Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 9

eyes glazed, stupid smiles fixed on their faces, oblivious to being told they had killed their child. Neither one seemed to know what had happened or who had done it. Purely by chance the police had raided the drug den and found the child unresponsive, both parents in a drugged-out stupor.
    Fuck, fuck, fuck. Eli wanted to go back in there and pump them so full of drugs they'd never wake up. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down when he heard a voice coming nearer, obviously talking on a phone. He didn't need to freak out the patients with his crazy doctor act. He relit another cigarette from the stub of the first. Since he had no clue when he'd get another break, he thought he should stock up on the nicotine while he could.
    He glanced up at the speaker as he stubbed out the first cigarette, the new one dangling from his lips, when it hit him. It was the guy from a couple of weeks ago, with the kid who'd cut his head. What were the odds of him being here? He glared at the guy. If he was back with that kid, Eli intended to unleash the full force of Child Protective Services on his ass.
    The guy looked up and noticed Eli glaring at him. His steps stuttered for a moment as he frowned, then his eyes lit up, oblivious to Eli's glare. Eli heard the last of his conversation.
    "Okay, I'll come in and fill in the incident report after Kara's parents get here. Tell Barbara it doesn't look serious. The kid's parents signed the release, so she can relax."
    Eli watched him roll his eyes at whatever the person on the other end said. It didn't sound like he was talking about his nephew - the kid had a weird name, but it wasn't Kara.
    "Yeah. See you tomorrow." He disconnected his phone and smiled at Eli. "Dr." He paused, "Zimmerman, right?"
    "Right. Um, sorry, but I see a lot of people." Eli shrugged self-consciously. Amazingly, it was rare he ran into former patients, maybe because they were freaked out and didn't remember him or they were just a steady stream of humanity he didn't notice.
    The guy stepped forward and held out his hand. "James, James McCray."
    "Oh right. Mr. McCray." Eli shook his hand. "Um, how's your nephew. Frederick? Cedrick?"
    James laughed. Eli was fascinated by that. You didn't hear many people laughing in his line of work. Emergency rooms were not hotbeds of happiness and joy. Now, tears, screaming, sobs and wailing he was familiar with. Laughing was nice.
    "Dedrick." Eli raised an eyebrow. With a grimace, James snorted. "Yeah. Tell me about it. We told Abby the kid was going to have to learn karate by the time he was two to ward off playground beatings, but she wanted to be 'unique'." He gave the word air quotes with his fingers.
    "Well, she got that part. I can honestly say I've never come across anyone else with that name."
    More laughter. Eli felt the tension in his shoulders ease. "I'll tell her you said that. She'll be thrilled." James shrugged. "He's great though. Ded takes the whole name thing in stride. In his neighborhood it's not all that weird. Nevaeh and her twin brother Heaven really have it rough."
    Eli stiffened, a frown forming - Ded, dead, the kid. Fuck. Just for a minute the whole thing hadn't been in the forefront of his brain. Now he had to go back in there to see if the parents had sobered up… and if the CT scan showed any brain activity. He knew it wouldn't, but some small part of him hoped the first scan was wrong.
    James frowned and tipped his head. Everything had seemed fine. He thought he might have even been flirting, well, borderline flirting, and the guy had been responding, then -- boom. Shut down. "Is something wrong?"
    The doctor took another drag off his cigarette. He hadn't touched it since he and James had started talking. "No, nothing. Just a, well, every day's a bad day in an ER, isn't it?"
    As the guy stubbed out the cigarette, James stepped forward, and quite out of character, touched the guy's arm. "Hey, it's not all bad. We thought one of my students broke her ankle on a hike at Big Basin today, but it's only sprained. That's good news for us, right?"
    The doctor pulled away from him, his frosty demeanor suddenly dropping back into place. "Well, that's great. I have patients to see, Mr. McCray. I'm sure you remember the frustration of having to wait on a doctor?"
    James felt his jaw drop. Oh, Dr. Asshole was back in a big way, but James refused to give the doctor the benefit of knowing he'd annoyed James. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "It's