Winter is for Lovers (Bucky Barnes X OC) [Book 1]

2. I've Got a Crush on You

Rebecca was around a lot.

I mean a lot.

She was practically attached to my hip most days until I was in surgery. During surgery, there's no one but me, my team of residents and assistants, and the patient. There was nothing but the task at hand in surgery and where I was the most comfortable being. It was the place I longed to be in when I stepped foot inside the hospital every day, and it was the place I knew I needed to be.

Today, my main concern was an emergency pancreaticoduodenectomy, where I had to remove tumors from the head of the patient's pancreas and part of the bile duct, gallbladder, and small intestine, and then reconnect the remaining intestine. It's a newer procedure done only a handful of times within the last decade, and I've only ever done it once before. Nevertheless, it's an effective treatment for pancreatic cancer patients and helps keep them comfortable for a few more years.

It's possibly the most challenging surgery I've ever performed and will probably ever perform.

The patient was an older woman, her name was Meredith McCrory, and she had been battling cancer in her pancreas, though I don't think she ever knew. A few hours ago, she came into the hospital after her appendix burst and complained of severe stomach pain. Rebecca handed the case off to me right away, and I got her into an OR as quickly as I could, removing the appendix and then working on the pancreas.

It was the longest 8-hour surgery, and I still had a few hours of work left, so after I got Mrs. McCrory settled into her room to recover, Rebecca was right on my heels with a cup of coffee and heading to my office with me.

"How did the surgery go?" She asked, plopping down on the oversized lounge chair I had in the office corner as I sighed, sitting and propping my feet up on my desk.

"Long, but good," I said to her, scribbling down my post-operation notes. "There was a small bleed, but I found it. Other than that, it was standard."

"That's good," she said, looking around the office. "She seemed like a sweet lady when she came in."

"Yes, well, she's not out of the woods yet, I'm afraid," I said, finishing up my notes. "There's a good chance of complication after the surgery, so we have to observe her for the next few days."

"Right," she said, not so enthusiastically. She looked at a photo on my desk that was getting ready to fall off the ledge due to the amount of paperwork and notebooks I had on my desk, taking it into her hands to keep it upright.

"Is this your dad and brother?" She asked, showing me the photo.

The photo was of my father and brother standing on either side of me. We all beamed at the camera, myself holding a diploma from the university I graduated from before beginning my residency at the hospital. My brother, Edwin, stood at 6'2" with emerald green eyes and burnt orange hair, a few shades lighter than my auburn color. He was the spitting image of my father, down to the freckle, only with less gray hair and lines on his face.

"It is," I nodded, staring at the image.

She traced her fingers over their figures before putting it back on the desk.

"They're so handsome!" She gushed, "you look nothing like them."

"Apparently, I look more like my grandmother," I said to her, picking up a medical journal and reading it over. "I've never met her, but my father says that I take after my mother's side of the family... hair excluded."

We both chuckled, and she licked the top row of her teeth.

"Bucky looks just like my grandfather, which makes sense considering he's named after the man..." She said, her eyes opening wide as she came to a realization. "Oh God, that means I do too!"