing if not stubborn so I’m not surprised when she lifts her chin. “You never said you were married. Do you know what kind of woman you married?”
“I know exactly what kind of woman I married, and I’ll remind you that a doctor’s private life and relationships are exactly that.
Private. Do you really think I would come to this town without a reason?
” Donna’s cheeks flush and Julian points at me.
“She is the reason I am here, she is the reason I’m helping any of you, do you hear me?
This woman is the only thing redeeming this town and you’ll do well to remember that you swore an oath when you took on this vocation, Nurse Donna.
This is not the lunchroom or the hallways of the high school you clearly peaked in.
” Julian takes a step towards Donna and she stumbles back.
“I’m going to report you for hiding those files from me, and the board will be hearing about your treatment of Maris.
By the time I’m done with you, they won’t even let you sell tongue dispensers at the drug store.
Now see to the other patients in the ER while you still have the license to, and if one single thing happens to Maris from all of this I’ll sue you for every last penny you have.
You’ll die in debt to me, do you understand? ”
“Yes,” she whispers. Donna’s eyes are wide and she looks like she’s about to choke with how red she is.
I don’t even see her breathing. She’s statue still and staring into Julian’s eyes.
She’s like a puppet with her strings pulled too tight.
It’s when Julian steps back from her and turns away that she takes in a gasping breath and has to catch the foot of my bed to keep herself upright.
She lifts her head and I see the tears shining in her eyes before she hurries away and I realize what happened just now.
“Holy shit,” I whisper.
He glamoured her.