Your Healing Touch

Chapter 29

Jasmine

"Have you seen Dr. Patterson today?" I asked Angela as she was walking toward me.

When I came back to work after my weekend off I hadn't seen Dr. Patterson at all.

"Nope," Angela answered, making a popping sound as she emphasized the 'p.'

"Hmm, that's weird. She's always here," I mused.

Turning my head back and forth to look down the hall way again, I still didn't see her. I decided to go to ask the charge nurse what was going on. She'd given no update on Dr. Patterson this morning.

"Maria," I found her at the nurse's station. "Where's Dr. Patterson?"

She frowned at me before answering. "She didn't call off so I honestly have no idea why she didn't show up today." Maria shook her head as she shuffled through some papers in her hand. "Another doctor will have to cover her patients for today. We'll keep trying to get a hold of her too."

She turned her attention back to the papers she was holding, so I assumed that was my cue to leave. Maria didn't seem concerned, but she did have a ton of work to do herself, which meant she couldn't really direct too much of her attention to the situation. I on the other hand could not stop thinking about it.

Why was she not here? Was she with Charles? Was she plotting against me again?

I took a deep breath to calm myself before I started to panic. Dr. Patterson's absence could mean any number of things.

Just because she'd never unexpectedly missed work before now, and she happened to do it right after I told her that Zeke and I were "engaged," didn't mean her absence was related to me. Yet, as I told myself this, a pit in my stomach wouldn't let me dismiss it as unrelated to my situation.

After all, she proved she was well capable of obsessing over her hatred of me. Actually, it wasn't that far fetched to believe Dr. Patterson missing work had everything to do with me. It would be best if I called Zeke on my break to let him know what was going on. I still had a few more patients to see before my break.

As I came out of the last patient's room, Sean appeared in front of me like he'd done so many times before. Instead of scaring me like it did in the past, this time it angered me. I snapped.

"Sean!" I said in a hushed, but harsh tone.

His eyes widened in response. A hand suddenly appeared on Sean's shoulder. It was one of the officers who had been assigned to me, officer Jacobs.

Swiftly Sean turned around. "Who are you?" He tried to puff out his chest intimidatingly.

"I'm officer Jacobs. I've been assigned to keep Jasmine safe since your step brother has been causing her quite some trouble lately," he said with an eyebrow raised. This caused the air to deflate from Sean. When Sean didn't say anything he continued, "Dr. Myles, I'm going to ask you to stay away from Miss Daniels until this whole matter with your step brother has been resolved."

Shamefaced, Sean nodded his head. Officer Jacobs' hand was still placed on Sean's shoulder as he began to back away.

"I-I didn't know what kind of person he was Jasmine. I wanted to apologize for unwittingly bringing him back into your life."

Stunned by his apology I called out to him. "Wait!"

Both men stopped the retreat. Officer Jacobs looked at me questioningly.

"I want to hear what he has to say," I explained.

Sean looked grateful while officer Jacobs looked like he didn't trust my judgment. To be honest, I wasn't sure this was a good idea myself, but I figured this was a safe place to talk to Sean.