Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 9

"Where're Theodore and Martins?" Surely one of them could deal with this. They'd been on duty less than eight hours.
    "They're with those car accident boys, the ones who wrapped their car around a tree."
    Eli shook his head in disgust. Damn teenagers. Shit, he sounded like his dad. "Dr. Ngo will be here in fifteen minutes. Put the guy and the kid in a room and have him wait." He paused. "The kid's not seriously injured is he?"
    "No. There's a lot of blood, but head wounds bleed. I tried to do that. I put him in a room, and the man just kept demanding a doctor. Now he's pacing around the waiting room and starting to annoy everyone." She stood staring at him as if this was his responsibility.
    How many patients had he seen in the last seventeen hours? Thirty? Forty? More? There were at least three heart attacks, two gunshot wounds, a half dozen food poisonings, three hypochondriacs, an ear infection, and a miscarriage. He'd lost track of what else he'd dealt with. Couldn't the guy wait just twenty more minutes and give him a break? He heard a screeched cry of " Mommy!" from the waiting area and his head dropped as he took a deep breath. "Fine." He thrust the charts toward the nurse. "These are finished."
    He straightened his shoulders and strode out into the hallway. One more. Just one more and he could have that cigarette. Hopefully a Scooby Doo band-aid would do the trick and he could go home.
    James clutched Dedrick to his chest with one arm while he held a blood soaked towel to Dedrick's little head with the other. He tried not to think too much about the fact that his hands were covered in blood. If he did, he'd throw up. Dedrick kept screaming for his mother, and no amount of promised candy stopped him. Even the rash promise of a puppy went unacknowledged. Where the hell was the doctor? Was it really so difficult to get help in a damn hospital?
    As he spun toward the admissions desk to demand, once more, to see a doctor immediately, he saw someone wearing a white coat and blue scrub pants heading toward him down the hall. That had to be a doctor. He opened his mouth to insist the man see Dedrick right now, when he finally looked at the doctor. Holy crap! He was a doctor? The guy wasn't overly tall, but he was drop dead gorgeous, and from what James could see under the lab coat, totally ripped. The doctor's pale blue t-shirt was stretched across a nice set of pecs, and the sleeves on his lab coat were straining from the size of his biceps.
    James was still standing with his mouth hanging open when the god stopped in front of him and calmly looked at a still screaming Dedrick. "I believe you're the one demanding assistance?"
    That snapped James out of his lust-induced stupor. The sky blue eyes were cool and remote. Demanding assistance? It was a freaking ER, wasn't that what they did? It's not like he was asking for something out of the norm. "Yes." He put on his 'don't mess with me' teacher voice. "I've been waiting nearly a half hour."
    He glared at the doctor when he saw him roll his eyes. What a dick. The doctor, E. Zimmerman, according to his name tag, motioned down the hall, then walked ahead and pulled aside a curtain to reveal a narrow bed.
    "Set your son down, please"
    James was so busy trying to peel Dedrick off that he didn't notice what the doctor had said exactly. He swore the kid was part leech. Finally, with the doctor's help, and a promise to hold his hand, James got the little guy to lie down.
    "What happened?"
    "I don't know exactly. Well, he ran into a wall, the corner of a wall." James frowned when he saw the doctor's eyebrows rise. "I was in the kitchen and he was in the living room. Suddenly there was a thud and a scream. I ran and he was lying on the floor screaming, blood all over his face, and I freaked out and brought him directly here."
    "Ran into a wall?" The doctor looked sceptical.
    James stiffened his spine. "Yes."
    "Where's your wife?" The doctor had lifted the towel off Dedrick's head and was gently prodding at the wound. Dedrick had settled down with something else to focus on, and was gently sobbing, but no longer screaming.
    "My what?"
    "Your wife? His mother?"
    James wasn't sure if he was more insulted by the condescending tone the guy used, or by the assumption he was married.
    "I'm not married to his mother."
    The doctor froze in his movements, and closed his eyes for a moment. "Fine. Does he have a mother?"
    "Of course he has a mother."
    The doctor stood and grabbed the