“You were a travel nurse?” he asks.
“After I got my associate’s degree and passed my nursing test, my best friend and I joined an agency, and I spent the firstsix months or so of my career as a travel nurse. She still does it, but I came home, bought my house, and started working at the hospital. About once a year or so, the woman that still owns the agency calls our hospital, requests me, and I head out to wherever I’m needed, but I haven’t gone on one since Rosa came to stay with me, which turned out to be a good thing, with everything that’s happened.”
He doesn’t say anything, but he has a look on his face that I can’t decipher, so I decide to push through. “You know that the back-to-back hurricanes decimated the coast, right?” At his nod, I say, “Well, they’ve finally managed to get to some of the areas that mud and debris kept them from, and there are a bunch of people who need medical assistance. I had an email from my best friend last night saying that they really needed me to come.”
“So, you’re going.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement and based on the flat tone of his voice, I don’t think he’s all that thrilled that I’m leaving. Still, I could be projecting my own feelings on the situation.
“I planned to talk to my supervisor today, but Thelma, that’s the agency owner, had already called to talk to my CEO. Betty, my supervisor, had the paperwork ready for me to sign. It’s for six weeks, which means I’ll be home before Cami turns one. I need… Eli, I need to get away for a bit and get my head on straight.”
“What’s wrong with your head?” Now he has an affronted expression and if the topic wasn’t so damn serious, I’d probably burst out laughing.
“Everything’s all mixed up inside,” I quietly admit. “For nearly two years now, I’ve put everything on hold and while I don’t begrudge any of it, except what I had to do that day, of course, I need to make sure I’m not mistaking how I feel for somethingelse. That doesn’t make sense, I know, and I’m messing all of this up trying to explain it all. I’m sorry.”
“What’s mixed up, sweetheart? Maybe I can help you straighten it out,” he offers.
“How I’ve come to feel about you is breaking the girl code, but does it still even exist if the girl in question is dead? Esther says it doesn’t matter, the girls say it doesn’t either, but what if how I’m feeling isn’t what you’re feeling? See what I mean? Anyhow, I don’t want to put you in a position where you don’t feel comfortable letting me take care of Cami for you, so it’s best if I just take this assignment.”
As my nerves hit, I stand from the table and rush to my bedroom before locking myself inside. I leave him sitting there, a stunned look on his face as I hide out in my room, the television up loud enough that I can’t hear anything he says, while tears stream down my face. I messed all of it up and now I’ll lose Cami as well, which breaks my heart.
It’s quite some time later when I hear the front door open and close, then I hear his bike start up before it roars down my driveway and onto the road. Still crying, I head back into the kitchen so I can clean up what’s left of dinner and lock down the house for the night.
Only to come up short when I see that my kitchen is pristine and there’s a note in the middle of the island.
Phoebe - We WILL discuss this further when you come back home. Because I think we’re on the same page, but I’ll give you this time. Just let me know you’re okay, alright?
E
Clutching the note in my hand, I make my rounds and activate the alarm, make sure the deadbolt is engaged, and then I head back to my room to think about what his message could possibly mean.
The rest of my shifts go off without a hitch. Eli doesn’t come by again, which I’m equal parts thankful for and upset by, but I refuse to examinewhyI’m upset. He’s sent a few pictures of Cami, one that made me laugh out loud because she apparently decided that in order to eat her spaghetti, she’d need to do so by osmosis as every bit of exposed skin was covered in noodles and sauce.
Now, though, I’ve been on the road for about four hours and I’m ready to find somewhere to lay my head for the night. Because of the equipment, supplies, and medication I’m carrying, I opt for a high-end hotel, knowing that I’ll be reimbursed for the cost. Not that I’m worried about that, I just don’t want to let either the hospital or Thelma down by having my vehicle broken into. Thankfully, as Ella has said more times than I can count, there’s an app for that and it’s not long before I’m pulling into a gated parking garage, my room already booked, paid for, and checked into so I can grab my purse, laptop bag, and overnight bag and head on up to my room.
Once I double check that my SUV is locked up tight, again grateful that my wheel well holds so much stuff, I head to my room with thoughts of a hot shower followed by a solid six hours of sleep the only things on my mind.
I finally pull into the area that Ella said her RV was set up at and see several large tents erected with people lined up, waiting to be seen. Not wanting to waste any time, I look for the neon yellow shirt that Ella said we’d be wearing this time and spot one standing nearby. After parking my SUV, I get out, hit the key fob to lock my vehicle, then walk over to Thelma, who I recognize after she turns.
“So glad to see you, Cortez!” she exclaims, leaning in to give me a hug. While most of the world knows me as Carter, I hired on with Thelma’s agency under my maiden name, which is what she still refers to me as, even all these years later. Granted, once I change my driver’s license and social security number information back, I will be Cortez in truth, but it still gives me pause.
“I’ve got supplies and what-not in my car,” I tell her. “And if you point me in the direction of Ella, I’ll get the keys to her RV, dump my purse and laptop bag inside, then change into a shirt and be ready to roll.”
“It’s one of the reasons I called for you, because you never let dust settle under your feet. She put a respirator in there for you as well since many of these people have been doctoring their wounds on their own with what they had. It’s bad, Fee, really bad. I’ve got three trauma surgeons coming in that will set up in the fire department so they can perform surgeries.”
“Jesus,” I whisper. She calls over three strapping men and I lead them to my vehicle where they proceed to unload every last box of the stuff I brought with me from the hospital. As I turn to lookfor Ella, I find her standing there just waiting, a huge grin on her face.
“I’m gonna jump into the passenger side and direct you to your home away from home,” she teases, giving me a quick hug. “Gonna want to put your hair up, Fee.”
“Yeah, I figured as much,” I tell her as we both get back into my car and she gives me directions to her RV. It’s a cute little thing, although I know our downtime will be limited. The need is great here and I didn’t come to sit around on my ass. I came to help people.
Twenty minutes later, I’m changed, my hair’s now in Dutch braids and my respirator is hanging around my neck as we walk over to one of the tents. “Okay, so the white tent is where folks start, then they’re triaged to either the yellow tent, which is where minor injuries and illnesses go, the orange tent if it’s something a little bit more, and the red tent if they need even more, like X-rays and casts, that sort of thing.”
“Thelma said it’s bad,” I murmur so the patients who are standing in line don’t hear me.
“It really is, but I suspect your background in emergency room medicine, as well as what you do in the ICU makes you more than capable of handling whatever comes your way. We have one doctor for four of us, which sounds like a lot, but it’s not once you start dealing with some of these injuries. You’ll get an iPad so you can create a patient record that Thelma will ensure gets uploaded to their medical charts.”
“Lead the way, Chaos Coordinator,” I tease.
She snickers at my comment before pointing out, “Well, we’re in the red tent.”