(I own nothing!)
I whisk my hand across the folder stabbing out the information on the form for the new patient.
The day had started out as usual with me having to take a bath in the sink since Tommy still can't respect the shower schedule. Then Dinner had eaten all of my cereal which ended with me threatening to eat Mina's pet if she fed the chicken any more of my cereal. Then it was off to the clinic for another quick tutorial on medicinal herbs and then to the twenty or thirty patients.
Later I was saved from the mundane task of clinic duty around lunch by Dr. Keeton once again needing help out in the jungle; it's odd that he never asks anyone else when it is just him going. A man had fallen into a ditch and broken his arm, his leg, and several ribs in the process. Dr. Keeton sent me into the ditch with a medical bag, because while the ditch was deep wasn't big enough for both of us. After setting up a make-shift pulley, we hauled him out. The breaks were minor and after a quick check up decided we didn't need to take him back to the clinic, since the village had a medicine man there who could take care of him.
The head of the village thanked us for saving his son and then he called me a disgrace to females in Spanish when Dr. Keeton told him it was me who saved his son. Seems that particular village had more old-fashioned beliefs than the others about what women should and shouldn't do, but what really stung was that Dr. Keeton didn't say anything to the chief to defend me.
I turned and stomped off not wanting to cause a scene. The chief asked Dr. Keeton where I was going. I turned to look back at them and said in perfect Spanish, "This disgrace has lives to save and really needs to be getting back to that."
I'm not stupid enough to go to a country and not know that language, but judging by the look on both the chief's and Dr. Keeton's faces, they thought I was. I power walked back to the clinic. I could hear Dr. Keeton trying to catch up to me, but I had a head start and being smaller meant it was easier for me to dodge the limbs and debris on the path.
I went straight in to the patient waiting room and had treated three patients before he even got back.
I avoided Dr. Keeton to the best of my abilities, but he did finally manage to corner me a few hours later.
"Brenner." I turn to look at Dr. Keeton who is effectively blocking my way out of the filing room.
"Yes, Dr. Keeton? Do you need something? Because if not, I need to get back to work." I snap, I try not to be angry but I thought he at least respected me a little. I've been called much worse, but to not say anything is the same as agreeing.
"Brenner, we need to talk." I glare at his chest not looking him in the eye.
"Does it look like I have time to talk?" I wave my hand at the crowded waiting area. I try to shove my way past him.
"Brenner." He grabs my arm. "We need to talk now." I look him in the eye and his face shows shock at the tear rolling down my cheek.
"I don't have anything to say to you, Dr. Keeton, and I don't really want to hear anything else you have to say." I pull away and try to duck under his arm but he moves in my way again.
"I haven't said anything."
"Exactly. You didn't say anything." His eyes go wide with understanding. I shove past him and storm off down the hall, Dr. Keeton calling after me.
After I finish brutalizing the form with the new patient information, I drop it on the desk. "Dr. Brenner." I spin round to face the speaker. Dr. Keeton grabs my wrist to stop me from inadvertently stabbing him with the pen in my hand.
"What do you want?" I snarl trying to pull my wrist from his grasp, but he holds firm, tugging me towards him till we're nearly chest to chest.
"I want you to listen to me for a second without biting my head off." I stop struggling and settle for glaring scalpels at him.
"I'm listening since it seems I have no other choice." His face is enraged and his eyes a blaze of… what was that? It was swirling around in the anger. I couldn't name it and at the moment I didn't want to.
"I do not think that you're a disgrace." His eyes are boring into mine.
"Your second's up." I twist my arm to dislodge his grip but he just grabs me with his other hand.
"Dammit, Brenner, would you just listen to me for a minute?"
"You already wasted a second, why would I want to listen to you waste a minute?" His face is turning red and I smirk at how easy it is to push his buttons. "If you don't think that I'm a disgrace, then why the hell didn't you say anything to the chief?" I shout in his face.
"Because we need to be on his good side for the clinic! I didn't argue with him because what he was saying was so ludicrous I didn't think it needed to be argued over. That's why I didn't say anything!" His chest is heaving from yelling at me. His eyes flit over mine and I can feel the anger still boiling in the pit of my stomach.
"That's right you didn't think!" I snap. "Why the hell didn't you just tell me that?"
"I tried but you bit off my head or stormed off every time!" He glares at me just as hard as I glare at him. I want to storm off right now but that would just prove his point. "Why do you care what I think of you?"
His question bitch slaps the anger right out of me. I feel my face heat up but this time it's not out of anger.
"I don't." I try to gain back some of my anger but all I feel is gooey inside at how close he is to me.
"Yes, you do." I look away from him, focusing on the grain of the wood that made up the wall. "Brenner, do you have a crush in me?" His voice has a teasing tone to it, but under that is something much more serious.
I glance back at him and my cheeks flame, before I quickly look away. A grin spreads across his face and his other arm comes up, caging me against the doorframe.
"You do have a crush on me."
"No, I do n-" I start whipping around to face him, but he's moved so close that all I can see are the blue of his eyes. I push back against the frame trying to put more distance between us but every millimeter I gain he takes a centimeter.
"You have a crush on me." I can't tell if it's a statement or a question but all I can do is nod.
"Good." I look at him confused. Well I would have looked at him confused except then I would be cross-eyed since he's kissing me. And boy, can that man kiss.
His lips brush against mine before becoming more forceful. His tongue traces my upper lip, before gently biting the lower. I let out a small groan and he slips his tongue into my mouth, massaging my own and exploring my mouth, before pulling them back into his own.
My hands wrap themselves in his shirt and I pull him closer to me. I run my hands up and down his chest, feeling the hard muscles underneath. One of his hands tangles in my hair, while the other leans us against the door frame.
"What the?" I jerk away from him and turn to see the other doctors staring at us.
"Well-I-Uh…" I smooth back out his shirt, not wanting to look my coworkers in the eyes, embarrassed about what they had just caught us doing.
"Tommy, you owe me twenty pesos." Mina say positively gleeful.
"Mina?" I ask my voice low "Why does Tommy owe you twenty pesos?"
"We were betting about when you two would get it on." I don't think my face has ever been so red in my life.
"You what?"
"Leave them alone." I smile at Zee. "On second thought, don't leave them alone, I don't need one more baby to deliver." I lose the smile.
"You'd have to admit the kid would be cute, though. You know with Brenner's eyes and Keeton's chin." Otis teases. I groan and bury my face in Ben's chest; my face could probably be used to stop traffic at this point.
"Well if all of you are so full of energy, you five can take care of the clinic tonight." Ben's wraps an arm around me and steers me out of the clinic.
"Where are you going?" Otis calls out after us.
"To get started on that kid you mentioned." Ben's calls out. We walk a ways away before I get up the nerve to ask.
"You were kidding about the kid thing, right?"
"Of course I was. With how tired we are from today, I think we can put that off till tomorrow."