"Excuse me……Dr. Jacks?"

Jax stopped in mid-stride as the policeman’s voice caught his attention. His face broke into a broad smile. "Sam! I haven’t seen you for ages! What brings you here today?" Jax’s face paled a little. "Not the wife or kids, I hope."

The cop shook his head with a smile. "Nope. This is strictly business, Jax." Jax came closer to the policeman as he pulled a young man out of the shadows. "We picked this kid up and I’d like you to take a look at him for me."

Jax’s eyes narrowed as he took in the adolescent’s disheveled clothing and the cut over his left eye. Jax walked closer and placed a finger to the patient’s chin, lifting his head so that he could see the wound better. "Looks like it might need a few stitches," he said, glancing at Sam out of the corner of his eye. "What happened?"

Sam pulled Jax by the arm. "Can we go into an examining room and talk?"

Jax shrugged his shoulders. "Sure." He looked over at Amy, who was watching the entire scene with keen interest from the front desk. "Amy, we’ll be in trauma 2 if anyone needs me, OK?"

"Yes, Dr. Jacks," Amy replied, disappointed that she wouldn’t get to see any more of the fascinating interchange. She leaned over the desk to get a view of the departing Jax. Everyone in the ER had been noticing a relaxation in Jax’s dress code lately. Today, his routine lab coat covered a pale blue chambray shirt, khaki pleated pants, and -- to everyone’s shock -- running shoes. Nobody could remember him wearing a tie to work in over a week.

Jax took the patient by the arm and led him towards an examining room with the policeman in close pursuit. As soon as they were through the swinging doors, Jax led the patient to a table and looked back at Sam. "So, what’s the real story here, Officer?"

Sam’s face grew grim. "This kid was driving a mini-bike h*ll for leather in the park." He lowered his voice. "It appears to me that he’s ….less than sober, shall we say?"

Jax turned back to the patient and noted the dilated state of his pupils. "You’re probably right, Sam, but I can’t say for sure without doing some blood work. I sense there’s something important about his state of sobriety?"

Sam nodded. "He hit a young woman who was jogging in the park. She should be arriving here by ambulance any minute. I don’t think it’s too serious, but I wanted to have his blood alcohol level documented just in case."

Jax nodded. "No problem." He heard a commotion in the hallway and could see paramedics wheeling a gurney past the doors of the trauma room. "Looks like your victim just arrived. I’ll go ahead and draw this guy’s blood myself, and then I’ll pop over there and check on her."

"Thanks, Jax," Sam smiled. "You’re tops in my book."

Jax had already begun to pull on rubber gloves and tie a tourniquet around the suspect’s arm to raise a vein. "Just remember that next time I get a ticket, OK?" he smiled, flicking the patient’s arm to help in the process.

Meanwhile, Nurse Jessie was accompanying Brenda’s gurney into the trauma room next door. "What’ve you got, guys?" she fired at the paramedics. Knowing her chief, she grabbed a blank chart on her way past the admit desk and prepared to take down all the information the emergency personnel could provide.

"28-year-old female, hit by a mini-bike in the park, blood pressure 120/80, pulse 120, good breath sounds. Large contusion on the left rear side of the skull, possible puncture wound to the stomach."

"Miss? Hello?" Jessie patted Brenda’s cheek gently with no results. "Has she been awake?"

"She drifts in and out of consciousness," the paramedic replied as they lifted her to an exam table in the first trauma room. He looked down at Brenda. "Looks like she’s coming round again."

Brenda moaned and her eyes fluttered open. Jessie leaned over her and smiled. "Hi there, hon. Glad to have you back with us."

Brenda frowned and looked around. Was this heaven? It sure didn’t smell like it. "Where? Doctor......"

Jessie patted her arm. "The doctor will be in here in a few minutes. He’s next door right now with the kid that hit you on that mini-bike. Do you remember any of that?"

Brenda put a hand to her forehead. "Oh.....my head.......hurts," Brenda mumbled.

