STEPHANIE

After a seven-hour duty at the emergency room, I was more than ready to go to bed in my comfortable bed and forget about all my problems and obligations. I drank another coffee from the vending machine again, struggling with the fatigue that overcame me. After the fourth, I stopped counting them.

I looked at the phone hoping that my annoying sister would accept to take me to the apartment, but she claimed to be busy and wanted to teach me another of her life lessons with this again. I was not to blame because my car broke down, and even less because no car mechanic works on Sundays.

What obligations could she have at five in the morning? All of her high-paying patients schedule surgeries after nine, and besides, today is one of her days off. She certainly doesn't sleep, because she always wakes up at exactly half past five and drinks coffee watching the city from our living room.

If Leo didn't have to travel again for work, all this would be much simpler, and it was stupid for me ask Leo to send his driver to pick me up... I depended on Nicole's good will, which she almost never had.

"Doctor, you have a patient," one of the nurses entered the on-call room with a knock.

"I'll be right there," I said, taking one last sip of my coffee and tossing the cup into the trash can in the corner of the room.

On-call duty has always been the worst and most exhaustive part of my residency, because I never knew what might catch me at the reception. I should have simply chosen dermatology like Lacey. She is on duty once every three months, and besides, she tries new cosmetics half the time...

I ran to the reception, where the head nurse referred me to office number four. I got a minor again who caused some of the fights. I really can't understand these new generations trying to solve all their problems by violence.

"Let me go or you will end up like him...!"

I recognized the voice of the boy shouting at the cop. Why wasn't I surprised to see him again?

The mixed smells of alcohol, men's perfume, and tobacco filled the whole room. It was painful to even stay in it, but as a doctor I had to get used to situations like this.

"Mark, why do I see you again?" I sighed seeing his bloody fists and mutilated pretty face.

"Dr. Stephanie..." he stopped grabbing the policeman and smiled slightly at me.

"Can you leave us alone and take those handcuffs off him?" I asked the policeman culturally, hoping he would accept.

I knew this guy because he was my first patient while I was doing an internship, and that was almost two years ago. I have seen him more often than ever since. He got into trouble at least once a week, and even though he introduced himself as a heartless guy, he had a better soul than most people I've met.

"Doctor, I'm afraid you don't realize how dangerous he really is..."

"Don't worry, the two of us know each other very well, he never made a problem for me, so I don't believe he will start now..." I looked at him pleadingly.

"He pulled a knife on the boy because he annoyed him..."

"I better have killed him right away!" Growled Mark who was still tied up and I shot him a look.

"You can be in front. I'll call you if I feel threatened at any moment," I smiled at the young policeman who was hesitant to listen to me.

"But he's dangerous."

"You have a coffee machine in front, I'm sure you're tired. These night shifts can really make a man tired."

"Maybe you're right, I'd like a coffee..." He thought and I realized that I had won him over.

If only my sister found out how I use my charm ... She would personally make sure I lose my job and that I am forced to work for her where she could keep an eye on me.

"You can also rest, there will be a lot of work around him," I pointed to the bloody Mark, who was silently watching us.

"If you notice the slightest sign of aggression, call me," he said seriously, then extended his hand to me, "I'm Edward Black."

I smiled falsely at him, accepting his hand, but I did not introduce myself to him. I recognized flirting, but apart from Leo, no man with me had the slightest chance.

"I'm glad. I'm Dr. Bennett."

I continued to smile falsely at him until he took off Mark's handcuffs and left the office, and then I turned to my patient in disappointment. Even the wounds that I previously bandaged did not heal, and he has already managed to earn new ones.

"Which time this week, Mark?" I gave him a reproachful look.

"Second, Miss Stephanie," he smiled at me sincerely.

"Will you tell me the reason you got in trouble this time?"

"Man attacked my brother, I couldn't watch him with folded arms. He took out a knife, and I had to show him how much mistake he had made," he became serious.

His biggest problem is that he is too impulsive and protective of his older brother and mother. His only way to solve the problem was with fists and weapons. Everyone condemned his behavior, but none of them saw an injured boy whose childhood was like hell. The father would give his brother and him enormous sums of money a day to be out of the house, and he would bring barely adult girls next to the living wife.

There was no one to teach these brothers the values ​​of family and the meaning of love, because they only had each other all their lives. Their mother herself was a minor when she gave birth to them and never had the opportunity or means to leave such a husband, because as a woman with barely finished primary school and without any means, she could not take care of her two sons.

"Mark, you know that it's only a matter of time before you end up in prison if you continue like this. You're seventeen years old, start and at least finish some school...", I advised him again, but it will probably never bear fruit.

"You know I'm not interested in school, it's not for me," he waved.

"It's also not a prison for you either," I sighed as I pulled on my sterile gloves, and he remained silent on this.

"You were lucky, this time you won't need sewing, but you'll need a head scan, I don't know how many more times you'll be able to get through without a concussion."

I mildly criticized him by cleaning new and old wounds on his face, he had deep blue-green eyes and something childish in him that explained to me why he is so popular among girls.

