Do No Harm (Dr. Aubrey Drake #1) Read online

  Do No Harm

  Aubrey Drake, MD Volume 1

  Avery Michaels

  Copyright © 2016 Coastal Escape Publishing

  All rights reserved.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or use fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Coastal Escape Publishing

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  Dedication

  For all of my family and friends.

  With special gratitude to my children: Jayce,

  Landon & Caitlin; my husband, Nick; my partner

  in crime, Paula; good friends, Abby, Kim,

  Bridget, Amy & Dana and of course my parents.

  In loving memory of Sherry Hudson Saab.

  See you when I get there momma. Until then, miss you much.

  And…I didn’t forget you! If you’re reading this,

  this book was written for you!

  Acknowledgment

  I would like to first thank you for reading. Without you, I would still just be writing for fun. I truly appreciate every moment you took out of your day to read my book and I hope you come back for more. Thank you, sincerely.

  As always, I want to thank my family. I love y’all and wouldn’t know what to do without you guys. Nicholas, Aunt Linda & Unc John, GeeGee, Nana, thanks for helping with J-man so I could work. Heather, I really appreciate you and all that you do.

  Team Jayce, you’re all amazing. Mandy, I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better teacher. Everyone at MES and Milestones, y’all are fantastic.

  My co-workers, Annette and Christie and all of my students, I love you all, past and present. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your learning experience.

  Special gratitude to my family members and friends who serve and protect. You’re service is appreciated. My colleagues in medicine and fellow authors.

  My fabulous circle of friends. You’re all the best.

  Again, thanks to James Gallini for his dedication to our cause. The ASA and TSC Alliance who work tirelessly to make the world a happier place for my son. We appreciate your hard work.

  A special shout out to Tomi Warnick for walking me through this process. I really could not have done this without you, Devin and Ilse(EEK!). I also appreciate all the advice from author, Kate Allenton whose expertise and imagination have been invaluable. Thanks again to Coastal Escape Publishing.

  Kathy, Rick, Alex and Liz. Love y’all.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Chapter 1

  “You have big aspirations for such a little girl,” my teacher said to me when I was in first grade.

  The project had been about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Classic. Well, how was I to decide that at seven years old? It was a big decision. My parents made fun of me as I absolutely anguished over the project. They’d made simple suggestions: a teacher, doctor, nurse, veterinarian, or lawyer. All admirable professions, but I wanted more.

  I wanted to change the world.

  For my first-grade project, I chose a change-the-world theme that got a B. As a med student, I pulled straight A’s. As an emergency room doctor and trauma surgeon, I was the best in the city for a newbie. Every hospital in my hometown recruited me, but I didn’t want to get stuck in the small-time, small-town Podunk facilities around where I grew up. I wanted to work in a real hustling, bustling city, so I chose Atlanta.

  I had my heart set on moving before I even finished medical school. So much so that I’d already looked at houses. As soon as I graduated, I accepted an offer from the busiest hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. They were shorthanded and seemed eager to have me. The administrator who made the offer told me, upon meeting me, that he’d never expected me to accept and was excited for me to start as soon as possible.

  It seemed, at Atlanta Regional, known to locals simply as ATL Regional, they’d had a difficult time retaining physicians. It was a big city; the hours were brutal; the waiting room was always full, and the patients were the worst of the worst. I wasn’t scared. If anything, I was stoked.

  “So, you’ll be home to visit, right, Aubrey?”

  “Yes, Mother. It’s only a two-hour drive,” I told her with a hug.

  Daddy kissed my forehead and reiterated again how proud he was that I was striking out on my own, in a new place. Mother playfully smacked him. She’d been spoiled since I’d done most of my school work near my hometown of Juniper, Alabama. I’d had to go to Birmingham, and had done a year of my residency out of state, but I’d traveled home a lot. I could hardly wait to be out on my own for real.

  I never quite hit that fabulous growth spurt that my peers enjoyed. I was five foot two inches, a hundred and five pounds soaking wet, so naturally my parents worried about my safety. Dad slipped me some pepper spray while Mom handed me a Saturday night special.

  “What about your charity work, Aubrey?” Mom asked, desperate to keep me within her reach. I’d been volunteering at the shelter since I was a teenager. When I got into medicine, I started a free clinic program there. “They won’t know what to do without you at the shelter. No one will take care of those people the way you do. You’ll make sure to check in on them, right? Can I tell them you’ll be by once a month?” She fished for a promise.

  “It’s taken care of, Mom. Come on, you guys. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’m a grown woman. It’ll be fine. I love you.”

