"So," Miroku said, casually, leaning against the nurse's station of the hospital as Sango sat at her desk, pointedly trying to ignore him. "Care to have lunch with me today?" He was not giving up.
She had already refused his offer the day before and instead of taking a hint, he just keeps trying.
"Dr. Keseki, I'm very busy. I don't even know if I'll have a lunch break today." Sango told him, not bothering to look up into those pretty blue eyes of his.
"You have to eat something or you'll be sick." He told her, leaning against the counter. "I'm a doctor, I know these things."
Sango sighed and opened up a file, searching through papers. "You just won't give up will you?"
"Not until you say yes."
"It's 9 in the morning." Sango groused.
"Yes. You're correct." Miroku announced. "That gives me 3 hours to convince you to go grab a bite to eat." His handsome voice, once serious when he was working, was now playful, lighter and undeniably sexy.
Sango sighed. "Let me ask my manager…"
"Ask your manager what?" Jay's familiar voice came from around the corner, he smiled when he saw that they were talking. He and Kagome had definitely been cooking something up. Since when did her love life become any of their business.
Sango watched as Hayden walked by, probably on her way to a patient's room, and lightly touched Miroku on the shoulder. Jealousy ripped through her. "If I may have a lunch break today…" She said, her eyes fallowing the blond nurse down the hall. She couldn't figure out, for the life of her, why she was shooting daggers of death at the woman right now.
Miroku didn't even seem to be fazed by it.
"Of course you can. You have to eat something." Jay said, with a wink at Miroku. "Some of these other nurses can pick up some of your work. You work way too hard sometimes, Sango." He said, with a toss of his head back towards Hayden. "Some of these women slack off."
Miroku gave her a crooked smile. "So I guess I'll see you around noon."
"Not before than…" Sango said, standing up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
Miroku watched as she walked down the hall, admiring her hips and what part of her legs he could see. The rest was left up to his imagination, but if things went the way he wanted them too, that wouldn't be too long.
"I'm sorry If I'm taking too much of an interest in her." He apologized to Jay. "She's just gorgeous and beautiful. I mean, I don't even know how to describe her."
Jay simply laughed. "It's not a problem. As long as it doesn't get in the way of your work." He said with a smile.
"So," Miroku tore his eyes away from Sango's backside long enough to look at his manager. "It would be alright if I asked her out on a date then? A real one…"
"Fine with me." Jay said. "Just, don't let Hayden know about it. She's got a little crush on you."
Miroku suddenly felt even more cocky then he already was. "Is that so? Well, alright then, I'll have to do it where Hayden can't hear me. Though, I suppose if this sassy little brunette refuses me, I could always ask the blond out."
"Exactly." Jay said. "Now get to work, Keseki." He joked with a smile, then went down the hall to his office.
"I can't believe Jay actually let me leave." Sango said, as she walked into the small café with Miroku walking, almost protectively, behind her.
"I pulled a few strings. I heard from Ms. Higurashi you were sick of cafeteria food so I wanted to take you to a place with real food." Miroku said, then led her towards a table.
A display of cakes and meats were at the front of the restaurant, a jukebox was in the corner and the lighting was dim despite that it was the middle of the day. Something about the scarce sunlight on Miroku's face made him look undeniably handsome.
This almost felt like a date to Sango, until she realized she was in her nurse uniform.
"I wish I didn't have to wear this silly thing out in public." She said, a bit embarrassed.
Miroku looked up from his menu, then smiled. "I think you look great."
"Thank you…" She said, shyly. Sango felt nervous around him, but not the frightened kind of nervous she got around her new patient Howard Bailey, it was the butterflies in her stomach kind of feeling. The kind that made her want to giggle and feel like she was 15 again.
"My pleasure." Miroku said smoothly. He usually wasn't nervous around women. In high school and even college, he asked girls out everyday, there was very few nights he didn't have a date. It was almost like a second nature to him.
But now, as he sat there across the table from this beautiful nurse he couldn't seem to find the words to ask her out. Maybe it was because it had been so long since he had actually proposed a date with a women that he had forgotten or lost some of his skills.
She stared up at him after looking at her menu for a few minutes, only to discover he was looking at her as well. Miroku opened his mouth to speak but even he couldn't find the words. "Is something wrong?" She asked.
"Uh…uh…no!" He protested quickly. "I was just…" He paused and gathered his courage. It was now or never. "I was just wondering…if you're not too busy…maybe on your next day off…If your not too busy."
Sango sighed, then gave him a small smile. "If I'd go out on a date with you?"
"Yes…" His voice cracked nervously and he felt like a complete idiot, but Sango seemed amused. Which might have been a good thing.
