The Fellowship

by K. Darblyne

  "Yeah, breakfast in bed," she muttered. "That’s the only way to enjoy it." She sat on the edge of the bed sluggishly pulling on a T-shirt and gym shorts. ‘Boy, Danni, I’m so glad that you made the addition of the winner picks the place to have the breakfast to that bet. Come to think of it, I believe you really thought that you were going to win.’ Her senses were being teased with the inviting smells of a homemade breakfast that wafted in even stronger when the door had been opened. ‘I wonder,’ she thought to herself, ‘where you would have picked to have the breakfast had your team won?’ After a brief trip to the bathroom she opened her door and called out, "I’m ready for my victory breakfast now."

  "Okay, I’m coming with it," the younger woman answered, picking up the tray that she had just finished arranging. Her lips curled up at the corners of her mouth as she made her way to Garrett’s bedroom. "I never thought that I would be serving my ‘amazon’ breakfast in bed," she muttered to herself. ‘Heck, I never thought that we would lose that softball game to the Physicians. Well, not until I saw her play ball,’ she mused. ‘Who would have guessed that she had so many skills?’

  The physician plumped her pillows aligning them against the headboard of the bed. She gracefully slipped under the covers and smoothed them around her long legs, waiting for her reward.

  The sound of footsteps approaching caused the raven-haired woman to look over at the door as it opened into the mutely lit room. Soft rays of sunlight fell gently on the form carrying the tray giving it a warm golden glow. A friendly smile accompanied the hopeful look in the radiant green eyes as she entered the room. "I hope you like scrambled eggs and sausage."

  "I do if they are real," the surgeon joked. Her blues eyes looked into the green veil of the small woman’s soul and immediately knew that she was blessed with a glimpse of the true spirit of this heaven-sent being. She gazed for as long as she dared before letting the lopsided grin come to her face in acknowledgement of the shared moment.

  Danni sat the tray down across the surgeon’s lap. Beautifully arranged were the scrambled eggs with sausage links garnished with a sprig of parsley and a thinly sliced orange round that was cut and twisted. A glass of orange juice and toast positioned on the tray with the utensils. Off to one corner was a small bud vase with the most delicate pink rose and bud in it. Garrett looked over the array of food and nodded to Danni her approval. Picking up the napkin to place on her lap the surgeon stopped and looked over at the woman watching her intently.

  "What?" Garrett was puzzled by the look of her friend.

  "I brought home the quarterly news bulletin for the hospital last night. Want to read it?" She smiled coyly as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

  "Something tells me that you want me to see it. Right?" The surgeon was picking up her utensils, reading to eat. She sighed knowing that she couldn’t enjoy her food with those green eyes watching every bite. "Say, did you eat yet?

  The eyebrows raised on the blonde with that remark. "Why, no. I’ve been making your breakfast." She looked so cute as she turned her head slightly as if she were shy about what she was about to reveal. "But I did make enough for me. I left mine out in the kitchen."

  "Well, go bring it in here and eat with me. There’s no sense in us eating by ourselves when we are both here together." Her face turned into a scowl. "I’m sure not joining you in the kitchen. No way! The bet was breakfast were ever I wanted it. And here in bed is where I intend to eat it."

  It was a decree straight from Garrett’s mouth and there was no way that the blonde nurse was going to refuse a chance like this. ‘After all, wasn’t that what I was going to request if I had won the game?’ Danni quickly assembled her food on another tray and briskly walked down to Garrett’s room. Save for the flowers, the trays were laid out almost identical. She rounded the corner of the bed and sat down on the far side. Nestling into the soft pillows she made herself comfortable before she handed the small hospital news bulletin over to the woman beside her. "You may want to start out reading the story on page three. I think you might know some of the people."

  Garrett took the paper and opened it to page three. There on the bottom of the page was an article about the annual E.R. Physician/Staff softball challenge. Off to the right of it was a photograph of Danni and Garrett sprawled on top of each other in the dirt with a caption that read, "Nurse and Physician get down and get dirty to save lives."

  Garrett’s face turned red. "I don’t remember any pictures being taken, do you?"

  The petite nurse shook her head. "No, I don’t but obviously there was. We have the proof of that right there."

  "You know, it’s not really a bad picture of either one of us. Maybe we could get a bigger one that we could frame and put on the wall. What do you think?" Garrett kept cocking her head for side to side to look at it better.

  Danni nodded in agreement. "I’ll see what I can do. Now let’s eat."

  With that said, both women started eating the food before them. Each one contemplating the situation in there own minds.

  ‘I may have lost that game, but I still came out a winner.’ Danni thought that it could get no better as to be eating breakfast in bed with her raven-haired friend. Stealing glances at the person next to her kept a smile stretched across her face as she devoured the food on her tray.

