Exactly As You Are (Love in Louisville #1)

Chapter 27

27

B elinda, one of the night shift nurses, gave Joan her report.

Despite the thorough debriefing, she walked away feeling ill-prepared, knowing Celeste worked that day. She’d misplaced some of her earlier bravado, wondering instead if she should tuck herself into corners and make herself as small as possible.

Addie and Martin worked that day, which made the atmosphere more pleasant, at least. The unit was full, so they had little time to socialize, but Martin managed to squeeze in a few comments as he passed her.

“Bunch of seagulls in with the guy in 305.” He rolled his eyes. “Seagulls” was their term for family members who swoop in from another state and try to take over a patient’s care, making a mess of everything when they hadn’t seen their beloved sibling or parent in years.

“Discharge planning should be fun.”

She continued about her morning, getting lucky enough to avoid Celeste until lunch. She had tried to hide in the break room behind a vending machine, but Celeste smelled fear like a feral wolf. She circled Joan.

“Try not to lose any Tablofen today.” Celeste smirked at her.

The bottom of Joan’s stomach disappeared. What the hell what the hell what the hell.

“How did you know which medicine it was?”

For a fraction of a second, Celeste’s mouth opened in surprise. She recovered quickly. “I heard you on the phone.”

“Interesting.”

Celeste studied her, perhaps wondering how far Joan was willing to challenge her.

“Just try not to cause any trouble, then,” Celeste said.

Joan nodded, wooden in her movements, before immediately summoning Martin and Addie.

“I have some extremely alarming news,” she hissed. Her hands shook, so she stuffed them into her scrub pockets. “I have good reason to believe that Celeste stole medicine out of one of my patient bins to make me look incompetent.”

Martin’s jaw slackened. Addie squeaked.

“I thought we decided she wouldn’t have done that,” Addie whispered. Her eyes were huge.

“She just implied it. Plus, she wasn’t around when I talked with the pharmacy, so she shouldn’t have known which medicine was missing.”

“I don’t know,” Addie said, shifting from one foot to the other. “That seems like a stretch, doesn't it?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me with the way she’s treated you.” Martin’s lip curled. “She never did anything like that to me, but she used to test me. Once, she handed me the wrong dressing for a wound to see how long it would take me to catch the error. I think she would have intervened before I started, but still.” His voice dropped in volume. “That’s messed up. Your patient could have been in real pain while he was waiting on his meds.” He rubbed his jaw. “She’s worse with you than she was with us. Something’s really wrong here.”

“I hate this.” Addie’s lip nearly trembled with the force of her worry. “Do you think there could be a valid reason for it? Maybe it isn’t what we think, and she wasn’t taking meds from your patient. She’s always been a little mean, but this is beyond.”

“I don’t know why she has it out for me in particular. But I have a bad feeling here. I would swear she was taunting me.” Joan laid a hand on her forehead. “What do I do here? Should I go to management? Or talk to Celeste?”

“You don’t really have any good evidence, do you? Or at least not enough.” Martin’s eyes darted around them, making sure they remained alone. “And Celeste will just deflect it and turn it around on you somehow, I bet.”

Joan deflated. Martin was right. Even though their manager, Jennifer, was new, almost as new as Joan at her job, she would need more than just “Celeste smirked at me.”

“Are you absolutely sure the only camera is on the Medstation? Like, couldn’t we double check?” Joan grasped at a last straw.

“There are some monitoring the entrances and hallways, but no, there wouldn't have been a camera on that particular bin. Most people who steal meds are taking narcotics,” Martin said.

“Celeste likes me now, for the most part,” Addie said. “I can talk to her, see if I can get a feel for what her problem is. This is unhinged stuff, even for her.”

“Yeah, we need something more concrete. And keep watching out for her in the meantime, Joan. If this gets any worse, we’ll support you in going to Jennifer.” Martin patted her on the shoulder.

“Thanks.” She smiled at them. “I hope I’m wrong about all this.”