“Easy one today, Dr. Carmichael.” Lynn, a nurse practitioner who often shared the same twelve-hour shift as I did, pulled on her coat, and stretched her arms over her head. She’d been around long enough to know everyone in the hospital’s names, including their immediate and extended family members’ names as well.
“Aye, lucky enough.” I quickly glanced at the clock to make sure we were indeed done with our shift lest she jinx us, and car crash victims came rolling in. “Gave me some time to follow up on a few patients, make some extra notes on a few charts.”
“You’re so great at that.” Lynn’s approving smile made her sixty-year-old eyes crinkle, and it was welcome. “Most people don’t expect a call from the A&E doctor himself.”
“It makes less work for the nurses.” Sometimes admincould pile up on a doctor if we had back-to-back emergency situations, but I really did try my best, often staying after hours, just to make sure all my observations were noted for each patient, as well as examining any that I’d had additional concerns about. The charting protocol was such that notes should be entered in real time, in order to help with any follow-up care or next steps for the patient, but there were times where we just couldn’t get to it.
“And that’s why we all love you.”
I smiled, patting her shoulder lightly as I passed, holding the door open for her as we stepped into the chilly night air.
“When are you going to start wearing a coat, Dr. C?” Jacob, the security guard, who was old enough to be my grandfather, shook his head at me.
“I told you I run hot.”
“That’s the truth of it, isn’t it, handsome?” Nan, the night cleaner, blew me a kiss from where she chatted with Jacob. Nan was almost as old as Lynn, but colored her hair to hide any grays, and wore cakey black mascara to make her brown eyes pop. She fluttered her eyelashes at me, and I just grinned. Her flirting was harmless, as she was happily married, and she complimented everyone who came across her path.
“New haircut, Lynn?” Nan asked.
“Just a trim.” Lynn patted her hair that I was certain looked the exact same as it had the day before.
“It’s nice.”
Lynn paused to chat, and I raised a hand in goodbye to them, trotting out to my car. I wasn’t very good at small talk, at least at work, but did my best to mask it by alwaysbeing polite and working hard. In the end, that had won most people over and once my colleagues had gotten used to the fact that I was a quiet sort, they’d more or less let me be. I never opened up about my personal life at work, nor with anyone really, as I found it just made my life run more smoothly. I kept my work life in one box, and my home life in another. It was easier that way, less complicated, and it allowed me to fully check out once I got home.
I let myself unwind on the drive home, my headlights slashing through the velvety night, not meeting another car on the thirty-minute drive back toward Loren Brae. Oftentimes, I’d listen to a podcast or put on soothing music on the drive, but today I craved the silence.
It gave me some uninterrupted time to obsess over my newest fascination.
One Dr. Faelan Fletcher.
I just couldn’t get her out of my mind.
Never had I been so instantly intrigued with someone.
Sure, I was attracted to her. I was a red-blooded male, wasn’t I? And Faelan was gorgeous in the way of people that didn’t seem to know that fact about themselves. Not that I didn’t think she was confident or aware of herself as a woman, but I sensed that she might not care that her unconventional, striking beauty lingered in someone’s mind.It’s like being able to see the light from the sun even when you’ve closed your eyes.
Her skin flushed when she was nervous—a soft petal pink that warmed her face—and if you were close enough you could see the smallest smattering of freckles across her cheeks.
She didn’t like when I drew too close.
I made her nervous.
Which meant, she wasn’t unaffected by me. That or she was nervous about the secret she kept from me.
Or maybe not just from me—I shouldn’t give myself that much credit—but from the world at large.
Oban had told me what she was.
A healer.
Scoffing, I ran a hand over my chin as I pulled into the gravel lane that led up the hill to my cottage in the forest. Healers were the stuff of childhood fairy tales, and even if she was real, she certainly couldn’t do what I could do—with science as my backing. Call me stubborn, or call me egotistical, but I was convinced that with the right tools and the right medical education, a person could work miracles.
I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that healing with magick could do the same.
It bugged me that Oban liked her so much.
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in magick, not with Oban in my life, it’s just that I didn’t trust it. Science I could rely on. Medical training I could believe in. But magick? To heal? It was unpredictable, volatile, and there were too many hacks that royally screwed it up. No, I’d stick to relying on what thousands had before me, with procedures and methods that stood up to medical scrutiny.
