Destiny's Whisper (50 page)

“It looks that way to me. Although, I should probably have my head examined for even contemplating it, let alone actually doing it,” the doctor quipped, offering Chloe a lopsided grin.

“Aren’t you going against some oath, or another?”

“Probably more than one, but, sometimes you have to listen with your heart, not your head.” the doctor offered with a small shrug, patting Chloe’s foot dry with a towel, her fingers carefully pressing along her arch and traveling to her heel. “Does this hurt?”

“It’s a bit uncomfortable; nothing I can’t manage,” Chloe answered with a little shrug, tilting her head to one side as she watched the doctor’s fingers press against her foot. Flinching when the doctor found a particularly tender spot toward the front of her arch, Chloe gasped in pain. “Ouch! I felt that!”

Dr. Chen frowned. “How much room do you have in your boot for an additional support pad?”

“Not much,” Chloe answered truthfully. Boots were meant to fit like a second skin; anywhere from one to two sizes smaller than your street shoes, and anyone who said skating boots were comfortable, and didn’t hurt, were either lying through their teeth or wearing a pair that were too big.

“Do you lace them all the way up or leave the top hook open?” Dr. Chen asked quietly, rubbing one forefinger along her chin as she thought.

“Open.”

“Barefoot or stockings?”

“Stockings.”

“In relation to when you skate, how far ahead of time do you put your skates on? Do you know where you fall in the skating order so we have an idea of the time frame we’re working with?” Dr. Chen asked calmly, her gentle hands wrapping the ace bandage in different ways and then feeling the support it offered, only to unwrap it and try it a different way.

“Since we’re currently leading, that should place us last on the ice in the final group. This is our long program, four and a-half minutes on the ice, with a five minute warm-up at the start of the grouping. Four other pairs will skate before us, that gives us about twenty minutes of downtime between the warm-up and when we skate,” Chloe explained.

“Twenty minutes,” Dr. Chen sighed, shaking her head in frustration as she wrapped the bandage yet another way. “Your foot could swell to the size of a watermelon in that amount of time! I don’t suppose there’s anyway the judges would let you change places and skate earlier?”

“I don’t want any special treatment. I want to win this competition on my own terms; without sympathy, based solely on the fact that Sergei and I are the best,” Chloe stated firmly, her voice filled with determination.

“What if he withdraws like he said he would,” the doctor asked quietly.

“He won’t.”

“He sounded like he meant it to me.”

“I’ll talk to him; he’ll come around.” Chloe hoped he would with all her heart.

“I hope you’re right.”

Chloe’s smile was filled with trepidation. “Me too.”

Dr. Chen looked at the bandage wrapped around Chloe’s foot, and hoped it would give her enough support to see her through their long program. “Until we actually have your foot in the skate, we won’t know if this will help you at all.”

“Okay.”

“I want you off–and I do mean completely off–this foot, until you’re ready to put your boots on. I get off at six a.m., and lucky for you, I’m off tomorrow, make that today. I will tape your foot at the arena and monitor how you’re doing between the warm up and when you actually get ready to skate,” Dr. Chen advised sternly.

Chloe nodded in acceptance.

“But hear my words, Chloe, if I have to personally have you disqualified by the judges, due to injury, I will not hesitate to do so. I lost my chance to skate because I was too stupid to listen to a doctor. I won’t allow you to make the same mistake!”

Chloe’s eyes widened in surprise. “You used to skate?”

“A very long time ago; actually before you were born,” the doctor stated matter-of-factly, making final notes in Chloe’s chart and closing it with a sharp snap.

“What happened?”

“I was stupid and stubborn and thought I knew more than my doctors. I went out and skated injured, in boots that had no more support than an old pair of hi-tops sneakers and blew my ankle to pieces; I was sixteen,” she answered honestly.

Chloe could feel the sorrow and disappointment that radiated from the petite woman. “How long did it take you to get over missing skating?”

