In the Doctor's Bed

Jaclyn glanced up and smiled at Ravi Patel, another intern. With his tall, slender build, long wavy black hair, dark eyes and dark skin, he made a reality of the old cliché tall, dark and handsome.

All the female interns, nurses and patients alike drooled over the American-born East Indian. Even Miss Thang seemed taken with him and would blush like a silly schoolgirl whenever Ravi was near. What Jaclyn most admired and respected about Ravi was that he was quick to let the admiring ladies know that he was an engaged man. His fiancée, a woman from India, was an intern at a hospital in Miami. The two planned to marry in a few years.

“Hi, Ravi. I was going over one of my patient’s charts.”

“His condition is serious?”

“FUO earlier, but thanks to Dr. De Winter I was finally able to find something in his blood. There are bacteria. Now I’m trying to determine the cause.”

“If you need help, this might be something to bring before the others in our group session with Dr. De Winter in the morning.”

Jaclyn nibbled on her bottom lip. She of all people knew when the group of interns would meet with Dr. De Winter in a classroom setting. She looked forward to those once-a-week sessions when he would take center stage at the front of the class. Those were the times when she could sit in the back and ogle him to her heart’s delight and come across only as a very attentive student.

More than once he had glanced her way and caught her staring and she appreciated that he wasn’t a mind reader. He would have been appalled at some of the things she’d been thinking at the time. “I might do that. Thanks for suggesting it, Ravi.”

Ravi glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “There’s Dr. De Winter. We can ask him now.”

Before Jaclyn could stop him, Ravi had gotten Dr. De Winter’s attention. Jaclyn released a deep breath. She hadn’t quite recovered from their earlier meeting when they had touched. Now he was about to get all into her space again.

“Doctors Patel and Campbell. Is there something I can help you with?” he asked, his gaze passing between them.

“Yes, sir,” Jaclyn said. “Thanks to your suggestion I was able to pinpoint bacteria in Mr. Aiken’s blood. But now I’m concerned with the cause. I’ve done tests to rule out several abnormalities, but these bacteria are determined to remain in certain areas. I’m still concerned that we could not detect it in a routine blood test.”

“I thought this would be something she could bring before the group in the morning,” Ravi interjected.

“I agree with Dr. Patel. This is something we can give the group as a think tank question, Dr. Campbell. In the meantime, how is Mr. Aiken? What are we doing for him?”

Before Jaclyn could respond, Ravi glanced at his watch and then said apologetically, “Sorry, I need to go check on one of my patients.”

He then quickly walked off leaving her alone with Dr. De Winter. She forced her gaze from Ravi’s retreating back to Dr. De Winter. For the next few minutes she provided him with the answer to his question. He didn’t interrupt and every so often he would nod slowly. It was hard not to get absorbed in the tingles of awareness that were going through her body from his standing so close to her.

At one point while she was talking, their eyes held for a moment. Her mind went completely blank and it was only when he’d said in a warm tone, “You were saying, Dr. Campbell?” that she realized she had stopped talking in mid-sentence. She swallowed hard and began talking again, knowing with her fair skin that her blush of embarrassment was easy to see.

So okay, now he knew one of his interns was taken with him. The man was sexy and handsome so there was no doubt in her mind she wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last. Although flattered, he was a professional who wouldn’t encourage her. He probably considered her one of those silly little interns with hormonal problems. For her it went beyond that. Oh, she would love to jump his bones if given the chance, but her crush on him was growing by leaps and bounds each day.

When she finally finished her spiel, he met her gaze and asked in what she thought was a husky voice, “Why did you zone out on me a few moments ago?”

She hadn’t expected him to ask her that. Did he honestly expect her to tell him the truth? Even worse, did he suspect the truth? She drew in a deep breath and decided to lie through her teeth. “No reason, sir. I merely lost my train of thought for a second.” And please don’t ask me why.

He slowly nodded and as if he could read her mind and was privy to her last thought, he took a step back. “I’ll see you at the group discussion in the morning, Dr. Campbell.”

And then he walked away.

Chapter 3

Jaclyn had known the moment she entered the meeting room the next morning and saw how everyone was clustered together and talking in whispers that word was out about the Matthews lawsuit.

It had been bad enough when everyone had found out about Terrence’s termination last month. Speculation had run wild as to the reason for it. Now his family was bringing things out in the open and letting everyone know what was going on and that the hospital would pay for what they saw as a grave mistake.

“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked a fellow intern by the name of Tamara St. John as she slid into the seat beside her. She’d liked Tamara from the first day they met and found her to be a down-to-earth person.