"I know, the paramedic said you got a pretty hard bump on the head." Jessie flipped open the chart. "Can you tell me your name, hon?"

"Barrett.....Brenda Barrett." Brenda suddenly opened her eyes wide. "My stomach.....oh, my God!.......Hurts!!........"

Jessie glanced down at her stomach and for the first time noticed a blood spot and a small tear on Brenda’s jogging pants. "OK, Ms. Barrett. Try to take it easy. I’ll get the doctor and he can check you out and then maybe we can do something for that pain." She flipped the chart shut and nodded to one of the other nurses as she pulled a stethoscope from around her neck and placed it on Brenda’s chest. "Get her clothes off while I get some vitals."

Just as Brenda was about to drift into oblivion again, the doors of the trauma room burst open and Jax came bustling in. "What’ve you got?" Brenda’s eyes fluttered once, but then began to widen at the sound of his voice.

Jessie turned to Jax. "28-year-old female, mini-bike versus pedestrian. Paramedics report vitals stable although her blood pressure has been fluctuating a little. Left side skull contusion, but Ms. Barrett is experiencing pain....."

"BLOODY H*LL!!!" Jax never let Jessie finish her synopsis as he grabbed the chart from her hands and came around to see Brenda’s face. "BRENDA!" Jax swore again under his breath, something that the ER personnel had never seen their chief do before.

"Do you know the patient, Dr. Jacks?" Jessie moved into position at his side as Jax thrust the chart back into her hands. She grabbed a tray of instruments in anticipation of his orders.

"We’ve had dinner a few times," Jax replied, pulling on new sterile gloves and reaching up to try to open her eyelid.

"OUCH! Geez, do you poke all the women that you date in the eye, Jax?!" Brenda was none too happy as she grabbed Jax’s wrist and pulled his hand away from her eye.

"I’m sorry, Brenda," Jax replied sheepishly. He glanced at Jessie, nodding towards her chart. "I think we can safely give Ms. Barrett high marks in the "awake and alert" category." As he glanced down at Brenda, he saw the blood stain which was widening on her sweat pants. "We need those off immediately so I can see where the blood’s coming from."

As Jessie nodded and began to cut away the sweat pants, Brenda’s eyes grew panicked and she grabbed for the nurse’s hands. "Don’t you *DARE* take my clothes off!" She looked up at Jax. "Not with *HIM* around!"

Jessie smirked and hesitated for a moment as Jax leaned over Brenda. "Brenda, there’s a blood stain and it’s getting larger by the minute. I can’t figure out what’s causing it and stop the bleeding unless we take your clothes off."

Jessie had moved to the side and was preparing to draw some of Brenda’s blood when Jax grabbed the syringe and alcohol swab from her. "I’ll do that," he murmured to Jessie in a low voice. "You work on getting rid of her clothes." There was a few second pause and then he turned back to Brenda. "Now, hold still for a minute. You’re going to feel a little stick in your arm. I have to take some blood."

"Geez, he pokes me in the eye, he takes my clothes off, he’s sucking my blood – you are one *heck* of a boyfriend, Jax," Brenda mumbled, wincing as she felt the needle enter her vein. She vaguely heard Jax talking to another nurse about typing and crossing before she felt cool air on her upper thighs and was jolted back to the issue at hand.

"Hey! Did you think that because I wouldn’t go to bed with you, I would just lie here and let you take my clothes off? You’re some kind of sick pervert!" Brenda spat. Jessie tried very hard to stifle her giggle as Jax’s eyes grew wide.

"Brenda, I’m your *doctor*!" Jax growled through grit teeth. "I need to examine you!" He said something Brenda didn’t understand again to the nurse about a crit but she shrieked loudly when she felt someone’s hands slip under her panties.

"BRENDA!" Jax hissed, leaning down so that he was just inches from her face. "Act like a grown-up! Do you want me to help you or do you want to bleed to death here on this table?"

"I WANT my own doctor! Where’s Dr. Walsh?" Tears began to run down Brenda’s face and Jax felt his heart melt. He looked up at one of the paramedics, who had just returned at the sound of her yelp. He leaned into Jax and whispered something to him, and then Jax leaned back over Brenda and took her hand in his.

