Mercy
I t was a long ass day and by the end of her twelve-hour shift, was dead tired. Her feet hurt, her back hurt, and she was pretty sure that her little bump grew overnight. Her belly was straining against the front of her shirt, and she knew that everyone on staff noticed, judging from the stares and whispers that followed her around all day. It was as if telling the guys and her grandmother about the baby, had given her body permission to do what it needed to. She was still not quite ready to tell work but the post-it note on her computer screen told her that her time was probably up. Her boss wanted to talk to her before she left for the day, and she was pretty sure that her growing belly was going to be the topic of conversation.
entered the employee locker room after taking a long, hot shower and changing out of her scrubs. She tried to limit her time in the shower at home, not wanting her water bill to go up more than it already was. She was barely scraping by and showering at work was free. regretted her choice of pants, not quite able to zip them up and her shirt barely covered her belly. She was trying to decide if she should just give up the fight with her body and put back on her scrubs. But the thought of putting dirty clothes back on made her skin crawl.
“There you are,” her supervisor had asked her to stop by on her way out, but her time was up.
“Hey Lisa, I was just coming to find you.” sounded way too perky, and she was afraid that she was going to come off as fake. She was dead on her feet and ready to go home to bed but from the way Lisa was staring at her belly, bed was going to have to wait.
“I wanted to catch you while you were still down here. You had visitors today, but I told them both that you were with a patient. I hope that you understand, we can’t have that type of behavior happening in this hospital.” Lisa crossed her arms over her chest and glared at ’s bump. wanted to cover her belly with her hands, but she didn’t want to draw any extra attention to herself. Besides, she didn’t do anything wrong, women had babies all the time. Why should she hide her baby bump?
“And what behavior are you talking about, Lisa? Having visitors isn’t against hospital policy now, right?” She wanted to ask her boss who had stopped by to see her, but she had a pretty good idea about who Lisa was referring to. If Cash and Callan had come to see her everyone on the floor would have noticed. Those two were not men that you could walk past and ignore. What she couldn’t figure out was why they were both there together or why Callan was there at all. He never returned any of her text messages that she sent, trying to meet with him to give back his jacket. She sent Cash a text letting him know that she thought that dinner was a bad idea and would only cause problems for the three of them. She explained how she felt about Callan and told Cash that it didn’t feel right to pursue a relationship with him while still having feelings for Callan. She hadn’t heard from him either and she knew that she might never hear from him or Callan again—or at least until after the baby was born. So, why would they just show up to the hospital?
“No,” Lisa sneered. “It’s not against hospital policy to have visitors when you are on a break. Like I said, you were with patients. I also don’t think that I need to remind you that you have only been here a couple of years, and that insubordination won’t be tolerated, . I would hope that you would show me a little more respect and not question my decisions,” Lisa growled. didn’t just want to question the woman; she wanted to full-on punch her in the face. That could also be her crazy pregnancy hormones talking but it took all her willpower to not walk up to her boss and smack her.
“I mean you no disrespect, Lisa,” she said through clenched teeth. “I was just saying that you could have asked my visitors to wait for me to have a break. I’m sure they would have.”
Lisa barked out her laugh, “Oh, I bet they would have waited to see you during your break. It looks like they have seen plenty of you from the size of your bump, I’d say they have been seeing you for a few months now.” wanted to throw up the white flag, surrender, and call it a day. There would be no talking to Lisa, she had already made up her mind and judged .
“I think that you’re the one who owes me an apology now, Lisa,” she spat, furious that she was being made to feel bad about her private life. What she did outside of the hospital was her business and Lisa couldn’t do anything about that, could she?
“Well, , you won’t be getting one from me. You hid your pregnancy from me, and I’ve had some complaints that you haven’t been working up to even subpar standards.” Red flags were dancing in ’s head and alarm bells were going off. She knew what Lisa was about to say and there was nothing that she could do about it.
“Who complained about my work standards?” almost whispered.
Lisa’s smile was mean, “Everyone on the nursing staff has told me that they have had to cover for you while you run to the restroom. I’ve had my suspicions that you were pregnant for months now. But seeing you today confirmed them. We’re going to have to let you go, . We can’t accept anything less than one hundred percent from each one of our nurses. We are already short-staffed and keeping a nurse that doesn’t give her all isn’t fair to the other hard-working professionals on staff.”
took a step back, feeling as if Lisa slapped her. “You’re firing me?” clutched her belly, worry piercing through her body.
“I am,” Lisa checked her watch as if she had somewhere else she had to be.
“I need this job, Lisa. I work my ass off, putting in overtime and taking shifts from other nurses just to make ends meet. Maybe you should look at some of their subpar performances. They don’t even show up to work, they just call me to take their shifts because they know I’m taking care of my grandmother and need the money. It’s laughable that you are accusing me of not giving one hundred percent to this job. Hell, I give one hundred and fifty percent to this fucking job, and look where it’s landed me.”
Lisa barked out her laugh, “You landed yourself between two men and now you’re pregnant and can’t make ends meet. You did this to yourself, . Clean out your locker and be out of here in fifteen minutes or I’ll have security throw you out—with force.” Lisa turned and left the locker room before could get another word out. She wasn’t sure what she would say anyway. She wasn’t going to lie and say that she didn’t sleep with two men at once and get herself pregnant. But now what was she supposed to do? She could barely take care of her grandmother and herself with the money that she brought home. Now, she was going to have to take care of a baby and do it all without a job or health care. wanted to sit on the bench and cry but the thought of being forcibly removed from the hospital in front of people she considered her friends wasn’t something she wanted to face. She packed her locker contents into her backpack and walked out.
She noticed the way people were whispering behind her back and watching her as she walked to the elevator, hot tears streaming down her face. She didn’t miss the snarky comments or smirks on faces that she considered her friends. The elevators felt like they were taking forever to get to her floor and when the doors finally closed, she collapsed onto the floor, sobbing and shaking. How was she going to get through this? She had no one to turn to, only her grandmother, and she couldn’t put this on her. had already unloaded too much on Gram last night; she couldn’t tell her that she lost her job now.
The elevator doors opened, and she knew that she had to get up and leave the hospital, but it felt like her legs were weighted to the floor. “Fuck,” a voice swore and suddenly, was surrounded by two very big men, standing over her protectively, lifting her from the floor of the elevator into their arms. Cash and Callan her angels of mercy had come to save her and right now, she’d let them. Because right now she could use a little saving.