Looking at him, I realized what I would have become if I didn't have Nicole by my side and my heart tightened, because he had no one to guide him and make him move on regardless of the situation, like she did to me. I could barely hold back my tears, but I had to stay strictly professional because I knew that such behavior would be extremely disastrous for my career. Although I was taught throughout college not to bond with patients, I would always make an exception from time to time and end up broken.

"Can I look at your hands now?" I asked him, and he just nodded affirmatively holding them out to me.

"Can you squeeze your hands into fists and then relax them?"

"Whatever you want, doc," he winked at me with a seductively wide smile.

I followed his every move carefully, and then I smiled contentedly, realizing that nothing was broken. I cleaned each of his wounds, wiping the now dried blood from them.

"Have you seen Dana?" I asked him, hoping he had finally accepted to see his younger child.

"I see her all the time on Facebook, both her and her mother."

"You know I didn't mean that, she'll need you..."

"I don't care, her mother just hoped we'd pay her, and I'm still not sure she's mine. I told her at the beginning that she was nothing more than a casual party to me, so you can't take me to accuse me of ever lying to her; she wanted the money and got it. "

"Mark..."

"When my father can remarry a girl who is barely older than me, he can't object to me for anything," I saw pure anger in his eyes and the moments separated us from the moment when his aggression would occur.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know about it," I sincerely apologized to him, because I didn't want to go into his private life if he didn't want to.

"Do you perhaps want to talk about it?" I asked him, "You know very well that everything you tell me remains just between us..."

I no longer knew how to help him. I tried to involve the social work service from the very beginning, but I learned that their father was above the law. I grabbed his carefully folded arm carefully, hoping to help him at least a little, but he immediately withdrew his hand and groaned in pain.

I looked at his fingers and palms and established the cause. My father exploited him again by labor; he must have insulted one of his prostitutes again. A seventeen-year-old was not allowed to have such large fresh puffs and rough and cracked working skin.

He must have seen the pity on my face as he moved his hands away from me. There was no cure that could relieve his pain right away, but I knew a way to alleviate it at least a little.

"Sister Jeanne, can you go to the on-call room and bring me the hand cream I forgot on the table?" I opened the office door and asked the first nurse.

I could have done it myself, but by the time I got back Mark would have already left. I continued to talk to him about various topics, trying to avoid topics about his family, and Jeanne soon returned and handed me the cream I was looking for with a smile.

"I won't, put it on," he looked at me in disgust when he saw the flower tube in my hands.

"I don't think I asked you for your opinion, I'll put it to you kindly or by force," I shrugged, letting him know I wasn't kidding.

"You wouldn't do that..."

"Are you sure you want to test that theory?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I love women with attitude," he winked at me and raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm glad, but you're too young for me," I laughed sincerely, rubbing his hands.

"The one who won you over is really lucky, but I'll wait for his first mistake..."

"You're free," I laughed when I was done, handing him the cream he refused.

"Can I ask you another favor?"

"No, unless you promise to take the cream and I won't see you for ten days."

"Agreed, I just need you to briefly use that charm of yours on that cop..."

"I'll pretend you didn't ask me that at all," I scolded him, and he took the cream and put it in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Thank you doctor, I wish you a pleasant rest of the morning," he addressed me, and then I saw on his face again that cold mask of his that he had been building for many years.

I called the policeman in front, but as he measured me with his eyes. Mark took advantage and pushed him away, running towards the exit, and Black ran after him, hoping to catch him.

It took me a few minutes to calm down after all this, and then I told the head nurse that my duty was over and that I would be leaving soon. When I finished the report, I signed it and went to the locker room changing into a comfortable tracksuit. I looked at the phone and Nicole's message made me sincerely happy, because I won't have to freeze outside and wait for a taxi.

I pulled on my winter jacket and headed for my sister's car, ready to fall asleep in it, but the first thing I did when I walked into it was to pull her into a tight embrace. I could see the surprise on her face, but she didn't ask me questions like she always did.

If it weren't for her, I definitely wouldn't be a doctor in residency now. I don't even want to think what would have happened to me if she had turned her back on me many years ago, because she could do it. I could have despised her criticism and her boring nature, but at the end of the day I had to be grateful to her for everything.

"You see what happens when you don't check to see if your car is working?" She asked me criticall, "If you were a little more responsible and left the apartment half an hour earlier, you wouldn't have this problem, and the number of tickets you get would be significantly reduced for fast driving..."

"Thank you, Nicole," I said, ignoring her previous question.

"On what?" She asked me in surprise, "I don't believe that all this is because of one ride..."

"On everything," I answered her briefly, and she did not continue with her questions, for which I was more than grateful.

Someone knocked on the passenger door and I instinctively turned around and then saw my smiling mentor by the door. He must have just arrived at work.

"I just wanted to check if everything was okay tonight," he said when I opened my sister's car window.

"Yes, everything was normal," I replied with a smile.

"I'm glad to hear that," he nodded, then his expression suddenly changed and he became serious, "Nicole, is that you?"

I looked at my sister, at first I saw that she was as confused as I was, but after a few moments her confusion was replaced by surprise.

"William?"

How does my sister know my superior and why have I not known anything about it so far? She would have mentioned him if she had known about this, but there was something in their eyes that told me they weren't just acquaintances.

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Chapter edited by @sweetfirecarmelle