Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(44)
Author: Catherine Bybee

Monica slid onto the worn-out sofa in the break room and ignored her heart rate that she felt reverberating all the way to her toes. She’d hit the ER running. A five-car pileup on the interstate with two full traumas and one full arrest met her before she could manage half a cup of coffee. The emergency room overflowed with patients sick with the flu, the typical accidents that resulted in broken bones and a need for stitches, and the elderly with every medical issue under the sun. But all of those could wait. The traumas pumped her blood and forced her to think fast.

She loved it.

The adrenaline, the pace. Everything about it.

The petty shit choking up the ER tended to piss her off when the serious crap went down. It didn’t help that the department was short staffed and she had to do the work of two nurses and hope to hell no one fell through the cracks.

She helped stabilize one patient and get him to surgery within that golden hour and then was able to comfort a grieving family when they learned their loved one didn’t make it.

In truth, that part sucked. But she had been told when she took the job that, in order to work the ER, she needed to get in and make a difference by helping or get the hell out of the way.

She chose to make a difference.

The alarm of the radio went off announcing another ambulance call. Although she wasn’t the lead nurse on the radio, she forced herself up and out of the break room to find out what was coming in.

Mark, a fellow nurse, sat in the radio room talking to the paramedics in the field. Monica squeezed in the door to look over his shoulder.

“Another car accident?” she whispered to herself.

The medic on the line spoke quickly, rattling off vital signs. The mic on the radio room worked one way at a time. Mark multitasked by writing down what the medic told him and talking to Monica at the same time. “It’s another trauma. Female, late twenties, rollover in a convertible. Head trauma. Five minutes out.”

Monica froze.

Working without emotion was fine, until you knew the patient.

“Go tell Dr. Eddy we have another one coming in,” Mark said.

Monica nodded and left the room. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and sent a quick text to Katie.

Are you OK?

She paused hoping Katie replied.

It’s not Katie. Lots of people drive convertibles in California.

“We have another one,” Monica told Dr. Eddy. She turned to Alice who manned the phones. “Call a code trauma and call Neuro.”

Alice already had the phone to her ear.

As the code was being called, Monica’s phone signaled a text.

Katie.

I’m good. What’s up?

Relief swelled Monica’s chest.

Nothing…just checking in.

Hours later when Monica was finishing some paperwork, Dr. Eddy plopped down beside her. “What a bitch of a day.”

“You can say that again. The only thing that didn’t come through that door was an MI,” she said with a curt laugh. A heart attack victim was the last thing this day needed.

Dr. Eddy, or Walt, as most of them referred to him, had worked the ER for eight years. He was a good-looking man with short brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He was known to date many women, but hadn’t yet settled down. No wonder, he was always working and when the ER didn’t call him in, he volunteered his time with Borderless Doctors. “I’m still on for three more hours. Don’t jinx me.”

Monica laughed. “Sorry.”

He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. “Listen, I wondered if you’d be interested in signing up with BNs.”

“BNs? What’s that?”

“Borderless Nurses. The same program for Borderless Doctors only for nurses. We can always use the help. You’re young, smart, energetic. It helps that you don’t have a family or kids.”

Monica sat back and considered his words. “I might be interested.”

“I work with the disaster team. We go in after nature screws up an area, stay for a week or two at a time, and pull out.”

“How would that work here? I know the doctors’ group gives you the time off, but I’m not sure the hospital feels the same about the nurses.”

“Are you kidding me? The hospital loves the publicity. Besides, there’s a clause in the nurses’ union contract mandating that the hospital allows you two weeks off on a moment’s notice for emergencies you volunteer to help with. They won’t fire you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Monica didn’t know about the contract. In fact, she often tried to ignore the fact that she even belonged to a union. Sadly, she didn’t have a choice if she wanted to work where she did.

“I don’t know.”

“I have to be honest. The hours are hard, you don’t sleep, and they don’t pay.”

“Why do you do it?”

“Sanity. There’s something about helping the truly helpless that energizes me to come in here every day. The hours are crazy insane when you’re out there. You see shit you’ll wish you hadn’t, but when it’s all over, you’re damn happy you helped. Not everyone can be a part of a relief effort outside of giving money. Doctors and nurses…search and rescue…we have skills that money can’t buy.”

Walt put in a good pitch.

Hell, helping people was what she did.

“What do I need to do?”

Walt let his grin spread. “I have some paperwork in my locker and there’s a training session in Florida this weekend. They pay for the flight, hotel, and food. All you have to do is show up.”

“I’ll have to check my schedule,” she told him.

“You’re off. I already checked.”

Monica crossed her arms over her chest. “You checked?”

He nodded. “I like working with nurses I trust. Out there, trust is everything. So, yeah, I checked.”

The training was more than a weekend, it was a full week. But it only took a couple of swaps on the schedule to give her the time off she needed.

That night when Monica was eating dinner and talking with Katie, she knew she’d made the right decision.

“I’ll be gone a week. Which is perfect. Jessie won’t think I’m snubbing her and the chances of me having a moment to even talk to her are slim. You’ll have the place to yourself.”

“What brought this on?” Katie asked.

“I don’t know. It was a crazy day at work. Lots of accidents. When one of the doctors suggested I sign up, I thought, What the hell? There will probably be a day that I can’t do this. I might as well do it now.”