She looked back down at her menu, then back up at the doctor. "Alright. One date." She watched him sit up with a start and a wide smile came across his face. She was trying to her best to hide her flattery and her excitement. Sango could hardly believe the talk-of-the-hospital doctor had asked her out. She was expecting him to gravitate towards Hayden like every other young male did. That fact really disgusted her by the way, but she could just imagine the jealousy and envy Hayden would have when she found out that Miroku Keseki asked her out!
"Great!" He exclaimed. "How's Friday? 8:00?"
"Friday's great." She said.
"Seems a little far off, I know. Seeing as it's only Tuesday." Miroku said smoothly. "But if it's a date with you, I'd wait forever."
"Flattery isn't going to get you in my pants, Mr. Keseki."
He chuckled and Sango couldn't help but admire the way he laughed. Even his laugh was sexy. Damn. "You sure about that?"
She simply shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Very funny."
"By the way, since I'm taking you out on this date…" He said, with a thoughtful tone. "Don't you think you should start calling me 'Miroku' now, instead of 'Mr. Keseki'? Seems to formal for me."
Sighing, she closed her menu as she saw the waitress approaching. "Fine, then. Miroku. Better?"
A small smile played on his lips. "Perfect."
Wednesday afternoon was a quite one for the most part. Miroku was having his daily therapy session with Hamilton who required a great deal of therapy. Miroku quickly discovered that this patient had been abandoned as a child in a local grocery store and couldn't find his parents for ten days.
When he was reunited with his parents, they abandoned him again in a bowling alley when he was at the tender age of 8. Since then, he was given up to foster homes across Japan. When his 17th birthday came his current foster parents left him home alone to go to the grocery store and, in a fit of rage, smashed everything in the house and even shot his foster father in the right shoulder.
Proven insane, they decided to omit him to the mental institution and that's where he stayed for the past three years.
No wonder he had abandonment issues. He seemed to have attached himself to Sango in almost a childlike way and Miroku genuinely felt bad for the guy. What a terrible childhood this guy had. But Sango was a gentle, kind-natured woman and that's why Miroku wanted to get to know her more.
Her beauty had caught his interest at first, but he saw the way she was so personal and kind the patients and that made him like her even more. Though, she wasn't as kind and warm towards him at times.
His mind began to drift towards her and smiled, then realized he needed to stay focused on this session. Leaning back in his chair and looked down at his notes he had written. "Is there anything else you'd like to discuss today?"
Hamilton sat on the edge of his bed, the television was on but the volume was down. His eyes were fixated on the screen as if he was trying to avoid eye contact with Miroku. "No, I want nurse Sango."
Miroku stood up slowly. "Well, buddy, nurse Sango is busy."
"I want Nurse Sango!" He stood up and slammed his bed into the wall. Then he proceeded to scream and jab his nurse call button furiously.
"Alright, alright." Miroku said, in an attempt to calm him down. "I'll get her. Just stay calm."
The door opened and Hayden stood in the doorway, dressed in the same uniform Sango and Kagome wore, though she didn't look quite as good in it as Sango did. "Is everything OK?"
"He wants to see Sango. I didn't mean to upset him, I just--"
"Oh, no." Hayden said with a smile. Hamilton rocked back in forth in the corner in a fetal position and shook violently. "It's OK. He does this all the time. Hamilton, it's alright. Stop shaking."
Hamilton looked towards Hayden, happy to hear a females voice, but when he discovered it wasn't Sango he stood up and pulled the shackles on his ankles tight. "Not nurse Sango! Not nurse Sango!" He screamed, giving Miroku the dirtiest looks he could give. "You take nurse Sango from me!"
"No, Hamilton. I'm just a doctor." Miroku protested. Then the door opened wider and Hamilton seemed to calm down when he saw who it was. Sango simply smiled at him and walked past Miroku where Hamilton obediently sat on the edge of his bed and opened his mouth as if she was about to give him medication.
Sango giggled and shook her head. "No, no. You already had your medication for the day. I just came in to check on you."
"Nurse Sango cares about me." Hamilton clapped his hands enthusiastically.
"Yes, Hamilton, I do. Would you like some lunch?"
He nodded emphatically. Then Sango turned to face Miroku, pointedly ignoring Hayden. "I think it would be a good idea if you came along, too. He needs to get to know you where he feels comfortable and this room of his isn't the best place. Care to join us in the cafeteria?"
Hayden seethed.
"Sure. I got another 30 minutes before my next patient gets out of recess in the recreation center." He said, as Sango unhooked Hamilton's shackles from the floor and helped him into the wheelchair and wheeled him out.
