Chapter 3

As if I wasn’t having a bad enough day already.

“Alright Officer Montgomery, when would you like me to come down?” I asked.

“Is there any way you could come down now?” He replied.

“Yes I’m on my way, however I hope this will not take long because I have to be back at the hospital this evening.” I replied hastily.

“Just a few questions dear” was his response as he hung up the phone.

With that conversation out of the way I walked back into the bathroom and kissed my shower goodbye, it would have to wait. As I grabbed my purse I made sure to leave Fran a note, she’d be worried if she came back and I was gone without leaving a note. The drive to the Police station was a short one so I preoccupied my mind with thoughts of what I should do on my days off.

I pulled into the station and Officer Montgomery met me at the door.

“I’m so sorry to bother you; I know you just came off the night shift at Oceanview. I’ll make this quick.” He said rapidly. “Were you aware that Mr. Dimitri Tasia had a living will leaving you everything he owned?” he questioned me cautiously.

“What?!” I exclaimed. “When did you find this out? Why am I just now being told of this when he died almost a year ago?” I cried.

“Well we were just concerned considering the way he died. You are sure you had nothing to do with it?” he questioned her again as he had when Dimitri first died.

“You’re kidding me right? I was at the freaking hospital working when he was brought in and placed on the trauma room table. How could you even possibly think I had something to do with it? We were supposed to be getting married a week from today!!” I suddenly began crying yet again.

How could all this be happening yet again? I must be doomed to relive this nightmare over and over again was all I could think. Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, who comes around the corner, Alexander Scott.

“What are you doing here Raelyn?” he asked cautiously.

“I guess I could ask you the same question Alexander? But since you asked I’ll be polite and answer. I’m here with Officer Montgomery answering some questions about a case from a year ago.” I replied.

“Oh I see. I wondered what you were doing here with my uncle. I’m just here to see what he wants for dinner since I’ll be gone by the time he gets home.” He replied casually. As if we were long lost friends.

“I didn’t know you had any family here.” I said.

Officer Montgomery came back with the rest of Dimitri’s belongings. His favorite shirt, his black onyx and amethyst ring that has been passed down for generations in his family, and his black onyx cross with the broken chain it once hung on. This is what I had left of my Dimitri and of course whatever it was he left to me.

I wouldn’t find out for a few days just exactly what it was he left to me. However it changed a lot of things for Francine and me. With a quick goodbye to Officer Montgomery and Alexander, I headed back home to try yet again to take a shower and catch some sleep before my shift started. Although all I could manage to think about were Alexander and his uncle. I wondered to myself how much Officer Montgomery would tell Alexander about Dimitri’s case. Hopefully there was some kind of law that forbid him telling Alexander anything about it, just like there is for patients. I managed to grab a few hours of sleep. Before I knew it Fran was calling me to wake up at five.

I talked to her for a few minutes and filled her in on the events of the rest of my day. She scolded me for not calling her to come with me to the station. But I told her there was no reason to bother her on her day off with it. That I handled it okay other than crying. Which we are all use to me doing these days. I ran through the list of items I was given of Dimitri’s, told her I’d leave everything at the house tonight except his ring, which now resided on my wedding ring finger. How appropriate was all she could say. And that on our next day off we would go together to find out what the will said. That was a relief to me; I was not looking forward to doing that alone.

Oh the thought of the will. I know that Dimitri came from old money and was extremely wealthy. However none of that mattered to me one bit. That was one of the things Dimitri loved about me, money never mattered. Dimitri had known me well. He knew my morbid sense of humor when it came to my line of work, just like he seemed to be well aware of all my major personality flaws. “Jewels” he called them. He said sometimes my flaws were the most perfect thing about me. There were times that I’d catch him laughing to him self at something I had done, something that if any one else had managed to do that he would not find funny. Then I would realize he was laughing because I could laugh at myself about it. What a wonderful man. Despite everything he knew about me, he still loved me with his whole heart and was going to marry me. God I miss him.

I took my time getting ready for work. After all I was not looking forward to going in tonight. Not only did I have to face Lynn and Alexander, tonight was the night that Jeanette, the stringy haired blonde with blue eyes, who is model thin, and thinks she is God’s gift to men, the one that tried everything in her power to get Dimitri to leave me, and would do anything to ruin me as a nurse and a person for reasons unknown to me, returned from vacation. There have always been issues between us, especially since I was engaged to Dimitri. She is one that blamed me for what happened to him. And now it was going to start up again regarding the will. Plus she’ll have an issue with Alexander being my shadow and try to compete for his attention. By all means she can have it was all I could think.

