Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
ELLE
A nother whoosh floated through the emergency department and I didn’t even have to turn to know there was another person walking through the door. Thank god it was the last night of the fair. I was so over this weekend.I felt like I was living in the dated pastel pink, fluorescent lit maze of hallways and exam rooms lately. My week off couldn’t come soon enough.
With my back to the reception desk, I stared at my computer, finishing my charting on the patient I’d just discharged. Thankfully, the cases so far tonight had been easy. Simple things like stitches, a few cases of food poisoning and one man who thought he was having a heart attack but it was a simple case of indigestion.
There were a few people in the waiting room, but the rows of chairs were mostly empty, and we were able to lower the lights in that area, trying to make it a little more comfortable for the people waiting.
“What the fuck? I don’t have to tell you any of that.” The man’s voice raised, and I slowly turned in my chair to look at the man whose raised voice had blasted through the peaceful calm of the ER.
“Sir, I need to know why you’re seeking medical attention before I can help you.” My co-worker, whose sweet voice should have calmed the situation, wasn’t having that effect.
“My personal information isn’t any of your business, you’re just trying to scam me, maybe lock me in the mental unit. I want to talk to someone who isn’t a damn child.” The man stood up so fast he knocked over the chair he’d been sitting on. “There has to be a more competent person than this twelve-year-old.” He points at my co-worker, who, in fact, was twenty-two and had just graduated with her degree and wasn’t as jaded with the career as most of us senior nurses were. “I want a doctor.”
Saving my work, I closed the program and stood from my chair.
“Yeah, you, you’re a doctor, right?” He pointed at me, nodding like a bobblehead on the dash of a car driving down a bumpy road.
“No, I’m not, and I’m also much older and way more jaded than Sarah here. So, my advice to you is, pick up that chair, sit your rear end down and finish telling her your info or you can walk your ass out of my ER escorted by security.” I leaned over the desk, talking only as loud as he could hear me.
“I’m bleeding, lady.” He whined and held out the palm of his hand, which was wrapped in a dingy, greasy white t-shirt. Quite possibly the one he should have been wearing.
“Was that so difficult? Finish telling Sarah what she needs to know, and we’ll be with you shortly.” My words were hushed. I never took my eyes off the man. When he finished, he shuffled to the waiting room, and everyone waiting turned to glare at him.They’d all been content, and waited patiently you could tell they were ready to take him on if he caused more trouble.
Grabbing the next chart, I flipped it open. Vomiting and dizziness: all the triage vitals looked good, so hopefully it was an anti-nausea shot and see you later. “Number ninety-six,” I called, and a woman and teenager stood. The teen sidestepped slightly, and I caught her as she got to me. She looked up at me, her blue eyes filled with tears, and she bit her lip.
“Let’s get you settled in a room,” I whispered. If her head wasn’t hurting yet, it would be by morning. “Mom, would you feel comfortable going to get a ginger ale from the vending machine? I just need to check blood pressure and pulse.” I smiled at her as she took another look at her daughterbefore nodding.
“So, Halley, you’re eighteen?” The girl nodded as a tear ran down her cheek. Reaching out, I dabbed it with a tissue and smiled.
“I was eighteen once, too. Do you know what you were drinking?” I slipped the blood pressure cuff around her biceps and clipped the pulse oximeter to her opposite finger.
“No, I’ve never even had a drink before. My friends and I met up with these guys from a different town, and they gave us drinks.” Her eyes filled with tears again, and my heart squeezed as I remembered a night much like this for my former best friend.
“Did you pass out or lose consciousness?” My stomach suddenly flipped wondering what else this girl had been through tonight.
“No, I didn’t even think I drank much when my mom called and said she was coming to get me. But it was so good. It tasted like strawberries, and I drank the rest as fast as I could.” She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie that read Everton First Baptist Church.
The door opened, and the young woman on the stretcher closed her mouth as Dr. Jake Gordon walked through the door. “Halley, this is Dr. Gordon. I’m just going to tell him what you told me.”
Moving to the side of the room, I looked up at him and smiled. He was tall, his dark hair was always a mess, his brown eyes never missed anything. “Is fair weekend always this crazy?” I asked as I glanced at the girl.
“I usually try to take this weekend off because it’s always awful.” He laughed. “So what’s up here?” He flipped through her chart.
“I think just a little drunk,” I said quietly.
“Halley, how’s your father?”
“He’s going to kill me.” She wailed. “I’ll have to go up in front of the entire congregation and confess my sins tomorrow when he finds out.” The tears flowed freely now, and my stomach sank for her again.
“Food poisoning? Dr. Jake, I wonder where she picked that up?” I exclaimed as her mother walked into the room carrying five bottles of Ginger Ale.
“The midway is a harbor of bacteria, and it could have been from anything.” He looked at me. The slight scowl on his face makes me very aware he wasn’t happy, but he wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Plenty of fluids, pain medication if you need it, and I think that’s all for tonight,” Jake said as he digitally signed his name on the triage information on the computer.
“Well, sorry we wasted your time tonight, doctor.” The woman said as she smoothed down her hair, smiling up at him. Maybe she should stand in front of the congregation and confess her lustful thoughts tomorrow morning. I rolled my eyes and helped Halley off the bed.
