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  I finished signing everything necessary to work that particular wing of the hospital in a lot less time than I’d allotted, so I was able to pop onto the floor and familiarize myself with everything prior to actually starting my shift. I was standing at the nurse’s station when I heard a small woman, who looked to be of mixed descent, asking about getting in to see Chevy.

  “Please, I just want to thank him. We’ll be leaving in the morning,” she told Sophia who rolled her eyes and pointed once more at the door. I moved closer, still listening, in case Sophia needed assistance. “Opal wouldn’t be here if not for his…” That was all I needed to hear.

  I remembered the name, the girlfriend of the kid who I was sent here to care for. I turned to the woman. “Excuse me, did you say, Opal?”

  “Yes,” the woman agreed. Hope filled her voice and her eyes as she turned them on me. “I’m her mother.”

  “Can I see some identification?”

  The lady showed me her driver’s license as well as the little security bracelet she had been given in order to gain access to this part of the hospital. “If you give me just a moment, I will check with the family to see if they’ll accept visitors right now,” I told her.

  Sophia huffed. “You can’t just come in here and take over my shift.”

  “Then do your damn job right,” I carefully scolded.

  “I am doing my job, exactly as it was laid out for me,” she argued back. It was my turn to roll my eyes as I knocked politely before entering the boy’s room.

  “Hi, Chevy,” I addressed the patient while ignoring the handful of people in his room, including his dad. “I am Melanie, your nurse for the evening, but you can call me Mel.” I moved closer and showed him my badge. “I’m not officially on duty yet, but there was a woman asking to come see you and I thought you might want to be made aware of it.”

  “Listen, Nurse Mel,” a man, who was not Chevy or Gabe, started to speak, but I ignored him and turned to Chevy.

  “It’s Opal’s mother, so I thought you’d want the chance to decide.”

  “Of course, I want her to be able to come in. Maybe she’ll have news for me about Opal.”

  I nodded my head and then turned on my heel. “I’ll go let her know.”

  When I left the room, it wasn’t alone. Both Gabe and Chevy’s mother followed me out into the hall and beyond the nurse’s station. “Thank you for checking with my son. He would have been very upset if he had missed her.”

  “Truthfully, in accordance with the memo I received about visitors, I shouldn’t have done that. You might want to revise the wording, or add people to the acceptable list,” I informed them.

  “Would you be able to show us what you’re talking about because we haven’t seen a list,” Gabe told me. Again, I nodded my head and leaned over the counter to grab the folder I’d brought in with me. I handed it over to him and watched as he perused the documents.

  Chevy’s mother wasn’t watching Gabe though. She was interested only in me. I smiled at her. “Did you want to speak with Opal’s mother first?” I asked her.

  “No, I’ve already spoken to Audra. I wish she had told me she would be coming up to see Chevy. We could have made it much easier for her to get up here.”

  I returned the woman’s smile. “It’s no problem, just a few adjustments need to be made so nothing similar happens in future.”

  “I don’t want this to happen again,” Gabe told me as he moved to allow Opal’s mom by. “He would not have been happy if he’d missed hearing an update about his girl.”

  “I’ll make a better list for you guys. Then, we’ll just register the visitors using their identification. Chevy can decide priority of entry, if he wants us to ask first, or however you all want to do it.”

  “Yes, that should work,” Gabe told me, though he seemed somewhat distracted. He was having a hard time focusing on anything, and seemed to avoid looking directly at me, if he thought I was paying attention.

  “Thank you.” Chevy’s mom smiled at me then. “You can call me Kendra for the duration, please.” Her sweet, southern twang just made the offer of being on a first name basis with the woman sound even more genuine.

  “Okay, Kendra, is there anything else I can do for you guys?”

  “Will you be the nighttime nurse?” Gabe asked out of nowhere.

  “I will. Sophie is off in another 10 minutes and I’ll be here until 7 am.”

  “Weren’t you with us for Chevy’s first day in the hospital?”

  “Yes, Gabe,” Kendra told him with a roll of her eyes. “The beautiful nurse was there, and now she’s here too.” Kendra grinned at me again as she spoke. Gabe just stared slack-jawed at the woman’s audacity to call him out.

  “She could have been the one to tell them,” he pointed out.

  “I really couldn’t have,” I denied.

  “And how’s that?”

  “I had no clue who you were. My patient was Chevy Kendrick. Still is. You only matter to me as to whether or not you help him get better, faster, or hinder his improvements. Otherwise, you aren’t even on my radar.”

  Kendra laughed at Gabe’s expense and then turned to go back to her son’s room without another word. I wondered what her relationship was to Gabe these days, but truth be told, it was none of my business. “Mr. North, I assure you that I take my job seriously. I will be here for your son, and as long as he allows, I will help you out as it pertains to Chevy. Otherwise, what you do or say is none of my business. Just like you wouldn’t step in my world and try to perform my tasks, I won’t step into your world and make assumptions or announcements for you.”

  “Fine,” he huffed and started back to the room set up for his son. Kendra had wandered back, and having heard what she did, gave me an appreciative once over.

  “He’s not really a surly person. This is all new to him.”

