His Back Bay Princess

A crash sounded in the hallway and startled her enough to give her the strength to push away from the door. She spotted his chart and pulled it out to study it. The doctor had given her a thirty-second breakdown of the gunshot wound and the surgery that had followed. Reviewing the chart, she was relieved nothing of importance had been left out.

“So what does it say? Anything of interest?” His voice was husky from sleep and likely the lingering anesthesia. His voice was honey sweet and whiskey burn to her ears. Her body reacted to it immediately; her nipples tightened and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She fought her body, but after so long, it wasn’t easy.

Closing the chart, she arranged her face into a lack of concern before she looked up. “You’ll be fine. Really sore for the next few weeks, and active duty isn’t something you’ll be seeing anytime soon, you’ll be fine. BMC is actually releasing you today. The attending is on his rounds right now and expects to be in to have a look at you in the next hour and half. If he likes what he sees, and I’m sure he will, then you’ll be released.”

“Damn, that’s faster than I would have thought.” He was surprised, and silently she agreed with him.

“Well, if you had been lucky enough to be shot near a hospital that wasn’t crumbling amid financial ruin then I’m sure they would have kept you another day. What the hell were you doing running around without a vest on?” The question wasn’t intended, but damn it, the gunshot had only been two inches away from a main artery, and if he had been wearing a vest he would have been protected.

“It wasn’t like that. I was on my way home and some dumb punk tried to carjack me. I stamped on the accelerator and apparently it pissed him off enough to fire off a shot. Well, that and I probably broke his arm.” He attempted to shrug, then winced when his shoulder protested the action.

It was becoming harder to look at him, and she was thankful at the interruption of Sarah, a nurse she had long considered a friend yet sadly hadn’t kept in contact with since she left.

“Knock, knock! Hey, Catherine, I heard you were here, visiting the gossip of the hour.” Sarah wiggled her fingers at Diego. “How are you doing, hon?”

A quick hug of welcome was given. “I’m good. How have you been?”

“Good, I’m doing really good. Me and the hubby are actually going to be moving to South Carolina. He was able to find a job at a dealership and I found a really nice hospital. How’s Beth Israel been treating you?”

“Great, I love it. Everyone is easy to work with.”

“I’m so relieved to hear that and glad for you. I know it wasn’t easy for you after all you went through with that sexual deviant Dr. Garber. That smug bastard got fired only a few months after you left. I don’t know if you heard. He overstepped one too many times. He was caught with his pants around his ankles, trying his tricks on one of the poor girls in housekeeping. They fired him on the spot.”

Catherine fought the urge to scream at Sarah to shut up, to stop talking in front of Diego. Instead, she nodded and started walking Sarah out of the room. “I’m glad to hear he won’t be bothering anyone else. I wish you and Hank luck. Thanks for stopping by.”

She was almost to the door when Diego stopped them both. “Hi, you’re one of Cat’s friends, I take it. I’m Diego Suarez.”

“Hi, yep, I started with Catherine in labor and delivery. She went on to the NICU and I’ve bounced around to anywhere I’m needed. I hated to see her go last year but was relieved she wouldn’t have to deal with Dr. Garber anymore. Wow, so you’re the detective that got shot last night. Aren’t you a cutie? I get now why the nurse grapevine has been running about you. Everyone was so relieved it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Now you get to go home with Catherine and have one of the best nurses attending to you. You are one lucky guy.”

Sarah caught the time on the wall and swore. “I didn’t realize I had been in here so long. I better get back or Denise will be ripping me a new one. It was good seeing you again, Catherine. Bye.” She waived at Diego as she closed the door behind her.

“So you went to Beth Israel because the pay and hours were better. Isn’t that what you said?”

Catherine fought the urge to flinch at his light words. He was the good cop to her brother’s bad cop. “Knock it off, Diego, there’s no need to interrogate me. It doesn’t matter why I left BMC, I did. It’s been almost a year now. It’s old news.”

“You were being sexually harassed and you think it doesn’t matter?”

“It doesn’t matter. Sadly, it happens a lot. You get doctors who think they’re god and they want everyone to treat them that way. When you don’t, they make you pay for it. Usually, if you put them in their place, it passes. Garber was an asshole and couldn’t let it go.” Catherine shrugged and turned away to the window, tired of talking to the outlet to the left of Diego.

“Damn it, Cat, it matters. Are you going through that now?”

“No, everything is good. I’m happy. It’s fine.” To hear him call her Cat, he was the only person who did, so casually, as if it hadn’t been more than four months since he’d spoken her name caused an ache in her chest.

“You don’t look it.”

Catherine was glad he couldn’t see her flinch at his words. She knew she didn’t look fine. She had lost well over twenty pounds in the four months since she had last seen him. She hadn’t slept for more than four hours at a time in weeks. Her laugh was brittle as she turned to face him. “I’ve been working a graveyard rotation the last six weeks, and putting in overtime. I haven’t been sleeping so well. Then I get woken up today after only two hours of sleep to a cop telling me you’ve been shot and to come with him. He was also cruel enough to not answer a single question about how you were doing the whole way here. I don’t look fine because I don’t feel fine. I feel exhausted.”

“Why did you come?”

“John asked me to. He asked me to take you home and make sure you didn’t push it and to take care of you.”

“Take me home? That nurse said I was going home with you. I can take care of myself. I don’t need anyone taking care of me.” His words were angry and accusing.

“That’s just the anesthesia talking. The minute it wears off, everything, including your hair, will start hurting. You’re coming home with me because you live in a four-story walk-up and I don’t. I have an extra bedroom, and you are lucky enough to have caught me coming off my rotation, with a week off scheduled. ”

“I’m not going with you.” It’s a statement and his usually soft brown eyes were dark and empty.

Why did his words hurt so much? “Fine, you want to be a stubborn ass, so be it. But you can do it all on your own. You don’t want to come home with me then you have to explain to John why you won’t, because I sure as hell won’t be making excuses for you.” She straightened her back and walked out without looking at him, afraid that he would see the tears that were threatening to fall.