~ Mender Of Souls ~
by Larisa
Disclaimer: You guys know the deal, yeah they resemble the Duo. These women are all from my wicked little brain. If same sex relationships give you the creeps, go read some Blues Clues or something. If you're not old enough, then go read Blues Clues! Violence plays a part in this story, if it bothers you close your eyes when you come to that part. Other than these things, it's my normal filthy language but not bad. E-mail is appreciated.
Thanks for Lesia and Ri for letting me use them as sounding boards.
Isabeau De La Croix rushed down the long hallway, dodging patients and orderlies as she made her way to the front doors of the city hospital. Pushing the door open, she smacked into a hard body. Hands reached out to steady her back on to her feet.
"Hold on there Beau. What's the big rush?" A stoic looking woman asked as she gazed down with caramel colored eyes.
"I wanna get out of here before anything else happens." Beau wiped the errant wisps of her short blonde hair off her forehead.
"Step in to my office." She was led by her small hand to the side of the building. "Now tell me what happened today that you're in such a damn big hurry."
"Kenny. What usually happens when I'm here?"
Kenny rolled her eyes and stared at the sky, running her hands through her long messy dark hair she sighed.
"Let's see?Mrs. Carmichael came in and says she has the newest disease that's on the market?"
Beau slapped her on her upper arm. "You just won a cookie." Sighing deep in her chest, she collapsed against the wall of the hospital. "This week she has Anthrax. She found white powder on her housecoat after opening her mail. So I sent the Cops over to collect anything that may have been contaminated so that we could run tests on it. Take a guess of what they brought me."
One caramel colored eye closed as Kenny thought. "Uuhhmm?a pound of cocaine?"
"Nope, two pounds of huge powered donuts! She was wolfing them down while she was looking at her mail."
Kenny started laughing so hard that tears flowed down her cheeks.
"It's not funny! She came in screaming that she had Anthrax and was dieing. All the patients in the ER started running for the hills thinking that they had contracted Anthrax just by being in the same room with her."
"So what did you do?" She asked with a toothy grin on her face.
"I gave her a shot and knocked her fat ass out. Now I'll probably get sued and end up a town Doc in some backwoods hellhole giving enemas to some farmers pet cow."
Kenny patted her on her shoulder and gave her a smile. "Don't worry about it; I'll take care of her for ya." She rubbed her hands together and gave an evil laugh. "I'll tell her that we flushed the Anthrax out with AFTA."
Beau looked at her with total confusion. "AFTA?"
Kenny grinned. "It's what the cleaners use to get gum off the floors."
"Ohhh Gods. You're a sick bitch!"
"Yeah but ya love me anyway." She gave her small friend a hug then ushered her towards the parking lot. "Now go home and vegetate. I'll give you a call later and let you know how the procedure went."
@@@@@@@@
Beau pulled her old Corolla out onto the street and headed west to the small neighborhood where her house was. She had grown up in Martinsburg West Virginia and after Medical school had returned to work in city hospital. She wanted to contribute something back to the community after all that it had done for her. At an early age, she had become an orphan when her parents were killed one night returning home after dropping her off at her Grandmothers house. Their car had slid off the road during a fierce snowstorm. Going down the embankment next to the bridge heading into Frederick Maryland the car flipped over onto its roof and crashed though the thin ice of the Potomac River.
From that day on, she lived with her Grandmother. After graduating Valor Victorian and with the help of grants and scholarships, she was able to go to one of the best colleges around. She graduated top of her class from UCLA Medical School. Now at the age of 32 she had everything she ever wanted, except for someone to share her heart and soul.
@@@@@@@@@
Throwing her white lab coat on the floor near the couch, she fell face first into the soft cushions. Stretching her body, she groaned deep in her chest from the ache in her lower back. Hearing the sound of nails coming towards the couch she leaned her head over the edge to see her Guinea pig looking up at her.
"How did you get out of your cage?" She reached down to pick up the tri-colored pig. "I swear I don't know why I bother to have a cage for you if you keep getting out." Small eyes looked at her as a nose twitched back and forth. "Are you hungry or did you get in to your bag of food again?" Swinging her feet over the edge of the couch, she forced her tired body to move. Making her way to her office she saw small green pellets scattered all over the floor. "I knew you'd get into your food again. From know on it goes in the closet." She held the furry little animal up to her nose. "I knew I should have gotten a cat." She put her on the floor then started to clean up the spilt food. "Abigail, what is my shoe doing under the desk? Please tell me that you didn't chew on it again?" Shaking her head, she sighed. "Not only do I talk to myself but I'm talking to a furry rodent!"
After cleaning up the mess, she striped out of her clothes and headed for the shower. Letting the hot water run down her back she moaned as it worked the stiffness from her tired muscles. She stood under the spray until the water turned cold. Dressing in her oversized terry cloth robe, she padded to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. She looked down when she heard Abby making her whistling noise at her feet.
"What, can't you find something to get in to?" She bent down and picked up Abby then dropped her into the pocket of her robe. "Now stay in there or I'll put you back in your cage."
"Do you always talk to your robe?" A voice said from behind her causing her to jump two foot in the air. Spinning to face the intruder, green eyes went from wide with fright to seething glare.
"I should kick you in your ass!" She yelled at her smirking cousin. "I knew I shouldn't have given you a key." She dropped down into a kitchen chair then motioned for her cousin to join her. "All right Jeri, what are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be at work?"
Jeri pushed back her long curly blonde hair and chuckled at her pissed off cousin. "I stopped by to see my other half and Kenny said that you had a rough day. So, I thought that maybe I'd come over and make it worse." She gave her a toothy grin and winked at her.
"I swear between you and Kendra you'll have me nuts and locked up in a rubber room!"
"That's what family's for. We're going out tonight and wanted to know if you wanted to come along."
"Jeri. You know I don't go out, plus I'm on call tonight and every time I even go to the grocery store I get paged."
"Kenny has taken care of that. She Uuhhmm?called in a favor from one of the other Doctors. So that means you're free to go out with us."
"But Jeri." She whined and gave her best puppy dog look.
"Nope. It ain't gonna work with me. Now go get dressed so that we can get to the bar before it gets to crowded and my boss calls me in to work."
Green eyes narrowed and looked into hazel. "You mean we're going to your bar?"
"Where else do we get free drinks?"
"Ohhh alright. Just give me a few minutes and hold Abby for me."
She handed her guinea pig to Jeri and grinned at the raised eyebrow she received.
@@@@@@@@
They walked in to the dark smoky bar. The music was pounding in to their bodies making them almost stutter step towards the bartender. Jeri leaned over the bar and grabbed them two Buds from the cooler. Twisting the tops off, she handed one to Beau then led her to a corner table.
"I still don't know why I agreed to come here with you." She yelled in to Jeri's ear. "I always go home with a headache and deaf afterwards."
Jeri leaned in to her and yelled back in her small ear. "Because I won you over with my charm, just take some aspirins when you get home."
Beau scanned the room to see couples drinking and dancing close together. She hated coming in to straight bars because of the fact that every man in the room thought it his duty to come up and use tired old lines on her. She saw one man in particular that kept giving her the "Look." She leaned in to Jeri to share her observations.
"If that guy comes over here I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind."
Jeri looked to where Beau's eyes had traveled; she knew the guy and prayed that her cousin did exactly as she said. The guy was a royal pain in the ass and thought he was every woman's dream. She caught out of the corner of her eye her cousin's mouth dropping open and her gasp.
"Who is that?" She asked as a very tall dark figure walked behind the man.
"That's our cooler the Widow maker. Why?" She asked with a wiggle of her brows.
"Damn!" She clutched her chest and fell into Jeri's side. "You never told me about her!" She pinched her cousin's side.
"Forget it Shorty, she's the type that loves 'em and then buries them in her basement."
A horrid look came over her face at the news. "You're kidding right?"
"In all the time that she's worked here, she's maybe said three words to anyone. Hell, she won't even take off her sunglasses inside!" She chuckled at the raised russet eyebrow of her cousin. "I saw her with a woman one time and then nothing. Including the woman ever coming back and she was a regular!"
"Ohhh. So you're telling me that she's probably straight and I should just forget about it?"
"Yep. But I will tell you that we have a little bet going on, that who ever can get her to either take off her glasses or say more than three words gets the pot."
Beau's interest was caught; she leveled a gaze at Jeri and lunged for the idea of winning the pot.
"So, how much is in the pot and what will it cost me to get in?"
Jeri laughed and smacked the tabletop. "You're priceless, you know that? It's a ten spot to get in and the pots up to $1500.00."
Beau pulled a ten from her pocket and handed it to Jeri. "Count me in. Now what are the rules?"
"You can't pick a fight with her and no hands on her person. Not like you'd survive the encounter anyway."
"Ok, sounds good to me." She looked to the tall dark figure that was still standing behind the man. A brilliant smile came to her face when she thought of being the conqueror of the Widow maker. The smile vanished as soon as she saw the man coming towards their table. "Ohhh shit!" She yelled then tried to find a place to hide.
"What did you do now?" Jeri asked with a glare.
"I think he thought that I was smiling at him so now he's coming over here!" She pointed to the swaggering grinning fool. "I'm running and I'm gonna hide until Kenny gets here." She shot from the table and weaved her way through the patrons until she came to where the bathrooms were. Ducking inside she breathed a sigh of relief that she had escaped. Then chuckled when she realized that Jeri was left to beat the guy away. She knew her cousin could handle him; after all, she was the bartender and could just get him tossed out or killed by the Widow maker.
After relieving herself, she peeked out into the bar and saw that Kenny had arrived and was know escorting the man towards the door. Just as she came out of the door a group of rowdy men rushed her and made her bounce of the wall and into a very hard body. If not for the strong hand, grabbing her she would have fallen to the floor. She forced out a thank you then looked up in to a pair of dark sunglasses. Her thought patterns vanished at the sight of high cheekbones and dark flowing hair. Gulping, she tried to say something but her mouth would not work beyond hanging open.
