One Night to Change Their Lives

by Tina Beckett

  “At the gym.”

  Kami’s jaw dropped. “Baxter was at the gym?”

  She shook her head to clear her hearing because she couldn’t have heard correctly. Not once during the time she’d known Baxter had he ever gone to the gym. To her knowledge, he’d not even had a membership.

  “Pumping the iron in hopes of winning you back.” Gabe’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Too bad you aren’t up for grabs at the auction ’cause he could buy a night to remind you of all you’re missing out on. You, him, Debbie and me could go on a double date and reminisce about the good ole days.”

  Kami rolled her eyes.

  “Baxter is a great guy,” she defended the man she’d dated for over six months. He truly was. He’d been steady, quiet, dependable. She’d wanted to feel something, had tried to convince herself she did because he’d make a good husband and father someday, but nada.

  “Just not the guy for you?”

  “Exactly. Now, was there a reason you interrupted my work other than to whine about Debbie?”

  “As if she isn’t enough of a reason.” He gave an overly dramatic sigh that should have put him up for an award or two. “I can’t believe you’re refusing to help, Kam. You know I’d do it for you.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to.” She curled her nose and shuddered at the mere thought. “Can you imagine the rumors that would start around the hospital?” She gave a horrified look. “Uh-uh. No way. I can, however, put out word you’re hoping someone outbids Debbie at the auction. I’m sure there’ll be a few takers.”

  He shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, Kam. I was sure I could count on you to save me.”

  “You have the wrong girl, but no worries. You’ll find someone over the next few weeks to outbid Debbie.”

  * * *

  Gabe disagreed. He had the right girl. The perfect girl.

  Kami wouldn’t get happily-ever-after ideas. He always had fun when she was around. And, best of all, she already knew the real him. The him who had no intentions of settling down anytime in the near future.

  But he changed the subject instead of pursuing the topic further. As she said, they had a few weeks before the fund-raiser. A lot could happen during that time.

  Like his convincing Kami to buy him.

  Not that he couldn’t deal with Debbie. He’d just rather not have to.

  She was great, but had gotten too clingy too fast and he’d started feeling claustrophobic in their relationship by the end of the first month. At the end of the second, he’d been done. Too bad Debbie hadn’t been.

  “How is Racine Mathers tonight?” he asked to change the subject.

  Apparently, the fragile elderly woman had arrived by ambulance in hypercapnic respiratory failure earlier that day. Yet again. She’d been admitted to the medical floor, which neither Gabe nor Kami had anything to do with, but he knew Kami would have checked on the woman prior to clocking in for her shift. She cared about people and that big heart was one of the things he liked most about the perky little blonde who’d quickly become one of his closest friends.

  At the mention of their patient, her green eyes filled with concern. “Her arterial blood gases are still jacked up. Her CO2 level remains in the upper fifties.”

  “I was hoping once they got her on BiPAP her numbers would improve.” He logged in to the computer, began scanning messages in his inbox.

  “That makes two of us, but apparently she hasn’t wanted to keep the mask on and the day-shift nurse caught her with it off several times.”

  He shook his head. “Racine knows better than that.”

  Kami nodded.

  The woman did. This wasn’t her first respiratory failure rodeo. Then again, Gabe suspected the elderly woman was tiring of her inability to breathe and the medical community’s failure to do much more than Band-Aid her back together until the next episode.

  “I’m going to swing by and see her. If I’m needed before I get back, page me.”

  She arched a brow. “You think I wouldn’t?”

  Gabe grinned. No, he never doubted that his favorite nurse would do the right thing and get him where he needed to be when he needed to be there. Kami was an excellent nurse. There was no one he’d rather spend his shift working with. Fortunately, their schedules were on the same rotation and he got to spend several nights a week in the emergency department with her.

  Whether it was busy, slammed, or on the rare occasion slow, he was never bored. Not with Kami around to keep him entertained with her quick wit and sassy mouth.

  Which was yet another reason she should be the one to rescue him from Debbie. Not only would Kami not get the wrong idea, but Gabe would truly enjoy their “date.” Not that they’d ever gone anywhere just the two of them, but when the work gang gathered, he gravitated toward Kami and they almost always ended up paired off.

  There was just something about her that made him feel good on the inside.

  She needed to buy his auction package and he intended to make sure she did.

  * * *

  “That is the most exciting thing I’ve heard in weeks.”

