by Lexy Timms
It took everything to control the tears trying to escape. She wouldn’t admit it to Elijah, her father or anyone, but she worried she would make a wrong movement and rip the holes by her heart apart. It was silly. She knew it, but it didn’t stop the worry from gnawing inside her.
Her body wasn’t tired. In fact, it felt great. The skin where her staples were was healing and itched to let her know that too was getting better. If she turned on the music and let the beat fill her, she could dance, maybe not as long or as crazy but she could do it. Her abs had stayed strong and quickly recovered. She knew it, but she still worried.
She shook her head. It felt like everything had changed inside of her… and she didn’t want anyone to know. She kept hoping it would switch back to normal. It just seemed to be taking so long.
Her phone vibrated against her leg. She’d stuffed it in her pocket when she went to pay the taxi. She pulled it out, realizing she’d missed a few messages from Elijah.
A week? That long? This sucks.
Sorry, that’s not fair.
You still there? Sorry. I know you have to work. It just sucks I’m behind here otherwise I’d come down to see you. The house is going to be empty without you.
Gotta head into surgery. Call me later. Or I’ll call you.
She smiled. Ahhh, he misses me, and he thought I was mad when I didn’t reply. He’s so stinkin’ cute!
She typed him back. I’ll make it up to you when I get back. Just got into my place. Sorry I missed your messages. Call me when you have a break.
She had the feeling he wouldn’t bother going home tonight. He would probably be at the hospital and catch a few winks in between surgeries. She stood and brought her suitcase to her room, unpacked it and set clothes out on her bed. She might as well have a quick shower and head over to the hospital here for a few hours. Malcolm’s secretary had taken care of her mail and messages while she’d been away. Charity needed to get up to speed on where the fundraising was at, how much they had raised and what had been happening in her absence. She had set up a hospital lottery that worked with the state. Another company ran it so she hadn’t needed to be here for that. Now she wanted to see how it was doing.
In the bathroom, she paused before stepping into the shower. Turning to the right, she lifted her left arm and leaned toward the mirror. The bumpy pink line scar from the surgery ended at a round spot where the bullet had entered. She lifted her breast with one hand and ran her fingers over the skin with the other. The scar had no feeling. Her fingers felt the soft unevenness but her scar had no recollection of what happened to it or what was happening now. Maybe she should get a tattoo overtop of it. Elijah had one there; TRUST. Maybe she could get something to match it. Maybe…
She showered quickly and dressed, stuffing her hair into a bun so it would be no bother. Focus on work. That’s exactly what you need.
Once at the hospital, she slipped off the elevator and was thankful her door was right beside it. That gave her a moment to drop her bag off and check her office. A stack of mail lay organized on the table in the meeting room that led to her office. She grabbed the phone book and went through the yellow pages till she found a good ad for a florist and ordered flowers for Amanda, Malcolm’s secretary, to thank her for taking care of it while she was gone. It was really appreciated.
That sorted, she headed down the hall to Malcolm’s office. Amanda stood by her filing cabinets behind her desk. The tiny petite lady had her silver hair in a neat bun today, her reading glasses perched on the edge of her nose. She smiled when she noticed Charity. “You’re back!”
“I am.” She smiled back.
“How are you feeling, dear?”
“I’m good. Thank you.” She glanced at Malcolm’s door. “Is Dr. Parker in his office?”
She nodded. “Let me just check if he’s on the phone for you.” She zipped around to her desk and paged him. “Go on in. Glad to have you back,” Amanda said as she turned her attention to the phone now ringing. “Duty calls.”
Charity mouthed another “thank you” but had no idea if Amanda had noticed. She knocked on Malcolm’s door and opened it when she heard his low voice call out, “Come in.”
He stood by his desk putting on a white lab coat. “You’re back.” His brows crushed together as he gave her a once over. “How are you feeling?”
She could feel him assess her with his doctor eyes and waited for the okay. Elijah and her father did it to her daily now, she might as well get used to it. “I’m good. Nearly fully mended.”
“That’s quite the fiasco.” He glanced down her left side. “Did you get engaged?”
Charity lifted her hand and stared at her ring in surprise. Hadn’t she mentioned it to him already? Now she wasn’t sure. “I did.” She chuckled. “Apparently getting shot is a great way to hook a man.”
“Doctor Bennet?”
“I hope so, or he’s going to be pretty ticked I’m wearing someone else’s ring.” She didn’t know why she was joking around about it. She turned serious. “Elijah and I are pretty excited. Between everything else that’s been going on, it’s something good.”
“I believe it is.”
“Speaking of the ring…” She figured now was the perfect opportunity to bring up the wedding. “We’re planning something small. Just a few family and friends in New Zealand.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” He nodded vigorously.
“In about three weeks.” She bit her lip, not sure how he would react.
“Three weeks? He’s not wasting any time, is he?”
“It was more my idea.” She smiled, unsure why she felt nervous talking about it.
“Congratulations on the engagement and wedding.” Malcolm walked over and hugged her gently. “I take it you need a bit of time away?”
