Chapter 350 Grits: Sweet or Savory?

Chapter 350 Grits: Sweet or Savory?
Lou grabbed a suture kit from the supply closet on her way and led Dominic into her office.  Once the door was shut, she turned to see a scowling man.

“That guy put hands on you often?”

“Nothing I can’t handle, Cowboy.  Now, take off that jacket and shirt for me.”

“Been here five minutes and you’re already trying to undress me, Lou?”

Dominic said while wiggling his eye brows.

“I will call security, Dominic.”

He sat down with a playful huff and did as she said, careful not to jostle the needle and thread still hanging down from his arm.  She winced when she saw it.

“Better start talkin’ while I start workin’ in case I get paged to the OR, we're near a full moon and the crazies are out and about.”

"Is that really true? When it's a full moon, hospitals are busier?"

"Busier with the less believable shit comin' over the pager. Now don't change the subject."

Dominic sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Original wound was a short blade, just a few inches deep, sewn up by an Army medic on scene.  This morning, Rueben and I were wrestling in the living room, he caught a suture with one of his back claws and ripped it open, adding some flair to the edges with another claw.”

"Is he okay?"

"Are you asking me if my pet raccoon, who cut me, by the way, is okay?"

"Sure as shit am."

"He's fine, thanks for asking."

Lou nodded but gave him a playful smirk that made his knees feel weak, he was glad he was already sitting down. She nodded back to his arm.

“And the knittin’ you attempted on your own?”

“I couldn’t get a good angle with my other hand.  Plus Rueben was freaking out because I yelled.”

“…and Antibiotics for the raccoon claws…”

Lou said, finishing Dominic’s thought.

“Yep.”

He said, popping the ‘p’.

“You know, I can’t numb this without puttin’ in paperwork to get the lidocaine ordered.”

“I know, I have a feeling you have quick hands.”

She nodded, her eyes a little wide in surprise that he wasn’t wincing at all as she cleaned the wound and removed the sew job he’d attempted.

“Are those all the details I’m gettin’ for the original wound?”

Lou asked once she’d finished cleaning him and sewing him back up with barely a grunt of pain from him.

“While I don’t know how secure somewhere is, yes.  But, tell ya what, come have dinner with me tonight when you get off and I'll tell you the gory details.”

She chewed her bottom lip, looking like she was weighing the pros and cons.

“Fine, dinner tonight.  Where at?  I’ll be comin’ straight from here so don’t be choosin’ no where fancy.”

“That depends.  You tell me what your absolute favorite meal in the world is and we go from there.”

A wicked little smile lit up Lou’s face.  This was a perfect little test for the Italian man.  She was sure this one would throw him for a loop.  If you googled Southern grits in this city, there were no listings for the small little hole in the wall places that actually served the good shit.

“Grits.  I love grits.”

Dominic nodded, trying to school his face into a passive one of indifference.

“Savory or sweet?”

Lou was a little shocked that he knew to ask.

“I leave that up to you, Cowboy.”

Dominic smiled his bright smile that showed off his dimples, always causing Lou to melt when she saw them.  She took a step backwards, the smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls becoming a bit heady for her and the heat coming from his skin was insane.

“Alright, come to my place after work and you’ll have your grits, Emmilou.”

She growled at him, a deep rumble that Dominic found sexy and adorable at the same time. He put up his hands innocently.

"Hey, we were talking about grits...it seemed to fit the theme of our conversation."

"Fine, that was very Southern of me, wasn't it?"

"You said it, not me."

Dominic rose to leave but kept looking at her, wanting to say something but not knowing what, exactly to say.

“Thanks for patching me up again, Doc.”

“Better start bein’ careful now, Cowboy, or you’ll be owin’ me some hefty favors.”

“I can’t decide if I’d like that or love that.”

Dominic quipped back as Lou opened her office door.  She stopped, holding it open as Dominic looked into her eyes, his bright blues meeting her stormy greys, as his gaze then flicked to her lips and back up before he slowly began leaning towards her.  Lou, without thinking, began leaning towards him, her eyes semi-closing.

A page came over the intercom, shocking them out of their haze and making them jump back a step, still staring at each other.

“Code Blue, room 305.  Code Blue, room 305.  Code Blue, room 305.”

That was her patient from earlier this morning, chest trauma from a car accident.

“Fuck.”

She yelled as she pushed past Dominic.  That room was right around the corner from her office in the recovery area of the surgical floor, she was probably going to be one of the first on scene.

Dominic couldn’t help his morbid curiosity to see her in action so he closed her office door and casually followed her path around the corner, seeing through the window as she was straddling a patient and pumping their chest before a nurse came flying in and taking over.  Lou hopped off the bed and started barking out orders.

