8. Chapter 7
Thunder
My heart pounds as I keep my eyes on Scottie who sits opposite me and fuck.
I really want to punch Axel for suggesting she sits next to him while her father sits next to me.
That fucker, Dr. Powers, sits next to the man I’ve come to learn is his father-in-law, his eyes solely on the girl I’m going to claim.
Fuck if I didn’t know I was going to claim her two days ago when she came to the club in tears, I definitely know it today.
I have the urge to grab hold of her and never let fucking go. Don’t even get me started on the jealousy I feel of that fucker who I realized pretty quickly was Scottie’s ex, Sammie’s father.
“So, how long have you wanted to be a doctor?” I ask Scottie, trying to resist the urge to shoot Dr. Powers.
Scottie furrows her brows and murmurs, “I can’t really remember exactly how long, but my first memory was when I was six, and I was bandaging my dolls up.
” and her father cuts in and adds, “She was four, I’d gotten a papercut and she instantly wanted to help me,” and fuck the shock that is written over Scottie’s face is clear as day.
After she left the clubhouse, before my sister came running in with a fucking baseball bat that I had to run away from. Dr. Thomas mentioned that Scottie was basically the black sheep of the family, going down a different path than what her parents wanted.
Apparently, their relationship is strained, and I can definitely see it.
“Marshall,” Dr. Thomas says, gaining the man’s attention, and Scottie blinks before looking my way. Fuck, the pain that shines in her dark blue eyes kills me.
“I guess I was four,” she whispers, and I tilt my head and murmur, “I guess so…”
Clearing her throat, she asks, “What is it you do then?” and I grin and admit, “I’m a tattoo artist,” and she smiles a small smile and asks, “Does it hurt? Having a tattoo?”
Chuckling, I admit, “It’s like a slight sting, depending on where you get it. Why do you want one?”
“I wanted to get Sammie’s name on my ankle,” she admits.
“I approve,” her dad cuts in before continuing the conversation with Dr. Thomas and Scottie giggles in shock and fuck me, my heart.
“I can do it, just give me a day and time and I’ll do it,” I say not willing for anyone else to touch her virgin skin, and her mouth parts, making me smile before I ask, “Favorite food?”
“Huh?” she stutters, and her dad says, “It’s pad tai,” before he says to Scottie, “The man wants to get to know you so, get to know him.”
Well, well, well, her father is on my side.
I bite back the smirk as the men around us try to hide their chuckles while Dr. Fuckface doesn’t hide his growl.
He fucked her sister behind her back, had a kid with her, fucking married her, yet he wants her?
Yeah no, he can go fuck himself. She’s mine.
“I prefer a good pizza,” I state, hoping to get her out of her stupor, and she blinks, then asks, “What kind of toppings, and don’t say pineapple!”
I give her a wicked grin and the woman groans making me chuckle. I admit, “Everyone has different preferences so stop judging,” and she giggles again. Fuck, I think I’m always going to want that sound out of her mouth.
“What do you like to do on your days off?” I ask before I take a sip of my coffee.
“Spending time with Sammie,” she admits with a smile, and I grin wide again before she asks, “What about you?”
“I have two blood nieces and a blood nephew, another niece or nephew on the way and several non-blood nieces and nephews so I try to help the brothers out,” I admit and the woman before me physically melts.
I silently thank the kids before we get into a comfortable conversation talking about family, about my sister and the dynamic between us.
I don’t bring up Kathleen. We speak about her brother and his wife, her father chiming in about his daughter-in-law being lazy and his son believing living at home would be easy for her.
The conversation continues and it just feels right with her, even with the fucker glaring at us, we chat with ease and the more we talk, the more relaxed she becomes.
This feels different, we gel together, we get each other.
“So, tell me about the surgery,” she asks after we just spoke a little about our childhoods. I learned not to shy away from by my lovely brothers before taking a sip of her coffee, and I wince.
“I have a trapped nerve in my shoulder,” I admit, “Doc or Dr. Thomas, should I say, mentioned I’ve left it too long for therapy.”
“Okay, so the surgery for that should only take up to sixty minutes,” she says, “Your recovery time, you’re looking at a range of a few weeks to a few months to feel no pain at all, but gentle massages should help relieve that.”
“What about a nerve graft in the knee?” I ask, and her eyes widen in shock.
“What on earth did you do to have two separate nerve issues?” she chokes, and I clear my throat while Axel coughs to cover his chuckle.
“I grew up in a club where we were taught the club always comes first,” I begin, “Over the years, the men I grew up with, messed up one way or another and instead of seeing their error, they blamed the club. I kind of hurt myself on purpose a few times, ended up in the ER hoping to bring the brothers back together again. The last time, around three years ago, I ended up going over my handlebars on my bike hoping to convince our secretary to move back home after he left the club due to his mother. He refused to come home but he is still a part of the club.”
Scottie blinks, then blinks again, before she mutters, “Why do I got a feeling you’ll do something stupid to get your own way?”
The man sat beside me, coughs, but I hear his laughter, and I shrug, not denying her because yeah, I’ll do anything for her to be mine.
“I made it,” I hear, and we look to see my Pres rush over and I raise a brow seeing that he’s on his own and he winces, “I snuck out and your sister is going to fucking kill me.”
I laugh before I nod over to Scottie and introduce, “Doc, I’d like for you to meet Scottie.” I look at my girl, “Treasure, meet my president and unfortunately for me, my brother-in-law.”
Scottie grins wide as her cheeks redden with the nickname while Doc’s whole fucking face lights up and he says, “It’s nice to meet you, darling,” and she replies, “It’s nice to meet you too.” Before she looks back at me and confirms, “I’m guessing he’ll be in with your surgery?”
