Finding Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book One

Chapter 7. Haunted*

Chapter 7. Haunted by Evanescence

Rosie had seen the sleek black car pull out of the ambulance bay after Emil had dropped Evan off. She was waiting in front of her desk with a huge grin on her face.

"Who was that? Are you holding out on me, Evan? You have a sugar daddy you haven't told me about?" Rosie asked expectantly, hoping she had actually found someone. She felt Evan spent too much time alone.

Evan blushed, and became flustered. She was not used to answering questions like this, as she did not usually have anything exciting going on in her life.

"No, Rosie, I'm not holding out on you. That was Mr. Drozdan. You know, the guy who brought in that boy last night. He kind of came to my rescue this morning on my way home, I missed the bus. And, um, well, he offered to give me a ride, because of the ice tonight. He was only being nice," Evan answered evasively. She knew how it would look to someone on the outside, like she was playing into the hands of a stalker. She decided that she did not feel afraid of Emil, as she should a stranger. But he was a stranger. Rosie's look said, 'Yeah, sure', but she didn't say a word.

"Gotta run, Rosie. How does the board look?" Evan said, wanting to get her night started.

"Well, you know, typical icy weather stuff: falls, broken bones, bumped heads and sore butts," she said, shaking her head as if she thought people would eventually learn how to deal with ice in the Midwest.

"Great! It'll keep me busy at least. I hope people stay off the roads; I don't need a huge car crash tonight. This night won't end soon enough." Evan blushed again. She was excited for more than one reason. Sure, it was time for her three days off, but she had to admit she was excited to see the stranger with whom she was beginning to feel so comfortable with.

Evan could kick herself, she knew better than to hope against something. She knew that when you thought of something you didn't want, it was as if you thought it into being. Shortly after midnight, after rushing around setting broken limbs, and stitching cuts from falls, the EMS dispatcher called in a three-car pileup on I-70. The entire ER went on alert and prepared for the eight victims being brought in.

She worked for several hours on three of the victims. Two were dead on arrival, so she just had to pronounce them. Three of them had only minor injuries. Once the last of the trauma victims was transferred to the Trauma Intensive Care Unit, Evan told Rosie she was going to take a break. She had a pager if she was needed.

Her first stop was to check in on Nathan from the night before. It was the middle of the night, but she simply wanted to see how he was doing. Checking in at the nurses station, she was pleased to see his vital signs were normal on the monitor. She walked by his room and peeked through the curtain, and saw him laying on the bed watching television, and his mother asleep curled up next to him. She was wrapped around her boy, as if trying to protect him even in her sleep. She did not want to draw attention to herself, but as she moved away, his gaze flicked to her.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Hi, Nathan," she answered and tiptoed closer so she did not have to raise her voice to be heard. "How are feeling?"

"I'm okay," he answered. "Did you put all the stitches in me?"

Evan smiled, and said, "No, only the ones on your face."

He reached up and lightly fingered the lines on his cheeks. "Oh."

"Try to get some sleep, Nathan. I'm glad you are getting better," she said and left the trauma unit to go back toward the ER.