The couple pushed past Hayden and the light-haired nurse fumed at their closeness. Of course, they couldn't be too close at work, but she had seen him take her out yesterday. Buddha only knows what they did…
It just wasn't fair.
Thursday morning, Miroku rolled out of bed. He had to be at work nearly 20 minutes early so he could prepare for his session with Howard Bailey. The almost normal type of patient, which he and Sango both agreed on, could be the scariest type.
Miroku Keseki was a single, somewhat happy, and successful bachelor. His apartment wasn't immaculate like any other guy's apartment. He enjoyed his Friday nights in front of the television, drinking a beer and watching sports. Or maybe a night at a local nightclub so he could meet a few girls.
But if the handsome doctor was honest with himself, he was lonely. He wanted the companionship of a wife, the feeling of coming home and having someone there waiting for him. Maybe a couple children to run up to him when he walked through the door. He wanted someone to depend on him, besides his patients.
Like any psychologist, Miroku had encountered the occasional patient that had that dependency on him, but that wasn't the same as having a wife. Someone who would look at him with deep brown eyes filled with desire, passion, love. His coffee reminded him of Sango's eye colour. Deep, dark, rich. When he thought about these things, he almost found it strange that he pictured Sango.
Maybe his infatuation was getting too serious and that scared him, he couldn't love her. Could he? No, it was too soon. But he knew for a fact he liked her. And since when did he ever think about marriage?
He was the same guy who was called a womanizer in college. Voted most likely to never settle down in high school and even now, his most recent girlfriend that he had for a mere three months broke up with him when she caught him kissing another girl at a nightclub.
Yes, the bachelor life was hard, along with the life of a doctor, but Miroku was enjoying it. Though, as he gathered his coat off the hook on the wall, he had to admit; Sango was beginning to get to him.
Miroku lightly tapped on Howard Bailey's door. The man was sitting in his bed, eating his pancakes, along with scrambled eggs and bacon. "May I come in?"
"Sure." Howard said, nodding. "Just watching highlights of last nights basketball game. You catch it?"
"Oh, uh. Yea, actually. About two quarters of it before I fell asleep." Miroku responded, casually. Trying to get a common ground with this guy was proving to be easy. "You have a favourite team?"
"I like the Lakers. They have the hottest cheerleaders." He said with a smile.
"Agreed." Miroku chuckled, then sat down. "So, I'm Miroku Keseki. I'm the new psychologist here at the hospital, and you are Howard Bailey, correct?"
"Yes." He said calmly. Miroku noticed immediately that the guy was sizing him up which made him feel a little uncomfortable. No matter how calm, collected and sane a patient may seem he knew he had to always be on his guard.
"Alright." Miroku said, sitting back and ready to take notes. "What do want to start off talking about today?"
"I don't really want to talk about anything." Howard's voice was lowered, and he stabbed a strip of bacon with his fork almost angrily. Miroku calmed his breathing.
"Alright. Uhm, then shall I come back at a later time?"
"I want to see a nurse." He grumbled abruptly.
Miroku stood up, and loosened his tie a bit from around his neck. He was becoming nervous and now he understood why Sango had left that room as quickly as she did when she had came in for his medication. "Are you sick?"
"With food like this I will be!" He replied. "This food tastes like shit. When are we ever going to get some real food in here?"
"Sir, I'm not the cook. I--"
"No, you know what?" Howard pushed his trey away. "I don't want any stuck up little doctors in here with their cocky attitudes and their suits. You apparently aren't listening, I said I wanted a nurse."
Miroku calmed his breathing once again and immediately started making his way towards the door. "I'll get you a nurse…"
"Make sure you get the right one." Howard darted his eyes towards Miroku. The dark orbs were full of disdain and Miroku fumbled for the doorknob.
"I…I…which one is the right one?" The doctor's voice became lighter and squeakier and he knew he was making a big mistake by showing fear.
"The pretty dark-headed one. The one with the pretty eyes." He grin was almost cat-like in a sinister way. "I like my women like that one."
"I'll get her." He said, quickly, then opened the door grateful to hear the familiar sounds of telephones, doctors being pages, and footsteps on the tile floor. Howard Bailey's room had suddenly became a place of dread.
"You scared, Keseki?" He asked, taking a bite of his bacon and ripping it off in an animal-like manner.
"I'll get her for you…" He repeated, then quickly left and bumped right into Sango.
"Mr. Keseki!" She exclaimed. "Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry. Uh…actually, I was looking for you."
"Oh?" Sango asked, as she filled a syringe full of medication. "Why is that?"
"It's Bailey." He replied. "He's wanting to see you."
