by Marie Harte
“This must have been very painful,” she said and ran her finger gently down the length.
“I don’t remember. It happened a long time ago.”
She continued on with her task and lifted his eyelid. The shade of blue that blankly stared back was so startling, so breathtakingly beautiful that she released his lid and staggered back.
“Eve?” Alex asked from the other side of the bed. “What’s wrong?”
She looked over at him and blinked. “Nothing.” Her heart pumped feverishly as she lied. “Your body is healing nicely.” She looked down, avoiding his curious gaze and noticed the mark on his arm. “You have a tattoo,” she babbled out, lightly touching his skin.
“It’s my unit tattoo. We all have it.”
She liked it, and she liked that Alex had one, it made him more of a living person than just a soul. She also happened to think tattoos looked sexy on a man’s biceps, especially this man.
“Eve, my chart.”
Eve looked at him again with a strange expression. What the hell was the matter with her? And why could he feel it when she touched his body? He hadn’t paid much attention when she had first touched his wrist, but then she’d touched the scar over his eye. He was sensitive about that scar and didn’t like anyone touching it, which was why he’d noticed when she did. He studied her as she moved around the bed, others must have touched him while he was stuck here, nurses, and doctors, why hadn’t he felt them, why could he only feel Eve’s touch?
She pulled out his chart and began reading the notes out loud giving him a narration at the same time. “You were brought in with multiple gunshot wounds. Right shoulder clean exit. Upper right abdominal with puncture wound to your liver and mid-chest with a puncture wound to your lung and it looks like it just nicked the pericardium.”
“What’s that?” He leaned over her to look at his chart.
“It’s a sac that surrounds the heart for protection.” She shook her head and flipped the page. “This doesn’t make any sense.” She flipped to the third page. “Everything looks good. Your pulse is good, blood pressure is good. CT scans on your head came back normal. You’ve responded well to the surgeries and antibiotics. You did lose a lot of blood, more than half your total amount but it’s been replaced.” She shook her head. “You shouldn’t be in a coma.”
“Then why am I?”
She looked at him worried. “I don’t know.”
“Could my injuries have caused it? Maybe the trauma of having two serious wounds was too much for me?” He wasn’t a doc but knew any damage to the liver wasn’t good and the heart and lungs was worse.
Eve sighed, pulling her lip between her teeth. “Maybe. Combined with the blood loss. I’m sorry Alex, I just don’t know.”
“What about when people are put in comas? Could they be doing that?”
She trailed her finger down the pages. “I don’t see any meds on here that would induce a coma. Besides, there is no need, your body is very strong. Unless…” She paused.
“Unless wha—” Alex froze. He could hear people talking in the hall, they were getting close. A male voice spoke. His anger rose fast and he clenched his jaw trying to contain it.
Miles.
Eve turned and looked warily up at him. He breathed.
“Miles is here,” he spoke quickly when she became stiff, keeping his voice calm. He was actually nervous. He didn’t want Eve anywhere near Miles. He saw the fear in her eyes. “Be calm. Miles will pick up on your fear right away. Just act like a physical therapist.”
“I am a physical therapist.”
“Yes, I can see that,” a male voice said from the door. Eve jumped and turned. Miles sauntered into the room as if he owned it. Alex’s partner held out his hand to her, his wide friendly smile seeming genuine.
As the room suddenly grew cold, she felt Alex put his hands on her hips. The heat from his hands seeped through her jeans, she guessed he was standing close behind her because her back was warming up too. He must be doing it for her benefit, helping to keep her calm, except it didn’t feel like it was working.
“Good afternoon Mrs…?” Miles gripped her hand and looked directly into her eyes.
“Ms Sinclair.” She forced her smile to reach her eyes as she looked back. He wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was dressed casually and wore his brown hair a little longer than Alex did. He wasn’t as tall as Alex was, but he did have more bulk across his chest.
She searched his eyes and fought against the impulse to shiver. If she didn’t know he was a killer she would like to think she would have figured it out by his eyes. The dark brown appeared almost black. Hadn’t Gran said time and again that the eyes mirrored the soul? Well the old proverb was certainly proved right by the looks of this guy.
“How can I help, Ms Sinclair?” He stood back, inspecting her.
“I was asked to come and perform an initial assessment on Mr Hunter here.” She pointed the chart at Alex’s body on the bed. Did he see that her hand was shaking? She lowered the chart.
“And who was it that asked you for the assessment?”
“He’s just probing,” Alex suddenly said. “Wants to see what you know. Calm down, I’m right here.”
Calm down! Like that was going to happen. This man was a killer. Well, so was Alex but this guy was evil, she could almost feel it.
“Who are you?” Eve pretended to be confused. “You’re not a doctor?”
He chuckled. “No, no. That’s too much school for me. My name is Remy Castillo—”
“Cover name,” Alex said next to her ear.
“—I work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Did you know that this floor is for military personal only?”
“Yes of course. I have patients here.” She blinked up at him, hoping to appear naïve.
“Who did you say referred you here?” he asked giving her a sweet smile.
