She did not want to look away. What she saw in his gaze as he looked at her was a combination of concern and admiration and something warmer, deeper, an emotion she didn’t dare try to identify.
He touched her shoulder. “Thanks for coming over, Mercy,” he said softly. “I don’t know what I’d have done without you. I know other docs who wouldn’t have come.”
“You’re welcome. Now, why don’t you let me finish taking care of this one? You’re still swamped.”
He smiled and nodded. “I do have a date with a broken arm.”
Mercy watched Lukas and Lauren leave, along with the policeman, then she pulled her stethoscope from around her neck and listened to Ramón’s labored breathing. Through Arthur, she explained to Ramón that he had overdosed on the pain medication for his tooth, and that kept the oxygen from carrying well through his body.
“Tell him this is serious, Arthur, and the drug they are giving him will take care of that, but I need to keep him overnight in the hospital on the telemetry unit.”
She checked the monitor, and it looked good. Ramón still had some shortness of breath, but no chest pain. She checked his painful tooth and had Claudia begin the dosage of methylene blue through an IV to counteract the effects of the drug overdose.
While Arthur translated, Mercy checked Ramón’s neck, belly, squeezed his hips and legs, listened again to his breathing. It could have been a lot worse, but he had a strong constitution. He also seemed to have a strong sense of guilt, and Mercy was glad for Arthur’s attitude of compassion.
She looked at Arthur once more, who continued to talk in soothing tones while she worked. Alma Collins was a lucky woman.
Chapter Four
L ukas studied the small image of shrapnel that showed clearly on Buck’s chest X-ray, then looked back at Buck. “Sorry, pal, it’s surgeon’s territory.”
Buck groaned and laid his head back. “Surgery? I have a shift tomorrow.”
“Get a replacement.”
“I can’t. We’ve got the competition for the Explorers. I have to be there. Can’t you just fish in there and pull it out?”
Lukas held the X-ray out and showed him, pointing to the image of metal. “It’s deep in the muscle, Buck. I don’t have any concerns about it being in the heart or lung, but I’m not going to go slicing through all that thick bodybuilder’s muscle and tissue of yours to find something that’s going to play hide-and-seek with a scalpel. Don’t worry. You won’t even have to leave Knolls. In fact, Dr. Wong is in the E.R. right now treating another patient, and I can have him give you a look while he’s here.”
“Will he do it here in the E.R.?”
“Probably.”
“Then I’ll get out today?”
“Barring complications.”
Buck motioned for Lukas to lean closer. “Will you tell Kyle and Alex to go on back to the station? I’m not on duty today, and they’re not my responsibility. And don’t tell Lauren I said that, or she’ll give me another lecture.”
Lukas grinned. “I’ll head everybody off except your wife. She should be here any time.”
Buck’s expression relaxed into a smile at last. “Kendra’s the only one I want to see.”
Mercy had been gone from her office for over two hours, and it was time to get back, if she had anybody left to treat. She felt bad for leaving them for so long. They depended on her. She knew they were loyal, but that wasn’t what concerned her about this.
A little over five years ago she’d lost custody of her daughter, and she’d lost the majority of her practice, all because of rumors and public opinion—and the fact that she’d been forcibly committed to a psych ward for a ninety-six-hour stay. Her ex-husband, Theodore Zimmerman, had coerced a physician buddy of his to pull the double cross on her during a very high-profile custody case for their daughter, Tedi.
Those patients who came to her now most likely knew about her past, about the rumors, and they came to her anyway. They’d given her their loyalty, and she hated to let them down.
She stepped into the nearest call room, prepared to do dictation on Arthur, when a newly familiar sense of suffocating heat and slight nausea accosted her. She inhaled with sharp impatience, as if to will away the attack as it began its languid travel outward from the core of her body. She hated this feeling! There wasn’t time for it now.
She stepped into the private bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face and neck, then took deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth to try to relax. Stress. It had to be stress. Her life was so full right now that she constantly felt tense, even irritable. She wasn’t sleeping well at night, and she refused to try the sleeping pills she sometimes prescribed for her patients. She splashed water again on her face, then pulled off her lab coat and fanned herself with some paper towels. It would pass in a moment, as it had before. Some ice cubes would be nice, but—
“Mercy? You in there?” came Lukas Bower’s voice from the call room entrance.
Dabbing moisture from her face and neck, she stepped out of the bathroom and waved him through the open doorway, then slumped onto the side of the bed in the corner beside the desk. She had to get back to the clinic. People were waiting. Who knew what state the office was in. But she was still perspiring heavily, and she didn’t feel like getting up right now.
Lukas strolled in and sat down in the desk chair, releasing a sigh. “Thanks for coming in. I don’t know what I’d’ve done without you. And thanks for taking such good care of Arthur.” He quirked a brow at her, and his clear blue eyes filled with gentle humor. “He got to you, didn’t he? I heard him asking you to pray with him.”
Mercy took a couple more deep breaths. She knew her face was flushed. She probably looked as if she’d been running a race.
Finally Lukas noticed. “Mercy? Are you okay? You don’t look too hot.”
Mercy sighed and rolled her eyes. Wonderful choice of words. Typically Lukas. “I’ll be fine.” Sometimes, when she became especially irritable, his tenderness and concern could calm her like nothing else. He blurted whatever he thought, and you never had to worry about where you stood with him. His soft brown hair, bespectacled face and compact built disguised a powerhouse of character and intellect that she admired. In fact, she felt much more than admiration for him. But she wasn’t ready to discuss the hot flashes with him or anybody else.
“I saw Beverly in with Cowboy today,” she said, making a show of examining the few exposed parts of his flesh. “I don’t see any scratch marks, and I didn’t hear any raised voices. Did she see you?”
“She saw me.”
“You know she’s still feeling guilty.”
“Why would she feel guilty? She swears I was the one in the wrong.” Lukas shrugged, but Mercy knew him well enough to know the continued disagreement with Beverly bothered him.
Everyone knew the nurse was afraid she would lose her job if she filed the report to support Lukas. Bailey Little had a lot of power, and he used it to get what he wanted.
“She still tries to schedule her shifts to keep from working with me,” Lukas said. “She’s civil when she gets stuck with me, but it isn’t a comfortable situation. I’ve been praying about it. Lauren says she’s praying, too. She’s even tried to talk to Beverly about it.”
Mercy tensed against her will at the mention of Lauren’s name. “And did our little supernurse get anywhere with her?” She cringed at the sound of her own jealousy.
Lukas