“There you go, sweetie.”She glanced at the little girl’s mom.“She’ll feel sore but she can have ibuprofen.”
“Thank you much,” the woman said in broken English.“So worried, so worried.”
“She’ll be okay.Young bodies heal faster than we expect.But you’ll need to bring her in to get her wound checked again soon.”
The woman nodded, and Gen completed paperwork to discharge her.
The girl smiled then sucked her thumb—not the burned one Gen had just applied ointment to then meticulously bound up—and the sight strummed a memory across her chest.Bella used to suck her thumb, and had possessed that same shy expression.She’d always been so sweet, and while she still could be, there’d been something so innocent and trusting in her younger years.Younger years that Kyle had missed out on.
Her heart twisted again.Guilt played a loud guitar solo at the strangest times.Sometimes it was in her dreams.Other times it was in the middle of transcribing her notes at work.Other times it came just by looking at the soft white, now freshly-laundered T-shirt that stared at her accusingly from where it hung over the back of the chair in her room.
She’d foolishly added it to the laundry, forgetting Mom would find it when she hung things out.And sure enough, Mom had found Kyle’s T-shirt, and when Bella had been distracted, had pointed to it with upraised brows.
“Care to explain?”
No.“I needed a clean shirt after work, and a friend gave it to me.”All true.
“Is this the ‘friend’ whose place you stayed at?”Mom pressed.“I don’t mind if it is, but I don’t want any more surprises arriving in nine months’ time, if you know what I mean.”
“Mom!”
“Don’t ‘Mom’ me.I thought I could trust you, and we all saw what happened.”
How long would Mom hold this against her?“You don’t need to worry.Nothing happened.It’s not like that.”
Mom sniffed.“I’ve heard that before.”
Wonderful.
She ate her yogurt while she completed paperwork.Nobody ever mentioned during medical training just how much of her time would be taken up with paperwork.Approving this, ratifying that, ordering this test, that test and all the other things.
Her phone buzzed and she glanced at the screen.
Miss you.Wish you were here.
“Whoa.Is that a smile I see from the doctor?”Nancy teased.
Her smile instantly fell away.“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Come on.I saw it.It wasn’t my imagination.”
“Pretty sure it must’ve been.There’s nothing to see here.”
“Let me guess.It’s your hockey hunk, right?”
“Um, did you have someone for me?”
“Nope.You’re getting nothing from me.Not until I get something from you.”
“Sounds like you’re saying it’s time for me to go home.”
“No way.You don’t get out of another shift this week.Not after last time.”
Yep, there went that guilt strum again.Skipping work on Tuesday had resulted in more than a few anxious queries about her health the next day when she’d showed up as per normal.Even if it was the most rested she’d felt in years.Kyle’s couch really was that comfy.
She ignored the tease a little longer, thankful for the distraction as the ER phone shrilled its warning that another patient was being ambulanced in.
The last hours of her shift passed with cases involving lacerations, chest pains, and a drug-addled schizophrenic patient who needed to be strapped down on the gurney.That was never fun, but neither was being vomited on or punched in the jaw by someone who had lost his sense of reason.
