Safe In The Surgeon's Arms

“Get out of my way, bitch.” The man reached out to grab Emily by the shoulder, obviously intending to shove her out of the way.

Emily had good reflexes and jumped back so he couldn’t touch her, but Chase hurried over to her, putting himself between her and the drunk. The man was huge, and towered over Chase by a foot.

“Don’t touch her.” He spoke forcefully to the man and tried to calm his nerves at the sight of him reaching for Emily. “Don’t touch any of our staff, or you’ll be looking at assault charges.” Chase didn’t know if the words were penetrating the man’s whiskey-soaked brain cells but he had to try.

“Like I care.” He glared at Chase, but didn’t move to touch him.

“Sir, I said your wife doesn’t want to see you right now, and if you continue to resist, you’ll be hauled out of here by Security.” Emily spoke from beside Chase. She’d moved forward to stand beside him, providing a unified front with him. Other staff members eased closer. If the man lunged for Emily again, they could jump him without anyone getting hurt.

“You got no reason to keep me from my wife.” The man was sweating, his face was red and he stunk to high heaven.

“Actually, we can. You can’t be in here drunk. Security’s on the way, and they’re going to call the police to haul you off to jail.” Chase experienced significant satisfaction that the situation was going to end without incident. Having Emily assaulted in front of him would not have been good. Just thinking about it brought back all sorts of horrid images he’d buried. Or so he’d thought.

“What? You can’t have me arrested.” The man started toward Emily again and tried to kick her, but she avoided his inaccurate jabs. Chase held his hands out to the sides and jumped to block him from getting any closer.

“Dr. Montgomery, he can’t get to me. Don’t worry,” Emily said. She gave a quick grin in his direction, and his heart reacted against his will. That impish grin had never left his mind and, combined with the short, spiky hair, she looked like a little fairy with a bad attitude.

Two muscled security team members, dressed in black, arrived and joined Chase. “We’ll take it from here.”

“He’s all yours. I have patients to wrap up before the end of shift,” Emily said, and stepped around the man, but he took a swipe at her and missed. Again. Nerves calming, Chase watched as Emily easily avoided the man’s giant hand and wondered what she’d been doing to gain such reflexes.

“You little bitch. I’m gonna get you for this.”

“Is that a threat? Are you threatening her?” Chase stepped forward, all amusement gone. “I think you’ve just threatened a staff member here. In front of witnesses and on security cameras. We’ll add that to the trespassing charges already on the list.”

“Oh, man.” He began to whine and snivel. “I just wanna see my wife.” Stomping his foot, he looked like a petulant toddler held between the security guards.

Chase approached and put his face as close to the drunk as was tolerable given the fumes emanating off him. Fortunately, it was a no-smoking hospital or they could have gone up in flames. “I believe you’re the reason she’s in the ER in the first place, are you not?”

Pause. “Yes.”

“Did you drive here?” Chase asked.

“If it’s any of your business, yes.” He tried to spit at Chase, who moved deftly out of range.

“Fellows, let the police know to add impaired driving to the list.”

“Got it.” They hauled the man out of the ER to await the police.

“Are you okay? Really?” Despite himself, Chase moved toward Emily, concerned that the threat might trigger memories of her assault again, the way they were starting to in him. No matter what he felt for her now, he didn’t want to see her hurt by anyone. This time he’d been able to help out, even though it had been a small effort.

“Nah, I’m good. I have new ninja reflexes. He didn’t even get close.” Demonstrating her technique, she jumped around in front of him looking quite like a ninja in scrubs.

She gave that grin again and his heart now seemed to have no immunity against it. “I see.” He cleared his throat and clamped down his anxiety for her safety.

That reflex hadn’t gone away just because they weren’t a couple anymore. Of course, he probably would have reacted the same no matter what staff member had been involved in the kerfuffle. At least, that was what he told himself.

Turning away from the scene, Emily rolled her shoulders a few times then picked up her clipboard. “Okay. Dr. Montgomery, can you see this patient now?”

“Uh, sure.” He stepped closer, more comfortable with the doctor-nurse role. “Is this the wife?”

