Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) (19 page)

"I did though. I kept it all inside for the past
year at my old job. No wonder I was so burnt out. But I've decided, Mom. I'm
going to stay in Sully Point and work with Doc Watson."

Sophia hugged her and then searched her face as
she pulled away and began to dry her eyes.

"You're sure?"

"Yes. No matter what happens with Ben, I need to
work as a doctor. Stepping into the hospital here was like coming home. I want
to be around all of you, all my family. And I like this town."

"When will you tell Ben?"

"When he's recovered enough to hear it."

She stood up and looked down at her mother. "I'm
going to make some coffee. Want some?"

Sophia shook her head. "No, darling, and neither
do you. Have some juice or water. You need to sleep. This isn't trauma central
where you have to have caffeine to keep going. Sleep now so you can visit Ben
later."

Rose laughed. "Yes, Mom. I promise, no caffeine."

Sophia stood up. "All right then, I'm going to go,
if you're okay."

"I am now. Thanks so much for being here. I needed
my mother today."

"I thought as much." She hugged Rose. "I love you,
sweet girl."

"You haven't called me that since I was twelve."

"Doesn't mean it isn't still true. I'll call you
later."

Rose walked her mother to the door and opened it.
Mel was standing on the landing and nodded to her.

"Watch over her," Sophia said.
"Bye-bye, darling."

Rose stood at the top of the stairs and watched
until her mother drove off.

Mel said, "We'll be standing guard while you sleep. Me and Owen."

"Okay sure. Here," she said and took her cell
phone out of a side pocket in the dress. She handed it to him. "I don't want to
turn it off. Tell anyone who calls that I'm sleeping, unless it's the hospital
with news of Ben. Then come wake me up, okay?"

He smiled at her. "Yes, ma'am."

She walked in, shut the door, and decided she
could forego the drink. All she wanted was sleep. She took off her sandals and
headed for the bedroom. When she saw the bed, she didn't even bother to undress
but just lay down and let the darkness of sleep take her.

* * * *

She woke up screaming. Mel came rushing into her bedroom.

"Rose! You're safe!" he said loudly.

She stopped screaming and sat up, shivering. "I
was back there and she was stabbing me and then Ben, over and over."

"It's all over now. Bad dreams may come for a
while after a trauma like that, though."

"Yes, I know. I just didn't expect to get any.
I've been around a lot of trauma."

"But not with someone you...uh...care about."

She thought about it. It changed things, loving
someone.

"Thanks for coming to the rescue, Mel. I think
I'll get up and have some juice."

"Here's your phone back. A few people called but
they all said they'd call back when you were up. I'll be right outside the
front door."

After he left, she took off the extremely wrinkled
sundress and tossed it across the hamper to be cleaned. She pulled on some
lounge pants in a caramel color, made out of some kind of stretchy yet silky
material, and put on a scoop-necked white tee to go with them.

Once she reached the kitchen, she realized she was
ravenous. She discovered her fridge had been filled with leftovers from the
barbecue. It occurred to her that she didn't know if they'd continued with it
after the ambulance left or what.

She filled a plate with grilled
chicken, and grilled asparagus. She didn't bother heating any of them, but dug
in and ate it all cold. For dessert she found the fruit salad someone had made,
with fresh pineapple, pitted cherries, blueberries, strawberries and blood
oranges.

Finally she made a cup of coffee,
walking with it in her hands to sit in the living room. She sipped her coffee
and remembered to check the time, only to find out she had slept for eight
hours and it was now ten at night. She quickly called the hospital to check on
Ben. The nurse in charge reassured her and said that Ben had eaten a bit and
then slept more, and that he hadn't been awake enough for her to have visited
him.

Rose set the phone down with a sense of relief.
She sat there looking back over the past day and a half and knew they'd been
lucky it hadn't been worse. Her phone rang.

"Maggie? What are you doing calling me this late?
Don't you go to bed early now that you're pregnant?"

"After everything that happened, I took a long nap
this afternoon, so I could be up tonight. I figured you had to be awake by now.
I wanted to know if you'd like to come over here for the night. We can sit up
and eat brownies and drink milkshakes and talk, and you can sleep here."

