One of the unit RNs greeted me by saying, “Hey Lan. How are things this morning?” as she walked up to the station I was currently camping at.

I glanced up from the current patient record I was reviewing, smiled at her, and replied, “Doing well enough Erika. How are you?”

She smiled and joked, “The horrors continue, but I find myself persisting through them.”

I laughed in response and nodded my agreement. Her face then grew a little more serious as she said, “I reviewed the radiologist’s notes from 27 and it looks like there’s still a right-sided effusion. There are no cultures back yet though. I haven’t talked to him or had a listen yet, but I thought you might want to know I’m on it lickity and split. I’ll send you a secure chat if I can’t find you after my AM assessments.”

I grinned at Erika and nodded as I thought through what she was reporting to me. I enjoyed working with her. She was a veteran nurse who knew her stuff and had worked with me long enough to both anticipate some of the things I’d want to address, but more importantly called me by nickname as opposed to the more formal Dr. Reynolds.

I responded, “I was just about to review 27’s results myself.”

Erika nodded and turned to head off down the hallway.

I called out, “I might need you to assist with a thoracentesis!”  I grinned again as Erika nodded and raised her thumb without looking back at me as she continued onward to her own things. I returned my attention to the patient record I was reviewing.

Nothing in the record was concerning. No changes noted, good night’s rest, and ready to discharge pretty much. There was a note from the night nurse asking for an early round if possible to expedite her going home. I looked at the watch on my right wrist and decided nothing was pressing. I grabbed the foam cup of hospital coffee I had bought two hours earlier yet still hadn't touched and headed down the hallway to her room.

This patient was currently the secret favorite of my caseload. It wasn't because her case was all that interesting to me. It was run of the mill. She was admitted for observation for uncontrolled lower back muscle spasms with uncontrolled pain. Both were under control through a combination of cyclobenzaprine to control the spasms and Tylenol-3 for breakthrough pain. No, it was her body that appealed to me. I am a medical professional and usually it was no effort to separate work from life. She was one of those rare exceptions where I would really like to blur that line.  Had maybe done so in last night’s masturbatory fantasy even.

"Maybe my period's coming," I self-reasoned to try to assuage the guilt I felt for the unprofessional line of thought. As I was nearing Cheryl's room, I heard another female's voice. I paused outside the doorway to make sure I wasn't interrupting some private or serious moment and determined what sounded like initial greetings going on. It seemed a girl named Carly was visiting my patient. I decided it was best to just slip into the room quickly, do my assessment to ensure my patient was still comfortable, and then move on to my other patients. I set my coffee cup at the nearby station and rapped my knuckles on the door as I entered.

I first smiled at my patient as I entered and then looked at her visitor Carly. To my credit, I did not falter in my step and maintained my cheerful outward demeanor as I looked at this new woman. Inwardly, I was immediately taken by just how attractive she was and moved to the sink to wash my hands and gather myself.

I heard my patient address me by saying, “Hi Dr. Reynolds. It’s nice to see you this morning. This is Carly.”

I shook my wet hands off, making sure not to touch anything with them before drying them off as I smiled over my shoulder at her as I replied, “Good morning, Cheryl. I hope you're feeling better today. Nice to meet you, Carly.”

Cheryl happily smiled as she nodded her head and then asked, “When do you think I'll get out?”

I turned to face her, again glancing at her attractive friend while I tugged a pair of small non-latex gloves to don. I moved over to Cheryl’s bed and replied, “I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t today. I’d just like to do a quick once-over assessment to ensure everything is improving regarding your back.” I smiled and ticked off perfunctory doctoring questions about comfort and this or that exasperating her pain as I assisted Cheryl to roll prone in her bed. Usually, I would ask visitors to wait outside while I performed an assessment, or at the least ask if she was comfortable having this Carly in the room with her during, but I found myself wanting her to stay. If nothing more than to get a few more quick peeks at her. I observed Cheryl was wearing pink cotton panties as I opened her gown to expose her bare back. I did a general sweep of my hands along the entire musculature of her back before I focused my assessment of Cheryl's erector spinae muscles, since they were the most likely source of the pain that had brought her here. After some poking and prodding, I determined they were completely relaxed.

As I palpated the once-tight muscles, I noticed Carly was watching me closely. Her face revealed an odd mixture of curiosity and an almost dazed type of expression. It made me wonder what it was she might be curious about. Was it her friend's exposed bottom? Perhaps it was how I was now going about assessing the apex of Cheryl’s gluteal muscles? It made me realize it probably looked like I was feeling her friend up and I concluded my assessment. I smiled as I resituated Cheryl’s hospital gown and assisted her back into the supine position. I informed her, “You’re good to go Cheryl. I’ll let your nurse know to start your discharge. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Cheryl briefly cast her gaze toward Carly and then looked back at me and smiled. She replied, “No Dr. Reynolds. That’s great news!”

