K A I

Chapter |2| Filthy Patient

E M E R Y ' S P. O. V

When I completed my four years of medical school and three years of residency, I thought my life would be filled with the unexpected.

That every day would be a different case, different people. The fast pace of the my career would drive me and every day would feel fudilled in saving lives.

Instead, I'm bored.

Most days, I spend documenting cases, answering the phone because Thorpe clinic is currently understaffed so the medical license that took long sleepless night of studying and so many tears to achieve is being used to answer phones and talk to patients who suspect they're dying after a persistent cough when it's simply flu season.

I couldn't complete all of my residency. Not after my semi breakdown that caused my parents to beg me to leave and settle down as a consultant at their local clinic. I'm glad the learning has stopped, I don't think I could have physically taken anymore information in but it's not the life I dreamed.

I treat more cuts than anything else. Don't get me wrong, I love helping people but I crave the adrenaline I hear my old friends rave about on the phone. How a multi car pile up brought in two people impaled on the same f*****g pole or that they've just discovered a new disease or a life saving treatment.

"Emery! Emery! Are you even listening?" A hand slams on the desk, bringing me back to the present.

Joshua is still holding a box of half used disposable gloves. "I said don't use more than one set a day."

I tidily move my thick brazen red hair to the side so I can see him better. "I need to when examining different patients. It's protocol."

"We can't afford it, not since the recent budget cuts and..."

"I'm not doing it. Our patients come to us with trust that we are able to look after them and giving one of them a potentially dangerous infection because I didn't change my gloves will destroy any credible reputation this clinic has. The community love us, we can't let them down by screwing them like this."

"Fine. Then I'll just reduce your pay." My boss says practically throws the keys in my face, the sharp edge nicking my lip.

He's an asshole. Hell, all of corporate America is but at least I know he's harmless.

Jason Stills however, a colleague with a fraction of a pay rise that makes him believe he's my superior, has adopted the strange need to walk me to my car every night. He waits until I've finished which can often range from nine to twelve in the evening, and waits for me to lock up.

Most mornings I find him loitering in the car park until I arrive, and he hits on me in the weirdest, most uncomfortable ways. Once he tapped my a*s with a plant. I was so stunned I didn't respond and he walked away smirking.

Thankfully tonight he has a dentist appointment or something. He even apologised for missing our late night talks, as he puts it, as though I actually enjoy him following me to my car.

I finish up my work, and quickly run over my appointments for tomorrow. A broken toe, a pesky cough and a cold that hasn't gone away yet. Then my hours are filled with endless documenting and answering phone calls.

"Hold on."

"No f*****g set me down."

"I'll f*****g leave you to bleed out. I don't give a shit."

The voices are close yet dulled by the thick panel glass that separates me from the outside world.

"Shut up both of you. Kai, stop being a f*****g i***t and just let him carry you. God, are you sure this was the nearest one? It doesn't look like a..."

"Hi." I interject, offering up the door. A woman turns around, so strikingly beautiful I almost forget what I was about to say. "Do...you need help? I'm a doctor if you're hurt I can..."

"Not me. Him." She moves, revealing a tall brooding man carrying another his arms.

"Oh this just f*****g embarrassing. I told you to put me down." There's something in his voice. The injured man with shaggy brown hair and delicate eyes. He looks at me, then grins, this stupid smile. "You're beautiful."

I fight a blush, and the woman simply rolls her eyes. f**k, are they together?

"He was shot." She replies briskly. "Not that bad, but can you stitch up? We can pay a lot of..."

"It's fine. This is free clinic, you don't have to pay me. Come in." They rush in, seemingly heading towards my office even though I offer no direction. They move with purpose, authority and I'm captivated.

"Well are you going to stitch up my brother or what?" Brother? That makes more sense.

I practically run to them, feeling like a scolded child under her heated glare. "Just set him on the table." I tell the tall man, who is almost as terrifying as the woman. Weirdly, they all feel strangely familiar

My patient chair has recently been sold, which hasn't been a major problem under the mild symptoms I've been examining but still it would be nice to have a f*****g chair.

"This doesn't look like a doctor's office."

I rush into the cupboard to grab a sewing kit and all the gauze I can fine. "We're experiencing minor budget cuts. I'm sorry. If you would prefer I can call an ambulance and they can take you to Westfield general. It's the closet hospital."

"That sounds good." The sister curtly replies. She's studying my degrees that hang framed on the wall. I can't blame her, I wouldn't want someone I love to be fixed up here either.

"No she can do it." The injured man says, turning towards me. "You're a doctor right?" I nod. "Then there's no reason to waste an ambulance."

I don't waste another minute, and grab a pair of scissors off my desk to cut his shirt open. The wound is still bleeding but the pressure has dulled it down.

"I'm Kai." He outstretches his hand to me, still smiling. How the f**k he isn't passed out or screaming in pain I'll never know.

"Emery Grayson, but I would rather not..." I gesture to his hand stained with blood.

"Oh right. This is Kiara, my sister, and her husband Aaron."

"Wait? Romano?" That's how I f*****g knew them. I was standing in a room with three millionaires. Holy s**t, and I was letting one of them bleed out.

My hand quickly work to adjust the gauze. "Yeah that's us. Guys, you can leave. Call mom."

Kiara hesitates at first, wary to leave her brother with a stranger. Then her husband gently guides her out by the waist and surprisingly she shuts the door behind her.

