My two-day suspension was followed immediately by my day off, giving me what amounted to a three-day weekend, which was the first one I’d ever had since I started working as an RN. Most people would have enjoyed a mini-vacation but I couldn’t stand it.

I took Jason’s advice and didn’t let anyone know how upset I’d been. I held my head high and walked into the building like I owned the place.

I had barely made it halfway to the nurse’s station when Maggie saw me and came running out of her office to meet me, greeting me with a hug.

“Well hello, Maggie. What was that for?” I asked.

“Honey, you never miss work so for you to miss two shifts in a row had me worried. You must have been really sick.”

“Sick? Who told you I was sick?”

“Nobody said anything. I just assumed you were on your deathbed if you weren’t here.”

I spotted Candace looking in our direction. Her neck was leaned ever so slightly as she was struggling to try to hear our conversation.

“Are you going back to your office?” I asked Maggie.

“For a little while. I have some paperwork to do.”

“Let me get my things put away and I’ll meet you in there.”

I walked past the nurse’s station and said hello to Candace. She tried to act like she didn’t hear me but the way she crinkled her nose told me she was just choosing to ignore me. That was fine. I didn’t really want to talk to her fake ass anyway.

The assistants that were working that morning were all smiling and friendly. For the first time in a while, I had a pretty good staff who seemed like they wanted to be there.

At least half of them were going to school to become an RN so the experience was valuable to them. I put my lunch in the fridge, poured myself a cup of coffee and made my way back to Maggie’s office.

“So you really don’t know what happened?” I asked as I took a seat.

“Yeah. It seems like I’m out of the loop about something.”

“You weren’t here Thursday, which is probably why things went down the way they did. You remember when I had to have a meeting with Angie on Wednesday?”

“Of course.”

“Well, when I got here on Thursday, she pulled me into her office and laid into me. She told me that she didn’t think I took our initial meeting seriously so she suspended me for two days without pay.”

“What? Why would she do that? You’re the best RN we have. Why would she trust Candace to handle all of the duties when she won’t even do the duties that she has when you’re here?”

“I have no clue. At first, I was really upset about it. I ran to my boyfriend’s place and bawled my eyes out until he told me not to let them bother me. After that, I treated my days off like a mini vacation.”

“Good for you. This boyfriend you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be the brother that started all this stuff would it?”

“Of course not,” I said with a wink.

“Oh boy,” she said . smiling as she shook her head. “I’m almost done with this paperwork. Do you need any help making your rounds?”

“Sure. I’ll never say no to an extra hand. Lord knows I won’t get it from anyone else around here.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you out there in a few.”

I went back to the nurse’s station and Candace wasn’t anywhere to be found. It was a rare occurrence to find her anywhere but in front of her computer, especially when I was on duty.

I couldn’t worry about her. It was time to do the med rounds. Much to my surprise, Candace was coming out of the medicine room as I approached the door. She had no reason to be in there, especially since I had all the charts.

“Are you doing med rounds today?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“No, I left something in there when I was doing meds yesterday.”

Her explanation was plausible enough so I left it at that. Still determined to have a good day, I got all the medicine together and made my way to give them to those who needed it. I expected to be joined by Maggie but she never came out of her office. I didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t uncommon for her to get busy out of nowhere.

By the time I was done passing out the medication, it was almost time for lunch. I decided to go around and help the nurse’s assistants get the residents ready to go to lunch.

That’s always one of the hardest jobs of the day and it seems like they’re always on a race against time to get everyone ready. I scrambled right along with them to get the residents that needed wheelchairs all set up and ready to be pushed out to the cafeteria when lunch was ready.

Another thing that many of the assistant’s struggle to have time for is feeding the residents that can’t feed themselves. It’s another one of those things that I don’t mind helping with. Why should the residents have to wait to eat because we don’t have the manpower?

While I was feeding one of the last residents, Maggie came out and found me.

“Sorry if you thought I was ditching you. Got caught up on some phone calls that I had to take.”

“It’s not a problem. As you can see, I’ve been keeping myself busy.”

“You usually do. So what did you do on your unexpected days off?”

“I spent them with my boyfriend. I’m playing nurse there as well.”

“Oh? Is he ill?”

“Not exactly. He was in a pretty bad car accident on Wednesday. He fractured his arm and has been on some medicine that makes him loopy. I’ve just been trying to be there for him in case he needs anything.”

“Now, are we still talking about the same guy we were talking about earlier.”

“Yep. I don’t date around. He’s the only boyfriend I’ve got.”

