"Wait…you are telling me that you heard everything, even when you flatlined?" Adam said.
"Yes, I, uh, was still in my body and could still hear everything, even when I was...dead." I took in a breath and let it out. I could feel a lump in my throat, and my eyes were burning as if I were about to cry. I was alive, what did I have to cry about?
"How?" Adam and Mason both said together.
I didn't know whether to tell him the truth now, or a little at a time over the next seven days. I thought it better to wait a while. I needed answers from him myself. "May I ask you a very personal question?"
Adam looked at Mason, then back to me. "I may or may not answer it, but you can ask whatever you like, Kendra."
I smiled at him and he smiled back. He had beautiful teeth, very white and straight. I wondered briefly if he had ever had braces on those pearly whites; I'd needed them when I was younger. "What happened in your life that made you stop believing there's a God?"
Adam lost his smile and stared at me for a moment as though I had just lost every marble I'd ever possessed, then he shook his head slowly. "That's a little too personal, Ms. Larkin. I don't see how answering your question will lead to any answers to the questions we have about your remarkable recovery, so any questions pertaining to my private life or beliefs, is not now, or ever will be any of your concern." He looked away from me and moved a paperweight to a small stack of files on his desk. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence he finally sighed and looked back at me. "You told us that you would explain this..." he motioned to my undamaged body with his hand, "Phenomenon. I'd appreciate it if you'd get to that; I need to make my rounds."
I was getting angry. My face was turning red. I could feel the heat rushing up my neck, into my cheeks. Why did he have to be so damn difficult? He wanted personal answers from me, and I ask just one about him, and he wouldn't play fair. I jumped up, forgetting all about not having a bra on, but at the moment I didn't give a shit. I only had one week to help Coen get this jerk on the path to good. "Why should I tell you anything? You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"
He looked surprised at my outburst, or maybe it was the fact that my breasts were so very obviously unleashed, because his eyes wondered there for a moment before meeting my gaze again. "Why do you think that? I haven't acted like I didn't believe anything else you've told me. The fact that you were able to hear when you were dead is pretty farfetched, but I believe you, Kendra. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to tell me what happened in the operating room earlier. I don't think Mason relayed any information to you. He seems as bewildered as I am."
I'd had enough. He might have very well thought I was crazy, but how else could I explain healing this quickly? I didn't have a choice. I had to tell him the truth. "Fine…You have a guardian angel and a guardian demon. Coen is your guardian angel, and he's giving me one week to get your life on the right path. The only reason I lived today is so I can save your ass, or rather your soul. I hear you've never lost a patient."
Disbelief was written all over his face, but he responded to me without calling the psych ward for a straight jacket. "I've been a surgeon for six years without losing anyone, that's correct."
"Well, I can promise you in one week's time, if you don't change your way of thinking, you'll lose one…me." I pointed to my chest and a tear fell on my hand. I hadn't noticed that I was crying until that moment. Oh well, the damage was done. I sat back in the chair and Mason handed me a tissue.
"So, you're saying that you made a deal with my uh…guardian angel? That he's the one that healed you, and is letting you stay alive for…what was it, another week?" Adam said, but there was something in his voice and in his eyes that told me that no matter what answer I gave him, he wouldn't believe it.
I dabbed my tears with the tissue and blew my nose. "Yes." I whispered around the lump in my throat.
"It's the only possible explanation, Adam. She couldn't have healed so quickly and so thoroughly through natural processes." I'd regretted Mason being in the room while I talked to Adam until that moment. Maybe he could help me with my mission.
Adam looked dumbfounded at Mason. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Don't tell me that you're buying this bullshit."
That was it. I had to get away from Adam for a little while. I turned and started for the door.
"You can't leave, Ms. Larkin. We still have to do tests on you to make sure there is nothing physically wrong before you can be discharged. I think you need to be mentally checked out as well."
I turned and thrust my arms out where he could see them, then pointed at my face. "Does it look like there is anything wrong with me?" I looked at Mason. "How many stitches did it take to close me up, Mason?" He lowered his head. I could tell he believed me, or wanted to, but he didn't have a clue as how to help me with Dr. Chamberlain. I was beginning to like Mason more and more.
"I will sign myself out, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it." I turned then opened the door. Mason ran after me.
"I'll make sure you don't have any trouble getting out of here." Mason said as I hit the elevator button with a shaking hand.
"Mason! Get back in here!" Adam shouted from his office, but Mason didn't turn around. The doors opened and he entered the elevator with me. Guess he wasn't too worried about losing his job.
"I believe you, Kendra. It's amazing and unbelievable, but I believe you." he said, and I broke down. He pulled me to him, wrapped his arms around me, and let me cry. He made shushing noises and rubbed my back. He didn't say it would all be all right, because he couldn't have known if it would. But he believed me. That had to count for something.
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Chapter Five
The elevator doors opened to the ground floor. Mason walked me to the reception desk. "I need to sign a form that doesn't hold the hospital responsible if I leave and something goes wrong with me. I've got to get out of here." The receptionist's mouth fell open and she shot a questioning glance at Mason. He closed his eyes and nodded to her. She looked back at me with her mouth still wide open, then handed me a sheet of paper with writing on it. There was a signature line at the bottom with a date line beside it. I signed and dated the form, then handed it back to her. I started to turn and leave, but she finally spoke.
