Chapter 2 #3
He didn’t have any luck finding her in any of the rooms. But he knew from the desk nurse that she was to go on break at eleven-thirty.
Going down to the cafeteria, he found her sitting at one of the smaller tables by herself.
He made his way to her then. It was time he got down to business with her so that he could feel better about her living situation.
“Hello.” She looked up, then looked around like she was afraid or something. “I just want to talk to you for a little bit. Please? It’s important.”
“All right, but don’t sit down.” He nodded and wondered if she meant to be mean, and decided that she was under a lot of stress and he could forgive her for it. “What did you want to say?”
“I’m a shifter like my brother is.” She nodded and kept glancing around.
He knew there were rules about doctors and nurses consorting together and hoped that was what was worrying her instead of looking to get help from her fellow coworkers.
He felt like a lunatic. “We’re mates. Do you know what that means? ”
“Yes.” Before she could say anymore if she was going to say anything else, someone came to the table and asked him if he was being bothered. “He just wanted to talk to me about his brother, whom I worked on the other night. I’m not bothering him.”
“I asked him, not you, McFarlen. You’d best be minding your own business and not bothering the doctors with your whining about how they don’t do their job either.
” She assured him that she wasn’t. “See that you don’t.
Doctor Dixon, is she bothering you? We’ve had a talk with her before about her bothering the doctors when they have free time. ”
“It’s just what she said, and I don’t appreciate you talking to our staff that way.
She does a great job, as well as the other nurses, and I don’t know what this hospital would do without the dedicated workers that we have now.
” The man, he had no idea what his name was, glared at McFarlen before walking away.
“I’m sorry. I should have thought of this happening when I started looking for you.
My brother Cullen is here to have you look at his stitches.
I’ll talk to you after you get off shift. All right?”
“Sure, whatever.” He started away when she called his name. “I do know what mates mean, but I’m not sure you have the right person. I have literally nothing to my name but this uniform and a few things I’ve been able to pick up.”
“I’ll help you out with whatever you need.” She didn’t break eye contact with him, but he could tell that she was stressed out. There was little he could do about that right now, and he told her so. “I’ll talk to you after work. All right?”
She picked up her phone and did something to it.
Before he could begin to figure out what she was doing, she set it down so that he could read the number there.
Memorizing the number, he nodded once and walked away from her.
Before he was out of the cafeteria, he was putting her number in his phone to talk to her later.
Christ, he didn’t remember his brothers having this much trouble with finding their mates.
He knew the rules about the hospital. He’d also heard that McFarlan had a good head on her shoulders, and most of the doctors liked her.
One had gone so far as to tell him that he’d trust her word over any other doctor in the building when it came to knowing what the patient needed.
And she was really good at telling him what was wrong with the patient when she was asked.
For a nurse, she could have easily been a doctor as far as he was concerned.
Now he finds out that she’s his mate, and he can’t talk to her at work.
Damn it, things had to get better after this.
He spent the rest of the day shadowing another doctor to find out what they did in the department at this hospital.
The man was telling him all the places that he could take a nap in, as well as the nurses who would put out if you asked them really nicely.
When asked about McFarlen, he’d never gotten her first name yet; he said she was too straight-laced to even want to go out with doctors, much less get a little tickle under the table with him.
He found that he was both relieved and angry at the man for saying such things about his mate.
By the time four o’clock rolled around, he felt wrung out.
He’d not done anything much today other than to follow a few people around, but he felt like he’d been running a marathon and came up short.
All he wanted to do was to go home, shower, and figure out a way to call his mate on the phone when he just knew the number that she gave him was going to be to some restaurant, and he was going to look like a fool.
He was surprised as he’d ever been when she answered the line with her last name.
“It’s Falkner Dixon.” She told him her name, too. “Doone? What a beautiful first name. It suits your red hair. I bet your parents are Irish too.”
“My dad is, but I’ve not seen him in about six years.
My mother was down with cancer, and he left us for greener pastures when she was told she only had about six months to live.
” He asked how long that had been. “Six years ago. I got with a vampire friend of mine and had her give my mom her blood so that she’d live.
Now she’s cancer-free and has found out that she can live her life just fine without my father. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“As I said, we’re mates. That means that everything that I own is now yours.
” He thought about what he was saying and told her that he was messing things up with her.
“I have a house that you can live in with me. Not with me, but in the same place. I have taken the master bedroom, but I’d like for you to have it.
” He felt like nothing he was saying was coming out right.
“I’m sure that Dr. Mulkeen would have a heyday if he found out that we were living together.
Whether it was in the same room or not.” He said that he was sorry she’d had to have someone talk to her like that.
“It doesn’t matter, Doctor. I’m used to him by now.
But I can’t live with you. I have enough trouble going on for myself right now.
You should find yourself someone else to live with you.
As I said before, I have nothing to contribute to your life other than more heartache. ”
“I’m afraid that it doesn’t work like that.
Now that I’ve found you, I need to protect you.
It’s in my blood.” She laughed, but it didn’t sound like she was enjoying anything.
“I’m sorry that you don’t believe me, but that’s the truth.
I find myself needing to protect you from the Mulkeens of the world, too.
He had no right to talk to you like that. ”
“What do you plan on doing, protecting me from every doctor at the hospital? They all have something like that to say daily. They don’t mind the nurses when they’re quiet and reserved, but when one of them thinks they can date one of the holier-than-thou doctors, everyone has an opinion.
” He asked her why she was a nurse if she hated doctors so much.
“I don’t hate them, just their ways of doing things.
” She drew in a deep breath and spoke again.
“Look, it’s been really nice talking to you, but I have to go.
I have about a million things on my list for today, and I can’t get them finished talking to you.
Go find someone else to have as a mate. I’m not worthy of your kind. ”
When she hung up the phone, he had a feeling that she was going to turn it off and didn’t bother calling her back.
As soon as he put his phone away, he did some thinking.
He, too, had about a million things to do and wasn’t getting any closer to getting them done than she was.
He needed to convince her that she was his mate and that he needed to take care of her.
Soon, he told himself. Soon, he’d be able to get her on the same page as he was.