Wounds That Won’t Heal

by Calle J. Brookes

  “She almost died out there. We all did. She’ll need some time to process that.” Jillian settled back against the pillow. Like it or not, she was exhausted. And hurting. “What’s on the menu for pain management? I could really use something right now.” A strong dose of morphine, followed by three days of straight sleep should do the trick.

  He checked the chart quickly, then frowned. “No Solpalmitraln. For either of you. I’ve changed Jacobson’s rec. See that the nurse follows my orders.”

  “Gotcha, captain, though I’m sure they will. You scare everyone into complying.”

  26

  Rafe didn’t know what made him stay, but he did. He called for the nurse himself, and gave clear orders on what drugs she was to administer. For both Lacy and Jillian. Then he waited until it took effect.

  Jillian couldn’t fight the yawns, but she tried. Damn, she fought just about everything, didn’t she?

  Stubborn should have been her middle name instead of Anne. But then again, his aunt Anne—who Jillian had apparently been named after—had been damned stubborn sometimes, too.

  “You’re still here. Don’t you have a hospital to terrorize?” she asked around a yawn.

  “My day off. I’m just here to babysit McGareth until Travis returns. Apparently, he likes her.”

  “At least you’re better than Daniels. Guy came in drunk and stuck his hand down the back of my scrubs one day. He was aiming south of the border, you know what I mean? I threatened to sic Mel on him. Back when she was fiercer than she is now and carried a badge. He was always touching without permission.” Jillian’s eyes closed. Rafe knew she’d missed his reaction. He’d known Daniels had been a dick, but hadn’t realized the extent. “He caught Lacy in the elevator once. Bad move. She threatened to bite his...parts...off if he ever touched her again. We all went to the Board. Several times. They didn’t take us seriously, old morons. He was arrested before they did anything, though.”

  “I’m sorry. I know he was a real dick, but I am just learning the details.”

  “Lanning was no better. Just a jerk in a different way. But at least he keeps his hands to himself. He just wasn’t very good at being in charge. You are—even though I don’t like you much. I think it comes with the COM title. But you’re better than they were, at least…”

  “Gee, thanks.” Apparently drugs loosened Jillian’s tongue, too. He’d heard the rumors about Logan Lanning. The man had some serious difficulties relating to his peers at times. He’d always been that way, as far as Rafe could recall.

  “You know what I mean. Holden-Deane? I’m going to go to sleep now. Take care of Lacy and Ari for me. You may be a butt and a frog, but I think you’ll frighten the bad guys away with that smile. You’re all guard-doggie.”

  “I’ll do that, little devil.”

  “I know you call me that, you know.” Her voice trailed as the meds really started to take hold. Rafe fought a smile.

  “She-devil. It’s more accurate. You threw me in a pool.”

  “Yeah, well, you deserved it.”

  And then she was out and he was sitting there alone with the three of them, thinking for a very long time.

  Damn it, she was right. He was guarding. Because he was starting to care.

  Damn it.

  27

  Jess knew she had to cover her tracks somehow. There were going to be far too many questions. She’s messed up, big time, giving the goon three more boxes than she should have. Dr. Holden-Deane wanted those boxes. And he wanted them like yesterday.

  If he hadn’t been distracted by that damned redheaded bitch getting shot he’d have already been up her grill.

  Larry had jumped her ass up one side and down another the instant she’d admitted to not knowing where those boxes had ended up. The altered forms she’d kept on hand just in case had only partially mollified him.

  Jess winced when she thought about the conversation Allen was about to have with the head of the pharmacy and Dr. Holden-Deane. She’d had to use his code.

  Only so many were allowed access to Solpalmitraln and he was one of them.

  Jess had everyone who was cleared to work in Surgical Trauma’s codes memorized. The FCGH system was old and obsolete, all anyone needed to do to screw with it was enter someone else’s code. Nothing else needed.

