I scrunched my nose up at him. “Is that the kind of plane you ride in?”
He chuckled. “It’s a helicopter, not a plane.”
“Same thing,” I sniped back.
“Not even in the least. A plane has fixed wings. A helicopter has blades.”
“Whatever,” I snapped.
The man could argue with damn near anything. He was annoying like that.
And smart.
Very smart.
He could also read me like an open book.
He was getting to me, and I couldn’t afford for him to get to me. He’d really hurt me. Fucked me up so bad that there were times I didn’t know which way was up.
Then he shows up, acting as if he hadn’t done a damn thing to hurt me.
Which made it all the worse.
I couldn’t get my hopes up.
Not again.
“Alright. Well, have a good day,” I said softly as I walked away.
I didn’t look back, even though every cell inside my body screamed at me to turn around to see if he was watching me leave.
I arrived inside in time for a large trauma to enter through the emergency doors.
This wasn’t unusual.
We were the biggest facility in the Ark-La-Tex. That’s the Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas region.
This particular trauma was a man in a sheriff’s department uniform with what amounted to a shiv made out of paper impaled in his eyeball.
“What happened?” I asked Cody as I slipped gloves over my hands.
Cody spoke as he walked with me.
“An inmate stabbed him in the eye with a shiv made out of toilet paper and shit made to look like a paper airplane. Guard shot him with the thing sticking out of his eye, though. Dead fucking center. Inmate’s dead,” Cody said as he read from the chart.
“Okay,” I said as I walked up to the gurney.
“Can you tell me your name?” I asked the young man on the gurney.
His head turned my way. Which consequently meant the paper shiv did too.
“Lamont Thurgood,” he rumbled.
“Can you tell me where you are?” I asked as I started hooking him up to the heart rate monitor.
He shook his head.
“That little fucker, Jarvis, shoved a shit covered paper airplane through my fuckin’ eye. I’m at the hospital where, hopefully, they can get this thing out,” he said as he pointed to the airplane.
“Are you feeling any pain?” I asked as Dr. Norwood walked through the curtain.
I didn’t much care for Dr. Norwood. He felt like he was too good for us lowly nurses, and he didn’t care that we were professionals just as he was.
Sure, I had a lot less schooling than him, but he didn’t have to act like I was gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
The bastard didn’t have any problem delegating tasks. Even ones he damn well knew he had to do them himself.
He was a good trauma doc though; which was why the ER still had him hired on, despite the numerous complaints by nearly three quarters of the department.
“No,” Lamont said brusquely. “The medics gave me some good meds on the way over. Fucking sucks not being able to see, though.”
“I’m sure it does,” I agreed.
“Mr. Thurgood, my name is Dr. Norwood. I’m going to take a look at your eye now. That’s going to require me to take the bandages from around the paper, though. It might feel funny, but try not to move, okay?” Dr. Norwood asked.
“10-4,” he agreed.
The shiv looked about as one would expect.
It was luckily through the side of his eyeball, and not directly in the middle.
With any hope, it wouldn’t cause any vision loss. However, it was way too early to tell. They’d have to take him up to the OR, and soon.
“Nurse,” Dr. Norwood snapped. “Get an IV in the man already.”
I looked down at the line that was already placed in the patient’s right side before pointing at it. “He has one in the right AC.”
AC stood for antecubital, or more commonly known as the bend of the elbow, and it was extremely hard to miss the fact.
He just liked to make me feel stupid.
“Well then, why isn’t he hooked up to some antibiotics yet?” He snapped.
I took a deep, slow breath. “You haven’t written the order, nor verbally given the order.”
Cody made a sound from the other side of the room where he was inputting information into the COW, or the computer on wheels that we now had to drag around with us into every patient’s room.
Dr. Norwood’s eyes narrowed on me before they turned to Cody.
“Cody, I need you to start Mr. Thurgood on...”
I stopped listening as I saw a familiar set of hands come from behind me.
“Lamont, my man. What happened to your face?” Cleo asked from behind me.
Dr. Norwood’s eyes narrowed impossibly further on the man leaning over my back.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say Dr. Norwood was almost jealous, but that couldn’t be.
Lamont’s head turned until he could see Cleo’s face, and he smiled. “Piercing gone wrong.”
I snorted, as did Cleo.
“Right,” Cleo chuckled. “I heard a guard got shivved. I wanted to come see who it was.”
“Lucky old me,” he said as he turned his head to Cody, who was hanging up some antibiotics.
“I don’t know who you are, but you need to get out of my ER,” Dr. Norwood snapped.
Cleo’s eyes flicked up, pinning Dr. Norwood like a bug to the front of a speeding car. “Sorry, didn’t mean to intrude. I just wanted to check on my friend. I’m leaving.”
Cleo backed out of the room with his arms raised, but I didn’t miss the glare he aimed at Dr. Norwood, and then the heated glance that landed on me before he disappeared out the doors.
