It was one of the longest work days Jillian could remember, culminating in a friend of a friend almost dying in a cave, of all places. Because some monsters had abducted her and forced her to treasure hunt for them. Jillian had actually helped with the search for that woman until she had to clock in at the hospital.

She’d been there when that poor woman—a work colleague of her sister Carrie—had been brought in. It had been touch-and-go for a while.

There was nothing she would ever understand about the way some people treated others. When she was finally in the locker room gathering her things to go home she was more than happy.

Lunch with Allen had almost done her in. She’d wanted to take a break with Lacy, but her friend had had an emergency surgery to attend to on another woman who’d suffered a complication in that same damned treasure hunt.

Something was going on with Lacy, and Jillian knew it.

Getting her friend to talk was going to be more than a bit difficult, though. Lacy would close up tighter than a clam when something was bothering her.

She looked up at the sound of a raised voice—usually she was alone at this time of the evening.

It was a woman and from the tone and the conversation—Jillian winced at the words the woman used, whoever was on the other end of the line was getting an earful—it was not a happy call.

Or a cheap one. The woman railed and railed about the money.

Jillian didn’t really care at the moment. She wanted to figure out what was going on with her friend. She grabbed her bag, slammed her locker shut, and headed for the door.

She didn’t make it.

Because of him. The frog.

The Chief of Medicine caught her coming out of the nurse’s station, her tablet in her hand. She’d just asked Dr. Netore to review her paperwork when he walked in. On the warpath.

“Beck. Having trouble reading the board tonight?” There was bite in his tone and she knew she was in for it. Jillian tried to think over everything she’d done in the last nine hours. She couldn’t think of anything lately.

Jillian waited for Nikki to sign off on her paperwork, then she tossed it in the tray for the next step in the process.

“Nothing new there. Been struggling with reading my whole life, after all. Dr. Holden-Deane, how are you this evening? It’s a bit wet outside, isn’t it?” She was stuck, and she knew it. His ridiculously big body, all hard and muscled, blocked her path.

“Why was Dr. Netore signing off on your paperwork again?”

“She just was. It’s the way we do things around here. See you all tomorrow.” She wasn’t about to tell him why.

His snarky-ass comment about her reading was not going to set her off. She didn’t take it personally—she doubted he actually knew about her dyslexia. Or dysgraphia. Not like she shouted it from the roof or anything.

It was just Rage Old-&-Mean being his regular nasty self. And if that was the extent of it after what had happened between them, she could deal. It was mild in comparison to the other arguments he’d started between them.

Not like she hadn’t been snarked at over reading before. She had enough confidence in herself that he was not going to knock her down because of what she couldn’t change.

Not everyone could read well; she couldn’t. But life went on. And it was best to not ever let the enemy know if they’d scored a hit or not.

Jillian just smiled at him and blew him a kiss. Just for kicks. She’d learned in his first week that the unexpected would sometimes stop him in his tracks long enough for her to escape him.

She darted around him when he shifted slightly and glowered. She had to duck only a little to slip under the arm he rested against the counter. Damned giant.

Then Jillian ran.

Before he even turned around she was at the pneumatic doors. She heard him curse at her, and Dr. Lanning say something to catch his attention.

Wanda got in the COM’s face, all angry pseudo-mother. Jillian strongly suspected she knew what her supervisor was telling him. Jillian thought about starting back in there.

Wanda didn’t need to fight her battles for her.

Wanda saw her and waved her away meaningfully. Wanda was her direct supervisor, time she followed directions, right? Jillian took the coward’s way out and kept running.