An Honest Kiss

Chapter 5

The next morning everyone was talking about the previous night's events and Addie was jealous. "I swear you just attract action."

"No not really," Rachel denied.

"You always seem to be bumping into Jack." Addie eyed her over her coffee cup.

"Yes, and I'm sure I'll pay for that fact later today." Rachel nodded her head towards Nurse Bowers who was looking at her and frowning.

Just then Addie's face lit up, and Rachel felt a charge shoot up her spine.

"Hey Jack," she greeted.

"Good morning Addie." He gave her a weary smile "You seem very upbeat this morning."

"Nothing beats a good night's sleep," Rachel said grumpily, very uncomfortable with Jack's close proximity as he sat down next to her. She was certain that every eye in the place was on them.

Addie must have guessed what Rachel was feeling because she hid her smile in her coffee cup.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were careful and had no concerns from last night."

"I'm fine Dr. Cooper. I wore gloves and had no open wounds anywhere on me." She didn't look at him. She could feel his weariness, and she wanted to give him a hug and take care of him.

He was a man who needed little sleep, and the few times she had seen him as tired as he was now was when he had been unable to save a patient. It was more than a physical weariness is was as if his soul was tired.

Jack's eyes met hers and for a moment there was total understanding between the two of them just like there had been during their marriage. Rachel willed him to see the empathy reflected in her eyes since she couldn't say anything or comfort him in anyway.

Jack's thoughts were a mystery as he shot Addie one last smile then rose and was gone.

"I don't think I have ever seen Jack tired before," Addie observed, and by the glances that followed him out of the cafeteria she guessed no one else had either.

If only she had been that lucky. It hurt her to see him hurt, it was that simple, and if she could take the pain from him she would. Even though he had crushed her heart, she still only wanted him to be happy. How pathetic can you be Rachel, she asked herself silently.

Despite, or maybe because of, her tender feelings for Jack her day was pure hell. She knew that Nurse Bowers had seen Jack single her out at breakfast, and she didn't doubt that she had heard about last night from Dr. Lancaster.

The result was that Rachel was given every miserable chore there was to do, and she was kept so busy she missed her lunch, so by the time her day had ended she was so exhausted she couldn't even contemplate staying awake for dinner, and she just went to her room and crawled into the bed. She fell asleep only to wake up too late to get anything to eat.

That night she was scheduled to move to the night shift. Rachel knew that generally there was a day off in between switching duty times, but it seemed that this was to be her penance.

Her stomach growled. Maybe she could beg for something to eat from of Mary. She had an hour before she had to report, so she quickly dressed and hurried towards the cafeteria, finding it empty except for the staff that was cleaning up after the dinner time rush.

"Mary?" she asked the young African boy who was mopping.

He pointed to the door that Rachel had seen her go through the day before.

Rachel pushed through the door to see Jack leaned up against one of the stainless steel counters with a plate of sandwiches and Mary hovering.

Her stomach growled loudly causing Mary and Jack to both look at her. He appeared to be over his exhaustion because as he looked at her he grinned. "Hungry?"