by Rhavensfyre
The next few minutes were interesting, to say the least. An odd combination of pain, nausea and intriguing bits of femininity being pressed up against her in order to get her buckled in. The Mustang was not designed to be open and easy to get into, which meant she needed a bit of help getting in and then negotiating the seat belt. Allyse took over, practically crawling on her lap to latch the belt buckle around her. Dani cupped her hand protectively against a sudden onslaught of breasts sliding across her arms. No less dangerous was the smell of Allyse’s perfume. The undoubtedly expensive scent surrounded her just as intimately as the body pressed against her. Allyse wouldn’t meet her eyes after that, and her cheeks were brightly colored as she drove Dani’s car out of the garage.
Allyse made it a mile down the road before she realized she had no idea where the hospital was.
“Where am I going?” Allyse glanced over at the passenger seat. Dani was lying back in her seat with her eyes closed against the pain. Frown lines marred the otherwise smooth face, and she had deep furrows crossing her brow. She held her hand tightly against her chest. It was obvious that the pain was getting worse, which made Allyse’s guilt dig even deeper. Just this morning Dani had offered her the Mustang out of courtesy. She didn’t expect her first drive to be to the hospital with an injured woman in the passenger seat.
“County General, just GPS it.”
Allyse didn’t let the terse words upset her. Dani was hurt, she was in pain. Hell, she had every right to be angry at her and every right to ask her to leave after this was all over. The Mustang growled through its gears, eating up the miles like a hungry beast. Dani sucked in her breath when Allyse took a corner a bit too fast. She took that as a hint to slow down. Her only job right now was getting Dani to the hospital safe and sound.
She would worry about consequences tomorrow.
Chapter Six
The drive to the local hospital was the very definition of silent tension. Allyse kept trying to apologize and Dani wasn’t having any of it. She just wanted to rewind the entire morning and start over.
Dani had withdrawn somewhere Allyse wasn’t invited. She could feel it, cold and solid like a sheet of ice between them. Even though she was close enough to reach out and touch her, she was afraid of being rebuffed. She had screwed up so badly today, to have Dani move away from her touch now would be devastating.
The only conversation going on was the one between Allyse and the GPS and Ms. GPS was not cutting it. No matter how sexy the manufacturer managed to make her sound, it wasn’t Dani, and right now she would take any word from the other woman to break the awkward silence between them. She needed her to say that everything was okay between them. Otherwise the horrible sensation of screwing up something monumentally important would continue to gnaw at her like a guilty conscience.
The smooth feminine voice kept belting out commands at the last minute to turn left or right, adding stress on top of stress. After the third awkward and gravity pressing turn, Allyse’s frustration grew to the point that she resorted to bitching out the faceless entity. Each time she would cast a frantic look in Dani’s direction, measuring the level of pale in her face. A reflexive “sorry” was met with a quick nod, otherwise Dani spent the ride staring out the window, worrying her lip with her teeth and ignoring the sheen of perspiration running along her brow despite the AC blasting inside the Mustang’s interior.
Allyse made the last turn into the hospital parking lot past orange cones and unmanned construction, then followed the signs directing her to the emergency room.
“I’ll get the door,” she said the minute the tires stopped rolling. The Mustang’s growl died with a quick key turn and she slid out of the leather seat with more finesse than she was feeling. Dani took her hand and hauled herself out of the bucket seat, keeping the bandaged hand close to her chest.
“Do you want a wheelchair?” Instinct told her not to say need, and she went with it.
The question was met with raised eyebrows and a quiet “no,” then Dani paused and her expression shifted to something softer. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Allyse said. The words tasted sour in her mouth. What was the purpose of that banal reply? To accept gratitude for being considerate now after being the one responsible for the hurt in the first place? Allyse mentally shook herself and focused on the task at hand, she could berate herself in private later.