“My referrals come from the Director of Military Health.” she answered him honestly, there would be no point in lying to him when he could ask any nurse or doctor on the floor.
“Why did they send you to Mr Hunter?” He was studying her now, looking her over from head to toe. The action almost made her cringe.
“I’m a physical therapist.” She shrugged, hoping she was pulling off the innocent look.
Miles’ expression was blank.
Eve felt he was waiting for more of an answer, so she rambled on, “I get called…you know, usually after the patient has recovered from their wounds…to begin treatment.” He continued to stare at her. Confused and a little freaked out by his behaviour, Eve suddenly blurted out, “You do know what a physical therapist does, don’t you?”
Alex tightened his hold on her hips. “Watch what you say to him, you do not want to piss this man off.”
In defence, Eve threw up her hands and apologised. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I’m just confused.” She held out Alex’s chart. “This says that he is in a coma. And I’m not usually brought in until the patient is…at least awake.” She gave him a worried look. “I can’t help him…well I could I suppose.” She purposely glanced sadly at Alex’s body. “I just don’t know what good it will do.” She handed him Alex’s chart.
“I apologise for the confusion. Perhaps when Mr Hunter wakes up you will be able to help then.”
Alex’s hands dropped from her hips as she moved for the door. “I’d like that,” she replied truthfully, stepping through the door. She fought the overwhelming urge to look back at Alex’s large body one more time.
Miles walked down the hall next to her. “This is all new to me. Do mix-ups like this happen often?”
Eve shrugged. “From time to time, although coma-boy is a first.”
“Coma-boy?” Alex mumbled next to her.
Miles laughed. “You sound as though you’ve seen worse.”
“Ooh yes! When I was training, there were two patients with the same name except spelt differently. One was in for a hysterectomy and the other for a tonsillectomy. But t
he docs picked up the mistake before anybody was cut open.”
“How did they figure it out?”
“Because the eighteen year old boy in for the tonsillectomy was wheeled in front of a gynaecologist.”
“Oh!” He laughed out loud. “Ouch!”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re not kidding.” They reached the heavy doors and Miles punched in the security code.
“You have more patients to see?” he asked casually. The area around them suddenly grew very cold.
“One more and then I’m gone.” She tried not to look at Alex standing next to Miles. The look on his face should have killed Miles on the spot. She realised right then, when Alex was back in his body, Miles was in for some serious trouble. Who was she kidding? Miles was a walking dead man. Goose bumps tingled their way to the surface of her arm. Boy, she was sure glad she wasn't in Alex’s bad books.
“Too bad. I was going to see if you wanted to grab a coffee.”
“No!” Alex growled the word. “He only wants to get more background on you. He doesn’t feel anything for you. Stop. Being. Nice.” There was a snarl attached to each word.
“Oh, well.” She didn’t have to act indifferent to his suggestion, it came naturally. Of course she wouldn’t go anywhere with him. She almost huffed aloud. She was totally insulted that Alex would ever assume she would. He had hurt Alex.
“Gotta go. Nice meeting you.” Eve faked one more smile and turned, walking away. When she heard the doors close behind her, she exhaled a shaky breath.
Chapter Thirteen
Eve walked back down the hall checking the room numbers. She wasn’t lying when she told Miles that she had one more patient, Master-Corporal Jean LeBlanc. The only problem was, she couldn’t seem to find him. She scanned her schedule for a third time. He was supposed to be in room seventeen, but that room was being prepared for a new patient.
“Why are you walking up and down the hall?” Alex asked next to her. She had continued to ignore him ever since he had accused her of being ‘nice’ to Miles. What the hell had he wanted? She had acted curt with Miles, Alex had said don’t, so she’d acted nice to Miles, Alex hadn’t liked that either, when the whole time she had been freaking out. What did he want from her?
Giving up her search, Eve walked to the station and leaned on the counter. “Jan, you’re not going to believe this, I’ve lost another one.”
The short and very wide nurse chuckled. “Who this time?”
“Jean LeBlanc.”
“The resident hotty. We gave him the boot when we found out he was married,” Gloria called over her shoulder from the other side of the desk.
“Oh!” Eve laughed. “Where’d you kick him to?”
“Just down on six. Room eight I think.” Gloria walked over. “He’s doing real good under your care Eve. He’s a different person than when he first arrived.”
Eve blushed. She wasn’t good at accepting praise. “It’s not all me, he’s worked his butt off.”
“Has he ever,” Gloria mumbled wiggling her eyebrows.
After collecting her jacket and bag, Eve said her goodbyes, promising not to stay away so long next time and walked down the hall towards the elevator. Waiting for the doors to open, Alex commented, “She’s right, your patients do very well under your care.”
The doors slid open and she stepped inside, Alex moved next to her as the doors closed.
She turned to him. “Was that your way of apologising for being snippy?”
There was a smirk on his face as he stared up at the glowing numbers. “I don’t get snippy.”
“Uh! Yes you do.” She shook her head. “I’m here trying to help you, remember?”
“I remember.” He crossed his arms, suddenly agitated. “Speaking of which, you didn’t get a chance to finish your sentence when we were talking about induced comas.”