  Garrett had won a lot of softball games in her athletic years but this one was the sweetest of them all. No trophy had been awarded or records broken, but the feeling of accomplishment and teamwork overwhelmed her. Maybe that was because she felt a growing bond with the motley crew from the hospital emergency room who had opened their arms and taken her into their world, especially one small, blonde nurse in particular. Her eyes glance over casually at the photograph in the bulletin. ‘Besides, we kind of look like we belong together.’

  Continued

  Chapter 8

  The weather was beginning to cool down and the first samplings of the autumn colors were settling on the trees. ‘Thank the gods for the new school year.’ The young nurse thought to herself as she put her key into the lock on the door. She was finding it difficult to relax when she came home from work with the sounds of the excited children playing outside all summer. It often brought back all of the childhood memories that she cared to muster. Her mind would think back on them but something was always missing, like she was never really a part of the activity around her but rather a spectator in the game of life. It had made her feel uneasy, even unsettled in her life just like she was now. ‘There’s got to be something more to life. Some other kind of…’ she searched for the right word, ‘fulfillment. Yeah, that’s it!’ She shrugged her shoulders dejectedly, ‘Maybe someday….’ The noise of the neighborhood children could only be heard now in the late afternoons and on the weekends. It had not been keeping her from sleeping since every night seemed to drain her energy with the multitude of traumas that were coming into the E.R. There were seasons to everything including trauma. Danni had been around long enough to know that each of the weather seasons brought on a rise in a particular kind of traumatic mishap that would befall her patients. The autumn of the year brought scholastic sports injuries with it as well as the falls from trees as people were preparing for the colder winter months ahead.

  She pushed open the door and made her way into the comfortable looking living area. Her tired green eyes scanned the room until they detected the out of place duffel bag next to the coffee table. A grin came to her face as she thought about the owner of the bag and what a pleasant impact she was making on the life of the young nurse. It had been years since Danni had a roommate. She had several roommates back in her college days and none ever seemed to work out. In fact, it was those horrible experiences that had made her promise herself never to be put into those circumstances again. She shook her head in amazement at her situation now. Who would have thought that two people as different as night and day could actually be so comfortable around each other. It was as though they had known
each other for as long as they had been alive or even longer. The petite blonde shivered as a chill ran down her spine at the thought. ‘I guess I just had to find the right roommate,’ she reflected. ‘Too bad I’ll probably lose her after next June. She’ll have a ton of offers from the really big hospitals across the country with her talents.’ And at that thought a melancholy mood came over her.

  Danni shook her head in an effort to rid herself of the thought. "Take each day as it comes and don’t worry about the next until it is here," she whispered as if saying a prayer. Then, she mentally chastised herself for her thoughts. She knew that her time with the tall, dark surgeon was limited. She had no reason to stay here, no ties that could hold her here. ‘I just wish…she could see how much better I…ah…we are for her.’ Danni remembered the numerous times that she had been left behind as someone’s choice, never really finding that true allegiance of spirit in her youth. It seemed like it just followed her no matter what she did or where she went. There was always something that made her feel isolated at times. The E.R. was the first real place that she ever felt she belonged, well, except for her Grandfather and her days spent at his cabin. He never looked at her as different or lacking, but rather with the acceptance of an unconditional love that she had grown to cherish.

  She wondered if the surgeon had changed on-call nights and forgotten her familiar duffel bag this morning. She looked over at the desk for a note but found none. "Well, only one way to find out. I’ll just page her," the nurse assured herself as she placed the phone call to the paging operator at the hospital. She stole a quick glance at her watch. It was 0830. Her mind tried to remember Garrett’s schedule but she found it next to impossible with her lack of sleep.

  "Dr. Trivoli here." The voice was strong and clear.

  Startled from her thoughts, Danni spoke hesitantly. "Ah, this is Danni."

  The surgeon’s voice now softened in tone, "Hey, how did your night go?"

  "It was busy as usual, traumas don’t wait for you when you’re not on-call," she said with a laugh. "Thanks for asking any ways."

  "I walked right into that one, didn’t I? Sorry to hear it was so busy."

  "Don’t worry. I’ll survive. Just think after I sleep today, I get to come in and do it all over again tonight."

  "Yeah, but this time you will have a real good time. I promise."

  The nurse looked surprised, "…and just why is that?"

  "Well, ‘cause, I’ll be on-call tonight instead of Rene."

  "Oh, did something come up?"

  "No, more like something coming out," the surgeon teased. "Renee’s wife is in labor. It’s their first child, so it could take a while. He called me at 5 this morning," she laughed. "Right after he called the Obstetrician."

  "Oh, so that explains the duffel bag in the living room."

  Her voice reflected the blank expression on her face. "I guess I was so excited for Renee and his wife that I forgot it."

  "Don’t worry, I’ll bring it with me when I come to work this evening."

  "Thanks, Danni. I appreciate that and so will everyone around me tonight. It has all my toiletries and change of clothes. Boy, I guess I’d be in a real bind if I didn’t have a roommate, huh?"

  "Well, consider it part of the roommate code. Rule # 7, I think."

  "And that would be…?"

