Chapter 7 Overreact Much

My eyelids fluttered. I had a heck of a headache. I groaned and raised my hand to rub at the ache, but large hands caught mine and pulled them back down to my side, holding them in place.

I opened my eyes as I started to become aware of other odd things.

Pierce's head was bent down over mine from behind me and his eyes were pinned to my face. His ever-present frown furrowed his brow. I tugged at the hands holding mine. I had the strongest desire to smooth out his skin but his grip only tightened.

That was when I noticed I was laid out across the back seat of a car, my back propped against Pierce's chest as he sat cornered up against the door, his legs splayed so that I fit in between. I stiffened at the intimate contact. I stiffened even more as the car hit a bump. We were mobile.

I struggled to remember what had happened so I could figure out why I was in the position I was now in. I tried to sit up. Pierce only pulled me back down.

"How are you feeling?" he asked from right above my head.

"Confused," I muttered.

"That makes two of us, then," he muttered right back.

"Sorry," I said meekly. I felt weak and insignificant and the big hateful man holding me so tenderly wasn't helping the situation.

"Can I have my hands back?" I asked, tired of playing the one-sided game of tug of war.

He released them abruptly. Unprepared, the hand that had been tugging flung upward and almost popped myself in my jaw if his hand hadn't darted out and caught it before it could connect.

"Good job," I giggled, feeling strangely loopy but the giggle jiggled my head and I groaned, my now free hand rising up to rub at the throbbing spot.

"You amaze me," Pierce grunted and I had a feeling he was shaking his head.

"Where are we going?" I asked wanting to change the subject. Though his words themselves sounded like they could be a compliment the sarcasm lacing his tone clearly indicated otherwise.

"Hospital," he answered succinctly.

I groaned out loud and struggled to sit up. I had no desire to go to hospital. I just needed to eat something and rest a bit.

Pierce finally allowed me to sit up and I scooted further down on the leather seat, giving him room to lower the leg he had had plastered up against the back of the seat that had allowed me to lie as comfortably as I had been in the vee of his legs. I felt awkward and my eyes shied away from his spread thighs as he shifted to sit normally.

"I don't want t... to go to the hospital," I finally managed to articulate.

"I don't really care what you want right now Jackson," he snapped back. "You had a panic attack and then you passed out. You're going to the Emergency Room to get checked over."

"But..." I tried to say but his eyes cut me a look that had me shutting up.

"Overreact much?" I muttered to myself.

"I heard that," he murmured and I flushed.

"I meant for you to," I griped back, then a thought hit me and panic mode set in. Turning to Pierce, grabbing his arm, I demanded, "Where's Cissero?"

He looked at me with droll eyes. "Now who's overreacting?" he asked as his finger hit a button and the partition between the front and back lowered down revealing the large bodyguard I had seen earlier and my Cissero with his head out the window, tongue lolling leaving slimy trails of slobber down the inside and outside of the half-lowered window.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, surprised he had let my messy pet into his custom car.

"He um... he kind of slobbers a lot," I said in way of an apology.

"No kidding," he responded sarcastically but his eyes still reflected humor so I knew he wasn't trying to be a jerk. I had a feeling it was just a natural talent of his.

Sitting in the backseat, feeling awkward as well as a nuisance I tried once more to get him to turn the car around and take me back home.

"Seriously, Pierce, I mean um... Mr. Lucciano, I'm fine. You c... can take me back home."

I knew by his expression it wasn't happening. His words only confirmed.

"Pierce is fine but you are not. We're going to the hospital!"

I wanted to stomp my feet in frustration but I knew that would only make me look like that ten-year-old he sometimes treated me as. I didn't want that. All things considered, and I did mean all things, I needed Pierce to see me as an adult, better yet an equal. He seemed to have a tendency to run roughshod. I needed to stand up for myself.

We pulled up to the Emergency Room doors and were immediately met but a team of nurses and doctors. I frowned and kept frowning over the next forty minutes as I was immediately whisked through the doors into a private room and assisted by an older but very compassionate nurse.

She helped me undress, which I didn't think was necessary, the undressing or the assistance, and she stayed with me the entire time through the examination, blood work, and even some x-rays. It all seemed overboard and not normal at all for an emergency room visit.

Once everything was done and we were just waiting for the results Nurse Rosie, she now insisted me calling her, ushered Pierce into the room.

"You've been waiting all this time?" I asked surprised. I figured he had a lot of better things to do on a Saturday than wait around a hospital for me. I had been getting ready to call Archer to arrange for him to come and pick me up.

"Not really," he responded and I glanced up at him surprised. "More like outside in the car with Cissero. Nurse Rosie just texted me that you were settled back in the room so I left Cissero with Marcus and walked in here just now."