“Yah. I’ve been thinking about that and I don’t think it’s a possibility.”
“What?”
“I thought that maybe you were keeping your soul out of your body on purpose.”
Alex hit the emergency stop button. He pulled his finger away and turned back to her grinning.
“I can’t believe you just did that.” Eve pointed at the buttons and then at him. “Why did you just do that?”
“What do you mean I’m keeping my soul from my body?”
“It’s a stupid idea.” She blinked, still stunned by his abilities. “I can’t believe you just did that!”
“Evening!” he growled her full name.
“Fine! I thought because of the circumstance and the danger involved with your employment, that your soul had left to give your body time to heal so that when you re-entered you would be strong and fully healed and could fight back. Right now, you’re safe because Miles thinks you might die, or at the very least not wake up. But if you were to wake up he would kill you, and right now you’re too weak to fight back.” Eve pointed to the elevator buttons again. “But that proves you are not weak.”
He focused on her for a moment, then asked, “Would I be able to heal my body if I was to re-enter it?”
“I think so. Yes.”
“But you can’t get near it now to merge me,” he sighed. She could hear the disappointment.
“Maybe we could try again in a few days, come at a different time,” she offered.
“No.” He dragged his hand through his dark hair. “You’re on Mile’s radar. He’ll check into your story and research your life. It would be suicide if you came back here.”
She hated hearing that defeated sound in his voice, she didn’t want to quit, she wanted to help him. “Maybe I could try and get you moved to a different floor?”
“You don’t have that kind of pull.”
“Alex, I—” she began, but he cut her off.
“Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.” He jammed the stop button with his finger and the elevator began to move. “You just focus on getting your appointment done. I want you out of this hospital.”
She didn’t get a chance to respond as the doors slid open and he vanished from sight.
* * * *
Alex found the room first and waited in the doorway for Eve to arrive. She chatted with the nurses behind the counter, then finally made her way to him, her thin brows were knitted together as she approached him. He was the cause. He had been snippy with her, not that he would ever admit to it. He just didn’t like the idea of Miles and Eve together. Even though he knew Miles had never been unfaithful to his wife Nicole, the idea made his insides twist with a rage he couldn’t understand.
“Smile.” He inclined his head towards the room. “His wife is in there with him.” Eve glared up at him and turned into the room, coming to a dead stop. Stepping in behind her Alex was about to ask why she had stopped, when he saw the answer.
Eve’s jaw dropped open. Another one? And both in the same room. Ah great. This must go against some law of physics. What were the odds of having two medians in the same room? She watched him as he sat on the window ledge looking back at her. His posture became stiffer when he realised she could see him.
“You can see me, can’t you?”
She couldn’t answer, where she stood by the door a curtain began and cut the normally large room in half giving each patient their own privacy. On one side, her patient, Jean, and his wife were staring at her, on the other side was a median demanding her attention.
“You can.” He stood and moved towards her. “How can you?”
She walked to Jean smiling, trying to ignore him. “Don’t walk away, talk to me.”
“She can’t answer you.” Eve heard Alex say.
“What? Who are you?” She could hear shock from the new median.
“Bonjour Eve. How are you?” Jean’s French accent was thick.
She shrugged answering back in French, “D’accord.”
“How can you hear me?” The new median’s question cut into her train of thought as he spoke to Alex.
“Because I’m like you.”
Okay this was way too many conversations. Eve shook her head missing Jean’s question. “Pardon?” she asked in French. It had taken years to learn the language even with her talent for manipulating words, but she was glad she had. After all, she did live in a country where French was one of two official languages.
Jean repeated his question and she answered, the words rolling smoothly off her tongue.
“You’re a soul?” the median asked.
“Wait one—” Alex stopped the median. “You speak French?” When she didn’t answer he commented, “C’est un bel accent.” Then, in a flawless French accent, he proceeded to ask what else she could do with her tongue.
A smile tugged at her lips as her face burned. She couldn’t believe he’d just asked her that and in front of people. Not that they heard…but that wasn’t the point.
“Who are you people?” the median demanded.
“Quiet,” Alex ordered. “Wait until she’s done.”
Eve was thankful that Alex had taken control of the other median and began chatting with Jean, purposely using a soothing pitch. Her words, even spoken in French, would lull him into a relaxed state so she could obtain an honest reaction from him.
He answered each of her questions sincerely, a sweet smile on his face the whole time. The truth was there, plain to see. Her job was done.
“Well,” Eve returned to English. “I think you have done a great job Jean. So, I’m cutting you loose. I’m recommending you be released. I’ll call your doc when I get home.”
“Fantastic! Merci!” Jean’s wife laughed.
“Try to get them to leave the room,” Alex suggested next to her.
Right the other median. She couldn’t very well have a conversation with two medians when her patient was listening to every word she said. “May I recommend a celebratory walk in the park? It is a beautiful day to sit and have a latte.”
“Oui. Good idea.” Jean swung his legs off the bed. “Want to come with us, Eve?”
Eve graciously declined, “I would love to but I can’t. I have to finish up my notes and then pick up Noelle.”