  While dropping in a urinalysis order for bay one, Kami curled her nose at the woman who’d been her best friend since they’d bonded during nursing school. “You would say that.”

  Mindy gave her a duh look. “The man is gorgeous and I saw that once-over you gave him. I think you should go for it.”

  Kami shook her head. “You misunderstood. That once-over was a joke and Gabe doesn’t want me to buy his date so we can go on a real date. He wants me to save him from having to go on a date with someone else. Either way, no, thank you.”

  Mindy leaned against the desk. “I’m just saying, the most eligible bachelor in the hospital asked you to buy him at the fund-raiser. I think you should see that as a sign and go for it.”

  Go for it? Her friend had lost her mind.

  “A sign of what?”

  Mindy waggled her brows. “Your good fortune. Do you know how many women would kill for Gorgeous Gabe to ask them to buy his date package?”

  Kami made a bleh motion with her tongue. “They can have him. He’s too stuck on himself for my taste.”

  Mindy didn’t look convinced. “That’s not how I see him.”

  Kami didn’t, either. Not really. Gabe was gorgeous, but he didn’t seem to get caught up in his looks other than that he took care of himself and worked out regularly. Nothing wrong with trying to stay healthy.

  Gabe was the picture of good health.

  Great health.

  Health at its finest, even.

  Yeah, yeah. The man was easy on the eyes. No big deal.

  “He’s got a big heart and you know it,” Mindy continued, oblivious to Kami’s wayward thoughts—thank goodness. The last thing she needed was Mindy pushing her toward doing something she knew better than to do. She might be immune, but you didn’t rub your face in germs to tempt fate, either.

  “He doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. He’s the first to jump in and help when someone needs something. I’ve never known him to pull the doctor card.” Mindy gave a pointed look. “I’d be hard-pressed to name someone, male or female, who didn’t like him.”

  “Since you’re a walking, talking advertisement of his virtues, you bid on him,” Kami suggested and wondered at the slight twinge in her belly at the thought of her friend buying Gabe’s date.

  Her two friends getting together would be a good thing, right? Well, except that Gabe would eventually break Mindy’s heart and then Kami would have to bust his chops for hurting her bestie. That was what the issue was. She didn’t want to have to dislike him for breaking Mindy’s heart.

  But Mindy’s eyes lit at Kami’s suggestion and a smile slid onto her face. “I might do that.”

  Kami’s brow shot up. Her mouth opened, but she didn’t comment as Gab
e came strolling back into the emergency department.

  “What have I missed?”

  “Not much. Been a slow one so far,” Mindy told him, all smiles and looks of all sorts of possibilities.

  “Bite your tongue,” Kami and Gabe said at the same time.

  “Listen at you two,” Mindy said, giving Kami a mischievous glance that said maybe her friend hadn’t really veered from her original mission after all. “So in sync.”

  “Not wanting you to jinx our evening is common sense. Nothing in sync about that,” Kami corrected, hoping her friend caught her warning tone. “Now, Dr. Nelson.” She turned her attention to Gabe, ignoring his curious looks between her and Mindy. “Bay one is a urinary tract infection. Onset earlier today. Her urinalysis results are in her chart. Bay two is a fever and sore throat. I’ve swabbed for strep, but the results are pending. Both are pleasant, stable, and accompanied by their significant other. You want me to go with you while you examine them?”

  Bay one was given an antibiotic, a bladder antispasmodic, a handout on the preventions of UTIs, and was sent on her way. The woman in bay two, however, looked worse than she had a few minutes before when Kami had last checked.

  Her temp was just over one hundred and three, her throat beet red, and her conjunctivae injected. The woman was also now complaining of a severe headache, which she hadn’t mentioned during triage or when Kami had done her nursing assessment.

  The woman shivered as if she were freezing and looked miserable.

  “Can you get her a blanket or something?” her husband asked, looking frustrated that his wife was getting worse.

  “She doesn’t need to cover up,” Kami reminded him. She’d intentionally not given the woman a blanket. She directed her next comment to her patient. “It’ll hold heat to your body and you’re already too warm. We have to get your fever under control before we can even consider giving a blanket or doing anything that might make you worse.”

  Wincing with discomfort, the woman tightened her arms around her body. “I’m so cold.”

  They had to get her fever down and stable. Once they did, then she could possibly have a lightweight blanket. Certainly not before.

