"Yeah, it sounds like a plan to me." Garrett was surprised that after all they had been through today, the nurse was still willing to spend more time with her, even after the embarrassing situations that had happened. Maybe this was what friendship was about. Being able to bare oneself to others and realizing the acceptance in even the worst of conditions by a true friend.
"Do you think the game is over by now? I wonder if we’ll get back in time for dinner, I’m famished," the young blonde wore a look of concern across her face. "I wonder who won." It was a non-stop barrage of dialogue coming from the petite woman. "Say, are you up for some fireworks later tonight? I sure am."
The tall surgeon raised an eyebrow and looked in her direction, then just shook her head as they ambled together down the hall towards their respective showers.
Chapter 7
Startled eyes opened wide, trying to acquaint themselves to the darkened room, hands fumbled with the bedding to find a path to her body. The woman’s mind raced with jumbled thoughts causing her breath to quicken. The adrenaline rush surged through her body with every beat of her racing heart. "Where, what, who?" Desperately her mind tried to make some order out of her surroundings. The hand finally made its way to her body, finding her midsection. The woman now focused on the hand as it slowly brushed up and down her torso, fingertips deliberately being raked over the curves of the sculptured body. She let the hand sweep a larger area searching for the distinguishing textures that would tell her what she needed to know. The soft feel of skin followed around the generous curve where puckering flesh stood firmly into a nub. Gliding down across taunt, flat muscles the coarse texture of hair was now at her fingertips. She let out a sigh as her mind told her where she was. Her body now settled into a calming rhythm, as her mind became oriented to both self and place. Her eyelids lowered as a feeling of warmth reached over her being, touching her very soul. She allowed herself the comfort of relaxing down into the plump pillows underneath her head. She was safely floating back into the comfortable sleep that her body needed.
It seemed that sleep had been the only comfort that her mind could accept. It had been used as her refuge from the world of emotions and the few people that tried to lay claim to her body. She was safe and secure in her knowledge that she was alone. After all, it was infrequent that she awoke in the company of someone. Her college days of experiments at finding her sexual stability never brought more than a raised eyebrow to her face. She could never see what all the excitement was about. Then again, you only get out what you invest into it and her fear of hurt never allowed her to invest anymore than her body. The story always ended the same way in any of her attempted relationships. The emotionless giving of her body to another in a sexual way was never enough for them. As soon as the fascination wore out, they were gone. There was nothing in her personal life that remained constant but the feeling of desolation. Her soul was left wondering in that barren world that she had built for it. Preserving it for some unknown reason while never really understanding why. She had long ago given up on love of the personal kind. It just wasn’t in the hand of cards that the fates had dealt to her. Work was the only thing that gave her any fulfillment in that lonely world. Sleep was something that was best enjoyed alone and therefore, was looked forward to at the end of a day’s work, especially one that did not demand her to be on-call.
It was a technique that she had developed early on during her internship days. Not only did it allow her luxury of a good night’s sleep but kept her mind in balance. The time spent acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to be a surgeon was endless. Nights were often spent absorbing every written word from the standard textbooks and additional reading material that it soon became oblivious as to whether or not one was on-call. She had rationalized if her time were indeed her own that she would be unconfined by structure, as she had known it. Thus became the ritual of sleeping in the buff. It definitely was something that one would only find appealing in the privacy of one’s own bed. The simple method had worked for her except for her time in the Navy. Being the only surgeon onboard ship meant that you were always on-call, no matter what. That was, unless you were lucky enough to get shore leave in an exotic port.
Through barely opened eyes, she could see that the golden rays of the morning’s first light were creeping into the room. The golden hue stirred memories that her mind associated with the warm glow that she felt. In her state of limbo between deep sleep and the real world, images of the last few months floated around her mind. Never before had she dreamt of a person that was not related to her with such regularity. Her dreams or nightmares as she often referred to them had always been filled with daily goals and turmoil in her struggle to achieve her career. Her lust for perfection would never allow her time to have friends or even to be friendly with any of her colleagues. She saw them only as people she had to be around to attain her self-driven goals. Her work involved human beings, but that didn’t mean she had to socialize with them in order to do it and be the best. Her coldness toward them had always kept them at bay.
The dreams now were like a breath of fresh air. Air that softly swirled causing the short blonde hair to quiver and carry the fresh scent of a beautiful summer day on it. They had been playing softball when someone in the gathered crowd had been assaulted. Images of the scene blurred as in a fast forward motion coming to an abrupt stop as the paramedics placed the man who was now trached on the ambulance stretcher. Her eyes cast about at the odd collection of people that had worked right along with her, never being asked or directed to do so. Each face that she looked at shown a confident approach to the situation at hand, not letting anyone in the crowd know the severity of the man’s injury. They were professionals whether they were dressed for the part or not. It was like some surreal event before her eyes, the spirit of camaraderie wisping freely between them as it soared amongst the crowd of caregivers until it approached her and outstretched it’s arms to engulf her with its embrace. She looked it coldly in the eye and for the first time noticed that it had taken on the face of a human framed by shimmering flaxen hair.
Then in a rush of fast-forward the events whirled by until they stopped and continued at a normal pace again.
Like the return of the prodigal daughters that they were, Karen met the two lost but not forgotten picnickers with a mother’s welcome. "What took you so long? Did you have to rush him into surgery? We were worried about you." Her voice was a mixture of concern and scolding both. "Hey, now give. Why the scrubs?" Her look was stern and skeptical.
Danni dropped her eyes and started to blush. Garrett was quick to come to her rescue. "We got a little dirty and thought that it would be best to clean-up before we came back, Mom. The patient was doing well when we left him." Then changing the subject she attempted to take the heat further off of her blonde companion. "I hope we got back in time to eat, did we?"
"Well, you’re close but I guess we can find you two some burgers and corn. You know, Danni, we were just wondering where you hid that load of watermelons that you were supposed to bring."
The small blonde breathed a sigh of relief at the direction of the conversation. She winked at Karen and nudged the tall woman next to her. "Come on, Garrett, give me a hand getting them out of the car." She walked over to where her keys had been placed before the start of the softball game.