"Uuhhm?Th?I really?shit." She stuttered then almost fell over when a dark head nodded at her. Giving a half smile, she straightened her shirt and stumbled back to the table to a chuckling couple.
"I see you've met the Widow." Kenny said in between her chuckles. "Scary isn't she?"
"She's sooo damn tall! I think I've got a cramp in my neck!"
"You're just short." Jeri informed her, and then ducked the slap coming towards her head. "Well you are!"
"I may be five foot four but I can knock you on your ass." She grinned evilly.
@@@@@@@@
A set of eyes watched from behind a pair of dark sunglasses. The cooler could see the small blonde sitting at the table with Jeri and her wife Kendra or Kenny as everyone called the stoic brunette. By her own rule she never paid any attention to the women that came to the bar but for some reason the little blonde changed that. The second she grabbed a hold of her, she felt tingles rush up her arm and loop around her fluttering heart. Never had that happened before to her. She did not know why it happened but it did not matter one bit, the blond was off limits.
"Keep your mind out of the gutter Chauncey; she's way out of your league." The Widow thought to her self. She continued to watch the small blonde until a fight took her from her normal post.
@@@@@@
Beau looked to the far wall and slumped in her chair when she did not see the Widow standing there. She couldn't explain the way her body reacted to just a single touch but she would give anything for it to happen again.
"Add another one to the list!" Jeri said as she watched Beau slid in her chair and sigh. "Thought it would be easy to win that pot huh?"
"She's amazing! But off limits to me, even if it was possible to have something with anyone I couldn't. My life is too hectic and I don't have the time to make a relationship work."
Kenny leaned forward over the table and pointed at her. "If you would stay away from the hospital on your days off, just maybe you could have a life."
"I go there because I get so bored when I'm at ho?" Sighing she gave them each a look of amusement. "OK. I know I'm screwed up, but what else am I supposed to do with my time?"
Jeri chuckled at her while Kenny shoved her in her shoulder. "Try going out and seeing some people besides patients." Kenny said. "You know it won't kill you if you just happen to go out on a date every once in a while."
"With who? I mean that I haven't exactly come out and told every one I know that I'm a lesbian." Dropping her head into her hand's she thought of how uneventful her life really was outside of the hospital. It had been years since she had been on a date and that had turned in to a nightmare! The woman turned out to be an S&M freak and wanted to tie her to her bedroom wall and use kitchen utensils on her.
@@@@@@@
Chauncey sometimes hated her job so much that she wanted to disappear and hide on an island somewhere and never have to worry about working again. And this was one of those nights; she was in the parking lot after a patron had told her about the fight outside. She was up against seven pissed off drunks. Her bouncers were all lying on the ground around her moaning and groaning after being beat with baseball bats and crowbars. Looking at the men, she picked out the one who seemed to be in charge.
"What in the Hell is the problem out here?" She growled in a deep panther sounding voice. "You know you just caused the bars hospital insurance to go up?"
"So the fuck what, you ugly fucking dyke!" The ringleader yelled back at her. "We come here every night and can't even pick up women with out having a bouncer jump to her rescue." He slapped the baseball bat in the palm of his hand and snarled at her. "So we're gonna change that right now." He looked at the bouncers lying around him. "Seems that you're the only one left."
Chauncey nodded her head at him. "Yep, seems that way. I don't need them anyway." Before she could prepare her self, she felt a blow land against her ribcage. She pulled a breath between her teeth, a searing pain jabbed her and right then she knew that some of her ribs had been broken. Grabbing her side, she glared at the man who had hit her.
"Now I'm pissed!" She dropped and swung out one leg and caught the man in his knee, she head a loud pop and a crack then his scream pierce the night air as he fell to the ground with a shattered knee.
"One down six to go." She kept in a crouched position and eyed the men. "Who's next?" They all charged her; she rolled to her back and brought her right leg to her chest. When the first one was close enough, she jacked out her leg and shot him backward to land on his back, where he lay gasping for air. Blocking a blow aimed at her head with her forearm, she rolled towards the man, threw a scissor lock around his legs, and brought him down next to her. With a blow to the back of his neck, she knocked him out. The odds were looking better but she was hurt. Scrambling to her feet she picked up a baseball bat and dodged an incoming blow aimed at her ribs. Swinging a backhand blow she caught the man in his lower back, when he dropped she slammed him across his shoulders. Flinging the bat at a charging man, she took out both of his knees with one shot.
"Seems to me that you're the last one standing big mouth!" She eyed the ringleader. "Come on show me what a big man you are." She watched him turn and run towards the parking lot. "Ohhh no you don't!" She picked up a crowbar and flung it at him it caught him in the backs of his legs and knocked him to the ground. She made her way over to him, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and punched him in the jaw so hard that she heard the sound of his jaw breaking.
"Fucking asshole!" She dropped him with a thud back on to the ground. Checking each of her men, she then pulled her cell phone from where it was clipped to the back of her belt.
@@@@@@@@
Beau had just risen from the table and was about to head home when she heard the siren of an ambulance over the loud music. She looked to Jeri and Kenny and motioned them to come with her.
They went through the front door and saw all the men lying on the ground.
"Ohhh shit, what the hell happened here?" She asked the first person who came close to her.
"The usual, someone opens his mouth and gets the shit kicked out of him." A paramedic said as he helped put a bouncer on a stretcher. Pulling her keys from her pocket, she ran to her car and retrieved her black bag from the trunk. Pulling her stethoscope out she hung it around her neck and picked a man that was not being treated yet. Kenny came over to her and helped her stabilize the bouncer's broken shoulder by tying his arm down to his waist.
"Ok, now I can see a bunch of men lying around, but what I can't figure out is which one of them called the ambulance?" Beau commented as she looked into caramel colored eyes.
"They ain't all unconscious." She pointed to a tall dark figure that was speaking with a police officer.
Beau snorted. "Come on Kenny, you're not telling me that she took out the bad guys."
"Yep, one of the bad guys woke up and said he's pressing assault charges against her for breaking his leg. He was bragging that he and his buddies had taken care of the bouncers when she showed up."
Beau's eyes grew large as she looked back to where Chauncey was still talking. Shaking her head with amazement at the wreckage, she had done all by herself.
"Did she get hurt?"
"She'd never say if she had. She takes care of all her injury's, says she doesn't like or trust Doctors." She gave Beau a huge toothy grin. "She's never seen you in you're white lab coat and scrubs."
"You're a dog!" She hit her in her stomach. "You're kidding right, about her not liking doctors and all?"
"Nope, she stitched up her face in the bathroom one night. Took 12 stitches to close the knife gash on her cheek. Neatest damn stitches I ever seen, small and close together. Barely left a scar at all."
"She wouldn't even ask you to do it?"
"I offered but she said that she could handle it. I do get her new suture kits and stuff from the hospital. That way at least she's using sterile stuff."
Beau watched as Chauncey walked back in to the bar, she couldn't believe the woman would go so far as to stitch her own wounds.
@@@@@@@@@
When her alarm went off, she felt like she had just dropped into bed. With gritty eye,'s she searched and then slapped at the snooze bar. "Five more minutes, that's all I need." She grumbled. An hour went by with her alarm blasting, she jerked awake, rolled over, and saw that she was late for rounds. Stumbling out of bed, she tripped over her shoes and half fell to the floor before regaining her balance. After pulling on a pair of wrinkled scrubs, she grabbed her keys and ran for the door barefoot.
"Son of a bitch!" Running back to her bedroom, she grabbed her shoes and again tried to leave. "Damn it to Hell! Where the fuck is my badge?" She asked herself while searching her living room. Yanking it off her lab coat, she was finally able to make it out the door.
She went running through the ER doors with her tennis shoes in her hand, ducking in to one of the supply rooms she grabbed a clean lab coat and shrugged it on as she went towards the nurse's desk.
"Late again Doc Beau, what was it this time?"
Beau tried to catch her breath and get her shoes on before her boss caught her. "I was at the bar last night for that call, I didn't get done until early this morning." The head nurse looked at her over her reading glasses.
"And how did you know about the call, you were off last night?"
"I Uuhhmm?was there with Doc Kenny and Jeri." Giving a small grin and a wink, she eased the head nurses concern. "No Margie, I was not drunk, nor did I start the fight. I'm to damn old for that behavior."
Margie snorted at her. "I remember a time when you would have been in the thick of it!"
"Not no more I leave that up to Jeri and Kenny." She wiggled her fingers at Margie. "Can't hurt the hands that earn me the big bucks."
Margie handed her a bunch of charts with a flourish. "Speaking of big bucks, you had better get on your rounds before the boss catches you."
After completing her rounds, she caught up with Kenny in the doctor's lounge. Kenny was sitting at a small table, pen in her hand and a cookie sticking out of her mouth. It would have been quite normal if she were not sound asleep.
@@@@@@
Chauncey tried to stretch, instead a low moaning rumbled from between her lips. Her ribs were screaming from the abuse that they had received the night before. Running her fingers across swollen flesh, she tried to crane a stiff neck to see the damages. She felt like a Mack truck had run her over half a dozen times then came back to ensure the job had been done. "I'm getting to damn old for this shit." Her 36-year old body was feeling 136 this late morning. "Guess there will be no 5 mile run this morning. I'll be lucky if I can get out of bed!" She mumbled to her self. Rolling her head to the side, she suddenly became blind. Searching the pillow beside her, she found the short sparse wiry hair of her Chihuahua General Chester Puller. She had named her that because the two-pound dog thought that she was a huge ferocious Bulldog. She strutted around the house with an attitude of a Marine and made sure that Chauncey knew she was there by grabbing her pant leg and shaking it for all she was worth. She was greeted by a high piercing growl and a snap, and then her finger was grabbed between toothless jaws.
"You rotten little shit! See if I make you any scrambled eggs for breakfast." She rolled over and climbed out of bed with some difficulty. Walking naked to the bathroom, she opened the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a bottle of aspirins. Throwing four into her mouth, she then drank right from the faucet.
