All of You (49 page)

And because whatever was going on with her neurologically the past few days was scaring the hell out of her.

Stellan took one look at her flushed neck and face and laughed. “You know I’m so happy for you, Kat. You deserved to land a good guy and – from what Gigi and Marco told us last night – you’ve got that hunky piece of man meat wrapped right around your little finger.”

Kat rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop her lips from curling.

Stellan shook his head, grinning. “You sneaky, little vixen. Quiet, nerdy ones like us really
are
the ones to look out for, huh? ‘Cause we look all harmless and sweet on the outside, but you fuck our minds and we’ll fuck your body good.”

“Okay,
enough
,” Kat said, laughing and waving Stellan off. “Take your gross potty mouth home to your boyfriend so I can finish up here and go home. ‘Hunky piece of man meat’ is working all night tonight, so I might actually get some sleep.”

With another wink and wave good-bye, Stellan was off. Kat turned to put her microscope away when she heard her cell chime in her lab coat pocket. She pulled it out and smiled like an idiot.

Danny:
I feel like I haven’t touched you in forever. I’m going to have to put in for days, because this only seeing you between our shifts is fucking killing me.

Kat:
You just touched me this morning, silly. Quite extensively and…thoroughly…if memory serves.

Danny:
Yes, but not nearly as extensively and thoroughly as I would have liked.

Kat:
I shudder to imagine how much more extensive and thorough it could have gotten, Danny.

Danny:
Oh, you don’t have to imagine. I’ll be demonstrating it for you in the morning, sweetheart, don’t worry. Bright and early.

Kat’s already weakened knees went weaker. She dropped onto the nearest lab stool and propped her elbows onto the counter.

Kat:
At the risk of inciting your already unruly libido, I will say I am very much looking forward to that demonstration.

Danny:
Okay, we’ve gotta stop this shit or Nathan is going to know we’re sexting. And he’s not a big fan of sitting here watching me grin at my phone like a lovesick asshole. Trust me…he told me. Even though he grunts at stuff Stella texts him all the time, fucking hypocrite.

Kat:
I thought sexting was sending naked pictures.

Danny:
You offering?

Kat:
No frickin’ way. Knowing you, you’d blow them up and hang them on your walls.

Danny:
And let anyone else see you that way? FUCK. THAT.

Kat laughed, then texted:
I love when you act like an adolescent caveman.

Danny:
That’s great, sweetheart, because that’s pretty much my entire personality.

Kat glanced outside before texting:
It’s getting dark. I have to pack up and get out of here.

Danny:
Text me when you get home. To my home. The home I want to be your home, too. Soon.

Kat:
Yes. Thus, the key you gave me yesterday.

Danny:
Yes. Thus, that.
A second later, he texted:
I don’t like thinking about you walking out to the parking lot in the dark. Or driving in the dark. Or driving in this weather. Maybe Nathan and I should swing by and drive you home.

Kat rolled her eyes and replied:
I’m a big girl. And there’s a security guard at the desk who watches me walk to my car.

Kat did
not
mention that the guy was a hundred years old and as blind as a bat.

Danny:
Still fucking hate it. And I know you’re a big girl, but you’re MY girl and I don’t like thinking about you walking and driving around in the dark alone.

Kat:
Adorable, sweet, adolescent caveman. I’ll text you later.

Danny:
I love you so much, Kat. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.

Her throat tightened as she texted back:
Ditto. Now go arrest someone before you get fired for not meeting your quota. Or before Nathan throws your phone out the window.

Danny:
Do you have to be fucking hot, brilliant, AND snarky? Jesus, Kat, how much is a man supposed to take?

Laughing, Kat texted:
I guess you just got lucky.

Danny:
“Lucky” doesn’t begin to cover it. Love you, bye.

Kat:
Love you, bye.

Kat set her cell on the table, peeled off her lab coat, and draped it over her arm. One hand braced on the edge of the table, she set her feet on the floor and tried to stand…

But the muscles in her left leg did not hold up their ends of the bargain as they gave out completely, lurching Kat forward. She instinctively put her hands out to break the fall, but the side of her head made contact first – slamming into the corner of a cabinet before the rest of her body crumpled to the floor.

