Dagger

by Sterling, S. L.

  He cleared his throat, causing me to jump. "I'm an MMA fighter, in case you are wondering. Not just some dick who just likes to pick fights."

  It was as if he could read my mind, while I sat there making more notes, practically ignoring him. I could feel his gaze on me while I continued to write. I nodded, half listening as I continued to monitor his vitals.

  "I fight for a living. It's what I do. Not a hobby." It was as if he were defending himself to my unsaid thoughts.

  "Okay, I got it," I mumbled. I didn't care. Okay, well, that wasn't entirely true. I didn't want to care, because caring only led to me to getting involved with these assholes and getting hurt in the end.

  He struggled a bit to sit up, his face flinching in pain, to explain to me. "It's my job. It's my job to fight, sweetheart. It's how I support myself."

  "And this is my job, to fix people like you, and please don't call me sweetheart," I said, sounding as cold as I possibly could, continuing to make more notations on his chart. "The doctor will be in shortly. Stay and rest." I pressed a bunch of buttons on the machines, grabbed his chart, and stepped out of the room. I took a deep breath. I didn't need him to sway me. I didn't need him to make me feel anything different than what I already felt. I needed to keep it in my mind that, in the end, he would be nothing but trouble, and I would be fine on my own.

  I made my way back to the nurses’ station and sat down in my chair, took a sip of my lukewarm tea, and began updating his chart.

  "I see you met Dagger," Mollie said, sliding into her chair beside me and signing into her computer. "What do you think? You know, just for the record, he's pretty hot when he isn't all banged up," she said, bumping my arm. "You should totally go for him, that way I can live vicariously through you."

  "Who?" I asked, frowning as I continued making notes on my computer and popping some popcorn into my mouth. I couldn't recall a patient by that name, and I was pretty good with names.

  She pointed to the closed door across from the desk. "Only the hottest guy here: the MMA fighter, Dagger. Bet he'd be dynamite in the sack."

  "Right. Derrick."

  Mollie let out a laugh. "Yes Derrick," she mimicked. "You better get used to him. He is here all the time, practically twice monthly. He pretty much recovers from one fight just in time to get into the next one. He says he’s working his way up to the big matches. I'll hate to see him after one of those. I've watched some of those fights on TV—broken bones, bruised organs, the trauma to the body is just unbelievable."

  "Cool," I mumbled, stuffing a couple more pieces of popcorn into my mouth and making more notes for the doctor. I really didn't want to talk about him. Each and every one of these guys were the exact same, and I had vowed I wouldn't get involved with another one of them. I just hoped she caught on before I snapped at her. I was feeling overly sensitive about this tonight, but I couldn't help it.

  "He's really a good guy, Katy," she murmured. "Give him a chance. Maybe he will grow on you."

  "What, like a fungus?" I grumbled. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know what I had been through, because I had told no one, and truthfully, I wanted to keep it that way. I had enough people in my life feeling sorry for me; I didn't need the new ones that I met to feel that way too.

  She let out a laugh but quieted down instantly when two of the doctors rounded the corner and looked over our way. We were, after all, in an area with some very ill people. It was hardly the time for outbursts of loud laughter.

  "He's had a rough childhood, and he turned his anger into something positive. It's a great thing, turning a negative into a positive."

  I whipped around. "My God, enough. You sound like an advocate for him or something. A guy who beats up other guys for a living just because he is filled with some sort of rage because he had a rough childhood doesn't sound like a good guy to me. There are many ways to deal with those feelings, starting with a licensed therapist," I snapped at her. I couldn't help it. My ex was the same way, always crying that he'd had an abusive childhood. It still didn't give him the right to treat me the way he had. I knew the type like I knew the back of my hand, and I’d sworn to myself that once I was out of that relationship, I would never get involved with another one of those guys again.