"Come on Chester, time for you to go out and harass tree rats." Opening the door, she let her dog out then stepped out on to the deck. Taking a deep breath of the morning air was a mistake when sharp pains shot through her body.
"Dumb ass, that wasn't to smart now was it?" She grumbled to herself.
Two hours later after eating breakfast and binding her ribs, she sat on her couch reading the newspaper. She read the same paragraph three times and still didn't know what it said. Tossing the paper on to the coffee table, she rubbed her eyes and gave out a long sigh. Soft green eyes and a small smile kept replaying in her minds eye. A smile came to her face when she remembered the stuttering little blond. Warmth enveloped her heart when she remembered how it had felt to touch her ever so briefly. She knew that the bar was running a contest to see who could break through the wall that she built around herself; she also knew that out of everyone who tried, the little blond could be the one to do it.
@@@@@
Beau stepped tiredly in to the room of the last patient of her morning rounds; she had her eyes cast down scanning the patients chart. She looked up when she heard a deep male voice speak to her.
"About time you got here, I've been waiting all morning for a pretty nurse to come in and give me my sponge bath."
Green eyes narrowed at the lecherous grin on the face of the man that she had avoided at the bar the night before. Her temper flared but she held it in check.
"Good morning, I'm Dr. De La Croix. How are you feeling?"
"Very dirty." He licked his lips then whipped the sheet off his body.
"As soon as I finish looking at your leg I'll send in our prettiest nurse to take care of your sponge bath." She covered him back up and then checked for swelling and the sutures from where his kneecap had been repaired. Her mistake was turning her back to him while checking his leg; she jumped when he grabbed her ass.
"I suggest that you keep your hands to yourself."
"But that's what your ass is for. Now how about you climb on up here and check out my other leg."
Boiling point reached, she grabbed the control for both the bed and the traction arm that supported his leg. Hitting buttons simultaneously, she watched as the bed dropped him backwards and the traction arm raised his leg at a very uncomfortable angle. He screamed bloody murder and continued to curse her as she left him the way he was.
"Chauvinistic bastard, hope all three of your legs fall off." She stomped down the hall to the head nurses desk; she dropped the files down on to the top of a huge pile with a loud slap.
"Margie, can you send Terry down to room 14. The patient wants the prettiest nurse we have to give him a sponge bath."
Brown eyes looked at her with amusement. "I see you've met the pervert."
"More than once I'm afraid." She told her about how she had avoided him the night before and what he had done to her while in his room. "Right now he's wishing that Dr. Kevorkian would visit him and take him from his pain!"
"What did you do this time?" Margie asked not really wanting to know but curious of what the little blonde spitfire had done.
"I adjusted his traction arm and bed for him."
"So you're telling me that he's just about hanging from his broken leg?"
"You got it!" She grinned evilly. "One of these days I'm gonna go too far and get fired.
"And who would do all the delicate surgery's in this damn place?"
Green eyes twinkled. "Kenny, she's an excellent surgeon."
"Yeah if you don't mind huge hands reaching in to your chest, yanking your heart out and saying. "Ohhh did you need this?"
"Hell, he was only a med student. He's lucky it wasn't really his heart that I held out to him." Kenny said from where she stood behind Beau. "He never fell asleep in the surgery room again."
"That's because he never came back after you did that!" Margie remarked then handed her a stack of phone messages.
"Ohhh goody, hate calls just for me." She stuffed them in to the pocket of her lab coat. What's all the screaming coming from room 14?"
Margie filled her in on what Beau had done to the pervert. "She wants me to send our very pretty nurse Terry down to give him a sponge bath."
Kenny raised an eyebrow at Beau and smirked. "Terry, pretty?" She burst out laughing when she pictured a six-foot five, 300lb black man with a baldhead as pretty. "You've out done me in the evil department.
@@@@@@@@@
With Kenny assisting her in a gall bladder removal, Beau handed her the marker to draw the incision while she checked the chart and x-ray one last time. When she returned to the patient, she shook her head at Kenny's doodles on the woman's body.
"Kenny. What in the name of the God is that?" She pointed to a symbol drawn on patient's chest.
"That's the little thing they stamp on breast implants." She grinned at Beau. "You can't tell me her tits are real, they're to perfect!" She reached down, thumped one with her finger, and watched, as it didn't budge one iota. "See, the damn things are fake!"
Beau just shook her head at her, she never knew what to expect of her best friend. "You're a sick bitch, now lets yank her gall bladder so I can get something to eat."
"How about fresh gallbladder with fried onions and garlic?"
"Nah, I'm waiting until tomorrow when we do the liver transplant."
@@@@@@@@@
Beau left Kenny to close up; removing her soiled scrubs, she dropped them into a clothes bin outside of the surgery room and wandered into the adjoining locker room in her sports bra and boxers. She wouldn't have looked to weird if she didn't have her sneakers on with two different colored stripes on the top of her sweat shocks.
"You really need a woman in your life." Kenny said from where she leaned against the doorframe. "Maybe she'd make sure you left the house with matching clothes."
Green eyes twinkled at her. "I want a woman that will keep me out of my clothes." Pulling a fresh scrub shirt over her head, she then sighed as she thought of her lonely nights and days. "I'll settle for a maid to do my laundry and find all my missing socks." Dropping down on to a bench, she rubbed her temples. "I'm so glad that I'm done for the day. I need a beer."
"Good cuz, Jeri gets off work in three hours and then again later tonight. Wanna come?" Kenny asked with wiggling brows.
"How does she put up with you?" Beau asked with a soft snort.
"Whips, chains and handcuffs baby."
@@@@@@@@
Beau dropped on to a stool at the bar and watched Jeri serve the local redneck drunks. She chuckled when Jeri slapped an offending hand that reached for her breast.
"I'll cut the damn thing off!" She growled when he tried it again. "Better yet buddy; I'll let my wife rip your dick off with my bottle opener!"
"Gotcha babe can't blame a man for tryin." He winked at her and left the bar to the chuckles of the men around him.
"Hey gorgeous, how about sex on the beach?"
Jeri turned and gave a raised eyebrow at the low throaty voice asking for the mixed drink. "If we did that, we'd both be locked up for incest." She slid a Bud across the bar to Beau. "Anyway sex on the beach by your self ain't no fun. You gotta get a woman first!"
"Damn! And here I thought you got one when you ordered the drink." She took a drink of her beer and winced as it hit her empty stomach. "Got any food around here? I'm starved."
Jeri reached under the bar, and pulled out a paper bag and dropped it in front of Beau.
"Kenny made my lunch for me before she left for the hospital. You're welcome to it."
Beau pulled a large sandwich from the bag and burst out laughing at the heart shaped sandwich.
"Jeri, does she always make your sandwiches look like this?" She wiggled her brows at her.
"Yeah, why?" Hazel colored eyes narrowed at Beau. "She's not as stoic as she wants everyone to believe."
Beau sobered and smiled sadly. "I think it's sweet. She really loves you." She took a small bite and choked it down, she would never have thought of someone doing something so small and to have it mean so much.
Jeri saw moisture form in her cousin's eyes. "Hey, come on now Beau." Jeri rested a hand on her cousin's arm. "Someday some woman will do the same thing for you."
"I doubt that." She said in a low pained voice.
"Yeah, well I know you're wrong." She tilted her head to where The Widow was watching from across the room. "This isn't the first time that I've seen her look over here at you since you came in." She kept Beau from turning her head by a light squeeze to her arm. "I think you may have woken the beast from a deep sleep." She straightened as she watched The Widow come towards them.
Beau felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up, she knew that someone was coming up behind her. She almost fell off the stool when she saw who it was.
Chauncey looked down at the half-eaten heart shaped sandwich that Beau was eating, she quirked an eyebrow but kept the smile hidden behind the hand that her chin rested in. Without a word spoken, Jeri placed a carton of chocolate milk in front of her then returned to the other patrons. Glancing back over her shoulder she watched as Beau raised the sandwich to her mouth and cast a glance sideways at The Widow. She was hoping that maybe just something would happen between them.
@@@@@@@@
Chauncey kept glancing sideways as Beau ate. It was obvious to her that the small blonde had someone in her life that took the time to make her sandwich in such a heartfelt shape. Her heart plopped to land at her feet with this knowledge.
"You're always a day late and a dollar short Chauncey." She said to herself. "Get over it and move on." She made a left-handed toss at the garbage can across the room and watched as the empty milk cartoon swooshed inside. She was just about to get up from the stool when Beau finished eating and spoke.
Beau placed the remains of Jeri's lunch back under the bar. Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she then patted her stomach and groaned.
"Jeri, tell Kenny to put some mustard on it next time." Taking a swig of her now warm beer, she grimaced. "Eeeww that was gross." She shivered and slid the almost full bottle down to her cousin. "Gimme the hard stuff gorgeous."
Jeri tossed her a pint of milk and grinned when she saw the look on Chauncey's face. "Careful with that stuff Beau, I don't wanna have to pick you up from the floor later."
Beau grinned around the carton. "Yeah, I may OD on calcium."
Chauncey pushed herself up from the bar and did her best not to grin with the newfound information about the true owner of the sandwich. She felt lightness about her and knew it was her heart flying around her chest. What had her puzzled was why? Taking her normal place at the back of the bar, she stood with her arms crossed over her breasts. It was hard to tell that she was even there since she was dressed in all black. Numerous times, she was bumped into and growled at the stumbling idiot. Any other time she would have thrown the person out the door just for touching her, but tonight she didn't want to miss one minute of being able to watch the blonde. One dark brow raised above the frames of her sunglasses when Beau got on the dance floor with Kenny. The way they were dancing was not the way to be dancing in a straight bar, but she changed her mind when her blood pressure shot through the roof. For the first time that night, she went outside to get some air and to cool off.
@@@@@@@@@@@@
Beau was feeling no pain; she was off call for the night and had her share of beers and shots of Jaugermeister. She and Kenny moved against each other like they normally did when they all went to the gay bars and didn't give a damn what anyone thought that they were doing it here. They both heard the men groaning as they ground against each other and knew that plenty of blood pressures were raised sky high. It made them both act worse than they normally would.
