“This is your copy,” he said simply as he slid it back into a roll-out drawer.
“What?”
He turned and faced me, nudging the drawer closed with his hip. “Downstairs is my normal medical exam room. I keep the original copies there. Up here in the surgical room, I keep copies of those same files that are downstairs. I come up here and update them whenever they need to be updated. This will be the file I hand off to you, whenever you’re ready for it.”
“Oh.”
I hung my head before I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. I groaned softly with the pain, but it helped to ground me.
That was until I felt a pair of warm hands wrap around my wrists.
My hands were pulled away from my pulsing eyes.
“You don’t like it here,” he said.
I snickered and sighed as he settled my hands into my lap. “No, I’ve never been good at being a sitting duck.”
He shook his head as he stood there, gazing down at me. “You’re not a sitting duck. You’re safe here, Miss Elizabeth.”
I just looked over to the side, studying the room. “No one is safe anywhere.”
When he didn’t say anything, I went to slip off the exam table, only for him to grab my upper arms.
“Easy,” he muttered as he helped me down.
“Thanks,” I said breathlessly.
“No thanks needed.”
He steadied me on my feet before I reached for my cane. “Seriously, make sure you keep that file updated. My commanding officer will most likely want to see pictures to back up what we’re talking about.”
“You have my word, Miss Elizabeth.”
With my back turned to him, I rolled my eyes as I clicked toward the exit. My body was ready for more sleep. Walking around was still exhausting, and I?—
“Whoo,” I exclaimed as my ankle buckled beneath me.
There was a rush of wind behind me so quick that it fluttered my hair before there was a pressure at my back. I was hoisted against something solid and warm, then realized that Doc had his arm banded around my back.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Fucking hell, my ankle,” I said.
“Do I need to take a look at it?”
I just shook my head as I tried moving away from him. “Just need some more rest. I am tired all of a sudden.”
“Because you’re doing too much. Here, let me help.”
He tried scooping me up, but I stepped away from him. “I’m fine. It’s good for me to walk.”
His gaze hardened on me. “Get back over here, Elizabeth.”
My back straightened. My eyebrows slowly hiked up my forehead. I narrowed my eyes for a moment, wondering if I could get away with smacking him with my cane for daring to speak to me that way. But a warm tingling sensation bled its way through my veins, and it distracted me enough that I stayed silent.
Which apparently communicated a different kind of message to Doc.
“Now,” he said as he walked up to me and slid his arm around my waist, tugging me against his side, “we’ll take this one step at a time. No getting ahead of me, Miss Elizabeth.”
