Chapter 4 Patient

Mae POV

I wake up in a tangled mess of legs and arms with Tish. I don't know why we bother to have separate bedrooms. Most nights, we end up with each other.

Wiggling myself out of Tish's grasp, I reach for my phone. It is 9:00 a.m., and I have fifteen missed calls, all from work.

"Fuck!" I groan.

"What's wrong?" Tish moans in protest.

"I have a million missed calls from work," I sigh. "I am so fired."

I quickly call my supervisor, Tony, back. "Mae," he yells through the phone. "We have been trying to call you all morning."

"I am sorry. I guess I was just so tired from last night's shift I didn't hear the phone ring." It isn't exactly a lie.

"We need you to come in early," Tony yells. "You are going to have to work a double. Christina called in sick."

I roll my eyes in frustration. I doubt if Christina is actually sick. It is more likely that she is hungover.

"I just got off a double," I can't help but whine. "I need a break."

"If you want to keep your job, you will be here within the hour," Tony says harshly and hangs up the phone.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I scream in frustration.

"I am trying to sleep here," Tish groans as she hides her head under the pillow.

I look at her naked body, twisted up in my sheets, and I wish I had taken the same path she had. I could sleep all day and work at the bar at night. I could sleep with random guys and then come home to Tish. That would be living the dream.

I show up at the emergency room, which is in full swing. It is just as busy as the night before. Tony is standing behind the nurses station, staring at his watch.

"You are five minutes late," he grumbles.

"I am here, aren't I," I hiss at him.

"You are needed in trauma room five," Tony directs me.

Quickly, I clock in and head to trauma room five. As soon as I step into the room a weird feeling washes over me. Pausing just inside the door, I look at the man lying in the bed, who is easily the most beautiful man I have ever seen. I am so struck by his beauty that I am unable to move or speak.

The trauma doctors are wheeling instruments in and out of the room. Bumping into me as I stand in the doorway, gawking at the man.

"There is no time," one of the doctors says. "We have to get him to an OR stat."

"Nurse, what the fuck are you doing?" The other doctor says. "He needs an IV right now."

Those words break me out of my trance, and I realize I am standing there doing nothing to help. Rustling through the drawers of the hospital room, I find what I am looking for. I run to the man's side, wrap the tourniquet around his bicep, and begin to look for a vein.

He is built like he is made of solid rock. I grab his arm, and a weird feeling tingles underneath my fingertips. It is almost like a weak current of electricity is spreading from his skin to mine. I push the feeling to the side as I push the IV into his arm and tape it in place.

Quickly, I hook up his IV bag and step away from his side, making room for the doctors to take over.

"What the fuck," the first doctor says as he lifts up the hospital gown to inspect the wound on the man's stomach.

The second doctor peers underneath the gown, and his eyes turn dark, almost black, in color. I cannot help but look over the shoulder of the first doctor to see what the big deal is, and I step back in shock.

What I saw makes my stomach turn. I run for the trash can in the room and empty the contents of my stomach.

I look back at the doctors, and they are muttering quietly to one another. The second doctor's eyes are almost black, and there is a look of rage on his face.

"How is that possible?" I interrupt their conversation.

Both of the doctors turn to look at me but then they turn around and continue their conversation.

"Someone answer me," I demand to know. "His skin… it was healing itself."

What I had seen when I looked over the doctor's shoulders was the man's skin knitting itself back together as if stitches were pulling it together. I have never seen anything like it before. It was like magic.

The second doctor looks at me with darkened eyes and I swear he growls at me. "What you have seen in this room, you do not speak of to anyone. Is that clear?"

I nod my head slightly up and down. "No one would believe me if I told them."

"We still need to get him into an OR," the first doctor says. "If it is a silver bullet, he won't heal properly."

The second doctor turns to me. "You are assigned to this patient and this patient only. Is that understood?"

"I think Tony will have a problem with that," I try to chuckle.

"You leave, Tony up to us," the first doctor says.

I watch helplessly as they wheel the man out of the hospital room and down the hall to an OR. Something in my heart is yearning for me to be with the man. I feel like I need to stay by his side.

I chase them down the hall until I catch up.

"What are you doing here?" The second doctor asks.

"I want to assist in the surgery," I respond, knowing I am not qualified for that type of procedure.

I patiently wait for them to say no, but the second doctor looks me up and down. "Scrub in."