Chapter 4
Amelia
Non-stop.
The late shift was non-stop, and the board felt like it would never clear. Not much time for a pee break, but hey sometimes we do it for the rush, right?
Some moments I felt like my feet had disappeared, I walked so damn much. I got a moment to breathe, and I nearly slumped over one of the pod desks.
“Why do you look like death warmed over?” Jennie, one of my favorite nurses and work friends, asked.
“Is that your way of flirting? I don’t think it’s working,” I grumbled.
“Well, she’s not wrong. You look like you’re ready to pass out on the floor and won’t care if someone stepped on you,” Sarah, another one of my favorite work friends, joked.
Some days I wondered how we became friends and then remembered that one of us probably started talking and we just never stopped. Sometimes they remind me of the sisters I never had but always wanted. I knew they cared, but sometimes their honesty stung when I started to believe them.
“Can I count that as getting some action?” I propped my head up.
I joked, but something in me regretted it as soon as I did. Sarah and Jennie knew about Chris, maybe not all of it, but a good portion. As much as they tried to get me to just leave, too much pride and stubbornness stopped me.
“Self-sabotage, classy Flynn.” Jennie smirked.
Flynn, because I never want to be a McDonnell at the one place I knew I could escape to, away from the cruelty I lived with. I was Amelia Grace Flynn at the hospital and to the majority of friends. And that’s how it was going to stay.
“Hey, got to keep it on par, right?” I laughed.
As I was waiting for other orders to come through, I would do a round of check-ins, but for the moment I was catching my breath, watching the clock tick by with the hours dragging by. I should never have taken another night shift.
“I’m afraid to look in the waiting room.” I grimaced.
“Afraid that you’ll catch something?” Sarah joked as she returned to her screen.
That was the worst feeling and best feeling, the dreadful feeling of walking into something and then being tasked with that person’s care but also the wonderful feeling of being needed. And then maybe at the end of the day I’d get a thank you. Not likely, but a nurse could dream right?
“Well, it would seem that they’re not giving you enough to do, my dear.
” A slightly accented European feminine voice came from behind.
I glanced over my shoulder seeing one of my favorites on call tonight.
Dr. Amira Andres, a tougher than she appeared doctor, one that “if mama ain't happy, ain’t nobody happy” but the type of doctor that would fight for her patients and be completely honest with them.
Working alongside her had been a pleasure, a voice of reason I never asked for but definitely needed.
I plastered a charming smile. “Yet if I was a true glutton I’d be asking for more, doc.” I winked at her.
“Mia, didn’t you work last night?” She cocked an eyebrow, shoving her hands into her white coat.
“Checking up on me?” I turned, leaning back on the nurse’s station.
“More like trying to make sure HR doesn’t have your ass for pulling too many hours. You work more hours than some of my residents,” she teased.
“Don’t tease on the new residents, they’ll learn.” Unlikely.
“It’s almost been a year, the new one should know by now.”
I rolled my eyes; she expected better out of the new doctors that walked those halls.
“What can we do for you, doc?” Jennie piped up.
Andres took one of the iPads from the desk and pushed it into my hands. “New admission, other than elevated heart rate, blood pressure borderline concern, came in for possible fracture.”
I tapped on the device, looking to understand the quick diagnosis. “Is that what the patient said?” I asked.
She threw her hands up. “That’s what triage said he said.”
“Of course, it’s a male, thinking he knows best.” I huffed out, I turned to see Jennie and Sarah holding back a laugh. Knowing them they thought “Only Mia could get the stubborn alpha males that think they know everything about medical care.”
“Alright, doc, I’ll take the hint. I’ll get some history and vitals. You want me to send one of your residents in?” I asked.
She nodded and then walked away. That was Andres, when she didn’t have to explain herself and trusted you, she would just move on to the next task at hand.
“River Brooks, thirty-eight, male, limited patient history and oh look at that,” I pointed at the screen, “would not give any information until seen in a room.” I rolled my eyes; someone wanted the “VIP experience” by being difficult and making it harder on our jobs.
