Just The Way You Like It - Under Construction

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Now Dr. Hansen was stuck. Not fifteen minutes ago he had practically forced Alice to commit to going outside with him, and now he couldn't back out. But, with his one and only on-staff nurse called to the ER, there was no one but himself to get Alice dressed. It was normal for the ER to pull the ICU nurses. Currently, Alice was the only patient in the ICU ward; being such a small town had its perks. And besides, most new ICU patients went through the ER first. So, it only made since to pull the ICU nurses when the ER got busy. If the patient could leave the hospital after being discharged from the ER, no harm no foul. And, if the patient needed to be admitted to the ICU, then the ICU nurse was already in the ER to help handle the paperwork and the physical moving of the patient. The system actually worked quite well. Until now.

Blake began to chastise himself. He had seen enough naked women in his years as a doctor. Why should this be any different? But this was different; this was Alice. He knew she was staring at him, and he thought he was probably just making maters worse by staring back. Finally, he took action. Putting his unread case file to the side, Blake began sifting though the pile of clothes Nurse Tess had left for Alice. The local churches always donated gently used clothing to St. Micheal's for patients to wear home. It was quite often that a patient's clothes had to be cut off in order to tend to wounds and injuries. Blake wasn't much of a fashions expert, but he wanted desperately to find something nice for Alice to wear.

Finally deciding on a thick off-white cashmere sweater and a pair of jeans that he hoped would fit, Blake set upon the task of getting Alice dressed. He slowly began shutting down the machines that were monitoring and feeding Alice. Carefully, he detached the IVs and wires that were in Alice's arms. In doing so, he couldn't help but touch her. Her skin was so delicately soft and warm. And without realizing it, he was inhaling, trying to smell her skin. She smelled like the hospital's lotion, which before, he hadn't much cared for. But now, Blake thought it smelled divine. It suited Alice, smelling of flowers on a rainy spring day. He loved that lotion now.

After getting Alice unhooked, he pushed a button on the side of her bed, sitting her up in place for him to undo the back of her hospital gown. Why hadn't he just gone outside alone? This was maddening. All he had wanted to do was take Alice outside, apologize, and lay down the rules about oogling you doctor. Now he was oogling her.

As he began untying the strings that held her gown in place, Blake tried to force his mind elsewhere. He almost succeeded too, until he reached the last knot, the one inches away from Alice's buttocks. The stupid knot was too tight! He had to focus to keep his hands from trembling. Trying to untie this all too tight knot, he couldn't help but look at Alice's backside. Her perfectly formed butt peaked out at him through the slit in her gown. Just like the rest of her body, it too had the signature scars of her former abusers. But, it was still perfect, making it hard for Blake to concentrate on the knot only inches away.

Finally, he managed to untie the last strings that held her gown together, and now was the moment of truth. Blake reminded himself that he was a doctor, and began to help Alice pull the gown off. She still had the blankets from her bed to cover her bottom half, but once the gown was removed, her top half was exposed for all the world, including Blake, to see. The photos from her case files had prepared him a little, but not enough.

Lash marks were imprinted across her chest, on her stomach, and arms, and they criss-crossed each other everywhere. Most of the scars were now faint silver lines, but a few were still a rosy shade of dark pink. Some were long, others shorter than an inch. In a few places Dr. Hansen thought he saw the tell-tale marks of cigarette burns. Dr. Blake could easily tell which scars were made by the surgeons and which one had been made by her abusers. He didn’t fully understand why, but somehow Blake didn't care about them. It wasn't that he didn't care what had been done to Alice, he did. But he easily looked right past those scars and saw the beautiful woman underneath. He stopped fooling himself long enough to come to the realization that she was stunning. If Blake worshiped Greek gods he thought, this would be Aphrodite laying in his ICU.

Snapping back to reality, he saw Alice had pulled her arms up over her perfectly formed breasts, covering them as best as she could. “Alice, you have nothing to be ashamed of.” Blake managed to croak out.

“I'm not ashamed, I'm cold.” Blake now saw Alice shivering, and quickly helped her get the creme colored sweater on. It took a few minutes and a lot of patience, but they finally managed to get her into it. The sweater was a touch big for her, but Blake thought she wore it well. It was thick cashmere that made Alice finally look like an adult, but it also made her more dangerous. Seeing Alice in actual clothing was making it that much harder for Blake to think of Alice as a patient.

They repeated the process with the jeans. The same scars lines laced up and down her inner and outer thighs making Blake want to punch something. No one deserved that kind of abuse, and Blake was furious that Alice had to be one of them that had received it anyway. Even more reason to hurry this up and go outside. This day was not turning out at all the way Blake had expected. Once they had her jeans on, Blake rushed out the door and retrieved the wheelchair, bringing it in back to Alice's bedside. He easily lifted Alice out of her bed and again thanked himself for the tri-weekly trips to the gym.

Alice wrapped her arms around Blake's neck as he lifted her up, and again he could smell her soft skin. He was having a hard time focusing, and mentally berated himself for not thinking like the doctor that he was. Gently, Blake set Alice down in the wheelchair and grabbed one of her bed pillows, sliding it behind her back for comfort. Putting on a pair of socks and sneakers Tess had left in amongst the pile of clothes, Blake then grabbed a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around Alice for extra warmth. “You comfy?” It was all Blake could manage to squeeze out of his tight throat. Alice only nodded her approval, and Blake could see she was starring at the door to her room with a look of absolute fear on her face. “Wait here, I'll be right back.”

Blake quickly dashed out of Alice's room, and ran to the now empty nurse's station. He picked up his coat and dug into its pockets. Finding just what he was looking for, he ran back to Alice. He tossed his trench coat on over himself before handing Alice his pair of sunglasses. Alice beamed at the sight of them. She quickly put them on and gave Blake a genuine smile before determination set in across her now sheltered face.

“Are we ready then?” Blake asked, this time filled with excitement after seeing Alice truly smile for the first time. Again Alice nodded her head, and with that they were off. Blake pushing Alice out to the scary world outside the hospital doors. Alice determined to make this day the new start to her new life.