The hand that was still grasped in hers was surprisingly warm and demanded more of her attention than she expected. Perhaps Dani only meant to steady herself, but Allyse found herself unable to leave it at that, or to let go. Long, slim fingers, deceptively strong like a musician’s, squeezed hers then slipped away when they reached the entrance. She idly wondered if Dani played any instruments, then left the errant thought behind her, letting the escaping air-conditioned air carry it away when the sliding glass doors slid open to let them in.
She helped Dani sign in and found her a comfortable seat away from the other patients, then hesitated before sitting down next to her. Unsure of her place, she kept herself busy watching the rest of the room.
Isolated yet together in their misery, the other patients sat in a pattern that was wholly human in their need for privacy. Right now there were at least three seats between each patient and family. As the waiting room filled, Allyse knew without a doubt that empty seats would remain between them, like empty teeth in a jack-o-lanterns mouth. It was the same everywhere. Whether it was a busy train or a dark theatre, the need for personal space even within the tightest quarters seemed to be an American hallmark.
She turned her attention back to Dani. It was painful watching her try to balance the clipboard with her bandaged hand and scratch out the answers with the other but she was adamant about doing it herself, even when the unnecessary movement made the wound seep and discolor the bandage. The bright red against the pristine white gauze was shocking in contrast. With nothing else to do but sit, Allyse’s gaze kept returning to the lipstick red stain, watching it grow by the minute along Dani’s thumb and hand.
Finally she was finished. Dani scribbled her signature on the last sheet and an efficient looking nurse in dark scrubs ushered her into the back.
Allyse was left standing in the waiting room. Dani had paled considerably when her name was called, as if she was being marched into some kind of hospital version of hell. A single wide-eyed look thrown over her shoulder made Allyse wonder if she should have gone with her, but Dani hadn’t asked for her. Now she was stuck waiting for Dani to come back out.
Allyse took a deep, fortifying breath, inhaling the bitter sharp antiseptic smell all hospitals seemed to have. It was time to call Erick.
She pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial, imperiously ignoring the ugly look from the desk clerk until the older woman pointed out the no cell phone sign posted on the wall. Allyse rolled her eyes. Every other person in the room was doing something with their phone, playing games or texting, but she was the one being banned to the heat and humidity.
The covered sidewalk reeked of old cigarette smoke from the constant stream of nervous family members and the occasional hard faced ER nurse running out for a quick break. They were easy to spot by their trademark speed walk and equally impressive inhalation technique, efficiently getting their nicotine fix and slipping back inside the emergency room within five minutes.
Allyse wrinkled her nose at the stench and moved away from the shade and out into the sunshine. She had stopped smoking three years ago after her heart attack and now she couldn’t tolerate the smell. A breeze would be nice, she thought, casting a glance up at the cloudless sky. She had to call twice before Erick answered, adding to her frustration. He always picked up the phone for her. Of course, today would be the exception. There was no way she was going to leave this message.
“Erick, there was an accident.” Allyse spoke before Erick could even say hello, earning her a frantic “What?” Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best way to open the conversation.
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br /> “Dani was hurt and needs to get her hand stitched up.” Okay, that was a little better. Allyse started pacing back and forth. She still wasn’t explaining herself well. For some reason she felt uncharacteristically flustered when talking about Dani and it showed. Her punishment was being subjected to a quick game of twenty questions that got the whole story out of her in less than a minute. When she mentioned that she had taken Dani to the hospital, the questions stopped and so did she, freezing in mid-stride as she answered Erick’s last question.
“Yes, we are at the hospital now, why?” Allyse paled as Erick spoke in a rapid and urgent voice.
“Okay, I’ll get in there with her. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Allyse had to get back inside, which proved to be more of an effort than it should have been. The clerk was decidedly unfriendly, demanding to know if she was family as if that was the most important thing in the world.
Allyse was livid, but wasn’t about to let it show. Mustering her best-I’m Allyse-freaking-De Leon from New York so don’t fuck with me-attitude, the executive bullied her way into getting the desk clerk to walk her back to where Dani was. She was swallowed up by hideous green linoleum and equally sickly pale green curtains as she followed the scrub clad woman into the back.
