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someone still hurt you.”
    A pocket of ice filled Maddie’s stomach, and a chill started there and radiated outward.  “I know you’re only here to help,” she said, wrapping her arms around her body.  “But I don’t want your help.  I just want to be left alone.  Is that too much to ask?”
    “No, it’s not.”  Tammy stood and set a business card on the table next to Maddie.  “We each have our own ways of dealing with things.  How you choose to do it is your decision.”  She stepped away from the table.  “I just want you to know you aren’t alone.”  She picked up the clipboard and hugged it to her chest.  “Is there anything I can do to help?”
    Maddie brushed a strand of hair from her face.  “Just give me time and space.  If I need something, I’ll let you know.”
    “As you wish.”  Tammy headed toward the door.  She gave Maddie one last look, as though she expected Maddie might change her mind, then stepped out into the corridor, letting the door slowly close behind her.
    Maddie closed her eyes and pushed her head deeper in the pillow, wishing she could disappear.  It was one thing to be the doctor trying to heal people and quite another to be the one everybody was trying so damned hard to fix.  She felt like a lab rat.
    The door to Maddie’s room didn’t stay closed for long, much to Maddie’s dismay, as Becca stepped into the room to take her vitals.  As the nurse pulled out a thermometer, Maddie folded her arms across her abdomen.  “I’m willing to bet my vitals haven’t changed since the last time you came in here.  I’m still alive.”
    Shrugging, Becca covered the oral end of the thermometer with a disposable sheath.  “Maybe your vitals haven’t changed, but being a doctor, you know as well as I do that I still have to take them.  Dr. Gordon would have my hide otherwise.  Is that what you want?”  She prodded Maddie with the thermometer.  “Now let’s get your temp.”
    “What I want is to get out of here,” she said and allowed the thermometer under her tongue, effectively silencing her.
    “Your doctor said you might actually get to leave tomorrow.”
    Studying her fingernails, Maddie frowned.  Maybe she didn’t want to go home.  Granted, she wanted more privacy than this hospital afforded her, considering she was one of the doctors who served patients here, but as Maddie thought back to that country drive, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to try driving home.  She’d once loved that solitude, but from now on, she knew she would never feel the same about silence and darkness.  Her palms started sweating just thinking about trying to drive past where she’d hit that pickup.
    But she had to.  Where else was she going to go?
     The thermometer beeped softly, but Becca ignored it as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm and started pumping.  The cuff squeezed Maddie’s arm for a moment,  then slowly loosened.  Frowning, Becca pulled off  the cuff.  “Your blood pressure is up, Doc, 148/91.”  The nurse then pulled the thermometer from Maddie’s mouth and took a quick peek at the temperature.  “At least you don’t have a fever.”
    “Yes, lucky me,” Maddie replied, closing her eyes and trying not to think about anything as she rested.
    Becca picked up Maddie’s chart, doubled-checked the fluid in the IV pouch, and scribbled a few note on a half-filled sheet.  “I know this doesn’t mean much to you, considering all that’s happened, but I can’t tell you how glad we all are you’re okay—and just how much we hope they catch the guy who did this.  We all know it hasn’t been easy for you to get used to being the patient instead of the doctor.  We’re all trying to help.”  She shoved the sheet back into the chart.  “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that.”  As she spoke, a light flush reddened her cheeks.
    “Thank you,” Maddie whispered, knowing she didn’t always have a reputation