Betty grumbled, but she did it in good humor.

Dr. Beel walked up as they were talking and heard who was coming in. He scowled.

“She had better have a finger hanging on by the skin,” he grumbled. He wasn’t feeling too good and obviously wanted to go lie down. He knew Lucy came in for attention, and not the medical sort.

“I think she has a crush on you,” Lindsey told him with a smile.

He grumbled before moving toward the ER.

It took only about ten minutes before the ambulance was pulling into the bay. Lindsey waited by the back door, a shiver rushing through her when it opened and the cold wind blew in.

Her favorite medics strolled inside with Lucy on the gurney, a grin on her face as she chatted with the young guys. They didn’t seem put out in the least. They got a kick out of the woman they called their favorite patient.

Of course she was their favorite. She’d been in the hospital more times than most of the nursing staff. She had come in for everything: complaints of chest pain (which ended up being her skin rubbed a bit too raw from a too-tight bra), a broken leg, arm, and hand, which had all been fully intact. She’d come in for burns that had really been scratches, and for fevers when her temperature was normal.

The first half-dozen calls, the paramedics had tried to assure her she was fine, telling her she didn’t need to come in. But she would always tell them it was an emergency, that she would die if they left her.

They couldn’t refuse to transport her. Lindsey wondered when her insurance was going to cancel her. They’d even given her a psych evaluation, but she’d loved that. There was nothing physically or mentally wrong with Lucy. She was just lonely.

“Hello, Lindsey dear. I’m so glad you’re here. How are you doing?” Lucy said with a smile more vibrant than most seventy-year-old women had.

“I’m fine, Lucy. The question is, how are you feeling?” Lindsey asked as the paramedics got her moved from the stretcher to a bed.

The team hooked her up to a cardiac monitor, checked her blood pressure, which was fine, and all her vitals. She was healthier than most twenty-year-olds.

“I got this cut on my hand, and I don’t want it to get infected,” she said, trying to make her voice sound feebler. It wasn’t fooling any of them.

Dr. Beel examined Lucy, asked her the standard questions, and put notations in her ever-expanding file. When he tried to find out what had happened with her bandaged hand, she refused to let them look at it. He blew out a frustrated breath and gave her his sternest look.

“I need to know what’s going on, Lucy, or we can’t help you,” he told her.

She nervously shifted on the bed as she gripped her fingers together. She looked at each staff member before looking back down at her hands.

“Well . . .” She paused as her eyes filled with tears. Lindsey pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. “I . . . um . . .”

“Come on, Lucy. Spit it out.”

Dr. Beel normally had more patience. It looked as if that weren’t the case on this shift. There was nothing crankier than a sick doctor with a patient wasting his time.

“I just wanted to be with my family today,” she said as a tear dripped down her cheek.

“Where’s your family?” Lindsey asked, feeling terrible for the woman.

“Well, I think of you guys as my family,” she said. Then the tears dried up, and Lindsey knew the woman was putting on the show of her life.

“What is it really?” Dr. Beel snapped, clearly not falling for her tricks.

“Well, I’m ticked off, that’s what it is,” she said, her expression turning sour. “I applied for a loan today and was denied. Who in the heck denies someone like me a loan when I want it?”

Lindsey and the rest of the staff were silent as they processed what Lucy had just said. It made no sense.

“What are you trying to buy?” Lindsey finally asked.

“A zoo,” she said with the utmost seriousness.

Dr. Beel threw his hands into the air and stomped from the room. He’d had enough. He wasn’t even going to pretend to try to humor the patient. Lindsey was bored enough that this was the most entertained she’d been all day.

“A zoo?” she questioned Lucy.

“Yes, there’s a zoo in South Carolina where they are going to kill all the animals because they said it’s not getting enough people. I want to buy the zoo and move there so I can take care of those poor defenseless creatures.”

Lindsey had no idea what to say.

Suddenly, Dr. Beel popped back into the room, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket, and taking out a hundred-dollar bill. He set it into Lucy’s wrinkled fingers and actually grinned.

“I think that’s a fantastic idea, Lucy. I’m starting a collection for you right now.”

Lindsey stared at him in confusion, and then at the rest of the staff members as they all reached into their pockets and pulled out cash.

“Let’s buy this woman a zoo that moves her far away.”

When Lindsey realized what was going on, she was horrified. Lucy had no idea that they were all mocking her, or celebrating the possibility of her leaving.

“Horrible,” Lindsey choked out. “You are all horrible.”

She turned and walked from the room. She prayed that she would never get so cynical in her job that she would mock a little old woman. Sure, that woman was a lot slyer than the average person, but it all boiled down to the fact that she was lonely and wanted to come to a place that made her feel safe.