Healing Her Heart

Larissa melted against Gabe, lost in his kiss. It wasn’t until there was a loud

bang from someone slamming a car door nearby that she finally regained her

senses.

She pulled away, struggling to catch her breath. Why had he kissed her?

Why had she kissed him back?

“Larissa,” he began, and she immediately knew he was about to apologize.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly, cutting him off. “I really need to get going.

Thanks again for everything,” she said, desperately wishing she could just walk

away.

But of course, she couldn’t walk anywhere, not without the crutches.

“Can you get the crutches out for me?” she asked when he didn’t say

anything.

“Sure.” He stepped back, opened the door, and pulled them out. “I’ll walk you

inside,” he said.

“No!” The word came out much harsher than she’d intended. Couldn’t he see

she was hanging on by a thread? “Goodnight, Gabe.”

She tucked the crutches beneath her already-sore armpits and made her way

up the sidewalk. Of course, Gabe didn’t just let her go inside by herself; in fact,

he rushed ahead to open the door for her.

Keeping her gaze averted, she made her way toward the elevator. “Thanks,

but I’ve got it from here,” she said with a bright smile. “Have a great day at

work tomorrow,” she added as the elevator doors opened. She swung inside and

jabbed the button to close the doors.

It wasn’t until the doors closed and the elevator starting moving that she

sagged against the wall in relief. The trembling in her legs had nothing to do

with the exertion of crutches and everything to do with Gabe’s kiss.

What had just happened? A better question might be—why had that

happened?

She’d heard about Gabe’s aloof reputation on her very first day. All the nurses

talked about the fact that the good-looking ER doctor didn’t date nurses. Not

even ones who worked elsewhere in the hospital.

But that wasn’t the only reason she’d been fighting her attraction to him. She

didn’t want or need the complication of a man in her life. She was here getting

over a bad relationship, not to jump into a new one.

Still, she couldn’t help lightly touching her tingling lips. Gabe’s kiss hadn’t

just barreled against the walls she’d built around her heart, it had broken straight

through.

She closed her eyes and prayed for strength.

____________

Larissa’s ankle felt much better the next morning, so much so that she decided

against going to an urgent care, her only option on the Memorial Day holiday.

The swelling had come down to the point she probably didn’t really need the

crutches, but she used them anyway just to rest the ankle a bit more, especially

since she was scheduled for another twelve-hour shift the next day. At least she

was scheduled for the night shift, so she’d have the entire day to rest it.

Summer clouds darkened the sky, making it a great day to stay inside doing

chores. Getting her laundry done was tricky, but she managed to scoot the basket

into the elevator to get down into the basement.

As the day wore on, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Gabe. Which

was ridiculous, because she’d already decided that she needed to keep her

distance from him. Yet she must have checked her phone a dozen times,

wondering if she’d missed his call.

Or a call from Annie.

She thought about the poor woman as she placed the frozen bag of peas over

her ankle. She’d called Annie’s number several times, but the calls went straight

to voice mail. Either Annie’s phone was turned off or Kurt had destroyed it.

She shivered, hoping that Annie had managed to keep the phone hidden. If

not, the poor woman had no way of calling for help. Not that she’d called the

police so far.

Larissa had sensed Gabe’s frustration yesterday when Annie had refused to

press charges. She understood all too well what was going on in Annie’s mind.

How many times had she begged her mother to leave George? Too many to

count. Her mother always had an excuse—either she was afraid she wouldn’t be

able to find a job, or she was afraid George would come after her, or she was

afraid George would actually leave her alone. She’d tried to tell her mother they

were better off without him, but it wasn’t until he’d attacked Larissa that her

mother had sneaked away in the dead of the night, going straight to a women’s

shelter, one of the many Larissa had tried to convince her to go to in the past.

