A Billionaire in Shining Suit (TBB 4)

Aftermath

Chapter 6 - Aftermath

KARINA HART

Karina clutched her head as she sat up on the bed. Fuck, everything seemed to be moving. She pushed her legs down and placed a hand on her belly.

 She couldn't stop the puke that moved up her system ad ran over to the bathroom. She sat there on the tiled floor for a minute as she seemed to have no strength to pull herself. 

 Somehow, she gripped the edge of the basin and pulled herself up. She looked at herself in the mirror and almost let out a screech. Her hair was a big mess, all curled up and tangled. Her eyes seemed swollen and her face didn't look like her own but like a vampire, all pale and sick.

Washing her face and brushing her teeth, she ran towards the night stand where she had found a hairband. Pulling her hair in a bun, she walked down the stairs. It seemed as if somebody was pounding her head with a hammer, a damn big one at that -pretty hard. 

 "Hangover?" she heard Zach's familiar gruff voice. He was sitting upright with his back against the armrest, his legs outstretched in front of him with laptop on his lap. 

 She grimaced and dropped down on the sofa. His feet mere centimeters away from her. 

She closed her eyes, resting her head on the backrest when she felt a big warm hand on her shoulder.

She opened her eyes to a big glass of something so green she wouldn't even touch it much less drink it.

"What's that?"

"Hangover drink. Lily used to make me one every single time when I woke up with a damn bad headache."

"I wouldn't even touch it with a ten foot pole." She glared at the drink.

"You don't have to touch it with anything. You have to drink it. Pinch your nose and gulp it down." He said wryly

"If it upsets my stomach, I'm going to throw up on you" 

With a tentative motion she took the glass from him and did as he said.

Five minutes later there was no indication that she could've been puking her guts out. No headache, no nausea. It was all gone.

"That's awesome."She said as she bounced in her seat

"I know." He said as he snatched the glass from her before she could break it in her excitement

"What was that?"

"You don't need to know."

She pursed her lips and he placed his palm on his chest.

"I'll die with this secret."

"Okay."She rolled her eyes. "Enough of your melodrama."

He chuckled and placed the glass on the coffee table and went back to frowning at his laptop.

  Zach's phone suddenly started to ring.

He looked at the caller ID and smiled.

"Hey, baby. Miss me?"

Karina frowned at the way his whole face lit up. Hadn't he just kissed her yesterday?

She was sure her whole face went bright red when the memories of the night before came rushing back to her.

"Shit." She whispered and buried her face in her hands.

"And here I thought you loved me." He gave a mock sigh. "You wound me." He sniffed but he was trying to stifle the laughter.

He handed his phone to Kari and she looked up at him, confusion written on her face

"Hello?" She started.

And then a familiar voice boomed through.

"Hey you. Where are you when I need you?". He said and She chuckling.

"Now don't belt out the song."

Dave laughed. "I miss you Miss Snarky. Where are you? I can't handle everything here. I hate clinic duty, you know that."

"As if you do any clinic duty. I know you just handed over those files to Pierce."

"Smartass." He retorted. Then suddenly his tone went all serious.

"I got a case Kari."

"What is it?" .

"That's what I want you to find out."

"Symptoms?"

Kari found it easy to forget everything while she jotted down every symptoms that Dave mentioned.

"Gimme a minute."

Snatching Zach's laptop she jotted down every single thing Dave had mentioned.

"Check the levels of sodium, potassium, cortisol and ACTH in his blood."

"Addison's?"

"I bet.."

"Should I give him hydrocortisone?"

"If the blood tests prove me right then yes."

"You got it boss."

She rolled her eyes.

"Listen, it's gonna be a while for me. I'd suggest you hire someone else in my place."

"While you're there, I bet Pierce can handle it here. When I have my doubts, I'll call ya. But your position here is staying vacant until you come back. You get me?"

"Yes boss." She smiled. Who knew Dave would be such a sweetheart.

She heard the beep beep of the pager and she knew Dave had to leave.

"Good. Listen I gotta go. I -"

"Thanks Dave. Go save a life." .

With that she hung up.

Zach took back the laptop Ana frowned at the words.

"What kind of language is this?"

She chuckled.

"Never mind." He shook his head and shut down his laptop.

"Listen. Um, last night - "he started and she cut him off mid sentence.

"Yeah about that. It's okay. I was drunk and I shouldn't have initiated that. It was a mistake. "

He scowled at her "A mistake?"

"Yeah. I mean I get that I was high on adrenaline after the fun we had. Add the number of Cosmos I had last night, I was bound to lose my filter. I'm so sorry to come onto you like that. I wasn't thinking clearly. So can we just forget the last night ever happened. Please?"

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- Nami