it would be better for her if we stayed."
Robert wanted to grin at the slightly confrontational tone that the man - Seth Carter - had just used. He didn't, of course.
"You see anyone asking you to leave?" Robert turned his attention back to his patient.
He could tell by looking at her that Jayne was a little slow to process the situation. Totally understandable, under the circumstances. "Wound...my roses? My beautiful roses?"
"That is a very pretty tattoo you have there, sweetie. Don't you worry, that piece of lead didn't make a mess of it. I promise."
"'Kay. Good."
"Even if it had, baby, you know I'd fix it."
Robert looked from the artwork to the man. "You do good work, Mr. Carter. And so do I."
"Big brother here earned his stripes as a trauma surgeon at one of Chicago's busiest hospitals," David Jessop said. "He's good."
Seth Carter nodded. He still held his son, who'd fallen fast asleep on his shoulder, and hovered over Jayne as if he would kill rather than be parted from her.
Robert definitely understood that level of devotion.
Jillian came back into the exam room just then, pushing one of the office chairs. He and David adjusted the stretcher Jayne was on to make room for it.
"Here, Mr. Carter. You sit down and take a load off."
"Thank you." Seth sat and seemed to relax the slightest little bit.
Robert met Jillian's gaze for just a moment. When she smiled, and nodded, he turned his focus back to the matter at hand. "The X-ray shows us the bullet didn't go deep. It hit a rib and stopped." He pointed to the single negative on the display box. It had been a simple matter to wheel the stretcher down the hall for the diagnostic procedure and then back again. "The bullet was a small caliber, which is a blessing. But you lost a lot of blood, Jayne, and that's what made you lose consciousness. That's why you'll be on IV for at least the next twelve hours. I'll use local anesthetic to dull the area, then pull out the bullet and stitch you up." He looked at Seth. "You ready?"
"Me?"
Robert grinned. "Yeah, you." He nodded toward Jayne who'd closed her eyes again and appeared to be sleeping. "Your lady isn't going to feel a thing. You, on the other hand..."
Seth almost laughed. "Yeah, I'm ready."
Robert stepped forward and got to work. He gave Jayne Sheridan the local anesthetic, and she didn't do more than murmur in discomfort. Even that much, to Robert's way of thinking, was too much.
He worked quickly, his experienced eye noting the damage, all things considered, was really fairly minor.
Carter sighed audibly when the extracted bullet hit the metal bowl on the table with a clank. David immediately used tongs to set the slug into a small plastic zippered bag. He wrote on it, citing date and time and location.
Robert knew that Adam was waiting inside the doorway to receive that piece of evidence.
"How's Julian doing?" he asked of his cousin. Julian Alvarez had been rushed into exam room two, cursing the whole way. Apparently - according to that man's epithets - getting shot hurt like hell. Robert fought a grin. Who knew?
"Julian?" Jayne turned her head to look at Seth. "I think he helped us, didn't he?"
Seth reached out and stroked her head. "Yeah, he helped us. He's fine, baby. He just got a little chicken scratch, is all."
Adam scoffed. "I send Peter off on recon to protect him from getting shot and what happens? The other Alvarez takes a bullet."
Robert chuckled because his cousin Adam sounded so disgusted.
Adam stayed by the door of the room, not coming in, and continued his story. "Peter arrives back at the airfield just in time to see Jayne and his brother being loaded into the EMT's truck, and he tears a strip off me for getting his brother injured. Hell, it was just a graze."
"Must run in the family," David said. "That whole getting-shot thing."
"Yeah, that's what I said, too, after I assured him that it had all been nothing more than 'a little dustup.'" Adam sighed. "Sunday dinner is so going to suck for me tomorrow."
That might be so, but Robert noted Adam seemed a lot more settled than he had been the last time he'd come to the clinic on official business.
"Anyway, Dr. James said Julian is fine." Adam snickered. "Of course, he had to administer a shot in the ass before he pronounced that to be so."
"Yeah, that dad does love