Page 10 of Falkner
Steele asked him for his badge, then just ripped it off his jacket.Like he was going to steal it.He could see all kinds of reasons why he should keep it, but he was more concerned with the police who were pulling up in front of the hospital exit.They were there for him.
“Doctor Mulkeen, you’re coming with us.Doctor Dixon has pressed charges against you in the form of defamation of character.You’ll be with us until such time as the courts can give you a time to see to your charges.”He said that he needed to call his wife.“Your wife has been dead for five years, sir.I was at her funeral.”
“Well, I need to call my attorney.”He said that he could do that downtown.“This is a mistake, and I’m going to have your badge for this.”
“Yes, sir, I hear you.Come along now.”He was being treated like an old man, and he hated the tone that the officer was using with him.“Watch your head when you get into the car.”
Christ, he wasn’t going to be able to slide under the table with this one.Dixon, the damnedupstart, was really pressing charges against him.So?He’d been wrong, he supposed.There was no reason for him to take it out on him, was there?Damn it all to hell and back, he had more important things to do other than sit in a jail cell counting his fingers and toes.
~*~
Falkner didn’t know what to do with his anger.And he was about as pissed off as he’d ever been in his life.The man was talking about his mate when he asked if she was giving him blow jobs under the table, and he’d never been so close to shifting and tearing out the man’s throat as he’d been today.Shaking himself again, he wondered where all this anger was going to go when he just wanted to hunt him down and kill him.
It wasn’t often that he would want to shift to kill someone.He couldn’t remember any time in his life when it had happened like it had today.He didn’t know what would have happened had he shifted in the room where Mulkeen had been.Falkner thought that the man was very lucky that he’d been where he was and not alone, like he wished that they had been.He needed to vent and couldn’t do that at work.He reached out to his brother, Dallas.
After telling him what had happened and how angry he’d been, he told him what sort of problem he was having in being unable to shake off the anger.Dallas was quiet for a few moments, and he wondered if he should have reached out to maybe Cullen or one of the other brothers when he finally spoke.
“Have you talked to Doone?”He told him that they were both working.“I know that.But sometimes when I’m pissed off about something, all I need to do is talk to Amy, and my anger goes away.Sometimes it’s just a touch of her hand onto mine that does the trick.They’re our other halves for a reason.Just reach out and speak to her and tell her what’s going on.She more than likely can feel your anger, and if you’ve not told her that she could, she might well be confusing it for her own feelings.”
“You think so?”His brother said that it worked for him, and he was sure that if he asked his other mated brothers, they’d feel the same way.“I’ll try that.I’m sorry to have bugged you about it, but to be honest, I didn’t know where to go.I’ve never been this pissed off before.Especially to a human.I wanted him dead and right now.”
“Talk to Doone.I’m betting right now she’s trying to figure out where all her anger is coming from.”He said he’d do that now.Then he thanked him.“You’re very welcome.I wish there were a book on this kind of shit that we go through.I wonder how the first shifters made it through their first year together with their mates if they had to figure out everything on their own?Bares thinking about.”
Reaching out to Doone after closing the connection with his older brother, Falkner first explained to her about the feelings he was having and why.She seemed to be confused when he explained that because they shared a connection, she’d be able to feel his emotions better than anyone else did.She had been confused by all the emotions she’d been feeling all morning.
“Then I got this burst of anger that I didn’t know what to do with.It was as if it were strangling me.”He said that was when Mulkeen had said what he said.“I’m glad you didn’t kill him.There is no telling where I would have ended up had you done that.Out of a job for sure.”
They both laughed about it, and he couldn’t believe how much better he was feeling just talking to her.If he could find her right now, he’d pull her into his arms and hold her.Just thinking about it made his other half, his gorilla, feel so much better that the anger was just gone.He decided to tell his brothers about this if they didn’t already know, and for sure, Cullen.He’d share all the information that he got from being mated with him.
“I’ve been thinking about my mom.Did I tell you when I picked her up yesterday to take her to the doctors, she said that I was going to have to keep better track of her schedule, that she couldn’t be bothered with reminding me all the time when she had places to go?”He said that she’d not mentioned that at all.But he was sorry for her being that mean to her.“She’s been mean to me my entire life.Bullying me, in a gentle way, if you can believe it, into doing things that she wants over my needs all my life.I just never noticed it before now.Or perhaps I did and I didn’t let it bother me as much as it does lately.”
“Why do you think it’s bothering you more lately?I mean, I want to help you for as much as you helpedme today.There is no telling who I might have snapped at that didn’t deserve it.”She said she thought it was since her place burned down and she didn’t want to be there for her.“I noticed that too.You said that she never asked you where you were living or any information about me.Are you going to explain it to her?”