Kat lay there for a few moments, dazed and seeing stars thanks to a momentary lack of communication between her occipital lobe and retinas. She slowly lifted her hand to her head, felt wetness, and then bothered to look at it, despite already knowing which bodily fluid it was.

“Ugh.” Kat wiped her fingers on the lab coat, which had landed right beside her on the floor.

She planted her palms on the ground and pushed up, but when she tried to get her left leg to play along, it refused.

“
Shit…
”

Kat could get it to bend at the knee and it was even willing to curl up beneath her, but it simply would not bear enough weight to allow her to stand.

Her head throbbing, her ears ringing, and her vision still full of bright flashes, Kat managed to reach up and grab the edge of the counter with her left hand.

She heard the door to the lab swish open and Kat experienced an odd rush of fear.

Well, you
are
alone, bleeding, and helpless on the floor.

“Kat? You in here?”

Her body flooded with relief at the sound of Ben’s voice.

“Yeah, Ben, over here,” Kat called back. “Well, down here, actually.”

A few seconds later, Ben rounded a lab table to find Kat in her awkward half-on-the-floor/half-pulling-herself-up position.

“Shit, Kat, are you okay? What happened?” He walked over, hand already extended out to help her.

“I tried to stand and my left leg gave out completely. And I fell. Obviously.”

Kat reached for Ben with her right hand and he took it. He pulled, trying to help her up, but her position and the dead weight of her leg made it impossible.

Kat huffed in frustration. “Here…” She took back her hand and clumsily – and with great difficulty – shifted her body weight to the left. She managed to slide her right foot in front and place it flat on the ground. “See if you can get me from here, now,” she said, giving Ben back her hand.

“Let me brace my hip against the counter first,” Ben replied, already leaning his right hip into it. He flashed Kat a wry grin. “Don’t have the best lower body traction, you know?”

“Well, be careful with all that machinery, Ben, because I do
not
want you busting that prosthetic on my account.”

Ben exhaled a laugh as he reached for both of Kat’s hands. “Yeah, we’re quite a pair, aren’t we? Not a good left leg between us.”

He easily pulled Kat to her feet, allowing her to bear all of her weight on her right leg. Kat tried to put a tiny bit of pressure on her left, but it wouldn’t hold it at all.

“Still no good?” Ben asked. When Kat shook her head, Ben’s gaze lifted from her bum leg to her eyes, wincing. “You okay with me carrying you over to the stool?”

Kat should have immediately said “no problem,” allowed Ben to wrap his arms around her, and not thought a thing about letting him carry her over to the nearest lab stool.

After all, they were, for all intents and purposes, already holding hands. What the hell difference would a couple of arms and some upper body closeness make?

Apparently, a lot. Because, as stupid and illogical as it might have been, Kat felt like it would have been wrong to let another man hold her that way – even in the name of transportation.

Suddenly, her every thought centered on Danny…

About how she should call him.

About how angry he’d be when he found out she hadn’t called him.

About what this sudden deterioration might mean.

About what negative impacts the deterioration would have on Danny’s life.

About how Danny would flip his ever-loving lid to know Ben’s hands had been all over her – necessity, be damned.

Ben registered Kat’s hesitation with a slow nod, a half-grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I figured. And I’m with you. ‘Cause I’m not particularly looking to brawl with that crazy-ass man of yours anytime soon.” He gently tugged on her hands. “Well, we’ll have to hop you over there, then.”

With Ben’s support, Kat managed a hop toward the stool.

“Speaking of your crazy-ass man, should you be calling him?” Ben asked.

“No. I don’t want him to worry. He’s working right now and I’m sure this is nothing to get all nuts about.” She gave Ben a weak smile. “You’ve met him. He can be somewhat…”

“Aggressive? Territorial? Combative?”

Kat exhaled a soft laugh. “I was going to say ‘reactive,’ but all those other things are true, too.” Her smile faded. “I just don’t want him freaking out over nothing.”

Kat managed another hop.

But then things got much, much worse. Very quickly.

Kat’s head started spinning, her vision doubled, and her right leg began to give out.

