City General Sapphic Romance EBook Bundle (EBOOK BUNDLE)

• Age-gap
• Second Chance
• Ice Queen
• Enemies to Lovers
• Rich/Poor
• One Night Forever
• Coming Out Late in Life
• Butch/Femme

And lots of surgeons, doctors and psychologists.

Chapter 1

Andy twisted her dark hair around her fingers as she wandered around her hotel room for the umpteenth time that morning. She'd never felt more like a stereotypical high school girl on prom night in her life---not even when she'd attended her own prom, and that felt like a lifetime ago now.

Hair up? Hair down? Up or down?

She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. Ten minutes had gone by since she'd last looked down at the screen. She'd spent ten minutes agonizing over whether to pull her hair back into a bun like always, or to leave it down. Ten minutes.

This is what weddings do to people. They make a person question every little decision, even with things they'd never had to think too hard about in the past. It had happened to everyone else in the wedding party at least once over the past few months, and now it was her turn.

Andy came to a stop in front of the full-length mirror at the far end of her room. Like everything else in this five-star hotel where the wedding was being held, they had adorned it with rhinestones and in the midmorning sun it sparkled. It had to be the fanciest mirror she'd ever stared at.

"Up," she said to the empty room, twisting her dark hair up into the bun that she wore almost every day. She turned her head from side to side slowly, narrowing her eyes as she studied her profile.

"Down." She dropped the makeshift bun that she was pinning against the back of her head and let her hair fall back around her shoulders loosely. A curtain of thick hair hid her high cheekbones, and her angular jawline softened as it fell into shadow. Was that better? Or was she just overthinking it?

She was definitely overthinking it. Although, to be fair to her, it wasn't surprising given this wedding had been the only topic of conversation for the last nine months and it wasn't even hers. Why anyone would want to get married was beyond all reason.

Up, she decided, sweeping her hair back from her face again. Up is better. Up is comfortable, and, she gave a small nod to herself, up is definitely more me.

The decision about her hair was (thankfully) the last decision she'd have to make about Zack's wedding. The only thing that was left to do was to attend the ceremony, and after all those months of detailed planning they'd had to endure, this was probably the least stressful part of the entire process.

She looked at herself one last time in the mirror before she set off to find Zack and the rest of the wedding party, taking a second to check out her outfit. It was just a simple black and white tuxedo, with slightly heeled boots, but it looked good on her.

"All right." Andy pulled out her phone again to check the time. They had forty-five minutes before the wedding was due to start, which meant it was time for her to head to her nephew's room and see how he was doing. Phone. Room keycard. Ring. Andy went through her mental checklist, patting her pockets to check she had everything, before heading out of her room and walking down the hall to her where her nephew was readying himself.

Zack was in the bathroom getting into his own tux when Andy slipped into his suite. His mother, Christine, perched on the edge of the bed, a champagne flute in one hand and her phone in the other.

"Oh, look at you," she cooed. "I don't think I've ever seen you in a tux before."

"I don't think I've ever worn one," Andy admitted with a laugh. When she wasn't in uniform, Andy was strictly a jeans and sweatshirt woman. Or if she was dressing to impress, she might throw in some plaid. Taking the champagne flute from Christine, she dropped into one of the spare chairs that wasn't piled high with discarded clothing. "How's the groom?"

"Nervous as hell." Christine smiled, before calling out to her son. "Zack, you'd better look good in that suit, or your Aunt's going to show you up."

The door to the en suite opened a crack, and then a little wider. Zack stuck his head through the gap, staring at his aunt.

"You're not allowed to look better than me on my wedding day. It's illegal."

"Yeah, yeah." Andy waved him away. "Go on, finish getting ready."

"I'm serious." Zack narrowed his eyes. "If you look better than me in those wedding photos, I'm disowning you."

"Not how it works. Get dressed."

Zack withdrew his head to finish getting ready in the bathroom, and Andy leaned back in her chair to relax, shooting Christine a smile as she did. They were more like sisters than cousins, on account of how close they'd been when growing up. When Zack was born she was Auntie Andy rather than Cousin Andy, and then after Christine and Zack's father had split, she'd ended up becoming something more akin to a surrogate second parent. Helping plan the wedding had just come with the territory. But little had Andy known just how stressful the entire process would be.