  I looked up and over at Mollie, her eyes falling to the ground. "I'm sorry, Katy!" She turned her attention quickly to her computer, ignoring me, a sad look coming over her face. I hadn't meant to, but I had totally snapped. She just didn't know what she was talking about, nor what I had dealt with over the last few years. I was just about to lean over and apologize to her for ripping her one when the doctor I had been waiting for came walking around the corner.

  "All right, Katy, let’s go and see Dagger, shall we," he said, tapping his thumb on the counter in front of me.

  I rolled my eyes. "Et tu, Brute?"

  He smirked. "Yes."

  I glanced to Mollie, who feverishly typed away on the computer in front of her, and then followed the doctor as he entered the room first. I held the chart in my hand, ready to make any notes as he told me.

  "How are you feeling, Dagger?" he asked, stepping up to him, shaking his hand, and looking him over.

  "As good as can be expected, doc, and you?"

  "I'm well. So, tell me, what happened this time?" he asked as he put on a pair of gloves and took an alcohol swab to the gash above his eye, causing Derrick to flinch.

  "This guy snuck up on me. It was a no-good dirty move and the ref called him on it, but the damage was already done, which was what he was pretty much counting on."

  I watched as the doctor dropped the little alcohol swab into the garbage and started palpating the middle of his back. "How does this feel?" he asked, pressing into the kidney area.

  Derrick sucked in a breath. "Fuck, doc, what do you think? It hurts like hell."

  As soon as the doctor removed his hands from the bruised area, Derrick looked at me and smirked. "You're wildly impressed with my pain tolerance, right?" He tried to wink, but with his eyebrow held together with the butterfly sutures that had been put on earlier, it didn't go too well. He laughed. "Hang on, let me try that again." He turned to the other side of his face and tried again.

  The doctor let out a loud laugh. "Stop it or I'll have to call in the plastic surgeon on duty, and I already know you hate that guy."

  "Please," I murmured under my breath.

  Derrick looked at me and then back to the doctor. "That's only because he charges too much and looks like a pretty boy. I can't trust a pretty boy, doc."

  The doctor pouted as if he were hurt, and I rolled my eyes again at their banter. "You trust me. Am I not pretty?"

  "You, doc? you're ruggedly handsome. And her." He jerked his thumb at me. "She is like girl-next-door gorgeous." He sighed and shook his head. "She has a great bedside manner too; a touch so gentle it's almost like silk. It's too bad she hates me."

  The doctor leaned in toward Dagger and looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Don't get your hopes up. You're not special. She hates everyone, even me. Isn't that right, Katy?"

  I smirked. The doctor was right… on some level.

  Chapter 3

  Dagger

  She didn't need to say anything else. I could tell from the way she glared at me while the doctor examined me that she definitely hated me. However, I was glad and a bit relieved to know that she basically hated everyone and that it wasn't anything truly personal. In her eyes, I was nothing special, just some loser who fought people, and I could tell she thought that just by the way she looked at me. However, a part of me wondered, even hoped, that maybe I could be special to her if I played my cards right. I already felt she could be special to me if she would let me near her long enough.

  As the doctor continued examining me, I stretched and grinned at her as I flinched, every muscle in my body aching. "All right, well, let’s get this stitched up, and then you can be on your way to see your next patient, and I can be on my way home to rest. That way I'll leave Nurse Gloom
here alone and let her move on to her next case." I smiled.

  I glanced over her way, looking to see if that comment had softened her even the tiniest little bit, but she had her face buried in my chart, studying it, ignoring us and waiting for any instructions from the doctor, doing everything and anything she possibly could not to look my way. I couldn't blame her, to be honest. I was an utter mess, but underneath the swollen eye, cut eyebrow, bruised cheek, and fat lip, I was a damn good-looking man.

  "That all sounds great, Dag, but first I want an ultrasound of your kidneys. I want to make sure they are, in fact, just bruised, and nothing worse. You've been hit pretty hard back there on more than one occasion. I'm sure you already know that you can expect to pee blood for the next two or three days. However, you know the drill: any longer than that and I want you back in here." The doctor turned to make sure Nurse Grumpy Pants was listening.

