OBSESSED

2

JARROD

"Another patient in room 8, Doc."

Taking a deep breath, I looked up from my tablet to acknowledge the nurse.

I nodded at her. "Thank you, Claire."

As she scurried off, I sighed and leaned back against the operatory door from which I'd just stepped through.

I was fucking exhausted. These long nights at the hospital were going to kill me someday.

I met Claire around the corner outside Room 8.

"What've we got?" I asked her. I pumped hand sanitizer on my hands from the wall dispenser while glancing over her tablet.

"Patient has some head swelling and bruised ribs," she answered.

"What's the story?" I asked, skimming over the patient's visit information.

Leah Harris
Age: 26
Sex: F
BP: 115/82
HR: 73
Temperature: 98.7
Reason for visit: head trauma and possible broken ribs

"We don't know," Claire said. "She's unconscious."

We shared a concerned look.

"The neighbor brought her in and thinks she hit her head on something," she continued. "And just so you know, she's not in a gown yet. We wanted to make sure there wasn't a neck injury."

I looked away from the chart. "Okay."

"She only has a robe on," Claire added quickly, her face turning pink.

I realized she was trying to suggest something.
"What is it?" I pressed.

"The neighbor claims the patient was naked when the she found her. She managed to get a robe on her before the ambulance arrived."

She wouldn't be the first nude patient to show up at the hospital. There was something different about this case, though.

I hoped this wasn't a sexual assault case. My heart broke every time I was assigned to one and they never got easier.

"Did the neighbor say anything else?" I asked.

"She said the girl was soaking wet and had no clothes on," Claire told me. "She also clarified that there aren't any ponds or bodies of water in their neighborhood. I was thinking maybe a shower or something."

"Quite a mystery we have on our hands. Let's see what else we can figure out."

I knocked on the door and waited only half a second before a voice called from inside.

"Come in!"

Shouldering the door open, I nodded at the elderly woman seated in the guest chair. She smiled gravely back at me.

My gaze jumped to the bed.

A much younger woman lay under the sheets, her eyes closed and her pink lips slightly open. Her arms and shoulders were covered by the fluffy purple cloth of a spa robe. The front of the robe gaped open and exposed the entire center of her chest, down to her belly button.

The scene felt wildly inappropriate, especially given's the patient's state of consciousness, so I quickly glanced back at the woman.

"I'm Doctor Muller," I told her. "You must be our patient's neighbor?"

"Yes. I live directly next door to Leah," she said. "She woke me up, banging on my door in the middle of the night. When I finally got to the door, she was laying on my porch unconscious. Is she . . . Is she going to be okay, doctor?"