Pleased with himself, he threw open the door so hard it bounced against the wall, the noise reverberating through the empty clinic. Once inside he looked around, thinking that it didn’t quite look like what he’d imagined. There was plenty of machinery on the counter, all of it covered so that he couldn’t see exactly what was there, as well as a wall of books and other material, but something just didn’t seem right.
He was beginning to get tired again and decided that it was a mystery he would have to solve later, for now he’d have to be happy with just finding something to read. But when he got over to the book cases, he discovered that almost all the books were about oncology, and that he’d already read most of them. He pulled up a chair and sat down, staring at the book case and trying to figure out what he was missing, then he heard the gentle hum of a motor kicking on and saw an incubator back in the corner.
He got slowly back to his feet, his knees a little shaky and walked over to it, grabbed the log book off the front and took it back to the chair. Paging through the log book, his temper began to rise as his eyes traveled over the page, whoever ran this research lab, and he now understood that was what it was, had not only been testing his mushrooms but they had a sample of the fungus as well.
Chapter 4
It was such a beautiful morning that Heather decided to walk to work, she and Brian had come to a grudging understanding that she’d spend as little time with him as possible and during that time he’d treat her courteously. He was improving so quickly that it wouldn’t be long before she’d be able to release him from the clinic to go stay with Theo in the house he and Amanda had built just down the street. She came in through the back door, flipped on the hallway lights and then stopped, sensing movement where there shouldn’t be any.
Walking slowly down the hall, she listened for the sound she’d heard and when she heard it again she knew that it was coming from her lab. Instantly angry she stomped down the hall and into her lab ready to tear into whom ever had violated her biggest rule. But when she saw Brian sitting at her desk rifling through her paperwork she stopped in her tracks, too shocked to take another step. Mentally cursing herself for not telling him who she was sooner, she braced herself for what was to come.
“What are you doing out of bed?” she asked, choosing to ignore the fact that he’d broken into her lab.
“Uncovering a thief,” Brian said, turning to face her, a stack of papers in her hand.
“I am not a thief,” Heather said, then opened her mouth to explain, but Brian held up his hand and interrupted her.
“I think you owe me an explanation. Where is Dr. Snyder? How did you get these samples?” Brian fired off one question after another, not giving her time to answer, then said, “I bet you faked the whole thing. Who are you? What pharmaceutical company do you work for?”
“I… I…” Heather tried to put some words together, but the anger on Brian’s face scared her a little bit.
“I knew there was a reason I didn’t like you. I’m going to find out who you are and who you’re working for and destroy all of you,” Brian yelled at her.
Standing there while Brian yelled at her was the last straw, she’d taken all she was going to take from him, been as patient as she was capable of being. “You need to sit down before you fall down,” she said, pointing to a chair. “And then you’re going to listen while I explain.”
*****
Brian wanted to stay on his feet, use his size to intimidate this woman, but then he realized that he wasn’t that much taller than she was. Plus his knees were beginning to shake and he could feel a sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead so he sank into the nearest chair, his anger suddenly turning to exhaustion. But the scowl never left his face and just to make it clear that he was unhappy, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared Heather down.
“Fine, explain away, this should be good,” he said, since he really had no choice but to listen to her.
Heather took her time setting down her things, then turned back to him. “First, I am Dr. H. Snyder and second I haven’t stolen anything from you. You sent me everything in this lab, including the last batch of samples.”
Brian looked at her shocked, “That’s not possible. Dr. Snyder is a man, he graduated at the top of his class at Harvard then went on to medical school where he excelled.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of Dr. Snyders out there who are men, but I’m not one of them. I did those things and I’ve been working on this project with you for two years,” Heather said, handing him her communications binder filled with copies of all the emails they’d exchanged.
Brian paged through the book, page after page of emails, some that he even remembered sending. “But that makes no sense, I should have known that you were a woman.”
“Does it make a difference?” Heather challenged.
“Well… I… umm...” Brian couldn’t honestly say that it didn’t.
“That’s what I thought, and now you know why I didn’t advertise the fact that I’m a woman,” she said triumphantly. “Now I think it’s time you got back into bed.”
Brian let Heather help him back into bed, his mind swimming with what he’d just learned and just how deeply Barbra’s betrayal had affected him. Until just a few minutes ago he’d believed that Dr. Snyder was a man, a brilliant man who would help him discover the secrets of the Amazon, but instead he was a she, no less brilliant but a woman. After the fiasco with Barbra, he’d sworn that he’d never work with a woman again, sure that none of them could be trusted.
Now he’d have to face the reality that he’d been working with a woman for the last two years, and that she’d been invaluable to his research, providing answers and insights he wouldn’t have seen himself. Of course, that didn’t mean that he could trust her, he reminded himself. It only meant that she was a very intelligent woman, and possibly even more dangerous than Barbra had been. Especially since it really looked like he’d found what he was looking for this time, that he was finally going to fulfill his dream of finding a cure for cancer.