  I looked over and studied her badge. "Katy, nice name. I like it," I said, wincing as the doctor pressed on the bruise over my lower rib cage to make sure my ribs weren't broken.

  "Perhaps an X-ray of his ribs too, both sides, Katy."

  Katy continued ignoring me and kept writing. "Anything else, doctor?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, exposing the soft skin of her neck to me. Something about that fascinated me, and I wondered what it would be like to kiss her right there, on that bit of exposed collarbone. I wondered what types of noises she would make as my lips skated over her skin.

  The room got quiet and I tore my eyes from her, looking over to where the doc stood. He sat there smirking at me. He knew exactly what I was thinking. Instantly, I felt like a kid who had just been caught looking at a skin mag. He knew. Of course, he did. Out of all the times I had been in this emergency room, this was the hottest nurse I had ever seen; there was no question. There was no doubt in my mind that he was even attracted to her, I thought to myself.

  My suspicions were confirmed when she stood up and began getting the tray ready to sew up my face and the doctor’s eyes landed directly on her ass.

  I swallowed hard and looked away as the doctor finished giving his orders. I guess I had no choice but to wait it out until all the testing was done.

  He turned to me and asked me all the usual questions—allergies, health history. Once he was finished, Katy sat down across from me. I did my best not to act as if I were interested in her while she sat there and began really cleaning the wound about my eye, while the doctor started filling out the requisition forms for the X-rays.

  "I'm not hurting you am I?" she asked softly as she continued dabbing.

  I looked her in the eyes, those glass-blue eyes peering back at me. It was suddenly hard for me not to think those thoughts that had been running through my mind all night.

  "It's good, I'm good. Just do what you have to do," I whispered, her eyes still locked with mine.

  The doctor cleared his throat behind her and she started cleaning the wound again. I swallowed hard and looked away.

  "Dagger! I heard you were in here," the pretty boy plastic surgeon said as he flew through the curtain and into the room, causing Katy to jump and look over her shoulder at him.

  "Geez, you’re pretty popular around here, aren't you," Katy murmured under her breath as she returned to cleaning my wound. I glanced down at her, her eyes darting away from mine.

  "Figured I would come up and see if you wanted me to stitch up your face instead, before this guy here keeps you from that very promising modeling career that you've got lined up later on in life. Those brands will find you, so you're going to need to stay on my good side, you know, to keep you from getting cauliflower ears." He laughed. "And you are welcome," he said, using this singsong voice that had me wanting to poke my eardrums out. Then I saw the way his eyes roamed over Katy as she stood and began to get the sutures ready, and instantly I imagined doing things to pretty boy that wouldn't leave him looking so pretty.

  Katy sat back down in front of me and we both exchanged a brief look. At least I knew I hadn't imagined it. From the look she gave me, she didn't like that pretty boy plastic surgeon any more than I did. I watched as his eyes continued washing over her, planting firmly on her ass, and I was beginning to wonder if he was here to take care of her instead of me.

  The doctor who was writing up the requisition for me excused himself for a moment and left the room to get something, and that was when pretty boy stepped in.

  "So, Katy, what do you say? How about Friday night we go for dinner and then see a movie? There are some great classics playing at the theatre downtown."

  She looked me in the eyes, almost pleading with me to save her, then she turned to him. "I don't think so. I have plans," she mumbled.

  "So blow them off. I promise to make it worth your while," he said, running his hand over her shoulder and letting it linger there a little longer than I liked.

  I watched as she flinched and moved out from under his touch, taking her gloves off. She nodded at me. "I'll be right back." She excused herself and was almost out of the room when pretty boy started to follow her.

  "The lady said no," I said loud enough for them both to be sure to hear me. Katy turned and looked over her shoulder at me, a soft smile coming to her lips before she continued on her way.