  “Having a hero for a son?”

  “Having a son,” she corrected by shortening my original question.

  “Looks like he’s doing well enough.”

  “Yeah, it does,” Kendra admitted, though I could tell that her thoughts had fled far afield of where we currently were. Maybe she was reliving a past that ended with a different future.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you?” I asked her before a door opened to the restroom that was just off to the side of us. The big biker man I’d seen before when Chevy was in the ICU was coming out while growling at someone.

  “I don’t hit women, but bitch you are pushing really close to breaking me on that point.” Sophia came out behind him, pretending to straighten her scrubs. “Get your ass over to that desk, apologize to my woman for coming on to me – again – and then leave your credentials on the desk because you won’t be coming back to work here.”

  “You don’t get to decide that” Sophie stupidly argued.

  “He might not, but I just witnessed inappropriate behavior, on your part, and will see to it that you’re removed from rotation here,” I interjected.

  “Brian is top dog around here and he would never-”

  “Brian,” I hissed his name out, “has a boss to answer to as well, and what they won’t want to hear is that one of our nurses was sexually assaulting a patient’s family member while he tried to use the restroom.” I had already hit the button for security and once they stepped onto the floor, Sophie noticed.

  “You bitch!” She yelled at me as they approached.

  “All day, every day,” was my retort to her. Sophie had been one of the nurses to give a witness statement against my friend, Amanda, for Dr. Clout when Amanda filed a sexual harassment claim against him. I had zero qualms about having her thrown out by security now. “Nurse Blankenship broke protocol and is no longer allowed on this floor,” I explained to them. “Her credentials are to be confiscated and she needs an escort out of the hospital. She probably also needs a reminder that while HIPPA violations are an issue, should she talk about the patient, the nondisclosure agreement she signed cove
rs all parties on this floor. That includes the friends and family of the patient.” I turned to look at Sophie then. “Talk about anyone or anything here and I will give testimony against you when you’re sued, and when your licensure is up for debate.”

  Sophie gasped, somehow shocked that I would go against her. Security did their job and got her out of what was essentially used as the VIP floor. Beyond that, I didn’t know if they continued escorting her away or not. “I’m terribly sorry for any trouble she may have caused you,” I told both Kendra and the biker who appeared to be her man.

  “Thank you. That woman has been a pain all day long. When Gabe ignored her, she set her sights on Josh thinking he must be famous too.” Kendra giggled as she said that.

  “Couldn’t just be that I’m dead fuckin’ sexy?” Her biker-man drawled out.

  “Oh, I’m sure that was it,” Kendra teased.

  “What happens when your shift is over?” Gabe asked from somewhere behind me. I hadn’t even noticed he was back. Then again, he had apparently been back to escort Opal’s mother out of the secured area.

  “I’m going to alert the Chief of Staff now,” I told him, cringing as I did so because Dr. Clout was my least favorite person in the hospital, and I basically just fired his fuck buddy from her job, even though I didn’t have the authority to do so.

  “Is he the one who chose that girl to work in here with us?”

  “He is.”

  “Yeah, that’s not happening again. I’ll call my lawyer and get him involved. No worries about what will happen in the morning.” Gabe looked me over then. “Do you have any children? A man? Family or pets to go home to?”

  I shook my head as he rattled off the questions in rapid succession. “Why?”

  “No reason,” he mentioned as he turned away with the phone to his ear, already making calls.

  Kendra and Josh – the biker – smiled at one another before heading back to Chevy’s room. Despite Gabe stating that he would handle things, I still had a duty to report what happened. Then I needed to check on my patient again, since the previous nurse was no longer around to pass down information from the earlier shift. From the sound of things, she wasn’t doing a great job of being there for Chevy anyway.

  ~*~

  “The family requested that you are on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week to oversee things.”

  “What?” The stunned word left my mouth as I tried to comprehend what they meant.

  “You won’t be the only one working, but you will oversee everything happening in the VIP wing. After the incident with Sophie, they don’t trust the staffing choices and explained they would only agree to people you personally vetted working with Chevy Kendrick.”

  “Is that… Can they?” I stopped blubbering out half questions.

  “Are you willing? As you know, there are extra rooms available in the private suite they’re occupying.” That much was true. Each private suite came equipped with a central nursing station, three bedrooms, one being the patient’s room, and two additional for family or the patient’s staff, depending on what sort of VIP they were.

  “You want me to stay in a room here until the boy is discharged?”

  “Yes. We also want you to choose the staff that will be working with you and set the schedule so that you get plenty of rest while still being available as his primary nurse, if and when your personal attention is required.”

  “This is crazy.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but I knew every single man and woman around the table for our little meeting that morning heard me.

  “You get a bonus, in addition to your regular salary.” One of them told me, as if to sweeten the pot. Only having one patient would make for a stress-free few days, plus bonus pay on top of that? One glance down at the paperwork in front of me told me it was a rather substantial bonus too. I’d be stupid not to sign the contract. So, I did. “I need Amanda Peters brought in from St. Mary’s.”

  “We’ll make it happen,” the suit at the end of the table confirmed. “Welcome to the VIP wing.”

