Stolen Innocence

by Beverly L Anderson

  Varick was finishing up his lunch when he looked up to see Dannie come through the curtain with a client. Looked like a walk-in had arrived, he thought, and went back to the tattoo chair to get to work. He spent the next few hours working on several tattoos.

  Finally, when it was time to leave, he saw Mischka talking to the evening receptionist at the front. As he walked by, he grabbed Mischka by the arm, spinning him toward him.

  “Hey, we’re riding this weekend. Really need it after this week.” He glanced at Mischka and gave him a curt nod.

  When Mischka paused, Varick noticed his friend’s face was starting to color. “Um, okay, ah, I’ll let my boy know...”

  He clapped the shorter man on the back. “See ya in the morning, I’ll bring some bleach to get the pink shit outta your hair. Even if the Mieze look is good on you.”

  He had already changed into his leather chaps for the ride to the hospital and had his jacket draped over his shoulder. As he left, he shrugged into his jacket.

  Just as the door was about to shut, he heard Mischka’s voice behind him mumble, “damn that man,” followed by a giggle from the evening receptionist. He paused and turned back to see the other man walking back through the curtain. He wondered what his comment had been about.

  DURING THE LONG SURGERY on Janet Edison, Kieran did not sense the passage of time. For him, fourteen hours might as well have been fourteen minutes. He never watched the clock; only his work. As tedious as this type of surgery tended to be, he enjoyed it. This type of highly complex surgery allowed him to hyper-focus on the smallest of details.

  Above him, sets of eyes viewed his every move and whispered in amazement at the effortless way he worked. He put himself into a zone where he and the patient existed alone. As much as he hated people watching him, he managed to ignore it. The watchers often were there because Kieran did the impossible. Every patient he worked on was a “lost cause” and had been told they were dying.

  Finally, he closed up, stripped his gloves, and pulled his mask down with a shaky sigh. His temperament would improve drastically since his obsession was fulfilled. With the surgery done, he would be able to come down off his high. It took a little time for him to come out of the near trance-like state he entered during an intense surgery. Generally, he stood in the prep room outside the surgery for almost half an hour before he was ready to leave.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Mary. “Ready to go do your duty, Dr. Sung?”

  Despite his irritation at her, he nodded and headed to the waiting room. The amount of people had increased and he visibly stiffened, getting a pat on the back from his nurse. He saw Mrs. Edison standing by the coffee pot talking to a man Kieran assumed was Mr. Edison. The blonde, Clair, was sitting and holding a white paper cup and staring at her phone. Beside her sat an intimidating looking man with tricolored hair. Even though Kieran rarely focused on other people, this man drew his attention immediately. Wonderful, he thought to himself.

  Kieran swallowed, put on his fake smile, and stepped into the fray.

  VARICK GOT BACK TO the hospital at almost eight at night. He was tired, but he had promised Clair to be there for her. Janet wouldn’t know if he was there or not, but Clair needed the support. He made his way back to the waiting room, head down and ignoring the people who stared at him. Sometimes, like this morning, it amused him. After a long day like today, he was no longer entertained by their glares and excessive attention. He opened the door to the surgery waiting room and found Clair, Janet’s parents, and her two aunts all seated. By now, he guessed Janet was either still in surgery, or in recovery.

  He sat down next to Clair and leaned over to bump shoulders with her. “Hey sis, how are things?”

  Clair smiled, putting away her phone. “So far so good. The little nurse has come out five times so far to update us. She said there were some minor complications, but for the most part things were going as expected. She said there was nothing to worry about.”

  “Good news, huh?” he confirmed with a smile.

  Clair nodded, while wringing her hands for a moment before pulling out her phone again. He smiled, seeing she was playing solitaire. Some things never changed. As children, solitaire had been the only type of card games Clair had ever cared about. He thought she knew more ways of playing solitaire than anyone he knew. Her favorite was one called Algerian, which was generally winnable, but took a ton of strategy. As kids, they used to mix things up and play a variation called double solitaire where two people could play. It had led to many fingernail cuts from his sister as they tried to place cards on each other’s spreads.

  “I’m going to walk around for a bit,” he explained as he stood up again. He was still stiff from his ride and needed to walk around.

  Over the next three hours, he ended up walking around the hospital more than once. He had a phone, but he was not the best with technology, so his was very basic. Instead he read all the boring magazines and paced the floors. More than one person gave him an odd look as they walked by to see him in the waiting room reading about home improvement and gardening. He always liked the artistic nature of landscaping and home design.

  The nicest thing he found in his wandering about was a little enclosed garden a couple floors down. It had several benches and a nice grassy area in the middle with floral borders around it. In the center, there was a sculpted fountain. It opened up above to the sky but covered in glass to keep the flowers blooming year-round. He squinted, but he couldn’t tell what they were from two floors above. It looked like there were a few beds of pink and white flowers. He wandered back to Janet’s room and noticed he could see the garden clearly from her window. After a while, he found his way back to the surgery waiting room.

