Healing Hearts: Elle’s Scars Read online

  Healing Hearts

  Elle’s Scars

  Kylar Wilde

  Healing Hearts: Elle’s Scars

  By Kylar Wilde

  www.KylarWilde.com

  Copyright © 2020 by Kylar Wilde

  First E-book publication: May 2020

  Cover Designer: Ella Strong

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novella is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  The author has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  Disclaimer:

  This book is intended for adults (ages 18+) as it may contain explicit erotica and sexual content.

  Contents may be offensive to some readers. Do not read it if you are under the age of 18 or offended by content as mentioned above.

  The following story is for entertainment purpose only. The author takes no legal responsibility for any results of sexual acts depicted in this story, if you choose to practice them.

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  When Ali’s ex boyfriend accused her of cheating and was hell bent on making her life miserable to the point of killing her, Quinn was determined to protect his girl at every cost…

  * * *

  Get your copy of Quinn’s Girl,

  the 2nd book in the Healing Hearts Series of interconnected romance standalones:

  Quinn’s Girl

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Elle

  2. Derek

  3. Elle

  4. Derek

  5. Elle

  6. Derek

  7. Elle

  8. Derek

  9. Elle

  10. Derek

  11. Elle

  Thank You

  Also by Kylar Wilde

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Elle

  * * *

  “We need to get the wounded out of here!” I yelled over to my commanding officer.

  The base was under attack. It was not something you wanted to have happen, but unfortunately it was happening. I knew, when I enlisted on my eighteenth birthday, that being an army nurse was not going to be easy. I thrived in chaos though and I liked knowing that I was making a difference in the world. I knew the risks I was putting myself into and the danger I was signing up for. Now, after five years of war, nothing surprised me.

  “Get the most wounded onto the choppers!” My commanding officer called out.

  Instinctively, I worked to help everyone I could to get the most wounded onto the choppers that were waiting. Where we would be going, I had no idea. All I knew was to save as many lives as possible. We were only a small base in Afghanistan and would most likely need to relocate to Kandahar. It would be a mess of confusion for a long time before we got our new assignments. Five years of training had taught me to stay calm and level-headed during moments like this. If not for my training, I doubt I would have been able to stay calm as gunshots and explosions surrounded me.

  We worked swiftly, getting as many as we could on each chopper. The pilots had their own issues to worry about, such as navigating their way out with all of these explosions going on. I was glad to not be a pilot in this situation, but being a nurse didn’t make my job any less challenging. It was up to me to help keep everyone alive while in transit, putting me at just as much risk as everyone else in the air. Finally, only one chopper was left, and I was to be on it with my commanding officer and three of the patients that could walk without causing further injury to themselves.

  As we all ran for the final chopper, our way out of this hell, I had just enough time to register the RPG connecting with the chopper. Then everything started to go bizarre. I couldn’t hear anything. All I could feel was the air underneath my body and this wave of heat that consumed me. I could have sworn I was flying, but that would make no sense. People don’t fly. The next thing I could register was pain flooding my system as my body collided with a hard surface. My head smacked against what I assumed was the ground, and it did nothing for my eyesight or hearing. I tried to get my mind to focus on something-- to clear the fuzzy picture that was in front of me or to finally hear something other than my pulse beating in my head. All my efforts only resulted in everything going black.

  1

  Elle

  Six Months Later…

  I easily weaved through the hallways in Tampa Medical Hospital to find my way to the cardiac floor. It had been six months since the explosion at my army base and a week since I had been back in the working world. My life had forever changed since those days in Afghanistan and I knew I would never be the same again. What happened during that time had led to the worst moments of my life. A time I had been trying to forget, but the scars that marked my body made it very difficult. All I wanted to do was forget, but it seemed like my mind was refusing to let me. I was fine during the day or my night shifts. As long as I was working and kept myself busy, I could handle life. It was those moments when everything was quiet, when I didn’t have anything to do, that my demons would poke their heads out and try to drag me down into the abyss.

  I was able to be cleared for work, finally after six months, and now I had been here at Tampa Medical hospital for a week. At first it was a lot to take in. It had been a while since I set foot in a hospital.

  I joined the army as a nurse on my eighteenth birthday with the hope of helping people. I spent almost five years in an active war zone patching up civilians and soldiers. Most of the time I was working on a base and only rarely would I be in one of the army hospitals. I forgot how much the hospitals had at their disposal compared to what I had to work with in a tent or a rundown building.

