Page 23 of Protecting Silver
“Wow.”
“Yeah, and he said not to work on them this weekend, but to hit the ground running on Monday. Well, that’s today and I am so happy you are back.”
“Good to be back. Let’s grab some coffee and get to work.”
On their way to the breakroom, Silver had feared her coworkers would make a big deal out of her attack and make a scene when she returned. That was the main reason for not coming back in as soon as she’d been released, but they only asked how she was doing and welcomed her back. With that off her mind, when she went back to her office, it surprised her when Lorna followed her in.
“You’re office isn’t as crowded as mine, and you have this beautiful empty table that we can lay our files out on.” Lorna ran her hand over the top surface of the item, like she was caressing it.
“You know,” Silver snickered. “If you’d file away your stuff, your table could be empty too.”
“I know, but I ran out of file space months ago. I haven’t had the heart to ask for any more.”
Silver shook her head, and pulled a chair up to the coveted table, then frowned at Lorna. “Where are the files.”
“Oh,” Lorna laughed as she hurried from the room, and was back with not one, but two armloads of files. Because they were working at the table, they decided to put the files on the desk, and grab them one by one. They settled down, and the next time they came up for air, someone was knocking on the doorjamb asking if they wanted to order out for lunch. Lorna did, but Silver declined. When Lorna frowned at her, she shook her head and held up a brown bag.
“I’ve discussed with my doctor what I can eat. And it soft breads, not toast, no bagels, just soft bread, with no crusts, and for a filler, I can have egg salad, as long as it’s chopped up finely, or tuna. I opted for egg today, along with a protein shake mix, and a super soft cookie.”
“Damn, I keep forgetting your jaw is still broken. When do you get the wires off?”
“If everything goes well, in two weeks. Then I’ll still be on a very soft diet for at least two to three weeks after that.”
“Oh,” Lorna said, then shook her head. They got back to work, and only took a break when lunch arrived. They went to Lorna’s office to eat, and enjoyed catching up with each other as they ate.
“So,” Lorna leaned back in her chair and studied Silver with a critical eye.
“So, what?”
“I’ve heard some scuttlebutt.”
“What’s that?”
“Military gossip,” Lorna laughed. “That’s what Ronnie said, and this is coming from her.” She quickly jumped to her feet and rushed over to close her office door. When she settled back behind her desk she leaned forward, and Silver could tell she was excited about imparting some news, because her cheeks had turned bright pink.
“What’s the scuttlebutt?” Silver asked, knowing she wouldn’t get an answer until she played along.
“I should make you work for it, but I can’t. I like you too much, but scuttlebutt says that Patch talked to Finn to see if you’d be interested in dating him. He, Finn, was to ask Ronnie, to ask me, to ask you, if you would be opposed to an invitation to go out with Patch.”
“Would he ask me directly, or would it have to go through the chain of command?” Silver tried to grin, but her limited movement prevented it, so she laughed instead, especially at Lorna’s expression. When the other woman caught onto what she said, she threw her head back and laughed.
“Oh my god, that was priceless. I know I probably shouldn’t laugh at your expense, or even Patch’s, but I liked that question. I’ll have to remember to ask Ronnie, but I think I’m to ask you, and let your answer go back up the chain of command, then the ball would be in his court. If I get the question to ask you out, I’ll inform him that it’s not my job.”
“Good, so tell your commanding officer, that no, I would not be opposed to an invitation to go out with Patch Atwal.” Silver grinned, then her eyes went huge as she had a thought. She held up a finger, jumped to her feet, then rushed over to her office to grab her phone. She sent off a quick text, then hurried back. When she resumed her seat, she laughed as she handed Lorna her phone, so the other woman could see what she’d written.
“You didn’t!” Lorna laughed, then dropped the phone when it indicated a response. She handed it back to Silver, then held up her hand. “Based on the text you just sent, I don’t want to know. But, know this, if you need me for anything, I’m there for you.”
“Thanks, Lorna.” Silver nodded, then quickly cleaned up her lunch mess and went back to her office to open the text she’d just received. She knew she and Lorna still had a lot of work to do, but she was going to take these next five minutes for herself. Holding her breath, she opened the text, then wrinkled her nose at the last part of the answer.
* * *
“Who’s phone is that?”Patch said over his shoulder to one of the nurses. He was currently in the operating room with his hands inside the body cavity of a trauma victim who’d had a head on crash with another car. The driver of the other car didn’t make it. Later Patch would find out exactly what happened, but what he’d heard in the emergency room was the other driver had been texting, and drove over the center line and right into the guy who was currently on his table. Patch was a laid back, easy guy to get along with, and he didn’t mind when people were on their phones. His only pet peeves were when they were driving, eating with someone across from then, and in the operating room. In his mind, those were the biggest places they didn’t belong, but because of his profession, he had to have his on him, and if it ever went off, he had to have a nurse read it out loud to the entire room. Most of the time it was another doctor telling him he had another trauma coming in.
“It’s yours, Dr. Atwal,” the nurse who monitored the phones from everyone in the OR said.
“What does it say?” Patch listened with half an ear as he continued to try to stop the bleeding in the man’s spleen. He didn’t want to remove it if he didn’t have to, but would if he couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. His patient would survive the removal, he’d just have to adjust his diet afterward.
“Um,” the nurse said as she picked up the phone that had rung. Patch paused and looked over at her with a frown.
