Children's Doctor, Shy Nurse

by Molly Evans

  Flexing his fingers and making a fist, Bear moved his hand in all directions. He gave a grunt. “Hmm. Feels good. The lavender did take the sting out after a while.”

  “I knew it was going to work!” Excitement bubbled through her. “Let me find Mark so he can have a look.”

  Eagerly, she turned, but ran right into Mark, and his arms caught her before they both toppled over. “Whoa, Ellie. I’m right here.”

  “Oh, you have to see this.” She grabbed him by the arm and led him to Bear’s side. “See? I told you this was going to work.”

  The contrast in skin tones was obvious, but what had been a fierce red color of the burned skin had mellowed to a dark pink. The center that had been the initial contact site had also faded, though it was still richer in color than the rest.

  Mark gave a smile to Ellie, then faced Bear. “My. You’re right.” He parked his hands on his hips and looked at the burn site. “It’s nearly gone.” Putting on the gloves that Ellie handed him, he turned Bear’s arm toward the light to examine the area around the wrist. “I’m impressed, Ellie. Your lavender oil really worked.”

  “So am I,” Bear said and lowered his arm to his side, then looked up at her, his expression open. “I’m grateful to you for fixing me up so quick.”

  “You’re welcome.” She handed him the remainder of her bottle. “Put some more on throughout the day today and tomorrow if it gives you any trouble.” Eagerness and joy bubbled within her. Treating people that resulted in such good healing was the epitome of her work. “You have to make sure they are pure essential oils, if you ever use any again. And lavender is the only one you can put directly on the skin. The rest have to be diluted with another oil, like grape seed or the like.”

  “No tellin’ how long I woulda sat in the ER.” The bottle nearly disappeared in his brawny hand.

  A thrill shot through her. “This was the biggest burn I’ve ever treated, but the oil seems to have done the job.”

  Bear stood. “Next time you get some, how about ordering me a bottle or two? Someone’s always burning or cutting themselves in the kitchen. We’ll use this one up in a hurry.”

  “Absolutely, Bear.” She reached forward and gave him a quick hug.

  Blustering at the affection, Bear patted her shoulder with his large hand. “I gotta get back to the kitchen. No tellin’ what Skinny’ll do without me there.”

  “Okay. Let me know if there’s anything else you need, Bear.”

  “Sure will.” He exited the infirmary and returned to the lodge.

  Mark turned to Ellie with a grin. “That was good work,” he said.

  A flush ranged over her face and neck at the compliment. She hadn’t been this excited over anything in a long time, and although the sensation was good, it was somewhat unfamiliar at the same time.

  “Thanks, Mark.” She tossed the fragrant gauze in the trash. The scent of lavender lingered in the air, and she took a deep breath. “Suddenly, the scent no longer has any sadness to it for me.” She gave a laugh. “That’s kind of a surprise to me.”

  “A good one, I hope.” Mark leaned against the exam table, settling in for a chat.

  “Yes.”

  A frown chased across her face and her eyes were wide and open, but there were secrets hidden in there. “But?” Would prodding her a little help her to open up?

  “But what?”

  “Sounds like there’s a ‘but’ hiding in that statement somewhere.” He had been the champion of hiding his feelings, so he recognized the same trait in Ellie.

  “There probably is.” Running her fingers along the edge of the table, she looked away from him. “I don’t know. It’s just that I’ve not felt like this for so long that I don’t quite know how to go about making things different.” She blew out a long sigh.

  “Change is never easy, it takes time. I know that myself.” The life he had known had been changed for him, and he’d had no choice except to go along with it. A memory shuddered through him.

  “You don’t look as if you’ve had a serious problem in your life. You’re so easygoing. And Vicki told me that you’ve traveled in many parts of the world, gone on missions for health care and even run in two marathons.”

  “Well, yes, I have done those things, but the past few years haven’t been great.” Yes, that was an understatement. He was lucky he’d survived the past few years.

