Doc Featherstone's Return (5 page)

No sooner had those words been spoken when there was a knock on the door. Dean answered it, and Shane walked in. As the norm, he had his assassin cloak on, but this time the hood was down.

“This better be important, I was about to go home,” Shane grumbled as he entered.

Shane’s social skills ranked lower than even Joshua’s. Shane leaned against the wall and gave them all a bored look as he waited for Mitchell to speak. He even let out a yawn, then a sigh of impatience.
“We were wondering if you have any contact with any other assassin teams?” Mitchell asked.

“Sure, why? Do you want some extra muscle here?”

“Dear God, no. The last thing I want is more of you here. Chris is at war with another pack, and we were wondering if he would accept an assassin team to help him.”

“Or at the very least to protect Cassie since she’s pregnant,” Dean added.

Shane thought it over for a second. “I know of one team that may do the trick, but they’re pretty brutal. They’ll be pretty costly, though. Does Chris have the money for them?”

“Yes. If we have to, we can kick in the money for them. There are ways we can get them money that can’t be traced back to us, so Chris can still save face,” Mitchell said. “The only thing is the assassins would have to become part of the pack.

Would that be a problem?”

Shane gave a wicked smile. “For enough money, this group would do just about anything.

They would even kill an ambassador and have lunch on his body.”

Dean shivered. “You know some scary people, Shane.”

“Don’t worry. I’m still the scariest of them all.”

“Gee, thanks. That makes me feel so much better. Especially since we share living quarters,”
Dean drawled.

“I’d never hurt you. Ava likes you too much.”

“I’m so glad he’s on our side,” Dean told Mitchell.

“You and me both,” Mitchell replied.

Joshua gave a nod of agreement. He’d seen firsthand some of the damage Shane was capable of inflicting and it wasn’t pretty. To say that Shane was a killing machine would be a vast understatement.

“Okay, go contact this team and see if they will agree to work with Chris,” Mitchell ordered.

Shane gave a slight dip of his head and left the room. After he was gone, Joshua stood. “If you are finished with me, I’m needed back in the infirmary.”

“In a moment, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions first,” Mitchell said.

Joshua sat back down with a sigh. “Sure, ask away.”

“Do you think that Ash has any chance of ever walking again? I really want you to be honest with me.”

Joshua thought it over carefully before answering. “If he’s willing to put in the work, then yes, the possibly is strong that he will be able to walk again. If he were a human, there would be no chance, but since he’s a shifter, his regeneration abilities are much stronger.”
“How about shifting?”

Joshua sucked in a breath. “That one is a lot trickier. The shift could do a few things. It could leave the bullets in place. Or it could shove them farther out, which would be a good thing, since they could operate and finally get them out. The worst possible case is they could drive them farther into his spine and make his condition even worse.”

“So, in other words, you don’t know.”

“I’m a doctor, not God, what do you expect from me, Mitchell?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping that you could give me some definitive answers.” Mitchell let out a sigh.

“I hate to break it to you, but a lot of times in medicine there are no definitive answers. We just have to wing it.”

“That sucks,” Dean interjected.

“Yes, it does,” Joshua agreed.

“So, what do you suggest we do?” Mitchell asked.

“Take it one day at a time and hope for the best.

Most of all, the infirmary staff needs to stop coddling him so much. He’s being a brat, and they’re letting him get away with it. That needs to end.”

Dean gave him a dirty look. “Not everybody has a crappy bedside manner like you do. Some
people actually have compassion.”

“Well, their compassion is slowly killing Ash. Is that what you want?” Joshua countered.

It was, too. By letting Ash have his way, he was slowly wasting away to nothing. What he needed at this point was some tough love, not a tender touch. At the rate he was going, he wasn’t going to last another month.

“You know that I would never want that. I’m the one that pushed for you to come back and take care of him,” Dean defended.

“Then let me do my job, my way. Stay out of my way and let me handle things from now on, and Ash will get better. I can’t guarantee that he’ll be the same as he was before, but he’ll be a whole hell of a lot better than he is now.”

“Fine,” Mitchell waved a hand. “We’ll stay out of your way. Just do something to help that poor kid out.”

“Can I leave now? I need to go check up on him,” Joshua said.

Mitchell nodded and Joshua made his way back to the infirmary. As he walked to Ash’s bed, he passed Scarlett. Joshua’s heart went out to the Ocelot shifter. She’d been through so much, and it appeared as if she’d just checked out. A shudder went through Joshua as he thought of how much rage she must be holding in. If she ever snapped out of it, she would be ten times worse than Shane.
Joshua could practically see the hate pouring off her.

She was sitting in the bed, rocking back and forth, playing with one of the few strands of hair that remained. While she wasn’t talking, she was humming a song. Joshua couldn’t be for sure, but it sounded like a children’s nursery rhyme. She had her head turned so the scarred part of her face was in the shadows.

Giving her one last look, Joshua moved on to Ash. He found the Hawk still sleeping. Pulling a chair next to the bed, Joshua took the opportunity to study Ash. Not as a doctor would study a patient, but as a man would look at another man.

Ash was nothing short of beautiful. Even while underweight and pale, he had an attraction that was both alluring and erotic at the same time. His pale skin made his dark lashes stand out all the more as they nearly fanned his cheekbones. His lips, while still slightly chapped, begged to be kissed.

Joshua found himself, not for the first time, feeling a protectiveness toward the Hawk.

Something that he’d never felt toward another before. He just wanted to take Ash and hide him from all the harshness the world had to offer. To shield him from all the danger. To make sure he never knew pain again.

