Chapter Eighteen
Theo
My phone rings… again. So much for a nap. It’s the ER letting me know another patient has shown up in the waiting room: a laceration with profuse bleeding. As I round the corner, I screech on the brakes when I see Isaac and Shelby in the waiting room. Isaac locks eyes with me.
I rush up to him. “Where is she?”
Isaac can’t stop pacing. “Oh God. This is all my fault.”
“Where is she?”
He points to the bay the staff took her to. I pat his arm and push through the curtain. I let out a sigh of relief when I see Darla sitting on a gurney, swinging her feet like a little girl. She holds her bloody hand in the air. I cock my head to the side as I take her in.
Her eyes get big when she sees me. “Of course, you would be working tonight.”
“It must be your lucky day.”
She waves her wounded hand toward me and cringes. “Don’t think so.”
I wash my hands and don gloves. “Maybe it’s my lucky day.”
Monica, the ER nurse, enters the bay and hands me a package of gauze and a kit of sterile instruments.
“You know, if you wanted to see me, all you had to do is call.”
Monica laughs. Darla’s mouth tips upward a tad on one side.
I roll over to her on my wheeled stool. “Let’s see what you did.”
She holds her hand out. “I think the culprit was the lid off a tuna can.”
I grimace, knowing that had to hurt, but I’ve seen worse. She’s lucky it didn’t hit an artery. She would be pulsating blood all over the place if that were the case.
“Monica, could you get me some sterile water, one cc of lidocaine, five hundred units of Bacitracin, and the superglue?”
“Sure thing.”
“Superglue?” Darla asks.
“It’s not really superglue, but it’s pretty much the same thing. Better than stitches. Comes in real handy. Get it?”
“Don’t make me laugh.” She sucks in a breath, and a tear trickles down her cheek. She wipes it away with her good hand.
“Are you allergic to penicillin?”
“N-n-no.”
I gaze into her eyes. “By the stink Isaac was causing out there, I thought you’d been hit by a car.”
She rolls her eyes. “Tell me about it. I told them I didn’t need to be here. Ouch.”
“Sorry, but I have to get this clean. You need to be here. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” she says, barely above a whisper.
I move to sit on the side of the gurney. Our knees touch, reminding me of when we sat on the edge of the bathroom sink at that college party. “I’ve got you, sweetie.”
She leans over and rests her forehead on mine while I hold her wound closed, waiting on Monica to return with the meds. I’ll hold it all night long if I need to, but I have to assess the damage.
“Can you move your fingers?”
She grits her teeth but is able to move all the fingers on her left hand.
“Good. I don’t think you hit a tendon or a nerve.”
Her hand trembles, or it might be mine. I hold hers tight again.
“You should be more careful where you put your hand.”
“Got any suggestions?” Her eyes get big as she realizes how I will take that. “I cannot believe I said that.”
I chuckle and clear my throat. “Nurse Battle, you have a dirty mind. I’m shocked.”
Monica enters the room, giggling. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that.”
“That’s why you’re my favorite work nurse.” I wink at Darla, my favorite wellness nurse. “I’m going to write you a prescription for antibiotics and pain meds. And to be sure it’s healing properly, I think I should hold your hand for the next few days. You know… physical therapy.”
Her eyes snap to mine, and she swallows deeply. “Doctor’s orders… I guess.”
My eyes get big. That was easy.
Darla moans through clenched teeth as I clean out her wound and close it up. I let Monica bandage her hand; she’s way better at it than I am. She says I use five times the amount of bandage needed and that even a cut on the pinky finger ends up looking like a mummy.
“Why don’t you lie back while I get your prescriptions filled?”
“Thanks, Doc.”
I reward her with a wink.
“When can I go home?”
“You can’t drive on pain meds. I guess you’ll have to wait until I’m off-duty.” I wiggle my eyebrows.
“Where’s Shelby?”
Wow. She shot me down. Hurtful. “She took the supplies to the office, but she said she’d be back soon. And I shooed Isaac away. He was making a scene.”
Darla’s eyes are glassy. The pain meds have definitely kicked in.
“Lie back and get some rest. I’ll let you know when she’s here.”
She curls up, propping her bandaged hand on the pillow. Her eyelids are heavy. “Oh, Romeo, Romeo…”
My cheeks hurt from the big smile on my face.
“I need to talk to Stella. She’ll be…”
“You want to talk to my mother?”
She mumbles something through a very large yawn. “‘Ice Ice Baby.’”
I never took her for a Vanilla Ice fan. It would be unprofessional to laugh at my patient, but she’s so damn funny on drugs.
She drifts off to sleep before I can tease her about her ramblings. I raise the bed rail and move the call button closer to her good hand. I kiss her cheek before I make myself comfortable in a chair beside her bed.