"Uh…Ms. Larkin." the receptionist said.
I turned back to her and she finished her sentence. "You have friends and family members in waiting room number three. It's the only waiting room we have that's big enough to hold them all."
I had completely forgotten that the friends who had been repelling with me were the ones who had brought me in. They must have called my parents and half the state by now. Shit! I just wanted to go home and cuddle with Hercules, it had been a long day already and the sun was still out. I sighed. "Where's the waiting room?"
"I'll take her," Mason said, and then he grabbed my hand and began to walk away from the receptionist's desk. I pulled my hand free, he let go without turning to look back at me. I could follow him just fine. I didn't need to be attached to him.
He stopped at a door and opened it. He was standing in front of me, so I couldn't see who all was in the room. There was a lot of noise, but when he opened the door, everything went silent.
"Is she okay, doctor? Please tell me my baby is okay?" It was my mom's voice, and I could tell she was frantic. I started to move around Mason, but he moved so I couldn't. What the hell?
"I have good news everybody. Kendra is going to be just fine."
"Well, when can we see her?" My dad asked.
"Right now," I could hear the smile in Mason's voice. He opened the door a little wider and stepped inside so the entire room could see me. I recognized everyone, and I was surprised by the number of friends and family that had showed up. Dear God there were a lot of people. There had to be sixty or seventy people in the semi-small room. There were people sitting on the floor and standing up against the wall. Word travels fast.
"Kendra!" My
mom screamed. She hurled herself across the room and engulfed my body with her smaller, more petite, frame. I was suddenly smothered in hands and arms. Through all the chaos, I could hear Mason's light snickering. I looked and found him out in the hall. For some reason, I wanted to be out there with him instead of in this room with all my loved ones. I felt claustrophobic and I wanted to escape. I guess he could see my discomfort, because he stepped back in the room and spoke again.
"Now, let's all calm down. Kendra has been through a lot today, and I'm sure she needs a little rest."
Rest…yeah. A little rest was exactly what I needed. Like till sometime next year…if I lived that long.
Slowly, the hands and arms started to fall away from me. Thank God. I instantly felt better. I don't know what had come over me, but I needed Mason near me. It may have been because he had been by my side for the last couple of hours, but I needed to touch him in order to feel completely relaxed. I reached for him and he touched my hand. I laced my fingers with his and he drew me away from the crowd and into him. What was wrong with me?
He brushed my cheek with his hand, and I looked up at him. The touch was so tender, and tenderness was something I wasn't used to. I avoided it most of the time, but for some reason, I needed him near me; I needed his tenderness. I felt as if I would drown if he didn't keep my head above water.
I had been staring at his beautiful gray eyes. His eyes were the type that would seem to change color based on the shirt he was wearing. If he wore blue or bright colors, I was sure his eyes would appear blue. If he wore gray or dark colors, I was sure they would appear gray. He was wearing deep hunter green scrubs and his eyes were light gray with a dark blue ring around the iris. I couldn't look away from him, but I didn't want to.
"Kendra." I heard Aven's voice, and I looked toward him without pulling away from Mason's embrace. Aven was one of my best friends, and it just so happened that he had been with me this morning when I fell. He was also a friend with benefits, and for those of you who aren't up to date on the terminology, it means that we have sex with each other. We date other people, but having a friend with benefits means we don't have to sleep with the people we date, hence not adding anymore notches to our headboards, and if you don't know what that means, well…it doesn't matter anyway.
Aven dated other people and I dated other people, but I don't think either if us had ever seen the other with another person. He honestly looked hurt, or maybe he had just been worried about me, but he wasn't happy. He held out his hand and I went to him. I knew he was worried, they all had been. By avoiding them, I was acting like a selfish bitch just so I could comfort myself, and I was somehow okay with that.
I hugged him back and he kissed my forehead. He usually kissed the top of my head, but my hair was still wrapped up in a towel. I pulled back and he kissed my lips. That was crossing the line. I may be twenty-nine, but my parents were in the room, for Christ's sake. Only a couple of our friends knew how close Aven and I were, and I didn't want anyone else to know. I especially didn't want Mason to know. He was standing right where I had left him, staring at me with absolutely no expression.
I pushed against Aven's chest with my hand and backed up. I gave him the "you've gone too far" look, and he let me go. "I want to go home."
"Okay, I'll take you home." Aven said, and tried to pull me back to him.
I resisted, and he stopped smiling. "I want to go home alone, Aven."
He put his hand over his mouth then rubbed his chin. "I thought I'd lost you, Kendra. We all thought you were gone, and here you are without a scratch on you, and cuddled up with a nurse that you've never even met before today. That's not like you."
He was right. It wasn't like me, but then again, I hadn't been myself since I'd died. "Look, I'm just tired, and Mason helped save my life today." I looked at Mason. He knew the truth; Coen had saved my life, but I didn't want to tell anyone else what had happened. I didn't have the energy. "I would like to go home and get some rest. I will turn my phone back on when I get up tomorrow. I just need to be alone for a little while."