Tamara leaned closer and whispered, “Word is out as to the real reason Terrence was kicked out of the program. Rumor has it that he had a drug problem. His family is suing the hospital and saying the charges against him are false.”

Jaclyn swallowed deeply. “What will the hospital do?”

“I hear they feel they have a good case against Terrence. Someone on staff came forward with the goods on him and provided enough proof to make the hospital take action. Now everyone is trying to figure out who among us talked.”

A muscle tightened in Jaclyn’s stomach. “Does it matter, especially if the allegations are true?” she asked.

“Doesn’t matter to me. I can’t help admiring the person for doing it. Some people who are born into wealth think they can get away with anything. Terrence acted like too much of a snob to suit me anyway.”

Tamara glanced beyond Jaclyn and smiled. “Here comes Dr. De Winter. We’ll talk later.” Tamara then straightened in her seat to chime in with the others when they said, “Good morning, Dr. De Winter.”

“Good morning, everyone,” the husky voice replied.

Jaclyn hadn’t been one of those to coo out the greeting, yet she thought his gaze deliberately settled on her as he passed her seat to walk toward the front of the room. It was then that she overheard a female intern sitting in front of her whisper to another woman, “That doctor is way too fine. I just love watching him strut his stuff.”

Jaclyn thought the same thing. She liked seeing him strut his stuff as well, but that was something she wouldn’t dare share with anyone. She watched and listened as he went through the regular routine of asking how things were going and if anyone had had any challenges for the week to share with the others.

She knew that was her cue and she raised her hand. He glanced over in her direction. “Yes, Dr. Campbell?”

She spoke up and presented Mr. Aiken’s situation to everyone. Some fellow interns asked questions while jotting down notes. Several threw out possible diagnoses for her to consider and she wrote those down as well. It was nice getting feedback from her peers. More than once she glanced at Dr. De Winter and saw him watching and listening with interest. He was letting them work as a team. A few times it seemed after scanning the room his gaze would come to settle on her. And each time it did, her breath would get caught in her throat and she would swallow deeply to force the air down.

“So, Dr. Campbell, do you think you have enough possibilities to work with?” he asked, his eyes homing in on hers in a way that made blood rush through her veins.

She took a deep breath and then responded, “Yes, and I’m going to narrow it down to the best three.”

He nodded. “Time might not be on your side,” Dr. De Winter then said. “I understand Mr. Aiken’s fever spiked overnight.”

She wasn’t surprised that he was well aware of what was going on with each of the intern’s patients under his charge. How he kept up with it all she didn’t know. There were fifteen of them and each had been assigned five to seven patients.

“Yes, sir, but so far we’re keeping the temperature down.”

He nodded. “But what we want is to get rid of it all together.”

Jaclyn moistened her lips with her tongue thinking she could have taken his words as a put-down. Instead she took them as a challenge. A patient’s health was on the line and her job as a doctor was to not make him comfortable but to get him well. “Yes, sir.”

He straightened from the podium he’d been leaning against and then looked out over the group. “Good job, team. Now go out there and take care of your patients.”

Lucien remained behind in the empty meeting room. Things with Jaclyn Campbell were still not going well. Hooking up with a woman, getting to know her, developing a relationship both mentally and especially physically, was one of those simple pleasures in life that all men looked forward to experiencing.

He dated, although it had been a while since he’d dated anyone seriously. He always enjoyed a female’s company, but in most situations he tried avoiding dating women in his own profession. More often than not their conversations would center too much around the medical cases they were up against.

The last woman he’d dated had been in the education field and he enjoyed learning about her work and the challenges she faced. The only bad thing about Shawnee Powers was her inability to stop placing herself on some sort of pedestal. There was nothing wrong with someone believing in themselves, but for Shawnee it had begun getting downright ridiculous. He’d put up with it until he’d noticed her jealous streak. She had begun questioning him when he didn’t call or when he didn’t immediately text her back. It had been ten months since they’d broken up and at no time had he been tempted to call her. Ten months.

That had been when he’d seen Jaclyn for the first time. He would always remember that day. There had been twenty residents and now they were down to fifteen. One had gotten seriously sick and had to leave the program, three hadn’t been able to cope the first six months and one he’d had to terminate.

His mind shifted to Terrence Matthews, the one he’d had to terminate. The young man, although somewhat brash at times, had had a promising future. He had started off sharp as a whip, up on every assignment and possessed a bedside manner all the patients appreciated. Then Terrence began being late to group meetings, going MIA when he was supposed to be visiting patients and falling asleep during group discussions.