  It was a little overwhelming at first. Trying to navigate through the complicated hallways to get to the different floors and scan rooms. I was able to figure it out and soon I could happily say I no longer got lost every day.

  I hadn’t really made any friends. Christi, a nurse whom I tended to work with, was nice and we’d had a couple of conversations. I wouldn’t call her my friend though. I’m not sure if she would have considered me a friend of hers. I had learned that my definition of a friend tended to go deeper than most people’s. I had lost many friends overseas and as a result it was hard for me to call just anybody a friend. A friend, to me, was someone who was there for you after you were going through a hard time. Someone that didn’t walk away because
you were no longer happy and perfect. It took a lot for me to consider someone my friend.

  I had spent my first week in the E.R. It felt like coming home in a sense. I was used to working in chaos and the E.R. was definitely that. I could tell some of the other nurses had a harder time with certain injuries and were not sure what to do. We all had different levels of experience and years on the job. To me it was all blood and it didn’t bother me. I was used to it, better than most people. I spent the week stitching people up and helping the doctors with whatever they needed. A lot of the interns were laughable and I knew that most would be switching specialties by the end of their intern year. It was one thing to wish to be a surgeon and another to actually be able to handle it and have the skills.

  This week I was going to be working in the O.R. and on the cardiac floor with Dr. Derek Hawkins. It was interesting the things you learn about people within a single week. I had learned all about Dr. Hawkins and what he was about. The nurses loved to gossip and get me updated on everything I’d missed in the past six months, like I had always been there and had just been on vacation. I wasn’t one for gossip, never saw the point in it, but they told me whether I wanted to hear it or not. Dr. Hawkins enjoyed the finer things in life and was a ladies’ man. He was famous for short, no-commitment relationships with various doctors and nurses. The one nurse, Candis, had slept with him for a few weeks and said it was worth every second of it. Apparently, he was gifted in that department and it was worth it despite the short amount of time. Candis said there didn’t tend to be any hard feelings because everyone knew he wasn't a man that was looking to settle down.

  I could see the appeal to some people of being with a guy short-term; I had done it plenty of times in the past. It was hard to find a man that didn’t care that you were gone most days out of the year to an active war zone. The men I slept with tended to be soldiers or a doctor passing through that base. Long-term relationships weren’t formed because you knew the odds of your partner surviving were slim. Now I had no desire to be with anyone. I used to love how I looked. I had the perfect hourglass figure, still did, but now the hourglass was covered in scars. I hated it when anyone saw my body, any part of it. My scrubs were all long-sleeved so no one could see my arms and I never changed around anyone. I didn’t want the looks. I didn’t want the questions that would come. I didn’t want anyone knowing that I used to be in the army. Once people knew that, they thanked you for your service and then they asked you questions about it. I didn’t want the questions. I didn’t want their thanks. I just wanted to be left alone. I was there to do my job and to do it to the best of my ability. I wasn’t there to make friends or get dragged into gossip.

  I headed over to the main nurses’ desk on the cardiac floor and was not surprised to see Christi here. She tended to be on Dr. Hawkins’ service.

  “Morning. How are you?” Christi asked with her usual big smile.

  Christi was the type of person who was always bubbly. I couldn’t figure out how she was always happy no matter what was going on. I could have sworn she was on drugs or she had some mental defect that limited her range of emotions. She was rainbows and bunnies all day long.

  “Fine, yourself?” I had wanted to just say “fine” but decided I would be a little more friendly.

  “I’m great. Are you ready to experience Dr. Hawkins?” Christi almost squealed.

  “He’s just another doctor to me. I’m here to do my job and that’s all. Is there anyone I need to check on?” The words flowed from my lips in a matter-of-fact manner.

  Christi handed me the list of patients that we needed to make our rounds on and I headed off to check on their vitals to ensure they were okay before the doctor’s rounds that would start shortly. I enjoyed this part of my job; I enjoyed all aspects of my job, but being able to see the patients and speak with them was always interesting to me. I always found it interesting to hear the stories of my patients. Some got annoyed by it, but I liked hearing where they came from, what their lives were like. It made them human and not just some name on a chart.

  I had just finished checking in on everyone when I noticed the group of doctors beginning their rounds. My eyes couldn’t help but go to the one man that I knew was no intern-- Dr. Hawkins.