“Ten days… maybe a bit more?” She couldn’t look him in the eye. “I plan on working my butt off before then and as soon as I’m back. I feel bad asking for time off after everything.”
“It’s fine. You’re already ahead of schedule. I think we can afford it.” He stepped back. “I think it’s a great idea. I’d like to—”
She noticed a gold band on his left finger. “Are you wearing a wedding ring?”
He chuckled. “Apparently you and I have been up to the same thing. Well, I didn’t get shot at.” His right fingers curled around the ring. “My wife and I decided to give it another go. We’ve been seeing each other since the Valentine’s fundraiser and decided a couple of weeks ago to move back in. She started wearing her rings again so I figured I should too.”
“Congratulations.” She was happy for him.
“Second time’s a charm, right?”
She laughed. “I think the saying is, ‘third time’s a charm’, but who’s counting?”
“I’m just happy she wants to give it another go. I’ve cut back on my hours and am now taking every other weekend off. It seems to be working so far.” He smiled. “I might be a bit of a copycat and whisk her away somewhere exotic.” He looked up, as if imagining the picture off in his mind. He blinked and gave his head a quick shake. “She’ll be at the ribbon cutting for the new wing tomorrow.”
“I look forward to seeing her again,” Charity said politely. Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight, ignoring the pull by her scar. “I’m so happy for you.” She really was. The excitement of fresh love seemed something the both of them completely understood. It was a rare gift.
Malcolm returned the hug and then stepped back, clapping his hands and then rubbing them together. “Okay. We should probably get some work done! I promised the wife I’d be home on time tonight. Do you want to see the finished wing? The floor looks amazing! The new CAT scan machines are being hooked up today so they should be up and running by tomorrow.”
“Let’s go see it!” She’d left her iPad in her bag in her office. “I should take a few pictures.”
He waved his hand. “I hired a high school photography student to take pict
ures every day to show the floor’s development. The kid needed the volunteer hours and has been loving it. He made a slideshow for tomorrow and a video. The video’s amazing! It shows a panoramic picture in the same spot every day for the past month.”
“Wow.” She made a mental note of that. “I might have to steal that idea for future use.”
“Go for it.” Malcolm held the door open for her and nodded at Amanda as they passed her. He walked beside Charity chatting as they made their way to the elevator.
“We can take the stairs. It’s only three floors.”
“I know,” he said. “But you should be taking it easy.” He pressed the elevator button. “We don’t want to put any stress on the wound.” He glanced down her left side. “Do you need someone here to check on it? Dr. Mallone is an excellent plastic surgeon if you don’t want there to be a scar.”
She smiled, thankful the elevator door opened and eager to change the subject. “Thanks. I’ll let you know if I need him.” A couple stepped onto the elevator with them and pressed the floor above theirs. They rode in silence to the fifth floor.
Malcolm waited for Charity to step off first. The floor smelled of fresh paint, new tiling, and cleaning supplies. The waiting room in front of the elevator was a bright yellow with comfortable black leather chairs, an iPad docking station that looked like a bar with stools and tablets built into the counter. A large flat screen television hung on the wall along with paintings.
Malcolm pointed to the pictures. “They are all done by local artists who donated the pictures.”
“It looks amazing!” It was hard to believe that this same space three floors down held doctor’s offices. “There’s so much space.”
He smiled proudly. “There are no offices on this floor. Only patient observation rooms, scanning and diagnostics. The floor’s set up for day patients or long term.” He pointed down the right hall that had been repainted as well. “Patient rooms are still down there. Each room has also been redone and someone donated money to purchase new beds for each room.” He grinned and winked at her. “Bet you didn’t count that in our budget.”
She hadn’t. She had helped raise the money to pay for the equipment and floor construction, but had nothing to do with the remodelling. “You did all this on budget?”
“Under budget,” he corrected her and laughed. “I don’t know where you found that guy to do the consulting but he had contacts in the area that offered to do some of the work as charity. It saved us a ton. A building inspector came through this morning and couldn’t believe how sound everything looked. He gave the all clear.”
Three guys in construction hats stepped off the elevator and headed down the left hall.
Charity couldn’t believe how much had been done in the time she’d been gone. It made her excited… proud to be part of rebuilding this hospital. “It’s fantastic.”
Malcolm took her through the diagnostic rooms and around the rest of the floor. “It’s all ready for tomorrow. I contacted all the media outlets you suggested and everything else on the list you sent.”
They stood back by the elevator as a florist arrived and began to set flowers up and distribute them throughout the rooms.
“When do you plan on bringing patients up here?” Charity asked. The place looked great but the lack of life moving about the space made it feel too empty, too quiet.
Malcolm checked his watch. “I believe in a couple of hours. I think the staff decided on letting the evening shift take care of the transfers. The day staff set everything up this morning and finished mid-afternoon. You arrived in the eye of the storm you could say. Just before the rush.”
As if on cue, the elevator door opened again with two nurses and a patient laying in her bed.
“I planned that,” Malcolm joked after the trio headed down the hall, chattering to the patient and checking the file with the names on the doors. Charity and Malcolm stepped on before the elevator door closed. “I’m going to head home now. You should as well. I have a feeling it’s been a long day for you.”