The years after George had been rough on both of them. Her mother had been

depressed, and the only job she’d been able to get was that of a waitress, which

hadn’t brought in much money. Larissa had gotten a job as soon as she’d turned

sixteen to help with the household expenses. When she was seventeen, she took

the nursing assistant program through her high school and had gotten a decent

paying job at a local nursing home. She enjoyed working with patients and had

decided to go into nursing.

Ironically, once she’d headed off to college, her mother had found a new man,

one that didn’t hit her or abuse her in any way. He was significantly older, but as

long as her mother was happy, she didn’t care. In talking to Annie in the ER,

she’d tried to explain to Annie that she could do the same.

But after the incident last evening, she could only assume her words had

fallen on deaf ears. Well, maybe not completely deaf, as Annie had tried to call

her.

Shaking off her depressing thoughts, she finished her laundry and then settled

in for a movie marathon. She had a secret weakness for the old Star Wars movies

and watched one after another, staying up as late as possible so she could sleep

in before her next night shift.

The next afternoon, her ankle felt even better. She stayed off of it until she

needed to get dressed for work. Even then, she wrapped it snuggly for extra

support.

Dark storm clouds obscured the sun, streaks of lightening flashing across the

sky as she headed to the hospital. She hurried, trying to beat the rain, making it

inside the hospital with mere seconds to spare before the sky opened up and rain

pelted the earth.

She grinned at her friend Julie. “I thought for sure you’d be off today. Didn’t

you work the past two days?”

“Tonight is my last of three shifts in a row, and then I’m off for four glorious

days,” Julie responded. “Can’t wait!”

Julie was lucky to have purchased a townhouse on the lake. She’d gotten a

decent price because one side had suffered a kitchen fire. If Larissa had managed

to save more money, she might have put in a bid for the place herself. Although

she was glad her friend had gotten it. Next year, she silently promised. Next year

she’d have enough money for a down payment.

“Are you in the trauma room tonight?” Larissa asked as they made their way

over to the desk. Debra was the charge nurse, and she looked harassed as they

approached.

“I don’t know,” Julie said with a wry smile. “Guess we’ll find out.”

“I’m glad you’re both here,” Debra said. “We’re short staffed tonight, so I’ll

need both of you to take a team and help cover the trauma room,” she instructed.

“Larissa, you’re team one, and Julie, you’re team two. I have Jessica covering

team three, and I’ll pitch in as needed.”

Larissa exchanged a wince with Julie before nodding. “Okay.”

“This is going to be a long night,” Julie muttered as they walked away to their

respective teams. “I bet this storm is going to bring a bunch of trauma cases in.

We’ll be running for sure.”

“You’re probably right,” Larissa agreed. Too late now to wish she’d gotten a

doctor’s excuse. Although to be fair, she was glad she hadn’t called in, otherwise

she would have left Debra, Julie, and Jessica to handle the ER alone.

For the next three hours, Larissa dealt with a steady stream of patients, and

thankfully, only two trauma patients had come in. She’d taken the first one, and

Julie had taken the second.

“Tag, you’re it,” Julie had joked as they passed in the hallway like ships in the

night.

“I know, I know,” Larissa muttered. They were to take turns with the traumas

unless there were two at the same time, and then Debra would come and assist.

Gabe walked into the ER at quarter to eleven, and she realized he was also

assigned the night shift. The doctors worked eight-hour shifts instead of twelve,

and she hadn’t really thought about Gabe at all until now.

Memories of their heated kiss made her blush, and she kept her gaze focused

on the computer screen as he went over to the main census board.

“Okay, Mr. Harris, you’re all set for discharge,” she said, walking into her

patient’s room. “Remember you have to follow up with your doctor first thing

tomorrow morning, okay?”

“I’ll remember,” the elderly patient said as he stood. Mr. Clarence Harris had

congestive heart failure and often forgot to take his medications, which then

caused him to become short of breath. In reading his chart, it sounded like his

son wanted him to go to a nursing home, but the older man kept refusing.

“All right, take care, then.” She helped him out to a wheelchair. Rick, one of

their techs, came over to escort the patient outside.

