Page 16 of Rogue

“Don’t talk crazy, Lotus,” I say. “You need to be checked out by a doctor.”

“OK, but you don’t have to wait with me,” she says. “I’m sure you have more important things to do.”

I turn to her. “Nothing’s more important to me right now than making sure you’re OK. I was supposed to keep you safe and I failed.”

Her eyes tear up, making me think I might’ve gone overboard. I meant what I said. But I don’t need her crying on top of everything else.

The sliding door leading into the ER slithers open behind me.

“Richards,” a nurse calls Lotus’ last name.

Melody is standing right behind her. She glances at Lotus’ face and swollen arm then back at me. And I feel like the whole world just exploded outwards around me as I hold her gaze. She just made a whole bunch of assumptions about me, that muchI can tell from the look she’s giving me. And none of them are good. I know that too.

Lotus is crying and trying to stop it, which just makes it worse. Melody wraps her arm around her shoulders as soon as she’s through the door.

“Come now, Ms. Richards, don’t cry. We’ll take good care of you,” Melody says in a kind, caring voice, the kind I wish she’d use with me. But instead, I just get a nasty look over Lotus’ shoulder. “This nurse will show you where to go.”

I follow after her and the nurse leading Lotus away.

“You can wait right here,” Melody says to me, her eyes now the color of very hard and very frozen ice. Actually, her whole face looks that way.

“No,” Lotus hiccups. “Can he come with me?”

Which adds yet another layer of angry hardness to Melody’s eyes. But she doesn’t say no to Lotus.

Great. Either she’s thinking I’m with Lotus or that I did this to her. Neither of those things is something I want her thinking.

They lead Lotus into one of the already almost full exam rooms. After all of us are in there, it’s pretty crowded. Suffocatingly so. Maybe that’s because of the ice in Melody’s eyes too.

She doesn’t look at me again as she starts examining Lotus’ injuries. “And how did this happen?”

“I…” Lotus stammers and looks at me with fearful and still very teary eyes.

Now the nurse and Melody are both glaring at me. Damn. This is not going well for me.

“No, no, he didn’t do this to me. He would never,” Lotus hastens to explain, talking shrilly, her voice rising in pitch with every word until all the patients and other nurses in the room are staring at us.

She’s not convincing anyone.

“Rogue saved me from a guy who used to beat me up all the time,” Lotus goes on. “His name was Brick. And Rogue punched him out so I could get away. No, this was…”

She glances at me with fear in her eyes again as she stops talking.

“Is that right?” Melody asks her soothingly without meeting my eyes.

Great. So maybe she doesn’t think I hurt Lotus, but now she just thinks Lotus is my woman. Not much of an improvement on before.

“Can I talk to you outside, Doctor?” I ask her.

“I’m a little busy,” Melody says, still not looking at me. “I’m sure Ms. Richards can fill me in on all I need to know.”

“Come on, it’ll just take a second,” I insist and she shrugs and strides out of the room without so much as glancing at me.

But as soon as the door is closed, she finally looks at me, and the anger in her eyes very nearly knocks me backwards. It’s like the mother of all storms raging over the ocean.

“It’s not what you think?—”

“I don’t think anything,” she says, but she’s clearly lying. “I just want to examine my patient.”

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