“Get lots of sleep, and make sure you take some ibuprofen tonight before your go to bed and when you get up in the morning. It might not make church easier, but it will help the headache you’re going to have.” My words were quiet. She was an adult, and her mother, no matter how overbearing she was, didn’t need to be a part of this conversation.
“Thank you,” Halley whispered as her mother walked up beside her. I watched them go, and Jake came to stand beside me.
“I know,” I sighed.
“I didn’t say anything. Her father rules his home and pulpit with an iron fist, and he’s sleeping with the church organist. You won’t be reprimanded by me.” He looked over at me as I looked at him and tried to hold in a laugh.
“How do you know that?” I asked as I moved to clean the stretcher.
“Small-town gossip, Elle. Apparently, you need to get out more.” He chuckled as he left the room. He wasn’t wrong, but by the time I’d finished my shifts, spent time with Parker and dealt with my horses, I didn’t have the energy to leave my house.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I took it out.
Parker: hey ma me n dad just got home best fair ever see u tomorrow
Me: It’s three in the morning, Parker. You should be asleep.
Parker: ma it’s fine dads gone for a few days after today I just wanted to spend more time with him
Me: Fine, get to sleep. See you when I get home.
Parker: yep
Would it kill the kid to use punctuation or a capital letter? Parker was ten going on twenty. He was the light of my life and the one person I’d protect at all costs. Born with severe hearing loss, it had progressively gotten worse until he could only hear low-pitch noises. My heart ached at the memory of the months he couldn’t hear me tell him I loved him or the difficulty communicating that led to frustrated outbursts.
Thankfully, his cochlear implants were successful, and we could get back to some normalcy. But it had put a strain on my marriage when I’d stopped going on the road with Troy. His family hadn’t made life easy for us when they insisted it was my fault and I should have taken better care of myself during pregnancy and not worked so much. Troy fought them for a while, but he was on the road so much that it left me to fight the battles with them, and when Troy was home, his time was so divided I took the back seat.
My family had been genetically predisposed to hearing loss as infants. There were four people in my family, including my brother, so while it was just a bump in the road for me, it was a mountain to Troy’s family. No matter how I tried to help or offer support and information, they wanted none of it.
So, most of the time, it was just Parker and I. In the summer, he’d spend time with Troy when he wasn’t on the circuit which was the other destroyer of our marriage. But I was happy living in Montana, and it meant that Parker could see his dad more often, so it worked out.
The waiting room cleared out. Mr. Belligerent turned into a puppy dog and even tried to flirt with Sarah on his way out. Thankfully, security escorted him to his car.
“I’m going home.” I sighed as I grabbed my purse from my locker after I gave report. Grabbing a coffee from the staffroom, I waved at everyone still in the report room and headed for my truck.
Climbing into my truck, I cranked the AC. It wasn’t overly warm, but I needed icicles to form on my nose if I was going to get home without falling asleep.
Letting out a sigh, I closed my eyes and let my head flop back on the headrest. A tap on the window made me almost jump through the roof.
The window motor whirred as I lowered it and I smiled at Jake.
“Sorry for scaring you. I just wanted to thank you for a good shift. I’ll let you know when I’m on next and if you’re working, we can drive together. No sense us both driving when I go right past your place.” He smiled.
“Yeah, that would be great. And thanks for not giving me shit about that girl. It won’t happen again.” I looked down at the pavement for a moment before I looked back at him.
“Your assessment skills are second to none. I trust your judgment.” He smiled again as he tapped on the door before turning and walking to his truck.My thoughts turned back to that night so many years ago when my best friend Samantha drank too much and suffered severe consequences from her strict parents, which also included staying away from me for months. Even the months we couldn’t be friends, we still managed to remain close until I’d moved to Montana, and we just drifted apart. Shaking thoughts of the past out of my head, I looked in the rearview mirror as I backed my truck out of my parking spot.
I couldn’t leave the city without making a few stops and grabbing another coffee, but soon it was just me and the open roads heading back to my ranch.
Dots littered the horizon, and I blinked as I watched them move. They were moving toward me. Slamming on the brakes, I pulled into the ditch and watched the horses move past me. There had to be twenty of them.
I didn’t have that many and none of them were mine, so I breathed a sigh of relief. Getting out of the truck, I wandered over to one, but it ran as soon as I got close. They all gathered around one beautiful blue roan. What I wouldn’t give for her.
Looking in the truck, it must be the first time I didn’t have anything to catch these horses. Reaching behind me, I popped open the clasp of my bra and shimmied out of it.
Slowly, I got out of the truck and moved as quietly as I could. “I won’t hurt you, but you have to get off this road. People won’t be paying attention, and you’re going to get spooked.” I rambled on to the horses, and a few got jumpy and moved away from me.
Except the blue roan, she stood there in her majestic glory, and I slipped my bra around its neck. “There we go,” I said as I rubbed her neck. “Where did you come from?” I looked around and noticed a road.
“Did you come from over there? Will you walk with me?” I looked in the horse’s eyes and I swore it nodded.
As I walked, the other horses fell into line and I planned what I was going to say to this horse owner, who obviously didn’t care about their animals. Good fences make good neighbors, and it also kept animals from becoming injured on the road.