Choices

Chapter 11: You Continue To Surprise Me Madison

"How are you getting back home?" I come out of my bathroom after taking a shower and Lucas is still laying on my bed scrolling through his phone. His eyes meet mine and he shrugs his shoulders.

"When Drake and Zak get back home. They should be here before eleven." I throw my towel and dirty clothes into the washing basket in my room. I decided to put on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt on because I think Lucas won't be able to keep his hands to himself if I walked out in shorts.

I take a seat on the bed next to him and he locks his phone to give me his undivided attention. I push my hair back and his hand grips my wrist as he brings it closer to him and sits up properly. "What happened to your wrist?" I look to see that the finger marks from earlier are evident from when James grabbed me.

"I was treating a patient and he gripped onto my wrist a little too tight." I lie and I can tell he doesn't buy it.

"If someone hurt you, you should tell me. Especially if it wasn't a patient." He lets go of my wrist and I tuck a piece of hair behind my ears before I begin to play with my fingers. There is no way in hell I would ever tell Lucas about my conversation with James Lawson today, partly because I have a strong feeling that he will do something about it.

"Calm down. It's not like you're my boyfriend." I tease but part of me needs conformation of this. I don't want to define the relationship between us because I don't know how he feels about me and I would hate to be the one with stronger feelings.

"I'm not?" He questions with a raised brow.

"No, you didn't ask me." I turn around to face him.

"I had to ask? I thought we were just automatically dating." I give him a shove and he let's out a soft laugh. "I'm kidding, do you want to make this official?" He asks and I didn't expect him to give me the choice.

"No, you're not my type." I tease and he gives me a fake hurt look before he tackles me onto the bed and is hovering over my body.

"Well that's too bad because we've already come too far to go back." He says before placing his lips onto mine.

"You want me to order dinner?" He asks as I stand to my feet and walk towards the door.

"Or we can make food like normal people." I offer and he holds his hands up in defence as he stands to his feet also.

My phone buzzes on the counter when I put the pizza into the oven and I swipe right when I see Dean's name flash across the screen.

"Andrews?" I bring the phone to my ear as I close the oven door and Lucas sits at the counter paging through a magazine.

"I don't know what to pack for this assignment." I let out a soft laugh when I hear the stress in Dean's voice.

"Essentials. Clothes to sleep in, underwear and toiletries." Lucas looks up from his magazine and gives me a weird look.

"Jamie says we're carpooling tomorrow. I'll fetch you guys in the morning." It sounds easier than all three of us driving to the hospital in separate cars.

"Don't be late. I think the Chief would kill us if we were late." I say and he agrees before hanging up.

I slide onto the seat across from Lucas and he closes the magazine. "You're headed somewhere without telling me?" He raises a brow and I roll my eyes at his words.

"We're doing a retreat at the hospital for the residents and we are practically going to live there for three days." As the words leave my lips the crazier this entire thing sounds, I can't believe the Chief thinks that this is a good idea.

"Were you going to tell me or just disappear for three days?" He sounds angry and I didn't think it was something he needed to know, we basically defined our relationship an hour ago.

"You are to not come to that hospital during these next three days Lucas." I warn and he gives me an offended look.

"You're telling me I'm not allowed to see my girlfriend for three whole days?" The word girlfriend sounds so strange coming from his mouth. However, it does make me smile.

"You can wait three days Lucas, I just want to get through these three days as quick as possible." I mentally groan as the words leave my lips because I can't see anything good coming from the next three days.

"You know that nobody calls me Lucas right?" He teases with a smile.

"Is Lucas not your name?" He rolls his eyes at my words and shakes his head.

"You continue to surprise me Madison." He says with a smile and a smile makes it's way to my face.

At around nine I retire to my room and lay down as Lucas removes his shoes before getting into bed with me. "Did I say you're allowed to sleep here?" I turn around to face him as he slides into my bed and gets under the covers with me.

"Am I supposed to sleep in Brooke's bed?" He teases and I swat his arm as he grabs me by my waist and pulls me closer to him. "You know I've never been someone's boyfriend before." He says as I pull away and give him a suspicious look.

"The infamous Lucas Parker has never dated before?" I ask and he sakes his head before placing a kiss on my lips.

"Never. I don't even know how this is supposed to work." He gestures between the two of us and I lean into him and inhale his familiar scent.

"Have you ever dated before?" He stupidly asks and I chuckle against his chest.

"I have. Once or twice. There's nothing special about it." The truth is that I've never experienced something real or worth holding onto in those relationships and in this moment it scares me because I'm unsure if I will find something worth holding onto in this relationship.