His first instinct was to pull Heather off the project, get himself out of here and never come back, but she’d contributed so much that it was going to be impossible to erase her completely. Besides, if he kept her on he’d be able to watch her better, and he was going to be in Homestead for the next few months, his little trip out of his room had exhausted him more than he’d expected. It was going to be a while before he could get back to the Amazon and his own lab, and she did have a wonderful facility here, it couldn’t hurt to let her stay on the project a while longer.
*****
When Heather walked into the kitchen the next day to put her lunch away, Brian was sitting at one of the tables eating a huge bowl of cereal. After his night time exploration he’d been exhausted and slept for almost twelve hours, waking only after she’d gone home, and that was fine with her. She’d hoped to put off seeing him this morning for a few hours, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen, so she braced herself for his anger, which seemed to be the only emotion he had when he was around her.
When he didn’t immediately say something rude, she looked at him to see if he looked okay. He was shoveling cereal into his mouth so fast it was clear that he’d recovered from the day before. She shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave the room when his voice stopped her.
“I think I owe you an apology for breaking into your lab,” he said, pushing the empty bowl away from him.
His words shocked her, the last thing she’d expected him to do was apologize. “I suppose I should have told you who I was sooner,” Heather said, looking at him suspiciously.
“Let’s just say that we both made mistakes,” Brian said. “Truce?”
Heather nodded, thinking that she didn’t have much choice but to accept his apology. “Truce.”
Brian gave her a big smile, “I was hoping you’d let me back into the lab today, I’d really like to know what you’ve been doing with the sample I sent you. You
did get it, didn’t you?”
Then she understood why he was being so nice to her, although it surprised her that he’d taken that tact after the way he’d been treating her lately. “I got the samples and I’ve been working with them for a couple of weeks, I’ll show you what I’ve got so far if you'd like,” she said, deciding that if he wanted to be nice she would be nice as well. It certainly couldn’t hurt and she was still afraid that he’d pull her from the project if she didn’t cooperate.
“That would be great,” he said, slowly getting up from the table.
It took them a while to get to the lab, Brian acutely feeling the frustration of the toll the Malaria had taken on his body. Just walking those few yards wore him out and the first thing he had to do was sit down, but it didn’t take him long to recover and before long he was elbow deep in the filing cabinet that held all of Heather's notes and results from the last two years.
“That’s mostly old stuff, the new files are in that little filing cabinet next to my desk,” Heather explained as she began to get the lab ready for the day.She'd told Brian that Matt was working in the clinic today so she had a full day free to spend in the lab.
“What’s in this other cabinet?” Brian asked, pointing across the room.
“Those files are for a project I’m working on for Seth,” she explained.
Brian studied her for a second. “So you’ve got my project, his project, and you run the clinic? That’s a lot for one person to juggle.” He wondered if she’d stretched herself too thin, knowing that it could make her work sloppy.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” she said. “Matt does a lot in the clinic, that’s why we hired him, and Seth’s project is pretty simple.”
“Is it a secret?” Brian asked unable to help himself, he was curious what Seth could possibly be having her do.
“Oh no, not at all. We’re studying microbes that can help break down pollution in the soil. Things like mine tailings and oil, he’s already been using them for a few years with some pretty amazing results. I’ve been testing a new microbe that his team developed, they just wanted some data from a lab, something done under controlled circumstances,” Heather explained.
“I thought your niche was oncology, that’s what your application said,” Brian was beginning to wonder if he’d made the right choice two years ago.
“It is but I did a double major and microbiology was one of them, I came close to forgetting about medicine and getting my graduate degree in microbiology but...” Heather trailed off.
“But?” Brian was really interested to know why she’d made the choice to go to medical school.
“Oh, well things just didn’t work out that way. Now I have to get some work done, but feel free to poke around as much as you like,” Heather said, putting an end to the conversation.
Brian understood that he’d gotten as much as he was going to get and was strangely disappointed, although he wasn’t sure why and didn’t really want to explore his feelings so he let it go. “I can keep myself busy,” he said then pulled a chair up to the filing cabinet and began to rifle through the drawers.
*****
Several hours later, Heather looked up from the microscope and noticed the time. Brian had been so quiet she’d almost forgotten that he was there, almost but not completely. “How long have you been up?” she asked, the doctor in her taking over.
“Oh, since about six I guess,” Brian said..
“I think that’s enough for one day,” Heather said, getting to her feet. “Let’s get you back to bed.”
“Do I have to.?” Brian whined, “I’m so tired of that room.”
Heather couldn’t help but smile. “I’m afraid so, we don’t want you to relapse. As you pointed out I have a lot on my plate and that would just add to it. I promise you can come back and play again tomorrow.”
Brian shot her a dirty look, then softened a bit. “Okay, I suppose you're right,” He said with a huge grin, a grin that made Heather’s heart do something strange.