When the song ended, they stumbled back to the bar under the gazes of the men and a cocked eyebrow of Jeri.
"You two are sooo bad!" She said when they fell laughing in to each other.
"Ahh come on baby." Kenny growled deeply. "I'll make it up to you tonight." She wiggled her tongue between her index and middle finger and received a bar towel tossed over her head.
"Stop it or I'll drag your drunk ass to the back room."
"Can we use the deep sink sprayer again? It works better than the shower massager."
During the conversation, Beau's head swung back and forth until she couldn't handle it any more. Covering her ears, she made her way to the bathroom to try and clear her head of the buzzing and walk off some of the alcohol.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey was making her rounds through the parking lot like she did every night. She always checked to make sure that no one was passed out behind the wheel of their vehicle and would wake up later to drive home. In the cases that she did find someone like that, she would take their keys and call them a cab. Just before she was to the door she saw one man stumbling to his car, she intercepted him and steered him to lean against the side for support then took his keys from him. After making sure, that he was not going to fall over she went back inside and called him a cab. It was after she hung up the phone that she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Turning her head, she watched as the small blonde came up to her. Tilting her head, sideways Beau grinned up at her and slurred her sentence.
"Have any teefhs?" She wobbled, as she got closer and tried to examine the tall women's closed lips. "Ya never smiles, sooo must not haves any teefhs."
It took all of Chauncey's will power not to crack a grin at the comical woman with the bloodshot emerald green eyes. Taking the small blondes arm, she led her back over to the bar where Kenny was drinking a cup of coffee. She motioned to Jeri to bring one over for Beau as well, then went back to check on the man outside. Once she was through the door a small snort escaped her parted lips as she thought of what Beau had said.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
"What did you say to her Beau?" Jeri asked as she placed a cup of coffee heavy on cream and sugar in front of her intoxicated cousin.
"If she had any teefhs." Green eyes blinked as she tried to clear her blurred vision. "I wink she's toofwess."
Jeri laughed at her. "And I know you're drunk. You're staying with me and the studmeister tonight; I'll take you home in the morning."
@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey watched as Jeri guided Beau to her car and paced her in to the backseat. Then she came out a few minutes later with her half sober wife and put her in the passenger seat. She was thankful that Beau had someone to watch out for her but saddened in a way that she would not be the one to call a cab for her or take her home herself. She slapped herself mentally for even thinking of the idea as she climbed in to her old beat up Chevy truck. On the way home, she thought of how empty her life was with the exception of Chester. She also knew that she had chosen to live this way and couldn't put the blame anywhere but where it belonged.
After showering and crawling into bed she lay back on what little bit of pillow that Chester left her and chuckled as she thought of how bad Beau and Kenny were both going to feel in the morning.
"Ohhh are they gonna feel like shit." She grinned to herself as she rolled onto her side and looked into the sleepy brown eyes of Chester. "She's beautiful Chesty; she's short with blonde hair and the most expressive green eyes you've ever seen. I could fall for her in a heartbeat." She rubbed her tired eyes and became silent for a few minutes. "She'd never go for a loser like me, hell I'm a bouncer at a bar. I beat people up for a living and have nothing to offer anyone." Placing a hand on Chester's side, she closed her eyes and drifted off to a restless sleep.
@@@@@@@@@@
The next morning Beau groaned when Jeri came into the spare bedroom and opened the blinds.
"I'm dying!" She pulled the pillow over her face to block out the morning sun. "Please?just hold the pillow over my face."
"Not a chance short stuff, come on get up and take a shower." She yanked the pillow off Beau's face and grinned evilly at her. "We have work to do and you're helping us."
"Huh? What work?" She asked from behind her hands that were trying to block the sun.
"Kenny volunteered us to help build new shelves in the back room of the bar. We're going in to the bar in three hours to try and get some of it done before we open tonight." Jeri said as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Kenny volunteered us?" She pinched her cousin's thigh. "I think you did it."
"Hey that hurt!" She slapped the offending fingers. "All right, I volunteered Kenny and she volunteered you, so that adds up to us. Now get you little ass outta bed before I call her in here to help you."
"Mean old bitch." She grumbled as she rolled out of the bed. "I'll get ya both later." She mumbled on her way to the bathroom.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Beau had on a leather tool belt with three pouches, 10-penny nails jingling around in one of the pouches and a tape measure and other odds and ends in the others. On the one side hung a framing hammer and T-square, if not for the Band-Aids on most of her fingers she would have looked like a construction worker. She stood back with her arms crossed over her chest and watched Kenny use the power saw to trim one of the boards that would be a lower shelve.
"Beau, would ya hold this nail so I can get this started?" Jeri asked around the mouth full of nails.
"Nah ahh! Look at my fingers" She wiggled them in front of her cousin. "You couldn't ht the end of a nail if it was ten foot wide!"
She cast her an evil glare. "Hey, I only smashed one of your fingers. You and Kenny did the rest."
Raising one russet brow, she returned the look. "How am I supposed to do surgery with no fingers?" She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and ducked just in time to avoid the 2x6x6 coming for her head. "Kenny! For the umpteenth time, watch what you're doing with those damn boards!"
"What? I missed your head." She swung around and caught Beau in her crotch. Beau's jaw dropped open, she bent at the waist and rested her hands on her thighs trying to catch the breath that was no where to be found. In a split second, she toppled over to lay on her side and gasp for air.
"Beau, you OK?" Jeri asked while trying not to laugh at her cousin's impersonation of a fish. "Good thing you don't have a sex life, cuz that would ruin it right there."
"Fuck you!" Beau wheezed in a high-pitched voice. "I think it's broke!" She whined as she placed her hands between her legs and rolled on the floor in agony.
"I can go get the Widow to come in and kiss it for ya." Kenny said as she jumped out of the way of a foot coming for her own private parts.
"Bite me studless." Beau groaned as she made it up to her feet. "I'm going to make sure that something isn't gonna fall off later." She stumbled out of the back room and was very thankful that they were the only ones in the place. She would have been ten shades of red if she had to go to the bathroom with everyone watching her hold her privates as she skimmed against the wall for support. What she didn't know nor see was the dark figure sitting at a corner table watching her.
"Shit! I need to wear a damn athletic cup around those two." She grumbled to herself. A low moan escaped her lips when she straightened up to pull the bathroom door open.
A small smile came to Chauncey's lips at the sight of the small blonde; it became a look of worry when she noticed the pain showing clearly on her face. She was about to get up to check on her when Kenny and Jeri came from the backroom bickering.
"You stay right were you are." Jeri pointed a finger at her wife. "I'll go check on her, knowing you you'll end up knocking her out or something with the door."
"That only happened once; she's so damn short I didn't see her." Kenny couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of her knocking Beau out cold by hitting her with the door to the locker room at the hospital.
@@@@@@@@@@
Jeri opened the door to the bathroom slowly and peeked in to find Beau curled up on the floor. Stepping to her side, she placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You OK?" Jeri asked softly.
"Only if not having a sex life from now on counts as OK." Rolling over on to her back she looked up with pain filled eyes at her grinning cousin. "What are you grinning at?"
"Oohh?nothing." She flinched at the look she received. "OK, just think of all the fun you could have being healed of your injuries."
"Pervert!" Beau made a halfhearted swipe at her cousin. "But your right. Now help me up before I get to stiff to move." She closed her eyes and groaned. "That's impossible now, it's broke! It'll never get stiff again." Beau moaned deeper as she was helped to her feet. "Gods! Kenny made me impotent!
@@@@@@@@@@@@
After a few hours of smashing her fingers and dodging boards, Beau went home to get ready for work, she only had to make nightly rounds for one of the other doctors and then she was done until the next day. She walked stiffly through the hallways in agony from where her pants were touching her sore private areas. She was just about to wrap up the night when they had an emergency page come over the PA system for her to come to the ER.
"What have we got coming in?" She asked the head nurse on duty.
"Gun shot wound to the stomach, stats are coming across now. The ambulance is three minutes out and we have OR number two ready for you."
"OK, I'll get ready. Page me when they get here." She took off at a slow jog towards the elevator that would take her to the OR theater. Two hours later after removing a good portion of the mans bowel, lower intestine, she striped out of her soiled scrubs and jumped in to the shower. Once finished she dressed in her street clothes of faded Levi's and white dress shirt and headed to the bar to let Kenny know that she would be turning the patient over to her in the morning.
@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey made her usual pass through the parking lot looking for drunks. She noticed the small beat up Toyota Corolla pull in to the parking lot and Beau get out and make her way to the door of the bar. A grin came to her face when she noticed that the small blonde was walking stiffly up the steps.
"Still sore I see, an ice bag would do you wonders of good." She spoke softly to herself then continued her patrol.
Beau searched the dark smoke ridden place for Kenny and Jeri. She found them at the end of the bar in a discussion with another woman. Right away Beau had a bad feeling as she watched the woman beat the air around them with her hand gestures. She knew she herself got carried away with hand gestures when she was making a point, but this woman looked like she was swatting at mosquitoes. She cringed when a high piercing laugh reached her ears, right off she knew that she would not be staying long if the woman was to remain in the area. Stepping up beside Kenny she whispered in to her ear that she needed to speak with her concerning work. Kenny nodded her head then excused herself from her wife and the irritating woman.
"How can you stand to be in the same state with that laugh of hers?" Beau asked with a serious tone to her voice.
"Huh?" Kenny asked with a confused look on her face.
"I said." Beau gave her a funny look then turned her head to the side and saw a piece of napkin stuck in her ear. "Never mind."
They went to the bathroom where it was a little more peaceful so that Beau could tell her about the patient. After a few minutes, they changed the subject to other than work.