“Someone call Dr. Wallace, we need cardiac down here.  Page Tina, I’m scrubbin’ in now.  Paddle him and run him down.  OR number 2, page the students.  LET’S MOVE Y’ALL!”

Dominic spun and tucked himself around a corner as she came out, her running shoes barely making a sound as she sprinted down the hallway past her office and threw open a door, disappearing behind it.  A group of five in their early to mid-twenties in white coats came around the corner, moving fast but not looking as rushed as Lou.

“Good thing Dr. Harris chose the teaching OR.  I’m excited to see a cardiac reentry to see the actual damage of CPR.  Did you hear that guy’s ribs crack as she pumped him?”

“Dr. Harris is brilliant.  We are so lucky to have her as a teacher.”

“No kidding.”

Dominic slipped in with them, following behind close enough to look like he belonged, but far enough that they weren’t suspicious of him.  He stepped into the room behind them, seeing chairs sitting above the operating table like a theatre.  He’d only ever seen these rooms on television medical dramas.  He was mildly surprised that they actually existed in real life.  The five students took the front row of seats while Dominic leaned against the back corner with his good shoulder, crossing his legs at the ankle.  Lou stepped in like a tornado, her arms up in the air as two nurses pulled a white paper gown over her scrubs and pulled gloves down her wrists before putting her mask and a clear shield over her face.  She looked like a mad doctor with her widows peak sticking out from her surgical hat which he didn’t fail to notice was black with silver bats on it even though it was almost December and Halloween was long past.  She looked magnificent.  Dominic scowled when that asshole Dr. Wallace came in the same way Lou did.

“Fill me in, Lou.”

He saw her shoulders tense as he used her nickname.

‘Same girl, same.’ Dominic thought to himself.  

Dominic was impressed as he could hear every word clear as day and looked around, noticing little microphones hanging from the ceiling in the OR.

“Five students in attendance, Dr. Wallace.”

‘Good girl, put him in his place.’ Dominic smirked to himself as he noted her tone, reminding the other man to keep it professional.

“Right, Dr. Harris, catch me up.”

“Fifty-five year old male, in recovery since 9 AM with major chest trauma, internal hemorrhagin’ from MVA.  Stabilized while on table.  Crashed two minutes ago.  Performed CPR, cracked at least two ribs on ‘em.  Thinking we have gone beyond Trauma to Cardiac.  I’m here to assist.”

“Always happy to work with you, Dr. Harris.”

He said, winking at her.  Dominic ground his teeth, knowing he couldn’t walk in there and punch the guy no matter how bad he wanted to.  The two female students giggled when Lou turned and looked at their window and rolled her eyes dramatically.

“She’s so fucking awesome.”

One of the male students said and Dominic glared daggers at the back of his head.

“I know.  I heard from one of the nurses that Dr. Wallace once sent her flowers and she carried them two floors up just to throw them in the trashcan outside his office.”

“I heard she’s a lesbian, evidently Tommy from Neuro saw her making out with a chick outside of a club one night.”

“Either way, she’s out of all of our leagues.”

All five of them agreed while Dominic took many mental notes for himself.
———————————-
An hour later and Dominic’s phone vibrated in the silent room.  It was Lucian so he would need to call him back as soon as he stepped out, even though he wanted to stay, finding watching her do her thing was hypnotic, but he also only had a few hours to go grocery shopping and cook her grits. One of the students heard his phone and turned around.

“Oh, I didn’t realize we had company.  What department are you with?”

“I’m not.”

“They don’t let just anyone come in and watch surgeries, man.”

“I’m a chemist from Harvard, here to watch Dr. Harris.”

“Dr. Harris, a trauma surgeon, and chemistry?  I don’t even see a connection.”

“Man, it’s Dr. Harris, it’s probably ground breaking and will blow our minds.”

Dominic just nodded his head before walking out, calling Lucian back.
——————————-
“What’s up, Luc.”

“Everyone’s coming to the office tomorrow to start going through all of the shit we got from Morrow’s.”

“Perfect, I’ll be there with bells on.”

“Just so long as you’re there and not jingling them in my fucking face…also, I’m sorry for stabbing you, man.  I just lost it.”

“I have a feeling it would have been the same if it were Lou on that screen, Luc.”

“How’s that going?”

“She’s coming over for dinner tonight and guess what she told me.”

“What?”

“Her favorite food is grits.  The way she said it, I have a feeling she was testing me, thinking a boy with a slight Italian accent knows fuck all about grits.”

“Oh man, she’s in for an awesome surprise.”