As if on its own accord, Joshua’s hand reached
out and stroked Ash’s hair. While it was clean, it no longer was in the style that he once favored.

Joshua missed that. Just like he missed his old Ash.

Joshua vowed to himself that he would find a way to bring back the old Ash, while at the same time protecting his heart. There had to be a way to do it. Joshua just had to figure out what it might be.

couple of weeks later, Ash wheeled himself A back from physical therapy to find chaos breaking loose in the infirmary. It appeared that a mission had gone badly because there were a ton of wounded being brought in.

Even from his standpoint, he could see that the infirmary staff were overwhelmed as cot after cot of bloodied and dying soldiers were coming in.

The floors were covered in crimson and used medical equipment. The air reeked of blood and burned flesh, and the sounds of screams were loud.

For a second, Ash froze as he was taken back to the time when the infirmary was attacked, and he was wounded. Then he saw yet another soldier being brought in, and he snapped out of it.

Wheeling over to the cot, he said, “Lower it a bit, so I can reach the patient.”

Once they did as he asked, Ash grabbed a
nearby crash cart and dragged it toward him. He assessed the patient, wincing at the numerous gunshot wounds that marred the shifter’s body.

Damn, how could somebody take so many bullets and still be alive?

Ash opened the drawers and got out gauze pads, plus specialized strips that would stop some of the bleeding until they were able to get the soldier into surgery. He also grabbed the supplies to start an IV and set them on the cot.

After that, he got so caught up in his work, he shut everything else out. Once that patient was stabilized, they brought another one for him to work on and then another one. Ash could feel himself getting weak and shaky, but he didn’t dare stop, not when there were so many who needed his help.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, they were able to treat the less wounded. Those who required only basic stitches and such. Since Ash could do those in his sleep, the work was a lot less taxing on him. He was just finishing up his third patient when Featherstone came over, and, judging from the expression on his face, he wasn’t too happy.

“Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” the doc demanded.

Ash gave him a sideways glance. “I know you were away for a while, but surely you remember
what it looks like to give somebody stitches.”

“You should be in bed, not up treating patients.”

“You guys needed the help, and I was here. It made sense that I help. Besides, aren’t you the one who is always saying that I shouldn’t be coddled too much?”

God, how Ash loved being able to throw the doc’s own words back into his face. If he could have, he would have gotten up and done a happy dance. He would have even added in a butt wiggle at the end for good measure.

“I didn’t mean that you should start treating patients,” Doc said, his face red with anger.

Ah, it was just like old times. All that was missing was the doc telling him what a sucky medic Ash was. Then things would be perfect.

“You needed the help, and I was here. So stop complaining and say thank you already,” Ash snapped.

Featherstone ran a hand through his hair and let out an aggravated grunt. Another thing he used to do back in the day. “Just go get cleaned up and back into bed. You must be exhausted.”

Actually, Ash was
beyond
exhausted, but he’d die before he’d admit it. “Actually, I feel just ducky. But if you insist, I’ll get changed and take a nap to make you happy.”

Ash grabbed a fresh set of clothes, since his old
ones had blood on them, and changed. At least he didn’t need help with that task anymore. He then washed up as best he could and lifted himself into bed.

He was practically asleep before his head hit the pillow. His last thought was of the doc. How dare that arrogant jerk get mad at him for helping?

Ash was a medic. Just because he was in a wheelchair didn’t change that fact. Featherstone was an ass for thinking anything less.

Joshua took a deep breath as he tried to calm down. When he’d seen Ash wheeling around, helping the injured, Joshua had almost had a heart attack.

Didn’t Ash realize that he still had a long way to go in his recovery? That he was nowhere near ready to be on active duty again? Just one look at him now proved that. Ash was asleep, but his pallor had increased, and the circles were back under his eyes. It was obvious he’d overworked himself.

“Well, you handled that well,” Jacyn said in a clearly disapproving voice.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Joshua asked.

“He was just helping out. If any of us had been
in his position, we would have done the same thing.”

“He doesn’t need to be up and treating patients, not when he’s a patient himself.”

Jacyn gave Joshua a knowing look. “Didn’t you tell us not to coddle him?”

“Yes.”

“Yet you kind of just did the same thing yourself. It seems a bit hypocritical to me, Doc.”

Joshua could feel his anger rising. “No, I’m just a doctor looking after the best interests of his patient.”

“I hate to break it to you, but we needed his help. We were up to our asses in alligators, and he helped us out of the mess. You know it as well as I do.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean it was good for him. Take a look at him for God’s sake.”

Joshua gestured toward Ash. “He looks like crap right now.”

“He’ll be fine. He just needs some rest.”

“We all better hope so.”

Joshua went over and began to make a fuss over Ash, taking his vitals and checking him over.

When Ash slept through the whole process, it didn’t make Joshua feel any better. It showed how tired his little Hawk was.

His little Hawk? No, he can’t be yours, and the
sooner you remember that the better for both of you.
“See, I told you, he’s fine. Just a bit tired,” Jacyn said.

“His blood pressure is a bit low,” Joshua argued.

“Sure, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

Joshua gave Ash one more concerned glance before he turned away and glanced back at Jacyn.

“If he tries a stunt like that again, I want you to tie him down to the bed.”

“No.”

Joshua gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m sorry, but did you just tell me
no
?”

“Yes, I know it’s a word you don’t hear very often, but in this case, get used to it, because I’m not going to budge on it. I don’t know what’s going on with you and Ash, but when it comes to things like this, I have to put my foot down.”

“I’m the one in charge of the infirmary, you little brat. I don’t care who your older brother is.”