She thought about what Maggie was offering. After
her screaming nightmare, she thought she might like to be around people.

"Okay, I'm heading right over. I'll just throw
some clothes for tomorrow in a bag. See you soon."

"Cool! I'm putting the brownies in the oven as we
speak. See ya."

Rose went to the front door and let Mel know she
was going to spend the night at Maggie's house. Then she gathered up jeans and
a shirt with sneakers for tomorrow and slipped on some sandals for going out.
She didn't bother changing clothes from the lounging wear.

Owen had the car waiting and they headed off to
Maggie's. On the way there, Beth called proposing the same deal. When she heard
about the brownies and milkshakes she told Rose she'd be right over, too.

Within just a few minutes, Rose found herself
being hugged tightly by Maggie. As they walked into the kitchen, arm in arm,
Maggie said, "It could have been you in the hospital, Rose."

"Yes, I know. And unfortunately, it's Ben. But
he's going to heal and be okay."

"Brilliant. Glad to hear it. Eric, did you take
some of those brownies?"

Her husband turned innocent emerald eyes to
her. "Who, me?"

She advanced on him, and he took off at a jog for
his computer lab, laughing.

"He's all caught up in some breakthrough, so it
will be just us."

Hearing a knock on the door, Rose said, "And
Beth."

The sisters sat at the big rustic table in the
kitchen and had chocolate milkshakes and chocolate brownies. Rose was sure
she'd burst, but it all tasted delicious.

She learned that some people had left after the
incident at the barbecue but all the family had stayed, albeit with a much more
somber mood. Evidently Frank and his daughter, Holly, both thought they would
need a celebration party when Ben got out of the hospital, so they were
planning a dinner or something at Holly's big house.

"Guys, don't go all overboard about Ben. We don't
know yet where it's going to end up," Rose told the two women.

"But—you love him! It's as obvious as—" Maggie
began saying, to be interrupted.

"Okay, Rose, we won't push," Beth said firmly and
gave Maggie a look. "How's Ben taking the news that you aren't a model?"

"He seems fine with it. Like I told him, it was
just some silliness. I can't stop being a doctor. That much I've realized since
I've been here."

"Will you go back to Philadelphia?" Maggie asked.

"No, I won't. I'll have some news about what I'll
be doing when we have the celebration party."

"Aw, c'mon, tell."

Rose laughed. "You sound about ten years old,
mom-to-be. I need to talk with someone first."

"Ben, I bet," Maggie said, nodding wisely.

Rose didn't say that it was Doc Watson she was
thinking of talking to.

They all went to bed around midnight, Beth staying
over, too. Rose laughed upon hearing about Beth's first stay in the automated
house, when the room woke her up in the morning with blaring music. Maggie
showed them how to set the alarm at a more reasonable sound level in their
rooms.

As she fell asleep, Rose pondered on how much it
helped to be with family. It was definitely the right choice to stay in Sully
Point. The question of where Ben would be living would get resolved somehow.

Chapter 10

The morning light colored the white hospital
sheets as it filtered through a prism in the beveling of the window. Ben
glanced at it curiously, thinking how odd it was that a hospital had beveled
windows.

He felt a dull ache in his chest, but it wasn't
nearly as bad as yesterday's pain level. As he yawned widely, the nurse came
into his room with a pain pill.

"Don't worry. This one is much milder than the
pain meds you had before. It won't knock you out."

"Alright." He took the pill. "When will I see a
doctor?"

"Oh, Doc will be here in just a few minutes.
He's making rounds now, and I just saw him. Your Doctor Rose called a little
while ago and said she'd be in about now as well."

"Rose called you?"

"Yes. She didn't want to wake you up."

"Are all the doctors called 'Doc' around here?"

"Well, mostly it's just Doc Watson. We have others
that might be here as specialists, or when Doc goes on a vacation, but he's the
main doctor. Of course, there's the surgeon, the one who worked on you, but we
share him with another town's hospital. Now, what would you like for breakfast?
We can get you whatever you want."