  She could have backdated the files and used Logan Lanning’s information, but that would have brought up the question about why the missing boxes hadn’t been noted before. And Lanning scared her sometimes.

  She didn’t want to get Allen in trouble, but Jess had honestly had no choice. It was either him or her.

  All she’d had to do was alter the forms to say he’d requested eight boxes instead of six. Now it was his problem to deal with. She winced at what that was going to do to him.

  There was really no question.

  She took the last requisition form the instant Larry’s back was turned. She slipped into her corner that was camera-free—she’d made sure of it herself, the security cameras were just as old and outdated as the pharmacy system—and then slipped the form into the large clipboard she carried in her work bag. She’d fix the file, sign someone else’s name on it, complete with code, and slip it right back into Larry’s file.

  It wasn’t her fault Dr. Daniels had never updated the hospital’s servers to make what she was doing more difficult. Jess just played the hand she’d been given.

  It just so happened that this little security loophole she’d learned about six weeks after she’d hired in almost five years ago worked in her favor.

  All that knowledge had cost her was twenty minutes in Dr. Daniels’ office flat over his desk. Crude and disgusting, but so worth it.

  Jess forced herself to relax and breathe.

  The person whose name she’d signed to the form was going to be in trouble. Not Jess.

  Jess was damned good at protecting her own ass. It was how she’d made it this far.

  28

  Fin smiled at Annie when her friend walked into Rafe’s office. Her friend was terrified—Annie did not take confrontation well at all. “Hey, Annie.”

  Annie’s confusion was easy to see in her light blue eyes. Annie was paler than usual, and Fin fought the concern. It was hard for her not to be a bit too overprotective with the younger woman.

  Annie was a wonderful trauma nurse, but she had an air about her that made people a bit over-protective.

  “Annie, thanks for coming up,” Rafe said. Fin appreciated how gentle he kept his tone. He wasn’t as scary as people thought him.

  He was actually very kind. She hadn’t been too thrilled when she’d been assigned to work with him as his assistant—she was a physician, for Pete’s sake—by the Board, but she understood what they were trying to do.

  The Board was old-fashioned in a lot of ways. They thought Rafe, as a single man, would need a woman at his side with the right kind of connections to help him with the political and social side of running FCGH. That meant her. Fin had sucked it up and taken the assignment.

  She was glad she had now. Rafe, rather than all the other COMs that had come and gone, truly cared about FCGH.

  She was determined to help him make FCGH the best hospital it could be.

  “Sir?”

  “Sit. I just have a quick question. Have you ever seen this form before?” Rafe handed Annie the requisition form they’d found. He’d printed it directly out of the system.

  “I...” Annie took the form and read over it. “No. I haven’t. And...sir...this is the day you signed my time sheet for HR. The day I had to leave to take my mother to social services for that emergency court date.”

  Rafe’s gaze sharpened. “Exactly. So you can swear that you never signed this form.”

  “No. I never signed this form. And it’s not my signature. I haven’t worked the surgical trauma unit in two months, either. I’m just a sub. I have never been sent to get Solpalmitraln in liquid form. Who did this?” Annie’s eyes were wide as she looked between them. �
��What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure. But I trust you’ll keep this to yourself until I can find the answers? I’m sorry whoever did this brought you into it. I just needed to confirm for the record that this is not your signature.”

  Annie confirmed it and answered a few more questions for Rafe.

  Fin walked out with Annie, knowing her friend was going to have questions.

  They all did.

  Something was going on with Solpalmitraln. It was up to her and Rafe to figure out just what that was.

  29

  Jillian tossed the crutch into the closet beneath the stairs and shot it an evil glare. She couldn’t get anything accomplished with the darned thing. She was finished with the crutches. Done. Period. She had a new respect for her sister; how Mel dealt with her mobility challenge made her even more of Jillian’s hero.

  In spite of what Allen had said, ten days was long enough on the thing.

  She had stuff to do today.

