The Animal Within

by Jisa Dean

URGENT

  CARE

  By:

  JISA DEAN

  URGENT

  CARE

  By:

  JISA DEAN

  Demi is having one of the worst holidays of her life-I mean who even likes spending time with nut ball relatives that don’t really like you anyway. It’s made especially awful by the fact her sister and her new fiancé, who used to date Demi, is talking wedding cakes and baby registries. Who wouldn’t make up a fake boyfriend to be left alone? The cherry on top of her Thanksgiving night is an emergency trip to the E.R.-hey it was her or that turkey, she had to fight for her life. One hot doctor, several stitches, and one whoosy belly later and she’s not only living a lie but she’s got to remind herself that the good doctor is just doing this out of the kindness of his heart and probably because she is so damned pathetic. Could this holiday season get any worse? Oh yeah, she could lose her heart in the process. Happy freakin’ Thanksgiving.

  This is the start of a new series that follows the people that work at a hospital straight out of a soap opera. Most of the books follow a holiday and a hot person in scrubs because hey, scrubs can be sexy too. If you like fake boyfriends, hot doctors, instalove and turkey with your kink give this one a try. Who doesn’t like a little meat at this time of year (wink, wink)?

  Chapter One

  Demi

  My sister is beautiful. Blonde, young, bright blue eyes and rotten inside pretty much explains her to a tee. Seriously something must have happened to mom when she was carrying Beverly. Maybe something was in the water we drank or something. I don't think I turned out all that bad. I understand I'm a nineteen-year-old sales clerk working one step up from a gas station, the Sip and Go actually does have gas tanks but I work in the restaurant part, not that there is anything wrong with the gas part though. I'm proud of what I've made for myself. Do I have a lot? No, but everything that I do have I got because I worked and saved like crazy.

  Mom and Dad never really offered me anything. I bought my own car, I paid for my own rent and if I needed something drastic I often sought comfort in my friends rather than my parents. I guess they were too tapped out paying for all of my sister's wants and whims to worry about mine. Ever since I can remember Bev has gotten everything she always wants. Hell, she got my boyfriend who is now her fiance.

  Cliff was a good man. He doesn't drink too much, he doesn't go out and raise hell on the weekend and if his dad ever retires he will be the inheritor of the number one grossing car dealership in the area. I've known Chad since we went to high school together. He's sweet but not the brightest bulb in the box. Still, he treated me nice when we dated. Right up until the time he tripped and fell dick first into my little sister's vagina.

  Nothing throws the breaks on a relationship like walking in and finding him six inches deep in a relative. In all reality though, I don't besmirch them their happiness. Not at all. I never wanted to marry Cliff and be Mrs. Car-a-lot-seriously they went with the King Arthur theme all the way throughout the show room. The new cars are referred to as the Merlin special and if you bring in a clunker they give you the Morgan La Fay deal.

  I let a small laugh go without thinking and sense my mom's eyes on me. She's been so tense this entire day like she's worried I'm going to go postal on my sister and start shooting the rest of the family for funnsies. Probably doesn't help that I'm laughing out loud at things only I can find funny. Way to sale the whole not crazy thing, right.

  Every year for Thanksgiving we hang out at mom and dad's house until the Friday after. When I was younger this used to be one of my favorite times of year. We would welcome family we didn't see but once or twice a year, put up the Christmas tree, and watch Charlie Brown together. But as soon as my sister hit puberty all of that stopped. No one would come over because who could tell what Bev would do this year.

  When I moved out right after I turned eighteen I thought about not going back either, but they're my family. I can't just abandon them, can I?

  "What is so funny, Demi?"

  "Just thinking about a conversation I had with my boyfriend a few days ago. Sorry. I guess I just miss him." I don't look up but I feel my mom's eyes narrow on me and start to sweat a little.

  I am a complete fucking liar. I don't miss my love because I don't have a boyfriend to miss. I lied about having a boyfriend, so I could dodge some of the tension I knew would be thick in the air this holiday. Last Thanksgiving was the time I walked in on them thrown over the counter in the kitchen going to town on each other. To be honest I watched for a full minute because I didn't think I was really seeing what I was seeing.

  How could the guy I had been dating for the last six months be dick deep in my little sister? He had come with me not her. Well, I'm sure he actually cum with her but damn it, he arrived with me. Thank God I never gave him my V card. It just hadn't felt right and I wanted it to feel right when I finally trusted someone enough to commit to them that way. When I do, it will mean so much more to me than it seems to mean to everyone around me.

  Of course the number one reason Cliff was bottoms up in my sweet sister was because I hadn't put out for the past six months and 'there was only so much a man can take'. I got that from Cliff, my mom, and my dad but the worst was getting it from my sister who delighted in rubbing it in.

  So I did what any self-respecting virgin who didn't want to hear it all over again would have done. I lied my ass off. I told everyone I had a new boyfriend and that we didn't know if we were serious yet, and I was the one who wanted to take things slow. Before I knew it, the lie had grown so big my mom wanted him to come to dinner on Thanksgiving.

  "Tell us again why the man you are dating and refuse to tell us who he is won't come to dinner with the family?" Sometimes my mom can be as big a bitch as my sister. I can tell she's just waiting to tear me apart once the truth comes out.