@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey was heading back to the bar when out of the corner of her eye she saw a dark car turn on its parking lights, she squinted her eyes trying to see what the driver was doing. Stepping closer to be able to see better she stopped dead in her tracks when the high beams blinded her. Taking her sunglasses off, she stuck them into the collar of her shirt and stepped closer to the car. She knew that she had made a mistake the second she heard the engine reeve up and the tires spin gravel all over the parking lot. She took off running towards the bar but slipped in the gravel and lost her footing; pushing off the ground with one hand, she tried to regain her balance. From out of the corner of her eye, she saw the car was only feet away from her; she jumped up and tried to throw her body over the car closest to her. All she felt was the biting pain shot through her body as the front of the car hit her and then an excruciating pain as her head hit the windshield as she rolled over the roof and off to the hard ground. Laying there, she gasped for air for a few seconds before she tried to move, the sound of the car coming back towards her made her mind reel with the consequences of not moving. Rolling to her side, she wedged her body up under the rear end of a car and waited for the other to pass her by. After numerous minutes passed with no one looking for her, she eased her battered body out and half crawled to the door. Pulling herself up by the handrail, she made it inside to safety, shaking her head to try and clear her vision sent shock waves through her head. A low moan escaped her lips as she used the wall for support of her weakened body. She took a few minutes to just lean against it and not move for fear of passing out.
@@@@@@@@@@@
Beau pulled her cousin close to her so that they were nose-to-nose, green eyes flashed in to hazel. "Jeri, don't you even think of setting me up with that?that hyena of a woman! I'd have to kill you after hearing her laugh!"
"Don't look now but here she comes." Jeri whispered only loud enough for Beau to hear.
"That's it! I'm hiding until she leaves! Tell her I have Herpes or something and had to go take my medication!" She ducked behind a grinning Kenny and made her way to the bathroom for however long it would take the woman to leave. She looked to the place where the Widow always stood and was disappointed to not see her standing there. She wondered if she was in the bathroom, then hoped that she wasn't. She didn't know if her heart could take being so close to the woman after Jeri had told her of what she had said to the woman in her drunken stupor.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the bathroom door and was relieved to not see her in there. After taking care of her business, she was just going to stand against the wall and wait for a few moments. But changed her mind when she heard moaning coming from one of the stalls. Looking down to the bottom of the door she saw a pair of black pumps facing her and another pair facing away. She covered her mouth to stifle the laugh she was sure to release at what was going on in a straight bar. The moaning was having an effect on her that she couldn't handle, she quickly left the bathroom and ran right into a solid form outside of the door. Saying a quick sorry, she didn't pay attention to the low moan that came from the Widow but made her way back over to the bar in a hurry. Wiping the sweat from her brow she dropped down on to a bar stool next to Kenny and sighed in relief.
"What's wrong Beau?" Kenny asked when she saw that Beau was sweating and her face was a high pink color.
"Nothing, just two women screwing in a bathroom stall."
Kenny raised an eyebrow at her and leaned back on her stool to look closer at her friend.
"And you high tailed it out of there? You're such a chicken shit." She grabbed her shirtsleeve and gave her a gentle shake; looking down at the wetness on her fingers, she turned them to get a closer look. Her face showed concern as she looked at both Jeri and Beau.
"Beau, you have blood on your shirt."
Beau looked down at her sleeve and the side and front of her shirt to see that it was stained with blood.
"It's not mine?Ohhh Gods!" She turned her head towards the back wall and saw the Widow leaning against the wall sideways.
"What?" Kenny asked a bit too loud.
"I bumped in to the Widow on my way out of the bathroom; it's her blood all over me!" She jumped down from her stool and pushed her way through the patrons to get to the Widow.
Jeri and Kenny looked to each other and said in unison. "Shit!" Jeri sprung over the bar and followed right behind her wife as they went towards where Beau was headed.
Beau came to stand right in front of the Widow; she reached up a hand to her face and felt its clamminess. She could see a large purple bruise forming along her cheekbone and temple. She saw a trail of blood making its way down her face to soak into her collar; reaching her hand towards her hairline, she pushed dark hair back to see a large gash beneath the hair.
"Hey?can you hear me?" She asked the tall dark woman whose eyes were hidden behind her glasses. "You're hurt, let me help you." A dark head moved from side to side, she then tried to move away from Beau. She sucked in a ragged breath between her teeth then started coughing; blood ran down her lips and chin to drip onto her chest.
"Ohhh fuck!" Beau exclaimed as she looked for Jeri and Kenny. Putting an arm around the tall woman's waist, she felt the warm fluid soaking into her shirtsleeve. "You have to go to the hospital." She whispered to the woman and was shocked when she heard a deep rumbling growl come from her. "Don't fuck with me, you're going if I have to knock your ass out and carry you there."
Eyes narrowed behind the dark lenses of her glasses. She bared her teeth and growled again to only start coughing; more blood came to her mouth with each breath. She reached out a hand towards the wall to steady herself but found no purchase. She felt her body turning and then the peacefulness of the dark enveloped her.
Off balance, Beau tried to catch her to only end up being dragged to the floor by the dead weight of the taller woman. She felt the air rush from her lungs as she hit the floor hard. Pulling herself from under the weight, she moved so that the dark head was resting in her lap. Removing the sunglasses and lifting one eyelid, she saw only white. Checking for a pulse, she found it weak. She felt a body drop down behind her and recognized the large hands of Kenny reaching over her shoulder.
"Shit! Stay here with her, I'll get a couple of the guys to carry her out to my car and we'll get her to the hospital." Beau nodded to her as she jumped up and ran for the nearest bouncers. Jeri pulled her bar towel from her pocket and started to wipe the blood from the Widow's face; a look of worry creased her forehead as she looked down at the unconscious woman.
"Jeri she has internal bleeding, we have to hurry!"
"I'll go get the car, don't worry she's stubborn as they get."
Using the towel, Beau wiped the blood that was running down the side of the Widow's face. "You may be a stubborn one but I'm worse."
@@@@@@@@@
Kenny drove like a maniac the whole way to City hospital, Beau was in the back seat with the Widow's head resting in her lap. She braced one hand on the back of the front seat and the other across the tall woman's chest as they made the sharp turn in to the drive and headed to the front doors of the ER. Before the car had come to a complete stop, Kenny was out and bursting through the doors and yelling orders for nurses and a gurney to be brought outside. She then grabbed a phone and ordered an OR to be prepped. She made it back outside in time to help them lift the unconscious woman on to the gurney.
"Baby can you give them her information while we get her in to OR?"
"Yeah but I need her wallet." Jeri said as she looked down at the bruised and bloody face.
Beau reached under her and searched her back pockets until she found what Jeri needed. Handing her the black leather wallet she then helped push the gurney in to the ER and over to the elevator.
"Are we all set?" She yelled to one of the nurses and received a nod and the OR number.
"What surgeon do you want in there?" The nurse asked her.
"Kenny and I will take care of this, just get the others ready."
"OK, I'll take her up. You two go get ready and we'll see you there."
Kenny gave Jeri a quick kiss and told her to call the bar and let them know what was going on and to see if the Widow had anyone they needed to contact. Taking off at a sprint down the hall after Beau, she caught up with her at the stairwell where they ran up the two floors to the locker room to change into scrubs and gowns.
@@@@@@@@@
Walking into the OR theater, Beau looked down at the bruised face and felt her insides shiver. Walking over to the wall where the X-rays were hanging she sighed when she noticed that four ribs were broke and one of them had punctured one of the woman's lungs. She knew that there had to be more damage that the x-rays were not showing but she would find out soon enough when she went in to repair the damage.
"Kenny, this is going to be a very long night." She said as she shook her head at the X-rays.
"Beau you have got to look at this." Kenny said as she looked over the top of her mask. "Some of theses bruises on her ribcage are a couple days old; I think she got hurt during that fight in the parking lot the other night." She pulled the sheet back to reveal an unusual mark on her left hip. "This looks like an imprint from a hood ornament."
"Shit! Someone must have run her down in the parking lot!" Beau glanced up with worry clearly showing in her eyes. She nodded her head to one of the attending nurses giving her a silent message to call the police.
@@@@@@@@@@@
Three hours later and completely exhausted Kenny and Beau collapsed on to the benches in the locker room. They looked up when the door opened to see Jeri standing there.
"Is she going to be OK?" She asked as tears flowed from her eyes. Kenny opened her arms to her wife and pulled her close to her body for comfort.
"We sutured her head and the gash on her side, repaired her ribs, re-inflated her left lung, sutured her spleen and had to remove one of her kidneys. We also put her left arm and leg in casts." Beau said in a soft voice. "Now all we can do is wait and see what happens. Why don't you two go home and get some sleep, I'll stay here and keep an eye on her for a while." They were about to put up a fight when Beau raised her hand. "Don't fight me on this; I'll call if anything happens. I promise."
She gave them both hugs and promised once again to call if there were any changes. Once they had left, she went to the ICU Unit to sit beside the Widows bed and wait. She glanced down at the manila envelope laying on the nightstand, opening it up; she pulled the black wallet out and opened it up. Looking down at the name, she grinned.
"So you have a real name besides The Widow Maker, Chauncey Saint Sebastian." She glanced at the bandaged head and sighed. I had hoped that we could meet in a nice quiet atmosphere but I didn't mean this quiet." She held the worn wallet between her hands and leaned back in the chair to wait. Within moments, her eyes drifted close and she joined her patient in sleep.
Beau awoke with a start as the loud beeping infiltrated her slumber, wiping her eyes she looked around and realized it was the heart monitor that was making all the noise. Jumping to her stiff legs, she leaned over Chauncey and checked the leads to the monitor. In a split second, her wrist was caught in a death grip by a strong hand. She yelped as her wrist was being crushed and her fingers went numb. Reaching with her other hand, she tried to break the hold Chauncey had on her.
"Let go you're hurting me." She pleaded as tears rushed to her eyes from the pain. A low rumble came to her ears as the grip eased up on her wrist, using her free hand she wiped the dark hair away from Chauncey's eyes. "Come on wake up Chauncey, you have to let go of my wrist." She watched as bruised eye lids started to flutter open. "Come on you can do it, wake up Chauncey." She looked up when she saw a nurse come rushing in to the room. "It's OK, she's waking up. I'll take care of her." The nurse nodded then retreated from the room.