  He was tall with broad shoulders and I could see his toned arms through his white coat. He had short dirty-blond hair and blue eyes that could make any woman swoon. His scruffy day-old stubble made him even more desirable, like someone straight out of the cover of GQ. He was definitely attractive and something to look at. I could see why so many women had slept with him regardless of him not looking for anything more than just some fun.

  Before what happened to me, I would have gladly taken him up on that offer. He looked like he would be fun in the bedroom and he most definitely would know what to do to make a woman scream. That was the old me though. New me wanted to avoid any form of physical human contact. I just hoped he wasn’t going to be pushy with any advances he might have towards me. I had no reason to believe he would even find me attractive or if he would even want to be with me, but if it turned out that he did, I just hoped he would respect my space and take no for a final answer.

  I headed over to the nurses’ desk and handed Christi the tablet back for her to plug it in. Having tablets was new for me. I was so used to having paper charts. I had to admit I did like the tablets. It was a lot easier and you didn’t have to try and figure out what the last person wrote.

  “So, what do you think?” Christi asked.

  “They all seem good. Mr. Davis is a little nervous for his surgery today, but he’s having a valve replaced so it’s to be expected,” I said.

  “No, not that. What do you think about Dr. Hawkins?”

  “I haven’t met him, so I have no opinion.”

  I knew what Christi was trying to do, but I had no interest in adding to her gossip. Was Dr. Hawkins attractive? Yes, but that didn’t matter. I held an opinion on surgical skills and their ability to be a doctor. I was here for work, and work only.

  “No opinion? Really? You have eyes. What do you think about his looks?” Christi pressed.

  I wasn’t really sure why that mattered so much to her. This is the part of the job that I didn’t understand. In the Army we didn’t have time to sit around and gossip. We didn’t have the need to gossip and talk about what people looked like. We were too focused on saving civilian and soldier lives. We didn’t have time to just sit around and check people out. I had zero interest in doing it.

  “He’s a doctor, that’s all that he will ever be to me. I have no interest in looking at him any other way. Or any other person within this hospital for that matter. I’m here to work, I’m not here to socialize.”

  I knew that could come off sounding cold, but I was getting sick of these conversations about who is sleeping with whom and who should be sleeping with whom. I just wanted to do my job without all of the gossip and drama surrounding it. I had known working in a civilian hospital would be different to being in the military, but I didn’t expect it to be like this. People were far too interested in what everyone else was doing rather than focusing on what they were supposed to be doing.

  “Okay, okay. I won’t do it again.” Christi said, sensing my annoyance and holding her hands up in a mock surrender.

  I didn’t care if she liked it or not, as long as she stopped. I had enough to handle to begin with, I didn’t need someone pestering me on top of it. I sat down at the desk and started to work on one of the computers to keep everyone’s charts updated. I would then need to get ready for the O.R. with Dr. Hawkins to handle Mr. Davis’s heart valve replacement. I was looking forward to being back in the O.R. and helping to save someone’s life. It had been a long time and I was hoping I wouldn’t be rusty.

  2

  Derek

  I had been so focused on my patients and babysitting the interns that I almost completely missed her. I was on my way to the O.R. when I noticed a new nurse sitting at the nurses’ d
esk on the cardiac floor. I had heard from my friend Jeff that we had a new and young nurse that started a week ago. Apparently, she was already making quite the impression from her skills in the E.R. last week. Jeff had said she was able to keep a level head and could handle the chaos that surrounded her. You’d be surprised at how many nurses or doctors couldn’t work in those conditions. I didn’t mind it short-term, but I preferred to be in the O.R. where I could focus and it was quiet. The new nurse though seemed to thrive in the chaos, which had me wondering how well she would do in the O.R. It would be completely different to the E.R. and if she needed chaos, she wouldn’t find it there. At least not in my O.R.

  What Jeff didn’t mention was how breathtaking she was. Her brunette hair was all swept up in a neat bun revealing her beautifully sculpted face. I could imagine her at the end of a work day with a looser bun and tendrils of hair framing her face. Her face was truly beautiful, so much so that I was surprised I didn’t see her sitting there earlier when I was doing rounds with the interns. I couldn’t believe I missed her. I knew I had to speak with her before we got into the O.R., so I made a quick detour over to the nurses’ desk, doing my best to ignore Christi. She had gotten a little weird recently. She was always staring at me and trying to get me to keep her in my service. I knew she had the hots for me, but she just wasn’t my type. The new nurse was my type though and hopefully she would be very interested in getting to know me better and maybe more.