  “When did the headache start?” Kami asked.

  “She had a headache when she got here. It’s just gotten a lot worse,” the husband clarified. “It wasn’t bad enough to mention.”

  Apparently not even when Kami had directly asked about a headache. Ugh. She really didn’t like when patients said something completely opposite when the doctor was present than what they’d told her during their assessment. It happened almost nightly.

  Gabe ran through a quick examination of the woman. “Some swelling in the cervical nodes and neck stiffness. I want a blood count and a comprehensive metabolic panel on her STAT, and has that strep finished running?”

  “Should be. I’ll log in and check.” Kami signed in on the in-bay computer and the test result was back. “She’s negative for strep.”

  “Ache all over,” the woman told them, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. “Cold.”

  Gabe gave some orders, which Kami turned to do, but stopped when the woman said, “I’m going to throw up.” Then did exactly that.

  Gabe was closer than Kami and got an emesis pan in front of Mrs. Arnold just in time.

  “Give her an antiemetic IM now.” He named the one he wanted given and the dosage. “Then let’s get a saline lock on her.”

  Kami drew up the medication and injected the solution. The woman was shaking and looked much worse than she had when they’d entered the bay.

  “Do something,” the husband ordered, sounding worried, as he hovered next to his wife’s bed, gripping the woman’s pale hand.

  Gabe sent Kami a concerned look. “Get phlebotomy to draw blood cultures times three and the previous labs I mentioned. It’s off season, but run an influenza test, just in case. Let’s get a CT of her head, too. I’m probably going to do a lumbar puncture.”

  He was thinking a possibility of meningitis. Rightly so, given how rapidly her status was changing.

  “Let’s put her in isolation. Just in case,” Gabe continued in full doctor mode.

  The husband was talking, too. Kami didn’t want to ignore him, tried to answer his questions while she worked, but he continued to fret.

  Gabe gave an order to get IV antibiotics started and told her which he wanted. Kami rushed around making things happen. Although she’d really not looked like more than a typical sore throat patient, Mrs. Arnold had gone downhill scarily fast. In case she continued on the decline, they needed to act fast to get an accurate diagnosis as quickly as possible.

  * * *

  Linda Arnold’s blood count came back showing a significantly elevated white blood cell count with a bacterial shift. Her headache and neck pain had continued to increase and the woman refused to even attempt to move her neck. Her strep and influenza were negative.

  Lumbar punctures weren’t Gabe’s favorite things to do as there was always risk, but his concerns over meningitis were too high not to test her spinal fluid. As soon as he had the CT scan results back, he’d pull the fluid so long as the scan didn’t show any reason not to. He didn’t want to risk brain herniation by not following protocol.

  From all indications, the woman had meningitis. Gabe needed to know the exact culprit.

  He cleared out two other patients who’d come into the emergency department. Then, protective personal equipment in place, he went back to Mrs. Arnold.

  The woman was now going in and out of consciousness and didn’t make a lot of sense when she was awake.

  Also wearing appropriate personal protective equipment, Kami was at her bedside. She’d already gathered everything he’d need for a lumbar puncture. They needed to move fast.

  Hopefully, the antibiotics infusing into her body via her IV line would be the right ones for whatever caused her infection, but if they weren’t, waiting around to see could mean the difference between life and death.

  That wasn’t a chance he was willing to take.

  “Dr. Nelson?” Mindy stopped him from entering the area where Mrs. Arnold was. “Dr. Reynolds just called with her CT results. He is concerned about meningitis and recommends proceeding with lumbar puncture.”

  This was the call Gabe had been waiting for giving him the safe go-ahead.

  Checking to make sure his respiratory mask was secure, Gabe nodded, then entered the area where Mrs. Arnold was isolated.

  From behind her clear plastic glasses, Kami’s eyes were filled with worry when they met his.

  “She has gaze palsy and mild extremity drift now,” she told him. “I thought you’d prefer her husband not be in here for this as he was getting agitated. I sent him to the private counseling room to wait for you to talk to him after we get this done.”

  That was one of the things he loved about Kami. She was always one step ahead of him.

  Except when it came to the auction.

  On that one, he planned to outstep her. Not planned to—he would outstep her, because the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to go on that “date” with Kami.

  Copyright © 2019 by Janice Lynn

  ISBN-13: 9781488047848

  One Night to Change Their Lives

  First North American Publication 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Tina Beckett

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