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"Matthew is seeing a patient," Carol said, sounding exasperated "I’ll only be with Mr Graylink a moment You’ll be with me Then Doc will see to him"

"No, Carol Darien would have my head on this" He said to North, "Sorry Please take a seat again in the waiting area Mattheill be with you in athe doc can do but order ht as well go home"

"What are your sy way she spoke to him

"Carol," Tom said, exasperated

"If he has a sinus infection, he needs to be on antibiotics," she said firmly

"And Matthew can take care of it" Tom wouldn’t back down, but neither would Carol

North waited, sweat beading on his forehead

Carol’s gaze shifted, her brows furrowing "Have you had a fever?"

"One-hundred and one," North lied He’d had a fever, but it was low grade and had vanished by the previous ht I didn’t have one this , headache, earache" Which was true

"Coet your blood pressure and telowered at North In response, North atte Despite feeling lousy, he could still ly "Come with ave her a look like he could throttle her She ignored him North hid a smile

When they entered the room, she motioned for hi to question him about his symptoms Tom watched him like a predator would, and North wasn’t sure he could overcome Tom and Carol before the alarm was shouted

Hell, he was here, and it was his show Without further hesitation and with a well-ai, he hit Tom with a hard-knuckle fist in the cheek Tom stumbled back, crashed into the exam table, and swore

Carol screamed, and North knew he had no chance to take her now Still, he jerked a syringe out of his coat pocket, but to his amazement, she pulled one from her scrubs pocket, too For a moment, they stared at each other, hypodermics readied like tords

Then he dodged out of the room, shoved aside the male nurse headed for the room, tore down the hall past a startled Dr Weber, and dove through the back door before a guy in a red-and-white-striped jacket could even get up froht, To horrible about the whole affair

He tossed her an angry look

"I’ll… get an ice pack"

When she returned to the exa sheepish, Christian, who had abandoned his guard post in the waiting area too late to have been of any service, and Mervin stood in the dooratching theoing to be pissed at the lot of theet so close to Carol and then letting hilowered at her "He wasn’t huretful

Doc cleared his throat "That was North, a red fro hunter’s scent I didn’t sht he was supposed to be watching you" The inference was that he wouldn’t have let anyone near Carol like Tom and the rest had

She felt bad, too If she hadn’t insisted on seeing to the patient, wanting to prove that she could still see hu so that they would allow her to be a nurse like she should be, Tom wouldn’t have been hurt and in trouble with his eldest brother Jake would be just as annoyed with hiured And Ryan also

Matthew poked his head in "Got a case where the boy probably needs to be referred to an orthopedic surgeon in Denver, Doc"

Doc gave Carol a hard look that reminded her she was one of the pack and had to obey rules "I’ll see to hiuards "Mervin, return to your post Christian, stay outside the exa like a lupus garou failure, Carol worked for threeto one sick patient after another, but she couldn’t help worrying about Ryan and about To with another gray feh she didn’t want hi hi iven in the spirit of wanting to help others in need

She realized then that he was si intopersons or ard spouses or insurance fraud As theto provide his people with a better way of life

She glanced out the een patients as Christian sat outside her exauard, while inside the roo at her and was resigned to his fate, but she hated seeing where the red had struck him, a reminder to her that not everyone could be trusted, sick or not

"Ryan will be all right," Tom finally said