  Had I just signed my soul away for a cushy nursing job? Probably. Now, the hospital would keep giving me VIP placement and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Chevy and his family were awesome people. I’d heard VIP horror stories though. There were assholes like our very own Dr. Clout, who thought that the nurses were on the menu just because they were celebrities or important in some way. I’d probably have to find a new job once this was over, in order to avoid being put in that position.

  “Can I go check on Mr. Kendrick now?” I asked while standing and backing away from the conference table. The hospital’s big wigs and legal team all had their eyes on me as I made my way closer to the door. They felt like hungry creatures waiting to pounce.

  “Just remember to keep it professional,” one of the women had the audacity to sneer in my direction.

  “Just a friendly reminder,” I shot back to her, “I’m here because I was the only member of the ICU and VIP staff who managed to ‘keep it professional’.” Brenda wasn’t impressed though.

  “Insubordination will still get you fired, Miss Gusterson.”

  “Pointing out the obvious isn’t a termination-worthy offense, Brenda,” I snapped back at her. I turned to the rest of the team then. “Are we done here? There is a patient over there who requires care.”

  A nod from Tim Shephard, the hospital’s CEO, was all that I needed to fly from the room and head to the security door of the VIP suite. Once I made it through the doors, my back hit the wall and I slumped a bit, trying to catch my breath.

  “Everything okay?” Someone asked. When I opened my eyes, Gabe was standing across the hallway watching me with a weary look.

  I waved his concern away. “Swimming away from sharks always takes it out of me.”

  “Yeah, I actually know how that is.” Gabe glanced down at the new folder in my hands. “I take it they offered you our proposal to be my son’s nurse full-time until he’s healed?”

  “That wasn’t quite what I signed on for,” I explained. Gabe cocked a brow, curiosity written in his expression. “Here,” I handed over the portfolio so he could peruse everything.

  “This is not at all what we discussed,” he muttered. “Some of it is, but…” he cut himself off as he continued reading. “Those lying, conniving, thieving whores!” He shouted as he threw the contract to the floor and pulled his phone out of his pocket. I watched as he explained a few things to his lawyer and then looked at me again. “How do you feel about traveling?”

  I shrugged my shoulders but didn’t get to answer since he started talking to the person on the phone again. By then, Kendra came out to see what the commotion was all about. I pointed to the paperwork strewn across the floor. Once Kendra picked it up and skimmed through, she laughed.

  “No wonder he’s losing his shit. The hospital just pulled a fast one so they could keep more of his money, give you less, and they refused to sign you for anything past Chevy’s hospital stay.”

  “It was supposed to be different? And what do you mean, past Chevy’s hospital stay?”

  “Much different,” Kendra insisted and then she asked the same question Gabe had before his call pulled his attention away. “Are you opposed to travel?”

  “Can we talk while I check on your son?” I asked as I began to make my way to his room.

  “Of course. He’ll be happy to see you. The older lady who was here earlier was ‘mean’ to him and told him to stop being a momma’s boy.” We both laughed about that.

  “Men do tend to make the worst patients. She may have had a point,” I joked.

  “Oh, thank God!” Chevy exclaimed as I walked into his room.

  “The hot nurse is back!” His brother teased.

  “I can send the mean one back in, instead,” I told the younger boy. “Behave!”

  Kendra laughed again. “I really like you, Mel. You don’t take shit off of anyone, and you manage that without being a bitch.” My smile was the o
nly response that I could muster. Theirs was the type of family that was always a joy to work with.

  “How are you feeling today, Chevy?” I asked.

  “Better, but there’s still a lot of pain.”

  I glanced at his chart to see that he had not self-administered any more pain meds. “It says here that your previous nurse had to give meds when you nearly got sick from the pain?” I questioned. Chevy shrugged slightly while looking a bit shame faced. “Why didn’t you just take your pain meds?”

  “I thought I could handle it.”

  “When you let your pain build too big, it takes more medication to knock it back down and then you’re in that gross, foggy state from the first day all over again,” I admonished. “Not to mention the fact that being in so much pain causes further complications and actually slows healing.”

  “I’ve heard stories about people getting addicted and I don’t want to turn into a rock star cliché before I ever even cut a record.”

  “How about we make a deal?” I asked him. Chevy nodded, so I continued on. “I’ll make sure you get weaned over to a different type of pain meds and never have to face addiction, if you promise to discuss your concerns with me from here on out so that you don’t end up causing yourself more harm than good, okay?”

  “Does that mean I get to keep you as my nurse?”

  “As long as you need me,” I assured him. Once again, I turned to see Gabe was in the room and watching our whole interaction.

  5 - Nursemaid

  “Mel, do you have a few minutes?” The far-too beautiful nurse turned to look at me, as did my son.

  “You’d think my dad was your patient,” Chevy teased as she finished checking over the bandaging on his leg. Mel smiled and asked if he was feeling well enough for her to go see what was up. Chevy said something too low for me to hear and sent his nurse on her way to me.

  Once we were out of the room, I asked, “Is everything okay with him?”

  “Yes, he’s looking good. He has nice color, stable vitals,” she offered up what I realized was a pretty rote response from her.