“Who said I’m over it? It’s something that crosses my mind everyday, and wonder where I might be if I’d done things differently,” Dr.

Chen’s petite shoulders lifted in an elegant shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe this is what fate decreed for me; maybe I’m here to keep
you
from doing something just as stupid,” she suggested, holding out a pair of crutches.

“Maybe,” Chloe agreed, accepting the crutches and swinging her legs to the side of the exam table, them carefully lowering herself to the floor, the crutches securely under her arms, her bandaged left foot held in the air.

“Before you leave, I want you to take these,” Dr. Chen instructed, handing her two shiny, round red pills with ADVIL clearly written on them, in a small paper cup, and another cup holding water. “Inside this envelope are another eight pills; I want you to take two pills after you’ve had some sleep, another two four hours later and then the last four before you head for the arena. I’ll meet you there.” Dr. Chen directed firmly.

“Thank you, Dr. Chen,” Chloe stated sincerely, pulling the woman into her arms, and hugging her. “You don’t know what this means to me.”

“Well, we’ll find out in about sixteen hours, won’t we?” the doctor offered with a hopeful smile.

Aleksei and Jordan re-entered the examination room, to collect Chloe.

“How’s Dani?” Chloe asked, concern hazing her blue eyes.

“Sleeping. We’ll pick her up in the morning,” Jordan stated, stifling a yawn.

“Or at least in a few hours, morning’s almost here,” Aleksei countered.

“Did Hunter leave with Dee and Whittaker?” Chloe asked.

Jordan’s smile was soft and secret-filled. “No. He’s sitting in a chair, next to Dani’s bed, sound asleep.”

Chloe’s eyes widened in surprise, a pleased little smile turned the corners of her mouth upward.

“The limo’s here,” Sergei called from the doorway, his dark eyes ringed with red as exhaustion set in, his voice clipped and a bit dangerous.

“We’re on our way,” Aleksei stated, and allowed the two women to lead the way.

“Mr. Rocmanov?” Dr. Chen called to him.

“You go ahead, I’ll be right there.”

Nodding in agreement, the two women began to make their way to the waiting limousine, thanking, again, the police officers who still stood guard at the entrance to the exam room, refusing to believe they were ‘simply doing their duty’. Tonight’s actions had been way beyond the call of duty.

Aleksei returned to the doctor’s side, and listened as she explained everything she had said to Chloe and what their plans for the coming evening would entail. Aleksei agreed with the doctor’s words, and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that if it came down to it, someone other than himself or Sergei or Jordan would be responsible for pulling Chloe from the competition. With a final ‘thank you’ and a heart-felt handshake, Aleksei went to find the limousine, stopping along the way to also thank the officers for their assistance.

Five minutes later, the limousine was on the way back to the hotel. Inside, Jordan sat cuddled next to her husband, his arm wrapped around her shoulder, her head resting against his broad chest, the sound of his heartbeat a comforting pulse in her ear.

Chloe and Sergei sat in silence, leaning against opposite doors, their minds whirling with thoughts, each afraid to say anything.

Chloe cried in silence, her face turned away from Sergei. A trail of tears slipped down her cheeks, their silvery trek caught by the lights of an oncoming car.

Out of the corner of his eye, the glow of her tears sparkled like diamonds against velvet, and called to him for comfort. Closing his eyes against the sight that had him wanting to do nothing but take her in his arms and promise her the world, he fought his own emotions and found himself losing. He felt lost without her, incomplete.

In the dark of the night, enfolded in the peaceful blackness of the limousine, Sergei carefully reached for Chloe’s left leg and gently draped her foot over his lap. With gentle, love-filled fingers, he softly stroked his hands over her bandaged foot and prayed.

And Sergei’s tears fell as silently as Chloe’s.