Running her fingers down the high cheekbone, she continued to coax Chauncey to wake.
"Chauncey, come on I know you can do it." She was about to say more when a pair of ice blue eyes captured her own, she froze in mid movement. "Gods have mercy." She whispered and clutched her free hand to her chest. She was speechless as Chauncey continued to look at her.
"Uuuhmmm?you're safe now. I won't hurt you but can you let go of my wrist? I can't feel my fingers."
Blue eyes traveled down to where she had the small blondes wrist captured in her hand. She released the small wrist then tried to move in the bed, a low keening noise sounding like a wounded animal came from her parted lips with the effort.
"Don't move; you were broken up pretty bad." Beau placed her hands on Chauncey's shoulders to keep her from moving. She watched as a pink tongue licked dry lips. "Hold on a minute and I'll get you some ice chips." She was still un-nerved from the ice blue eyes looking at her, she could swear that they saw straight to her soul and stole some of her very essence. With trembling fingers, she placed ice chips between the dry lips. "Take it slow, I don't want you choking."
After a few minutes, Chauncey tried to speak but only a low gravely, sound came from her lips.
"What? I can't hear you." Beau said as she leaned closer. She was shocked when a hand went behind her head and pulled her closer to Chauncey's lips.
"I have to go home, Chester all alone."
Beau eased back from the warm breath that was caressing her ear. "You have to stay here. You were hit by a car, if you haven't noticed; you have more plaster on you than the walls."
Chauncey narrowed her bloodshot eyes, bared her teeth and growled.
"So you do have teeth." Beau smiled at her. "I was wondering about that."
"Chester at home."
Beau was at a loss, she didn't know what to do about this Chester person. She hated the sensitive chat things, the fact was she sucked at them and was not looking forward to giving one to this Chester. She rubbed her face and gave in against her better judgment.
"Where do you live, I'll go tell Chester where you are." She grinned when she received a deep growl. "I sure hope Chester speaks more than you do." She felt her heart sink at the thought of Chauncey having a man in her life, but it was her duty as a doctor to inform the family of her patient's condition. "Where do you live?" Chauncey shook her head no and gave another growl. "Doesn't matter, I have your wallet so that means that I have your address to." She stuck her tongue out at Chauncey and chuckled at the startled look on the dark woman's face. "I'm going to give you something for the pain; it'll make you sleep also. Because for some reason unknown to me, I have this feeling that the second I leave this room you're going to try and get up." She pulled a syringe from her pocket and injected it into the IV shunt in Chauncey's hand. "Now don't worry about anything, I'll go see Chester and come back to check on you in a little while." Watching as Chauncey bared her teeth again and tried to growl at her before sleep over took her. Reaching up, Beau smoothed the lines on Chauncey's forehead before she left the room. Her heart heavy with what she had to do, she left the hospital and searched for her car that Jeri had followed them in.
@@@@@@@@@@@
She pulled into the driveway of an older ranch style house; she didn't see any other car in the drive so she hoped that Chester was home. She walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, no one answered but she could hear barking coming from inside. She walked around the back and knocked on what she assumed to be the kitchen door. Again nothing but the barking of a dog. She tried the door handle and found it unlocked.
"You sure are a trusting soul Chauncey." She jumped when she felt the bottom of her scrubs being yanked on by the ugliest dog she had ever seen. "Uuhhmm?hello! Anyone home?" She yelled hoping that if Chester was home he wouldn't shot her for trespassing. "Hello?Chester?" She looked down when the little dog stopped shaking her leg. "Chester?" She looked around at the sparsely furnished kitchen. "Are you here?" She was amazed when the little dog started to howl and spin in circles. "You're Chester?" She kneeled down on the floor and pulled the little tornado onto her lap so she could look at the dog tag hanging from a spiked leather collar. "General Chester Puller." A wide smile lit up her face. "So you're not a man." She lifted the dog up and chuckled at the toothless mouth howling. "You're not even a male; your momma is a sick woman. Giving you a boy's name. Well, come on Chester, you're going home with me."
@@@@@@@@@@
Beau pulled into Jeri's driveway and before she could get all the way out of the car, both Jeri and Kenny were running out the door.
"How is she, is she gonna make it?" Jeri asked all in one breathe.
"Yeah, she's fine. But I have a house guest now." She grinned and motioned for them to look in her car. "Chauncey had me worried, she tried to leave the hospital because of Chester there being at home alone."
"Damn that's an ugly dog!" Kenny said as she shivered. "I took her for a person that would have a pit bull or Neo Mastiff. Not a hairless Taco bell dog." She jumped back when Chester snarled at her and showed her toothless gums. "He needs dentures."
"She, it's a girl."
"Oohh?well she needs dentures. You wanna come in and have something to eat? We just made supper."
"Nah, I have to get back to let Chauncey know that Chester's OK."
"Beau, you have to eat. It's been hours since you've eaten or slept." Jeri said as she placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I know. As soon as I check in on her I'll head home."
"You had better or I'll come over there and kick your ass."
@@@@@@@@@@
Beau snuck up the stairs to the floor that Chauncey was on; she pulled her lab coat closed in front before she stepped in to the hallway. Looking both ways, she ran down the hall and ducked in to Chauncey's room. After closing the door she looked down to find her patient sound asleep.
"Your momma's still sleeping, how about if we just sit down and wait for her to wake up."
Chauncey forced her swollen eyes to open; she turned her head to the side when she heard a soft snore coming from beside her bed. Blinking to clear her vision, she saw that the little blonde was sitting in the chair sound asleep. She tried to reach out with her left hand to wake her but found it weighed a ton from the cast that reached from her upper arm to her fingers.
"Hey?wake up." She forced out from her dry throat. "Hey shrimp!" She gave up on trying to wake her by speaking; instead, she pulled the pillow from behind her head and tossed it at her head.
"Five more minutes Ma?tired." Beau mumbled then snuggled further down in to the chair. Chauncey smiled at the small blonde's mumbled words, her eyes grew wide when she saw a little baldhead poke out from the white lab coat. "Chester! Come here baby." She called to her dog in a low voice. Chester worked her way free of the small hands holding her in place; she jumped the short distance to the bed and crawled on to her owner's chest. She wiggled all over Chauncey and grinned. "My poor baby, momma's here."
Green eyes opened and watched as Chauncey held the little dog to her chest and placed a kiss on its little baldhead.
"You know I broke half a dozen rules bringing her here."
"Thank you." Was all Chauncey said before she buried her face against her dog. But before she escaped, Beau saw the tears in her ice blue eyes, she felt her heart do a back flip at the emotion that the stoic woman showed her dog. She then knew that Chauncey had no one in her life but Chester and felt saddened by the fact.
Leaning forward Beau whispered close to Chauncey's ear. "I'm going to check your chart and then I'll be back to check your sutures."
She looked back over her shoulder from the door and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "No one should be alone." She said to herself.
@@@@@@@@@@@
20 minutes later Beau returned to find Chauncey asleep with Chester laying on the pillow beside her head. A smile came to her face when the little dog's tail beat on the pillow and brown eyes regarded her.
"I'm going to check on your momma now, so no barking." Reaching forward she petted the little baldhead then she pushed dark hair off Chauncey's forehead to check the ugly bruising that covered a good portion of her face. Speaking in a whisper, she looked into Chester's little rat like face. "Your momma's a beautiful woman even with the nasty bruises, but don't you tell her I said that. She'd toss me in the nearest dumpster." Placing her stethoscope in her ears, she pushed Chauncey's gown down far enough to place the end against her chest. She listened for a minute or so then turned her attention back to Chester. One blue eye opened part way to see the small blonde leaning over her chest and speaking in a hushed whisper. "She may act all tough but she doesn't scare me one bit."
"Bullshit!" Chauncey whispered in to the end of the stethoscope and watched when Beau came three foot off the floor and ended up laying across her chest. Looking up into smiling blue eyes, all thoughts left her as she was once again held in her place.
"Is not bullshit, as long as you're stuck in plaster with half a dozen tubes sticking out of you, plus a catheter."
"Wanna bet?" Chauncey dared the small blond doctor.
Beau's green eyes grew wide at the thought of the long fingered hand grabbing her by her throat and throttling her. "Uuuuhhhmm?I changed my mind, you're still scary as hell." She got back to her feet, took a deep calming breath and forced her body to stop trembling from both fear and the closeness of the other woman.
"I want my chart." Chauncey demanded with cold eyes.
"Why? It just notes and stuff that I've written along with everyone else that's checked on you."
"Because I want it." She drilled Beau with her eyes. "Now!"
Green eyes narrowed at fierce blue, Beau's dander was up and she wasn't going to give in easily. "And if I don't, then what?"
"After I get it myself, I'll stuff you in the nearest hamper."
"Haa! Like you can get up and chase me!" Beau moved away from the bed when she saw Chauncey sit up and begin to slip her legs over the edge of the bed. "Stop! It took me and Kenny hours to put you back together!"
Blue eyes opened wide at the information that she had just heard. Shaking her head, she winched when a sharp pain shot through her temple. "You let that bear pawed Amazon put her hands in my body!?"
"Of course I did. She's one of our best surgeons." Beau grabbed the chart off the foot of the bed and handed it to Chauncey. "Here, now get back in bed before you pull something loose." She watched as Chauncey flipped through the pages until she came to the actual surgical procedures page. Blue eyes narrowed and a dark head shook slowly.
"You took one of my kidneys, why?"
"It was badly damaged, I think that when you were hit by the car the windshield wiper punctured your side and went straight through in to your kidney."
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Chauncey asked.
"Well?there was black rubber like material inside of you and this." She pulled a small metal clip that held wiper blades on the arms out of her pocket and handed it to Chauncey. "I didn't want to have to rush you back to the OR if your kidney failed from the damage."
"What are my fluid outputs right now?" She cocked an eyebrow at Beau.