I arrived at work by six so that I could sit down with Davidson and talk. I stayed outside long enough to watch the sun sink into twilight before going in. The beautiful blues, oranges, reds, and purples of the sun disappearing was a peaceful and refreshing end to a horrible day. And it is not often we get to see sunsets around here with all the overcast days and rain.

I walked into the locker room to the familiar smell of coffee and whatever food had been cooked recently. Our beige lockers a constant reminder that this is my second home. My safety net when all else fails. As I look around I glanced over all the pictures on the lockers, and the different posters and memos hanging on the walls. And all I could think was ‘it’s good to be here, what a wonderful job to have. Saving those that need help.’ And with that began grabbing what I would need for the night. My stethoscope, tape, coban-pressure tape, my hemostats- like clamps to the outside world, my scissors, and of course several pens and sharpie markers. Then preceded to place my bag into my locker and prepared myself as I proceeded to Dr. Davidson’s room. Of course he was patiently awaiting my arrival.

“Come in Raelyn.” He muttered

“Dr. Davidson I’ve spent the majority of the day going over everything. Before we get into my thoughts can you answer my question; why me?” I asked

“Oh Raelyn, you don’t know? I had the pleasure of working with your father while he was alive. I have watched you grow and turn into one of the best ER / trauma nurses’ I have ever had the pleasure of working with. You are the closest thing I will ever have to a daughter. And I know how bad you are hurting, Dimitri’s death hit us all hard, however it hit you the hardest, the wedding was to be next week, you still have not recovered and if having Alexander shadow you helps bring you back to life then so be it. This is not a punishment, I’m hoping he has the strength and power that neither Francine nor I have to pull the old Raelyn back. That is why.”

A wave of pain hit me so hard and fast that I almost fell to the ground right then and there and cried. I shoved my broken heart back into the trauma room I built for it in my soul a few months after the accident and slammed the door shut. Not the time or place, I had to get through this conversation in one piece, or at least in one piece to Davidson.

“Okay. Thank you. I have thought this over all day and Alexander does seem eager to learn, so I will do this. But it’s to be done on my terms. If I later come to you and tell you that this is no longer working, then you do not fight me on it, agreed?”

“Agreed. Now get your butt out there, Alex is already here waiting and I think I just here the base station, the call system we use to get the ambulance calls, go off it’s going to be a crazy busy night, hope you are ready for it.”

Here we go is all I thought. Just as I was coming out of the room Alex met me a t the door, holding a venti cup of my favorite starbucks coffee and a bagel. He just held them out to me and kind of half smiled.

“How did you know? Or do I even ask?” I said

“I have my ways. It looks like we are hitting the floor running though. EMTs, emergency response teams, just called in, 35 year old male found down on arrival to the seen, CPR started in the field and still in progress.” Alex stated quickly.

“Thanks” I said as I grab the coffee and bagel from his outstretched hands.

With that I took a few quick bites of the bagel and downed half of the coffee. Thankfully I could distract myself from the conversation with Davidson with the real trauma heading in through the bay. And I immediately assumed control of the patient and situation by taking over compressions the moment I hit the room. My only goal was to save his life.

“Alex, we are going to need respiratory and a vent.” I called out.

“They are already one the way. Dr. Davidson will be right in.” Alex replied.

Nice. His first trauma with me and he’s already a step ahead. This may not be as bad as I first thought. At that moment Dr. Davidson came in and assumed control. I was finally able for the first time to study Alex without interruption or being noticed, he was too engrossed in what was going on just like everyone else. He definitely was a nice looking man. Good strong features and his eyes held a kind of mysterious yet saddened look. Yet for some reason I got an unsettled feeling when I was watching him, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. As I sat there thinking about it and watching him the feeling grew stronger, and as I came out of my daze I realized that he too was starring at me.

With that I broke the connection between us just in time to hear that there was an AMI, acute myocardial infraction, with S.O.B, shortness of breath, in trauma two. I found that I was laughing at myself. Once again reminded of Dimitri. I’ve always laughed when seeing S.O.B written for a patient, because the first thing I think of is Son Of a B***h, and Dimitri always got a good laugh out of that one.

