Page 3 of Marrying a Prince

She nodded. "Good. And do you know your name?"

She watched as he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"Leo," he said, this time much more anxious.

"Okay, Leo. Do you remember what happened to you?" she took out a thermometer and placed it under his tongue.

He glanced over at her and waited until it beeped. "I went for a run and hit my head."

She wrote his temperature down on her pad of paper. Then she reached into the nearby drawer and pulled out a flashlight. After shining it in his eyes for a few seconds, she noted that the pupils were the same size. That was a good sign.

"Okay. I'm going to go get the doctor and your real nurse, and they will get you taken care of," she said smiling at Leo and then over to Mrs. DeLuca.

Mrs. DeLuca nodded. "Thank you. Of everyone at this hospital, you were the most caring. We won't forget that."

Marianna smiled. She was pretty sure as soon as these people walked out of here, they were going to forget all about her. "I hope you feel better, Leo."

"Thank you," he called after her.

She walked out the door, anxious to get out of this place. As she stood outside his room, she took a deep breath. She was going to have to talk to Samson. The one thing she'd sworn she'd never do again.

As she approached him, Barbie stepped in front of her. "Where are you going?" she asked, snapping her gum.

It took all of Marianna's strength not to turn and punch her in the face. It had only been two months since she'd caught Samson and Barbie together, and that was definitely not enough time to forget what it felt like to walk in on them.

"There is a patient in room seven that I need to report on. Once I'm done, I'll head back upstairs." She narrowed her eyes. "Trust me, this is the last place I want to be."

Barbie stared her down and then sighed. "Fine. Why don't you just report to me, and I'll take it from here." She grabbed out a notepad from her scrubs pocket and readied her pen.

After Marianna gave her the stats, Barbie nodded. "Got it." Then she motioned with her hand. "You can go."

Not waiting for another second, Marianna turned and left. When she stepped out of the ER, she took a deep breath. That had been a mistake. She should have never allowed Mrs. DeLuca to convince her to help.

That's what happened when she took risks. She got hurt. And right now, she wasn't sure she could handle getting hurt again.

When the elevator rang on the third floor, she handed a semi-lukewarm Diet Coke to Donna and collapsed onto a nearby chair.

"What's with you?" Donna asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I had a detour at the ER," Marianna said, burying her face into the crook of her arm.

Donna scoffed. "What? Why?"

Marianna groaned. "Some desperate woman talked me into helping her son get seen. Of course Barbie and Samson were there, so that was just great."

Marianna could hear the pressure release as Donna unscrewed the cap. "You're too nice, Mari. You need to be meaner." She took a swig.

Marianna straightened and glanced over at her friend. "I need to find a new hospital. I thought changing departments would help, but it obviously didn't." She rubbed her face with her hands.

Donna shook her head. "You need to get that man-whore fired, that's what you need to do. A doctor sleeping with a bunch of nurses? That seems like an HR nightmare."

Marianna rolled her shoulders back. "No, I'm not going to do that." She sighed. What was she going to do? Just complain about him?

Yes. For now. Once she had better control of her life, then she'd be more assertive. Until then, she was just going to avoid the ER, and thus, avoid Samson.

Chapter Two

Leo's head throbbed. His eyes hurt. His leg hurt. But what was causing the most pain was his mother's incessant nagging. She hadn't left his bedside for the last twenty minutes. Instead, she kept asking him, over and over, what he’d been thinking.

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