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“I’m so sorry.” She murmured as she shot me a quick embarrassed glance.
“It’s okay, Charlotte. Sometimes we all need to just fall apart a little bit.”
“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have used you as my crying post.” She tried to give me a smile, but it was only a trace of what I knew she could probably do.
I wanted to reach back out to her and tell her it was okay, but I knew I had already stepped out of bounds, touching her again now would be very wrong.
Instead, I laughed softly and turned to check on Charlotte. Her stats looked great, and a little more color had come into her face. I check her pupils again, and she even wrinkled her nose a bit as if she was annoyed at the light. That was good.
“I didn’t think you were her doctor anymore,” Charlotte said from behind me.
“I’m not,” I grinned at her, “I guess I just have a vested interest in her.”
“You do?” She asked, slightly startled.
“Yes,” I turned back to her, but made sure to keep space between us, and my voice down. “Since I saw Marisol fall today, I kept thinking about her, hoping she was alright. When she showed up downstairs, I was glad that I was on duty, and I knew exactly what had happened to her. I didn’t need anyone to explain it.”
“I’m so sorry for attacking you today.” She hung her head, “I should have taken a moment to listen to you.”
My feet were being traitorous and carried me closer to her. “Charlotte, you were protecting your daughter. I understand that, and I’m not upset. I was concerned that you were going to call the police and report me as a predator, but I swear, I only touched her because I didn’t know where a parent was. I picked her up because another child was about to kick her in the head going over the monkey bars, and I figure one strike to the head was enough.”
“I had gone up to my car, I was only gone for a couple minutes. My friend was supposed to be watching her.”
“Kids move fast. Sometimes even when we are watching them, it only takes two seconds with our backs turned that they get into trouble.”
She laughed slightly, the sound warming my heart, “That is so true.”
She shifted her gaze to my face, and we stared at one another. I was so drawn to this woman, and I didn’t quite understand it. I was starting to wonder if she felt any connection with me at all. Most likely, she did, but it was because of what I did to help her daughter.
I heard my name being paged in the hallway, “I have to go, Charlotte. I’ll check back on you two when I can.”
“Thank you, Doctor Young.”
With a nod, I shot out of the room and back down to emergency. I needed to keep my distance from that woman. Not only was I stepping on thin ice, but she was in no place to have someone attracted to her. I had a feeling her life was complicated enough; she didn’t need me adding to that.
It was a couple hours later, and my shift was getting close to ending when I ran into Bruce. He was a general surgeon and had come down to do a consult on a patient that needed a hernia operation. The minute I saw him, I remembered Jersey being at the park, and that Jersey had known Charlotte.
“Hey, can you get your wife on the phone for me?” He gave me a curious look, and I laughed and said, “Sorry, the clandestine affair is out of the bag now, I guess.” We laughed, and I went on to explain, “Actually, I saw her and Adam at the park, and I wanted to let her know something.”
He grabbed the phone over the desk and dialed his home number, “Hey, Sweetie,” he paused, “No, I didn’t forget anything. Wes Young wanted to talk to you. Here he is.”
He handed the phone over to me, “Jersey, earlier today, you said that Charlotte was your friend, right? Her daughter was the one that fell today.”
“Yeah, Charlotte is my best friend, why?” She chuckled, “You want me to hook you two up?”
Yes—no! I cleared my throat, “Nice idea, but no. I wasn’t sure if you knew that Marisol was rushed into surgery today.”
“What?” Jersey squeaked.
Bruce gave me an alarmed look, “Yeah, Marisol had to have surgery, it was pretty serious. I think Charlotte could use a friend right about now. She seems pretty upset.”
“What room is she in?” She asked quickly.
I gave her the room number, and she hastily said goodbye and that she was on her way.
“How bad?” Bruce asked me after I hung up.
“She had a large bleed in her brain. She fell asleep after the injury and didn’t wake up, seizures kicked in a little before surgery.”
