Fine,” she says glancing from me to Nathan. Nathan gives me a quizzical look. I shrug. Who put sour milk in her cornflakes? Had something gone wrong with a patient? Or perhaps things have taken a bad turn with her boyfriend? I saw her earlier today and she seemed in good cheer. She finds a table not too far from ours and sits down rather noisily. “You want to join us?” I offer. “I’m good,” she says in an uncharacteristically clipped tone, glaring openly at us. Okay. I think. “Just as well,” I say, rising from the table and taking my coffee with me. “I need to be heading back anyway. Thanks for the coffee.” “Sure,” Nathan says, looking a little bewildered. It’s Friday and my shift ended at 4 p.m. so I’m pulling into our garage at 4:28. I wave at Dmitri and his brother before the garage door glides shut. Nathan is coming through the door carrying our overnight bags to load into the Jag. “Hey, babe,” I say, as I climb out of the car and greet him with a kiss. “You’ve already got

When the request is given, we sit at our assigned table near the bridal party and enjoy our meal. When the opportunity arises. I escort Madison onto the dance floor and take her into my arms. We move well together even though it’s our first time dancing with each other in a public setting. Our compatibility is tested when the slow song is replaced by an upbeat fast one. I try to draw Madison off the floor, but she pulls me back forcing me to join the myriad of others for the popular Cha-Cha slide dance. Despite myself, I seem to be wearing a ridiculous grin the whole time and manage to keep in step with the music alongside Madison. She’s a huge hit with the crowd, so we stick around for the equally popular Macarena line dance. “Enough,” I laugh when the song ends and another upbeat one begins to play. “I’m sitting this one out.” Some of the younger girls plead with Madison to keep dancing with their group for the Electric slide, and she glances at me. I shrug. So she waves at me and

Just then two of Ben men come running in with bags and boxes of medical supplies. Damn, that was fast! I have a strong suspicion they didn’t exactly purchase the materials. I put a pin in that to discuss later with Ben. “What do you have?” I ask searching through the bags. “What do you need?” Ben asks, as he hands me some surgical gloves. “I need to sterilize the area and stop the bleeding. I’m not sure how much he’s lost, so I may need to start a blood transfusion and IV fluids. I’m going to need—" “Iodine, alcohol and saline drip,” he says fishing the items out of one of the boxes. I cut him a look. “Yeah.” I take the Iodine from him. “Can you jury rig the saline bag to the bedpost? Where’s the morphine and syringe? I need butterfly needles so I can begin administering the fluids. I’m also going to need to clamp blood vessels and seal them.” “So, hemostat, sutures, surgical ligature, what else?” Nathan asks, as he withdraws those items from the curiously available supplies. W

“What about your decision to keep seeing me at the hospital even though I wasn’t even your patient?” I fire off the questions like bullets. “What about your decision to go on a date with me? What about your decision to come back to my house and sleep with me? To live with me, to drive my car and wear this ring as a promise of our future together!” Her eyes are tearing up and she’s moving away from me toward the edge of the bed. But I keep coming, having this all pent up inside. “You’re in gross violation of the medical standards for your profession as a result of failing to report the gunshot wounds you treated!” Her face is twisted with bitter anger and fear. “I did it all for you and now you throw it back in my face!” She climbs off the bed and makes toward the bathroom. “You unbelievable asshole!” I fly after her and shoulder the bathroom door open when she tries to shut it on me. “You did it for me? Why, Chleo? Why’d you do it?” I shout. “I thought you needed my help!” she sc

“The cuffs won’t be necessary if you agree to come quietly, Ms. Wood,” Roberts says holding up his hand. “Back off, Jim. Leave her be. I think she knows we mean business.”Hall backs down and I have to wonder if this had all been rehearsed ahead of time as a scare tactic. I must say, it’s working.“Look, Ms. Wood,” Roberts says, “We all know you’re lying, but I suspect that you’re afraid of what will happen to you if you rat out your mobster boyfriend.” He gives me a sympathetic smile. “We don’t want you, and I’d honestly hate to ruin your career. You give us what we want, and we’ll make this all go away. Alright?”I look away from him, but nod.“You’re an aspiring doctor, you know you don’t have a future with that low-life, scumbag. You had your fun with the pretty bad boy, but now it’s time to hand him over and we’ll see that no harm comes to you. We handled plenty of cases like this, we know what we’re doing.”“H-how will telling you how I got there help you get Nathan if he h