  Just as pretty boy was about to say something to me, the other doctor walked back in, and the tension in the air washed away immediately. The two doctors began talking and ignoring me while I waited for Katy to come back.

  I looked past them to the nurses’ station and watched Katy as she spoke to Mollie. She rolled her eyes and looked back toward my room, then stopped talking while Mollie said something to her. Maybe she had decided she had been too eager to judge me. At least that was what I hoped had happened. For whatever reason, I really wanted her, of all people, to think that I was a better person than what I was. I really wanted her attention, every ounce of it.

  Chapter 4

  Katy

  Within the hour, Dagger had been sent down for his ultrasound and X-rays, and I had completed the remainder of the rounds with the doctor and had just sat down behind the nurses’ station with a fresh cup of hot tea. I took a sip, allowing the hot liquid to warm me, and took some time to update the charts in the computer system while it was quiet. I hated more than anything to be behind on my paperwork and always did my best to make sure I remained caught up throughout my shift.

  I sat there typing my notes, listening to Mollie talking with one of the other nurses about Derrick. I couldn't help but eavesdrop on them, and judging from what they were saying about Derrick, I could tell every one of them here had something for him. I continued listening to them as they told stories back and forth of the last few times he had been in, and I smiled to myself. They were being ridiculous, acting like teenage girls drooling over some rock star, instead of the married women they were.

  A noise to my left distracted me and I spotted Phil, the plastic surgeon. He was back and busy speaking with one of the other doctors on call. I tried to keep my head down and myself busy, but he turned his head in time to catch me watching them. As soon as his eyes met mine, he parted ways with the other doctor and made his way towards me. I smirked when I thought back to how Derrick had stood up for me earlier. It was so sweet how he spoke up after I had left the room. Perhaps the girls were right, and Derrick wasn't all that bad after all.

  I let out a sigh. That revelation made me angry with myself. I hated that I was thinking that about him already. This was exactly how I got myself into trouble. It always started with me second-guessing myself and giving people who never deserved it a chance.

  "Dagger back yet, Katy?" I turned to see Phil standing behind me.

  I cleared my throat and took a sip of tea. "No, sir," I answered, trying to maintain my professionalism.

  "Sir? You can call me Phil. I came back because I wanted to check on those stitches."

  "Why? Dr. Kent is perfectly capable of stitching in a straight line, as am I." At least Derrick and I
seemed to have similar views on things, like this pig of a plastic surgeon.

  "I'm sure he is." He reached into my bag of popcorn and took a handful and leaned up against my desk. "Do me a favor and at least think about Friday night, okay," he said, winking at me. "I promise you'll enjoy yourself." He placed his hand on my shoulder, giving me a gentle squeeze. I was just about to ask him to remove his hand when I heard someone call his name, and the next thing I knew, he was walking away.

  "What was all that about?" Mollie asked, rushing over to sit down across from me. She watched as Dr. Pretty Boy left the area.

  "Nothing." I shook my head, keeping my mouth shut, and returned to my paperwork.

  "Could have fooled me. Looks like Phil was getting pretty cozy with you."

  "I'm not interested, so he can go and bug someone else," I mumbled, ending the conversation.

  Our resident plastic surgeon seemed to be completely interested in both Derrick and me for totally different reasons. He didn't need to see Derrick's stitches, and he didn't need to see me Friday night, that much I was sure of. He was getting plenty of play, I was sure of it. Out of all the nurses here, I was pretty much the only one he hadn't dated at one time or another. If he thought word didn't get around the hospital, he was wrong.

  Plus, I knew for a fact that some of the nurses here would be perfectly happy never having to work another day in their life. He should go after those ones because I was determined to never have to depend on another person for financial support ever again. I had been down that road, and look where it had gotten me. I was being forced to start over, and there really was no security in that. It was all just smoke and mirrors, so he'd better learn, and learn fast, that he was sniffing around the wrong woman.