Page 97 of Prickly Pair
“I’ll come with you. Maybe emotionally prepare for the worst situation. We’re gonna need CPS involved possibly.”
I exhaled slowly, letting my walls come up. It was easy to say this was just my job and that I’d seen a thousand terrible situations come through these doors and it didn’t affect me. But that wasn’t true. There were still patients whose situations haunted me, even years later. Being in a cute small town didn’t exclude us from tragedy or from the worst of humanity.
I followed Angel to the room and drew in a deep, calming breath before stepping inside. A young boy was sitting on the bed, and the moment I saw his arm, my chest squeezed. A teenager sat in the chair next to the bed, wringing her hands together, her eyes wide. She must have been the babysitter.
“Hi there,” I said, keeping my tone friendly. “Riley and Sawyer, right? I’m Dr. Jacobs. Miss Angel here was just filling me in on the situation here today. Let’s get a look at that arm.”
It was swollen. Too swollen. Sawyer sniffled as I rolled a chair up to him. I offered him a soft smile. “Can I take a look, Sawyer?”
“Yes,” he whispered. He glanced over at Riley and she nodded. “Am I going to get in trouble?”
“No,” I said immediately. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re gonna get this taken care of, okay?”
Sawyer wiped away a few tears, then nodded bravely. “Okay.”
* * *
A few hours later, I washed my hands, changed into my regular clothes, and headed out to my car. The moment the door shut, I leaned my seat all the way back, my ears ringing.
“Fuck,” I sighed.
Today had gotten ugly. The little boy was going to be okay, hopefully. His mother lived in another state and he was just visiting his dad here. Apparently, this happened on his summer visit. We were able to connect with her, and everything had spiraled out from there.
Three fractures. At first he told me he fell, but eventually he told me the truth about his dad. We’d found more bruises too.
I let the emotions shake through me now and wiped away my own tears, exhaling slowly. It took a few minutes before I felt myself finally become regulated, and when my eyes opened, I noticed my phone on my car dashboard.
“Oh fuck,” I groaned.
I sat my seat up and grabbed it, reading Austin’s text again. I had others too from Evie and Nick, all unanswered. It sounded like Nick and Evie were going to watch a movie tonight, and I was invited, but . . .
Austin.
I massaged my neck muscles, trying to get myself to relax even a little. I still wanted to go over to his place for dinner. Hell, I wanted to finally talk just one on one about how everything was moving so fast and how quickly my life was changing.
He’d texted this a few hours ago, though.
I pressed the call button and leaned back in my seat again. It rang a couple times, but then Austin answered.
“Hi,” he said warmly. “How was your day?”
“Bad,” I sighed. “Really fucking bad. Sorry I didn’t text back earlier.”
“It’s okay,” he said immediately. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Well, no, but I will be. Can I still come over?”
“Of course. I didn’t end up cooking, but I have leftover birria ramen. Mateo and I had some at the fire station earlier.”
“Mmm. Okay. That’s perfect,” I said. “I’ll be over in a few.”
“See you in a few.”
The back of my neck prickled as I sat there. I frowned and scanned the parking lot around me. I didn’t see anyone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling like I was being watched.
Maybe I was just tired.
Shrugging it off, I started my car, all the tension melting the closer I got to his place. I pulled into Austin’s driveway next to his truck and hopped out. The moment my shoes hit the top step, his door opened.
