Not seeing him get mad calmed her a bit, and Angie let the doctor take charge, instinctively hoping if she did a good enough job, he wouldn't hurt her for it. "Bend down here, please, and keep your arm up."
He did what she said, eyes watching her face as she tied an elastic band around his upper arm. Blood dripped from his elbow in scarlet splatters as she opened sterile packages with an ease that told him she'd done it many times. She was a nurse?
Angela dumped water over the wound, and then spent a moment examining the cut. She placed a large gauze pad over it, pressing hard. "Hold this while I thread a needle."
She made seven small, neat overlapping stitches, and as she finished, Angela became aware of how close they were standing - of the thick tension around them.
She didn't look up and her hands shook as she put on the medicated bandage. "I'm sorry, Brady. I guess knives aren't such a good idea."
Marc smiled, tossing his torn coat into the Blazer's open window. "We'll keep working on it. I've gotten worse from new recruits."
She nodded. Kenny would have been using his fists on her right now, for drawing his blood, intentional or not..
"I'm not him."
Her eyes flew up and he shrugged. "Sometimes, I can see it in your eyes and know what you're expecting, but that's not me, not ever, for any reason."
She sighed, eyes haunted as she allowed herself to open up a bit to him. "I used to know that but I….I can't help it that I'm afraid."
"I'm gonna keep proving it to you." His words were almost a promise, and he grinned. "In the meantime, where'd my knife go, and what in the hell were you aiming at? A rain drop?"
He moved to look for it and her laughter was good, genuine. "So how much medical training do you have?" he asked casually and frowned when her tone immediately became defensive.
"I'm a certified M.D."
"A real Doctor. I never would have guessed. Didn't you want to be a writer?"
"Yeah, but I needed something dependable, and I found I could help people who couldn't figure out what was wrong."
Brady was still frowning, and when she carefully handed him a pain pill, he surprised her by dry swallowing it without asking what it was. Clearly, he trusted her.
"How can you be something like a Doctor and a battered woman at the same time?" The question was out of Marc's mouth before he could stop it.