Chapter 7
Vivian
“What in God’s name are you still doing here?”
Stifling a yawn, I had to blink a few times before the big numbers on the flat white surface stopped appearing as cockroaches scuttling across the wall in the nurses’ station. It was almost three in the morning. Way past my usual bedtime of nine in the evening if I wasn’t working.
Unfortunately, since my return from the fabulous trip abroad, my internal clock continued to be way off, tossing and turning all I’d been able to accomplish.
Well, I had to admit that I’d had an imaginary night visitor who had kept me company with heat lingering well into the morning hours. I resisted rolling my eyes since the woman standing in front of me with her hands on her hips could easily see through my skull to my mischievous mind.
I’d indulged in thinking about Kirill one too many times, which wasn’t like me. After our… round of passion, we’d enjoyed sharing my little pod together, drinking champagne, eating fabulous food, watching a movie, and I’d fallen asleep with my head against his chest.
All incredible activities. And as an added bonus, we hadn’t been reported to either the captain or the authorities. When we’d separated inside JFK Airport, we’d done so with a handshake.
How very modern of us.
I was obviously daydreaming again because she tapped on the counter.
“What?” I asked, my mind still wrapped around the last smile Kirill had offered. Sexy as hell like the rest of him.
“That’s what I’m talking about. You look like a walking, talking zombie.”
“So you like my new makeup, huh?” If I was still teasing, I was still breathing.
She chuckled, shaking her head. “I think you and I are almost the only ones here tonight.”
“What about Dr. Doom?”
We always called the senior ranking doctor by the nickname, sometimes to his face. Single and without a hobby, he didn’t mind taking the late shifts. How very gentlemanly of him, although there were rumors the man was harvesting organs since so many people died on his shift.
A joke. A complete joke that had been going on for years.
“He’s making his rounds. We had two nurses call in sick.” She winked and I knew what that meant.
Another big-time performer was in town.
“Which artist is it this time, Lady Gaga or Bruno Mars?”
“Girl, you need to get out more. Alex Warren.”
I shook my head and she grumbled under her breath. “The hot guy who used to live in his car before making it big?”
My actions remained the same.
“The one who does the goofy videos every time he has a song come out?” When I shrugged, she huffed.
“For heaven’s sake. I’ll find it on Spotify for you.
” Her eyes were about to bug out of her head.
“You do have Spotify. Right? Please tell me you know what that is. You’re a couple years older than me.
Maybe I should start calling you the old lady around here. ”
“You do, you die and I know, for God’s sake.” She had no idea how sheltered I’d been as a child. We’d had all the money in the world, but I hadn’t been allowed to be a normal kid growing up.
“Well, anyway, he’s in town and two of our nurses are crazy for the man. Too bad all the good ones are married. You’re not getting out of my question. What are you doing here?”
Nurse Emily Reynolds wasn’t just one of the best nurses in the Mount Sinai Hospital, she was a woman I considered a good friend.
She’d certainly seen me at my worst, often with my scrubs covered in blood and other gore from a shift taken in the emergency room.
Or after having consumed one too many margaritas during what limited down time we had.
At least tonight had been quiet, leaving the crazies and criminals who regularly came in via ambulance on the first floor. In contrast, the sixth was a relative tomb.
Especially at this time of the morning.
“Just checking on a patient in ICU.”
Emily’s eyebrows furrowed as she leaned over the solid surface of the nurses’ station. “Weren’t you scheduled to get off a couple hours ago?”
“Well, five or six but who’s counting?” I laughed and leaned across the counter from the opposite direction.
With only the service lights on and a couple near the desks, the entire floor had an eerie appearance.
That wasn’t the case in the emergency room, where you could easily land a Boeing aircraft with the number and wattage of lights used.
“Go home. Get some rest.”
“I will. I just need to update his chart.”
“That’s what you always say and I find you here an hour later. That tells me you have zero social life.” Her laugh lit up the floor as it always did. A happy go lucky woman. If only I could be that way.
I’d yet to hear from my cousin, which meant she was having the time of her life.
You bet I was envious. In my mind I’d made up a half dozen scenarios of flying off somewhere with Kirill. A heavy, unwanted sigh burned my lungs. How long was I going to continue torturing myself?
“I’ll have you know I have a great social life.”
“When was the last date you went on?” Her glare was pointed.