  The door swung open and Mary came in with a short, dark-haired man in a doctor’s coat and lavender scrubs. The doctor peered around the room before stepping forward. Everyone started to get up and move toward him. Varick blinked in surprise as he got closer because he could see the name tag read Dr. Kieran Sung. Neither Janet nor Clair had mentioned how incredibly adorable the doctor was. Varick shook his head. Nope, stop it, not here for that, but he found it odd. He rarely found others attractive in more than an aesthetic sense. To think that the doctor was adorable was so very strange for him.

  The young doctor cleared his throat and smiled a very fake looking smile. Varick immediately noticed how his voice shook as he spoke.

  “Uh, Janet is in recovery now, and she will be able to have visitors within an hour or two. Limit it to fifteen minutes for tonight and just the parents. We have made exception for visiting hours for you. It has been a long surgery, and she will need her rest. The surgery was successful with minimal complication. She will remain in the ICU unit until Wednesday morning, then I will transfer her to surgery recovery. I have requested she stay for two weeks at least. I know it is a long recovery time for this surgery, but I worry about post-surgery testing. The removal of the tumor was a little more difficult than anticipated, but I am sure there will be little to no permanent damage. The tumor was more invasive than I expected, so I will have scans run at the end of this week. I will also do the same at the end of next week to verify there are no remaining traces of the tumor. She will still need to face some testing to ensure there are no other problems, such as her speech, reading, and cognition. Now, uh, if you will excuse me, I have to get some rest.” He took a deep breath and then bowed slightly at the waist.

  “But what if something happens? If you leave, what happens to her if something goes wrong?” Clair asked, wringing her hands.

  The doctor looked even more anxious and Varick frowned to see him shift back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I apologize, but I have been in surgery for fourteen hours and I have to eat and sleep soon. I do not leave the hospital for at least twenty-four hours after a surgery of this magnitude. If something happens, believe me, they shall find me.”

  Before anyone could say anything, the doctor turned on his heels and
left, and seemed to trip over thin air. He stopped, visibly realigned his limbs, and headed off to the elevator.

  “Did he just trip over nothing?” Varick said to Clair. “He must really be tired.” He picked up his jacket and shrugged it back on.

  “Varick, shh,” she whispered, frowning as she watched Mary talk to Ms. Edison. “Why don’t you go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, yeah? And don’t scare anyone, you big bear.”

  He shrugged. “Sure, you want something?”

  Clair shook her head as he left, shoving hands into his pockets and strolling to the elevator. On the ride, he couldn’t stop thinking about the young man he’d just seen. He was fascinated, though, by the doctor. The guy was younger than him, yet he was the Head of neurosurgery. And damn cute, to boot. He grinned. Well, wouldn’t it be funny if he tried to snag himself a doctor... He snorted at the thought. Yeah, right. Like someone that looked like him would ever get himself an upstanding citizen for a partner.

  He stood in the elevator and thought how odd it was for him to find someone attractive. He usually didn’t. Actually, he had never found anyone physically attractive or thought of anyone as a possible partner. He would admire their physical appearance, and he quite enjoyed a wide variety of body types of all genders. However, he didn’t feel like he wanted to do anything else besides look, most the time. This felt different. He wanted to talk to the doctor, and to touch his face and kiss those tired eyes. He was startled out of the thoughts when the elevator doors opened.

  Varick entered the cafeteria and glanced around, idly clicking the metal piercing in his tongue against his front teeth. The only people in the cafeteria at this hour were a few visitors and a very bored looking cashier. He smiled as he caught sight of a white coat with dark mop of shaggy hair standing in line at the food counter. The doctor was humming to himself and examining the cold food items. He paused for a second and then walked up to the counter to find something for himself to eat.

  Varick glanced over as the doctor picked out what appeared to be a sandwich and studied it for a moment with a scowl. He then put it on his tray, and chose a carton of chocolate milk. Varick smirked. Huh, he’s such a kid, he thought, then followed behind him through the line and chose a similar meal, with the far more suitable drink of a cola. He observed as the doctor picked a seat in the farthest corner of the room and sat down, removing his white doctor’s coat. He started picking apart the sandwich, causing Varick to tilt his head and stare. Soon there were discreet piles: onions, pickles, and tomatoes, each piled on the napkin. He folded the napkin and sat it aside. The lettuce and meats were carefully replaced on the bread and topped with the slice of cheese. The doctor had to adjust it twice before he got it to the place he liked. He nodded at the sandwich and closed it up, and Varick swore he glared at the parcel of unwanted toppings. Before he realized what he was doing, Varick was headed toward the young doctor’s table. He figured it was all in or not at all.

  AFTER THE SURGERY, Kieran was mostly on auto-pilot. He talked to the family, then managed to get himself down to the cafeteria. He could feel his blood sugar was low, and his legs were going to start cramping soon. Times like these, after standing for hours at a time, he really wished he could take muscle relaxers or something.

  He managed to get his food and sit down as far away from everyone else as he could. He did not want to have to deal with people after surgeries, and when he was finished eating, he would go find himself a place to sleep. Consequently, Artemis would fuss at him if he did not eat before he went to sleep.

