Free And You Call Yourself A Christian by E. N. Joy

then addressed the other two officers as she exited the room. “Keep an eye on her. I’ll be right back.”
    â€œBring my boys back with you, please,” Unique cried. “Please bring my boys back to me. They’re probably scared. I told them I would be right back. I told them I would be right back.”
    With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, Unique lay on the floor thinking that her boys being down at Franklin County Children’s Services might not have been so bad after all.

Chapter Nine
    Lorain had no idea how much time had gone by when Nicholas finally entered the ER waiting room. She’d been way too busy praying and trying to figure out how to make her shining moment that had been interrupted by a casting of darkness, shine again.
    Before Nicholas was pulled away from their conversation outside, Lorain had known exactly how she was going to tell Nicholas that she would finally marry him. Well, she wasn’t exactly going to tell him; more like show him. The flashing of the engagement ring on her finger would have said it all. It would have let him know that she was ready. She was finally ready.
    Standing up to greet Nicholas as he walked over to her, Lorain was afraid her little plan wasn’t going to pan out so well. Whatever emergency it was that had pulled Nicholas away from her earlier must not have panned out so well either. That was evident by the dreadful look on his face. Still, Lorain slipped her hand back in her pant pocket for an attempt to play this thing out all over again; successfully this time.
    â€œNicholas, is everything okay?” Lorain didn’t know why she asked that. It was apparent that everything wasn’t okay. Still, she had to ask.
    Nicholas didn’t speak. He opened his mouth, but he didn’t speak. He clasped his hands together and stared at Lorain. “Uh, come on, let’s go somewhere else to talk,” he suggested.
    â€œOkay. That’s fine,” Lorain agreed. Actually, she’d rather they did go somewhere else. Telling the man she loved that she was ready to marry him in the ER room with all those ailing people just didn’t seem right. She’d be smiling, happy, crying tears of joy while others were in pain and misery.
    Nicholas turned on his heels and led Lorain through a door she’d seen patients go behind after the nurse had called their names. As Lorain followed Nicholas down a hall, she had the strangest feeling that everyone was watching her. She spotted Jim. When she caught him watching her, he quickly shifted his eyes from her direction. Something was going on. Lorain didn’t know exactly what it was, but something was certainly going on.
    â€œIn here will be fine.” Nicholas opened the door to the staff lounge area. He moved aside so that Lorain could enter first. That’s when he noticed the head nurse startled by his and Lorain’s arrival.
    â€œOh, I’m sorry, Dr. Wright. Let me excuse myself,” the nurse said, gathering her composure and whisking by Nicholas and Lorain to exit the lounge.
    Lorain looked at the nurse’s back for a moment as she walked away, and then she turned to Nicholas. “Was she okay? It looked like she’d been crying or something. Does it have something to do with the patients you all got called away to handle?”
    Nicholas felt sick to his stomach. What he was about to do—what he was about to say—he’d said and done on several occasions before in his five years of being a doctor. This wasn’t his first. For some reason, though, this time it was far more difficult than any other time. Not for some reason; the reason being, it had never hit so close to home before.
    â€œNicholas, what’s going on?” Lorain was no doctor, but it wasn’t that hard to diagnose that something was not kosher up in that place. Especially with the way everyone in the hospital was acting. “You’re not acting like