She'd always heard people talking about the pressures of planning a ceremony, and it was a subplot of a lot of shitty 90s sitcoms, but given she'd never married, or even had the desire to, she'd always kind of thought that it was exaggerated. A drama blown out of all proportion. It took about a day to find out, it wasn't. Wedding planning was just as demanding as everyone had made it out to be, and after the months of meticulous planning she had done, she was glad it was nearing an end.

As much as she loved Zack and his husband-to-be, Nathan, Andy was glad she would not have to spend hours agonizing over napkin colors, or table centerpieces with them anymore. Wedding planning, she had discovered, was not her forte. She was glad she wouldn't have to figure out what Freesias looked like or try to distinguish between two almost (but not quite) identical shades of buttercream icing.

The bathroom door opened again, and this time Zack stepped out into the suite, dressed in his wedding suit, tailor-made for the occasion, of course. He had no danger of being outshone by anyone else on his wedding day, Andy noted with a smile.

His dark hair had been cut and perfectly coiffed for the day. It was the same shade of brown as Andy's, a dark brown that looked black until the sunlight hit it and the rich chocolate hues shone. He was clean-shaven, and except for the bow tie that hung loosely around his neck, he looked ready for the day ahead.

"Look at you." Andy grinned, getting to her feet. "All grown up."

"God, don't say that." Christine grimaced, going to Zack to straighten out his suit jacket. It looked perfect to Andy, but that didn't stop Christine from tugging at the fabric a little, smoothing out imaginary creases. "Makes me feel old."

"It looks good, right?" Zack smiled nervously, looking between the two of them. Andy couldn't imagine how anxious he was right now. Hell, even she felt a little anxious, and she wasn't about to commit the rest of her life to someone.

"Looks perfect," she assured him. "Champagne?"

"He's already had a glass." Christine reached up to do Zack's bow tie for him. While his mother wasn't looking, Zack met Andy's gaze with a grin, and mouthed "I had two!"

"Oh, Rachel called Nathan while you were getting ready," Christine said, still fiddling with her bow tie. "She's on her way, she's already dressed. And she apologized for last night again."

"Sounds about right." Zack laughed. "Mom, stop. The tie's fine. If you keep fiddling with it, you'll choke me out."

Christine ignored him. "It's got to be very slightly off center. Just a little crooked, but not too much. Or else it'll look sloppy."

"Just let her fuss," Andy advised, flopping back down into her own chair. "It makes her happy."

"Yeah, I know." Zack shook his head with a small smile.

"And, hey, maybe I'll be able to meet this mysterious Rachel the pair of you have never stopped talking about before you actually get married."

Andy was only semi joking when she said that. Despite the fact that Rachel was one of Nathan's best friends from high school, she hadn't ever met her during the nine months they'd spent planning the wedding. From what Zack said, she'd gone on to medical school after they'd graduated, and she was now very successful. She'd been working overseas for the past year, so even though she had been keeping up with all the wedding preparations from afar, Andy hadn't had the opportunity to speak to the other woman who would join them at the altar.

"She felt awful that she couldn't come last night." Zack shrugged. "I don't know how many times she apologized to Nathan for not showing up."

Last night had been the rehearsal dinner, and the group had been one person short. If it had been any normal guest, it might not have been a huge deal, but given that Rachel was Nathan's Best Woman, everyone had commented on her empty chair. Regardless of her apologies and the fact the whole thing had gone without a hitch, it was obvious Nathan had missed having her for support.

"Speaking of which, have you talked to Nathan today?" Andy asked, changing the subject. At the sound of his soon-to-be-husband's name, Zack started grinning.

"Yeah, I called him after I woke up. We didn't get to talk much though, his mom showed up, and he had to get ready." He exhaled slowly, shaking his head in disbelief. "I just can't believe that I get to call him my husband in just a few hours."

"Oh!" Christine leaped up from the bed. "I just remembered. Your button flower."

"Boutonnière," Zack corrected. Christine ignored him, grabbing the box from the dresser. Inside, there were two identical sets of flowers, one of which went to Zack, and the other to Andy.

