She hoped his wrists got infected and his hands got amputated.
The flowers came with a bulky envelope. She opened it.
“Oh, Nevaeh Hartford.” A beaded bracelet of clovers fell out with a photo Christmas card. A grinning family of the mom, dad, and Nevaeh without a swollen wrist smiled at her.
Lily touched the faces for a second and forced her brain to think more rationally.
Gene was the past. Her residency was the past. She’d helped Nevaeh and her family find answers. Her prognosis was excellent with regular visits to rheumatology. A little girl would live happier because of Lillian.
She took some thumbtacks out of her desk and added the bracelet and card to the wall of patient Christmas cards that had arrived this week. Lillian traced the beaming face of Jenna Steadman in the arms of her mother three cards away.
No matter what happened, no matter if she made chief resident or not, she had done these.
At the end of the day, it was what mattered. She couldn’t let one night, one event, one shift define her forever. If she’d learned anything from Gene—whoever she was, whatever she felt inside, was fine…
Someone cleared their throat. She had a visitor.
"Mr.Murphy?" she asked. "I thought you didn't work here anymore."
"I was just turning in my badge and stuff. I came by to say goodbye."
"Oh, good luck. Itwas nice to know you."
His blue eyes had an odd look in them, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. Could he tell she’d had such a crummy weekend?
"Would this help?" He had a coffee cup with her name on it from the coffee cart. "I went with decaf because you should save the caffeine. You’re on call Thanksgiving tomorrow, soyou'll need it."
"Yeah. And Christmas. Why didn’t I say no?” She took the coffee.
"I have to admit I did steal some chocolate milk from the nutrition room to make it a little more chocolatey. I might have to arrest myself for theft."
"Can security guards make arrests?"
"A citizen’s arrest?" He set the coffee on the desk, bumping into her lab coat and her badge fell off.
They both reached down to pick it up off the floor, and Lillian froze.
The cuff of his long sleeve slid up his arm…
Security guard Murphy had a mark on his left wrist. It was faint but unmistakable.
It was two little hearts evenly spaced apart. The same type of mark Gene had on his wrists after Lily tied him to her bed when they’d…
Her eyes jumped from his wrist to his face. The totality of sound disappeared because the room was ominously silent now. Or maybe she couldn't hear anything except her own rapidly beating heart.
No possible way.
She gasped and jerked back.
His face suddenly changed and that confirmed it. She wasn't imagining things. The world spun because it seemed possible… probable… certain for Security Guard Murphy and Gene to be the same person.
“I can explain.” Murphy/Gene/whoever he was pushed her door closed and raised his hands.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Lily, I can explain,” he said urgently.
