Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,7

of the ground floor—hours after I should’ve already been home. I’d stayed back to see Seb’s X-rays … Not that I’d had to, and not that he’d known about it. I was confident in my diagnosis of a sprained wrist, but I couldn't leave before I knew for sure he wasn’t suffering from a fracture that needed to be set.

As soon as the results came in clear, my tiredness, crankiness, and hunger really set in, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted.

Inside my unit, I shook off my shoes and started to strip before a stifled cough made me jump. My brother, Braxton, sat on the ottoman with a grin stretched from ear to ear, while Eli was in the kitchen at the far end of the open-plan living area, rooting through my fridge.

“Privacy?” I scowled. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were constantly in each other’s spaces. Personal space meant nothing here. I usually loved how close we were, but after twelve especially bloody hours at work and not a single candy bar in my belly, I wasn’t in the mood for company. And my head was still stuck on Sebastian. Stuck on his case. Not on him. On. His. Case.

“You’re way too late for chicken and waffles, Derek.” Braxton licked his fingers and moaned like he could still taste the maple syrup.

“Yeah, big shift at the hospital today.” I picked up my shirt from where I’d tossed it on the floor and threw it at my youngest brother. My aim was way off, but he caught it before it flew over his shoulder.

He took one sniff of it and gagged then tossed it back at me. “I’ve got something for you.”

“And I’ve got some food coming up.” The kitchen island was covered with ingredients, and Eli was fishing a skillet from the rack above the stove when Uno, his German Shepherd, bounded out from behind the counter and rushed to say hello to me.

I gave her a cuddle then collapsed onto the couch and grunted something I hoped sounded like appreciation, while Braxton fished through his bag, and Uno rested her chin on my knee for more pats. Brax chucked a rolled-up shirt at me, and I let it slap against my chest before I unraveled it and admired the intricate hand-painted design of figures and symbols.

“You like?” His voice quivered. My heart panged whenever my little brothers looked to me for approval, even now when they were all grown.

“Very cool.” It was. Braxton was the baby of the brothers at only twenty-four, working as an artist, and the only one of us who wasn’t on the frontlines. He’d been designing his own clothing recently and this one looked like a work of art I could hang on the wall.

“Batik technique from Indonesia, but I used some ideas from Japanese and European folklore. Kind of a mishmash. Like me.” He was of Caucasian and Asian descent…and that was as specific as his record in the foster system got when it came to background details on his heritage.

“I love it.” My enthusiasm hadn’t fared well in the last few minutes, and I yawned when I should’ve smiled.

Brax frowned. “Uh, sure. It sounds like you hate it.”

Uno nudged my hand for more affection, and I could barely keep my eyes open as I stroked her fur. “Sorry, Brax. I just had a long shift.”

“I haven’t seen you this drained for years.” Eli tied his long dark hair up into his signature bun and threw a handful of garlic into a pan sizzling with oil. “Tough cases? Tougher than usual, I mean…”

“Mm. Lots of trauma… The usual. One was a bit tough on me personally though, I suppose.” I pushed Uno’s ears back and scratched her chin. Tough because I knew he’d be back with more bruises, more injuries he would explain with falls and accidents. I’d seen worse cases, this shift even, but his stuck with me. “Younger guy came in with a sprained wrist and bruises on his arms. You know…” We all knew. The foster care system was fraught with “accidents.”

They each nodded silently. We’d all seen it before. The shit I’d experienced in foster care was part of the reason why I went into medicine, to do my best to intervene in the cycle of abuse.

Not that it was that easy. When I aged out of the foster system at eighteen, I wanted to go into healthcare. As a mid-level basketballer with good grades,