  Dad led mom back to the car, as if she were dropping me off at the slaughterhouse or something. I loved her, but she was such a drama queen. Of course, I would miss home, but I wanted to make a new home here. I’d actually planned on doing some free check-ups at the shelter closest to my apartment this week on my off days.

  After I saw them off, I settled into my new apartment, eager to start my first evening of work as a real doctor. I would be saving the world, one patient at a time.

  When I arrived at my new workplace for my shift, I walked into what I could only describe as a war zone. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the city sending half the population to the ER. It was freaking awesome.

  “Hey, new girl,” a man in scrubs called out from a patient room. I pointed to myself in question. “Yes, you! Get in here. I need a hand.”

  “I’m Doctor Aubrey D
rake—”

  “Grab some gloves and get a hand on this. He’s bleeding out. I need help in here!” he yelled out of the room in vain. There was no more help to be had. I was it. It seemed that everyone else had their hands full.

  I rushed in, feeling an indescribable high like I’d never felt before, a rush of adrenaline so intense it was as though I’d injected epinephrine directly into my veins. I pressed my hands against the unconscious patient’s abdomen. They sunk with a squish.

  “What happened?” I asked the man who’d called out to me, but he was gone when I looked back up. “Are you kidding?” I yelled. “I need a report!”

  “I’m here!” he said, rushing back in with a handful of supplies. “Gunshot wound to the abdomen. I think the bullet nicked the aorta. There’s too much blood.” He spoke as he hung a bag of fluids, squeezing the bag to force the saline in faster. “You’re going to have to put your weight into that, new girl.”

  “I’m a surgeon. Call for an operating room so I can get in there—” I said, crawling up onto the stretcher to put my whole body’s weight against the patient in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

  He cut me off with a laugh. “First day and first gunshot wound, huh? Well, new girl, you’re standing in the operating room. This is all we have. We’re full. No extra rooms, no extra hands, but plenty of patients! There are always plenty of patients.”

  “It’s Drake. Doctor Drake.”

  He extended a bloodied glove. When I instinctively lifted my hand from the patient to shake it, blood squirted all over my fresh light blue scrubs. He laughed.

  “Gotcha.”

  “That was sadistic.”

  “You have to have a cynical sense of humor to work in a place like this, new girl. You may want to focus. Your patient is dying.”

  I wanted to punch him, but he was right. “Get me two units of O-negative, a sterile kit, and a scalpel.”

  After about thirty minutes, I’d found the source of the bleed and sewn it up. Mister Cynical had been right. There was a tiny nick in the aorta, but fortunately, no major organ damage. The patient would recover.

  “Nice work, new girl. Now, let’s keep moving. We have a full house.”

  “First of all, who are you and what do you do here? Secondly, stop calling me ‘new girl.’ I’ve told you my name.”

  “Fine, Dr. Drake. I don’t get friendly with the newbies because they don’t tend to stick around. We’re walking,” he prompted. “I’m Ben, just a lowly nurse. The pay is shit; the hours are worse, but I fucking love working here,” he said, walking backward with a gleaming white smile that made me believe every word he’d said. We walked together to the desk to grab the next chart. “Best thing to remember is that if you want to keep up, you have to keep moving.”

  “Got it.”

  “You know, Drake, the odds are against you.”

  “Excuse me? I’m a very capable doctor…”

  “No, really, there’s a pool going. Ten to one you don’t last the weekend; five to one you walk out tonight.”

  “I’ll take that bet, in favor.” I smiled. “Now, what’s up next?”

  He opened the chart and actually stopped moving for the first time since I’d walked in the door. With one flawless swoosh of his head, he slung his long dark bangs out of his eyes. His brows met on his forehead and he pressed his lips into a thin line.

  “What is it, Ben?”

  “Rape victim. I hate these.”

  “These? You see a lot of rapes around here?”

  “We’re walking,” he said again to get me moving. “Yes. Unfortunately, we do. And since they haven’t caught that bastard, we’ll keep seeing them.”

  “What bastard?” I asked, trying to keep up both mentally and physically. My legs were shorter than Ben’s.

  “Well, assuming it’s the same guy, he’s The Village Rapist. He’s getting braver too. We’re seeing his handiwork every few days now.”

  “Every few days?”

  “He seems to be getting off on the media attention. They call him The Village Rapist because most of the women are from The Village. That’s the richest suburb of the city. He snatches them in broad daylight sometimes. Some from right in front of their homes. He’s a brazen bastard. I’ll give him that. It’s a gated community. It’s like he wants to get caught, or he just hates rich people. Who knows?”

  I couldn’t fathom it. My mind just wasn’t wrapping around the concept. A man who had an opportunity to rape a different woman every few days? It wasn’t something I had encountered. In fact, I’d never even done a real rape exam before. I’d only been taught how and simulated the procedure.