"Now listen carefully to me, Brenda. The ambulance couldn’t take you to Cal Med because they’re handling some traffic accident victims. They brought you to Cedars instead. The bottom line is that you’re stuck with me for your doctor. Now either you behave and let me examine you, or I’ll have you restrained."

"Now I *know* you’re some kind of pervert, Jax," Brenda replied grimly. "You never told me before that you were into kinky bondage stuff." As Jax grimaced at the loud giggles from the staff around her, Brenda’s face turned white. "Jax…….oh, God…..it hurts!"

Jax glanced down at her now-exposed stomach and saw a small but rapidly expanding pool of blood. "I know it hurts, love," Jax crooned. His attentions were immediately focused on the wound in Brenda’s stomach. "I’m going to clean away some of this blood so we know what’s what. I’ll try not to hurt you.

A bright light blinded Brenda momentarily as Jax pulled it down to get a better view of her stomach wound. As Jessie handed him sterile gauze, Jax swabbed at the blood on Brenda’s stomach until a small puncture wound was clearly visible.

"Let’s get an IV going," Jax murmured to Jessie. As she prepared to insert the needle into Brenda’s arm, Jax ordered IV antibiotics and probed Brenda’s stomach gently. "Does this hurt, Bren?"

Brenda moaned an affirmative answer, her face blanching. Jax leaned down to her once more. "OK, I’m almost finished, sweetie, but I need to roll you over so that I can make sure there aren’t any wounds in the back." Brenda grit her teeth as Jessie and one of the other nurses gently rolled her to her side. Jessie kept smiling and talking to Brenda, but it didn’t take away any of the embarrassment at Jax seeing her naked backside.

After what seemed like an eternity, Jessie and Jax rolled Brenda back to her back and Jax drew a sheet over her. "Brenda, it appears that something must have stabbed you in the stomach in the accident. Do you remember anything poking you after the bike hit you? A knife or something?"

Brenda shook her head. "No….nothing." She reached up and grabbed Jax’s arm. "Can’t you give me something for the pain?"

Jax sighed. "I know it hurts, love." He leaned down close to Brenda’s face and took her hand. "I don’t think that whatever stabbed you hit any vital organs, but we’re going to need to do some surgery to make sure. It’s called a laparotomy. Now – I’ll get some papers for you to sign so that we can go ahead with the surgery, and then I’ll give you something to take away most of the pain, OK?"

"Surgery?" Brenda mumbled. She heard Jax telling the nurse to get the necessary paperwork and then was surprised when she felt his fingers gently pressing on her neck and under her hairline. "What’re you doing now?"

"They said you came in here with a contusion…" Jax saw Brenda’s confused look. "…..a nasty bump on the head. I’m just making sure you didn’t get a concussion too." He took his stethoscope and placed it against her neck, then flashed a bright penlight in her eyes. After he clicked it off, he held up one hand in front of her. "How many fingers, Brenda?"

"How can I tell after you shine that d*mn light in my eyes?" She heard Jax sigh, and then tried to focus. "Three."

"Good." Jax looked over at Jessie. "Call the OR and book us a room. Page Norm Muschany for me and see if he’s available to do a laparotomy stat. Bobbie Spencer, too, if she’s on duty. And get Alan Quartermaine down here to cover for me and run the ER while I’m upstairs."

"You’re not doing the surgery yourself?" Jessie rose one eyebrow.

"I don’t think that would be wise," Jax murmured, glancing down tenderly at Brenda, "considering my involvement with the patient." He took a deep breath. "I’ll just assist. Oh, and when you call upstairs, call X-ray and tell Ned I need a quick head CT on a patient bound for surgery. We’d better make sure she didn’t suffer any kind of minor head injury that could cause a problem during surgery."

Jessie nodded and went to the phone. "Do you want me to tell Dr. Ashton who the patient is?" When Jessie realized just who this patient was, she also remembered hospital gossip identifying Brenda as a friend of Ned and his wife.

