turned her head and looked away, but her father hovered in an almost-threatening stance, watching every move Lukas made.
Lukas slid the point of the needle just underneath the edge of the skin cut.
“What’re you doing it like that for?” Cuendet snapped. “Trying to kill the kid?”
Abby whimpered and drew back.
Lukas shot an irritated glance at the father, fighting the urge to plunge the needle into the wrong person. “Due to the nerve endings on the noninjured skin,” he snapped, then took a breath and tried to slow his words and his annoyance, “it’s actually more painful to inject through the skin surface. As long as the wound is not grossly contaminated, I prefer to do this so it won’t hurt the child.” He looked more closely at the man’s pale, moist skin. “We have a water cooler and some paper towels out in the waiting room. Would you want to step outside for a moment?”
The man shook his head, but he didn’t hover so close to his daughter. Lukas had barely stitched the first cut when Jason took a deep breath, released it and walked out of the room.
With both parents gone, Claudia managed to divert Abby’s attention from the procedure. She asked about Abby’s brother and sister and encouraged her to talk about her favorite sport, baseball. Then Abby’s attention caught and held on something past the open threshold of the exam room. Her eyes widened, and she stared for a long moment.
“I don’t need that grape Popsicle now,” she said at last, her voice soft, almost reverent.
Lukas finished tying off a stitch. “I’m that good, huh?” He winked at Claudia.
“That’s not it.”
Claudia laughed.
Abby looked back at the sutures Lukas had placed, then looked up at him. “I’m too old for stuff like that. You won’t tell Tedi how scared I was, will you?”
“Of course not. You don’t act scared now.”
“Nope. Mom and Dad are more scared than I am.”
“I noticed.”
“At least I didn’t get in trouble for making them miss work. I guess all that blood got to them. Wait’ll I show Tedi my stitches. Are you going to marry Dr. Mercy?”
Lukas nearly dropped the needle driver he was using. “What?”
“She likes you. She always talks about you, and so does Tedi. You’d sure be a better father than Tedi’s real father was.”
He glanced at Claudia, who was at least keeping her laughter to herself.
“Are you sure you don’t want a Popsicle?” he urged. Children were growing up too fast these days. “Aren’t sixth-graders supposed to still like Popsicles?”
Abby shrugged. “Nah, I’m not hungry.” She glanced again out the exam room entrance.
Lukas looked up to see what she was watching and caught sight of Abby’s parents standing side by side, and Jason had his arm around Lindy’s shoulders.
“I should get stitches more often,” Abby murmured.
Chapter Six
A t a quarter to seven Lukas finished his chart on Abby and decided to try to catch some more sleep. He had two meetings this morning before he could go home, but his shift would be over in fifteen minutes. Dr. Landon could handle it after that. Yawning, he walked into the call room and sat down on the side of the bed.
The day he unloaded the directorship would be a day for celebration. He would have so much time on his hands he might get a chance to check out more of the hiking trails in the Mark Twain National Forest, which surrounded Knolls. In the past few months he’d had very few opportunities to explore the countryside. Even though Estelle picked up a lot of the slack for him, there were still too many things going on at—
Someone knocked at the door he had just closed. “Dr. Bower, you got a minute?”
He opened the door to find Bobbie Jo White standing there, hands on hips, heavy brows drawn down farther than usual over a plump face. Bobbie Jo, an X-ray technologist, was the director of the radiology department, and although she rarely smiled, she seldom glowered this morosely.
“Bobbie Jo? What’s wrong?”
She sighed, crossed her arms over her ample chest and slumped, uninvited, into the room. “It’s this BO thing. You’ve got to do something about it, Dr. Bower. I don’t have that much authority, and everybody’s griping about—”
“Uh, wait a minute, Bobbie Jo. What ‘BO thing’? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, sure you know. That new E.R. tech they hired last month, Amanda? Everybody’s talking about it, and even some of the patients complained. She works nights. In fact, she worked last night.” Her glower eased a little as she looked at Lukas hopefully.
“And you’re telling me this because…?”
“We all want you to talk to her about it. Tell her to clean up.”
He definitely needed more sleep. Or maybe he already was sleeping, and this was just some weird dream. “Who is ‘we all,’ and why me?”
“You know, several of the staff. You’re the director. It’s your job.”
“It’s the nurse director’s job.”
“She’s not touching this one. It’s up to you. The girl flat-out stinks.”
Lukas stared at her, dumbfounded. He hadn’t noticed any unusually significant aromas emanating from the tech last night, or any other night—not that he’d been paying attention. Sometimes the patients got pretty rank, but an emergency department was not expected to smell like a field of spring clover. And he had come to Knolls to treat patients, not teach hygiene.
Before he could think of a kind but firm way to explain to Bobbie Jo how far off the mark she was, Claudia stepped up to the open doorway. “Oh, good, Dr. Bower, you’re awake. I wasn’t going to disturb you if you were sleeping, but we just got a call from Dr. Landon, and he’s not going to be able to come in today.”
Lukas groaned. This was the second time this week he’d been stood up for a shift. It was getting ridiculous. “What happened?”
“His brother was in a wreck last night up in Jefferson City. I tried to find a replacement, but so far nobody wants the shift.” She took a step inside. “Are you up for a twenty-four?”
“No,” he snapped and was immediately contrite. It wasn’t Claudia’s fault he was getting dumped on this week. “I’m never up for a twenty-four.”
“Sorry. I’ll keep trying to find someone if you want me to.”
Did she even have to ask? “Please, Claudia.”
She glanced hesitantly at Bobbie Jo, then back at Lukas. “Dr. Bower, we also got a call from your early appointment this morning.” She came farther into the room.
“Dr. Garcias? Don’t tell me she canceled.”
“No, but she’s coming earlier if you don’t mind. She had something come up at home, and she has to be back in Little Rock, Arkansas, this afternoon.”
“Dr. Garcias? ” Bobbie Jo exclaimed. She put her hands on her hips, and her frown deepened again.
Claudia shot the woman a surprised glance and walked out of the room.
Lukas turned a sleepy glare to Bobbie Jo. “Was there something else you wanted to discuss with me?”
“What are you going to do about Amanda?” Bobbie Jo demanded.
Lukas wanted to tell her to take care of it herself, but she wasn’t exactly a people person.