I smiled and nodded as she thanked me and could have sworn I caught an almost wistful tone in her voice.

“Stop it!”, I inwardly berated myself as I turned to snap my gloves off to toss in the nearby garbage. I was letting fantasy thoughts cloud my perception. I moved to the sink to wash my hands and nodded at Cheryl and Carly before I made my exit. I frowned as I grabbed my coffee and replayed the whole interaction in my head. Both of those women had been watching my every move. I doubted they were sue-happy, especially given her admission was really a minor issue without complications and that a medication course was used to treat.

"What is it then?" I asked myself silently. It dawned on me that they might have been attracted to me as much as I was to them but felt that was just my own thoughts invading logic. Still, I paused outside the doorway as I pondered that thought. I personally believed I didn't make much of a sight really. I wasn't tall at all. I barely hit the five-foot mark. I was also practically waif thin. My dark hair was tied back into a ponytail as it always was at work. I was in a rush this morning, so I had opted to wear glasses instead of my usual contacts. I wasn't even dressed differently than any other hospitalist. I was wearing light blue scrubs bottoms and its matching short sleeve top and a hip-length white lab coat.

“Just my imagination,” I muttered to myself about to move along down the hallway.

Then I heard Carly’s muffled voice ask, “Who was that, Cheryl?”

I heard Cheryl happily reply, “That… is Dr. Reynolds. I'm not sure what she has to do with my treatment but it really feels nice when she takes part,” followed by a girlish giggle. I gulped.

Carly giggled too and responded, “But… she can’t be a doctor! She's gorgeous, Cheryl! I mean… she’s really gorgeous.”

I felt my body react to what I had just overheard. My nipples started stiffening into turgid buds, my breath quickened, and a slight flush crept into my cheeks.

Cheryl regretfully informed her friend, “I almost wish I didn't have to leave the hospital. If I stayed, I’d have those hands on me every day. Maybe several times a day!” Carly and she both delightedly giggled and I shook my head, suddenly ashamed I’d been eavesdropping on their conversation, regardless of being its subject. I hurried down the hallway and ducked into the women’s restroom. I stepped up to the sink and looked at myself in the mirror as I thought about their eyes watching me, and their conversation about me. A grin played back from my reflection as I thought about Cheryl, but then more about her visiting friend Carly. Both were attractive women, but Carly was closer to my preferred body type.

I thought, “A nice game of doctor might be fun, and she’s not even my patient.” My reflection blinked with as much surprise as I felt when the thought entered my mind. I tightened my lips as I quickly squashed it and moved out of the restroom to go check on my other patients of the day. I refused to accept that there was moisture gathering in the gusset of my panties, though it was the truth I knew.

"Period has to be coming Landry", I silently berated myself as I continued to walk down the hallway.

I went about my early morning rounds. I found it difficult to focus as I did though. My mind kept switching gears to reflect on Carly. I found myself attracted to her petiteness, her bright smile, her blond hair.

“Is it natural blond hair?” I silently wondered. I adored her pixie cut. It wore well on her. I shook my head. Cleared my thoughts yet again and decided to give up on any further attempts at a semblance of professional behavior and action for the moment. I decided I’d get off the unit and go get some hot tea at the cafeteria. I told Erika I was going to grab a drink at the cafeteria and headed in that direction when I ensured she didn’t want anything herself. I twisted and butted my lower back against the slam-bar of the fire door and entered the stairwell to descend the three flights to get to the floor with the cafeteria.

I arrived at the cafeteria and saw it was packed with staff, patients, and visitors. I sighed as I looked at the watch adorning my right wrist and headed to the drinks area. I filled a large Styrofoam cup with hot water and selected an Earl Grey tea packet before heading to the checkout. As I waited in line, I scanned the assembled people. I had my eye out specifically for Dr. Greene, an internalist who was in line for a well-deserved scolding for making an egregious error in dosing for a medication order that Erika had caught before the patient had suffered its consequence. I didn’t see him, but my wandering gaze stopped as I saw Carly again. I watched her for a few moments and wondered what it was about her that exactly caught my fancy as much as it had. She was beautiful of course, but I didn't even know the woman save her name. "Carly," I idly thought to myself.

