Although her heart was focused on becoming a spinal surgeon, there was no task Tania wasn’t willing to do if the occasion came up. The only thing she didn’t like were the rare moments that other doctors lived for.
A lull in the activity.
She didn’t like lulls. Lulls caused her to think and, eventually, to remember. To remember no matter how hard she tried not to, no matter how often she forced herself to count her blessings first.
She had a great many of those and counting always took a while. She had a supportive family, parents and sisters who cared about her. Even her brother-in-law and the two men who, very shortly, were going to become part of the family were all nice guys.
On top of that, she was becoming what she’d always dreamed of being ever since Sasha, her oldest sister, had announced she was going to be a doctor. The revelation gladdened the heart of her father and, most of all, her mother.
All Tania had to do was to take in the scene that long-ago afternoon and that made up her mind for her. She was going to be a doctor. She, too, was going to save the world one patient at a time. The fact that Natalya and Kady followed in Sasha’s footsteps only made her resolve that much stronger that she was going to be a doctor, too.
There’d only been one dark incident to cast a stain on her life, one in comparison to the multitude of blessings, and yet the shadow of that one stain managed to cast itself over everything, blackening her life like a bottle of ink marring a pristine white sheet.
One stain had caused all the happiness to slip into abeyance.
She tried, more for her family’s sake than her own, to put it behind her. To forget. But forgetting for more than a few minutes at a time was next to impossible. The incident lived with her every day, shadowing her. The memory of it found her when she was at ease and assaulted her mind, making her remember. Making her suffer through it.
Especially in her dreams.
Trying to block it out of her mind was the reason why she’d eagerly volunteered to work in the emergency room every time the area was shorthanded. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the E.R. was crowded with patients, all seeking immediate help. The atmosphere was nothing short of frantic and hectic. And nothing made her happier than being there. She was forced to concentrate on procedures, on patients who needed her help.
And while she concentrated on that, the cold, hard reality of what had happened to her that one horrible evening was pushed into the background.
For the time being.
This particular morning the bedlam that was called the E.R. seemed especially acute. A trauma bay was no sooner emptied than someone else was brought in to fill it. She’d been on duty for close to twelve hours, on her second “second wind” and had cleared over thirty-one cases before she stopped counting.
Tania felt dead on her feet and there were still several hours to go until her second shift was finally over.
Be careful what you wish for.
It wasn’t an old Polish saying, like the ones her mother was so fond of quoting, but it certainly did fit the occasion.
She was just erasing the newest case she’d discharged, which meant she was up for the next patient, when another fourth-year resident, Debbie Dominguez, tugged on the sleeve of her lab coat.
When Tania glanced in her direction, the dark-haired woman pointed to the rear doors that just sprang open. The look in Debbie’s eyes was envious.
“Boy, some people have all the luck.” She referred to the fact that Tania was up for the patient being brought in by two ambulance attendants.
Strapped to the gurney was a tall, muscular man in what appeared to be a disheveled, gray suit. The patient’s hair was several shades darker than her own blond hair and he didn’t exactly look happy to be there.
Behind him were two more gurneys, one with an older, somber-dressed man and the second with a rather vocal patient. The latter had a police escort in addition to the two attendants bringing him in.
“I don’t need a doctor,” the man in the gray suit on the first gurney protested. “Really, all I need is just to get cleaned up.”
The older man on the second gurney seemed noticeably concerned. “Please, young man, you need stitches. I know these things. I will take care of everything. The hospital, everything,” he promised with zeal. “But you need to have medical attention.”
The head ambulance attendant began rattling off the first man’s vitals. Tania listened with one ear while giving the man on the first gurney a swift once-over. As far as patients went, they didn’t usually come this exceptionally good-looking. While distancing herself, Tania could still see why Debbie had been so interested. Any more interested and the woman would have been salivating.
When her patient struggled to get off the gurney, Tania placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Listen to the man,” she advised, nodding toward the second gurney. “He’s right. Besides, if you put on another suit, you’re just going to wind up getting blood on it unless I stitch you up.”
Turning his head in her direction, Jesse’s protest died in his throat. His eyes swept over her and he had to admit he did like what he saw.
“You’re my doctor?”
Rounding the corner to the trauma bays, feeling as if she was at the head of a wagon train, Tania grinned in response to the appreciative note in the man’s voice. “I’m your doctor.”
Jesse settled back against the gurney. “I guess maybe I’ll take those stitches.”
“Good choice.”
IMPRINT: Mills & Boon
ISBN: 9781742924335
TITLE: DARK TRUTH
First Australian Publication 2011
Copyright © 2011 Lindsay McKenna
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