The Stone Beyond

that blah blah blah.”
“Infinite blah blah blah.”
Jennifer said, “I get it.”
“You do?”
“I guess it was never going to work out anyway.”
“No?”
“All the complications at work,” Jennifer went on, “my father —”
“Yes.”
“This problem with the ACA policies —”
“Very complicated,” Parker said.
“Everything that’s coming … it could be disastrous.”
“Earth-shattering.”
“That’s right!”
“Is it?”
Jennifer’s imagination scrambled for an answer. “Well, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
Jennifer kept scrambling. “You … but … what? You don’t?” He shook his head. “Why not?”
Parker smiled.
“Like I said,” Parker said, pulling her close, “it’s a matter of perspective. Things are tough at the hospital, that’s true —”
“And about to get worse —”
“Probably, yes. But together, we can do more than we could have done separately. And now, well, we can work even more closely together.”
“Shin Xu will freak out.”
“It’s none of her business, Jennifer. And while I’m not going to lie to anyone about it, or about anything, there’s no reason we have to advertise about it either.”
“No?”
“Of course not. It’s our workplace, Jennifer. I think it’s only a matter of mutual respect, and respect for our workplace itself, our colleagues and our patients, not to, y’know, spread it around.”
Jennifer felt a great sense of relief, a sigh spilling out of her that seemed to take so much of her remaining tension along with it. “I … I’m worried about how I’ll be perceived, how we’ll be perceived.”
“I understand that,” he said gently. “Though we are both single, and neither works directly for the other, and you must know it happens all the time —”
“You do this all the time?”
Parker chuckled. “You know that’s not true. And in case you don’t know, it’s not true … for me. I meant, in the industry.”
But Jennifer did know, and she was relieved to hear that Parker wasn’t one of those rascal surgeons she’d seen so much of.
“So I’m going to go home, clean up, and go to work. You do the same, and we’ll see each other later. And it’ll all be fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah … perspective.”
“Perspective,” she repeated.
“Yeah?”
Jennifer smiled. “Yeah.”
Parker turned the engine over and Jennifer stepped back to let him pull out of the parking lot and then out to the street. She watched him drive off, amazed at his incredibly gentle but precise insight. He had experience she didn’t have yet, but wanted and needed … and fast.

CHAPTER TEN
Jennifer’s stomach turned when she drove up to the front entrance of Flowerhill General just an hour later, the signs visible above the small crowd. They didn’t seem to be much more than a dozen people, but it wasn't a good omen.
Jennifer flashed back to the misery at Rocky Mountain General back in Denver, Colorado. She’d dreaded it happening again, but it had seemed inevitable. Still, it was happening faster than she’d expected, which was an even worse sign.
She drove a wide route far from the entrance, keeping her eyes on the crowd gathered around the entrance, trying to decipher the scrawl on the signs.
Screeching breaks grabbed Jennifer’s attention, her feet instinctively slamming onto the break pedal of her own car, the big machine lurching to a stop around her. Stomach turning and heart racing, Jennifer looked up to see somebody she didn’t recognize in a car in another aisle of the parking lot, perpendicular to her, inches from a collision. The other driver, a middle-aged woman, was snarling at her from the other car before driving around her and onward to a safe distance. She shouted out of her car, “Wake up, you dummy!”
Jennifer sat there behind the wheel, suddenly nervous, palms clammy, overwhelmed where she should have been in complete control.
Take it easy, Jennifer, for chrissake!
Jennifer took a deep breath and slowly pushed her foot down on the gas, pushing her car toward the employee parking. Jennifer drove into the subterranean parking lot where the employee’s section was, driving up three levels to the least convenient spots. She parked and got out of the car, the lot quiet and creepy around her. Jennifer looked around, certain she was alone before locking the door and walking across the lot floor to the hospital.
Jennifer’s footsteps echoed in the concrete parking lot, other sounds echoing from uncertain locations. Something louder got her attention, a clanging, but she couldn’t be sure what it was or whether or not she should be concerned.
Don’t think about it, Jennifer told herself, just get into the hospital!
Jennifer kept walking, silence surrounding her but for her own footsteps, echoing in a steady series of clacks in the concrete chamber. A cat shrieked behind her, Jennifer spinning and looking around, the parking lot just as empty behind her as it was in front of her.
Just some stray cat somewhere, Jennifer told herself. Don’t be ridiculous, now turn around and move!
Jennifer turned to do just that, walking quickly but not running. The hospital came up ahead, but it seemed to get further away the faster she walked toward it. And that gave her altogether too much time to think about who wasn’t in that garage with her.
A lot of people could have seen me on the television back in Colorado. I didn’t even think about that! And what about that dream? I’m sure that was just … a dream, had to be! Still, now they’re protesting here? It’s too weird! Not that I can mention it to Parker or Dad, they’d both think I’m off my rocker, and they’d probably be right.
But a few other sounds in the parking lot got her attention, making Jennifer’s heart beat a bit faster. There was definitely another set of boots in that wide, low parking layer, heavy footsteps moving faster in that gray, concrete maze.
Jennifer stopped and looked around. “Who’s