It looked like he waited two hours which is fast in our area, especially this hospital. “Wish me luck.”
“Bring back stories.” Sarah raised her voice.
There was no picture on file either. No profile and limited patient history, this was going to be a “fun” experience.
I knocked on the door, looking at the triage vitals and the main complaint, I pulled back the curtain, “River Brooks?” I asked, having not looked up from the chart.
“Peaches,” a deep voice rumbled.
I stopped dead in my tracks as that familiar voice rattled me.
The level of annoyance had only increased tenfold.
I looked behind me, finding Sarah and Jennie peeking over the station.
I closed the door but also pulled the curtain back around.
I slammed the iPad on the table. “This is a whole new level to our relationship, Shooter.” I hissed out his name.
I knew the man was crazy, but this was a new level.
He curled a smile. “We have a relationship, peaches?”
I huffed out, “Stop calling me that.”
“Didn’t answer my question,” he teased, settling back into the bed. I noticed another man sitting beside him, looking confused. Shooter noticed. “This is Stray.”
That’s what he did, he teased. Under all the tough exterior and the dangerous look in his eyes, he could tease and watch for the colors on your cheeks to darken.
“Brother I take it. Thought you looked familiar. You were in the waiting room when Melody was here.” I turned back to Shooter.
“Out of all the hospitals you could have gone too and be seen quicker, you chose this one?” I glanced down at his leg.
“And for a man that “fractured” his leg you don’t seem to be in pain.
” I forwent the iPad and scanned into our computer system.
He just laughed. “I’m a lot tougher than I look.”
“And beginning to be a real pain in my ass. Why didn’t you let my triage people do what they needed to do?” I grumbled.
“Dumbass refused.” Stray’s voice chimed in.
“Of course he did. Why?”
“Maybe I just wanted you to care for me.” Shooter tried to charm his way through this.
Fucking dumbass was right.
“Mr. Brooks.” I started but he cut me off. “I like the way you say my name.”
“If you won’t let me do my job, then I’m getting my charge nurse in here and I’m not above getting your ass in restraints to comply,” I threatened, though a dose of benzodiazepine would not have been a bad idea at the time.
“You make it too easy to tease you.” he shot back. “I’d like to see you try those restraints.”
And yet my mind went somewhere. Bad Amelia.
“Do you mind shutting him up for a second?” I looked to Stray for some assistance.
“He’s his own man.” Stray raised his hands up in surrender.
Truly no help.
With a sigh, I tried to push through, trying to shove down the annoyance that was bubbling inside me.
The last thing I needed was for someone to report me because my last brain cell was ready to throttle him out the door.
Yet, the pleaser in me wanted to follow through and make this right, get him the care he needed.
Even laying in a hospital bed, the man still looked like an Adonis, strong arms that could crush a man’s skull, a tall muscular body that probably was defined under all his clothes.
I swear the man looked like God had a favorite and gifted him to the world.
Inside I was drooling and if that man walked out of his room, all the women and maybe some men would stop dead in their tracks.
In the end, I wouldn’t blame them. He looked like he wasn’t afraid to throw someone over his shoulder.
“Seriously, what do you want? I have patients in worse shape than you.” I tried to show him, gesturing to the med floor.
I tried to stay strong. But the smile with the little dimple in his cheek and the way he looked at me like I was the only person with him just shot butterflies in my belly.
The way he stared at me like he was a hungry animal ready to devour their meal.
“Well, you may think that, but I bet that they can walk.” He settled back into bed.
I shook my head. “You can’t walk?” I rushed to his bedside, forgetting to take the simplest of patient history. I reached to grab at the pant leg, and he tensed up.
“Jesus! Is this your bedside manner?” He raised his voice, showing his colors of what I knew him to be, the man that everyone usually feared. I tried to ignore him, because either he was good with masking the pain or he was lying.
His reaction told me otherwise.