Jesus christ, Andy thought as Christine pinned the flower to the lapel of her suit. Is there anything else that needs an accessory? The flowers were beautiful, there was no denying that. They fit in with the pastel blue and ivory theme of the wedding perfectly, and as Zack informed her, they would match Rachel's dress.

Thankfully, a knock at the door interrupted Christine's fussing, before she started licking her thumb and smearing away imaginary specks of dirt from her son's face. Zack ducked under his mother's arms and raced to the door to see who was on the other side, and when he pulled it open, Andy heard him make a noise that was close to a squeal.

"Rachel!" Zack tugged her into the room and wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Oh my god, I'm so glad you're here."

"Like I'd miss your wedding." She laughed, her voice a little muffled. Zack relaxed his grip on her, and she took a step back to look at him properly. "Look at you, handsome."

"And you've cleaned up pretty well," Zack pointed out. "I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of worried you would show up wearing scrubs."

"At least they'd fit with the theme." Rachel dropped her purse on the bed, before turning to look at Andy. "Oh, hi. We haven't met."

"Andy." She held out a hand for Rachel to shake. "Zack's aunt."

"Rachel."

Rachel was not what Andy had expected. At all. She'd met a lot of doctors over the years, but somehow she'd crafted a very different mental image of Rachel. She'd expected someone...steelier. Perhaps not someone grizzled, like the department heads she'd run into, but someone who looked harder. This girl looked more like a kindergarten teacher than someone who'd held life in her hands.

There was a girl-next-door kind of look about her and a prettiness that Andy had always found beautiful. She didn't have an angular chiseled face with cheekbones that climbed for miles, or a jawline that could cut glass, but there was a...softness to her face. Everything about her seemed gentle, from the bobbed black hair that framed her round face, to the big, doe-like brown eyes, to her tiny button nose.

"It's a pleasure."

Rachel smiled at her before apologizing. "I've got to go. Sorry it's so fleeting, but I promised Nathan I'd stop by and see you guys before the ceremony." Then she gave a small giggle. "I think he wanted to make sure you haven't run off yet."

"If Zack had his way, they'd have been married before breakfast," Andy joked. "There's no danger of him bailing."

"Well, then I guess I'll see you down at the ceremony." Rachel smiled at her again. "It's nice to meet you finally."

"You too."

Rachel looked between them, before settling her gaze on Zack. "I should get going. Nathan's losing his mind back there. I think I'm going to have to calm him down a little. I'll see you all at the ceremony."

With that, she gave them all a wave and headed back out of the suite, taking with her the few moments of peace she'd brought from Christine's fussing.

"Mom," Zack warned as his mother began straightening his collar. "I love you, but if you touch my suit again I'm disowning you."

Chapter One

The buzz of the lunchtime rush filled the hospital cafeteria. Doctors, nurses, and patient families flitted around the room with full trays, looking for empty tables as those already seated swapped stories as they ate.

For the families of patients, this was a chance to take a quick break from the stress of bedside vigils. For the medical staff, it was a reprieve from a constant barrage of questions, problems that needed solving, and the mountain of paperwork that seemed to be overtaking their time with patients. Out of all of the spaces in the hospital, the cafeteria offered some stolen moments of respite.

The hot topic of conversation for the day was the upcoming audit. It had been years since the hospital staff had been submitted to a full, formal audit, and no one was looking forward to it. Some of the staff were familiar with the process that could follow a difficult patient, or a procedure that had an unfortunate outcome. Lawyers might be called in, interviews conducted, depositions taken.

The conference rooms would be a hive of business suit activity behind drawn blinds. For a few days, the staff of one department or another would walk on eggshells, with everyone holding their breath and having hushed conversations in quiet corridors and then it would all be over. Everyone would relax back into their regular routines, happy to still have their jobs; until the next unfortunate incident and the whole thing would start again in a different department.

The audit would be like that, but with the dial turned up to ten. A full team was being brought in to conduct interviews with every member of the medical staff. All of their patient files and records over the past few years would be reviewed, they would be required to give their opinion of other members of their department, and their fitness to carry out their duties would be critically evaluated in a way they'd never struggled through before. To make matters worse, there would be no break from it: the whole hospital would be audited, all in one go.

