AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The mother burst into loud sobs. “He’s going to be all right? Really? Oh — thank you, doctor!”
Dominic felt sick to his stomach.
He didn’t deserve their thanks.
He had been down in the cafeteria flirting with one of his interns while that little boy was suffering. The other doctor on duty hadn’t known what to do.
He had missed his page because he had been paying attention to Emily.
He had let his focus slip, and someone had almost died.
That just couldn’t be allowed to happen again.
He left the waiting room, unable to face the parents. He had saved their child, but he had also very nearly been the reason their child had died. Their gratitude made him feel terrible.
Emily had evidently chased after him when he’d fled the cafeteria. He found her waiting by the nurses’ station, looking deeply concerned. “Are you all right?” she asked him, reaching out to touch his arm.
He jerked away. “I’m fine.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re not fine. That patient… the nurses told me what happened. They say he’s going to be all right. That you saved his life.”
“I almost didn’t.” He turned away from her.
Emily was just too kind. Too tender. And that was the last thing he wanted right now. He wanted someone to tell him how wrong he had been. He wanted someone to hold him accountable for his selfishness. She wouldn’t do that.
He walked off in the direction of his office, needing to be alone with his thoughts.
She didn’t follow.
Good. He didn’t want to be followed right now. He wanted to be left alone.
And yet…
There was a part of him — a small, vulnerable part that had never existed before — that craved her company. The reassurance that only she had ever been able to provide.
He wanted that, and he knew he couldn’t allow himself to have it. Not anymore. Not ever again.
He had been too permissive with himself, allowed himself to get too close to her and enjoy too much of her company. And the cost had almost been unthinkable. Just like the day he had lost his mother.
This was what happened in medicine. If you took your eye off the ball for even a moment, people died. He knew that, and he had almost allowed it to happen again anyway.
He sat down at his desk, took out his pager, and put it in front of him.
From now on, he would keep his focus strictly where it should be. He wouldn’t allow himself to look away again, not even for a moment.
He felt his body begin to relax as he made himself that pledge.
You couldn’t control much in life, but this was one thing that was under his control.
CHAPTER 17
EMILY
Emily finally caught up with Dominic again late that night, when almost everyone else who wasn’t assigned to the night shift had gone home for the day.
He wasn’t in the break room. That was the first sign that something was wrong. They had taken to getting coffee together at the beginning of the night shift, but he hadn’t shown up for that.
She found him in his office, rifling through a large stack of papers. He didn’t look up when she came in.
