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New Story. This is going to be an AU fic.
Chapter 2
"Um …" I know I was blushing. My cheeks felt hot and I felt like she'd read the thoughts I had when I'd first laid eyes on her. She was the first woman I thought looked good in scrubs. Usually the uniform reminded me of pajamas. Like the women had rolled out of bed and came straight to work. But this woman, she looked hot. She wore a red tank top with her scrub pants, showing just a bit of cleavage and it was form fitting.
"I didn't mean it like that." I corrected. "It's business. I could use all the information I can get. If you have time. I mean."
"Well, Alice is …"
"I'd rather talk to you."
"Um – okay?"
We crossed the street and entered a restaurant that was overly decorated for Valentine's day. Shit, I hadn't even realized it until we walked in.
"Oh, I feel so bad for all those people today." She sighed as we browsed our menus. "Getting sick on Valentine's day?"
I ordered my meal and handed the menu to the sweet old lady that stood patiently at the end of the table. "And what about you?"
"What about me?"
"You didn't have plans tonight?"
She sighed again. "No. Jake and I don't play into the commercialism of the holidays. We show our love all year long. We don't need a special day for it."
"Uh huh."
"Rose?" A teenage girl came up to the table with a basket of fresh long stem roses. The restaurant did that every year.
"Oh, no. We're not on a date." Ellie politely explained.
"Thank you." I bought one from the child who poked out her lip and started away. "She looked too sad." I chuckled then tipped it towards her.
"No."
"Every woman should get a rose on Valentine's day." I handed it to her. She brought it to her nose and smelled it, then sat it down on the table. "So, how long have you been with the facility?"
"Too long." She laughed. "And don't let today fool you. We rarely see more than ten patients a day. This is a very small country town, Dr. Reigns. In ten years I've seen more Doctor's come and go than I have patients."
"I guess some doctors need the fast pace." I quipped as my food arrived. I gazed at the homemade entrée then took a big bite. "Damn, I haven't tasted mashed potatoes like this since I was a kid." I closed my eyes and savored the taste.
"Oh, please. I know your kind." Ellie ignored my personal comment. She didn't seem to want to get to know me. Like knowing me as a person was a waste of time. I could hear it in her tone and feel it in the way she cut her eyes.
"My kind."
"Doctors." She hissed. "They are some of the laziest people. This place is a dream for them. Sporadic patients and lots of leisure time. But they are greedy. They crave big money and that's something that's not going to be found here. They don't care about people. If they did it wouldn't matter."
"I'm making three times what I'm used to making. I think I can survive."
"And what did you do before you decided to become a doctor?" She stared at her plate. The man behind us dropped to one knee and presented a ring to his girlfriend and I guess it bothered her.
"Body work."
"Excuse me?"
"I banged out dents for a living."
"I have no idea what that might mean."
He chuckled. "It means I fixed cars. I take it you've always been an aide?"
"No. I was a waitress once. I had to work my way through high school." She stared at intently, her eyes taking me in. "So, you just woke up one day and decided you wanted to be a doctor?"
"Something like that."
The waitress set down a large banana split with two red spoons that had hearts on the end. It was full of homemade fruit sauces, banana's and drenched in chocolate syrup. A beautiful pink plastic heart stood in the center right between two whole cherries.
"Um – okay." I laughed.
"I'm sorry." She apologized a little flushed. "I completely forgot what today was. This place does something special for all the holidays."
I plucked one of the cherries and bit it off the stem.
"Grab a spoon. I may be a big guy but there is no way I can eat all of this by myself." I was an easy going guy and the bowl held enough to feed a family of four, but she hesitated. "It's just ice cream."
We chatted a little more about the clinic while we shared the desert. I wasn't paying attention to the people around me or the fact that the chatter had quieted down to hushed whispers.
"I should be goiong." She put down the spoon and gazed at the people staring at us."
"Wha – what did I miss."