Whether they were talking about it or not, the audit was on everyone's minds, and a group of nurses huddled together to talk about it.

"Why do you think they're doing it?" One of the younger nurses, a pretty girl of about twenty-five leaned in close to her friends. "Do you think someone filed a report or something?"

"Businesses are audited all the time." An older woman with steely hair held captive in a strict bun, rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic. I'm just saying, there has to be a reason for this, right? Something must have kicked this off. What if one of the doctors screwed up?"

Her older co-worker shot her a withering look, and the young nurse slouched back in her seat, folding her arms over her chest. "What? Maybe we've had a few too many complaints, they thought it would look good to have someone go over the place. You know, weed out the, uh...the weaker members of staff."

"Maybe they're coming to interview nurses who'd be all too happy to gossip about their co-workers," the older woman said pointedly, sipping her coffee.

"So why do you think they're doing this then?" the younger woman snapped. "If you don't think someone's screwed up."

"I think this is a business. I think they want to run it as effectively as possible, and to do that, sometimes you have to trim the fat." The older woman looked at her co-worker out of the corner of her eye, and cocked an eyebrow. "You know, to increase efficiency?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason." She looked away, smiling to herself as a young man joined the table. "Jason, what are you thinking about all of this?"

"All of what?" He dropped into the seat across from them. "The audit team?"

"Mm. Erika here thinks that she's living in the middle of a whistleblower fantasy—we've killed off too many of our patients, and there's a team coming to smoke out the murderers."

"I didn't say that!" Erika protested, sitting up straighter. "But the doctors have to get a lot of complaints, right? Maybe they brought a team in because they think there's more to it than that. Maybe they think there are more complaints that are being covered up. Don't you think that's a possibility?"

"If the hospital was covering up malpractice, why would they have hired a company to dig into all our files, and interview us?" Jason asked, picking up a french fry from his plate and waving it around as he spoke. "You know, if you're driving around with weed in the back of your car, you're not going to speed in front of a traffic cop, are you?"

The table fell silent for a moment as the other nurses peered at him suspiciously. Jason cleared his throat and looked down. "Hypothetically, I mean."

"Anyway," the older nurse continued, narrowing her eyes at him momentarily. "It doesn't matter why they're doing the audit. The only thing that does matter is that it's happening, and we need to be ready for the team when they get here. The last thing we need is to have those people turn around and say that the nurses aren't organized enough, or that we don't have all of our files where they're supposed to be. If the nursing staff gets a bad report, we'll never get that pay rise."

There was a murmur of agreement around the table at that, followed by a somber moment of silence. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Erika saw a flash of white as a lab coat whipped past their table, and her eyes lit up as she leaned in again. The others around the table mimicked her as she peered across the room, tracking the doctor who had walked past them.

"What?" Jason asked, stuffing another handful of food into his mouth.

"What do you think they'll make of her?" Erika whispered, pointing to the figure in the white coat who strode purposefully past their table, before weaving between the groups of gathered doctors until she finally found a spot on her own by the window. In unison, the group turned their heads to look at the lone woman, before huddling together again.

"I mean, her record's got to be spotless, right?" Jason murmured.

"Yeah, but it's not just her record that they're going to be looking at, is it? They have to make sure she can work and play nicely with others. And if there's one person in here that can't, it's her. Besides, if they're asking us all to snitch on each other—"

"They're not asking us to snitch on—"

"Whatever. If they're asking us to give our 'professional opinion' on everyone else, who's going to give her a glowing report? None of the nurses from neuro like her, doctors think she's an asshole, and even the surgeons think she's arrogant. She's probably got more complaints from patients than the three of us combined! I mean seriously, she's going to be screwed when it comes to—"

"Erika!" The older nurse cut across her sharply, and Erika shrank back in her seat with a sigh. "Stop it. Whether you like it or not, she's a part of the hospital and she's a good surgeon. You don't need to go around spreading gossip about how much of a toxic, stuck up bitch she is."

There was a pause around the table while the older nurse sipped her coffee, and glanced in the solitary woman's direction. "Even if it is true."

They all looked over towards the lone figure watching as she raised the sandwich to her mouth. Just as she was about to take her first bite, the chime of the intercom cracked into life. "Doctor Asquith to surgery, please."

