The Scotsman

I had been home for awhile when I heard the annoying sound of my phone ringing. My eyes watered at the thought of it being my father. He had been bothering me for weeks, always calling and sending me threatening letters. My hand shook as I lifted the phone to my ear, my breath held.

"Hello?" I asked.

"I see you." My breath hitched and I looked out the closest window.

"Stop playing."

"I don't mess around, darling." I dropped the phone at the sound of his laughter and began to shut all of the blinds. I double checked my locks on all of the doors, tears spilling down my cheeks. Why was he doing this? It had been ten years since I had seen him.

Hospital

"You'd be surprised," Tara Knowles, a surgeon and a friend, said to me, "Jax is a great father."

"Really?" I took a sip of my coffee as I watched other medical staff move around. "His whole biker persona throws me off. You'd expect him to be like my father, a trashy bastard." I admitted.

"You have it all wrong, Rose. Despite how they look, they are quite protective and caring." She had a dreamy look in her eyes. She was so into him but she was failing to show it to him, it was annoying, actually. We both worked in the same hospital together, her as a surgeon and myself as radiologist. We were both around the same age, I was twenty-eight and she was twenty-nine.

"They are intimidating."

"You might like them if you talked to them once and awhile." Before I could respond I heard my pager go off so I stood up.

"I'll see you later." I gave her a smile.

"Wait, stop by the neonatal wing later today." I rose an eyebrow at her.

"Why? Are you setting me up so I have to talk to your biker friends?"

"No, I just want you to look over Abel's chart." She had a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Sure." I walked off and took the elevator to the radiology wing of the hospital. It took a long time to become what I was today. Many years studying, going to school, doing labs and a residency program led me to how successful I was today. Sure, it took ten years to get my M.D degree and complete other programs and residency but it was worth it.

"Dr. O'Malley." A tech greeted me as I entered a room filled with computers and black lights.

"You paged?" I asked, setting my coffee on the table.

"I wanted you to look over this before the doctor comes down."

"Alright. Let's see." I smiled at the young girl, she was new, only been here for a couple weeks. The picture was of an arm, showing the top of the radius and the bottom of the humerus bone. A small black line indicated a fracture, but not a small one. "This is a type two radial head fracture. The patient must have fallen from a high location and used only their arm to catch their self. Our next step?" I asked the tech.

"Call in an Orthopedic surgeon to fix the fractured piece."

"Good. Page the surgeon and the woman's original doctor, I'll give them a report."

"Yes, Dr. O'Malley." The girl smiled and went off to page the doctors for me. Leaning back on an empty table I stared at the picture once more and then grabbed the other picture of it. I had gotten many fractures before and breaks also, not from accidents, though. They had all been meant to happen, and they were all caused by my trashy father and junkie mother. I had been to the hospital multiple times when I was in middle school and high school for many injuries. That was what basically got me motivated to become a radiologist, I wanted to help people who, like myself, had been subjected to injuries- accident or not.

Later that day I decided I would stop down at the neonatal wing just for Tara's sake since she had asked. I had met Jax earlier in the week but I had been called in for an emergency x-ray so I hadn't talked to him that long. His son Abel was in what Jax called the "toaster" because he had been born premature due to his junkie mother. Abel was a fighter and happened to be still strong despite his heart defect and the hole in his stomach. Abel was in a separate room and I noticed no one was in there so I smiled down at the tiny baby boy.

"Keep fighting, little one." I whispered and grabbed his chart to look over what the little boy had in store for him. Two surgeries to fix both his birth defects, he wasn't strong enough but he needed it. Flipping through his chart I didn't notice the door open and shut, signaling someone was in the room with me.

"He okay, Dr.?" I jolted and looked up to see Jax and two of his biker friends.

"Oh, yeah. I was just looking over it." I smiled at sat the chart down. "He seems to be doing great, getting stronger everyday."

"Oh, I know we met earlier, but I'm Jax." He held out his hand and I shook it lightly. Jax was a tall man with shoulder length blond hair, bright blue eyes and a wide frame. He wore a black sweatshirt with his leather cut over it and loose jeans, they were tucked messily into work boots.

"Dr. Rosanne O'Malley." I gave a tight smile and eyed his friends over. One was around five nine with a the sides of his head shaved to expose the two tribal tattoos. He was a caramel color with brown eyes and a goofy smile. He had on a t-shirt with the same leather cut on that Jax had. The other man was slightly intimidating. He was around six foot with shaggy gray hair, deep brown eyes and two long scars on each side of his mouth. He had on a long sleeve shirt with the cut over it and heavy work boots on.