She tightened her grip on Ben’s hands, bracing herself. “Ben!”

He managed to slide his arms beneath hers in time to keep her from crumpling to the floor again as her knees gave out. Kat gripped his biceps as Ben pulled her up against his chest.

Ben pulled back enough to meet her eyes. “Talk to me, Kat,” he said evenly – his gaze direct and very steady. “Tell me what’s going on, so we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Kat blinked against the doubled image of Ben’s face floating in front of her, willing herself to calm down, but failing miserably. “I…my vision…it’s double…”

Ben nodded slowly. “Okay. You’re okay, Kat. You’re going to be just fine.” His head tilted slightly, eyes grazing the side of her head before coming back to meet hers. “But that head wound is bleeding again and the acuteness of what just happened with your vision means we need to get you to the hospital as soon as possible.”

“I’m dizzy, too…” Kat squeezed her eyes shut, fighting to gain some equilibrium and balance. She swallowed down whatever was trying to push its way up her throat. “And nauseous.”

“Yep.” Ben exhaled a soft grunt when he had to hitch Kat’s nearly dead weight against his chest. “As soon as I get you in the chair, I’ll call the ambulance.”

With a shift of his weight to his right leg and another grunt of exertion, Ben hitched Kat up, hard, finally getting her fully up into his arms. Kat wound her arms around his neck and held on tightly as he positioned his hands around her waist and carried her over to the lab stool.

He set her down and Kat felt around until she found the counter edge to grip.

“Can you drive me, Ben?” she asked, watching two of him pull a cell phone out of his khakis. “My sister works at St. Mary’s, so I’d rather go there, but I think an ambulance will insist on taking me to Holy Cross because it’s closer. Obviously you don’t have to stay with me once we get there. My sister is working tonight, so you can just drop me off.”

Even through her double vision, Kat caught his quirked brow and wry smile. “Oh, good, ‘cause that’s what I was planning to do – just drop you off and peel out of there like a bat out of hell.”

Kat exhaled a shaky laugh. “I never knew you were such a smart-ass, Ben.”

He grinned, dropping his hands on his hips and looking around. “Anything you have to do in here before we go?”

Kat tried shaking her head, but quickly halted when it increased her dizziness and nausea. “No. I already shut everything down. We just need to kill the lights and lock the door.”

“Easy enough. Where is your stuff, Kat? Jacket, purse?”

“In the back. On the break table.”

Ben nodded. “Okay,” he said, already heading back there. “I’ll grab this, go next door and lock up, and we’ll head out, okay?”

Kat dropped her spinning head onto a forearm she’d just laid on the table and nodded, even though Ben couldn’t see her. A few seconds later, she felt his hand on her shoulder.

“Can you lift your arms so I can slip your jacket on?”

Kat slowly lifted her head and an arm. Ben slid one sleeve on, Kat lifted the other arm, and he slid a sleeve over that one. He then slid the strap of her purse up over her shoulder. “I need one minute to run next door. I’ll prop our doors open…just call out if you need anything, okay?”

Kat nodded and, with one more pat on the shoulder, Ben made his way out of the lab and into the hallway. True to engineering time estimates, he was walking back through Kat’s door approximately one minute later, jacket on and keys in hand.

Ben gave her a heartening smile. “You ready?”

Kat nodded and he walked over. He leaned down and in, allowing Kat to put her arms back around his neck as he slipped his arm beneath her knees.

Ben met her eyes. “No pain? I can just lift?” When Kat nodded, he did just that: pulling her up and against him in one quick, fluid motion.

Just like Danny had done a dozen times.

As Ben walked them out of the lab, flipped off the lights, and locked up behind them, Kat’s thoughts were squarely with Danny.

Fickle Bitch Brain said:
You should have called him. You should call him as soon as you get into the car. This is gearing up to be something serious and he would want to know. Excluding him like this seriously will hurt him.

But then Better Judgment countered with:
Good. It was ridiculous to think, for one moment, that you could hold onto him forever. Ridiculous, selfish, and malicious to keep prolonging what you know you need to do…what you’ve known all along you needed to do…especially now…