  "He had to work. And I've already told you, Mom, I don't want to jinx anything. We're new and I just want to make sure about everything before I introduce him to anyone."

  "I think you were worried your new man would take one look at your sister and another one would dump you and go for her. Which is really just selfish of you, Cliff and Bev are happy with each other. The boy is going to marry her, Demi."

  I close my eyes and try to swallow down the pain of being the disappointment in the family. It's nothing new. My mom and dad have always been firm supporters of Bev. Even though my hand tightens up on the carving knife in my hand as I deflesh the turkey I would never do anything to really hurt any of them, even Cliff.

  "Maybe she was trying to make Cliff jealous, so she can try to win him back." My sister's light, sweet voice has to chime in on the argument. I roll my eyes so hard I have a head ache now. But I have my back to them so they can't tell how the thought of taking him back makes me sick a little.

  We always have a late dinner on Thanksgiving and this year is no exception. Me, mom, and Bev are in the kitchen doing the 'women's' work while my dad and Cliff are in the living room watching the game. It's not that I mind being in the kitchen. I like cooking Thanksgiving dinner and can't wait to have a family of my own to be able to cook for and decorate for and take care of.

  The thought of having that dream is enough to make me sigh. It is a dream that isn't going to happen anytime soon. First you would need a male to start to have that life and since I have no male and I can't self reproduce- although if I could that would be pretty awesome- that is a dream that has to wait for later. The sound of my mother tittering about what Bev said is enough to make me wish I had taken my best friends advice and went with him to the beach. Palm trees, sand, and watching Houston hook up with really hot men would have been so much more fun than listening to my mom and sister make bitchy comments all day long.

  I blame the thought of palm trees for my momentary lapse in coordination, but it was probably just me being clumsy, the knife I'm using bounces off the bone and glides right into the palm of my hand. It takes me a little while to realize it
is way more serious than a band aid can fix. When I turn to show my mom what happened blood is already running down my wrist and making a long red line to my elbow.

  Mom and Bev both scream loud enough that the men come running to see what happened, but they're not screaming because I'm hurt.

  "Don't get it in the turkey! You'll ruin Thanksgiving dinner, Demi!"

  "She did that on purpose to have everyone to feel sorry for her! How low can you get, Demi?"

  Dad is the person that wraps a dish towel around my hand and puts pressure on it. He's also the person that shoots me the go to hell look for having to get up off the couch and leave the game. My body has gone hot and cold and it feels like warm water is being poured over me. I think I'm going into shock but I'm not saying a damned thing here. If I wouldn't pass out before I had it sown up I would just go upstairs and do it myself. As it is I'm too light-headed for that to actually work and the thought of a needle coming anywhere near me makes me see stars.

  "I'll take her to the emergency room. It shouldn't take me long to get her there and be back." Damn, sometimes my parents' coldness even shocks me.

  "You better take this," mom hands me a clean towel before she steps back and I'm shocked by her kindness, "don't want it all over the car."

  Yeah, shouldn't have expected that to last long. Damn it I can really use a hug from someone right now.

  ***

  The closest hospital is about thirty minutes from my parents' house, but they don't take the insurance that my mom and dad still keep on me. I had to talk fast to keep dad from driving for another thirty minutes to go to the one that does. One, I just want out of this car and two, I hate the other hospital. It's filthy and the staff are mean and rude. Besides, I know a girl who works at this one. She does the hospital's billing and accounting. We knew each other in school and sometimes I go with her for a cup of coffee or a glass of tea.

  I finally have to tell dad that not only will I pay for it out of my own pocket, but he would be able to go back to the house and watch the game quicker.

  "I can't believe how selfish you are. Not only did you do this on a holiday but I just can't see you doing this by 'accident'." Both my parents think I did this on purpose to get back at Bev. "Then you try to go to the most expensive hospital in town. But if this is the hospital you want to throw your own money away on than by all means go for it. Why did you want to come here anyway?"

  "I told you, I know someone that works here, dad. I can ask them to give me a ride back home when I'm done. It saves money on calling a cab or taking the bus." My dad is a little bit of a cheap ass.

  When we pull up to the front he pulls up and doesn't even get out to walk me into the waiting room. I'm not even through the sliding doors before he is back out on the road to head home. If I wasn't hurting so bad and covered in turkey grease and blood I would just catch the bus home and hide for the rest of the week. Going back makes me a little nauseous but that could be blood loss too.

  I'm shocked they let me keep both towels and didn't try to jerk one back before he sped off. Guess they don't want turkey grease and blood on their matching accessories. I turn to the doors and think about calling Houston to send me the money to hop on the bus and come to him, he knows I'm good for it and I'll pay him back in a couple of weeks, but I can't because I left my phone at their house. So much for palm trees and living vicariously through Hou.

  Also by Jisa Dean:

  The Lake Series

  Lake House

  Lakeside Daddy

  Down by the Lake

  The Librarian Series

  Booked

  Overdue

  Late Notice

  The Brothers Series

  Blue Venus

  Crimson Deep

  Violet Ends

  Coming Soon!

  Urgent Care (The Doctor Series: Book One)

  Lakefront Property (The Lake Series: Book Four)

  Dark Redemption (The Dark Series: Book One)

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