  Suddenly, Ben’s hand was on my wrist. I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking.

  “Hey, you gonna make it, Drake, or should I call it and collect my money?”

  “You bet against me?” I lifted my chin, suddenly feeling the urge to press on and brushed by him toward the room.

  I steeled myself and rounded my shoulders before entering the room. I found a shaking young woman. She was small, my size, with red hair and dark eyes. There was a man at her bedside asking questions.

  “Excuse me,” I said to the guy, who I assumed was the assigned case officer. He regarded me briefly but continued his line of questioning. “You’re out of line, Officer. A woman should be with you. You should leave.”

  “It’s detective, and we’re just as busy as you are, little miss. I can’t just pluck a female officer out of nowhere. Besides, this is my case so—”

  “Leave, sir. I’m not going to say it again.” We stood there in a stand-off. The poor lady glanced back and forth between us, as did Ben. “Ben, have this gentleman escorted out by security.”

  “You’re a firecracker!” the detective shouted as he walked out.

  “Ben, get two milligrams of Ativan for Miss”—I glanced at the chart—“Miss Lancaster. Let’s see if we can help her relax.”

  “No, no, no,” she repeated, pushing herself back on the bed.

  “Please, let me help. My name is Dr. Drake, um, Aubrey. I’m Aubrey. I’m a doctor, and I need to examine you. You’ll feel better if you take the medicine.” She didn’t say anything, so I nodded at Ben, and he pushed the medicine into her IV. It took effect almost immediately, calming her.

  I motioned for the detective to step back in but to stand at the head of the bed to take notes on anything the victim might say pertaining to her ordeal. I sent Ben up there, as well. I felt that only females should be in the room during a rape exam. This seemed absurd. But at the moment, there was no one available, and I didn’t want her to have to wait.

  “Okay, Miss Lancaster, I’m going to begin the pelvic exam if that’s okay.”

  “My name is Abigail. Stop calling me miss.”

  “Okay, Abigail. Just relax. Tell me if I hurt you. Do you want something for pain?”

  She shook her head no.

  “Doctor, did you know that girls in college are, like, ten times more likely to get raped than girls who aren’t in college?” she said. I didn’t say anything. I was too busy trying to steady my hands. “Well, I’m in college, but home for the weekend, so which side of that statistic do I land on?”

  “Do you remember anything about what happened? Anything about the man who attacked you?”

  “He was as flaccid as a rubber band. He attacked me from behind, so I didn’t see anything, but then he couldn’t get it up so he was just holding me down. I begged him to stop, but he didn’t. He had to touch my behind to get hard. He said that if I tried to look, he would cut me up. He also said I had to orgasm, or he wouldn’t stop.”

  “Did you? Look, I mean? Did you see anything?” I asked. Despite the fact that he was probably younger than me, the detective was writing in a notepad like it was the eighties.

  “No, I didn’t. I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to remember him. I don’t want to remember this. Can you make me forget?”

  “No, honey; I wish I coul
d.”

  “Sweet…He called me sweet tits. I do remember that. He called me something else, too, but I can’t remember.”

  I saw Ben out of the corner of my eye nodding in confirmation that it was the same guy. Before I even got to the pelvic exam, I could see bruising all around her private parts extending to her bottom.

  “Abigail, did he rape you rectally?”

  “No. I thought he was going to—” Her words dissolved into a soft sob, and then she sort of dozed off, which was for the best. I couldn’t imagine that the exam was going to feel pleasant.

  When I finished, I left her sleeping but ordered some morphine for discomfort and Ativan for anxiety. Her parents were waiting. I had to talk to them, but first, I had to talk to the detective.

  “We’re walking,” Ben said.

  “Go on without me, Ben. I need to talk to the detective.”

  “Todd Morris is his name, and he’s not going to tell you anything.”

  “I’m going to tell him something, though,” I said, walking toward the young, handsome detective. He looked like he’d caught the case of his career. He seemed just as hyped as I’d been when I walked in here. Unfortunately, I did not share in his enthusiasm on this particular matter. What had been done to that young lady was brutal. I guess you had to be cynical to be a cop too.

  Instead of moving on, Ben followed behind me. I was surprised.

  “Detective Morris,” I called. “I apologize for being so rude earlier, but it seemed odd for you to be questioning her alone. Anyway, the man who did this was very rough.”

  “Yeah, that’s part of his MO. That and the ‘sugar tits’ thing. We’ve yet to get any semen evidence, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.”

  I nodded. “Do you have any leads?”

  “I don’t discuss open investigations, Dr. Drake.”