Hey guys! Thanks so much for the support. It helps A LOT to have some reviews. It's basically what encourages me to keep on writing.

To yegbb10 and luvnumb3rs, thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoy the story… here's the next chapter for y'all.

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Chapter 3

Loreali walked swiftly to the man. She figured the man must have been the patient's father.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Matthews." She extended her hand. The man grasped it gently and they shook.

"Alan Eppes, is Charlie going to be ok?" He said with a worried look on his face.

Loreali smiled. "He'll be fine. He probably has a very common break in the two bones in the lower leg. However, we will have to wait for the X-Rays to come back to be sure of his injury."

Alan sighed and his worried looked ceased some, although not fully. "To be honest, hospitals worry me sick. My wife died in a hospital."

Loreali understood because her father died a few years ago in the hospital from cancer. "Don't worry Mr. Eppes," she gave him a warm smile. "I know exactly how that is. If you don't mind, I need you to fill some information out for your son." She handed Alan a clip board with a few pages on it and a cheap ball-point pen.

Directing Mr. Eppes to the waiting room, Loreali noticed two men walking through the door and both looked worried. The one man seemed to be fidgeting quite a bit. The man with the dark hair ran to Alan and hugged him and asked him how Charlie was. Alan turned to Loreali.

"Charlie should be fine. He probably has a broken leg. The nurses have taken him to get X-Rays."

Alan introduced the two men to Loreali. "Dr. Matthews, this is Don, Charlie's brother, and this is Larry Fleinhardt, Charlie's co-worker and best friend." Loreali shook hands with both of the men.

"Excuse me," Loreali interrupted the conversation between the men. "I'm going to have a look at the X-Rays and talk to Mr. Eppes. I'll inform you of the injury once I find out." She gave a dazzling smile to the men and walked back to the rooms. She walked into Charlie's room and began to examine the X-Rays. Christy was still in the room and was trying to carry a light conversation with Charlie which was an almost impossible mission especially because Charlie's pain medicine had finally kicked in.

Once Loreali saw the two clean breaks, she decided to talk to Charlie and go tell the family.

"Well Mr. Eppes," Loreali began while walking to the side of the bed. "Looks like you've broken your leg. Now we have two optio--" Loreali was cut off by the giggling and staring of Charlie.

"What's wrong Charlie?" Christy asked.

Charlie continued to stare at Loreali and slurred "You're really pretty." He giggled even more. Christy tried not to laugh, but failed.

Loreali decided to flirt back and if she were to get in trouble, she'd blame the lack of sleep she'd been having. "Well, thank you, Mr. Eppes. I'm glad you think that, I try." She gave him her I'm-totally-flirting-with-you smile and looked back at the X-Rays. "Anyways, we have two options and you need to make a decision. First we can have surgery tomorrow morning which would mean you'd get a rod and three screws in your leg. The second is a hip-to-toe cast. The surgery has a higher chance of healing and it doesn't take as long to heal. Usually, the patients who have a hip-to-toe cast find it extremely annoying after a while. Therefore, I'd recommend the surgery. Do you want me to get your family so you can discuss it?"

Charlie shook his head. "No, I just have one question, and that'll make my decision."

"Yes?" Loreali asked.

"Who will perform the surgery?"

Loreali laughed. "Me."

Charlie nodded his head. "Ok, surgery it is then. Is Larry here?"

Loreali nodded her head as she put the X-Rays back in their folder and wrote on his clipboard that the patient had decided to have surgery. She still needed to discuss a time with him.

"Ok," Charlie slurred again while eating some Jell-O (patients are only allowed to have liquids before a surgery). "I need to talk to him about…"

Loreali had no idea what Charlie had just said because of the slurring and the eating. She figured that Charlie was some important person and had said something she totally wouldn't understand. She told Charlie that'd she get his family so they could discuss the time of surgery.

She walked out of the patient's room and into the waiting room. "You can come in now. We need to discuss some things, also." The three men followed her back into Charlie's room. "Charlie's decided to have surgery. I didn't know if there preference for a time." They all shook their heads. "Ok, I'll schedule it for an early time. How about 7 o'clock?"

Alan replied, "That'll be fine. We'll all be here."

Loreali smiled, "Ok, see you guys then." She left the room so the three men could talk for a while.

"Wow Loreali," Christy said. "You were really workin' it there." She giggled.

Loreali slapped her. "He's one of my patients. You know I don't like to date my patients. Remember Rob?" Christy shook her head.

"You should go home and get some sleep. You've got a hot date, oops, I mean surgery tomorrow." She laughed.

Loreali packed up her equipment and her medical books. While walking by the Charlie's room she heard a voice call her name. She walked in his room. "Did you need something, Mr. Eppes?"

"Call me Charlie, seriously." He said, now eating a grape Popsicle. "I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. My body isn't really used to pain medicine."

"Oh, it's ok. It happens all the time with patients."

"Really?"

She laughed, "Not really." He laughed. There was an awkward silence in the room.

He whispered something but she wasn't able to hear it. "I'm sorry. What?" She said.

"I'm scared," his expression looked the same. She smiled warmly and placed her bag and coat on the floor pulling a chair beside Charlie's bed. She decided she'd stay for a while.