"What do you mean, picked the surgeon that she did?" Her eyebrow rose with the emphasis of what she said. "We were put together by the Board of Directors."


David just smiled. "You do know that she is smitten with you, don’t you?"


"Yeah, right, that’s why she’s been seeing you. You’re a pompous ass if you don’t realize it. Why do you think that I had Rosie invite you up for that weekend of the Dinner?" Garrett glared at him. "It wasn’t to keep me company."


"Pompous ass? You think that you were doing me a favor?"


"Well, somebody had to take the bull by the horns. I’m just sorry that I didn’t stay out of it. I’m the one feeling responsible now that she’s…"


David looked at her suspiciously. "Now that she’s what?"


Garrett bit her tongue. It wasn’t supposed to come out this way and surely not from her mouth. "I just think that you’d show a little more responsibility in her favor."


"Responsibility for what?" He started to get angered by her vague accusations. "What did I do…try to show her a good time, take her out and go dancing with her?"


That was it. Garrett had had enough. There would be no more beating around the bush. "You’re the one that got her in that condition and you don’t even have a clue."


"What the hell are you talking about?"


"She’s pregnant." Garrett’s eyes locked into his and the icy cold of their gaze nearly froze him.


"She’s what? How could that be?" His face turned pale. "Why you don’t think that I…I had anything to do with it?"


The steel blue-gray eyes bore holes into his flesh as the lone eyebrow edged ever upward with her answer. "You’re a doctor, now what do you think?"


"Hey, I never…I never made it past her neck. How could I be the one that…" David sprang to his feet in his defense. "She told me she was…"


"What, on the pill?" Garrett now rose to her feet in defense of her friend.


"That she was a lesbian and I…"


That was all that David could get out before the large hand hauled off and struck him in the face. The smart of her knuckles grinding into the side of his face stung like crazy and it wasn’t long before the small trickle of blood came running from his nose. To say that it caught him off guard was an understatement.


Holding the side of his face, he shook his head trying to get the stars to stop spinning in front of his eyes. He wasn’t sure what had hit him, a Mack truck or the woman in front of him. David wiped his nose with his sleeve, the blood smearing across his face.


"Trivoli, you’re a fool. I don’t know what she ever saw in you to love you. I can’t believe that she could ever love you knowing that violent side exists."


"What do you mean, she loves me?"


"You heard me. She told me that herself when she was down here last month." David shook his head in disbelief. "You are a dense idiot, aren’t you? You don’t even believe it when it’s told right to your face."


"She couldn’t be…why she’s…she’s…"


"She’s in love with you. Head over heels, I might add." His voice was growing calmer and the major blow up was over. "If you don’t believe me, maybe you should ask her yourself." He watched as the tall woman worked her mouth, speechless at what had just been said.


She blinked several times as it all began to sink in.


"Surely, you must have known."


Garrett’s eyes darted around the room as the words were sinking further in. Her hands relaxed and the fists became undone. She carefully looked David in the eye and knew that there was truth in what he was speaking. It was then, that she saw the growing bruise on the side of his face and the telltale rings of discoloration around his eye. "I…" she cleared her throat. "You better get that checked out and get some ice on it." She bent down and picked up her toiletry bag from the chair. "I’m sorry." The surgeon spoke quietly then turned to leave. She needed time to think things out. Everything was just rushing at her like the wind in a hurricane.


Garrett wandered off down the hall and found herself standing in front of her call room. Producing the key from her pocket, she let herself in and sank down onto the bed. There she sat with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.


It only took a few minutes for her to feel as though the walls were closing in on her in that small room. The closer they came in her mind, the more her heart pounded, and soon she grabbed her belongings, and shoved them into the duffel bag. It was now or never, and she left the room striding, never minding to close the door. Off down the hall she bolted until she could feel the fresh air in her face as she walked out the hospital’s door.


Suddenly she found herself seated in her Blazer, staring into the night’s sky. She rolled down the driver’s window and sank down into the seat letting her headrest on the open window’s ledge. She watched the stars in the sky overhead and wondered about her own insignificant place in the workings of the universe. ‘Is this really where the fates deem me to be?’


The surgeon stayed like that for what seemed an eternity but was really only the batting of an eye in the scheme of the universe before she sat up and turned the key in the ignition to on. The powerful engine answered the call as the rough idle turned into a steady purr. She slipped it into gear and was ready to go.



* * *

The small blonde form lay curled up in her bed. Sleep was not as casually sought as it had once been and the lines were beginning to show on her forehead. How much longer could she go without sleep and still be able to function in her job was now her biggest concern. Perhaps a warm soak would ease the tension in her body.


Danni got up and headed to the bathroom to draw her tub. Within minutes, she was disrobed and slowly lowering her body into the soothing waters. There she lay, allowing the warmth of the water to leech out the aches and pains that had built up over the past few days. When the time had come that she could feel her eyes becoming heavy with sleep, she unstopped the bath water and reached for the large lush towel to dry off on. Raising her body up, she wrapped in the towel and proceeded to her bed.