Having dozed fitfully on and off for six hours, Chloe finally surrendered any hopes of actually falling asleep, and threw a disgusted look at the clock on the night-stand that labeled the time seven-thirty. With a muttered curse, she sat up, pushed her tussled curls out of her face and cast a sad look at the empty bed beside her own; the bed where Dani should have been sleeping. “Damn you, Andrew. Damn you to hell!” she murmured, unwanted tears springing to her eyes.

During those fitful six hours, Chloe’s mind had replayed, over and over again, the harsh words she and Sergei had exchanged; words that had thrown up a wall between them, put them on opposing sides and threatened their partnership. After all the hard work they’d put in, all the long hours, to make their partnership rock-solid, were a few, harsh words enough to put an end to all their dreams? Chloe wished she had the answer.

A soft knock on the door had Chloe’s heart suddenly racing and her call to enter was a bit breathless.

Jordan peeked around the door and a small frown creasing her brow as she took in Chloe’s sad expression and exhausted demeanor. “I’d ask if you’d slept well, but you obviously didn’t,” she concluded, walking to the bed and sitting on the edge beside Chloe. “Did you sleep at all?” she asked in concern.

Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know; maybe. Probably not enough to count. I couldn’t get my mind to stop going over everything that happened. I just kept replaying it over and over in my head, wishing for a different ending.”

“Did it work?”

Chloe’s self-deprecating snort was inelegant. “Not that I can tell. I’m still sitting here, with my foot sitting on a pillow, wondering if this will be the last time I ever skate, competitively or otherwise, and if my stubbornness has caused me to push away the one person who means more to me than anything in this world. Am I doing this simply to prove wrong everything Andrew ever accused me of, to stand up for myself and refuse to be treated in such a terrible manner ever again? Sergei showed me what it’s like to be loved, unconditionally, by someone. Is this how you repay someone for showing you what heaven on earth can be like? Is what I risk losing worth more than what I might gain?”

“What does your heart tell you to do?” Jordan asked softly, her hand cupping Chloe’s chin and lifting her face until the two women were eye to eye.

“To skate tonight; to show the world how much it means to me to have Sergei at my side, and grant him the gift of one perfect program. That if it means we only have this one last time on the ice, I’m okay with it. That if this is all I’m meant to have, this one memory will be enough to last me forever.”

Jordan looked into Chloe’s sky-blue eyes, sparkling with determination, a touch of fear and acceptance, apprehensive of what might happen, but ready to accept the outcome of her decision. “Chloe, after my accident, I was told I would probably never walk again, let alone ever skate. If I’d listened to all those ‘professionals’ who told me to be grateful and not hope for any more when I finally took my first step, do you think I’d be where I am today? You need to listen to your heart and do what you need to do for yourself. If you can’t be true and honest to yourself, it’s impossible to do the same for others,” Jordan stated softly.

“But, Sergei’s so angry. You heard him, he threatened to withdraw and leave me without a partner.”

“Sergei is so much like his father it’s frightening. It’s that hot Russian blood, with a decent dose of gypsy thrown in. The Rocmanov men are hot-blooded, hard headed, over protective, and like to believe they control everything around them. We, being the generous females we are, let them believe it. But, there are times when we have stand up to them, ignore their blustering and posturing and tell them how it’s going to be. They may not like it, and they’ll in all likelihood fight it every step of the way, but when it’s all said and done, and everyone comes out standing at the end, we all learn another lesson. Nothing is black and white; gray has its own place in the scheme of things.”

“You make it sound very simple,” Chloe whispered wistfully.

“You’ve known us long enough; nothing is ever simple with the Rocmanov’s. Passionate people live passionate lives and passion is never simple,” Jordan countered with a light laugh, placing a soft kiss on Chloe’s forehead.

“Do you think Sergei will calm down enough to understand my reasoning?” Chloe asked hopefully.

“Aleksei’s in speaking with him now. His father has ways of manipulating people without them even realizing he’s done it, and when it finally dawns of them, it’s too late to do anything else,” Jordan laughed.

“You’re all very special people. I must have done something exceptionally wonderful in a past life to have been given you all in this one.”