Chapter 2 Part 3

Scarlet didn’t attempt to move, she couldn’t. She could see the anger in Stephan’s eyes, they were black with a ring of red around them. His body was rigid and his fists clenched at his sides.

Archie sat back in his seat and blocked her view of Stephan. Scarlet ran out of the coffee shop, she just wanted to make sure he didn’t misinterpret the situation. But when she got outside he was gone. She looked down the streets in both directions but there was no sign of him.

“Is there anything wrong?” Archie was hovering behind her.

Scarlet took a step to the side, away from him. It wasn’t in his best interest to be that close to her.

“I am fine.” She didn’t notice how loud she was shouting until the passer-bys turned to look at them. “I’m fine I just need to go home, alone.” She added the last part so that he would know that she didn’t need him to escort her. There was the off chance that Stephan was waiting for her at home.

She grabbed her bags and left in a hurry. Scarlet didn’t stop for anything until she got home. The door was still locked, that was a good sign. She breathed a sigh of relief when she walked into the apartment and found it as it was before, empty. Scarlet ruffled through her purse for her phone.

“Kayla.” She didn’t wait for her to respond. “Stephan was here and since you are the only one who knows where I live, you gave him my address.”

“Hold up Scar, I didn’t give him your address Nikki did.” Kayla squeezed in her defense.

“You told Nikki!”

“No, she listened in on us and she told Stephan.”

“Why would she do that?” she growled holding back a curse. “Like I even have to ask.”

“What happened?” Kayla’s voice was calmer now that she wasn’t being defensive.

“I was having coffee with an old friend and I spotted him through the window, glaring at me. He was so angry.” The memory of his eyes made her shudder.

“Male friend?” her question sounded more like an accusation than a question.

“Male. He is a friend from high school nothing more.” She recognized the defensive tone in her voice but tried to downplay it.

“Huh? Now we know why he is angry. I will call you when he gets back if he comes back.” Kayla wasn’t sure whether Stephan would come back home.

“What do you mean by if?” Scarlet needed him to still be home when she came back. She knew she was being selfish but Stephan had to be around when she brought their son home.

“I’ll call you if I hear from him. Just relax and take care of yourself, most importantly enjoy your first day.”

With all the drama of the last couple of minutes, her first day at GWH had slipped her mind. She had to drop everything that wasn’t related to it for now. She needed a successful first day.

“Thanks. Call me later?”

“Sure bye.”

Scarlet emptied the bags from the clothing store on her bed. She had to pick the right professional outfit, one that said working mum and not pregnant and alone. She settled for a long white dress shirt and loose black trousers. Comfort was important and at the rate, she was growing it suited her.

***

Scarlet woke up the next morning excited, she left the house without any breakfast. She wasn’t hungry although she couldn’t eat anything she had cooked the previous night. The hospital was only a couple of blocks away but she decided to take a taxi. Her body was getting too heavy for her feeble feet.

She checked in at the reception, the lady handed her off to one of the junior nurses who gave her a tour of the emergency room and the psychiatric ward. Once they had handed her the white coat, they put her on rotation with another student.

Scarlet was excited about getting in the flow of things and was especially excited to meet her attending. He or she was going to be her mentor for the year. Shape the kind of therapist she was going to be.

“Hey, my name is Scarlet.” She extended her hand to the student she was paired with.

She shook her hand with a firm grip, “Michelle. I am so excited.”

Scarlet realized how warm her skin felt against hers. She could also feel a steady rhythm where her fingers curled around her palm. It was strong and steady, like a pulse. Scarlet drew her hand back quickly. It wasn’t normal for her to feel that. She could feel Michelle’s blood pulsate in her veins. She swallowed hard and smiled sheepishly at the stunned girl.

“There you are.” Archie walked up in front of them. He was dressed in a white coat, a stethoscope around his neck, and clutched a white clipboard to his chest. He was also dressed in green scrubs.

Scarlet was stunned, she stared at him and didn’t say a word to him. She knew that he was smart but she didn’t think he would be an intern at a hospital, not yet.

But he wasn’t the one who spoke to them, beside him was a man adorned in the same white coat, he was a few inches taller than Archie and had short dark hair.

“Miss Mc Kyle?”

“Huh?” Scarlet pulled her attention from Archie and focused it on the doctor.

“I am Doctor Shee. I will be your attending psychotherapist for your duration in this hospital. Or for as long as your fellowships are viable.”

“I am Doctor Sinclair. I run the E.R.” Archie introduced himself to Michelle. He ignored Scarlet’s stunned gawk.

“What E.R?” Scarlet couldn’t help but ask. Archie was three or two years younger than her. She accepted the fact that being a high school senior at the age of fourteen did give him a head start but not that big of a head start.

“Doctor Sinclair gives me the referrals from the E.R. Trauma and unstable patients, he calls me for the authorization to bring them here to the psych ward,” she kept on talking, knowing very well that the only audience he had was the overly excited Michelle.