Jax put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, you might as well. Maybe it will get Ashton to rattle some cages and get us quicker service." Jax looked over and saw Sam standing in the open doors of the trauma room. "I’ll be right back," Jax motioned to Jessie. "After you’re done there, be sure to get me those papers and have a bolus of morphine ready when I get back."

Jessie nodded as Jax went over to talk to Sam. "How is she?"

"She’s got some kind of puncture wound to the stomach," Jax sighed softly. "We won’t know until we actually get inside if it hit anything important." He pulled Sam closer. "Did the kid have a knife or an icepick or something?"

"No, but he had one of those fancy high-up rear-view mirror things," Sam replied. "It snapped like a twig when the bike went over, so I suppose it’s possible the broken end could have stabbed her when she was wrestling with the bike on the ground."

"Well, I guess we can all be happy that all it pierced was her stomach," Jax sighed, putting his hands on his hips. His gaze traveled to the hallway and he raised one hand to Sam. "Would you excuse me? I see someone I need to talk to."

Sam nodded as Jax sprinted after a white-coated female. "Jean! Dr. Cichon!"

Jean turned around as soon as she heard an Aussie voice calling her name. "Jax! Just the man I came down here to see."

"Why? What can I do for you?" Jax sighed in exasperation. Would this day ever start running smoothly?

Jean gave Jax a coy look. "Now that’s a loaded question if I ever heard one, Dr. Jacks." She noticed his tense demeanor and got to the point. "I just came to see if some of my nurse-anesthetists could come down here sometime and observe some cases from the very start – but you look like there’s something more important on your mind."

Jax took her by the arm, leading her back to the trauma room where Brenda was. "There is. I need you to scrub in on an emergency laparotomy right now. Are you free?"

Jean batted her eyes at the tall, blonde, dreamy doctor. "No, but I’m reasonable," she quipped. Jax gave her a dirty look as he pushed the doors of the trauma room open. "Geez, you sure got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. What’s so important about this case?"

Jessie was just passing by to give Jax the consent forms and she looked up and winked at Jean as she did. "Because the patient is none other than Jax’s new girlfriend." She caught Jax’s glare and Jessie’s face sobered. "Uhh…..Here’s those forms Ms. Barrett needs to sign, Dr. Jacks."

"*Thank* you, Jessie," Jax said, alternating glares between the smug Jessie and the now-grinning anesthesiologist. He looked at Jean. "Can you scrub in with us?"

"Sure," Jean nodded. "Who’s operating?’

"Norm Muschany, I hope," Jax said, walking back towards Brenda. He glanced down at her as Jean glanced over Brenda’s chart. "OK, I’m back – finally. Now I’m going to get Jessie to help sit you up just a little so you can sign these."

Brenda groaned again. "Good – I was beginning to think you went all the way back to Australia there for a minute." She grimaced as Jessie and Jax raised her upper body very slightly. Brenda squinted at the papers. "This doesn’t give you permission to use my body for some kind of alien autopsy, does it?"

Jax smiled. "No. I promise – just a quick peek inside and we’ll sew you back up again." He showed her where to sign and as soon as she did, he lowered her back to the table and glanced at Jessie. "Got the morphine?"

Jessie handed him a syringe. "Right here."

"OK, Brenda, I’m going to put some pain medicine in your IV now," Jax said gently. "You should start feeling more comfortable in a few minutes."

Brenda nodded as Jean pulled a stool up to the head of the examining table. "Ms. Barrett? I’m Jean Cichon, and I’ll be your anesthesiologist for the surgery. I just need you to answer a few questions for me, and then I’ll get you started on something to relax you a little."

"I could use a big glass of white wine right now," Brenda groaned, but Jean just shook her head and laughed.

"I’m afraid I’ll be using something a little more potent than that. Are you allergic to anything? Any antibiotics?" Brenda shook her head. "Do you smoke, or regularly take any drugs?" Jean busily wrote in Brenda’s chart.