“When my patient is being uncooperative, yes. Now let me roll up your pant leg. Knowing you, you’re not telling me the whole truth and using that smug smile to fluster me.”
I reached for the pant leg again, he lunged forward, grabbing my wrist in a death grip. I softened a little, a little frozen at the touch. “Please. River.”
I shouldn’t have been so affected by the way I said his name or the way my mind just fluttered, clinging on to the sound of it. It was going to live rent free, and I was suddenly okay with that.
Well, I didn’t know about being okay with it, considering his reputation. He held my gaze longer than any other person should feel comfortable with, but there he was, trying to hold in the pain he was feeling.
“Careful Shooter, she may knock your ass out.” Stray chuckled, breaking the thoughts that circled in my mind.
I returned to the “evil” nurse that he portrayed me as.
“If it wasn’t for the fact I need and love my job, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to do.
” I sighed again. “Please, just let me look at it, and you can go back to being the flirtatious man that pesters me.” I threw in a pout for good measures, batting my long lashes.
He released his grip but didn’t settle back this time in the bed.
I stepped to the left side, trying carefully to roll up the pant leg.
I reached his sneaker and he froze again.
The fucker was in pain and was trying to play it off.
And my money was on that Hound Dog didn’t know or else my phone would have been blowing up.
I leaned over, finally getting a good look at the leg. Slight discoloration, possible swelling further up the leg. The man was going to need an x-ray. I turned my head a little, watching and waiting for a reaction, but Shooter’s eyes were wider than when I first started my exam.
“It’s not nice to stare at a woman’s ass. That would truly get you knocked out.” I tried to laugh, but his reaction wasn’t very happy. I brushed it off.
After examining him, I went to log vitals after they were taken and called Andres to bypass an order for the x-ray stat. I didn’t want him to have any more damage than I feared he did. Even if he still bothered me, no one deserves that kind of pain.
After they wheeled him over to x-ray, one of the residents came down and put in orders for pain meds and would determine the next course of action upon reading the scan.
I might have had to agree with Shooter, possible leg fracture and if I was right, at least three months of recovery which he would absolutely hate.
He came back to the room as I entered whatever conversation between him and Stray ceased when I came to view.
“The doctor will be in shortly. Anything else I can get you?” I mainly was just doing my job asking, but his grin came back.
“You, every fifteen minutes.” Oh, he was a tease. If Jennie or Sarah came in, they’d be on the floor in a puddle or even worse, in his lap.
I rolled my eyes, reaching for the blood pressure cuff. “You’re funny.”
“Is that too much to ask?”
“From you? Yes, especially when I have an entire floor filled with patients and a waiting room that needs attention.” It wasn't a complete lie, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“But you can make it feel better.” He smirked, his voice intertwining with the beeps from the machines. I ripped the cuff off, wishing that I find a quick escape before the man could say another thing that would both get under my skin and beg him to fuck me.
“I’m not kissing it better.” I booped his nose.
As soon as I turned to head out of the room, I heard, “I have other things you could kiss and make better.”
“You know knocking you out is becoming more tempting by the second.” I let out a growl, and he gave a deep laugh.
“I like evil nurse every once in a while,” he said. I tried to hide a smile, stuffing back down.
I needed my own head examined.
I muttered to myself, looking at the clock trying to find something to look forward to, yet my eyes kept darting to the room holding in a man that could be the devil’s cousin.
“Mr. Brooks definitely has a leg fracture, I’m thinking three months at least if not longer.” Andres appeared at the station. “Not as bad as I thought.”
I scoffed. “Good luck telling him that.”
“You know him?” Andres leaned forward over the counter.
I shrugged. “A friend of a friend of a friend. Pure coincidence.” I went back to charting my other patients, waiting for other orders to come in. I looked up at Andres, taking a double take. “What?”
“He’s a very handsome man, Amelia,” she said, wiggling her freshly waxed eyebrows, which reminded me, I needed mine tamed.