"More than enough to show that your remaining kidney is functioning normally. I see no problem at this point." Beau stepped closer to the bed and gazed down at the chart.
"If you kept this?" She held up the small clip. "Then what did you do with my kidney?"
"Ohh that! It's in my refrigerator at home, I'm making kidney stew this weekend. Want some?"
"Please tell me that you're a real surgeon and not the coroner."
Beau chuckled at the pleading look on the woman's face. "Don't worry; formaldehyde makes me nauseous. Plus the dead people sitting up on the tables freaks me. Now let me check the rest of my cross stitching, I'm getting pretty good at it ya know."
Chauncey's eyes rolled as she dropped her head back onto her pillow.
@@@@@@@@
Beau opened her door and let Chester down on the floor, with in two seconds the little dog was chasing Abigail through the house. She heard high piercing whistles then a yelp. Chester came tearing back in to the living room with her tail tucked between her legs.
"Found out she has teeth huh?" Beau said as she went towards her kitchen. "Soo what do you want for supper? You can't eat anything that you need teeth to chew, so what's your momma feed you?" She searched her refrigerator and came up empty of ideas. "Maybe I should have asked her before I left huh?" After having soup and a sandwich, Beau and her crew of rodents laid on the couch and watched re-runs of Alley McBeal. Before it was over, soft snores filled the dark living room.
@@@@@@@@@
After calling information to get her shrimpy little doctors address, Chauncey checked to make sure that all was quiet in the hospital corridor before she made her move. She used the wires to her heart monitor to pull the machine closer, she flipped the switch off and removed the wires and the sticky patches from her chest. In less than five minutes, she had removed all the tubes and IV's from her body including the catheter. Slipping from her bed, she used the edge of it to steady herself until she could regain her equilibrium. She knew that she would have to steal some scrubs or take a chance on escaping from the hospital buck-naked. Which, with the temperature being in the low 30's was not a good idea? Grabbing a corner of the bed she eased her way to the door, after checking the hallway she took her chance and quietly made her way to the nearest supply room.
@@@@@@@@@@@@
The night shift nurse was halfway down with her rounds when she came to Chauncey's room to check her vitals. Opening the door, she left the ceiling light off and used her penlight to scan over the bed. Blinking her eyes twice she looked at the empty bed, then checked to make sure she was in the right room. Flipping the overhead light on she grabbed the chart off the foot of the bed and checked the name.
"Ohh shit!" She cursed as she ran from the room and down the hall to her desk, hitting speed dial she paced the floor as the phone rang seven times before a sleepy voice answered. "Doc Beau, we have a problem here in ICU with one of your patients."
Beau sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes as she listened to the nurse. "Which one?"
"Sebastian."
Green eyes shot open at the mention of Chauncey's name. She jumped from the couch and looked for her shoes. "What's wrong?" She yelled over the phone while pulling her shoes on then cursed when she noticed that they were on the wrong feet.
"Well?it seems that she's missing." The nurse held the phone away from her ear when Beau screamed "What!"
"I just came from her room and she's not there."
"Damn her to hell! Call security and have them search the hospital. I'll be there in five minutes." She dropped the phone on the floor and ran for her door. The entire time she was driving, she cursed like a sailor right up until she came running through the ER doors. Running up the two flights of stairs to the ICU unit, Beau was slightly out of breath when she reached Chauncey's room. Looking around she noticed that all the IV's and such were laying on the bed.
"I'LL KILL HER!" She yelled as she ran from the room and down to the nurse's desk. "Anything yet?" She asked with an irritated look plastered on her face.
"No Doc Beau, and we've searched this entire floor. Security is on the first floor right now checking."
"Son of a bitch!" She took off for the first floor to help look for her patient. By the time she got down, she was out of breath and sweating through her T-shirt.
@@@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey looked both ways before she stepped in to the hallway, grabbing a stethoscope off a gurney she draped it around her neck and raised the surgical mask up over her face. She had gotten lucky with the first room she had entered and was now wearing full surgical scrubs and gown. She had slipped booties over her feet to help hide her cast and now had a lab coat over her arm to hide that cast as well. Following the colored lines on the floor, she found her way to the front doors of the ER. Stepping up to, the large red button she pushed it and watched the doors slid open.
"Damn I'm good." She whispered to herself. Hobbling out the door, she scanned each direction before she walked towards the parking lot. A huge grin came to her masked face when she seen Beau's car sitting right in front of her with the engine still running.
"Thanks Shrimpy, couldn't of had better timing." She slipped in behind the wheel and almost got stuck. "Damn short people!" She slid the seat all the way back before she swung her cast inside. "Giving a loud yell she pulled from the lot and headed to Beau's house to get Chester.
@@@@@@@@@@@
Beau was mad as hell, she had searched every floor with security and did not find Chauncey. Leaning against a wall, she rubbed her face and let her head drop back to rest while she tried to think of what to do next.
"All right dumb ass! She would have headed home if she got out of here!" Running for the door, she came to a screeching halt when she found her car gone. "SON OF A BITCH!!!" She jumped up and down and screamed bloody murder until one of the security guards came out to see what all the noise was about.
"Doc Beau, is something the matter?"
"OOOHHH YOU CAN SAY THAT! MY CARS BEEN STOLEN!"
The guard rubbed his forehead as he looked at the pissed off doctor. "You want me to call the police?"
"No, just drive me home."
"But your car?"
"A mental patient stole it!" She braced her hands on her hips as she locked eyes with him. "Now take me home before I steal YOUR car!"
@@@@@@@@@
Chauncey pulled in to Beau's drive and cut the engine, she looked to see that no lights were on except for a blue flashing hue that was the TV. Easing herself from the car, she painfully made her way to the front door. She was in a lot of pain and had begun to sweat right through the heavy surgical gown she wore. Leaning up against the door with her forehead, she took a deep breath and almost passed out from the pain in her chest.
"Come on Chauncey you can do this." She said to herself, and then opened the door to complete silence with the exception of the TV. Using the walls for support, she went through Beau's house looking for Chester. She leaned against the door jam to what had to be the shrimp's bedroom. Flipping the light on she saw Chester and a guinea pig sleeping on Beau's pillow.
"You little trader!" Chauncey whispered.
@@@@@@@@@
Before the security guard could stop his car, Beau was jumping out and running towards her front door. She flung it opened and took off to her bedroom, she knew Chauncey was in there because she could see the light from outside. She burst through the door to find her stubborn patient sitting on the edge of her bed petting her guinea pig.
"You Neanderthal asshole! What the hell do you think your doing!?" She screamed at the grinning woman.
"Playing with your hairball."
She stood in the center of the room with her hands planted on her hips, her brows drawn down over her nose, she looked from under them with flashing green eyes. "You escaped from the hospital, stole my car! Not to mention you broke in to my house and now your molesting my hairball!"
A dark brow rose over a mischievous blue eye. "I molest with my tongue not my fingers. Besides I've never had carnal knowledge of a guinea pig."
Beau closed the distance between them to two foot. "Well, you're not going to get the chance now because you're going back to the hospital!"
"No I'm not! I'm taking Chester and I'm going home."
"Like hell you are! Now get up or I call Kenny and Jeri and they help me take you back!"
"Don't think so!"
"Well, think so because you're going, now get up!" She reached for Chauncey's arm and found out what a big mistake that was when a shin came up between her legs and hit her already bruised crotch. All the air in her lungs rushed forward as she bent over at the waist and groaned.
"That's twice this week!" She said in a Minnie mouse voice.
"Sorry Shrimp, but I have to go now. Put some ice on that bruise."
Through tear-filled eyes, Beau watched Chauncey force herself up from her bed.
"Don't think so!" Beau wheezed.
Chauncey laughed at her and threw her head back in pain. "Shit that hurts!"
"So will this!" In a flash, Beau jammed a syringe into Chauncey's thigh then fell to the floor holding her privates for the second time that week. Chauncey looked down at the syringe still sticking out of her leg with amazement.
"You're a sneaky little shrimp." She growled. "What did you?" Was all she said before she passed out and fell backwards across Beau's bed."
"Works better than mace." She rolled to her knees and pulled the syringe from Chauncey's thigh. Crawling to the phone by her bed she called the hospital to let them know that they could stop looking for Chauncey and that she would take care of matters in the morning. She then called Jeri and Kenny and told them what the Neanderthal had done. When she was finished talking to them she crawled to the kitchen to get a bag of ice.
After dropping the ice bag down the front of her pants and breathing heavy for five minutes, she made her way back to her bedroom. Shaking her head at Chauncey, she then striped her of the surgical gown, moved her to the center of the bed and checked to make sure that she hadn't pulled any of her sutures out in her escape. Getting extra pillows from her closet, she piled them under Chauncey's left leg to try and get the swelling down.
"You need this more than I do." She pulled the half-melted bag of ice from her pants and placed it on Chauncey's swollen leg. "Damn you have a gorgeous body, shame that I may have to strap it to my bed." A wicked grin came to her face at the idea. "Boy would that be a dream come true!" She chuckled to herself then pulled the blankets up to cover Chauncey. "Sweet dreams, hope you have a headache in the morning from the tranquilizer."
@@@@@@@@@@
A low groan rolled from the back of Chauncey's throat, cracking her eyes open to mere slits she took in her surroundings. Confused, she turned her throbbing head to the side to see a pair of caramel colored eyes twinkling down at her.
"Morning sunshine; how's the head?" Kenny asked with amusement clearly evident in her voice. "Hope you're not allergic to leather or being short stuffs sex slave." She gave out a great bellow of laughter as she held her stomach and stumbled from Beau's room. Jeri and Beau looked up from where they were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee when Kenny came in wiping tears from her eyes.
"Your sex slaves awake." She said in a singsong fashion. "Will you tape it for us?" She wiggled her eyebrows seductively at her best friend.
"You need help Kenny." Beau got up from the table and carried a cup of coffee in to her bedroom for her prisoner. She grinned at the helpless body lying on her bed. "Morning, how's the body feeling?"