"This is Juice," Jax pointed at the man with the shaved head, "and Chibs." He pointed at the scarred man.

"Nice to meet you."

"You too!" Juice grinned and winked. "What kind of doctor are you?"

"Radiologist."

"I'm a computer tech... oh and a mechanic!" I nodded and cleared my throat.

"Stop flirting, boy. I bet she ain't into ya."Chibs spoke in a low voice, a thick Scottish accent lined his words, making me smile.

"Chibs!" Juice gave a harsh look and I laughed.

"It's okay. Anyway, Tara asked me to come down here to look over Abel's charts." I told Jax. "Don't ask me why, but she did. Abel looks really healthy for what he's gone through, he'll do great in surgery." I was about to go on and tell Jax some other things but Abel's heart monitor started increasing, the beeping getting louder.

"What's happening?" Jax asked worried and I saw his friends tense up. I ignored him and quickly grabbed my stethoscope to listen to Abel's heart and breathing. "Rose!" Jax shouted.

"Shut up for a second!" I snapped and intently listened to his chest. He was having an apnea attack. Gently, I put my hand where his lungs would be and gave slight pressure, repeating the process. The heart monitor started to slow and I gave less pressure, giving a smile. I grabbed my pager and paged Tara and then grabbed a small oxygen mask for Abel to make sure he could still breath correctly. "There you go." I lightly ran my thumb across Abel's cheek. "He was having an apnea attack. His breathing was compromised so I applied pressure to get his lungs to work again. I also added an oxygen mask to help him breath better until Dr. Knowles gets here."

"Thank you..." Jax sighed and shut his eyes.

"Jax it's okay. Many premature babies have apnea attacks, it's common. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh my god." Jax let out another sigh, his hands shaking.

"What happened?" Tara rushed in, nearly hitting Chibs with the door.

"Apnea. I stopped it and made sure his breathing was regular." I summarized to her and saw her walk over to the baby. She checked his breathing and heart with her stethoscope and gave a nod. My pager went off and I looked at it to see that I was needed for a consult. "I have to go." I stopped in front of Jax and gave him a small smile. "Abel is just fine. Relax." I passed his friends and saw Chibs eying me with intense eyes.

"Rose, I want you to be there when Abel has his surgery." Tara told me.

"I will if I can. Dr. Rogers is on my ass for not getting all his x-rays in and checked." I shrugged.

"Thank you." I nodded and opened the door, my feet taking me away from Jax and his friends.

"Doctor!" I turned just in time to see a patient barreling towards me, a crazy look on his face. The man slammed into me, his arms shoving me into the ground. A wave of pain overwhelmed me and I let out a shout of pain. "Doctor!" The man was grabbing at me. "I need my medicine... where's my medicine!?" The man yelled in my face, I struggled to shove him off me. "Give me my fucking medicine!"

"I can't give you any!" I yelled back.

"You're a fucking doctor! GIVE IT TO ME!"

"I'm not that kind of doctor!" I shoved the man away, only to have him slap me.

"Bitch!"

"Rose!" Tara ran out of the room and started to pull the man away from me when he swung his elbow back into her. "Call security!" Tara shouted to the people who were standing by.

"I WANT MEDICINE!" His hands clawed into my arms, making them sting. Before I could say anything the man was pulled off of me and shoved into the wall. "Get off!"

"Relax, man." I saw Jax order the guy before helping Tara up from the ground. Juice and Chibs were holding the man back, glaring at him. "Are you okay?" He asked Tara and she nodded before rushing to me.

"Rose? Can you stand?" Tara asked and I nodded.

"Give me a minute." I put my head in my hands and let out some of the tears I had. Sure, this happened often but never to me. Memories of my father hitting me and screaming foul things at me resurfaced and I felt powerless.

"Hey, hey." Tara put a hand on my back. "You're fine. He isn't here." I nodded and wiped the tears away and stood up, pain shooting through my back.

"You okay?" Jax asked, worried.

"Sure." I looked at the man who had tackled me and glared. "Call psych and make sure he doesn't get any medicine. He's a junkie and doesn't deserve it." A petrified nurse nodded quickly and picked up the phone, and soon two large orderlies were coming to pick up the man. Chibs and Juice had turned around to face me and I saw Juice giving me a sympathetic look. "I'm going to finish my rounds." I went to walk away when Tara called me back.

"You should sit down, maybe. You got tackled, Rose." Tara suggested.

"I'm fine. Just a little bruised, nothing to worry about." Her eyes were sad when she understood what I was saying. I had endured multiple beatings and never got the luxury of going to the hospital and getting medicine all the time. I left with all the men watching me quietly.