“Boyfriend?” Dr. Norwood snapped.
I glanced at him before getting an alcohol pad to clean the dried blood off of Mr. Thurgood’s chin and cheeks.
For some reason, the man’s snapped question set my back up, and I snapped right back at him. “That’s none of your business.”
That was the last thing I wanted to talk about right now; especially to someone that annoyed the shit out of me.
I caught Cody’s amused grin just as he turned away, and I snorted.
Cody could find amusement in nearly anything.
I, however, was definitely not amused.
***
Rue
I shifted from foot to foot as I waited for my ride.
I wouldn’t mention that the man was fifteen minutes late.
Oh, who was I kidding? The man was fucking late and I was exhausted.
Even worse, I had to catch a ride from someone I didn’t even know.
Cody had gone home in the middle of the shift sick with a stomach virus. He’d been my ride home. Or he would’ve been. I wasn’t too keen on getting in a car with a stranger.
A loud engine rumbled into the parking lot, and I just knew that that red lifted Chevy was my ride.
It was older, but still in excellent shape.
A man hopped out and walked around the front of the truck. “Rue?” He asked.
His large beard caught my eye, and I was sort of shocked, and in beard lust with the man in seconds.
I nodded. “I’m Rue.”
He held out his hand, and I accepted it, placing my palm in his and giving it a firm shake.
He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Nice to meet you. I’m Silas.”
That was when the front of his leather vest caught my attention.
It was nearly the same one that Cleo wore, only this one had this man’s name, Silas, on it. There was also the word ‘President’ underneath that.
I swallowed thickly, knowing this man was the president of The Dixie Wardens MC, and I was about to get into a car alone with him.
“Silas,” I nodded my head and smoothly ex
tricated my hand from his.
He noticed the maneuver and smiled before opening the door for me.
I looked at it warily.
“I don’t bite,” he rumbled.
I looked from the tips of his boots to the top of his head before starting forward.
“If you kill me, I’m gonna have Cleo kick your ass,” I said softly.
“Noted,” he acknowledged.
Once I was in my seat, he slammed the door closed, and walked around the front of the truck before hefting his solid mass into his own seat.
“You don’t drive a motorcycle?” I asked.
“I ride a motorcycle, yes. But I had my grandkids, and their mother doesn’t like when I give them rides on my bike,” he said as he put the truck in gear.
I giggled. “I’m sure she doesn’t.”
“My son doesn’t give me the opportunity to watch his kids very often. Sam’s very protective of his kids, so I do my best to not piss them off. I would hate to lose the kids over something like that,” he said softly as he motored out of the hospital parking lot.
I looked over at him, noting the strained look on his face. “How many grandkids do you have?”
“Seven,” he beamed. “Another one on the way.”
I smiled at him. “That’s great. My best friend just adopted a baby with his husband. I love her to death. She’s a tiny little thing, though.”
Silas gave me a funny look, but didn’t comment on the whole gay marriage with a family thing. I knew what he was thinking, though.
“Do you know where I live?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yep.”
“Okay,” I said as we passed the miles to my house in silence.
He didn’t speak again until he was pulling into the driveway. “I’ll check your place, and then you can go inside. Okay?”
“Fine with me,” I agreed.
It was, too.
I didn’t care that he wanted to go into my house. It was wonderful to have someone watch out for me. You didn’t realize how scary a dark house could be until it was pitch black and you lived alone.
I forgot how nice it was.
Silas made a quick sweep through my house, albeit extremely thorough.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said as he started to leave.
He turned to me. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”
With that he left, closing the door quietly behind him.
“What’s Saturday?” I yelled.
He didn’t answer.
But I knew one thing.
There was no way I’d see him on Saturday, because that’d probably mean I’d be seeing Cleo, and that was one complication that I didn’t need.
Nor want.
And I was lying.
I did want him. A lot.
There was just no way I’d take him back.
Not again.
Chapter 4
Watch other people’s kids. They’ll cure you of wanting some of your own right quick.
-Life lesson
Rue
“I’ve never taken care of a baby, though,” I said to Cody as he handed his daughter over.
Then he left, and came back with what looked like the rest of Babies-R-Us. Dooley, Cody’s husband, followed shortly behind with a box looking thing which sprung into a baby bed in the middle of my living room.
Whoa!
“That’s cool,” I said. “But, seriously. What’s going on?”
“We both have strep, and we don’t want her to get it. You also have the next two days off. That’s enough time for us to get the antibiotics in our systems before she comes back around us,” Cody said nasally.
“I thought it was the stomach flu,” I looked around alarmed. “I really have no experience with babies. This one is tiny, too.”
Marie was three months old, and although much more sturdy than she had been when they’d gotten her two months ago, she was still extremely small.
I didn’t even have a dog. How was I supposed to know how to take care of a kid?