  "Never let your roommate go without clean clothes and toiletries for an overnight outing." The petite woman was finding it hard to keep from laughing.

  "One of the days, you are going to have to show me these codes that you quote, okay? I don’t believe I ever received my copy of them."

  Jokingly the blonde woman stated, "You have to be a roommate for a while before they give them out." She could hear the beeping coming through the phone. "Is that you?"

  Garrett looked down at the annoying sound to see the number flashing across the pager. "Yeah, I’ve got to answer this. I’ll see you later tonight and thanks for bringing that in for me. Now go and get some sleep."

  "I’ll page you when I get in. Bye!"

  "See you later." She hung up the phone pausing for a moment as she considered how lucky she was.

  The brisk episodes of wind seemed to make the outside world alive with the ever-floating leaves in the air. It brought to mind the small snow globe that she had received as a child on a long forgotten day. She was amazed at how obscure that gift and the circumstances surrounding it had come to her mind. Continuing to gaze out of the window, her mind replayed the events. The cherished thoughts made her feel warm and conjured up a feeling of love.

  Her parents had given the globe to her. It was their way of explaining the bond that was to fill her life. The two snowmen inside of the globe stood side by side, one slightly larger than the other. They had told her about an unseen bond between the two figures. Her father shook the globe vigorously and held it out for her to see. Her mother knelt down behind her to wrap her arms around the young girl. Pointing to the snowstorm of activity inside the globe she commented that the two snowmen were held together in their strength for each other and that nothing could separate the bond they shared, not even the cold, harsh winds of the snowstorm. At times it was hard to see the figures but then, the snow would die down and there the two were, standing side by side, as if nothing had ever happened. The small child wondered which snowman she was. It was then that her father pointed to the larger of the two saying, "This one is you." The girl looked up to her mother for confirmation of the choice. She was hugged gently as her mother whispered, "You are the older and bigger one, my love." A puzzled look appeared on the youngster’s face as she looked from parent to parent. Seeing this, her father winked at her mother and motioned his head to the other room. Her mother stood and left the room only to return a moment later carrying something in her arms. Her face was radiant as she looked at her daughter and husband. She sat down on the sofa, cooing gently into the blanket that was in her arms. Hand in hand the young girl and her father crossed the room to her mother. Together, they invited her to meet her new baby brother. She could still remember the exact words as though it was yesterday. "This is your brother, Lucas. He will need you to look out for him and help him when the storms come. Do you think you can do that?"

  The young girl’s eyes grew to the size of saucers at the sight of her new brother. She nodded her head and asked. "He’ll be with me always…forever and forever?" "Yes he will," was their simultaneous reply.

  "Hey, Doc! You want in on the baby pool?"

  The tall woman’s concentration being broken, she turned from the window in the trauma vestibule to see John, the E.R. nurse, standing with a long sheet of computer paper in his hands. "I take it this is for Dr. Chabot’s baby?"

  "Yep!" The smile was big across his face. "We’re splitting it 50/50 with the baby. Only two bucks, Doc, I just need you to guess a time and sex." His eyebrows seemed to vibrate as he said the last word.

  Garrett chuckled as she thought of the stories she had heard of the young male from the other nurses and Danni. She was amused that even with the pending birth, this guy would find an angle to talk about sex. "Yeah, let me in on the pool." The ends of her mouth curled upward as she considered what time the baby would arrive. "Hmmm! It’s 1845 now and they are still in labor," she mused. Her face twisted with thought, "Let’s say 2115."

  "Sex?" The word was said with more of an implication then a question. The look of anticipation at the duel meaning and purpose of the question was written all over the man’s face. John waited for her answer to be a slip in a moment of Freudian thought. His mind was racing with thoughts of bedding the beautiful surgeon. The long limbs of her naked body wrapped around him, the tenuous moment of copulation moving her over the edge into a world of….

  "Girl!" The answer was crisp and clear. Her eyebrow arching up under her dark bangs.

  His dreams had come to a grinding halt. "What?" He snapped back.

  "I said, Girl at 2115. That’s my guess for the birth of the Chabot baby." She smiled
sexily, fully aware of the agony that she was putting the nurse through. Digging into her lab coat she produced two dollar bills. "Here!" She shoved them into his hand just letting her touch linger long enough to add to his sense of lost dreams. "I’ll trust you to mark me down." With that she winked and moved away.

  John stood there in a dazed state of mind. He quickly ran through the conversation in his head. Where had he gone wrong? It had worked several times earlier today. Why not now? He shook his head. ‘Oh well, the chase is half the fun anyway,’ he thought as he turned to look for his next body of conquest.

  Exchanging her street clothes for a set of trauma scrubs, Danni found herself listening to the buzz of activity coming from the other occupants of the locker room. There was definitely an aura of excitement in the staff today. She shoved her purse into her locker and closed the door. Making several tugs here and there, she straightened her hospital-issued clothing. Just as she was about to leave, the locker room door swung open by a very upset Manager.