“Archie and I are going to give you a tour of the E.R. You will spend some of your time there giving consults. Archie?” Shee elbowed Archie in his side.

“Oh right, the tour. This way.” He stepped back to let the others lead and he walked beside Scarlet.

“When exactly were you going to share this Mr. E.R?” Scarlet stared at Shee’s back as they walked towards the elevator.

“Yesterday, but you took off before I could tell you.” he was wondering what had happened to make her run off as she did. “I found it faster to go through medical school if I took a heavy load. So I took six units instead of four and so I graduated a year early.”

“Smart guy.” Scarlet wasn’t surprised but she was in awe of him. “I could barely survive my first year.”

“Speaking of, how are you today? Yesterday was odd, one minute we are having fun then the baby kicks you and before I know it you were gone?”

Scarlet had tried her best to forget Stephan’s disaster of a visit, but now she couldn’t. “It was nothing, I was just tired.”

She walked faster to catch up with the other two, she had no intentions of continuing the conversation. And the last thing she needed is Stephan appearing in the hospital and finding her with him again.

They went around the E.R. Scarlet was surprised at herself, she was usually very squeamish about blood but this time she felt drawn to it. She got a feel of Archie’s job and how Shee got involved in it.

Scarlet spent most of her time with Doctor Shee and his patients and spent the other part of the day trying to avoid Archie. At the end of the day, he insisted to take her home disregarding her protests. Scarlet gave up and left with him, she didn’t speak to him on the way to her home. She didn’t want him to form any sort of friendship or relationship with her, it wasn’t in his best interest and Scarlet could do without the extra stress.

When they got to her building she grabbed her stuff and jumped out of the car without saying a word. She waved him off when he got out of the car to escort her.

***

When Stephan went back to San Francisco he didn’t go home. He couldn’t face the place he had called home with Scarlet the past year. He couldn’t bear to be in the room he had made love to her. The feeling of betrayal consumed him.

Stephan went to a car dealership. He had called the police to report his car missing telling them the last place he saw it was at the peer. They had promised to call the coast guard to fish around. He knew they would find it but in the meantime, he needed a new ride.

He bought a black Jaguar paying cash for it. He had been driving around California and no matter how far he went he always ended up close to home.

One night he parked his car at the edge of Red Wood and went for a run. He needed to clear his mind and the perfect darkness of the night was the best place to do it. He breathed in the night air and felt the cold wind blow past him as he ran.

The feeling of the damp ground under his paws was relaxing. At times he wished he could stay forever as a jaguar, but people were bound to notice an impossibly large black animal walking about the state. He growled up at the moon and headed back to his car.

Stephan found his car and clothes where he had left them. He sniffed a familiar scent in the air, he didn’t bother calling the culprit out. He pulled his pants on and leaned back on the car.

“How did you find me and more importantly what do you want?” His tone of voice was anything but friendly.

She came out from behind the tree and stood before him in full view.

“To answer the how the phone Xavier gave you has a beacon. It was the only way we could track your movements.” Nikki moved closer to him. “Then why, it’s because I care about you and I was worried after Scarlet called.”

Stephan took out the phone from his jacket pocket and crushed it in his hand, then tossed it to her.

He picked up his shirt and pulled it on. Somehow the why made him aware of his partial nudity. He had always known that she was attracted to him. He only entertained it in the past because she was helping him protect Scarlet. But now there was no Scarlet, so he wasn’t going to put up with it.

“Thank you, I appreciate your concern. You can go away now.”

“Are you dismissing me?” Nikki couldn’t help but feel angry and humiliated. “I am not the one who has been hiding things from you.”

She moved to his side and put her hand on his arm. He stared down at it then shrugged it off.

“Is that the reason why you were so willing to give me her address in the first place?” He turned his body to face her.

She took a few steps back from the way his gigantic body hovered over her making her feel intimidated.

“You thought that if I found her with another man I would immediately write her out of my life and you would take her place. You are pathetic.”

Nikki was stunned, that was not how she thought it would turn out but she decided to run with it. “I do not desire you in that way. I just wanted to be your friend because it seems you have run out of those lately.”

“I don’t need anyone.”

“And you call me pathetic. If Scarlet wanted to be with her kind you should let her. And maybe you should do the same.”

“I don’t have my kind.”

“But we are close enough. Half of you is.”

His temper seemed to have died down, so she confidently closed the gap between them.

“You need someone to trust, so please just let me.” She tucked his stray hair behind his ear.

Stephan caught her hand and pulled it away from him, then dropped it. “You need to go back home and I don’t mean Scarlet’s home. Back to Argentina where the rest of your kind lives. I have things that I have to take care of.”

“What do you mean? Let me come with you.”

Stephan didn’t answer Nikki using his word instead he got into his car and drove off, leaving her where she stood.

Nikki was furious, she didn’t know exactly what she expected when she came after him, but she certainly didn’t expect to be standing alone at the edge of a forest.

She turned around and headed back home. To Scarlet’s home. She knew he was going to turn up there sooner or later, he wasn’t going to stay away from Scarlet for long.