So it was off to trauma two to start on the next patient. Trauma one was now on the vent and getting ready to go to ICU, intensive care unit. From the way things were looking it was going to be a busy night in the ER yet again. Already we had fifteen in the waiting room, ten in the back and three more ambulances coming in. What a night. I didn’t even have time to say hi to Dani. Alex and I were working together as if we had been partners for several years. So far I was rather impressed with his skills. However there was just something about Alex that just was not right, at least that was what my gut was telling me and my gut is normally right. But now was not the time to dwell on it, time will tell I guess.

The night proved to be quick yet busy. Alex kept up with me throughout the night with out me having to tell him what to do. I tried to observe him with out being noticed, but we were just too busy. There would be time for that later I was sure. There was still a lot about Alex that none of us knew, and I was bound to find out. Maybe I could take him for coffee on one of our days off or something. Maybe try to patch things up between us. I know I have been rough on him.

I was actually thankful for my shift to end. Fran and I both have the next two days off together, so I am really excited. Tomorrow was our catch up day and then Monday we would go and see the attorney about the will. Which I am still nervous about. I did not even know that Dimitri had one in place let alone the fact that he left everything to me if something happened to him.

As I was putting away my things from the night, Alex came in and asked if I had a minute to talk to him.

“Sure Alex, what’s on your mind?”

“Well I know we kind of got off on the wrong foot. I would like to take you for coffee this morning if that is okay with you?”

I looked up into those emerald green eyes and once again found myself getting lost in them. It was almost as if they were willing me to comply one hundred and ten percent with anything that this man asked.

“Why that would be nice Alex. I was actually going to ask you if you would be up to doing that on one of our days off.”

“Sweet, then let’s go.”

With that we grabbed our belongings and headed to the closest starbucks. We took separate cars and the drive was rather short, considering we have a starbucks coffee house not even half a block from Oceanview. We both arrived at about the same time. It was standing at the counter that I first noticed the ring on his hand, ordinarily it would not have caught my attention, and however it was identical to the one that I now wore on my ring finger.

“How odd” I thought to myself as I ordered my venti white chocolate mocha. It was seven o'clock in the morning and we both were exhausted. The sun had yet to make its appearance for the day. I could feel my eyes getting heavy. This would definitely not be a long visit..

“Raelyn, I was going to ask my Uncle about why you were at the station yesterday, but did not want to invade your privacy. You can tell me it is none of my business, and I would understand. I am just concerned because you looked rather upset.”

“Yes I was rather upset. It is a rather long detailed story that I am still emotionally attached to. I will tell you about it one of these days just not this morning, okay. I am feeling pretty good for the first time in two days now, and just do not want to get into it now. I would like to apologize for my behavior the last two days. I have been rather hard on you. It is not so much your fault as it is my own. I have seen so many of the new practitioners come and go within a few weeks that I made a snap judgment of you, and it was unfair. In the last year I have become rather calloused and cold. I do not allow very many people to get close to me, and to be honest working in such a close proximity with you was not something I was looking forward to. A lot of this has to do with why I was speaking with your uncle. He is the chief officer on the case, and yes it is still active. You see over the last year we have had a number of strange deaths and disappearances. No one can explain them or figure out the causes. And unfortunately some one I love very much was included in those mysterious deaths.”

“I am so sorry for your loss Raelyn. I had no idea. I am sorry I even brought it up. Let me just try and reassure you that I do not plan on leaving any time soon. I like the way your ER runs and I love the town. I also promised my aunt when she died that as soon as I finished my schooling that I would move here and help keep an eye on my uncle.”

“So for now can we call a truce and try to get to know each other?”

“Yes I think I would like that Alex. But you will have to be patient with me. I use to be better at this.”

“So far you are doing a good job. The past two days as far as I am concerned never happened. Our meeting begins today.”

With that we walked out to our vehicles and said our goodbyes. I found that I was a little more at ease with every thing now. The night was starting to catch up with me so I headed home to get some rest before Fran came home form Jeremy’s and was ready to talk and shop. Our Sunday routine for the last year. So I turned up the radio and headed for the house.

Author's Note

*This is my first time writing for others to read, so please feel free to comment and/or critique. All feedback welcomed!*