It had been a nightmare.

She’d also noticed that Christopher, (AKA Lucifer Bradford to those that didn’t want to piss him off) had been in way over his head. Technically, he still was and if she let him have his way and get rid or her, then the poor man wouldn’t know what to do with himself or the Fire & Brimstone. He needed her, almost desperately, she concluded with a pitying sigh and a shake of her head, because really, she had no choice but to stay and help him.

It really was for his own good.

“I wonder what they found,” Melanie said with that calculating tone of hers that just made Rebecca want to sneak into the bitch’s room one night and smother frosting all over her face so that she could sic Mojo on her.

“They didn’t find anything,” she said in aggravation, foolishly taking the bait and promising herself that if Melanie kept this shit up that she was stopping at a store on the way home and buying a dozen cans of frosting.

“Then why would they ask you to come in?” Melanie asked, sounding smug, which she knew from experience wouldn’t last long.

As soon as the Doctor broke the news to them that she was probably a fucking nut job just looking for attention, Melanie’s tone would turn slightly…crazed. At least, that’s how the last Doctor had described it.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said instead of allowing herself to be drawn into this pointless conversation.

She absolutely refused to have this conversation again.

It just wasn’t happening.

It wasn’t.

“They found something. I can feel it,” Melanie said firmly, which of course earned an eye roll, because Melanie was always sure that they’d finally found a reason why she couldn’t seem to go a day without getting sick.

She should keep her mouth shut, because she knew that if she ignored Melanie long enough that she’d get bored and drop the conversation, but the stubborn part of her that couldn’t leave well enough alone just couldn’t keep quiet.

“Yeah? And what am I going to do if they find something, huh?” she demanded.

“We’ll deal with it,” was the immediate response that had Rebecca sighing heavily as she tossed the magazine back on the neat pile in front of her so that she could give her undivided attention to her best that she loved more than anything, but was likely to kill one day.

“Really? What if they find out that I’m diabetic or that I have cancer?” she asked, because she honestly wasn’t sure what she was going to do if the test came back positive. It would probably take her years to get over the shock that she was actually sick.

“Then we’ll find the best cancer treatment in the world if it’s cancer and if it’s diabetes then we’ll cut back on sugar and watch what we eat,” Melanie said, sounding completely confident that they’d be able to handle whatever it was and that was great, sweet really, but Rebecca knew that they weren’t going to find anything.

“This is the last appointment that I’m going to,” she said firmly, because she was done.

“We won’t need another appointment after this,” Melanie said, sounding so damn sure of herself. “They figured out what’s wrong and now they can fix it.”

“Uh huh,” she mumbled, hoping that Melanie would shut up and drop it.

“And don’t worry,” Melanie said, reaching over and giving her leg a comforting pat that was going to get her drizzled in gravy one night, “no matter what happens, what they find, you’re not in this alone. I’ll go through this with you.”

“Rebecca Shaw,” the nurse said, letting her know that her time had run out, “the Doctor’s ready to see you now.”

Chapter 5

“This is disgusting!” the middle-aged woman that could have been the poster child for soccer moms everywhere, said with a sneer, making sure that everyone in the restaurant heard her.

“I see,” Lucifer murmured thoughtfully as he looked down at the plate she’d shoved in his face before he had a chance to ask what was wrong.

Well, he knew what was wrong. This woman and her three clones, who couldn’t decide if they wanted to devour him on the spot or send him bitchy looks in support of their friend, had belittled his waitress and embarrassed her in front of everyone. They were also pissing him off and creating a scene in his restaurant, which unfortunately for them wasn’t something that he would tolerate.

“The French fries were ice cold and soggy. The burger was burnt to a crisp on the outside and completely raw in the middle. The bun was completely dried out. The coleslaw was rancid and-”

“Then why did you eat it?” he asked in a deceptively calm tone that had all of his employees that were in the large dinning area going completely still and some of the regulars sharing nervous glances as he looked from the empty plate in his hands to the woman trying to force him into giving her a free meal and something to talk about later around the water cooler.

“Because I was hungry and I didn’t have much choice since your waitress was too busy flirting with the bartender to come check on us!” she snapped back, probably thinking that taking it to the next level of bitch would help her case.

It didn’t.

“Then why didn’t you flag down one of the other waitresses or walk out?” he asked as he gave her a look that dared her to continue with this line of bullshit.

“I shouldn’t have to wave down anyone!” she yelled. “And if you knew how to run a restaurant then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I see,” he murmured thoughtfully as he placed her plate back on the table in front of her along with her check. “Pay your bill and get the hell out of my restaurant,” he said, more than willing to let her off the hook since he had other things that required his attention, but apparently she wasn’t willing to let this go.

“You expect me to pay for this garbage? You can’t be serious!” she shouted as she came to her feet, grabbed her purse before she reached down, picked up the receipt, squeezed it into a ball and threw it at his face.

He easily caught it and, keeping his eyes locked on her stunned ones, he tossed the receipt on the table, opened his mouth and-

“No! We don’t kill the customers!” the sudden weight on his back yelled. “We are not going over this again!”