Momentarily caught off guard by his smile, she was speechless for a second but finally managed to ask, “Do you need some help getting back to your room?”
“I think I can make it on my own,” he said, slowly getting to his feet and heading for the door.
Heather watched him cross the room thinking that once he’d gained back all the weight he’d lost, he was going to be one gorgeous hunk of man. Then she realized that he already was and blushed at the direction her thoughts were going. He was her patient, a reluctant one at that, and her boss, thinking like she was could only lead to disappointment. And he’d clearly been hurt very badly in the past, she wasn’t about to get involved with someone who had a broken heart no matter how attractive he was.
Every morning for the next week Brian spent time in the lab with Heather. It helped him from going stir crazy, but made it more difficult for her to concentrate. If he wasn’t asking questions about her testing methods, he was asking questions about microbes, having suddenly decided that he had a keen interest in them. She knew that it was difficult for a man like Brian to be cooped up inside, but there was really no choice until he got stronger.
*****
On the first day of the second week of his recovery, Heather showed him the experimental soil under the microscope. “See them working away, they feed off the pollutants and clean up the soil. It’s really quite amazing.”
“I’d really love to see them out in the real world,” Brian said suggestively.
Heather looked at him with a critical eye and he knew that it was the doctor looking at him and not the researcher. “The closest experimental site is about twenty miles from here and I’m not sure you’re ready for that, it would include an overnight stay,” she finally said, much to his disappointment.
“How am I supposed to get stronger if all I do is sit around all day?” Brian asked, trying to keep the whine out of his voice.
“No one said you had to sit around all day, go out and go for a walk. But don’t go too far,” Heather added.
“So, when I prove to you that I can handle it will you take me?” Brian asked, oddly surprised at how excited he was.
“I’m surprised you’d even want to go. Aren’t you dying to get back to Brazil?” Heather asked, sounding surprised by his enthusiasm..
Brian honestly hadn’t thought about Brazil and the Amazon for several days, which surprised him as much as her. “I am, but I’m well enough now to know that I shouldn’t be in too big of a hurry. As long as I’m here, I might as well learn something. The mushrooms and fungus will still be there and it’s not like we aren't still making progress with the project. Besides Josh is having way too much fun to drag him away already.”
Heather surprised him by saying, “Okay, I’ll make you a deal, when you can walk around town for an hour without resting, I’ll take you up to the site.” She laughed when Brian jumped to his feet and did a little dance.
“That means I need to get dressed,” He said, gesturing to the sweats he was wearing, “I’m not going out there like this.”
Brian made it his goal to get in good enough shape to make the trip to the experimental site. He wasn’t sure why but decided that it really didn’t matter, he had a purpose again and it felt good. For the next two weeks, he dressed in the morning and left the clinic, to his amazement he discovered that the people of Homestead were an interesting bunch. He learned that from the farmers to the scientists, everyone who lived there not only lived off the land but cared deeply about how it was treated.
Brian was helping the manager of the grocery store unload some boxes when Theo came up to them. “Hey, what’s going on here?” He asked, grabbed a box himself then winked at Stan the manager and added, “Brian if you needed a job, you should have let me know.”
“Very funny Theo, I was just out for a walk and it looked like Stan needed some help,” Brian said, picking up another box and disappearing into the back door of the store.
“You don’t h
ave to look at me that way.” Brian said, when he saw Theo watching him. “I’m definitely on the mend, I can handle carrying a few boxes.”
“What does Heather say about this?” Theo asked.
“She’s all for it,” Brian said, heading back outside. “In fact, she and I are going to one of the experimental sites as soon as she thinks I’m in good enough shape.”
“What?” Theo sounded incredulous.
“Heather and I are going to one of the experimental sites, I want to see the microbes in action,” Brian said, grinning at his brother.
“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” Theo asked, shocked.
“Look, I know that I’m not ready to go back to the Amazon yet, but this trip will help me get back there and I really am interested in the microbes.” And Heather, Brian thought, but he didn't say it out loud. That was more information than he wanted to share.
*****
Heather couldn’t even believe she was considering taking Brian out into the wilderness so soon after he’d been at death’s door but she’d made an agreement with him and he was holding up his part of the bargain. Instead of being under her feet, he’d been spending his days walking around town, getting to know the people and getting stronger. Now, watching him unload boxes with his brother and Stan, it was clear that he was almost ready, that she’d better start packing for the trip.
She hadn’t meant to offer to take him, but they’d been getting along so well that she’d almost forgotten how much she disliked the man. If she was honest with herself, she thought watching Brian’s muscles ripple under his tee-shirt, she’d stopped disliking him a long time ago and that was why this trip was so dangerous. Once he’d stopped treating her like she’d ruined his life, she’d discovered that he was funny and witty when he wanted to be. He could make her laugh, something not very many men had been able to do.
Unbreak My Heart_BWWM Romance Page 4