The nurses watched as she let out a low groan, tilted her head up to the ceiling for a moment, and then stood up. She left her sandwich, untouched, on the tray, and pushed past a couple of doctors on her way to the doors. As she walked out of the cafeteria, the nurses exchanged knowing glances with each other before silently returning to their meal.

It had been a long day.

It was always a long day, working at City General. But any day that ended with an emergency surgery certainly felt longer than most. As Meredith Asquith made her way out of the OR, disposing of blood-soaked gloves in the infectious waste unit, she let out a soft sigh of relief, and rolled her shoulders in a slow, languid stretch.

"Thanks for the assist back there," a voice called from inside the OR. She didn't bother turning back to face them, instead she released an incoherent grunt and held up her hand in an attempt at a wave. It was all she could manage, given the day she'd had.

Meredith made her way through the halls of the hospital, glancing out of windows as she passed them. The sun had already set, and the sky outside had melted into an inky navy hue. It must have been getting pretty late.

So much for leaving early. Crossing one arm over her body, she grasped her elbow, stretching out the muscles. A late finish last night, followed by an early start meant that she hadn't gone for a run. She was starting to get a little antsy, just like she always did when it had been a little too long since she'd gotten some exercise. It was like there was a little pot of nervous energy inside her, and someone was dialing the heat up, watching it bubble to the rim and threaten to overflow.

If that stupid kid hadn't been speeding on his motorcycle this afternoon, she'd probably be out on that run right now, rather than heading back to her office to finish up on paperwork she'd had to postpone. Hot-headed teenagers with high powered bikes were the bane of the state, in her opinion. The kids had too much money and not enough sense to be driving something that powerful. Today's surgery was testament to that.

He'd live, of course, and at the end of the day that was the most important thing. Stupidity wasn't a death sentence after all. He'd need months of physical therapy and rehab. He'd likely never ride again, and he might end up living with a few cognitive problems, but he'd been wheeled into a recovery room rather than the morgue. And when all was said and done, even if she complained about being interrupted, that was what was important.

Meredith made a right at the end of the hallway and unlocked her office door, before turning on the overhead light. It flickered and then came to life, illuminating the mess of paperwork she'd left behind. Patient files, along with progress records and consent forms dropped off by the nursing teams filled her desk. Three stacks loomed high, one of which looked dangerously close to toppling over.

All I want to do is go home. Her heavy sigh filled the room followed by the click of the door closing behind her. The low hum of noise from the rest of the hospital, and for a few moments, Meredith's office was completely silent. Then, with a groan, she crossed the room, threw herself down in her chair, and eyed the piles of case files, demanding her attention.

The idea of a late night run in the park to clear her head and cool off had never appealed to her more, but she knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon. No, instead she had paperwork to tend to, and if she left it, she would only have to come back to it in the morning.

Audits were coming up.

Meredith, like every doctor and surgeon, was about to have auditors peering over their shoulder and poking around in their personnel files to unearth malpractice lawsuits. If you were squeaky clean, you weren't doing your job right, but if you had complaints, well, then there were just even more questions. You could be damned no matter what and that made everyone uneasy. Audits were a pain in the ass, and although she knew they were useful for some people, Meredith didn't exactly see the point of scrutinizing everyone.

Like I need some corporate asshole who faints at the sight of blood to tell me I'm a good doctor, she scoffed, tossing another patient file back onto the desk. Sure, there were some doctors in the hospital who had to have a lawyer on retainer given their likelihood of screwing up, and there were others who she suspected might have just bought their way through medical school, but she wasn't one of them. Anyone could see that, and she didn't need a whole goddamn audit to be sure of it.

The worst part was that everyone was going to be on edge for the duration. Everyone was going to be extra careful, and careful translated to slow where most people were concerned. That meant every piece of paperwork would need to be double-checked to make sure there were no errors, and everyone was going to be asking for second and third opinions. All for an audit.

The team hadn't even set foot in the hospital yet and they were giving her a headache. They were due to arrive at the beginning of the next week, and in anticipation for that, every single doctor and surgeon had to have a complete summary of their patient files ready, just in case they were one of the chosen. Everything had to look perfect.

Even if it wasn't.