My mom and dad hugged me again. "Okay, honey, we're just glad that you're all right."
"I'm fine, Mom. I'm really fine." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I may be putting her through this again in a week, with no miracle to save me then. I wanted to hold her tight and never let her go, but on the other hand, I wanted to be alone, completely alone with only my dog for company.
She let me go, and I hugged each and every person in the room. My best friend, Kobhye, cried the hardest because she thought the accident was her fault. To tell you the truth, I think Coen caused me to fall so he could use me for his purposes, but that's just a hunch.
Mason was still standing in the hall as I followed the last person out of the waiting room. I'd sent everyone on their way, promising I would turn my phone back on by nine the following morning. Aven was the hardest to get rid of. He kept insisting to give me a ride home. I knew how that would go. He would ask ten million questions, then try to get in my pants, in my case, scrubs, as soon as we got to my house. I didn't want that tonight. I really wanted to be held and that was it, but Aven wasn't the type. He didn't even like to cuddle after sex. Neither did I, but that was beside the point. Hercules was a cuddler, and he was the only male I needed in my bed.
Mason and I were standing alone in the hall. "So, are you going to call a cab?"
I knew what he was doing. He'd heard me turn everyone down that had offered me a ride home, and he was the only one who offered me another option. He wanted to offer to give me a ride too, but he was going to let me choose, cab or him. "Yeah,"
"I don't care to drop you off on my way home if you need a ride. I'm leaving now. It'll probably take the cab twenty-five minutes to get here. By then, you could already be in bed. Besides, how're you going to pay for cab fare?"
Damn, he had me there. I could always tell the cabbie to wait while I ran into my house to get money, but Mason was right, the cab could take a while to get here. Damn. I sighed. "I guess you're right. Are you sure you don't mind? I don't want to have to explain to anyone else what happened to me today."
He smiled a smile that was just as glamorous as Adam's. I really needed to figure out what I was going to do about Dr. Chamberlain, but right now all I wanted was to go home. "C'mon Kendra, I'll take you home."
I followed him, but he led me past the front exit doors. He took note of my confusion and smiled. "The employees have a different parking lot than the visitors do."
"Oh." I said, then he stopped and scanned his card through a black box on the wall.
"I had to clock out." So, that was the reason for the little black box. I didn't miss those days of punching in and out of work.
We got in a service elevator and Mason hit a button with a "G" on it. I thought we were already on the ground floor, so I assumed it must have meant garage. All I knew was that I was finally getting out of there. The door opened to a big underground garage and Mason led me to his truck. It was a nice truck, black and shiny and all chromed out. It had four-wheel drive and a tall lift kit on it. He used the keyless entry to unlock the doors, then opened up the passenger side for me. I guess he knew better than to try and help me up, or maybe he just wanted to laugh to himself as I struggled. To his amazement, I didn't have a bit of trouble. Evidently, he must have forgotten about my extreme hobbies, or maybe he just wanted to see me in action. The last thought made me giggle involuntarily, but Mason only smiled as he shut my door.
He got in on the driver's side and buckled his seatbelt. Mine was already fastened. Safety first. Although I doubted I had to worry about dying...until Friday. I had two guardian angels watching over me now.
"Where to?" Mason said as he pulled out of the garage and stopped at the stop sign.
"480 Oakwood Rd. It's to the west and out of town a few miles." Mason nodded as if going that far out of his way didn't bother him at all. I was guessing it was out of his way, he may very well have lived out w
est also.
We rode for a while. I was daydreaming and trying to come up with a solution to my problem when I remembered one of Mason's. "I thought you had a date tonight."
Mason smiled so big that I thought it was going to split his face in two halves.
"What?" I said.
"I never had a date. Brittney, the little nurse's aide, was listening and she has a crush on me." I just looked at him, and he frowned. "And the feeling isn't mutual, so I was trying to let her know that I was interested in someone else without hurting her feelings if she ever did get up the courage to ask me out."
"Oh…so is there a girlfriend or someone that you're interested in?"
He looked at me, then back at the road. He cleared his throat a little as he looked out his driver's side window. "Maybe," he looked back at the road without looking at me again. I stared at him a moment, there was a hint of a smile there on his face. I didn't put too much thought into it. Evidently he wasn't going to say anything more on the subject.
I remembered then that Adam wasn't the only one in the operating room when they stripped me of everything but my pride. Mason had seen me naked as well. Crap. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I know, it's a nasty habit that can crack your teeth, and I'll end up with TMJ syndrome. I've heard it all, don't waste your breath.
We were getting close to my road and I asked Mason to slow down. I pointed out where to turn, and he complied. "It's the third house on the right." He pulled in the driveway and cut the engine.
"Nice house," he said, and I smiled.
It was a nice house. Actually, I'd purchased four acres out in the middle of nowhere and designed my own twenty-two hundred square foot house, then had it built. There were only two bedrooms, a guest room and my own, and all of the rooms were big and spacious.
Save My Soul Page 3