  The barbecue was off to a good start, though it was obvious Lacy’s head was up in Travis-clouds. Jillian liked seeing her friend so caught up in a decent guy.

  Travis seemed to have the right amount of optimism and interest for the more serious Lacy.

  The more frightened Lacy.

  Jillian knew her friend’s history, of course. A guy like Travis who treated her friend like she was the center of his universe was exactly what Lacy needed.

  Lacy had spent the last eight days staying at The W-Deane ranch, playing house with the handsome cowboy and playing Mommy to his goofy puppy, Horace.

  If only Travis didn’t come as one of a three-piece set, though. She could deal with Marcus, he was very similar to Elliot, and she liked him. He had beautiful children, too.

  It was just the middle brother.

  She shot a glare toward the back deck where that brother sat.

  Rafael Holden-Deane had invaded her home. It wasn’t just the hospital this time, or Houghton’s Fortress of Ostentatiousness.

  Rafael Holden-Deane himself was right there, sitting on the porch she’d helped her father rebuild.

  The evening went on better than she expected, considering her surprise guest.

  It didn’t help that she had to sit next to him at dinner.

  Mel was a sneaky little witch for somehow arranging that.

  Mel was getting even with the two of them for ruining that white dress. Jillian just knew it.

  Mel was wicked that way.

  The evening was starting to wind down when Brynna decided to shake things up.

  Leave it to the Beck sisters to bring drama to an ordinary back yard barbecue.

  After less than half-an-hour, with help from Lacy and Rafe, Jillian was there to catch her niece Sara Anne in time for the baby girl to take her very first breath.

  Jillian would never forget that moment, seeing Brynna’s baby’s first moment of life.

  Nothing in her life had ever been more beautiful.

  30

  Rafe walked at the she-devil’s side, for once just content. Tonight had been a good night.

  Seeing his cousin’s daughter come into the world with her family around her made a huge difference.

  The last home birth he’d attended had involved a fifteen-year-old mother and her thirty-four-year-old husband, with his four young children crowded around a dirty bed in a hovel of hell. The mother hadn’t survived. But Brynna’s labor and delivery had been textbook. Quick, but easy. Healthy, wonderful, and as it should be.

  That had left a lasting impression.

  “You ever do a stint in Obstetrics?”

  “A few. But my first love is Emergency. Crazy hours and everything.”

  Rafe understood; there was a fire in someone who could work the ER like she did. And despite her challenges and the way she got beneath his skin, Jillian had the heart and the skills to be good at it.

  She already was. He wasn’t about to tell her that, though—she’d think he wanted something.

  He stopped off at the intake desk in the ER to check on a few directives he’d issued earlier, while Jillian chatted with the charge nurse on duty.

  He’d been drafted by Chance to give her a ride back to her home, them having been the last two to leave Brynna’s hospital room. He wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but he was also less than thrilled with the idea of her finding her own way home.

  She still limped, and should still be using her crutches—stubborn little she-devil wasn’t. Her shorts were short enough to show the healing scars. Nasty; a visible and permanent reminder of what had happened.

  The pneumatic doors burst open, drawing everyone’s attention the way they always did.

  He and Jillian were no exception.

  Rafe let out a loud curse as Jillian gasped.

  His brother stood there with Lacy in his arms. Again.

  31

  Jillian didn’t stop to think. The instant they had Lacy on a gurney, she got started hooking her up to monitors.

  They’d worry about what had happened to her later, right now they had to make sure Lacy was ok.

  Multiple knocks to the head in a short span of time could be extremely dangerous. Secondary Impact Syndrome was very real and very dangerous.

  She looked up at Holden-Deane. The knowledge of that was right there in his eyes.

  For once, having him there didn’t tick her off. It almost reassured her.

  It was certainly helping his brother.

  Holden-Deane rushed Lacy to the front of the line in Radiology and what they found was reassuring. Minimal damage, at least. They brought her back to Trauma B, where the ER could monitor her until she was admitted upstairs. And where Travis could rejoin her. Jillian stayed with her the entire time.

