Chapter 46

Kate piled her hair on top of her head and stretched, her jaw popping with a yawn. It had been a long week of boring nights in the ER. She knew it was stupid to hope for a messy bus accident or freeway car pileup, but Mercy she was bored. She'd already spent the first half of her shift doing charts and the last twenty minutes trying to explain to an eighty year old man that herbal supplements for erectile dysfunction wouldn't keep it up longer. And now she couldn't get the image of his shriveled little dick out of her head.

"Kate!"

She perked up and rolled out of the room she'd converted into a hide-away office. "Tell me there's at least a severed limb or something in the ER?"

Patty, the head nurse of the ER, laughed. "No, but there's a maaaan on the phone for you."

"What?" She frowned. No one but Elena had her number. Well, besides family, but her folks wouldn’t call her. Not at the hospital anyway. "What line?"

"Four."

She rolled back in, then back out again. She pointed at the heavyset woman. "NO listening!"

Patty sneered. "All right, but you’re no fun!"

She flipped open another chart, tucked the phone into her shoulder and neck, punching the blinking light. "This is Dr. Morrison."

"H'lo Katy." He cleared his voice, but there was no hope for the roughness. Jamming at the club on top of the show the night before wasn’t the best idea. He took a quick drink of tea. He didn’t need her leaning on him. He just wanted to hear her voice. "How’re things on American soil?"

She nearly bobbled the phone, but caught it just before it hit the table. What the heck was he doing calling her? She twisted the slim watch on her wrist. "Jesus, Jon isn't it like 4am over there?" His soft chuckle echoed through the line. She closed her eyes against the sound. God, it sounded way too tempting and far too delicious.

"Umm, something like that, yeah."

She sat on the edge of her chair, yanking her hair out of her clip. "Should I even ask how you got my number to the hospital from London?"

"That piece of paper you gave me has been in my wallet for weeks Katy, just waited ‘til the time was right to use it." He rolled onto his back, resting his ashtray on his belly. “I thought I’d see how work was going…how you were dealing these days."

"Well hell, Sugar, I completely forgot about that. Clever boy, you are." She eased back in the uncomfortable office chair and let it sway back in forth. "Work is work, but I’ll tell you one thing. I'm about to slip Elena a few sleeping pills.” She twined the curling ends of the phone around her finger. “Oh, say enough to put her into a coma until you guys come home."

Jon glanced over at Richie then moved the phone closer to his mouth. "Do I want to know why?"

"Because she's driving me nuts! What in the sweet pit of merciful hell did he do to her before he left?" She laughed, "Wait, I sooooo don't want to know." She didn't know what it was about Jon, but as soon as she started talking to him, her Georgia got thick as hell. She'd lost most of her accent in med school, but one little whisper of his voice and she was thinking about a lazy Georgia summer night. Shaking that thought off, she went back to swaying. "Enough about my crazy roomie, how'd the show go?"

Jon grinned up at the ceiling. Her accent drove him mad. He’d been aching for just a word in that winter slow molasses voice. He blew out a stream of smoke. "Man, the show was on fire. Richie was like a man possessed on the guitar tonight. Everything just went right for a change.” He frowned. He hoped she wasn’t dealing with too much with them gone. “I’m not too sure what Elena did to him either." He drew in a deep lungful of smoke. "How’s she driving you nuts? I thought you wanted her back to her chipper self."

"Chipper is good, psycho Chihuahua not so much. She's climbing the walls for the love of St. Mike. I swear the only sleep I'm getting is at work."

Jon frowned a moment remembering the prescription bottle she’d found. "You don’t think…" he trailed off not wanting to say it.

She sighed. "I don't think so. I think she's just high on the love bug."

He shifted on the bed as her voice lowered and the slow drawl curled around the word love with humor. "You haven’t seen high ‘til you've seen Richie after a phone call.” He glanced over at his sleeping sidekick. “I swear that man is hopeless."

"I don’t need to explain why I’m glad I'm working a double tonight," she laughed. "So tell me, did you get out to see some of London or are they strapping you down with microphones and tape-recorders?"

Jon snorted. "We never get to actually see the sights. Between all the fans mobbing the hotel and the photographers…well, we stay room bound mostly. We did manage to find a great club to—“ Shit.

“So, I can hear you smoking even over a trans-atlantic call and you went out and sang after your show too?” She let her hands hang over the sides of her chair. God, she gave up. “Dammit, Jon.”

“Aww, Katy. It was finally a bit of fun.” He stubbed out his cigarette, placing the ashtray on his bedside table. He rolled over on his side, tucking the phone into his shoulder. “You can’t fault me for that.”

“Well how about you play guitar for once and let the tall, dark, hunky one sing?”

“I can’t help it. I get up there I wanna play, babe.”

“Try,” she said with a sigh.

“What is Elena doing tonight that’s got you actually glad to be pulling a double?"

Taking the change of subject in stride, she let it go. She wasn’t his mother or his keeper. If he didn’t want to follow direction it wasn’t her problem. "Well, when I left she was getting a new bed delivered. Queen sized so Richie won't hang off the edge anymore." She sighed dramatically, "Because you know it would be all bad for Richie to be uncomfortable in her bed!" She let her voice go soft and dreamy just before she made a choking sound.

Jon bit back a belly laugh as Richie rolled over with a mumble. "I see, well I'll keep that info to myself.” He sat up, turned away from Richie as he hunched over the phone. “Hey Katy, tell me something?"

"Does it include anything about me about my clothes, Sugar?"