  “I’m sorry. I’m prying in your personal life, and I have no business doing that.” She picked up the few remaining files from the table and put them in the filing cabinet. After that, she looked around for something else, but they had finished all of the assessments earlier. He’d made her uncomfortable, and he wanted to remedy that now.

  “Ellie, no.” He removed his cap and ran his fingers through his hair, then replaced the cap. “I mean, yes, there are things in my private life that are painful, but no, you’re not prying.” He pulled a chair over and sat backward on it, resting his arms on the back. “We’re going to work together for the summer, and we’ll get to know each other. For now, I’ll just tell you that I was seriously ill a few years ago. It came out of the blue and hit me hard.” So hard he’d nearly died from it.

  “I’m sorry, Mark.” Tentatively, she reached out and touched his arm, offering him a gesture of comfort that he knew she would have offered to anyone. That’s just the way she was, giving so much to others. “That’s why you’re on the thin side, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But every day I’m getting healthier and stronger.” With a grin he patted his flat abdomen. “If I keep up those Boston cream doughnuts, I won’t have to worry about the thin part for much longer.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” she said and gave a quick laugh. “If you’re not bothered by the illness, then I won’t be, either. Serious illness can take over a person’s life, so I’m glad you’re over yours.” She gave a sigh and pulled a chair close to his. “Since you’ve shared some of your story with me, I’ll share some of mine with you. Stress has really been getting to me the past year. My father died of cancer, and working in an ICU setting is no piece of cake. So I’m hoping that some downtime, running after healthy kids for the summer, will lighten me up a bit.”

  “I’m sure it will. Sounds like we’re both where we need to be for a while.” He puffed out a quick sigh. It was actually a relief to talk a little about his past, his illness. Not that he wanted to linger on it, but sharing a tiny bit with Ellie was not as difficult as he thought it would be.

  “Definitely.”

  “I think I’ll take that extra lap now, if there’s nothing else going on.”

  “Nope. Just dinner at the lodge, then clinic right after.” She gave a quick laugh. “No bonfire tonight though, so you’ll have to indulge your sweet tooth some other way.”

  “I’ll do that.” Turning his hat around the proper way, he left the infirmary and the sudden appeal of Ellie’s smile.

  Since his illness and recovery he’d been too focused on survival to be attracted to anyone. Now that he was ensconced in a small building with Ellie, trapped for the summer with a beautiful woman in a remote area, he was uncertain that that had been a wise move on his part. Being attracted to her simply because she was available and in front of him didn’t seem likely. If another woman had gotten the job, he probably wouldn’t have found her as interesting, as intriguing, as Ellie was. She was a woman with depth and caring and didn’t hesitate to share herself with others. There was promise in that. He may not be around long enough to cash in on that promise, so he advised himself to steer clear of Ellie and her allure.

  After a few leg stretches, he took off at a slow pace around the camp. This time of the afternoon, the temperature was hot and the humidity was high, leaving the skin and hair sticky even after a short exposure. Dark threatening clouds gathered in groups on the horizon, and he supposed they’d have a storm before the night was through. He loved storms and the chaos they created in the skies. External chaos was good. Internal chaos was not so good.

/>   Right now, he needed to put some distance between himself and Ellie, the source of his current chaos in feelings. The vulnerability she gave off appealed to some manly aspect of his personality. He supposed that was why he’d become a physician, because he wanted to help people. He was a doer and a fixer. And he wanted to help Ellie without getting too involved emotionally. That was the downfall of being involved with people. Unfortunately, he wasn’t much of a technology man, or he’d consider research in a lab somewhere, limiting his contact with others. But he knew that wasn’t going to solve his problems, and he made his way around the soccer field down the path to the lake at an easy pace.

  A swim class was in full swing, and he watched the boys and girls splashing around the roped-off lanes of water. With a laugh, he recalled his swim lessons as a kid. He’d sunk like a rock and had almost given up until his gangly body had somehow managed to put everything together, and he’d made it across the pool, sputtering the entire way. From then on, he’d lived in the neighborhood pool every summer. Now, watching the kids learn their lessons, he was once again reminded of something he might never do—take his own child swimming.