  He started almost violently at the slight thump when a tray landed on the table next to him. He looked up, locking his dark blue eyes with the guy from upstairs for a brief second before he shifted his gaze to the spot between his eyes. Kieran blinked, swallowing his bite of food. This was the tall man from upstairs with the tricolored hair. Generally, he never differentiated between “group” members, but he recognized the strange hair. Of course, he was mostly oblivious to his surroundings, but someone with blue, purple, and green hair? Even to him, bright hair tended to stand out.

  “Um, yeah, can I help you?” he asked, picking up the milk and sipping through its straw, not taking his eyes off the man in front of him. It was not like he was suspicious, though he should be. The man was huge and menacing looking, to be honest. He was at least a foot taller than Kieran and had to outweigh him by a hundred or more pounds. In addition to the hair, he had facial piercings and tattoos.

  “Huh, just thought I’d be friendly and sit with you. Seem off on your own.” He spoke in a surprisingly proper and cultured sounding voice. Kieran had to reevaluate his observations of this individual. Obviously, he was more than his appearance. One of the things he tended to struggle with was taking people, and their words, completely at face value. He tended to evaluate someone based on first impressions, and it often led to him not understanding them.

  Kieran watched him for a second, taking another bite of his sandwich. After a moment, he peered over to see the vibrant-haired man was quite comfortable at a table with a complete stranger. “Um, I am not much for company; most people tend to keep their distance from me.”

  “Well, name’s Varick by the way, but you can call me Leo. Why would people steer clear of you? You seem like a good guy. Certainly cute.”

  This very attractive man just called him cute. He shivered a bit with a feeling he did not understand. Despite his nervousness, or perhaps because of it, he felt his face heating. “Um, I have been told I am...what was it, caustic. Blunt. I tend to be overly honest and I have found people do not like such things too much.”

  “Ah, well, their loss. More honesty would do people good.” Kieran felt Varick watching him as he took another bite. He felt his eyebrow twitch.

  “My father said when they were handing out tact, they must have completely missed me,” he explained. He felt the heavy pull of exhaustion on his lids. “It is hard to try to remember people do not like truth most the time. Gets me into a lot of trouble.”

  “Hey!” the other man shouted suddenly as Kieran began to fall asleep sitting up.

  Kieran started again, nearly kicking the table. He blinked and looked at the concerned expression on the other man’s face. Times like this made him glad he spent so much time studying facial expressions. “Sorry, I become exhausted after a long surgery like today. Especially when there are so many factors. I felt like I needed two more hands in there.”

  “Don’t you have nurses?” Varick was frowning at him. “Or other doctors? I thought long surgeries you guys like traded off or something.”

  “Most do, but I...I do not allow anyone in my surgeries. I must control every aspect otherwise I cannot work. I use my nurses to do things such as hold clamps, use the sponges, but I do the cutting, sawing, and suturing. I cannot afford to let anyone else into the surgery. What I do...no one else really can do.”

  “Humble, aren’t we?” Varick asked, leaning back in the chair with a cocky grin. He crumbled the wrapper to the sandwich and laid it down beside the cola bottle.

  Kieran frowned and thought it over for a second then nodded. “Ah, I see, you perceive me to sound like I am bragging and boasting about my skill.”

  Varick’s grin turned to a frown. “What do you mean by that?”

  He shook his head. “I apologize, I tend to be honest about my skill and it tends to put off others as well. I used to get teased and bullied in school for it. My bluntness and my awful coordination.”

  “You really aren’t boasting.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at him as he picked up his tray and stood up. “Of course not. Boasting serves no purpose.”

  As he went to dump his tray, Varick followed him. Kieran stumbled on something, or nothing, and fell into Varick’s body. As Varick tightly grasped him around the shoulders to steady him, Kieran gasped as he felt a unfamiliar sensation shoot up his spine. Kieran felt a blush rise at the closeness of the larger man, and noted he smelled faintly of something familiar, but
he could not place the scent.

  “Oh, sorry about that. Gets worse the more tired I get,” he explained to him. He took a deep breath as Varick set him up on his feet again. Despite his size and obvious strength, he could he was careful not to grab him too tight.

  “What does?” Varick asked with a curious stare, his hands lingering on his thin arms a bit too long. Kieran’s blood was pounding in his ears, but he was not sure why.

  “Dyspraxia. It is a motor condition I have.” He had to swallow repeatedly before he could continue. His heart was still pounding and his face felt hot. “I am lucky, most people have it affect their fine motor skills too, but for me it seems to just affect the gross motor. Used to be worse when I was a kid.” He waved to the man as he turned toward the exit. “Nice talking to you, um, going to sleep for a while.”

  Kieran got to the elevator and held the door closed button for a few seconds as he forced his heart to calm down. Why was his body reacting this way? The fluttering sensation in his stomach was making him feel slightly sick. Worse than that, he felt flushed and he had the desire to go back to the cafeteria to talk to that man again. He wanted to find out all about him and he wanted that strange man to hold him again. This was so very odd and he was not sure what to do with it. He pressed a hand against his crotch with wide eyes. That did not happen often at all. Why would this be happening? He closed his eyes and forced his body under control, hitting the button for seven and scrubbing his hands over his face. He should ask Artemis. He knew about these things because he had a boyfriend. He would definitely ask him what this meant.