The doctor glanced at the nurse, who had that look that silently said, “He’s nuts!”
“Right.” The doctor turned and looked at Zeke and…paused. She was gorgeous! Since she was wearing scrubs, Zeke had no idea what her military rank was, but he didn’t care. Emerald eyes stared from a heart shaped face that looked like she should be on a runway. Except she was a tiny little thing. Being just over six feet, five inches tall, Zeke usually preferred tall women. Women that didn’t force him to contort himself to kiss them.
“Doctor Fisher?” the nurse asked, gently nudging the doctor. The woman jerked slightly, looking around, then realized that she’d been staring and pulled herself together.
Pity. Zeke hadn’t minded staring back at her. He couldn’t remember ever seeing such a pretty face before. Oh, he’d seen beautiful women, but there was something about this one that…something about her called to him.
The nurse took the doctor’s elbow, leading her around the bed to Zeke’s back. For a moment, Zeke considered pulling her back around so that she was facing him, but then the reality of the situation came back to him. The sooner she looked at his back and, okay, maybe cleaned up whatever felt so sticky, then the sooner he could leave. And the sooner he could call her up and ask her out for dinner! Hell, if he’d known that a doctor this pretty was working on base, he would have gotten shot a long time ago!
Doctor Abigail Fisher eyed the man’s back, slightly impressed. She’d seen a lot in the years since gaining her medical degree, but this was a new one. The bullet had left a shallow gouge across the man’s back from armpit to armpit. The wound wasn’t that deep, but since he didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body, the blood vessels were very near the surface. In other words, he’d bled like a stuck pig!
“Hmmm…” she said, keeping her voice calm and relaxed. “Cathy, I think we’re going to need to clean the wound before I can see what needs to be done. Would you mind…?”
“I’m on it,” the nurse replied eagerly.
Abby frowned at the nurse’s back as she hurried away to get the cleaning supplies. Then again, she didn’t blame her. This guy was…hot! As a doctor, Abby could testify to the man’s amazing physical fitness. If all of her patients put this much energy into their fitness, she’d be out of business! As a woman…Abby gave herself a mental shake. She was here as a doctor. Only a doctor.
Cathy returned, loaded down with supplies. “Ready,” she said, slightly breathless.
Abby rolled her eyes, and collected his chart, sighing as she noticed Cathy hadn’t finished filling it out. For obvious reasons.
“I’m going to have to cut your shirt off,” Cathy announced, pulling scissors out of the box of supplies.
The man, an officer, she realized, according to his chart, didn’t seem to mind the cleaning.
“As long as that’s all it is, go ahead,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.
Abby looked at the man, then down at his chart. “It appears that you’re due for your tetanus shot. Do you want…?”
“No!”
Abby smiled professionally. “Right,” she replied, marking something off on his chart. “Don’t like needles, huh?”
He hissed when Cathy pulled his tee shirt away from wound. “I’m not a fan, no.”
She grinned at that. “Right. So…” she didn’t mention that she suspected that the wound across his back was going to need stitches to in order to heal properly. Lots of stitches! “Okay, so, we’ll skip the tetanus shot for now. But can you tell me how this happened?”
The guy sighed, drawing her attention to his deliciously broad shoulders. All of the soldiers on base worked out several times a week. But Abby could testify that none were as…well developed as Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Jeffers.
He flinched slightly, trying to peer over his shoulder, which meant Abby needed to distract him. “So, you were in a training accident?”
“Not me,” the guy replied firmly. “Another guy. We’re training for the team to find new recruits. Some idiot decided to aim around a tree with his M16 and…”
“Around?” she interrupted. “But…!”
The guy snorted. “Exactly. Around.” He shook his head in disgust and Abby watched as Cathy pulled back the bloody tee shirt. “He swore up and down that bullets could curve if they were shot correctly. He said some BS about how every object has its own gravitational pull and that a tree could pull a bullet into its gravitational orbit if he shot it close enough.”
Abby swallowed a chuckle. “I see,” she replied. “So…?”
Behind him, Cathy paused, fascinated with the story.
“So, he decided to prove his theory. And he shot his rifle towards the target, but going around the tree in front of him. Since I was over at the obstacle course, evaluating the potential recruits, I didn’t see the idiot fire. It wasn’t even supposed to be live fire today. We wouldn’t have been on the obstacle course if there had been. Too dangerous. But this guy…!” Zeke shook his head in obvious disgust. “He had some live rounds in his pocket and wanted to prove what a hot shot he was. Hence, my back.”
Abby laughed. She just couldn’t help herself. It was such a ridiculous story, the idea of a bullet going around a tree and curving because of the tree’s gravitational pull. “Okay, so…the guy…? Is he going to make the cut?”
The man snorted. “Oh, he’s going to get cut, all right. Right to a court martial!”
Abby fully agreed. “Glad to hear it. This is one for the books.” She sighed and clasped the chart to her chest. “I hate to tell you this, big guy, but you need stitches.” Abby moved behind the man now that Cathy had finished cleaning the wound. Abby checked the edges and realized that it wasn’t as ragged as she’d anticipated. “But I think I can do a pretty good job of…”
Zeke didn’t want to hear it. Stitches meant needles. He didn’t do needles. Period.
“No stitches. It’s just a scratch!” he insisted. “I can barely feel it!” That was an absolute, bald-faced lie. It felt as if his back was on fire.
She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. “Okay, I’m hearing you aren’t a fan of needles,” she said carefully. Zeke appreciated her not maligning his masculinity by asserting he was afraid. He was! But that didn’t mean that he wanted that fact advertised.
To get Zeke’s story, click HERE!
Mike (Delta Forces Book 1) Page 8