She sighed and placed the syringe into a round holder. "Well, he's going to have to wait. I've got another patients, you know."
"Sango, I don't think he's gonna wait."
"Why not?"
"I don't know." Miroku said, and Sango was almost alarmed by the ghost-white expression on his face. "He just got real creepy. Just appease him for a moment, go in and see what he wants. I don't think he's harmful, but he doesn't seem to like men very much."
Sango looked at him for a minute, then at Howard's door. "Alright…why do you say that?"
"He called me a stuck up doctor and pretty much told me to get out." He said with a chuckle, though the whole situation was more frightening then funny.
Even she could see that the psychologist was freaked out and she was almost apprehensive about going into the room. But it was her job. "OK. Uhm, could you stand outside here? Come in if you hear me call?"
"I will." Miroku promised her, with a smile. Sango felt immediately comforted and he felt needed and important.
As she walked in cautiously, Miroku stayed out of sight but watched as she progressed into the room until the wooden door shut behind her. "Hello?"
A smile came to Howard's face as he saw her enter the room. "Nurse Sango. You look simply beautiful today."
"Why thank you." Sango said with a forced smile. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"This food…" He said, pointing at his breakfast. "is crap."
Sango giggled a little. "I'm sorry, sir. I can get you something else if you like."
"No." He said. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart." His voice was lowered an octave and the way he was staring at her made he feel uneasy. It was as if he was undressing her with his eyes. "Come sit on my bed."
Sango hesitated, then looked back towards the door.
"That stuck up doctor isn't out there is he?" Howard asked, angrily and aggressively.
"Of-of course not." Sango stammered, clearing her throat. Not knowing what else to do, she sat on the edge of his bed, and he sat up then snaked his arm around her shoulders. She tried her best not to let him know this made her uncomfortable because that would probably upset him.
"So beautiful." He murmured. "I've never had such a pretty lady pay attention to me like you have before."
"Oh, well," Sango forced a smile. "That's very flattering, but I do have other patients to get to." She was looking for any excuse to get out of his room.
"You're not leaving me." He whispered in her ear. "You're my woman."
Sango pulled herself away from him abruptly, leaving him almost stunned by her sudden movement. "I have to go!" She said, loudly, hoping Miroku would hear. Which, he did. He had his ear pressed against the door to hear for any sounds of alarm.
"No!" Howard began to yell. "You're mine! All mine! You'll never leave!" He finished with a sinister laugh then an ear-shattering scream. At the instant, Miroku burst in, unauthorized, but he didn't care.
He protected Sango until she made it out of the room and Howard just rocked back and forth on his bed, pulling the sheets off from around the corner of his mattress and continued to laugh and scream as Miroku shut the door.
Jay immediately made his way over and locked the door from the outside, so that Howard couldn't make it out and chase Sango, or anyone else, down. "He's on solitary confinement for the next 8 hours. Nelly," He turned to see the body guard-like employee making his way down the hall. "I'm putting you on duty to give him his lunch."
"Yes, sir." Nelly agreed.
"Sango, if he's not calm in 8 hours, he will be put on 48 hour solitary confinement. I'm not going to put you in danger of taking care of him anymore." Jay said. "That guy is one of the worst we've had." He put a drape over the small window in the door so that Howard could not look out.
Then, suddenly, there was a scream from down the hall.
Hayden jumped from her nurses station and dashed into room 16, where Raven was sitting on her bed, scraping her arm with the end of a toothbrush. "Raven, no, no."
"It hurts!" She screamed. "It hurts! Get it out of me!"
"Get what out? Get what out?" Hayden asked, panicking.
Miroku stepped into the room and saw Hayden kneeling in front of her. Then, she turned back to face him, Sango stood in the doorway not wanting to get in the way. He kneeled down in front of Raven only to see that she was clutching her arm with her hand. "Raven, sweety, you need to remove your hands."
"No!" She screamed. "You hurt them! You hurt them!" She squeezed her arm tighter and Miroku looked back at Sango and Hayden, obviously confused.
"No, I'm not going to hurt you." He said, sweetly. "I just want to look. Maybe I can make the pain go away?"
Raven looked at him for a moment, then removed her hand. There, on her arm, was a deep, bloody, and raw gash that started at her wrist and went to her elbow. Miroku was shocked, but tried to stay calm. "Alright…" He said, looking at it. "Ms. Noriko, can you grab me a flashlight?"
Sango nodded then headed off towards the nurses station, and returned a moment later with a flashlight.
Miroku took it from her and turned it on. Flashing it onto Raven's arm, he couldn't believe his own eyes.
 | Review this Chapter |
No comments:
Post a Comment