  Lacy had a concussion, but it was mild. Jillian doubted she’d even been knocked out for long, even though Travis insisted Lacy had. Travis had mentioned several classic symptoms of concussions, too.

  He hadn’t taken his hands or his eyes off of her even once. Did Lacy realize just how much the man loved her?

  First real chance she had, Jillian was going to ask. Lacy was just as lucky as Mel and Brynna.

  Travis looked at Lacy the way Houghton looked at Mel. The way Chance looked at Brynna. The way Sebastian looked at Carrie.

  He loved her. Flat out, to the bones loved Lacy.

  Jillian wanted to cry at the beauty of that.

  Now all they had to do was find the asshat who’d attacked Lacy and Travis.

  Jillian wasn’t stupid. Someone had burned Lacy’s shed weeks ago, had vandalized Lacy’s car, had run them off the road, shot at them, and now attacked her in her own home. Lacy had carried her pistol everywhere since Albright had nearly killed them all, but her friend was still so vulnerable.

  Jillian shivered.

  Someone wanted to hurt Lacy, and they all knew it. Now.

  “Did anyone call the TSP?” she asked Rafe.

  He nodded, just as his younger brother came in. Travis went straight to Lacy’s side. Jillian moved out of his way.

  Lacy practically wrapped herself around him. Jillian had never seen the other woman that into a guy before. Ever.

  Lacy was far braver than she was. The last thing Jillian would want in her life was a relationship of that magnitude with any man. She wasn’t ready for their expectations.

  She and Rafe stepped out of Trauma B to give Lacy and Travis a few moments of privacy. It had surprised her when the COM had told Lacy flat out that she was being admitted and not to argue. Even though the scans were clear and Lacy qualified for a treat and street, Rafe was being extra cautious.

  Jillian actually agreed with him. She looked up at the Chief of Medicine. “Those two are just too cute for words.”

  He frowned and looked over his shoulder at the trauma bay they’d just left. “He’s gone over her. He’s never been that serious about a woman before. He’s deeper than he looks.”

  “Neither has she; she doesn’t trust men much. But that’s just bet
ween us.”

  She followed him to the charge station where Wanda, Annie, and Izzie were still working. He gave a few orders to Dr. Netore, while Jillian spoke with Wanda. They’d have to adjust her schedule to make up for the hours she was now clocked in.

  But she’d make the most of it. She was sticking until Lacy left, period. On the clock or off, it didn’t matter.

  “Room 403 is open.” Wanda told her after checking with the fourth floor. “You know what happens in there, though. Think Lacy will mind?”

  “Probably not.”

  “What happens in Room 403?” Rafe asked. She was having a hard time thinking of him as the evil COM at the moment.

  “Someone believes it’s cursed.” Jillian just smirked at the other nurses nearby.

  “It’s all your fault,” Izzie said. “Your family’s.”

  “Someone explain how a perfectly functional hospital room is cursed?” Rafe asked, almost mildly for him. Annie and Izzie looked at each other uneasily. Neither of them liked having to deal with him—they usually just let Jillian when it was necessary.

  “Easily. Someone seems to think that if a single woman gets in that room, she gets married shortly after. I told them that was ridiculous.” Jillian looked at the culprit. Wanda just smiled mysteriously. Wanda loved messing with the younger nurses, especially the more gullible like the two working tonight. Jillian wasn’t quite as naive.

  “Gabby Kendall, Brynna Beck, Melody Beck. A few others in the last few months,” Wanda said. “I say we put Lacy in there and see what happens.”

  “She’s already been in there. And...” And the man who’d been with her was still with her. And loved her. It was just a matter of time, wasn’t it?

  But that didn’t mean room 403 was cursed.

  Rafe eyed them all like they were crazy. “We’ll put her in there next to the Marshalls, because it’s logical and convenient, and there is already an extra security guard there. Nothing more. Rooms are not cursed.”