"No, unlike that wacko who hit me on the motorbike," Brenda growled.

"Nothing at all? No prescription medication for allergies, pain pills, something for indigestion?" Jean gave Jax a cautious look as he checked Brenda’s blood pressure again.

"*Nothing*!" Brenda replied angrily. "Maybe Dr. Jacks should check *your* hearing!" She frowned and closed her eyes. "I don’t even take birth control pills," she murmured sleepily.

"Really?!" Jean drawled. She chuckled a little and glanced up at Jessie, winking at her. "That’s an important bit of patient history I don’t think Dr. Jacks noted, isn’t it, Jessie?’

Jessie tried to stifle her smile again as Jax looked up and took the stethoscope from his ears. "What was that? I missed something?"

"Yes, doctor," Jean replied seriously. "You failed to note in Ms. Barrett’s chart that she doesn’t take birth control pills." She tipped her head to the side. "Now personally, I would think that Dr. Jacks would want to check out that medical oversight and remedy it as soon as possible, don’t you think so, Nurse Moore?"

Jessie nodded and burst out laughing as she walked away, but Jax just gave Jean a dirty look. "That wasn’t at all funny, doctor," Jax snarled.

"It wasn’t intended to be, *doctor*," Jean returned, just as sassy. She closed Brenda’s chart. "OK, this should be fairly routine." She glanced down at Brenda, who was beginning to get a goofy smile on her face. "I don’t think I’ll order anything after all – it looks like that morphine you gave her is hitting her pretty hard." Jax took Brenda’s wrist in his hand and held it firmly, looking at his watch to take her pulse. "So what happened to her?"

Jax signaled to Jean to wait just a minute, then he put Brenda’s hand back. "She was jogging in the park and got hit by some kid we suspect was stoned on a mini-bike. It looks like the rear-view mirror stabbed her in the stomach."

Jean nodded. "Those mini-bikes can be a menace."

Jax gave Brenda a pointed look. "Well, actually they’re not normally a problem unless pedestrians are too busy…." He leaned down closer to Brenda. "…..PLOTTING THEIR NEXT NOVEL…." Brenda’s eyes flew open. "…..to watch where they’re going."

"I *was* paying attention to traffic this time, Jax," Brenda whined, tears gathering in her eyes. "He was stoned – he couldn’t stop in time and he hit me."

Jax raised the rails on her gurney and began to push it out into the hallway. "Yeah, and just what were the hero and heroine doing when he hit you, Brenda?" He nodded to Jean, who assumed a position on the other side and helped him push.

Brenda’s eyes flew open and her hands began to flutter in an animated fashion. "Well, see – there’s this English doctor, and an American woman who happens to be a spy crashes her spy airplane in his field, and the doctor is taking care of her and he discovers she’s a spy….."

Jax chuckled as he brought her gurney to a stop in front of the elevator doors. "Yeah….I can *see* now just how much you *weren’t* plotting when this happened, love."

The elevator doors opened and Alan Quartermaine rushed off, giving Jax an "OK" signal as they passed. Jax pushed the gurney onto the elevator, grabbing Brenda’s chart from Jessie right before the doors closed. "We’re headed for x-ray and then we’ll be up to surgery as soon as we get a clear head CT."

Jean nodded and pushed the button for an upper floor, and then she turned back to Jax. "Plotting? Hero and heroine? Is she talking about writing a book?"

Jax nodded. "Brenda writes romance novels."

Jean’s mouth dropped open. "Wait a minute…..she’s….you mean, she’s THE Brenda Barrett?" Jax nodded with a disgusted sigh and Jean turned to Brenda with new respect. "The Brenda Barrett who wrote "Destiny’s Fierce Desire"?"

Brenda opened her eyes and stuck out her tongue at Jax. "See – I told you I’m popular."

"I just LOVED your last book, Brenda!" Jean gushed. The elevator doors opened again and Jax began to push the gurney out, giving a grunt and a dirty look to Jean – who was so busy admiring Brenda that she forgot to push her side. "Maybe tomorrow when you’re feeling better would you sign a copy of your book for me?"

