Family? Acquaintance?

Phill's POV

I knew I had a special spot for Lea from the first day that we met. It was beyond the relationship of a doctor and patient.

I was not the type to swoon over random women but Lea felt different. It felt like I knew her, perhaps from another life, another dream. Don't know exactly what this feeling was. But it was building up, slowly.

Fate, you could blame it all on fate. She kept bumping into me now and then, and every time she looked miserable. I hated that. I hated seeing her in pain. And it always turned out it had something to do with that jacka*s boyfriend that she had.

Though she never admitted that he was her boyfriend. They seemed more like an old married couple without the physical part of the relationship, or so I thought.

Now she was again in front of me and I was staring at the images being shoved in my face.

A live foetus in her womb. She was pregnant with her bones broken, and could perhaps remain in the icu for a couple of days.

It definitely belonged to that irresponsible popstar. What was his name again, yeah, Jake. It was his, I was one hundred percent sure. Lea wasn't the slut type to sleep around with people. In fact she was awkward in those situations.

I know because I kind of tried it. At the coffee shop. About a month or two ago, when I accidentally bumped into Lea at one of those shopping malls. She was alone and lost, sitting and crying in a corner.

My initial thought was to ignore and walk away but I could not. I knew she was unavailable, off bound, yet I wanted to reassure her and wipe those tears.

I thought she didn't remember my name because we had only met once , at that time, in the hospital but she immediately recognised me and straightened up. She slid along the bench to make space for me to sit.

Damn, she was gorgeous when she pretended to tuck those stray strands behind her ears but wiping her eye with the back of her palm in that pretext.

" Hi, Doctor Rodgers. Good to see you around here! Do you come here often? " She had asked.

" Umm, yeah! I needed to pick up some groceries. My house help had to leave early. I am here thinking how I would be cooking a healthy storm up in my kitchen, without burning it down. " She giggled at my story.

What a relief. I could make her laugh.

" Why? Are you a bad chef " She had asked.

" Hhmmm, very! I never needed to learn the art before I moved out of my house. Truely makes you appreciate the small things. "

She woobled her tiny head, suddenly standing up,

" Since I have nothing to do today, I can assist you with you cooking. I will teach you simple dishes that you can make without burning down your entire kitchen. You helped me in the hospital I will help you now. Give and take. " She did that 'you and me' thing with her hand as she talked about giving and taking. Was it my heart? Nah! I'm just joking. I was too busy admiring her innocence. She was like fresh drop of unadulterated dew on the lotus.

Those few minutes might have been the happiest in my entire life. I drove her to my apartment and she went straight to the kitchen like a master chef.

She washed her hands and face and dived straight for the flour bowl.

" Whoah! Hold up. You forgot this! " The apron. I went around to put it on her because her hands were already deep in the bowl, beating flour and water into a dough.

I swear my heart stopped there for a moment. It was a miracle it started beating again without CPR.

When I bent down to make my hands go around, helping her tie the damn apron, her breath fell directly on my face.

The sweetest scent of fruits as if in a cocktail.

She must have noticed the embarrassing changes in my body. She immediately looked away, giving me time to regain composure.

She did teach me how to bake the softest bread and a creamy cheesy dip to have it with.

And like a very good student or a crazy lunatic, that was exactly what I have been making and eating for the past couple of weeks in her remembrance.

She had disappeared as suddenly as she had come into my life.

And here she was back again, broken once more.

I clenched my fists under the table.

I needed to get a hold on my emotions and see her as a patient.

" Have we been able to locate all the fractures? "

I asked my juniors who were gaping, apparently they too noticed my paranoia and discomfort.

" Yes Doctor Rodgers. Around five. " One of the nurses answered.

" Ok good! We need to call in the resident gynecologists. They need to take the case from here because her medication will needed to be moderated keeping in mind the preganacy aspect. But I want one person from my team to keep a track of the updates. I will need you to send me hourly monitoring reports, whenever I am not there. "

I think my commands confused them further.

There was no scope for departments to meddle in the functions of the other.

We were the doctors in the ER. We catered to patients in emergency. How could someone from ER be on a constant watch for a particular patient in the gynecological ward, if not under special circumstances like the patient being a close acquittance or family member of the managing committee. Because normal doctors did not have that authority in their hands.

It was kind of a blessing that my family owned and ran the place.

Though I never let that get to my head. In fact, I had almost forgotten about it, had it not been for this incident.