Paige is a single mom, part time accounting student, and almost full time bartender. One night she bartends for a charity event and meets Bucky Barnes, one of the Avengers. Finding him interesting and different from other men she has dated she inv...
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By the time Bucky and Paige arrived at the hospital the next day she was sure the person who told Jared about Noah being in the hospital was Dr. Mandel. After all, he was the one who recognized her. How he could do that and still pretend to be a caring doctor after that made Paige more and more angry as the morning went on. Even Noah noticed she was "off." When the doctor arrived on his rounds, she was ready to bite his head off. Right away he noticed something wasn't right when he entered the room.
"Miss Turner is everything alright?" he asked.
"You tell me," she replied, while Bucky winced, still not sure the doctor was the one. "Tell me, do you still talk to Jared?"
Dr. Mandel blinked several times. "No, I haven't spoken to him since he left for California," he replied. "Has something happened?"
Her mouth clamped shut in a grim line and she left the room, not wanting Noah to see her get upset. Dr. Mandel turned to Bucky, raising his hands in confusion.
"Have I done something to upset her?" he asked.
Bucky nodded towards the hallway, closing the door behind him so the boys wouldn't overhear them.
"Apparently, Jared heard about Noah's meltdown on Monday, when he woke up and we weren't here," said Bucky, in a low voice. "He called Paige's neighbour asking about it. Someone at the hospital must have told him that and more, because he also asked about me and about whether Paige was working. She thinks he's trying to gain custody of Noah, even though he signed his rights away."
The look on the doctor's face was all the proof Bucky needed to know that the man didn't know about it.
"No wonder she's upset," said Mandel. "I wouldn't violate doctor-patient confidentiality like that. When she told me they were divorced, and he wasn't part of their life I took her at her word. I'm appalled." He looked directly at Bucky. "I'm going to see who else was on staff that morning. Whoever let her ex-husband know is in serious trouble. That's a breach of hospital policy and privacy laws, not to mention being a shitty thing to do to another person."
He patted Bucky on the shoulder and left to look up which staff were working on that shift while Bucky went looking for Paige. He found her at the atrium, leaning against a pillar that overlooked the courtyard below. Sliding up beside her he put his arm around her and squeezed her closer to him.
"It wasn't him," he said calmly. "He's appalled at whoever did it, said they could be in serious trouble."
"I shouldn't have got upset with him like that," she said apologetically. "I let my emotions get the better of me. You believe him?" Bucky nodded and she leaned her head against his arm. "It has to be someone that worked here when Jared was here."
"We'll get to the bottom of it," he said. "In the meantime, let's put on a brave face and be with Noah."
Taking a deep breath, she nodded, and they returned to Noah's room, engaging with both boys as they alternated between working on the puzzle and playing with the Switch. About an hour after they returned Dr. Mandel came into the room, questioned and examined both boys then gestured to Paige and Bucky to follow him outside to the hallway.
