Justice by Oleander - 2012 Watty Awards, Finalist

Chapter 14

© Carey MacLean, 2012

Chapter 14

Xavier awoke to a find himself in bed alone on Sunday morning.  He remembered their first night together, where he woke to find her making them breakfast.  Imagine his surprise when he got up to find the kitchen empty, a pot of steaming coffee at the ready and a notepad by the percolator.

Xavier,

I didn’t want to wake you but the hospital called and I had to go in.  I’ll be back as soon as possible.

 Love - Mika

She couldn’t believe that she was called in on one of her days off.  It was simply too good to be true.  She cursed the Chief but most of all, his nephew for costing her a day she was sure she would have enjoyed.  She hoped that she would be able to head home once the chaos had subsided. 

You could tell that the summer months were around and that people were popping in mostly drunk, disorderly, and injured by their stupidity.  As she walked the Emergency Room’s hallway, she realized that her hopes of heading home in the following couple of hours were quickly evaporating.  As they treated one patient, two more seemed to arrive; each one ridiculously more oblivious to the fact they were progressively ruining her day.

It had been nearly ten hours since she had arrived and Mark had finally showed up, relieving her from her duties.  She scowled at the smug look on his face when she exited the locker room with her belongings in tow.

“Leaving so soon?”  He chirped.

“Where the fuck were you?”  She demanded.

“Fulfilling my duties, you could say,” he told her.  “What women want, women get.”

“You disgust me!”  She felt the bile rise up in her stomach.  “It’s nice to know that while you were so irresponsible about your duties, that I was pulled away on my day off no less, to pick up your slack.”

“You sound frustrated, Dr. Stafford,” he chuckled and held up a hand as if to brush her cheek and she bounced back to avoid his contact.  “You know I could help you with that.”

“No thanks, asshole.  My fuck card’s all filled up,” she smirked at her wittiness.

She had never been that quick with her tongue and she actually enjoyed the speedy quip.  Clearly, Mark hadn’t expected it and his jaw dropped.  Taking it as a vantage point, she took a step to the side and walked past him.

He heard the front door open and shut softly and knew that she finally had come home.  Setting his laptop to the side, he got up and peeked around the corner toward the front hall.  Their eyes met and he instantly knew that she had had a rough day.

“I’m seriously thinking about opening up my own flower shop now,” she chuckled dryly into his chest as he hugged her to him.

“That bad of a day?”  He asked.

“Horrible.  Thanks to Mark,” she shrugged her shoulders.

Xavier felt his blood boil at the mention of that prick’s name.

“Want to talk about it?”  He asked as he pulled her by the hand toward the couch.  She shook her head indicating the negative.

“I rather just forget about that man-whore,” she told him.