Brenda patted Jean’s hand weakly. "If you bring me through this with no more than a bad hang-over, I’ll send you an advance copy of my next book." Jean grinned triumphantly as the gurney advanced towards Radiology.

"Well, Brenda, this is as far as I go for now. I’ll head on up to the OR and see you there in a little while." She patted Brenda’s hand and then went back to the elevators as Jax pushed her into Radiology.

A little while later, Jax took Brenda’s gurney back on the elevator again and they headed up to the surgical floor. Jax was taking calming breaths when suddenly Brenda reached out and grabbed his hand. "Jax – I’m scared." He looked down to see big tears rolling down her cheeks.

He brushed one away with his finger and leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead. "I’ll be there with you the whole time, love. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you."

Brenda nodded, and two more nurses came and placed a plastic cap over her hair and took the gurney from Jax. "I have to go down the hall now and scrub in, OK? Before you know it, you’ll be in your room and I’ll be waking you up."

Brenda gave a weak smile as the nurses wheeled her away. Jax watched until they were completely through the next set of doors, and then he turned and sprinted down the hall to get gowned and scrubbed for surgery.

Two hours later, Jax glanced up at the clock in the surgical waiting room. He paced back and forth one more time before sitting down noisily in one of the antiquated leather chairs.

He propped his elbows on his knees and massaged his temples in disgust. {Well, Jax. This was a first. You’ve never been thrown out of an OR before in your life. Just wait till they hear this one down in the ER.}

Dr. Norman Muschany had been senior abdominal surgeon on the staff at Cedars for the past ten years. However, when Jax had tried to remind him for the fourth time to take small stitches when he closed the incision, Dr. Muschany had asked one of the nurses – politely – to escort Dr. Jacks to the waiting area and make the h*ll sure he stayed there. Jax had given an audible sigh, and then turned and walked briskly out of the OR, pulling his arm out of the poor surgical nurse’s grasp.

At least he had been there long enough to make sure that Brenda hadn’t suffered any serious injuries in the accident. The metal prong hadn’t hit any of her vital organs. Jax didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until he heard Dr. Muschany say the comforting words aloud. Between watching the operating field and glancing up at Jean, who kept giving him a reassuring thumb’s-up, Jax had never been so nervous during a procedure.

Jax had prowled the waiting room until one of the surgical nurses came out and informed him that Dr. Muschany had closed and Brenda was being taken to recovery. But his face turned into a scowl again when he found out that, for the sanity of the recovery room staff, Dr. Muschany had also given strict orders that Jax wasn’t to be allowed inside.

He had taken a brisk walk down to the ER, where Jessie greeted him with a stack of telephone messages and snickered about his new reputation as "kinky Dr. Pervert." Jax had been sorely tempted to make some kind of sharp comeback, but he was so drained from the emotions of the day that he just spun on his heel and went back into the elevator, his lab coat snapping like a super-hero cape behind him.

By the time he got back up to the surgical floor, Jax was relieved to hear that Brenda had been moved to a room. He nearly flew back to the elevator and was at the door of her room in record time.

He caught his breath as he stood in the doorway of the darkened room. She looked so small – so helpless – laying there in the sterile, white bed. Her chest was rising and falling in the even rhythms of sleep. Jax walked quietly into the room, and pulled a chair over next to the bed.

Brenda moaned softly and turned her head from side to side on the pillow. Jax took her chart from the rack at the bottom of the bed and let out another sigh of relief when everything he read was normal. Placing the chart back in the rack, he walked over to the chair and sat down as quietly as he could.

Her eyelashes were so long – he had never noticed that before. Jax wondered for a moment if her mother had a beauty mark next to her mouth like Brenda’s. Brenda stirred, and Jax reached out to take her hand in both of his. At his touch, Brenda seemed to quiet. Jax let out a big sigh, and finally gave in to the pressures of the day. Leaning forward, he placed his head on the bed next to her, and fell promptly asleep.

To be continued……