The Doctor's Undoing (Doctors in Training 3)

Candi had their soup on the table in less than five minutes. “This feels more like spring weather than December, doesn’t it?”

“It does, indeed.” Ron reached for a corn muffin from the heaped basket she’d set in the center of the table.

They were all used to regular tornado watches in the turbulent Arkansas springs. It wasn’t that they didn’t take the reports seriously, but they knew most watches expired without producing the destructive twisters that hit this part of the country so frequently. So they would eat their meals and listen to the talking heads on the screen and when the skies cleared enough, they would be on their way.

A hard blast of wind crashed against the windows and rattled dishes, eliciting a few startled squeaks followed by sheepish, somewhat nervous smiles. The mother of the baby was beginning to look a bit frightened now as she studied the television screen. Haley didn’t blame her. The storm was definitely intensifying.

Candi cleared her throat, her eyes a bit anxious, but her smile determinedly professional. “Y’all be sure and save some room for dessert, you hear? Millie makes the best chocolate pie you ever tasted.”

Despite his big lunch, Ron perked up at that. “Chocolate pie?”

She laughed. “You’ll like it.”

Haley frowned and lifted her hands to the sides of her head. “My ears just popped.”

Twisting her jaw, Candi nodded. “Mine did, too.”

Ron was half out of his seat before the sudden wailing of tornado warning alarms sounded from somewhere outside. “Everyone get away from the windows! Under the tables, quick.”

Haley glanced instinctively toward the windows as Ron dashed over to help the older couple out of their seats. Even in the darkness outside, she could see debris rushing sideways past the rain-streaked glass.

“Candi, get down!” She grabbed the waitress’s arm and jerked, sending them both tumbling to the floor, half under the bolted-down table.

Chaos descended around them at that instant. She caught just a glimpse of the couple huddled over their baby beneath their own table, and then the lights went out to the sound of breaking glass and hammering impacts against the outside of the building.

Chapter Eleven

Haley’s shirt was soaked as she huddled beneath the table with her arms crossed protectively over her head. Something large hit the floor right next to her. She thought she heard screams, but it could have been the shrieking of the wind. The pressure was suddenly so strong that she felt almost as though she were being

pulled off the floor. She grabbed the metal base of the table, clinging to it frantically.

The noise abated almost as suddenly as it had intensified. It might have only been seconds, brief minutes at the most, but it felt so much longer.

She was so cold, and so wet. At least part of the roof must have been ripped off above her.

Someone was screaming in earnest now. She took a moment to make sure it wasn’t her before lifting her head and opening her eyes.

It was hard to see through the darkness. She heard excited voices crying out, babbling questions and calling for help. Realizing she had instinctively grabbed her purse when she ducked beneath the table, she shoved a hand into it, pulling out the small, high-beam flashlight she always carried.

Candi still sat beside her, huddled beneath the other side of the table.

“Candi, are you all right?”

Her face white in the beam of the flashlight, the waitress nodded tentatively. “I think so. Damn, that rain is cold.”

“Be careful of broken glass when you stand up.”

Haley rose carefully, sweeping her flashlight over what had been a tidy dining room. Tables and chairs were scattered among broken crockery now, and shattered light fixtures dangled from the partially missing roof above. At least with the power out they didn’t have to worry about electrocution, though there was still the danger of falling debris.

She saw the couple with the baby standing nearby and she stumbled toward them, almost tripping over what must have been a pile of ceiling tiles and insulation. “Are you all right? The baby?”

She could hear the child crying, as was his mother, who had taken him from the carrier and now held him tightly. The father hovered near them, trying to shield them from the rain by holding his coat over them. “I think we’re okay,” he said. “I got hit in the back of the head by something. Got a goose egg there, but I think I’m okay. We were both covering the baby, so he wasn’t hit by anything.”

Candi was calling for outside help; Haley could hear the waitress shouting into a cell phone behind her. “Haley? Haley!”

Her knees almost buckled in relief at the sound of Ron’s voice. The last she’d seen of him, he’d been rushing toward the wall of windows. Turning her light in that direction, she saw that the entire front of the café had been destroyed. “Ron?”

A hand grabbed her arm, and she was pulled tightly into his arms for a moment. She felt a hard tremor run through him as she clung to him in return. “You’re okay?”