Playing Doctor

"You can?" A beautiful smile lit her face. "I would appreciate that so much."

He nodded and let her hand go again as he stood up. "Give me just a few minutes and I'll get you their information. Just relax, I'll be right back."

At her nod, Daniel left the exam room and strode over to his office. He booted up his computer and then went to the hospital network and pulled up the pages for the psychologists. He printed out the names, and office numbers along with their hours on a piece of paper and then returned to her.

He pulled out a pen and wrote his email address down at the bottom of the page. "Here you go. If none of these work out for you, shoot me an email and I'll get you a few more names." He smiled.

Aurelia took the paper and glanced at the three names. "Thank you."

"You can use that email too, to keep me updated on your stress levels. It might be a good idea for us to do that daily, just to make sure you don't have another attack like today."

"Okay, I can do that," she agreed.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked.

"Better. I'm so sorry I messed with your Saturday. I hope I didn't pull you away from anything."

"You didn't. Nothing important at any rate. And I want you to promise me you'll do exactly the same thing and call me if it happens again, okay?" he replied.

A faint blush tinted her cheeks and he wished he could reach out and stroke her face. "I will."

He stood and helped her to her feet, then guided her out of the office, turning things off as they went. As they stepped into the hallway, he locked the door and then joined her on the elevator. "What floor do you need? The parking garage?"

"Oh, no, I don't have a car here. I just use the bus."

Daniel had to stop himself from offering her a ride home. That would be even more inappropriate than giving her his private cell number or his email. Those could be seen as the act of a concerned doctor; the ride home was over-stepping by a mile. "I see."

"Maybe one of these days I'll get around to getting a new car. I figured the bus works fine for now since there's a stop about a block from my house and one right outside Fuller and Hoffman where I work."

"I'm glad they are that close, I just don't want you stressing if you miss the bus, okay?"

Her eyes lit up. "I haven't so far. I usually try to get there early."

"Good. I'll see you for your appointment on Tuesday, and I want to hear if you got an appointment with one those therapists, okay?"

"Okay." She smiled. "Bye Dr. M— er… Dr. West." Her cheeks turned an even brighter pink than they had been earlier.

"Have a good rest of your weekend, Aurelia."

She nodded and waved as she stepped off the elevator and the doors shut, cutting off his view of her.

Daniel dragged a hand over his face and pushed the button for the parking garage. If the ethics board could see his thoughts, he'd be so screwed. Aurelia was making him do things he would never do for any other patient. Not because she was manipulating him into doing them, but because she was sweet, and beautiful and intoxicating, and he couldn't stop himself from wanting to care about her more than he should as her doctor. Of course, he was supposed to care about her, but he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to want to protect her from her manipulative mother and emotionally and verbally abusive ex, let alone ache to see her when she wasn't in his office.

"I'm so screwed," he muttered as he climbed into his car and rested his head on his steering wheel.

Chapter 8

Aurelia

A few hours after leaving Dr. West's office, Aurelia sat on her sofa, laptop on her thighs as she browsed the reviews of the therapists Dr. McHottie had suggested to her. The reviews were decent for all three, but none of the three really felt right. Two of them were older men, and the third was a younger woman, straight out of school it looked like. She just didn't feel comfortable spilling her troubles to the older men. They didn't look all that sympathetic in their pictures or easy to open up to. In fact, they both seemed the type that would be telling her to respect her mother and be grateful for what Marcus provided for her!

Maybe they would tell her the abuse was all in her head. That she was making mountains out of mole hills and not to be ridiculous. She wouldn't be able to bear it if they did that. And the woman, she didn't look like she had much experience at all, so how was she going to help her?