Love on Chesapeake Bay (BWWM)

23. Proposition

The next day Kayla sat in Pathophysiology lecture, doodling in her notebook instead of taking notes. Ryan had a doctor's appointment so she was on her own for the day. So far Dr. Martell hadn't called on her, for which she was grateful. Instead he was picking on a shy, nervous guy sitting in the front of the class who was repeatedly failing to answer his questions correctly. When class was dismissed, Kayla hurried for the door, hoping to get through the day without interacting with him altogether. And she almost made it - she was only a couple feet from the door, when she heard him call her name.

"Miss Kavari, a moment please?"

Kayla reluctantly walked towards his desk where he sat with his feet propped up. All the other students had cleared out; it was just him and her.

"We meet again," Martell said, running his hand over his mustache.

Kayla nodded, wearily.

"I never pegged you for the type of girl to fool around with older men. You always seemed like the sweet, innocent type so I never thought to pursue you. But imagine my surprise to find out you're the girl Jack has been screwing," Martell said. "So naturally I have to ask.. do you want to go out sometime? Or we could skip all that and get right to it if you'd prefer. I may not be a Lasker winner but I do know how to please a woman," he winked.

"Ex-excuse me?"  Kayla stuttered, in shock, barely able to form the words. She immediately felt sick to her stomach. What did that mean "the girl Jack is screwing"? Did Jack tell people they'd had sex? Had he bragged about it as if she was just some conquest? Whatever he had said had somehow emboldened Dr. Martell to proposition her.

Kayla stated to panic - she heard ringing in her ears, her vision began to narrow, as if the walls were closing in around her, and her breathing became shallow.

Dr. Martell was saying something else now but she couldn't hear - the sounds of her thoughts were too loud. She had to get out of there. She turned and ran out of the room.

She ran to the nearest bathroom, stumbled her way into the first empty stall, and sank to her knees in front of the toilet.

"Kayla!" shouted a girl's voice. "Kayla!"

As the voice got closer Kayla realized it belonged to Nisa. There was banging on the stall door.

"Kayla are you okay? Open up! Please tell me you're okay!"

Kayla reached up and unlocked the stall door and Nisa rushed in.

"Kayla what are you-?" She crouched down on the bathroom floor beside Kayla and pulled her into her arms. Kayla started bawling.

"Shhh, shhh," Nisa rocked her back and forth slowly. "It's okay. It's going to be okay. Just breathe. Inhale.... exhale... just like that... that's it."

Nisa sat there on the bathroom floor for a long time, stroking Kayla's hair until her crying subsided.

"How did you find me?" Kayla asked, wiping her eyes.

"I was waiting for you down the hall and I saw you run out of Dr. Martell's room," she said.

Tears began to spill out of Kayla's eyes again at the mention of his name.

"Let's get you home okay? You can shower, we can talk about what happened if you want," Nisa said, her heart breaking seeing Kayla so upset.

"I can't go out there like this." Kayla sniffled.

"Here," Nisa pulled a makeup wipe out of her purse and helped Kayla wipe off her now mascara-stained face. Then she stood up and held out her hands to help Kayla up.

When the two were back at their apartment, they sat on Nisa's bed and Kayla explained everything that had happened, having to pause often to keep from crying.

When she was finished, Nisa sat there with a look that was a mix between outrage and disgust. "I'm going to kill him," was all she could say.

---

It was later that evening and Jack was in the hallway of the pediatric intensive care unit, signing off on his last patient's chart when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and smiled when he saw that it was Kayla.

"Hey Kayla, what's up?" Jack answered the phone.

"I just wanted to tell you I get it now, you don't have to keep up the charade anymore," Kayla said.

"What charade?" Jack said, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"Pretending that you care about me." It sounded like she was holding back tears.

"Kayla wha- hold on- Phillips can you handle this for me?" Jack said, handing the clipboard to the doctor who had been working on the patient case with him. He walked into the staff locker room and sat down on the bench. "Why would you think I don't care about you?"

"You told your colleagues about having sex with me."

"No... I would never do that. What happened? Where is this coming from?"

"Oh really you would never.." Kayla scoffed. "Then how else did Dr. Martell know that you and I are screwing? And why does he have the idea in his head that I'd agree to have sex with him too? Is that what you two do? You tell him which girls you sleep with so that he can go in for seconds?"

"What? No... I didn't... he asked you for sex?" Jack asked, anger building inside him.

"So if I'm not "the girl Jack has been screwing" then who is? Is it your resident? You know what, it doesn't matter. I was stupid to trust you. I won't make that mistake again."

"Wait Kayla, please... Kayla," Jack pleaded, but it was too late; she had already hung up.

"Fuck," he muttered.

He paced around the locker room, growing angrier. He was disgusted - no, infuriated- that Martell had actually made a pass at Kayla, and upset that Kayla assumed he thought so little of her. Martell must've come to the conclusion that he and Kayla were sleeping together when he saw them together at the charity gala and somehow thought, in his typical perverted fashion, that he had a shot with her.

Consumed with rage, Jack forcefully pushed open the locker room door, briskly walking towards the elevators. He slammed his hand against the button for the 1st floor, and the elevator brought him down to the ICU. When he stepped off, he saw Alexis, standing by a nurse's station, chatting.

"Where's Martell?" Jack asked her gruffly interrupting her conversation with the two nurses.

"Uhh he came in a couple hours ago for a surgery, but it's probably finished by now. Why?" Alexis said, taken aback by his tone of voice.

"Which OR?" he asked.

"Dr. Holland I-" she started to say in a concerned voice, but she was cut off.

"Which OR?" Jack repeated.

"Two," she said quietly.

Jack turned from her and started down the hallway. Martell, Stewart and Brooks were coming out of OR 2, talking and laughing.

"Holland!" Martell called out when he saw Jack approaching him from the other end of the hallway. "How's Kayla? How's the sex? Good? I bet it is... I imagine she has a sweet little-"

But he never got to finish his sentence because as soon as Jack was close enough he punched Martell square in he jaw with enough force to knock him off his balance.

Before a fight could ensue, Dr. Brooks held Jack back and Dr. Stewart stood in between the two, preventing Martell from retaliating.

"Come on Jack he's not worth it," Brooks said, quietly pleading with Jack who was trying to escape his grasp to hit Martell a second time. "Think of how far you've come. Think of the type of man you want to be."

"I want to be the type of man who defends the honor of the woman he loves," Jack growled, lurching forward again.

"What the hell is going on here?" Dr. Higgins voice boomed. The four men straightened up immediately at the sound of the Chief of Surgery's voice and turned to face him, Martell clutching his jaw in his hand.

"My office... now!"