Page 85 of Wild

The doctor isn't there for that — there's a medical team covering the event the same way she used to cover others alongside Barry — but she's closer and she can't stop herself.

"Are you okay?" she asks, grabbing his arm as he tries to get up.

When he puts his right foot on the ground he lets out a yelp of pain and his knees buckle. Erin holds him as best she can and helps him lie down on his back just as the medical team — two men — reaches them.

She steps back and lets them work, then returns to her spot, fixing her attention on Mia, who is deep into a choreography now, smiling when the crowd roars and singing like she's not tired at all. But there's a moment when Erin thinks she misses a step. It's only an instant, and she can't even confirm it because Mia is moving perfectly between two dancers. Still, a pressure has settled in the doctor's chest that she can't shake, and she spends the last stretch of the concert with her heart pounding, watching the singer's every reaction.

When the show finally ends, Erin exhales with relief and doesn't take her eyes off Mia, who jumps off the stage because she's running on pure adrenaline, walks up to her, and presses a kiss to her mouth that nearly knocks her off balance.

"Look at all that energy, honey," she smiles, putting her hands on Mia's neck to kiss her again.

Mia's wide smile is contagious, and the doctor feels her mind go soft under the bluish gaze of the artist with the tattooed body.

"I really like you, Dooley," Mia breathes against her mouth.

She's said it more than once already, but she needs to keep saying it, because she loves the thing that happens on Erin's face when she hears it: at first it looks like surprise, like she didn'tknow, but then the left corner of her mouth starts to curve in a slow, unsteady way, and Mia finds it ridiculously sexy.

"You don't have to sweet-talk me — you already have me."

Erin takes her wrist out of habit to check her pulse, knowing she can't really read it right now because she's too revved up.

"Just in case," Mia teases.

The doctor hugs her because suddenly she needs the contact of her body.

"You were incredible, darling — better than any other night."

"You say that every time," she protests against her neck.

"Do I?"

Erin makes a surprised face when she pulls back, and Mia gives her a gentle shove.

"I'm going to get some water."

She walks off to grab one of the bottles at the edge of the stage, and Erin watches her until Nell stops beside her.

"I was thinking that when we get to Atlanta we could go out to dinner, the four of us — you two, Noah, and me. I know a place that does a grilled steak that'll make you cry. I went there with my husband and I'd love to go back, but not alone."

"Sure," Erin says, "mention it to Noah so he can work it out."

"Great…"

"Erin…"

The doctor turns at the sound of Mia's voice and the brush of the singer's hand on her arm, but all she has time for is watching Mia's eyes go unfocused before her knees give out. Erin tries to catch her to break the fall, but it's all so sudden, and her position — standing to the side of Mia — is so bad, that she knows she won't be able to hold her up, and the only thing she can do is go down with her to cushion the impact with her own body.

The movement is so strange and sudden that not even Nell, who is only a few feet away, has time to do anything.

Erin gets one arm around Mia's back as best she can; with the other she wraps around her beneath her chest, and since she has no time to get into a better position to hold her, she simply lets herself fall with her, getting behind her so the singer lands on top.

The doctor manages to avoid a hard blow: she's been able to get one knee down without hurting herself too badly and brace her body before her back hits the floor, but what she hasn't been able to control is the momentum of the singer's head, which catches her full in the right cheekbone and makes her see stars.

Erin needs a few seconds to recover from the shock — just enough time for a nearby crew member and Nell to lift Mia off her and lay her carefully on the floor. The doctor, fairly dazed but aware of what she needs to do, starts to push herself up when she feels hands under her arms pulling her upright to help her.

She knows it's Noah because she can hear him saying something, but she can't take it in right now.

"Take her to the medical room," she orders one of the singer's bodyguards when he moves in to carry her.