Erick’s words replayed in her head. She wouldn’t have let them lead Dani away if she had known beforehand but she hadn’t felt like it was her place to join her. Well actually, she had, but she didn’t think Dani would have appreciated her pushing her way into her life like that.
When Dani’s parents were killed in the car accident, she had been in the car with them. She had been safely tucked away, sleeping in the back seat when a drunk driver crossed the meridian and hit them head on. When the paramedics removed her from the twisted wreckage of her parent’s sedan, she was rushed to the hospital, unconscious and bleeding from a really nasty leg laceration among other injuries. Once in the hospital, no one could tell her where her parents were. Dani was left all alone among strangers who were more focused on her injuries than the fact that she was a young girl who had no idea what had happened to her parents. She had watched as her parents broken and bloody bodies were wheeled in past her and worked on in the rooms next to hers. It took less than half an hour for the noise and chaos of the emergency room to give way to exhausted silence as they failed to save her parents. It took one hour for her to stop screaming at the top of her lungs for her mother and father to wake up and save her. It took two hours for her uncle to be located and notified about the accident. Jay headed out from Pennsylvania immediately but it would be another four hours before he could get there. Erick had been closer, but the hospital refused to let him see her because he wasn’t technically related to Dani by law. So, she sat there, all alone in a hospital room while strangers poked and prodded her and eventually had to sedate her until she gave into the drugs and curled up into a painful ball of tears. That was how Jay and Erick had found her, their frantic questions left unanswered until a sympathetic nurse pulled them aside and offered her condolences.
Allyse had no idea that Dani hated hospitals and hadn’t been to one since that day. Everything made more sense now. Allyse cursed at herself for not following her instincts. She should have just stayed with her in the first place.
The clerk stopped at the entrance to one of the examination rooms and waved her in, then promptly strode off to do whatever other important thing she had to do. Her posture was stiff, reflecting her irritation. Allyse couldn’t help but wonder if the uptight woman was making assumptions about their relationship and disapproved. Frowning at the receding backside of the frumpy clerk, Allyse did a mental back step. Relationship? Was her budding feelings for the younger woman that obvious?
***
Allyse entered the room and found Dani lying on the hospital bed with her arm outstretched on a blue draped table. She was staring at the ceiling as if the bright fluorescents and dingy tiles above her held all the secrets of the universe, ignoring the young nurse setting up a shiny chrome table for the doctor. Allyse recognized the blue labeled bottle of lidocaine and winced in sympathy at the assortment of needles and syringes being pulled from their packages.
“Hey,” Allyse murmured, taking Dani's good hand in hers. Her palm was cool and moist and considerably dirtier than her injured hand, which had been washed and prepped for the doctor to examine. It didn’t matter to Allyse. She was surprised when Dani’s fingers laced through hers, holding her in a tight grip that begged for her warmth.
“How are you doing?” she asked, circling her thumb along the fleshy part of Dani’s palm. Dani’s palm wasn’t as rough as she had expected, a little more calloused and definitely less delicate than what she was used to in New York, but she found that the feelings she was getting from holding this work hardened hand was something she could definitely get used to.
“Fine.” Dani's tone was listless and monotone. She had been caught up in memories of the past, not good ones and they weren’t leaving her in a very good frame of mind.
“I’m sorry about your hand.” Allyse apologized again.
“It’s okay, you didn’t know. Honestly, if it had been any other horse it wouldn’t have happened,” Dani admitted. She shifted her gaze, squinting up at Allyse past the harsh fluorescent lights and finding herself suddenly lost in green-gray eyes looking down at her with concern—and something else?
“Thank you for coming back here,” Dani said, suddenly remembering her manners.
“How is your hand?”