Letting the bath towel slip from her body to the floor, she climbed in between the cool crisp sheets and found her somniferous mind to be filled with lecherous thoughts as she felt the bedding glide over her body. It was only minutes before sleep held her in its realm.



* * *

Ebbing somewhere between sleep and awake, Danni could feel the presence of another in her world and struggled to welcome it as though it had always been there, though just out of sight. Her eyes now opened to settle on the tall form standing in the doorway. The splash of back lighting from the hall kept the form in silhouette. The nurse’s body cried out with want as the form drew closer.


Before she realized it, the womanish form was next to her bed, kneeling down to get closer to her face. There, she heard the whisper that her heart had been longing for forever. In the soft tones of a voice filled with emotions, Garrett’s words came to her ear. "Danni, I love you."


The nurse reached out her small hand and cupped the cheek of her friend. "I know…I’ve known for quite sometime."


Danni stared into the soft silhouette of the face she’d gazed at in longing a hundred times before and felt the wetness of the single tear that rolled gently down its cheek. Capturing it with her thumb, she wiped it from the face and drew her nearer to her own. The long strands of hair fell loosely over her arm as the two bodies merged closer to their goal, the kiss, and the tie that would forever sustain their love.


Soft, moistened lips edged ever closer to their matched set until they touched in the firm sensual embrace that only lovers share. Their bodies were full of emotion and their souls longing to once again establish that searing energy that gave life to the spark of their passion. Each stood mesmerized in time by the other’s touch until they broke apart, gasping for the breath to continue on with their quest.


The heavily labored breathing was like a catalyst to their bodies’ desires as words rushed forward from one’s lips to the other’s ear.


"Garrett, I love you like no one else on earth."


"I want you to feel my love as it pours out of my very soul."


The surgeon lured Danni up from the bed with soft kisses that slowly pulled her to a sitting position, the covers falling away from the woman’s body. With Danni’s legs cast over the side of the bed, Garrett stood up before the nurse and straddled her lower limbs, bringing their bodies closer than before.


Reaching up under the loose fitting scrub top, the nurse let her hands roam freely over the taunt musculature of the woman before her. The soft touch made Garrett inhale deeply then exhale with the undertones of a moan in her throat as her head was thrown back to gaze at the darkened ceiling with closed eyes. The waves of sensation were coursing through her body to the point of making her weak in the knees and she felt herself come to rest against the bed. Soon she could feel the coolness of the room air on her body as the shirt was lifted over her shoulders. Lowering her body to assist with its removal over her head, Garrett found her unencumbered arms now wrapped tightly around the soft, warm body of the nurse and their lips once again finding the other’s.


The petite blonde now slipped her hands under the sides of the sports bra and slowly slid it over the fullness of breasts that it was used to support. The kiss was broken only long enough to remove the article of clothing from encumbering them any further. The excitement of skin touching skin was like an elixir to their souls and Danni sought more flesh to revel in. Untying the drawstrings of the scrub pants and loosening the material allowed it to glide smoothly down to where the surgeon’s knees rested against the bed. The only thing left now was the small amount of silky material that covered her most intimate assets. The stretchiness of the elastic in the boxers allowed for ease in their removal as first one leg was lifted and then the other stepped out of the gathering of clothes at her ankles.


The closeness of the two bodies became much like that of a dance as their presence was felt on the bed, each kneeling and leaning into the other. Hands and arms moved independently of the other as large expanses of skin were left tingling by each other’s touch. Words were at a minimum now with all of their efforts concentrated on the physical as one body rejoiced in the sensation aroused in it by the other. Danni was the first to succumb to the heady aroma as her mind became clouded with visions of passions from times long forgotten in her soul’s journey. Her body was held in Garrett’s strong arms as they laid her down into the soft bedding that nestled around her.


It was there in that warm soft cloud, that her nipples became hardened and tender to the touch of the long, sinewy fingers that plied them with caresses.


The nurse tried to form words in her mouth but with her first syllable, she heard instead the rich, soft tone of Garrett’s voice. "Not now my love. Let our actions speak for us both." And with that, the stage was set. No more words would fall between them, to be misunderstood or misconstrued, until their hearts knew what the other was feeling.


Soft kisses laced the expanse of warm flesh as each took turns with the other in this game of heightened sensual arousal. Garrett worked her way meticulously down nearly every inch of upper torso until it all had been covered. With nothing but the petite woman’s lower half left to explore, the surgeon eased her hands lower to just brush fluidly over Danni’s hips and cross over to her thighs. Immediately the alarms were going off in the young blonde’s head. Her blood pressure rising to heights never ventured as the ringing in her ears grew louder.


It was finally going to happen and Danni found herself rejoicing in the fact that her first, last and forever lover would be none other than Garrett Trivoli.


Her body’s alarms seemed to be going off consistently with a pattern of their own, not keeping beat with the passion that the two were moving with. Deep within the realm of her subconscious mind, Danni recognized the noise and found her right hand leaving the warm, sweaty body of her lover to reach for the phone on the nightstand. Tempered with the reality of their almost continuous state of being on-call for emergencies, Danni brought the phone to her ear.