I nod and confirm, “He will be, apparently I don’t have a say in it,” and Doc cuts in, “Too fucking right you don’t,” causing her to giggle again, a sound I fucking love and I demand gently, "Now explain the nerve graft to me…” causing Doc to raise a brow so Dr. Thomas says, “Dr. Aimes here is getting ready to take her boards to finish off her first year. She’s a year ahead of her peers and my top resident, the only one to touch a scalpel in the OR in her class. ”
I notice Dr. Fuckface scowling harder as Doc pulls a chair out and sits near my girl, who sighs knowing she won’t get out of not explaining.
“A nerve graft is completely different to a trapped nerve,” she says, then explains, “You’ll be in surgery for up to six hours depending on the complexity,” she winces, “Dr. Thomas, who I’m guessing will be doing the surgery with your brother-in-law, will need to take a healthy and less critical nerve from somewhere else in your body.
Then they will use it to bridge the gap in the damaged nerve, reconnecting the ends so the nerve fibers have a pathway to regrow,” she leans back in her chair, “You’ll need someone to drive you home so no bike, you’ll need physical therapy.
Recovery can take over twelve months and the first four weeks you’ll require a crutch, it’s, I mean… ”
She gives me a disappointing look, and again, I have to bite back a smirk, especially when she looks at Dr. Thomas and asks, “Do you have his scans on you?” and my Doc openly grins.
“I do,” Dr. Thomas says with pride and hands over his phone, and she quickly takes it, then zooms in on my scan.
“I like her,” Doc murmurs just so I can hear as he leans forward, “And now I understand your hesitation in coming home. I fucking get it, but remember, your sister won’t let you stay here. She will make a brilliant surgeon in Wincher…”
“You are not taking my resident!” Dr. Thomas snaps quietly so Scottie doesn’t hear, and that fuckface glares at us. He clearly hates our conversation before looking back at Scottie while Doc grins wide.
He’s taking his best resident.
“She has her nephew,” Marshall joins in as he leans over so fuckface who’s still staring at my girl with a scowl doesn’t hear. “She won’t leave that boy. It doesn’t matter what her sister and Kavan did. Sammie is her world and she watches him most weekends.”
Doc tenses when we lock eyes, and he demands lowly, “Please tell me you are not thinking of joining the Untamed?”
“Worse,” I mutter, “Literal kidnapping,” and Marshall adds, “I approve,” making my lips twitch as Doc's eyes widen in shock.
I spent years purposely hurting myself to stop brothers from leaving the club. I won’t be a hypocrite, but I also won’t expect Scottie to leave Sammie. I’ll just have to take him with us, and his grandpa approves so that’s half the battle.
“Fuck, we’re going to need a really good lawyer,” Doc chokes and Marshall mentions, “I’ll have my wife do it whether she likes it or not,” and I chuckle.
Dr. Thomas mentioned how blind his wife is to their other daughter and their son.
The woman is stubborn and has taken her anger out on her youngest, so in my eyes, she isn’t trusted.
She fucking reminds me of Kathleen, who I still haven’t heard from.
“Is Dad here yet?” I ask Doc, and he nods.
“He arrived half an hour after you left and he brought Kathleen,” he admits and I clench my jaw with frustration.
“I told him not to bring her,” I grunt as I side-eye Scottie, who is frowning at the phone Dr. Thomas is holding.
“She threatened to throw his shit out if she didn’t bring her along. She doesn’t know you’re having surgery yet, only that this is where you ended up,” he admits, not bothering to question why I didn’t want her here and I sigh.
Doc, Brit, Trigger, Ashley, Achor and Summer arrived two days ago, and all have refused to leave until I do.
Ace and Dirty call me several times a fucking day, pissed that they haven’t got clearance to travel, Doc deciding they were more needed at the club with Stone.
Dad was told to come today but not explain why to anyone knowing the brothers would fucking storm the place.
“Dr. Thomas, does Bradley really need a graft done?” Scottie asks with a frown, gaining everyone's attention, and Doc raises a brow at her while Dr. Thomas asks, “That is what the best option is, why?”
She looks at the phone then back at the Rebel’s brother and admits, “Because I don’t see why he needs a graft,” and Doc mutters, “She has balls going up against a Rebel’s brother, I fucking like her.”
I grin and look at Dr. Thomas as he leans forward, giving her all his attention.
“Elaborate, Dr. Aimes,” he demands, his teaching ways coming out while we all watch with fascination.
Clearing her throat as she looks around the men as she puts Dr. Thomas’s phone in the middle of the table and drags the photo with two of her fingers, then points at what looks like a thin line.
“Because to me, his nerve still looks intact,” she says then explains, “From a distance it looks torn. You can just see the line before muscle overshadows it, so yes, surgically intervene, but graft? I don’t think it is necessary…”
“Fuck me, she’s good,” Doc murmurs as he stands and looks at the screen and her father mutters, “I feel like I should be a proud fucking peacock right now,” and Dr. Thomas states, “You should be because she’s fucking right, good catch, Dr. Aimes!”
Scottie’s cheeks redden, and I grin as we lock eyes.
“You’ve just saved me from six hours of surgery,” I murmur, and she looks at me bashfully and fuck me, what a look.
“Stop looking at my resident that way, Doc. You can’t have her,” I hear Dr. Thomas snap before he says, "Alright, Dr. Aimes, you’ve pointed out the issue, so now I want you to order another scan to confirm your theory before doing his observation. Well done.”
“Yeah, well done, Dr. Aimes,” I murmur, and she shakes her head at me and what I wouldn’t do to kiss her right now.
I want her, I really fucking want her, and I know she wants me. I just have to get her to face her fears of trying with me. If that fucker doesn’t stop staring at her, I’ll kill him.