“Rue, you’re a nurse. I’m sure you can figure it out. You wipe ass for a living anyway. You’ll be fine,” Cody explained patiently.
I looked at the little girl in my arms and grimaced. “Okay, but only until tomorrow. You only need twenty four hours to get the antibiotics in your system.”
Cody smiled slightly before waving as he exited the house with Dooley hot on his heels.
Poor Dooley had it even worse than Cody.
He couldn’t even talk, which was bad since he was a public speaker.
He was a motivational speaker and advocate for teens, as well as a youth probation officer.
“Thank you,” Cody said as he started heading for the door. “Call if you need anything.”
I watched them go, anxiety starting to take over.
I looked down at the little girl in my arms, and nearly wept.
It astounded me with the amount of trust Cody and Dooley had in me. To trust me to take care of the most important thing in their life was staggering.
***
Rue
I stared at the crying baby, unsure what to do.
“Why are you crying?” I whimpered with her.
I was flustered.
The baby had started crying within an hour of being dropped off, and now, three hours later, was still whimpering.
She’d been fed, changed, bathed, and now I was just holding her.
Cody had been no help, either.
“I forgot to tell you, sometimes she just gets colicky,” Cody said mournfully, and then proceeded that statement by throwing up.
I hung up on that undesirable sound.
I wasn’t into puking at work, and I wasn’t into it at home, either.
I was about to change her diaper for the seventh time in just as many hours when a knock sounded from the front door.
I walked to it cautiously, looked out the peephole, and then sighed.
My heart started fluttering, and my belly turned into a mass of emotions that ranged from happy, to distraught, right back to ecstatic.
He was just what I needed.
Punching in the numbers on the keypad, I unarmed the door, unlocked it, and opened it.
“Hey,” I said hesitantly. “What are you doing here?”
Cleo’s eyes immediately fastened on the baby, and his brows furrowed.
Then a look of horror, and sudden realization hit him.
“What have you done?” He whispered.
Confused, I looked down at the little girl and then back to him before asking, “What do you mean, what have I done?”
“I listened to all the messages you left me. Each and every one. If you’d have just said, I would’ve called back. I would’ve never left,” he growled.
“What’re you talking about?” I snapped. “Seriously, you’re freaking me the fuck out.”
I was flustered, and now I was angry.
What was he going on about?
“You kept my own freakin’ kid from me!” He bellowed.
The mild mannered man I’d never seen raise his voice, even once, yelled at me.
Yelled at me.
“What kid?” I asked.
“That kid!” he bellowed, pointing to a fascinated Marie.
I set Marie down in her playpen, thankful she’d stopped crying for the moment, and turned to the daft man.
“Are you drunk? On drugs?” I asked walking up to him and putting my hand on his forehead.
He backed off from my touch.
I told myself that it didn’t hurt that he flinched at my touch, but I was lying.
“Tell me,” he hissed.
***
Cleo
It all made sense.
A lot of sick sense.
I’d been disappointed when she’d stopped calling me.
I’d kept every single voicemail she’d ever left me, and when I started to get low, I’d listen to them just to hear her voice.
I’d thought that I’d been the
one to give up on the relationship, but apparently she had to.
We had a kid together.
A kid that looked exactly like my sister’s kids did.
My stomach was roiling at the thought of Rue keeping that from me. Then I berated myself.
I’d had just as much a part of it as she did, if not more.
“Cleo...I don’t have any kids. That kid is Cody’s baby,” she yelled back.
“Cody’s baby?” I asked, confused.
Hadn’t I heard from Silas that Cody was gay?
She raised her eyebrows up. “Yeah, they went to Egypt just a few months ago and adopted her.”
That stopped me in my tracks.
Then I felt immensely stupid. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come over this morning. I had a bad night, and I just jumped to conclusions. I just wanted to see you.”
She blinked, surprised at my apology.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “But maybe you should go home. Come back some time when you’re thinking clearly.”
“I...I don’t want to go home,” I admitted.
“Why?” She asked. “What happened?”
I sat down on the edge of her couch and let my head fall into my hands. “I had two patients die last night. Two separate accidents, but no less severe than the other. One was a two year old who’d touched a live wire that had fallen in her backyard. The other was a young girl who suffered third degree burns in a motor vehicle accident.”
Both cases were still just as fresh in my brain as they were four and a half hours ago when they’d happened one after the other.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Cleo,” she said softly. “But, that still doesn’t help me answer why you’re here at all. You left me, remember? Why now? Why, when I just got my life back in order? Do you know how long it’s been since I cried through the night? Two goddamn weeks. Then one freaking look at you, and it’s all right there again. I can feel everything. It’s tearing me apart,” she whispered with tears filling her voice.
Her head fell, hiding her face so I didn’t see the tears.
I swallowed thickly.
“I didn’t want to die and leave you alone,” I rasped.
She finally looked up, giving me her tear stained blue eyes.
Life to My Flight Page 4