“Hi, Larissa, I’m surprised to see you here.” Gabe’s voice broke into her

thoughts. “How’s your ankle?”

She took a deep breath before turning to face him. “It’s a lot better, thanks. I

have the crutches in my car if you want them back.”

“No rush,” he said with a shrug. The way he stood there with his hands

stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat, she sensed there was more he wanted to

say, but just then, their trauma pagers went off.

“Car versus pedestrian just off Highway Z,” Gabe said out loud as he read his

pager. “Victim is a fifty-year-old woman, and her vitals are bad. It doesn’t sound

good.”

Her stomach clenched with dread as she read the same message. Annie was

fifty years old and lived near Highway Z. Granted, that didn’t mean she was the

victim. Still, she sent up a quick prayer for Annie’s safekeeping.

“We should call a chopper, in case she needs to get to Madison,” she

suggested as she followed Gabe into the trauma bay. They were only a level-two

trauma center, and if this patient was really bad, they’d need to stabilize her and

get her transferred as soon as possible.

“Good idea.”

She’d barely made the call when the ambulance bay burst open revealing a

bevy of paramedics surrounding a gurney. The moment she saw the victim, she

knew it was Annie despite the massive amount of blood.

“Fifty-year-old woman with serious head injury, unconscious at the scene.

Vitals reflect hypovolemic shock. We have fluids running wide open.”

“Is there another victim?” Gabe asked.

“No, apparently this was a hit and run.”

Larissa concentrated on taking care of Annie, but deep down, she felt certain

Kurt was the one behind the wheel of the car that had hit his wife.

And she suspected he’d intended to kill Annie.

____________

Larissa and Gabe worked on Annie for a solid hour before they deemed her

stable enough to transfer. Larissa watched the flight team wheel Annie away and

silently prayed.

Dear Lord, please keep Annie safe in Your care.

“Larissa?” Gabe’s low voice broke into her prayer. “Are you all right?”

Suddenly, she wasn’t. She had to get away, just for a few minutes. “Excuse

me,” she murmured, slipping away.

She stepped outside, staying beneath the overhang so that she didn’t get

drenched by the rain. What had happened to Annie? Had she tried to escape Kurt

on foot? Had she been on the road, helpless as he drove directly at her?

Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t help erase the image she could see so clearly

in her mind. Maybe it wasn’t Kurt, she tried to tell herself. Maybe Annie had

been running from her husband and dashed onto the road, directly in the path of

an on-coming car.

She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her ragged nerves. There wasn’t

anything she could do to help Annie right now. She and Gabe had done their

best, placing a breathing tube and a central venous catheter before pumping

several units of blood into her system.

The rest was up to the trauma team in Madison and God.

Feeling calmer, she turned to go back inside, shivering when a blast of cold

rain hit her back, soaking through the thin fabric of her scrubs. The trauma bay

was empty now and had already been cleaned up, which made her feel guilty. It

was almost four in the morning, the most difficult part of the night shift, and she

realized she must have stayed outside longer than she intended.

Time to stop worrying about Annie and to focus her attention on the handful

of patients who still needed care on her team.

She was about to head through the trauma bay when suddenly the ambulance

bay doors opened behind her, letting in a blast of cool air. She jumped around in

surprise and nearly tripped over her feet when she saw a disheveled man

standing there holding a gun.

“This is all your fault,” he said in a harsh tone, waving the gun in her general

direction. “Annie’s gone, and it’s all your fault!”

Kurt Hinkle. Was he intoxicated? He certainly acted like it; his eyes were

bloodshot and his gait unsteady. She swallowed hard and tried to edge behind

one of the metal bedside tables, not much protection against a bullet. When Kurt

came farther in the room, she fought a rising panic.

Where was everyone? Couldn’t they hear Kurt?

“Don’t move!” he threatened. He took a step toward her, and she couldn’t

help shrinking backward, dragging the metal bedside table with her.

And this time when he raised the gun and pointed it directly at her, his hand

was far too steady.