"The bullet is still in there. Hang long." I use tweezers to yank them out, careful not to damage the wound further. It's a sharp scratchy piece of metal. As far as bullets come it's a pretty s**t one.

"Cheap bastards, thank god. If it was any sharper than it could severed an artery."

"How did the son of a millionaire tycoon get shot so far into the suburbs? Shouldn't you be guarded in your rich palace with a gazillion guards for protection."

He barks out a laugh so infectious I can't help but laugh too. "If I told you that I'd have to kill you." I c***k a smile. He's joking. Obviously.

I make myself busy to thread the needle and stitch the wound. I've done harder, but it's weird nice change to everything else. Even though I wasn't shot, I'm treating someone who is and that in itself is a story.

"All done." He pouts, eyes dancing mischievously

"Can't we just pretend you haven't? My sister and her husband are so dull and in love it makes me sick."

"Love makes you sick?" I discard of the dirty equipment and strip my hands clean of the gloves.

"It's sickening how much they love each other. Aaron used to be one of the scariest guys I knew, then he fell in love and suddenly he's a soft cuddly puppy around her."

"Isn't that exactly why love is so great? It enacts change, turns the impossible possible and gives a sense of purpose. Don't you want to someone to live for Kai?"

"Isn't living for myself enough?"

"No." I reply almost instantly, stunning myself more than anything. "Loneliness is a terrible thing sometimes. It's disguised as peaceful at first, a way to escape the bustling crazy world around you, but then it becomes comfortable, it becomes the only thing you have to latch onto. Then it's just painful. You find yourself wishing, hoping for someone, anyone to talk to."

"I'm not lonely." For someone reason were so close and drawn together, I find my hand reaching out to touch his cheek.

I stare into this hazel brown eyes, expecting to laugh or smile at the happiness that should be there. Instead, it almost makes me cry.

"You Kai Romano might just be the loneliest person I've ever met."

There's no smile anymore. Just pure despair, like I've seen something that was meant to be hidden from the outside world, but it's hard to disguise loneliness from someone who's suffering the same way.

"Your lip is bleeding." He suddenly murmurs, thumb reaching out to graze the broken skin. Then before I can even react, he leans forward and gently sucks in the cut, his tongue delicately brushing over my bottom lip to drag the blood away.

"Did you just kiss me?" I gape as he pulls back, mildly stunned.

A grin stretches along his beautiful face, but I recognise the facade. I know he wants the topic changed. "That's not a kiss sweetheart, but if you want I'll be glad to show you." I'm almost tempted to say yes, and then I realise where I am...who he is and that my profession literally prohibits this from happening.

Quickly I yell out, "He's done!" and step back to avoid both Kai and my own erotic desires.

Kiara and Aaron both storm immediately, the former checking her brothers wound to see if I stitched it up correctly. Once satisfied, she straightens up and hands me seven crisp hundred dollar bills.

"I can't take that." I don't think I've ever been handed that much money before in my life.

She smiles and I realise it's the first time I've seen her do so. I take a glance at Aaron. He's watching her too, completely captivated by his wife's beauty.

I guess I would be a little sick of always watching two people so in love the world fades around them. Kai simply rolls his eyes and sighs.

"Consider it a donation to the clinic. This place could really use it and you're generosity can't go unpaid." The patients, Emery.

I take the money and quickly shove it in my desk, then lock it. The guilt of taking money seeps in but I push it back. Think of the patients.

"Good." Then she glances back at her brother. "Can you walk?"

"Yes, so tell your husband to keep his hands to himself." Aaron smirks and walks out whilst the rest of trail behind. I grab my bag and coat as we pass reception, and the keys are tight in my palm ready to lock up.

"Slow down." I hear Kai whisper. I can tell he's still in pain from the way he grits his teeth so I stay back and let him hold onto my arm.

"Remember to wash it every day and change the dressing. The stitches should heal in a few weeks and if there's any problems you know where I am, or you could just got the doctor."

"We usually have a private doctor, but unfortunately he quit, so we're looking to get a new one." He eyes me with that devious look. "Would you like it?"

I stumble on my words. "What? No I couldn't...I wouldn't..."

"Yes you could. The salary is very generous and you'd only work a few days a week so really it's the perfect job."

"It sounds boring, working for a rich family, always hoping someone gets sick or injures themself just so I'll have something to do."

"You'd look after pregnancies too. Deliver any babies in the family...my sister gets knocked up like every two years. She's just had her third, and I bet within a year she'll be pregnant again."

I look over at them. Aaron has Kiara pressed against the car, kissing her with such passion it's like their aflame. I wonder what it'd be like to love someone like that, to feel so intensely that your every nerve sparks in anticipation of seeing them.

I turn back to him. "I don't even know you." It would be crazy. Absolutely insane to even consider it.

"Just think about it." Kai murmurs softly, following my gaze as we walk out into the brisk cold.

"And if you're ever lonely Emery Grayson." He presses his phone into my hand. "Just call me. I'd very much like to be your friend."

I simply stand there as he hobbles away into the night, a stranger's phone grasped in my hand and my heart beating so loudly that I can barely even think.

Then I feel it. That rush of adrenaline that secretes through your body, electrifying you like a d**g, whenever you become excited. And that's exactly what I feel around Kai Romano.

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A/N: I loved writing this chapter!!

What are your thoughts on Emery??

On the two of them??

What do you think will happen next?? Will Emery call or will Kai find her again??