She smiled, appreciating his sincerity. “I will soon. Just want to go through a few things in the office. I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven upstairs.” She stepped off on their floor and headed to her office, waving as the door slid closed again.
Inside her office she sat behind her desk and started sorting through the mail. She grabbed her cell and noticed she’d missed a call from Elijah. She set the phone to speaker and called him back.
“Hello, gorgeous.” He sounded cheery and she loved his sexy accent even more when he directed it at her.
“Hi, handsome.” Did couples really talk back and forth like this normally?
“How are you feeling? How’s your side?”
“I’m good. Side’s good, too.” She touched it just to make sure. “Are you still at the hospital?”
“Yeppers. I scheduled another surgery.”
“You staying there all night?” She tossed a few things in the recycling bin and set a number of check donations aside.
“I probably will. Nothing really to go home to if you aren’t there.”
She smiled. “Nice try. You can’t blame it on me. You’ve been dying to smother yourself in hospital goo. Play superman to the little helpless patients and save them all.” She giggled. “I’m not stopping you. Just for the record.”
“Hospital goo? Is that a proper medical term?”
“Probably. I’m pretty sure I learned it back in my med school days.”
“Really? I never heard the term before. Let me just flip my laptop open and google it.”
Charity heard clicking, which probably was Elijah typing on his computer.
“Aha! I found it. Right beside sickbay slop. Which is the military definition of hospital goo out on the battlefield.”
She burst out laughing. “Has anyone ever told you that you are truly demented?”
“I believe my mother has.” His husky chuckle echoed through the phone. “Speaking of my mother, I called her earlier today.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Why uh-oh?”
She waved her hand forgetting he couldn’t see her. “Nothing.” She set the mail aside and opened her iPad for the calendar app that was connected to her phone. “Was she upset we are planning a small wedding?”
“I don’t think so.”
Only a guy wouldn’t figure out his mother’s frustration. Elijah was her only son and after his father’s funeral, Charity couldn’t imagine her willing to go small for the wedding. “What did she say?”
“She asked if you were pregnant.”
“What!?”
Elijah chuckled. “Her exact words were: Elijah, did you knock that girl up?”
“Wow, now I know where you get your kind words from.”
“You should have heard what she said after I told her you got shot at your father’s birthday party.”
“Seriously?” Charity’s hand pressed against her forehead and eyes. “Your mother probably thinks I’m part of some gang.”
“You do have a bit of gangsta’ in you.”
“How much caffeine have you had today?”
“Probably not enough.” Elijah laughed. “If it helps, my mother gave me proper heck for being the reason you got hurt. She told me I had to apologize to you. She also gave me some sound advice.”
“And what was that?”
“To do whatever you wanted for the wedding. To give you anything and everything you dream of.” His voice softened. “I’ll do whatever you want. If you want to plan something bigger, I’m fine with that. Or if you want to wait, I can do that too.”
“I don’t want to wait and I don’t want a big wedding.” I just want you.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.” She was glad no one could see her smiling like a dork. “I should call Julie tonight. Have you said anything to Simon?”
There was a long pause.
“Elijah? You still there?”
“I’m here… I
, uh, kinda told Simon today who went and told Julie, like, thirty seconds after I asked him.”
Charity laughed. “What did Julie say?”
“She screamed in the cafeteria and scared a nurse who dropped her tray of food. Julie ran over to help the woman and then slipped on the spilled soup.”
“Is she okay?”
Elijah laughed. “She’s totally fine. Her pride might not be, but her body was. Julie’s pumped. She was going to call you but I made her swear to wait till you called her. She’s supposed to pretend she doesn’t know yet.” He hesitated, then added in an obvious fake-worried voice, “You’re not mad, are you?”
“Furious. You are in such big trouble when I get back”
“Really?” His voice perked up. “I’ve been a bad boy.”
“Are you looking for some kind of punishment?”
“Of the sexual kind?”
“I’m on speaker phone in my office.”
A shuffling and scraping came across the phone. “Is anyone in the room with you?”
She enjoyed the worry in his voice for a moment. “No. I’m all by myself. I’m about to head back to my place.” She yawned suddenly, not realizing she did feel tired. “Been quite the day.”
“That it has. Hey, can you hold on a sec?”
She heard muffled talking.
Elijah picked his phone up again. “I’ve got to go. Time to wrap myself into some hospital goo.”
“Go be superman. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She sat a few minutes going through some more mail before finally calling it a night. She put the donation checks into the small safe under her desk and grabbed her phone. As she gathered her stuff, she dialed Julie’s number.
She expected to get Julie’s voice mail and was surprised when Julie picked up. “Hey girlllll... How’s Atlanta?”
“It’s good. I—”
“Elijah told me,” Julie gushed. “I’ve been shopping online and saw this gorgeous blue dress. Strike that, it’s sapphire blue. It’ll be perfect.”
Charity smiled. “I’m sure it will be.”
“I’m sending you an email with a pic of it. Tell me what you think.”