Bemused, Ben asked, "Do you have pancakes? I feel
the need for something decadent like pancakes."

"I don't know how decadent they are, but sure, the
cook can whip them up for you in no time. What else? Something to drink?"

"Orange juice, some milk, those go well with
pancakes and syrup."

"Okay, I'll go put in your order. Doc should be
here soon."

As she walked out of the room, he thought he'd
never heard someone placing an order like they were in a restaurant, when in a
hospital.

"How're you feeling, Ben?" Doc said as he came
into the room.

"Much better. I'm surprised at how much better."

"You slept a lot and that helped. Plus, the wound
was very straightforward. How does the idea of a walk sound to you today?"

"I think I can do it. How long will I be in here?"

"That depends on how the walking goes," Doc said
with a smile. "First we'll have you sit in a chair, and then we'll do the walk.
If you handle those tasks okay, I'd say you might leave tomorrow. That is...if
you think you could go home with someone. I don't want you alone at this
stage."

Ben grinned at him. "You think maybe staying with
a doctor would fit the bill?"

Doc nodded and chuckled. "She's a very talented doctor, you know. She acted so swiftly when it happened, and did everything
perfectly, so that you were in much better shape than you might have been. The
surgeon, Danny Watkins, was impressed."

Ben noted the tone of satisfaction in Doc's voice
and knew right away that there must be some kind of medical rivalry going on
between them.

The nurse popped her head in the room. "The
pancakes will be on their way up in a few."

"Thanks!" Ben said.

"Pancakes, hmm? I might get me some of those, too.
Here, let me listen to you."

Doc bent toward him with the stethoscope and had
placed it on his chest, when Rose came into the room. Ben smiled at her.

Doc said, "Your heart rate just jumped." Then he
saw Rose and laughed. "That explains it." 

Rose had a bag with her and began pulling out
clothes for him to wear. He saw his pajama bottoms and top, and a t-shirt, with
slippers that looked new. Besides the clothing, there was her brother, Sam's,
latest book. From a smaller bag, she brought out a bag of cookies from the
Bakery, and a large coffee.

"Gimme!" he said, and waved at the coffee.

"Hush, let Doc finish."

After having him sit up and listening to his back,
and then listening more to his chest, Doc finally straightened up.

"You, my friend, are one lucky son-of-a-gun. No
problems that I can hear. I guess you can let him have the coffee, Rose. But
keep the cookies away. He's eating pancakes for breakfast."

"I'll have you both know that my cholesterol and
lipid numbers are excellent."

"Then let's keep it that way," Doc said. "All
right, I'll tell the nurses the plan for the day. The chair. A walk. Get
dressed. That should wear you out. I know you'll be well taken care of."

Rose smiled at Doc and said, "I want to talk to
you later, if that's okay."

"Sure, I'll be in the office this afternoon. See
you then."

Ben sipped the coffee and let out a sigh. "This is
just what I wanted. You know, Rose, this hospital is kind of strange."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Well they came and asked me what I wanted for
breakfast. My choice, whatever I wanted. And they hardly have anyone here, I
mean doctors."

"That's because there are very few patients in
this place. It's a small town."

"And then there's Doc's name. Doctor Watson? As in
Sherlock Holmes' companion?"

She laughed. "Sully Point does have its own
personality, that's for sure. I've heard that Maelynne, the local gossip, is
livid with Suzanne for lying to her. She hasn't said word one about you being
injured and all, but about the lies...everyone in town has heard about that."

"She's locked up still, right? Suzanne?"

"Yes, she is. I checked with the sheriff this
morning. The judge didn't allow bail, and now they are talking about moving her
out of town and into a secure psychiatric facility. Since she
attempted...murder...it's way beyond just stalking. There is a high-security
hospital for people who have done this kind of thing. I'm hoping they'll get
her moved today, but we don't know for sure yet."

Ben felt himself relax back against the pillows.
It was a huge relief to hear Suzanne would soon be gone.

"Doc says I might be able to go home tomorrow if,
that is, I can go to stay with someone. Do you think you might be willing to
have me stay with you?"