"This is a small town, Doctor Reigns. Everybody knows everybody and they all know you are not the guy I've been seeing since my tenth grade year."
"Ah." I guessed she didn't want make believe rumors to cause her boyfriend pain.
She pulled her wallet out of her purse and started counting bills.
"It's on me."
"Oh no. It's a business dinner. I got it."
"In that case, I insist on going Dutch."
"No problem." She answered her cell phone as we walked to the cash register. She paid for her meal and I headed for the door while I paid for mine. She was across the street by the time I emerged and she was heading to her car.
"I'll see you this tomorrow then?"
"You'll see me sooner than that I'm afraid." Then she shut the door and started her car.
I headed inside. The heavy set nurse put her purse over her shoulder and stood.
"Let's get one thing straight, Doctor. My shift ends at 5p.m. And I don't stay a minute past that." It was nearly six. I cocked my head.
"You're right. There are a few things we need to get straight. Like the fact that I am your boss. tell you what to do, not the other way around and when this clinic has admissions you don't leave until someone is here to take your place. I expect you to do the same thing you make the aides do."
"I am the day time nurse." She argued. "And you're a doctor so I see no reason to wait for Sara to get here. She has to wait on the babysitter …"
"Then you're here until then." I spat. "I'm staying the night too. These people are very sick. I want to be close in case they have to be transferred to the closest hospital. Where do I camp out?"
"Doctor James had a room designed for that." She hissed. "Through that door. At the very end of the hall. Next to Doctor James' office. And you don't have the right to go in his office. It's always been off limits to visiting doctors."
"Close the doors and I need you at the desk in the ward." I didn't like Alice. The first impression of her had not been good and my perception of her wasn't getting any better.
I stopped in to check on every patient I had admitted and then a couple hours later I made my way to the room Alice had told me about.
"I'm going to rest awhile, Sara. Keep an eye on four. If the medicine we gave her doesn't stop her vomiting soon, get me immediately. If anything gets worse with any of them I want to be notified."
"Yes sir." Sara was much younger than Alice and much nicer. I liked the petite brunette better than the woman who refused to do more than necessary.
I stepped into the room without taking a proper tour of the clinic. I went through the door marked staff lounge and shut the door behind me. The room was nice. There was a bed, a sofa, a couple chairs a small round dining table and a nice television in the room.
I made it to the sofa, kicked off my shoes and laid back his head. It was soft. Perfect. It had been a long ride and a busy day. I'd traveled nearly a thousand miles to take that position. I was a desperate doctor, held back by the arrogance that laced the profession. And I hadn't been offered the job at all. I'd just took upon myself to fill it.
My father, whom I'd only met a few times in my life, died the month before. Doctor James. The small building belonged to him. He had been a doctor and he'd paid my way through medical school. That was the only thing the man had ever done for me and only because I had followed in his footsteps. It had been a childish and stupid attempt to please the man.
I'd done well in college. I wasn't in the top of the class, but I wasn't at the bottom either. But that's all it had ever been. Information and grades. Something I did in hopes that my father would show up at my dorm and tell me he was proud. That never happened.
Then, I worked with actual people. Sick, injured, some who just needed a sympathetic smile to ease their anxieties. That's when it became something more. I fell in love with the job. I loved helping and healing and I was no longer doing it for my father's attention.
I didn't understand my father and I never would. Why he stayed away? Why he never came to see me? Why he never cared to get to know me. Not a phone call, letter. Nothing, then he left everything he had to me. His home, his clinic, his truck and his fortune.
Maybe the man had felt sorry for me or maybe he had no one else to pass it on to. Whatever. It worked to my advantage. Now I could practice medicine. I couldn't get a job anywhere else because I refused to conform. I wouldn't cut my hair, park my bike or hang up my jacket. That and the mistake I had made in last year of residency. That would haunt me forever. It followed me everywhere I went. Every job interview I had been asked about it. And every night when I closed my eyes it replayed. I thought I had done the right thing at the time, but lately, I wasn't so sure.
