Page 12 of Monsters and Mocha

“You’re still going to work?” His forehead creased in concern. “Surely Fransten will understand if you need to take a day. You’ve just worked a medical miracle.”

“That he doesn’t know about,” she reminded him. “Besides, I’m feeling better already. I might as well make use of this energy while I have it.” She set down her empty mug and placed a hand on one of his forearms, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be alright, Henry. Send a message if something happens with the captain?”

Henry was quiet for a moment, his lips pressed together in a thin line. Finally, he nodded. “I’ll look in on him.”

“You’re the best!” Darby leaned across the counter and planted a kiss on Henry’s cheek, grinning as he shoved her away.

“That’s enough of that. Go on, get out of here. But if you don’t come back here and sleep as soon as your shift is over, I really am going to put a sleeping tonic in your next drink.”

“What do you mean, he’s dead?” Darby gripped the file in her hand as her head spun, leaving her feeling suddenly breathless and dizzy. “When I left two days ago he was expected to make a full recovery.”

Merry, propped against the thin pillow at the head of his cot, shrugged. “The nurses won’t tell us much more than that. Apparently he had some sort of emergency in the middle of the night and had to be rushed into surgery, but it was too late. His bed was empty when we woke up.”

Darby’s eyes welled with tears at the thought of the young soldier, William, that she had stitched up just a few days before. Her emotions were amplified by her exhaustion, she knew, but losing a patient was always hard. “Surgery? But why wouldn’t Dr. Fransten call me in?”

“As if he needed you to perform a procedure that he’s likely done a hundred times before in his career.” Lacey’s voice grated on Darby’s nerves, and her tears immediately evaporated. “If it were an emergency, why would he waste the time to summon you?”

Lacey pushed past her, with perfect blonde curls bouncing every step and leaving behind the scent of lavender and vanilla. She set down a canvas roll of tools on the table beside Merry’s cot and unrolled it, taking her time in searching out a long-handled magnifying glass. Darby was momentarily distracted by the amusement in watching Merry’s face turn a bright shade of red as he regarded Lacey with a dazed, awestruck expression.

Lacey turned to him, tilting his head to the side. “Look up,” she commanded briskly before putting the glass to her eye. “Besides,” she continued, directing her comment to Darby without pausing her examination, “if you had been here yesterday like the rest of us, Dr. Fransten wouldn’t have needed to call you in the first place.”

“I was at home. Dr. Fransten gave me the day off.” Guilt gnawed at her insides.

If I had been here, maybe William wouldn’t have died. But then again, if I had been here, Captain Monstrego certainly would have. Is it always going to come to this, having to choose between one life or another?

“Hello? Are you even listening, Shelton?” Lacey’s tone dripped with annoyance.

Darby shook her head, desperate to clear the melancholy thoughts. “I’m sorry; my mind was drifting. What did you say?”

The pretty optometrist wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I was just commenting that it must be nice to be so superfluous as to be able to take a whole day of personal time right in the thick of an emergency.”

Darby regretted asking. “He told me to leave. We performed nearly twice the amount of surgeries that day than we do in a week.”

“And yet he was still here yesterday.” Lacey shrugged pointedly as she replaced her tool. She rolled up the canvas. “Your eyes look just fine,” she said to Merry. “There is some minor irritation, but that’s likely just caused by the amount of dust and debris that were in the air. You’ll be fine in a day or two.”

The young soldier looked a little crestfallen. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. But if there is any concern, let me know.” Lacey slipped past Darby, throwing a pointed look over her shoulder as she left the room. “I’ll be around. Some of us actually take our positions seriously.”

Merry’s eyes were glued to the door for a few moments after she was gone. “Why don’t you like Dr. LeBlanc?”

“What do you mean?” Darby took Lacey’s position on the side of his bed and began removing the bandages from his shoulder.

“You looked like you swallowed something sour the moment she entered the room. But she’s not sour; she’s as sweet as candy.” He let out a dreamy sigh.

Darby chuckled. “And I would bet that the only problem with your eyes is that they wanted to look at her again.”

“N-no! They really were bothering me.” His face was once more a shade of crimson.

She paused her work, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean it!”

“Mmhm.”

“So why don’t you like her?”

“I don’t dislike her. Dr. LeBlanc is extremely talented and very good at what she does.”