“It hurts like a bitch,” she said, then grinned at the other woman’s shocked expression. She was glad the older woman had decided to join her. Being alone in the hospital was not her idea of fun. Besides, her left hand did hurt like a bitch and Allyse’s warm hand laced in hers was a welcome distraction. She had really soft hands. Dani almost barked a laugh when she wondered if the pampered executive would think her hands too rough and calloused, then shrugged in resignation. They were what they were.
A tentatively offered smile warmed something cold deep inside her but before she could figure out what was going on, the doctor came in and broke the almost moment the two women were sharing with her presence.
Twisting her head around, Dani tried to focus on the white coated woman standing on the other side of the gurney, pulling on a pair of purple gloves as she pulled a rolling stool over to the table with her foot. The ER doctor was a woman who didn’t look much older than Dani. Her auburn red hair was cut short in a practical wash and wear style that should have looked severe, but simply added to the intensity of her presence. She leaned down to examine Dani’s hand, but not before she ran her eyes along Dani’s prostrate body. Intelligent green eyes scanned down Dani’s lean frame, taking in the short blonde hair and roughneck clothes before looking her straight in the eyes.
Dani might not have noticed the quick once over, but Allyse recognized the assessing look in the good Doctor’s face, the quick flutter of her eyelids as she checked out her patient and subconsciously broadcasted her appreciation of Dani’s good looks.
“Hello, Dani. I’m Doctor Stone, but you can call me Veronica.” A petite, manicured hand reached out and touched Dani’s shoulder, her gloved hand gliding along the sleek muscles of Dani’s bicep before travelling down to her injured hand. When those same fingers found the wound edges and pulled slightly on the skin, separating the jagged gash, Dani hissed and partially sat up, digging her boot heels into the mattress. She squeezed Allyse’s hand hard enough to make her bones grate against each other and she inhaled sharply at the sudden pain.
“Sorry,” Dani muttered, then pulled away.
“You’re okay. I’m here if you need me.” Allyse turned her attention to the doctor. “How does it look?”
“You did a pretty good job of it. You are going to need some sutures, and you won’t be able to use this hand for a while,” Doctor Stone said, answering Allyse’s question but addressing Dani directly. She turned her attention to the sterile tray
in front of her, opening the packages the nurse had left out and arranging them to her satisfaction, then filled a syringe with medication with a rather large needle that made both women blanch before changing out the needle for a much smaller one.
“Um, are you sure stitches are necessary? Can’t we just tape it or something?”
“You mean like Steri-strips? No, this is too deep for that. Maybe if the cut was shallower you could have gotten away with them,” Dr. Stone replied. She changed her gloves and cleaned the wound with swift sweeps that left a dark red stain behind then began injecting the anesthetic near the torn and sensitive laceration. Dani winced each time the needle pierced her skin. “Now, are you right or left handed?”
“Right.”
“Good, you’ll still have your dominant hand. That helps. Will you be okay with not using this hand for a couple of weeks?”
“I’ll be okay. It doesn’t make me happy, though,” Dani replied. An ambulance blipped its siren, the high pitched noise made her jump. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to blot out the memories flickering behind her eyelids like a poorly wound movie.
“I can order a splint,” Dr. Stone suggested.
Allyse smirked, evidently both she and the good doctor had the same thought. She didn’t think Dani would behave, sutures or not.
“Can you just get it over with so I can leave?” Dani growled, her body tensing with each needle stick.
“Sure, Dani.” Dr. Stone nodded amicably, dabbing at the small spots of blood left behind from each needle stick. “All done. Do you feel anything?”
“No.”
“Good. You’re lucky, a little deeper and you would have hit a tendon. A little lower and it would have been a lot worse.” Dr. Stone tapped Dani’s wrist for emphasis.
The temporary relief from the pain was short lived as the lidocaine wore off quickly. Dani’s gauze wrapped hand now sported twelve neat black sutures that were starting to burn and throb in time with her pulse before the nurse finished wrapping up her hand.