  As he had moved through college and residency, he’d never thought of being ill himself. He’d always thought of how he could help others, how he could use his skills as a physician. Other people got sick and died, other people contracted chronic illnesses. He’d become one of those other people.

  Finding a spot on the dock away from the kids, but where he could observe them, he thought back to that time in his life that had nearly killed him.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  HE’D found a lump in one testicle where there ought not to have been one. Though he’d been in a hot shower at the time, he’d broken out in a cold sweat. He’d experienced all the phases of grief, but had set them aside in order to get a swift diagnosis and treatment. Denial was what got people into serious trouble. Denying a serious illness only gave the illness more time to grow and take over, rather than defeating it quickly in its tracks. He’d had to make a leap over that denial hurdle. Though he knew that his sort of cancer responded very well to treatment, the fear of it never left him.

  The cancer diagnosis had laid his family low. His father had been absent most of his life and was no source of comfort or help then. Thankfully, his sisters had come together to help him when he’d needed them the most. Rather than tearing his family apart as many serious illnesses do, his condition had strengthened the bonds between them. Mark wondered if the same thing had happened to Ellie and her family when her father had become ill, if she and her mother were still close. Of course, he’d seen the picture of her parents in the workroom, but she hadn’t mentioned her mother at all.

  The swim coach blew her whistle, redirecting Mark’s thoughts as she called the swimmers from the water. The kids landed in sloppy, wet piles as they sat on the dock and listened to the instructions.

  Rising from the wooden dock, Mark knew that everyone would be called to the lodge shortly, then there would be clinic right after. He’d left Ellie rather abruptly, the story of her father’s death affecting him in a way he hadn’t expected. He wanted to find Ellie and apologize for being rude.

  He returned to the infirmary and found it empty.

  “Rats,” he said.

  “Where?” Ellie’s voice came from down the hall.

  “Where are you?” Good. She was still here.

  “In the ward room.”

  Mark moved around the corner and found Ellie reclining on one of the beds and his stomach clenched at the sight of her there. “What are you doing?”

  She held up a book and removed her glasses. “Catching up on my reading. I brought a stack of books a mile high.” Closing the book, she avoided looking at him.

  “Ellie, I’m—”

  “Help! Where is everyone?”

  Ellie and Mark bounded out of the ward room and into the front. “What’s going on?” Ellie asked.

  A counselor and a young male camper were in the front room. The boy was covered in scrapes and scratches. Blood dripped from multiple lacerations on his face, neck, arms and hands.

  “What in the world happened to you?” Mark asked, grabbing two pairs of gloves and handing Ellie one.

  “A tree happened,” the counselor said with a quick glare at the boy.

  “What’s your name?” Mark asked and motioned for the boy to be seated on the exam table.

  “Kevin.” Holding onto his left wrist, he climbed onto the table with some assistance from his counselor.

  “I’m Scott,” the counselor said.

  “So how did a tree happen to you, Kevin?” Mark asked and applied a stethoscope to the boy’s lungs, looking for more serious injuries than what was already obvious.

  “I was climbing and fell out.”

  “Right into a patch of blackberry bushes,” the counselor said and shook his head.

  “Ouch. That must have hurt. Why don’t I start cleaning up the scrapes?” Ellie suggested. Her heart rate had jumped at first, but it settled down now that the injuries seemed benign. “So what’s with the arm? Is it hurting?” she asked. Behind the red cheeks, he had a bit of pallor that made her wonder whether his arm was broken. The way he cradled it was also a classic sign of injury.

  “It hurts. Hit it on a branch on the way down and the ground, too.”

  “Double ouch,” Mark said and reached out to touch the injury gently. “Can you make a fist?” he asked and went through the examination with a tender touch.

  Kevin winced and tried to pull away. “Ow.”