“Well, that’s good. I’m sure he appreciates having you there.”

“That’s hard to tell. He’s not exactly the type of guy you can read. He’s hard headed as well.”

“Most men are dear.”

“Oh, believe me, I know. He’s more hard headed than any man I’ve ever met before, though. He’s an MMA fighter.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I said, laughing as I shook my head. “He’s one of those cage fighters.”

“Ah, that I know. My husband likes to watch that stuff but I can’t get into it. Much too violent for my tastes.”

“Yeah, well keep the violence in mind when I tell you this. He thinks he is going to fight in just over four weeks.”

“With a fractured arm?”

“Yes, he has a huge fight coming up that could change the course of his career. A win could literally mean him going from making a couple hundred bucks a fight to a couple hundred thousand. The bad thing is, his promoter won’t reschedule the fight. Either he has to be ready to go or he’s going to give the fight to someone else. This might be his one chance.”

“You’ve got to talk some sense into that man. He can’t risk his health. What’s he going to do if he gets injured permanently?”

“I don’t know. I’ve tried to talk to him but I don’t feel like I have the right to say anything. He’s been working hard to get to where he is. His goal isn’t money or fame. He just wants to earn enough money so that he can take his brother out of here and take care of him himself. I’m worried that his arm won’t hold up but I also understand his predicament.”

I could feel someone watching me. I turned to see Candace slowly wheeling a patient down the hall behind us, giving us the side eye and flashing a devilish grin as she made her past.

“Did you see that look she just gave us?” I asked.

“It would have been impossible not to see it.”

“I wonder what she’s up to this time?”

“Who knows? There’s never any telling with that girl.”

Maggie was right. There was never any telling what Candace was going to do next. After everything that had been happening, one thing was for sure. She was out to get that ADON position and she didn’t mind stepping all over me to get it.

* * *

I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. I’d been listening for anything I could use to get Shelly in trouble but what I heard was better than anything I could have used against her at work.

Her boyfriend, the great Jason Stark, had a fractured arm and was still planning to fight in his upcoming fight. One thing that I’ve never let on to anyone at work is the fact that I’m what you would call an MMA fan girl.

I’ve followed the sport forever and have met my fair share of fighters, both in and out of the bedroom. The most recent fighter that I had the pleasure of getting into bed? Eric Dodson.

I knew the rules when it came to fighting injured and there was no way he was going to be allowed to fight for at least three months. That could only mean that nobody knew about the injury. That really left me only two options.

I could have called the athletic commission to let them know about the injury but that seemed much too easy. It sickened me to see Shelly so happy. She was in line for a job that I deserved and I wanted to see her miserable.

Instead, I decided to go with option two. I went online and looked up the number to Black Cat MMA, which was the team Eric Dodson fought for. Making sure that nobody was around me, I placed the call and asked for his coach.

“You don’t know me but I have something to tell you about Eric Dodson’s first opponent.”

“Listen, I really don’t have time for any of this shit. Who is this?”

“I can’t tell you that but you’re going to want to hear this. He’s set to fight Jason Stark in a few weeks. Nobody knows this other than a few people but Jason fractured his arm a few days ago. He’s in no condition to fight but his coach isn’t telling anyone because he doesn’t want to cancel.”

“Are you sure? Where are you getting this from?”

“Jason has a girlfriend and she just spilled the beans to someone. This information can’t get out. If she finds out that someone told about this, she will know who did it and I can get into serious trouble.”

“Okay, do you know which arm it is?”

“I don’t but I figure it won’t be all that hard to figure out. The injury just happened. There’s no way it’ll have time to heal. I just wanted to give you this information so that maybe Eric could use this to his advantage.”

“Fine. I appreciate the info and I’ll pass it on to him.”

“Great. And I have your word that this phone call won’t get out to anyone?”

“What phone call?”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

* * *

I’d never known time could tick by so slowly while moving so quickly at the same time but that’s exactly what happened in the weeks leading up to my fight. When it came to wanting to get into the cage for the biggest fight of my career, days felt like weeks.

However, when it came to my arm healing, time flew by, not leaving nearly enough to allow me to recover the way I had hoped.

It was only three days before my fight when I met with Damon’s doctor. He advised against me fighting so soon. I’m sure the warning came more to protect his ass than mine. Once I signed papers that said he would not be subject to any legal action, he was willing to take the cast off.

With the cast removed from my arm, I could tell that things weren’t right. My muscles were tight and it hurt to even move my arm. The doctor said that my muscles would be sore for a while but I was smart enough to know that the pain was much more severe than just muscles that hadn’t been used.

