Page 40 of Ruled By Fate

She considered for a suspended moment — one that went on much longer than she was aware of at the time. Slowly she rose onto her tiptoes, took his face in her hands, and kissed him on his cheek.

“I’m fine.”

It was at that moment Dr. Matthews and Sherry walked into the room.

Chapter Eight: Parables

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“What are you doing?”

The pair broke apart immediately at Sherry’s blunt question, and Brie turned a particularly vivid shade of crimson.

“We were just… I mean… we were only—”

“Who’s we?”

Brie turned to look at Cameron, who gave her a meaningful look and stepped back.

Oh, God. They can’t see him. What must that have looked like?

Her face blanched the color of spoilt milk. Sherry was looking at her with concern that bordered on alarm. Dr. Matthews clearly just wanted to get out of there.

“I’m here to call time of death. What are you doing here?”

He directed this at Sherry, who skewered him with a scathing look before batting her eyelashes and replying, “Just doing my job, sir, here in my capacity as a sexual harassment lawsuit just waiting to happen.” She blinked sweetly and held his gaze as the man broke into a flop of sweat. He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his forehead in a fruitless attempt to dry himself.

“Nurse… whatever your name is. Were you here when it happened?”

“Yeah. Were you here when it happened?” Sherry looked at her again as though she was a wounded animal to be approached with caution.

Brie took a deep breath and nodded.

“Ms. Abrams passed away eight minutes after four o’clock this afternoon.”

“Time of death: sixteen-oh-eight.” Matthews signed her chart illegibly, turned on his heel, and practically ran back into the hallway, desperate to escape the self-proclaimed “walking lawsuit.”

Sherry was too concerned about Brie to even notice. “Are you okay?” A preamble wasn’t her style. “I heard the guy from the ambulance died, and that sonofabitch didn’t even bother to properly run the code. And now this?”

“I’m fine,” Brie said quickly.

She knew why her friend was so worried. Brie had been lucky during her clinical rotations back in Georgia. She hadn’t had to watch anyone die in front of her. Not since her mother. Not till today.

“Are you sure?” Sherry pressed. “Because when I came in here, you looked like you were doing a bizarre yoga pose with a dead woman lying on the bed behind you.”

“I…” Brie glanced at Cameron sitting in the chair next to Esther’s bed, invisible to all but herself. He looked at her apologetically and mouthed, Should I leave?

She took a deep breath and replied to Sherry. “That’s exactly what I was doing. It’s this yoga technique Dr. Rogers made me promise to try. Keeps the back flexible and calms down the limbic system when you’re stressed.”

“Oh!” Sherry’s face relaxed, then piqued with interest. “Can you teach me? Maybe I should try yoga. Things are going well with Mike, and I might want to limber up a little—”

“Absolutely.” Brie gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for checking up on me. You’re a wonderful friend. But you can’t run out on your own patients every time one of mine dies.” She looked at Esther sadly. “Though I do appreciate you coming for this one.”

Sherry looked at the patient for the first time. “Oh, no… Esther?”

Brie looked at her in surprise. “You knew her?”

“We all did. She’s been a regular around here for months. Nice lady.” She sighed. “Nice daughter, too, but very high-strung. This is going to devastate her.” She looked at Brie. “I should be the one to call the family. They know me a little.”

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