I was jostled back into immediate focus as a maintenance man behind me politely cleared his throat, and I blushed as I realized I was lost in myself and hadn't moved. I peeked at his ID and apologized, “Sorry Bob. Head in the clouds.”

He grinned and responded, “Like most doctors I know,” causing us both to laugh. I pulled my ID's retractable lanyard to swipe through the sensor and moved out of the way of the line. I opened my tea and dropped it into the cup to begin steeping.

"Steeping... yes Lan. That’s why you're standing here," I thought as I looked across the dining area once more toward the mystery woman who was first in line as current infatuation.

The up and down dipping motion of left hand paused mid-raise, and my eyes flicked downward to home my gaze at a brief flash of lilac in the dark confine of her skirt the same time my brain registered something out of the norm. It was subtle, and it took me a moment to both realize I was seeing what I was seeing and confirm the momentary disbelief. Carly was not focusing on anything. Her eyes were fixed on nothing, and her focus seemed quite distant. Her legs were rhythmically opening and then closing with a slight pause as she tensed them while she ran her hands up and down their length. It wasn't a quick movement at all and would probably appear no different than massaging sore legs to a casual observer. I, a person who would sometimes enjoy an occasional thigh squeeze to attempt to tame some passionate feelings going on, believed I was witnessing her surreptitiously synerbating right in plain sight.

I swallowed as my eyes remained riveted on the sight, watching as brief glimpses of the lilac panties she wore were routinely revealed under her skirt as she continued to spread and close her knees. Then… and then! Inconceivably her face broke into the pained expression of ecstasy as her whole body tensed in what could only be an orgasm. Her body subtly convulsed with what I imagined to be the strong orgasmic contractions of her sex, her breathing became frenetic… erratic… and then she slowly relaxed in relief. I had witnessed this wholly attractive woman achieve a climax in a bustling public space! I slowly slipped my nearly forgotten tea bag back into the water and fixed the string with the cup’s lid as I watched the woman seem to realize with an apparent dawning sort of horror that she was doing what she was doing and where it was she had been doing it. A smirk played across my lips as I watched Carly panic and hurriedly gather her things to scurry off.

I silently reasoned, "Probably in search of a bathroom." My smirk faded as a mental image of her slipping into a stall for possibly a little maintenance filled my mind, and I became aware that my panties were soaked. I blushed crimson as that realization came to me and I hurried in an opposite direction that the woman had headed. As I moved through the halls, greatly aware of my wet panties pasted against my skin and the slick sensation of effluence coating my thighs sliding as I walked, I began to fear I was going to orgasm before I could get into the small staff bathroom to take care of it.

I rushed in. I didn’t care if there were others so strong was my sudden need. I stepped into a stall, shut the door, slid the latch, and quickly shoved my scrubs bottoms and panties down to my knees as I spun to settle down on the toilet. I closed my eyes as I jammed my left hand between my legs and began to furiously rub and tease my aching engorged slippery clit as I envisioned the look of ecstasy on her face and how her whole body had visibly tensed as her orgasm struck. I moaned loudly enough for anybody to question what might be going on in the stall as I gripped the toilet seat for dear life as a strong climax straightened my legs and curled my toes. My small body jerked with each pulsing wave of ecstasy of my orgasm, each twitching contraction of my grasping needy vagina, and as it slowly ebbed, I relaxed and slumped down momentarily sated.

I realized what I had just done, and whom for, and sat up suddenly embarrassed with myself. I sighed as I looked at my scrubs bottoms and the crumpled soaked red panties curled up inside. I spread my knees apart to stretch my panties open. The gusset was a wreck of gathered effluence that had inundated the cotton to stain the entire area much darker than the material. I slipped my scrubs bottoms off and pulled my panties out. I folded some paper up and dabbed and wiped my shiny vulva clean. I took a moment to smile at the collected wetness on the tissue, impulsively sniffed the evidence of my transgression, and dropped it into the toilet to flush away.

I pulled my scrubs bottoms up and tucked my top into them before exiting the stall to wash my hands. I paused and stared at myself in the mirror. My cheeks were flushed, and I was still working at controlling my breathing.

"I have to meet this woman somehow," the Id voice in me reasoned. I bunched my panties up and stuffed them into my pocket before I sniffed the intoxicating smell of my pussy on my left fingers before washing them. I grabbed my tea and exited the restroom to hurry back to my unit. I couldn’t explain it. This spell Carly had put me under. Never before had I been so immediately taken by, nor acted out immediately as I had. Still, I sought out Cheryl’s room against my better judgement. I listened at her door. I heard no chatter, so I knocked and walked in.

The room was empty. Cheryl and Carly were gone.