“I don’t think I’m going to.She doesn’t explain things to me when I ask.”He could feel her hurt and anger at her mother and felt truly bad for her.He loved his mom, but she’d never play these games with him if he had issues.“I’m just going to go on and see how long it takes her before she gets it that I’m not going to change my life to suit hers anymore.I’ll help her out; she is my mom, but I’m not going to put up with her treating me like a maid rather than her daughter.One who got her the house and food card, which she thinks is so wonderful, and that she deserves it.That’s it too.She acts like she deserves me running around doing things for her and that I should just do it because I’m her daughter.”
“So you’re planning to back off from doing things for her?”She said that she was going to start by not memorizing her schedule.“Take it slow, then.That’s the way I’d do it.It’ll make you feel better, too, that you’re not just cutting her off.Why doesn’t she drive?”
“I don’t know.She has a license.I took her to the bureau myself when she had to have it renewed.She’s allowed to have one so long as it isn’t over a certain price range.I don’t think they want her buying a new car when she’s supposed to need assistance with her food and housing.I’m going to bring that up too when I see her the next time.I have to go over there today to get the last of my things.She claims that they’re cluttering up her home.I’m her flipping daughter, not some stranger that makes clutter in her home.”He laughed a little bit at that and could feel her anger dissipating like his did.“It’s good to be able to talk to you, too, I guess.I don’t feel so lost and angry as I did when I was thinking about my mom the way that I was.”
After talking about dinner plans that they had, she told him that she had to go.He was glad again for this link.He thought that over the next few days, while dealing with the fallout of Mulkeen, he might need to have her close all the time.As he made his rounds with one of the other doctors, he enjoyed the day better than he thought he might have.
He caught glimpses of Doone throughout the day.Twice she asked for a doctor to get something put on a chart that she could do, and then one other time she went out on her ‘smoke’ break to stand in the cooler part of the day.He made his way out there to do the same.Since neither of them smoked, it was a nice fifteen-minute break away from all the things going on in the emergency department for a change.
When four o’clock rolled around, he was ready to go home.He wasn’t in any hurry, as Doone wouldn’t be there yet because she had to go to her mom’s house.He did hope that things worked out for her concerning her mom and wondered what he’d do if his own mom pulled those kinds of tricks on him.He couldn’t think of a single thing, as she’d never do that to him in the first place.His mom was a straight shooter like he’d been told Doone was.
Falkner was falling in love with his mate and couldn’t wait to be able to tell her without her freaking out.She might too.Since they’d been living in the same house for a week now, they’d skirted around feelings like that.He probably could tell her, but then she might move out.Thinking that feelings that heavy are too quick for them.There were times when he felt the same way about them.Just too fast for them to be falling in love.
After clocking out, he took a few moments to look over his own schedule.He wasn’t working weekends yet, as he was still learning the hospital and the way they did things.But he knew that this weekend, Doone had to work.Since her overtime had been cut out, she’d been home all evenings, and it was nice to have someone to talk to at the end of the day.He was looking forward to that more as summer approached and they could hang out at the house together.
He did wonder what he’d do this weekend.He thought about painting the bedroom that he was using and realized that he didn’t want to be in the house during the day.The days were getting warmer more and more, and he wanted to catch the spring weather most of all.It was his favorite time of the year when things were coming up around the house in the form of fragile little blooms.That and fall when things were going to sleep for the long winter months.He also loved the colors that both seasons brought.The bright flowers in the spring and the beautiful earth tones in the fall months.
Stopping by the store on his way home, he picked up some flowers for Doone.She might need them if this thing with her mom didn’t go well.And he loved seeing her face when he picked something up for her.Like the time he’d picked up some soda that she liked, and she loved it.He wanted to be a romantic like his father was.He’d been giving their mom flowers just because he loved her since they were children.
With flowers in hand, he entered the house and was surprised to see Doone there.After hanging up his jacket, he handed her the flowers.He didn’t want to ask how things went with her mom, but since she was crying, he did ask her if she was all right.
“Not particularly.She told me I should be ashamed of myself for even asking her why she didn’t drive herself to her appointments.I even offered her my car to do it in.”He said he’d get her a newer one.“Thanks, but you don’t have to do that.I was just offering it to her to see what she did.She told me that she wouldn’t be caught dead in that old thing, even though it’s what I drive when I take her around.I guess she doesn’t like the idea that I might be too busy on some days to take her someplace when she wants or needs to go, either.”
“Your mom has a serious problem.What did you do when she said that to you?”She told him she told her that she couldn’t take her to her appointment in the morning as she had to work.Which she did, so it wasn’t a lie.“I take it that she didn’t like that.”
