Chapter 2 #2
Jane had grown up here in Phoenix Ridge, rarely venturing out from it.
She’d gone to med school in Denver and had attended a couple of conferences out of state, but otherwise she’d never really left.
She had been courted by the Navy while she was in college, and came close to accepting a contract with them, but one of her sisters had gotten sick and Jane was needed back home.
Her sister had pulled through, though it was a difficult couple of years, helping out with her nieces and nephews, and by the time it was all over she had established herself as one of the more prominent doctors here at Phoenix Ridge.
When she was young, she dreamed of traveling the world, but as the oldest with four brothers and three sisters, her family needed her here more.
She pretty much fully supported her parents now as they aged, since with eight children the option of saving for retirement had always been non-existent.
They both worked multiple blue-collar jobs all their lives and still they had done their best to support all their children, whom had all gone in different directions, though only the youngest had managed to escape the small city.
Her baby sister was only in college, so there was still a likelihood that she would be sucked back here as soon as she graduated.
Still, there was that slight feeling of regret that Jane had never really had the chance to get out and explore.
She’d seen the doctors traveling overseas and wished she’d been able to go along, but just figuring out how to get through medical school had taken all she had, and even now she still owed student loans, despite having been a practicing doctor for almost fifteen years.
She would travel one day, of that she was sure, but it probably wouldn’t be until she retired.
A notification popped up on her screen, the boy’s lab results.
It was exactly what she expected, a run-of-the-mill stomach virus.
She wrote a prescription for some nausea medication and discharge orders for plenty of rest and fluids and headed back to his room.
By the time she was finished in there, the X-rays were ready for the others, and one more person had come in with what looked like a dislocated shoulder.
She called for an orthopedic consult for the shoulder after getting an MRI, but it was fairly simple to handle.
She kept herself busy, pushing out any intrusive thoughts of Dr. Maxwell or her exotic life.
Eventually, she began to wonder what had happened to her.
Jane figured that she would be down here by now, anxiously waiting for her first trauma to show up in the ER, waiting to get behind the knife.
It seemed that trauma surgeons thrived on the drama, at least all the ones she had encountered, and with Rosalind coming from her military background, Jane figured she’d be chomping at the bit.
The radio behind the nurse’s station blared to life, and the announcement sent her blood racing; looked like Rosalind was going to get her chance.
Accident victims were being brought in from the interstate, multiple cars involved.
Two of them from what she could gather, and at least one of them was in pretty bad shape.
Jane grabbed her phone, but she realized that she didn’t have a pager number for Rosalind yet, so she paged Dr. Mars instead.
She also paged Sandra; she hated to interrupt her nap, but Jane was going to need her staff for this one.
As she grabbed a gown to meet the ambulance at the door, she heard the radio crackle again, looks like they were getting at least two more. Where the hell was Maxwell?
Sandra came up behind the counter, looking bleary-eyed, but the nap seemed to have done some good. Doctor Mars came into the room behind her, her face tight with concern.
“Where’s the new doc?” Jane asked as she pulled on her gloves.
“On the way, don’t worry,” Doctor Mars said and began directing the staff to prepare the rooms.
“This one sounds bad,” Jane said. “There’s at least four coming in.”
Doctor Mars’ lips pressed into a thin line and she nodded, she immediately started tapping on her phone, and Jane assumed it was to get more staff into the ER to handle it.
Accidents like this were rare, but they did happen with the interstate only a few miles away.
Finally, Dr. Maxwell strode into the room, her head held high as though she’d been doing this for years.
Well, maybe she had, but not like this, not here.
This was Jane’s house, and she wasn’t about to let some war doctor come in and take it from her.
She shook her head wondering where that thought came from.
Rosalind grabbed a gown and gloves before turning to Jane.
“Report,” she said, though it sounded more like a command than a request. Jane chastised herself for getting annoyed at it, this was one case where decorum would only get in the way.
Jane recited the details she’d been given, at least two were in bad shape, the other two seemed stable but the extent of their injuries were unknown.
“How far out?” Rosalind asked, though again it sounded more like an order.
“About three minutes,” Jane answered. The two women locked eyes, and Jane felt a surge of heat.
Anger, annoyance, irritation—it had to be one of those.
Rosalind’s dark eyes penetrated her, as though she could see right through any pretense.
Jane took a deep breath and held it. They could hear the sirens approaching in the distance.