"Like I've been tied to a bed!" Chauncey growled. "You can't do this to me!"
"Ohh but I already have, ain't it fun?" Green eyes twinkled with amusement. "It'll be just five or six weeks, that's really not that long ya know." She chuckled at the fierce look pale eyes gave her. "Can't get me now, no low blows for you." She sat on the edge of the bed and offered the cup of coffee to Chauncey.
"Now what? Ya going to poison me with arsenic?" A blue eye narrowed as she tried to sniff at the coffee.
"Hell, why waste the rat poison. My cooking will kill you quicker." Smiling she held the cup up to dry lips. "Come on, the coffees actually good. Jeri made it."
With hesitation, Chauncey took a sip of the coffee and sighed at the rich sweetened flavor.
"You know if you hadn't pulled such an asinine stunt last night you wouldn't be tied to my bed. But, the good thing is." She let Chauncey's mind race in empty space before she continued. "Your virtue is safe with me; it seems that I'm impotent!" She came nose to nose with Chauncey. "Thanks! Between you and Kenny I'll never have sex again!" She picked up a riding crop from the nightstand and tapped Chauncey on the nose with it. "Doesn't mean that I can't have any fun with you though." She left the room howling with glee after the shocked look that came across Chauncey's face. She walked in to the kitchen slapping the crop in her hand, an evil grin on her face as she high fived her cousin and Kenny.
"I love this!" She dropped in to her chair with an extremely pleased look on her face. "I think it's time we send in Chester." She wiggled her eyebrows at them then laughed at the look of horror that was sure to cross Chauncey's face. Jeri put Chester on the floor and told her to go see her momma. The little dog went tearing down the hall barking and the next thing the heard was a loud "NO!" The three of them crept down the hall and peeked into the room to see Chauncey staring with wide blue eyes at her puffball of a dog. Chester seemed to have grown a lot of fuzzy hair over night and now looked like a demented poodle. Except for her little baldhead that had, a pink Christmas bow stuck to it.
"Rogaine, for when your man or beast goes bald. Works over night or your money back." Beau said from the doorway.
"What did you do to my dog? She looks?UGLY!"
"Ugly? Hell she was ugly before." Beau sat on the edge of the bed and grinned down at Chauncey. "Now tell me you're not having fun. I know we are."
Blue eyes narrowed at all three of them, a low growl rumbled from her throat as she snapped her teeth at Beau.
"Keep snapping at Beau like that and she'll hump your leg." Kenny said from where she was hiding behind her wife. "It's been years since she's been laid."
Flashing green eyes swung in her direction making her flinch. "It's the truth, can't deny it short stuff."
"Shut up Kendra! You can be tied down next to her ya know!"
"Ohh hell, Jeri does that to me twice a week."
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Beau walked to the small cubicle that she and Kenny used for their office, she was about to start on her paper work when the head of surgery came in and looked over her shoulder. Dr. Bertkins was an older man with thick glasses and no chin. To look at him he made you think of an old turtle. She hated when he wouldn't say anything but humph at her notes.
"Stuff looks like it's written in Greek, how am I supposed to read it?" He asked as he pointed to the squiggly little marks all over the paper.
"You're not supposed to know what it says until I do my reports; this is top secret stuff ya know." She cast a grin over her shoulder and then went back to work.
"I wanted to ask you about that patient escaping last night. She was one of yours wasn't she?"
She groaned inside, she had hoped that he wouldn't find out about Chauncey's little escapade last night. And now she was going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why she was at her house and not back in the hospital.
"Sir?Ms. Sebastian had an anxiety attack last night?because has this tremendous fear of hospitals. She ended up at my house?looking for me." She took a deep breath and tried to compose her features into something that the head of surgery would believe. She watched as his eyes narrowed behind his thick glasses.
"Sebastian?Sebastian, that name sounds familiar to me." He caressed his jaw with one finger. "Anyway?how is she doing now?"
Beau held back a smile and a burst of laughter that was dying to come out as she pictured six foot of pissed off Chauncey strapped to her bed.
"Fine sir?she's very comfortable and I have a nurse there with her."
"Good. Now I want a full report of this on my desk before you leave. We can't have a patient suing us."
"Yes sir?I mean, no we don't need a lawsuit?" As soon as he left, she dropped her head down on her small desk and burst out laughing.
@@@@@@@@@@@
"Pink or black?" Jeri asked as she held up the each pair of crotch-less panties for Chauncey to look at.
"Why are you asking me?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because I can't ask the one I'm wearing them for, that wouldn't be any kind of a surprise."
Letting a breath leak from between parted lips, Chauncey rolled her eyes. "Black, it's more mysterious." She leveled a gaze at Jeri. "Which one is the surprise for?"
Jeri's eyes grew in size. "Which one? What do you mean which one? The Studmeister of course." Jeri came closer to the bed. "You don't think that?" She saw a wicked grin grace Chauncey's lips. "Eeeww no way! That's gross! Beau's my cousin for god's sake!" She started laughing at the startled look on Chauncey's face. "You didn't know?"
"How could I? I mean you three seem so close and all."
Jeri sobered and sat down on the bed beside Chauncey. "If I take the straps off you're not going to bust me over the head and escape are you?"
"Not unless you start modeling under things, then I can't guarantee what I'll do."
A bright smile came to Jeri's face. "Deal. Now what do you know about Beau?"
"Nothing at all except that she's a stubborn little shrimp that carries around a syringe of tranquillizer."
Jeri took a deep breath and sighed. She didn't know how much she should tell about Beau. "You have to promise me that what I say you can never ever repeat."
"I give you my word. And I never go back on a promise, ever."
Jeri gave Chauncey a brief summary of Beau's life before and after her parents died. "Beau's lived a solitary life for the last five years; she had a rather bad date that turned her in to a nun."
"No date can be that bad!" Chauncey said with a gleam in her eye.
"If you don't mind being tied to a wall and having a nut case come at you with an electric beater with a huge dildo attached to it as bad."
Chauncey busted up laughing and then moaning as pain shot through her chest and side.
"Just what in the hell is so funny and why isn't she strapped down?" Beau asked from the doorway.
Jeri wiped tears from her eyes and grinned. "We were going to get nasty but you interrupted."
"Impossible, you're all ready nasty." She dropped her hand down on to Jeri's shoulder and leaned over to look in to Chauncey's clear blue eyes. "No funny stuff!" She pointed a finger at her.
"As long as you stay out of the kitchen I'll behave myself." Chauncey said with a saucy grin.
Beau glared at Jeri then smacked her in the head. "You told her about my bad date didn't you?"
"Uuhhmm?"
Beau dropped to the floor and buried her head on the bed next to Chauncey's side. "Please! Make this be a BAD NIGHTMARE!"
"I was talking about your horrid cooking." Chauncey said to try and save Jeri.
"I didn't tell her that you threw out your electric beater because it gave you nightmares." Jeri said then broke down in to hysterical laughter.
@@@@@@@@
Jeri left to go to work, which left Beau nervous at being left alone with Chauncey. She found her palms sweating with just one look in to those blue eyes. Wiping them on her scrubs, she stuttered for a second before asking Chauncey if she was hungry or needed anything.
"You're not going to cook are you?" She said with a mischievous grin.
"Are you trying to drive me insane?" Beau asked as she looked at Chauncey from under her russet brows.
"You got it. Is it working?"
"AAHHH!!!!!!" Beau screamed and threw her hands in the air. Running her fingers through her hair, she left it sticking up so that it looked like she had horns. "That's ok, I can handle being insane." Green eyes narrowed to drill in to blue. "Because I'm taking you with me!" She gave out an insane laugh and skipped from her bedroom leaving a starring Cooler with a hanging jaw. She closed her mouth to let the wicked grin form on her face, blue eyes flashed as she slipped her legs over the edge of the bed.
"I'm insane! I have to be, I have this strange woman in my bed that takes my breath away with one glance and all I can think of doing is giving her a tranquillizer so that I can watch her sleep without having a coronary in the process! And now I'm cooking for her and hoping that I don't give us food poisoning."
"We can order out?" Chauncey said from the doorway.
Beau flipped the noodles in the air and spun around. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Ohh?"
"Never mind, I don't want to know." Her face colored a deep red as she wondered how much she had heard. "Since I just threw the noodles all over the kitchen, ordering out would be a good idea." One brow rose over a green eye. "What are you doing out of bed anyway?"
"If I'm on my back I prefer to have something being done to me."
Beau slapped her hands over her face and took a deep breath to calm her raging thoughts. Letting her hands slid down her face she peeked over her fingertips. "Tell me something?"
"Depends on what ya want?" Chauncey purred.
"Stop that! Anyway, why do you act so different at the bar?"
"That's part of my job; if I'm not a cold hearted bitch then the men will act like animals." She eased down in to a chair and sighed. "Anyway, I'm not there to be nice or look for women to fawn all over."
"I can see the fawning interrupting your job, but the sunglasses and the not talking. Do you know that they have a pool going at the bar?" Chauncey's deep laugh sent chills down Beau's spine; she rubbed her arms to still the goose bumps that had formed.
"I don't need to talk to my crew, they know what their jobs are and the sunglasses are so that I can watch people and they not know it. And yeah I do." She tilted her head to the side and winked at Beau. "So did you win the pot?"
"I'm not going to tell the guys." Beau smacked her forehead and groaned. "I forgot something! The police are coming tomorrow to ask you about your accident. They have a picture of your?Uuhhmm."
"My ass?" She grinned at a flushed Beau.
"Yeah?you have an impression of the Impala symbol on your?"
"Does it look good?" She asked.
"Uuhhmm?what do you want to eat?" Her face turned a bright red from the thoughts that ran through her mind. "For supper?"
Chauncey quirked a dark eyebrow at her and chuckled. She stood to her full six foot and looked down the V of Beau's scrubs. "How about we order Chicken from the Deli? I love breasts." She left the little doctor standing in the kitchen with her mouth hanging open.
@@@@@@@@@@@
Continued in Part 2...
The Athenaeum's Scroll Archive