Page 20 of Ellie 1

He was silent for a moment. “Tell me that’s not all you have.”

“No, but you’re asking for basically everything on hand, sir. I’d only have the emergency reserves left. I know people think we have pipes of purified blood with our additives running around Atlanta, but we don’t actually. And we need more pushing for donations. I hopeeverypresident uses this situation to repeat that because we never refilled our reserves after the last catastrophe.”

“None of us knew that,” he worried.

“Then you have a problem with people not getting reports on your desk,” I bit out. “Because I haverepeatedlybeen making that a headline of anything from ASH for months. Our reserves are onlyhalfof what I want in case of a real attack, and you personally asked me to expand. I work miracles, but I can’t actually change water to blood.”

“Okay, I hear you. I will—we’ll have a blood drive to help—I’ll handle it, Ellie. I promise.”

Good because I’d help put this man into the office he now had and I had felt a bit like a dropped tool after that. I’d meant to make a stink earlier, but… I had a rather large hospital to run.

It took up most of my day.

Still, I was down on myself for not doing it sooner and now Asia needed all of our blood on hand. Fuck.

So the last thing I needed was Tommy grabbing me and dragging me into the stairwell. My exhaustion and shock were the only things that kept me from reacting sooner.

I broke his hold on me and couldn’t hide my shock. “Dr. Fitz, you better never do—”

“Is the new guy who you’re fucking, Ellie?” he hissed as he backed me against the wall. He moved his hand next to my head and leaned in. “Is he?”

“What?” I gasped, searching his eyes and flinching at the anger there. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Tommy really pissed off. “Who?”

“Clark,” he bit out. “Are you fucking Clark?”

I couldn’t get my mouth to work and that pissed him off even more and he leaned in. I shoved him off of me, actually stronger than him since I was a vampire and he was a warlock. “You’ve got alotof nerve, Tommy. You fuck half the hospital and have the balls to get in my face about anyone? Seriously?”

He flinched, but the anger stayed. “Yeah, well, they don’t get in your face—”

“I’ve never touched Dr. Clark, so I have no ideawhatis going on here, but it’s so over the fucking line that—”

“I don’t know that I believe you,” he snapped but lost some of his anger as he probably heard how bad that was.

I ground my jaw and couldn’t hide my anger. “You’ve seriously become too much drama for good sex every other week, Tommy. Walk away and don’t find me again until you have a fucking apology on your lips for all of this or I’m done. I can chalk a lot up to today, but—you’re so far over the fucking line I’m disgusted.”

He stood there and simply stared me down like it was some sort of challenge of who left first like that meant losing theargument. How petty and childish. It was right then I decided to end things with him even if I wasn’t going to at that moment.

I walked away and went back to handling the blood situation. Details were worked out, and then I had to request more supplies be flown in which were going to cost more than I wanted to pay.

Fuck it. I was adding that to the bill as well. The government could more than afford it if they were paying for this by waving some of the hospital’s taxes over the next few years.

It was time to start delivering to the military to transport through the portal, so I headed there and oversaw it going through the same trauma portal… And found a very nervous Dr. Clark pacing behind me. He looked like a pup ready to be spanked.

So he’d clearly done something and that was what had set Tommy off.

Great.

“Walk with me, Dr. Clark,” I instructed when I saw there was a lull. I gave the same instructions he had earlier and when he’d needed to take breaks. He nodded and trudged along with me, glancing around when he saw we weren’t going inside.

No, there were always too many ears inside.

Plus, I needed the night breeze right then to keep me awake. I was exhausted. Others had sat down in between rushes or surgeries. I had maybe sat for five minutes the whole fucking day.

And I included peeing in that.

“Talk,” I ordered when we were far enough away and alone.

“First of all, I’m very,verysorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to start the trouble I did.” He waited until I reacted.

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