Once More With Feeling by Emilie Richards Page B

For a few
more hours her foot remained in a cast. She'd been told her face
was still bruised. Her brain was the equivalent of a poorly turned
omelet. But Jimbo was making a pass at her.
    The old Elisabeth would have put him in his
place tactfully. This fantasy Gypsy--and didn't she deserve to have
some fun?--batted her eyelashes again. "I don't know how I would
have gotten through these weeks without your help. You're obviously
a brilliant doctor to have brought me so far."
    He preened, changing from father figure to
gallant lover before her eyes. "I'm just doing my job."
    "I'll bet some of your cases are absolutely
fascinating. Television stories in their own right."
    "Now you wouldn't be trying to get me on
that show of yours, would you?"
    "I just might." She smiled, remembering in
detail the way that Gypsy Dugan could dimple on cue.
    He dropped her hand, but with obvious
reluctance. "I'll be back to see you tomorrow morning."
    "I'll look forward to your visit."
    He turned, as light on his feet as a man
half his age.
    A man half his age lolled in the doorway.
Dr. Roney drew himself up to his full height as Casey pushed away
from the doorframe. "Don't let her get to you, Doc. She'll seduce
anything in reach."
    "I think you have the wrong idea."
    "Sorry, but I think you do. Miss Dugan, has
the peculiar notion that she can twist any man she meets around her
little finger."
    Elisabeth expected to blush. She couldn't.
Apparently blushing in dreams was impossible. She slipped easily
into Gypsy's voice and words. "Lay off, Casey. Dr. Roney brought me
good news. I can have visitors if I want them. Did you register at
the desk so I'd have a choice?"
    "I've always been on your approved list,
Gyps."
    "I can't imagine why."
    "Don't tire her," Dr. Roney said. "She's
still a long way from a complete recovery."
    "God help us all when she's cruising along
at full speed again."
    "That's a pretty crass metaphor for someone
who's getting over a car accident, Casey. Even for you." Elisabeth
pushed herself a little farther upright. In reality she was
delighted to see Casey. Like Perry he was a stabilizing influence
to days that seemed unending and nights that were worse. Time had
no real meaning for her. She discounted everything that happened as
part of her dream life, and if she was dreaming, there were no
waking or sleeping hours. But the short periods she spent with
Casey seemed real to her. Although that was absurd, their
conversations were a welcome break.
    The door hissed quietly behind Dr. Roney.
Casey strolled to her bedside. His gaze traveled slowly over her.
"You're looking better."
    The room seemed to heat up perceptibly. She
could swear her skin sizzled as his gaze swept her. She had yet to
grow accustomed to the instant sensual electricity that always
entered the room with him. "I wouldn't know. They still refuse to
let me see a mirror."
    "I don't know why. You're a big girl. You
know you got pretty banged up. You can take it."
    "A plastic surgeon came by this afternoon to
examine me. He doesn't think there'll be any real need for his
services. Offered me a tighter neck when I'm thirty-five and left
his card."
    "Do you want me to find a mirror?"
    She nearly said "yes," then she paused to
consider. She was sure she could have seen herself in the mirror by
now if she'd pushed the staff to find her one. But she had been
torn. Over the weeks she'd had to accept that angles and lighting
tricks hadn't changed the way she perceived her body. The body was
not hers. The voice certainly wasn't. It followed that the face
wouldn't be, either. She would look in the mirror, and Gypsy Dugan,
or a badly bruised version thereof, would stare back at her.
    "We'll do it some other time," he said.
    "No." She could shake her head now. She
could sit up, eat by herself, complete sentences without feeling
exhausted. And several days ago she had taken her first tentative
steps. When the cast came off, she would take more.
    She could do this, too. Because