Was I making a big mistake? Maybe I should have called the fight off just to be on the safe side. The thing is, I’ve never been the kind of person who played anything safe. I’ve always been a risk taker. It was a risk to get into fighting, yet there I was.

Besides, I didn’t want to go through the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I would have fought. I would have always had doubts. Instead, I was going to go through with the fight and hope for the best.

After I got my cast removed, I went home and tried to relax. Knowing that I was about to get into the cage always amped me up. My mind wanted me to get into that mode but I had to fight against it for my body’s sake

Knowing that I was going to send my brain into overdrive, I decided to make a trip to the assisted living center to see my brother. Seeing Casey always seems to mellow me out and I hoped that by seeing him, the person that I was fighting for, would allow me to visualize the big picture and get rid of the nerves I was experiencing.

Almost as soon as I walked into the building, I ran into the girl that Shelly had been telling me about.

“Oh my God, are you Jason Stark?” she said, acting surprised as to who I was.

I wondered to myself if I had been mistaken. The girl who was giving Shelly so much trouble would have certainly known who I was.

“Yes, that’s me,” I replied, trying to be polite in the event that I was wrong.”

“The same Jason Stark who fights MMA?” she asked, appearing to be star struck.

“Yeah, I do cage fighting.”

“Wow! This is so cool! Do you think that maybe I could get an autograph?”

“Sure thing. Who do I make it out to?”

“You can just make it out to Candace,” she said with a smirk.

I was right. This was definitely the same person who was at war with my girl. I looked down the hall and saw Shelly standing at her desk area, looking right at us. She was shaking her head slowly and rolling her eyes.

I wondered if she was going to be pissed at me but I couldn’t dwell on that. I was there to see my brother. If she had a problem with me signing an autograph, I’d explain it all to her later.

I signed the piece of paper that she gave me and handed it back to her. She surprised me by wrapping her arm around my neck and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you so much! I’m a huge fan!”

If Shelly wasn’t pissed off at me for signing the autograph, I was sure she wasn’t going to be happy after the hug and kiss. It wasn’t my fault and it had caught me off guard, otherwise I would never have let it happen.

I couldn’t wait to see my brother. I felt as though I’d been neglecting him since I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks.

With so much going on in my head, I didn’t feel like it would be fair to show up without devoting all of my attention to him. When I walked into his room, all of my anxiety disappeared. I was so happy to see him. When he saw me, his eyes lit up and a slight smile appeared on his face.

“How are you doing, buddy? Sorry I haven’t been up to see you.”

I grabbed a book off his shelf and started to read it to him. He’s obviously never been able to tell me that he enjoys me reading to him but he’s never had to. Ever since his injury, there have been times where he’s started to freak out and the only thing that calmed him down was me sitting next to him and reading him a story.

A soft knock on the door interrupted me mid-sentence. I looked up and could see Shelly on the other side of the glass and waved for her to come in. I was wondering if I’d get to speak to her while I was there. I wasn’t about to approach her because the last thing I wanted to do was cause even more problems for her at work.

“I see you made a new friend earlier,” she said, her smart-ass sense of humor shining through her comment.

“Yeah, what in the hell was that all about?”

“I have no clue. I’m sure she was trying to make me jealous. You should have seen the look she gave me as I walked by. She thought she was hot shit.”

“Well, the only thing that’s hot shit around here is you baby doll.”

“Aren’t you sweet? I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t figure you’d be back here until after the fight was over and done with.”

“That was the plan but I felt like I needed to come here as a way to keep myself grounded. I also wanted to let him know that he won’t have to be in places like this much longer. Do you hear that little brother? I’m going to be taking you home before you know it.”

“I see you got your cast taken off. How does your arm feel?”

“It’s fine. I’ll just need to get used to not having that damn cast on it,” I lied. I knew that if I told her how much pain I was in; she would never let me hear the end of it. As it was, she didn’t want me getting in the cage.

“That’s good. I was worried about it. I have to make my rounds so I’ll leave you two boys alone.”

“Actually, I’m about to leave too,” I replied as I stood up and looked out the window before stealing a quick kiss. “I’ll be busy trying to get myself mentally ready for the next couple of days so we might not talk a whole lot. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you at the fight, though.”

Shelly frowned, still not sold on the fact that I was okay to compete. I didn’t take any offense to it. I know that she was just scared of what might happen to me if I hurt my arm. Fortunately, my opponent was a striker so I figured I didn’t really have much to worry about.

“You just promise me you’re going to be careful.”

“Always, babe. Always.”