"Oh," I said in a whisper.

Nurse Rosie excused herself and as she closed the door I turned to Pierce and murmured, "Is this normal?"

"What?"

"Everything," I tried to explain. "There was no wait when we got here. I was met by a team of specialists, all kinds of tests have been done, and Nurse Rosie has stayed with me the entire time. I thought Emergency Room visits were long and draggy and you usually see a resident not a team of experts."

Pierce smirked a bit back at me. "Maybe what is normal for some is not normal for all," he answered.

I frowned. "I don't understand?" I responded.

"You don't really have to," he commented.

Before I could ask anything further his cell phone rang and he stepped back outside the room. Two minutes later Nurse Rosie was back, checking my IV solution, getting me some water, plumping my pillows and chattering a mile a minute. I didn't have the heart to ask her to be quiet so I could sleep. I knew sleep would be exactly what the doctor would order. Coming here and doing all this was a waste of time.

Thirty minutes later the doctor and his team marched back into my room. Pierce, I noted was directly behind them. I didn't like him being in here while the doctor talked to me but they seemed to think it was just fine and I didn't know how to speak up to say otherwise. Considering he had brought me all this way it would have seemed churlish to make a big fuss now.

If I had known what the doctor was about to say and the reaction it caused, I would have insisted.

"You're severely dehydrated, your blood sugar levels are low. The IV solution hooked up to your arm now should be dealing with and correcting both of those problems. You mentioned you hadn't eaten so most likely that is why your blood sugar levels are low but we advise you to make an appointment with your personal physician for a reevaluation to make sure you are not prediabetic."

I nodded as he spoke knowing good and well, I wouldn't be doing it. His advice was CYA, cover you're a**, pure and simple. I had no plans to sit through more medical tests just to learn what I already knew.

I was hungry.

"Also, you indicated in our questionnaire that you take anxiety medication but your urinalysis detected low traces of the prescription. Have you not been taking your medications?"

I sighed. Frustrated didn't begin to describe how I was feeling and having Pierce Lucciano listen in to every part of my personal medical information wasn't helping my exasperation.

"I usually take it first thing in the morning but I unexpectedly stayed overnight elsewhere and have not had the chance to take them," I explained.

What followed was a long dialogue about prescriptions and the importance of following medication management protocols.

I glared at Pierce then and was surprised to find him already glaring back at me. I floundered for a second but decided I was too irked and was just fine with a staring contest. I was pretty sure I was more aggravated than he was right now.

Every single one of my problems could be led back to his door. What made him think he owned the patent on irritability? I was pretty sure that anybody who knew the man had a nice close relationship with the feeling.

The doctors finally left with medical warnings about prescription taking, eating, drinking, and resting. I wanted to chime in and ask if they had any Pierce Lucciano warnings to go with the others but by the look on that particular person's face, I didn't think it would be a wise choice.

As the doors shut behind the medical team Pierce turned on me with an angry expression.

"Some friends those!" he snarled.

I plopped back against my pillow in surprise. He was angry. Really angry right now. I had obviously been wrong in thinking I was the more aggravated party.

"What are y...you talking about?"

He had been pacing the floor but when I spoke, he whipped around to face me.

"And damnit! Stop stuttering around me!" he demanded.

"S... Sorry," I stuttered and gulped. I couldn't help it. He made me nervous. Every single thing about him made me so nervous.

He scowled at my stutter but he didn't yell at me again. He seemed to at least appreciate he was somewhat responsible for it and that continued yelling most certainly wouldn't help.

"Your friends though," he said as he went back to his pacing. "Do they know about your anxiety, your panic attacks?"

I nodded my head yes.

"And still they kept you out all night away from your medication? And you're so hungry your blood sugar is severely low. And don't get me started about your severe dehydration! I promise you I am trying really hard not to comment on that!" he said eyeing my reclining form in the hospital bed.

I pulled the sheet higher up over me. Pierce had a way of looking at me that seemed more intimate than it should.

"What about the dehydration?" I asked stumped.

"Are you really that...?" he started to ask but stopped.

He closed his eyes for a long second and took a deep breath before opening them again, his stare unreadable as it took in my blank expression.

He suddenly laughed low in his throat. It was a strange low guttural chuckle that held humor and frustration and something else I couldn't quite identify.

It was an oddly appealing sound.

And that bothered me more than anything.

He wasn't a very appealing person. He was an attractive man, of course. That I couldn't deny. But on the inside, what drove his behavior seemed fairly suspect.

He had been quite rude. He hadn't been nice at all. He'd done practically nothing else but make absurdly wild accusations since we first met.

So, why did listening to him laugh make me want to smile?