Chapter 78: A Thought Given Life

Katherine observed the wound on Todd’s leg and the scar left behind. It had been six weeks since he injured it, and during this time he had followed her instructions down to the letter.

The wound had healed nicely, and Todd seemed to have made a full recovery. Or at least was on the path to doing so.

She sighed heavily and pulled off her surgical gloves, tossing them into the medical waste bin before reaching over to the sink and washing her hands thoroughly.

The soap that came from the dispenser was a greenish color, this was the result of the product being domestically manufactured by Elysium from a mixture of hemp and goat ghee. It was a sustainable and exceptional solution to their increased demand for sanitation materials.

After washing her hands thoroughly, Katherine dried them off towels, which were also tossed into a nearby wastebin for cleaning at a later date.

She then sat down in front of Todd, waited for the answer impatiently.

“Good news, you should be good enough to begin resuming your daily duties. However, for the time being I’m going to recommend to Dean that you remain at sentry duty. No explosive movements, light drilling, and if anything, you should be at a post with a chair. Don’t make me come out there and drag your as back to this table….”

Todd nodded his head quickly in agreement with the doctor’s orders. He had been under Katherine’s watchful gaze for over a month now, and he had most certainly learned to fear the woman.

But Katherine either didn’t notice, or pretended not to. Because of this, she quickly helped Todd to his feet and sent him on his way.

“Now get out of here, I doubt you want to spend a second longer in this infirmary.”

Todd bowed his head, a gesture that surprised Katherine, and spoke softly beneath his breath.

“Thank you, Doctor Whitaker… for everything….”

She allowed herself a rare smile as she watched the young man climb the stairs.

“Well, who would have thought… the little brat has some manners after all.”

Katherine finished cleaning up her station, and then climbed the stairs back to the main level of Dean’s home. There she found Brooke alone, she was taking her lunch break. But neither Yuki nor Dean was anywhere to be found.

When Katherine entered the room to pour herself an extra cup of coffee, Brooke ambushed her with a comment.

“So what’s the deal between you and Dean?”

Katherine damn near dropped her coffee mug, swiftly spinning around to look at Brooke who was staring at her as if she were trying to peer through her very soul.

She took a moment to calm her nerves before responding to the question.

“I don’t know what ideas you have in that pretty little head of yours, but there’s nothing going on between me and Dean. He loves Yuki, and I’m just his doctor.”

Brooke however shook her head, as if she were trying to physically dismiss Katherine’s response.

“Nope… That doesn’t add up… You see, I’ve been thinking about this lately. You and Dean are unusually close. I mean hell you live with the man. Albeit in a separate room unlike Yuki… But, you could easily have the house built next door, and walk over here every morning. And yet here you are….”

Katherine scoffed as she sat down next to Brooke with her coffee. Sipping it slowly while looking away from the woman’s intense glare.

“I told you, it’s not like that… I came here at a very bad time… I was initially placed under house arrest, the suspicions were warranted considering the circumstances. However, after I proved myself, I just sort of stayed. This house is the most safe, and the clinic is built below. If I had to be woken up in the middle of the night and dragged through the snow during an emergency, it could waste precious seconds that could otherwise be used to save the patient’s life.”

Despite Katherine’s convincing tone and the logic behind her words, Brooke wasn’t buying it, because while this explained why she was staying here, it didn’t fully solve the bigger question on her mind. Which Brooke was quick to bring up next.

“And yet… the two of you seem so friendly every night when you drink together. Despite there being a television right there with access to the better half of mankind’s cinematic achievements, you too just sit there and talk all night. Yuki is convinced it is little more than meaningless decompression, but…”

She let her words linger long enough for dramatic effect.

“You lean forward when he talks… just slightly… like you don’t want to miss a word. And I see the way you smile at him while playing with your hair. Those aren’t the actions of a platonic friendship. There is something more going on between the two of you. And I want to know what.”

Katherine was utterly stunned by the accusation. She was about to deny it as slander, but she caught herself midway through the thought.

Had she been behaving so… intimately with Dean while they drank together every night?

She replayed the nights in her mind. The quiet conversations, the shared silences, the way he listened without interruption. At the time, she had categorized it as professional familiarity.

But now… stripped of that assumption… it felt dangerously close to something else.

Brooke immediately understood something that even Katherine didn’t. And stood up from her seat, she let out a deep sigh before walking off.

“Never mind, forget I said anything… If things are as platonic between the two of you as you claim, then I have no reason to hassle you over this. You have enough on your plate right now…. We all do.”

Brooke left Katherine to her lonesome. But how could she ever forget what the woman had said now that the thought had been given life?

She sat there silently for some time, long after she had run out of coffee, reflecting deeply on her interactions with Dean and her relationship with the man.

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