  “There’s swelling already in his fingers,” Ellie said and began cleaning up the scratches with gauze soaked in normal saline.

  “I see that.” Mark sighed. “You’re probably going to need to go to town for some X-rays, Kevin.”

  “Oh, man,” he said, his voice whining. “My mom is going to kill me.”

  Ellie laughed at that. “I doubt it. But we will have to call her and let her know what’s going on.”

  “Do you have to? I just got the cast off of my other arm three weeks ago.”

  “What happened to that arm?” Mark asked with a grin.

  A red flush covered Kevin’s face and neck, and he dropped his gaze. “I fell out of a tree in the backyard.”

  “You’re going to have to start climbing shorter trees,” Ellie said.

  Mark laughed and Ellie felt the first stirrings of attraction at the sound. The man had a wonderful laugh. Even though he was engaging with people, she sensed a deep sadness within him. Maybe she was wrong, or maybe it was some nursing instinct firing to life, but that was what she felt.

  “Ellie, can you handle things here while I take him in for X-rays?” Mark asked. “I don’t think we need an ambulance for this.”

  “Sure,” she said. “Not much else going on right now. Just the clinic after dinner. I’ll call his mom and let her know what’s going on. Otherwise, if anything serious comes up I can call you on your cell phone.”

  “Sounds good.” He let his eyes linger on her face and mouth a moment before Ellie had to look away. Wow, the man was intense, and something in her was responding to his intensity, his energy, the vibrancy of the man. This was something she hadn’t expected of her summer as a camp nurse.

  “Come on, kiddo. We’re going to town,” Mark said. “Scott, want to come along, too?”

  “I wish. I hear they have a great pizza joint in town, but I have to round up the rest of the group before they’re all in the trees, too.”

  “Go ahead. We’ll take it from here,” Mark said, and Scott headed back to his group. “Pizza?” He looked down at Kevin. “You like pizza?”

  “Is that a trick question? We have them in school sometimes.”

  “No. It’s not a trick question. I should know every kid likes pizza, don’t they? After X-rays we’ll stop for some.” Mark took a cloth sling from the supplies and fitted it to Kevin’s arm, keeping the wrist higher than the elbow.

  “Here’s a co
uple of ice packs, too,” Ellie and handed Mark a plastic bag filled with ice cubes. She placed another one inside the sling on top of Kevin’s wrist.

  “Great.” They moved toward the door. “Anything you need from town?” he asked.

  “Nope. We’re good on everything still.”

  “Okay, see you in a few hours, depending on how many people are ahead of us in the ER.”

  With a nod, Mark and Kevin left the infirmary, and it suddenly felt too quiet and too empty. Ellie took off her gloves and cleaned up the supplies she had used, then made a quick call to Gil, then a lengthier one to Kevin’s mom. Returning to her book on the ward bed, she tried to focus again on the story unfolding between the pages, but she couldn’t concentrate on the characters and found herself rereading the same passage several times. Her eyes drifted down, then sprang open again as she fought off the urge to sleep.

  Maybe it was too hot in here, she thought and got up to turn on the air conditioner. Maybe she needed some iced tea. A little cool air and cold caffeine should wake her up. After going to the small kitchen and fixing herself some refreshment, she returned to the ward room, but her book no longer held the appeal she’d anticipated.

  What she needed was distraction from her thoughts, from thinking about Mark and that last, long, hungry look he’d given her. An involuntary shiver made her tremble, and she pressed the glass of cool tea to her cheek. No man had looked at her like that in a long, long time. Certainly, Alan never had. Maybe it was just her vanity perking up after months adrift at sea.

  Something about him appealed to her. But she’d promised herself a rest for the summer, to regroup, to find where she wanted to go beginning in September. Most people thought of spring as a time of renewal, just coming out of long winters, but to her, fall was her time of refreshment and growth. The weather and season changed, kids started back to school and life seemed to have a greater sense of movement for her than in the spring. She always felt stronger and more energized with cool mornings and warm afternoons.