For an hour, Darla sleeps. Her chest rises and falls in a slow rhythm as she rests. It’s a nice excuse to stare at her without her knowing. I can take in all her features without seeming like a stalker. Her mouth is a bit open, and it makes me want to kiss those pillowy soft cheeks so badly. It’s really hard to keep my distance. I can’t thank Monica enough for taking me off-duty until Darla goes home.
She stirs. Dang it.
I sit down on her bed, soaking in every detail of her face—her full lips and those dark lashes that do a terrible job at hiding her emotions. Her hair is splayed across the pillow, tempting my itchy fingers to run through those strands. When I’m around her, I feel warm and fuzzy. I can’t quite find the right words to express my feelings, so I do what I do best. I stare at her.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m… glad you’re okay.”
She exhales. “That makes two of us. But I was in good hands. Get it? Hands?” She waves her bandaged hand in my face. She closes her eyes and yawns.
“That was really… bad.” I reach out to touch her right hand and bring it to my lips.
She places her bandaged hand on my cheek. Then she blinks and snatches her hands away as if my skin burned her.
“Did I say anything? I have a tendency to ramble when I’m doped up.”
“You wanted to talk to Stella.”
She gulps, and her normal dark complexion fades to pale. “What did I say?”
“You wanted to talk to her.”
She stares at the wall, and I sure do wish I could download that monologue she’s having in her head right now.
“This is good. I need to get this off my chest.” She attempts to sit up and tilts to the side. Her face goes from pale to an eerie-green tint. “Oh no.”
I have a nanosecond to reach for the emesis basin before she tosses her cookies all over the place. The only thing I can do is hold her hair back and order Zofran.
Monica zips in seconds after I hit the call button and takes over puke duty.
My phone rings, interrupting me from staring at Darla. She waves her injured hand as she and Shelby proceed out of the emergency room and down the long hallway that leads to the elevators. By the sound of the ringtone, I already know it’s Jennifer. She would only call me this time of morning if it was urgent or if she has her time zones mixed up.
“You know it’s four a.m. here.”
“I figured you’d be working, and I finally got cell service.”
I scoot out into the hallway so as not to disturb anyone. “Are you pregnant yet?”
She sighs. “And to think I was missing you. But now that you’ve mentioned it, how would that make you feel?”
“Huh?” My sister is insane. Only she would be asking me this, and in the middle of the night, no less.
“How would you feel if you suddenly found out you were going to be an uncle?”
“I’d be thrilled, of course. Why?”
She giggles. “I’m working on it.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m not afraid anymore.”
“Does this mean…”
“Yep. This time next year, maybe you’ll be an uncle.”
“That’s fantastic, Jen.”
She gets all giggly again. “Matt, stop it.”
I grin. It sounds as though they’re having fun. Maybe someday I’ll have time to have fun with someone I care about.
“I know I would be glad if I found out I was going to be an aunt,” she says.
I lean up against the wall and cross one leg over the other.
“Theo, I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”
“It’s all right. The day you find out you’re going to be an aunt will be the day you have to pick me up off the floor.”
“From shock or fear?” she asks.
I shrug even though I know she can’t see me. “Both, I guess.”
“Aw, come on. You’d be excited, wouldn’t you?”
I scratch the back of my neck. It’s been a long night, and I don’t need any crazy talk from my sister. “Did you call for a specific reason?”
“Uh, any progress with that girl you ran into?”
I glance down the hallway and see Darla and Shelby waiting for the elevator. “A little. At least she’s not afraid of me anymore.”
“That’s good,” she says. “Anything I need to know about?”
I roll my eyes. “No, Nosy Nelly. Jeez, you can be so—”
“Never mind. We’ll talk about it later.”
I close my eyes. When she goes all mother hen on me, it’s hard to get her to stop. “Why don’t you go get naked in a hot tub? Get to working on that baby-making.”
She giggles. “You are awful.”
She tells Matt what I said, and his voice is loud and clear in the background. “Yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
The phone call ends. My family is so strange. Before I put my phone in my pocket, I send a quick text to Darla.
“Hey, Doc,” Monica says from the emergency room triage station.
I nod at her as I finish my text.
Take it easy the next few days.
No Tylenol while on the meds I prescribed.
Be safe and later gator.
P.S. I don’t mind house calls :)
“You two make a cute couple,” Monica says. “I can tell she likes you.”
My grin overtakes my face. “Well, can you blame her?”
Monica rolls her eyes. “Seriously, why do I even bother?”
“Because if it weren’t for me, you’d be working with Dr. Fredrickson and his chronic halitosis.” I shiver.
“Good point.”
Right before I slide my phone into my pocket, it buzzes to notify me of an incoming text… from Darla.
I nevr gt 2 tale u.
Darla Battle on pain meds—adorable.