My thoughts immediately wrapped around the amazing twelve hours. Not that I could call the time spent with the sexy Russian a date, but…
“I’m dedicated to my work.”
She cocked her head. “You went to Italy and were surrounded by sexy men right and left and you didn’t enjoy a little hanky-panky with even one?”
“Hanky-panky? No! I was at my sister’s wedding.”
“The best scenario in the world for hookups.”
My turn to laugh. “Says who?”
“Cosmopolitan Magazine. You know, they have their monthly tips on dating and romance.”
“What’s number two?”
“You don’t want to know. Seriously. Didn’t you find anyone interesting while you were there?”
When I shrugged, she slapped my arm.
“You did. Spill the tea,” she insisted.
“Mum is the word. Other than I had a fabulous flight.”
“You are so bad.”
We both laughed until we were interrupted by a strange sound.
Thump.
The noise broke the frivolous conversation completely. Maybe because I’d been taught to pay close attention to strange sounds. Coming from down a long, shadowed hallway, given the dim lighting and the fact no one was walking the halls, the sound was jarring for both of us.
“What the hell was that?” Emily asked.
I leaned back into an arch so I could see more clearly down the hallway. Seeing nothing, I took a deep breath. The dark hallway reminded me of a cheesy horror movie. “Maybe a nurse was trying to grab a box from the storage room and dropped it.”
“Must have been a heavy ass box. But you’re right. Wouldn’t be a doctor.”
We both laughed nervously until there was another sound that I couldn’t easily identify. But we looked at each other. “I’m going to go check it out.”
“Are you crazy? What if there’s a monster hiding in the storage room?” Her grip on my arm was white knuckled.
“Really? A monster?”
Emily shrugged. “You never know. Should I call security?”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“O-kay. If you don’t come back, I’ll call someone from Ghostbusters.”
The girl was a little kooky just like everyone had to be working a night shift in a hospital in a city where many crimes had gotten extremely creative.
As I took long strides down the hallway, my tennis shoes made squishing sounds, like suction cups on the aging square tile floor.
The air was chilly, which helped patients sleep, but I was suddenly freezing.
Maybe I’d listened to one too many of Emily’s crazy stories, although some of them were real and they were violent. She’d seen a lot of brutality.
I’d seen more, which was why I was likely immune to gunshot or knife wounds, people burned with cigarettes or thrown on hot grills. You bet people were sick fucks.
But nothing could compare to the life I’d left behind.
The memories were always with me, usually masked and almost never interfering with my current life. Yet every so often, when something in my life appeared out of the ordinary, specific images flowed into my stream of consciousness.
In medical terms, my subconscious was losing the battle at protecting me from my past.
Why right now I didn’t know, but as I moved further down the corridor, I was struck with how oppressive and tight the hallway suddenly seemed. I glanced from room to room, noticing the doors were closed as they were supposed to be.
I rounded the corner, sweeping the shorter corridor with my eyes. For the sound to travel this far meant whatever had fallen or been pushed off a shelf was very heavy. Maybe someone was hurt.
When I noticed the door to the storage room was partially open, I slowed my pace. A nurse was walking toward me, smiling as soon as she noticed I was in the hallway.
“Dr. Hamilton. How was Italy?” Pam was a nurse practitioner who enjoyed peppering me with questions. About everything, including life.
“Breathtaking. Delicious. Infuriating. That about sums it up.”
“Mmm… Now I have dozens more questions. You feel like catching up later this week? Maybe heading to our favorite club for a little male shakedown time?” She shimmied her hips, laughing as she did.
Along with Emily and another doctor, about once a month we hit a snazzy club near the hospital that everyone who was anyone frequented.
Among the four of us, we had the most creative methods of rating men. “I think I can swing it. If I can get through the next couple of days.”
“I hear that.”
Before she walked away, I studied the area. “Hey, Pam. Anything weird happen a few minutes ago?”
From what I could tell, there was nothing out of the ordinary, other than a gurney that had been left in between two rooms.
“Not that I know of. I just popped off the elevator though. What do you mean weird?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Just a noise.”
“Try going to emergency. They are nutso tonight. There’s a full moon.”
“No, thank you. About time for long winter’s nap.” Backing away, I managed to laugh easily, which was why experiencing a heightened level of apprehension was so unusual.