The next morning when I woke up to my alarm Lucas was gone. He probably left when Zak and Drake got back but I was already out, I didn't even hear them come in. When I leave for work Drake is still asleep, I managed to pack a bag this morning because I completely forgot about it last night. I'm the first one that Dean fetches and when Jamie gets into the car her eyes meet mine. I offer her a smile, I want to tell her that everything is fine but I don't want to have to explain to Dean the real story.

When the three of us enter the hospital Dean is an absolute gentlemen and offers to carry our bags, I grab Jamie by the arm and halt her steps. "I sorted everything out. James won't be a problem anymore." She gives me a curious look and I give her a smile.

"What did you do?" She asks with a frown.

"Let's just say he's not the only one who can go around black mailing people." I say with a smirk.

"Now come on, let's go get these three days over and done with." I take her hand in mine and pull her towards the direction of the entrance.

Everybody is in the residents locker room when we arrive and Jake slips in right before the Chief and Peterson can walk in. "Good morning." The Chief says with a smile. "Today your groups will be Prince and Black." His eyes drift to Jamie to be more specific as to which Black he is talking about. I see Jamie let out a breath of relief and I know she's relieved she didn't get James.

"Evans and Black." Jake slides beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. "Lawson and Andrews." Dean's eyes meet mine and Lawson doesn't look impressed to be partnered up with Dean. "There's been a fire down town all burn victims will be arriving in five, get ready and meet me down in two." He walks out the room and Peterson stays behind and gives us all a look.

"Remember, no bullshit. Lives are in your hands and you lose a life due to your ignorance, you lose this residency." I've never heard him cuss in all my twenty six years and his eyes stay set on James before he turns around and follows Saxton out the room.

We're all ready and paired up when we arrive down to Trauma and it's nothing like I've ever seen before. The stench of burnt skin fills that entire space and victims are being wheeled in by the paramedics and taken to different beds. "Evans and Black bed 9, Andrews and Lawson bed 4, Prince and Black bed 1." The Chief yells over the chaos and we all follow through with his orders.

Bed nine is by far the worse patient I've ever seen. The man lays there trying to fight off a nurse and his arms, neck and face is burnt.

"Third degree burn." Jake whispers from beside me and I race over to the man to hold him down. His brown eyes meet mine and I'm careful not to push on him too hard because he must be in tremendous pain.

"My kid. I have a kid. She was in the apartment when the fire department pulled us out." He grabs onto my hand and I see the pain in his eyes. "Please find her. Kylie, her name is Kylie Stewart." He pleads and his eyes flutter before his heart beat slows down on the monitor.

"Black, we need a crash cart in here now." I yell as I try to perform CPR on the man.

"Stand back." He places the paddles down on either side of his chest and I hold my hands up.

"Charge to two hundred." His heartbeat returns and Jake lets out a breath of relief as Doctor Lawson walks in.

"Third degree burns, take him down to the OR he needs a skin graft and give him IV fluids this burn probably caused him to lose fluids." He snaps and Jake is already on it. "Evans get me Brady and tell him that there's a woman in bed 4 with a broken leg." I nod and race off to find Brady.

I find Jake in the hallway near the OR, he's crouched down on both knees talking to a little girl. His hands are on her shoulders and she is looking around like a lost puppy, instantly I know who she is. Kylie Stewart. "Your dad is fine. He's in surgery. He asked us to keep you safe until he is out of there." I walk over to them and hear Jake assure her that her dad is fine. His grey eyes meet mine and I offer him a smile.

"Give me a second." He stands to his feet and walks over to me. "Evans get in there he is crashing and Lawson needs all hands on deck. I'll wait out here with her." He says and I give him a nod. The last thing both Jake and I need right now is telling a little girl that her father is dead. "Kylie, you know what's the best thing about this hospital?" He asks and she shakes her head as she wipes the tears which roll down her cheeks. "The double chocolate chip cookies from the vending machine. You want a bag?" Just like that she is distracted and Jake gives me a thumbs up before walking down the hall. In that moment I can't help but imagine what an amazing Ped's surgeon Jake Black would make.

It took a good three to four hours in surgery with Andrew giving us many scares when his heart stopped beating numerous times. However, he pulled through and that breath of relief that left my lips when the surgery was over was worth it. I find Jake in the waiting room, sitting on the couch with Kylie's head on his lap and sleeping peacefully. I give him the thumbs up and he lets out a breath of relief as he slowly moves and places her onto the couch before walking over to me.

"A fireman was here a few hours ago asking about the dad. Apparently the mother and father had a meth lab in the apartment and the mom's been arrested. The cops are waiting around to question the father. The kids grandmother is on her way to fetch the kid." My eyes widen in shock as the words leave his lips. Andrew doesn't look like someone who has a meth lab in his apartment but then again people aren't who you think they are. Appearances are nothing compared to what a person truly is.