“Yes. Superficially, she looks roughed up a bit, nothing serious, other than needing to get away from her husband.” Emily shook her head. “Can’t say I blame her.”

“You think he beat her up?” Anger flashed hot and fast inside him. Women and children were precious, and were to be protected, not used as punching bags by drunken men who couldn’t control their tempers.

“She won’t cop to it, says she tripped, fell into a door. It’s mostly the face. Black eye on the right, swollen shut, cheek bruised and swollen. Not sure if it’s fractured, but it won’t hurt to have an X-ray of it.”

He followed her without comment to the patient room and when Emily held the curtain back, Chase’s stomach clenched. The image of the woman before him sickened him. She was in her midforties. Her face was so swollen she looked as if she had been in a car accident and it instantly reminded him of the night he’d seen Emily in a similar condition. Trying to remain in that professional space, he took a quick breath and stepped close to the gurney. Emily was right. He didn’t even need the X-rays to know she’d been beaten up. In their line of work they’d become unfortunate experts on the topic.

“Mrs. Billings? I’m Dr. Montgomery. Nurse Hoover has made some recommendations for your treatment, and I’m inclined to agree with her.” He trusted her nursing experience, if nothing else.

“Like what?” She turned a defeated gaze to him. The sound of her voice was slow and thick. She’d probably bitten her tongue during the assault.

“Facial X-rays, possibly a CAT scan of your head to look for fractures in the sinuses and the left side of your face.” He moved closer, and she jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” More carefully, he approached her and focused on keeping everything slow, his voice soft. She’d obviously been conditioned to watch out for any sudden movements her husband made.

“Go ahead.” She closed her eyes, as if trying to shut out the world. “I don’t care.”

“Are you in pain?”

She nodded and tears began to overflow. “Don’t be nice to me, Doc. I can’t take it.” She sniffed. “I don’t know what it’s like.”

“Then I’ll try harder to be mean,” he said, and received a crooked smile.

“Thanks.”

He looked at Emily, who looked pale and a little wide-eyed. “I’ll get right on those orders, Doctor.” Then she turned back to the patient and the moment was gone, if it had been there at all. Maybe he’d only imagined the haunted look on her face as she’d watched her patient.

Avoiding Chase and the look on his face was her goal. Seeing this woman had brought back memories for both of them that neither of them cared to have. Caring for this woman was her job, and she would do it well, but making eye contact with Chase would be her undoing. She had to avoid it. Like her patient, she couldn’t deal with his compassion for her pain. What she needed to do was keep busy and focused on her work. The rest would eventually go away. It always did. Situations like this brought everything back to slam her right in the gut when she wasn’t looking.

Trying to stop the trembling in her hands, she prepared the lab tubes and labeled them appropriately, but her mind was elsewhere.

Night, being alone in the dark, was the toughest. Night was when the shadows darkened in her mind and the whispers of her attacker infiltrated her barriers. Bitch. I’m gonna get you, bitch. Sometimes all it took was hearing that word bitch to send her all the way back to that dark awful night.

She applied the tourniquet to Mrs. Billings’s arm and inserted the needle into the vein. Emily swallowed hard against the sudden dryness in her mouth. She filled each tube the way she was supposed to and applied a small dressing to the tiny puncture site of the left arm. Focused. Clinical.

Emily placed the tubes filled with blood for testing into a zippered lab bag for transport. After setting them in the lab pick-up rack, she realized her heart hadn’t settled down and the tightness in her chest hadn’t eased. Was it Chase? Was it the husband? Was it this patient? Maybe all of it combined in such a short time worked together to rob her of her strength.

Making her way to the supply room, she checked to make sure she was alone then removed her lab coat, placed a towel on the floor, sat cross-legged on it and closed her eyes.

There was a place she liked to go mentally when stressed and it was a place from her past where she’d been happy, walking alone on the sand at Virginia Beach, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin, the salt on the breeze and the coarse sand on her feet.

This was the place where she let go of stress, released it to the ocean waves and found some peace.

Until Chase walked into the supply room.

“What are you doing?” He stopped short just inside the doorway.

Startled, she opened her eyes. The serenity that had been on her face vanished and it was his fault. Dammit. She’d looked so peaceful for a second, and he’d ruined it.