Chapter 4 – For The Best

His dark eyes couldn't stay off of her, but he allowed the nurse to push him back and help Emily's niece. Her pain meds had worn off and she was woken up by the excruciating pain of the burns on her arms. Jake continued to back away from the bed, but his eyes never left her.

Jake could hear Audrey gasping for breath as the pain increased. The nurse had to take her vitals and report back to the doctor before she could administer pain medication and Jake was growing increasingly agitated as he could FEEL the pain coming from the girl lying in the bed that he had imprinted on not more than ten minutes ago.

He raked his fingers through his hair and his aggravation was turning into anger. He stalked out of the room and to the nurses' station. A small chubby brunette walked over with a wide smile. "Hi how can I help you?"

Jake stifled a growl at her cheery face. "Yea you can help me by going into room 306 and giving the patient her pain medication before she passes out from the damn pain again."

The nurse's smile faltered before she plastered it on again. "I'm sorry we're waiting to call the doctor. There are other patients that we have to call on, but we've got to collect all the patient information first before we can call him for medication orders."

Jake was officially pissed off. "So you'd let an 18 year old girl who has burns that aren't even twenty-four hours old suffer in agonizing pain until you guys get your ass in gear to call the fuckin doctor?"

The nurse cringed at his use of the F word. "I'm sorry sir that's how this unit of the hospital is set up; she'll just have to wait like all the other patients."

Jake growled over the counter as he went from pissed off to full fucking ENRAGED! "YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT; THAT IS AS GOOD AS YOU CAN FUCKIN DO FOR HER AND YOUR OTHER PATIENTS WHO ARE BURNED THE SAME IF NOT WORSE?" When she meek nurse nodded shamefully Jake completely lost it. Jake slammed his fist down on the counter so hard it cracked right down the middle. "CALL THE FUCKIN DOCTOR NOW! I will NOT allow her to be in pain for one more SECOND!"

Jake turned away from the nurses' station and walked back into Audrey's room. Her whimpers were not falling on deaf ears, the whole time he was talking to that idiot nurse he would hear her loud and clear; even if they couldn't. Jake took some deep breaths as he stepped up to the side of the bed as he looked down he noticed her eyes were open and wide. "Don't worry Audrey; I'm a friend of Sam and Emily's they were tired so they ran home to get some sleep. Do you want me to call them back?"

Audrey couldn't remember the last time she was in THIS much physical pain. It felt as if someone took a couple of rusty nails and were dragging them up the length of her arms and it felt as if her arms were STILL on fire. The guys named Jake walked out and she heard him yell at the nurse's with a demanding tone. He seemed fairly nice and when he came back in and stood next to her bed he was trying to calm her with his voice. Her hand searched the side of the bed until she touched something warm and realized it was his hand and she clutched onto it. She couldn't let go, she tried to force herself to peel her fingers from around his hand, but she just couldn't do it. Somehow holding onto his overly heated hand calmed her anxiety filled body. When he asked if she wanted him to call Sam and Emily back to the hospital she shook her head. "No please don't. I'm sure they'd been here all day hadn't they?"

Jake nodded at her question. "Yea, I was the one to send them home for a few hours of sleep. Emily was adamant about making sure to let you know Claire is okay and that they will be back after the both got some kind of sleep." Jake felt her holding his hand as tight as she could; maybe it was helping with the pain or maybe not, he didn't care he kind of liked the fact that she sought out his hand. Any comfort he could give her no matter how small helped calm his anger for the nurse's who still hadn't done anything yet. "If you need to squeeze my hand to handle the pain go for it. You can't hurt me." He wiped his free hand down his face as he mentally counted to ten, really hoping they would heed his outburst as a warning and do something to help his imprint. They REALLY didn't want him to go back out there again.

Audrey couldn't help but notice his eyes were so intense. "What are you indestructible?" As she gasped through another sharp pain and squeezed with all her might as her eye slammed shut as tight as she could.

Jake chuckled slightly; if she only knew. "Well maybe you never know." He cringed when she sucked in another breath. He could hear her breath getting shaky and labored. He knew the pain was getting worse. "Talk to me Audrey…Tell me whatever you want. I don't care; I'll listen." He couldn't believe how fast the imprint was working.

Audrey's indigo eyes opened as she stared up at this very nice stranger. His eyes were extremely intense and she could feel a gently hum under his skin as she clasped his hand in hers. "Are – are you okay? You seem like you're shaking slightly." He hadn't even given her his name but she hoped he wasn't leaving anytime soon.

Jake smiled softly as he nodded. "Yea I'm – I'm okay. Talk to me a little; I feel like I want to go yell at that nurse again."

"Please don't. I heard you yelling at them earlier. I'm sure they are going as fast as the doctor will allow." Audrey sucked in another breath.

Jake winced. "Does it hurt very badly? Nevermind that was stupid to ask."

Audrey shook her head slightly. "Sometimes they were dull pains, and sometimes they are so sharp it feels like something metal is scraping the burnt patches underneath the bandages." She winced and made a face as her breath caught in her threat. "Like now." She struggled to get those two words out.

Jake sighed heavily and his thumb started to absentmindedly rub the back of her hand. "I'm…" His words died on his lips as the nurse finally came in and shot two syringes full of liquid into Audrey's IV bag. Jake watched as her eyes drooped and soon she was out. He carefully pulled her hand from his and walked around and took a seat in the chair again. This time he didn't fall asleep. He watched her carefully. She slept peacefully through the rest of the night.

Around 7 AM, Jake looked over and saw Emily and Sam walk through the door. Sam scowled. "The nurse said something about you scaring the night staff?"

Jake shrugged with a dismissive look on his face. "I really don't give a shit. Audrey woke in terrible pain last night and rather than call the doctor right away about getting her pain medication to her right away so she wouldn't have to suffer they waited to collect other patient information before doing anything for nearly forth-five minutes; so she endured a pain I could only imagine."

Emily looked at Jake skeptically and then saw something in his eyes. "Jake – did you…" She didn't even finish the question when he looked at her and nodded.

Sam looked completely clueless as he planted his hands on his hips. "Someone want to fill me in?" Sam's eyes danced between Emily and Jake trying to figure out their shared looks.

Emily giggled slightly as she touched Sam's forearm. "Honey, Jake imprinted on Audrey."

Sam's eyes widened. "How do you feel about that Jake?"

Jake shook his head as he sighed heavily. "I'm not sure what to think. I don't even know if I like it. This poor girl just lost her parents; she has to stay in the hospital's burn unit and nearly lost her life. Now she's got to drop everything from her life on the Makah rez to move here. I don't know if I'll be coming back to the hospital or not. I'm not trying to force this life on her; not right now. Maybe once she's out and at home with you guys we can start to get to know each other, but until then I'm just going to focus on patrol and working at the garage. I gotta go or I'll be late for patrol."

Emily stopped Jake as she leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for watching over her Jake. I'm sure she appreciates it. I know I do. And don't worry in a few months this will be behind us and you can start to get to know your imprint properly. Hell, ask Claire anything you want to know she can tell you everything about Audrey."

Jake nodded as he took off out of the hospital. He knew this was going to kill him being away from her but for right now it was for the best. She needed time to heal from her injuries and her parent's death and once she did that then he would be able to go into her life at a better time.

He didn't like it, but he did it for her own good.