by Lila Lacroix
What the Billionaire Wants
Miscommunication
Misdirection
Miscarried
Miscommunication
It was two in the morning when Tina finally managed to pause for five minutes to catch her breath. The night shifts were always the busiest, with parents worried about their children in the night, and a lot of false alarms, including some impending mothers worried about their pregnancy. Though she was coming to the end of her shift, Tina was still in the grace period where she was enjoying her placement.
She was sure that she wouldn't be enjoying herself as much when her placements were nearing the end, but for now she was enjoying learning and experiencing events on the ward for herself. Pediatrics was definitely the area she most wanted to expand her nursing experience in.
“Tina!” The attending nurse was calling for her, and Tina spared a moment to rub her painful left foot before she rushed back to the nursing station to find out what she had forgotten to do this time.
The attending nurse was a severe woman who hadn't liked Tina from the moment she'd stepped foot into the hospital. She had only come to introduce herself and some of her colleagues on the ward had warned her about the attending and her penchant for hating the students¸ no matter what college they were from. Tina had been intent on impressing her, but it hadn't mattered in the long run; the attending nurse had still been less than impressed with anything Tina did, even when it was right.
When she turned up, the attending nurse looked down her nose at Tina and then handed over a list of tasks that had to be done before she could leave in the morning. She was only halfway through the list she had been given at the start of her shift and wasn't looking forward to having to do more, but she knew better than to say so aloud. Clamping her mouth shut, she nodded tightly and clasped the list tightly in her hands, refusing to let the attending know how upset she was. It was almost as though she was seeing how far she could push Tina before she cracked, and Tina didn't know how much longer she could stand it.
Still, there were plenty of things to distract her. She made her way through the intricate maze of corridors and stairwells until she was at the hospital front desk, her next port of call. By the time she reached the reception, her foot was hurting once again, and she leaned against the counter, resting her foot against her leg. She was still massaging her toes when the doors opened to admit a heavily pregnant woman and someone Tina supposed was her husband. She couldn't help but linger on him; his handsome, chiseled features, and the clothes that seemed to accentuate his built body. He was dead sexy, and it figured that someone that hot would be attached.
Tina slipped her foot back into her shoe and immediately approached the pair, who were talking to one of the receptionists. “Welcome to St Anthony’s Hospital, can I help you?”
“This is Mrs. Carter,” the receptionist, Rosie, said. The married title only made Tina's heart sink that little bit more, but she smiled warmly anyway. Her job was all about covering up her own feelings to make the patients feel better, and she was as practiced about that as she was any other part of her job. She clasped her hands together, and tried to look as sympathetic as possible. “She's got some complications with her pregnancy. The doctor has been called.”
Tina nodded and put an arm on the woman's elbow, leading her – and her husband – away from the desk. She made sure they were in an accessible area for the doctor, but not obstructing anyone. The husband was giving Tina a searching look, and she could feel her neck flush with heat at the attention. It wasn't often that someone that looked at his hot as he did paid her attention.
She was pretty, she knew that much, but it had always been the plain and simple kind of pretty – not the pretty that got you noticed wherever you went. Tina liked make-up and making sure that her hair always looked nice, but she was less concerned with making sure she looked exceptionally attractive before she came to work. There was no doubt about the fact that by the time she was done with her shifts at the hospital, she would look tired and emotional, so it all seemed a waste.
The husband's attention didn't wane, even through Tina's explanation. “I'm a student nurse here at the hospital, and I'll be aiding the doctor in any procedures.”
Seeing the panicked look on the woman's face, Tina hastened to calm her down. “That can be anything, from assisting in the pregnancy, to make sure that you have enough tea to get you through.”
The woman let out a watery laugh, though she kept a hand pressed to her stomach and still looked pained. “Thank you.”
Tina nodded, holding the woman's hand as she led her to one of the cubicles lining the ward. “The doctor will be along shortly and then we can find out just what's happening with your baby in there. He's probably just excited to be coming out and meeting his mommy.”
The woman's laugh this time was more genuine. “It's a she, actually, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
Tina apologized, and then grinned. “Any time.”
The curtain was shifted aside, and the doctor strode into the cubicle, reading over the notes on his clipboard. When he looked up, he smiled gently at the woman and her husband.
“Hello, I'm Dr. Kurt. I'll be your attending physician. I can see that you're worried about some complications.”
While the woman explained to the doctor what she had been feeling and what she was worried about, Tina could feel the husband's eyes on the back of her neck, but didn't know what to do under the scrutiny. She didn't know how to feel about the fact that he was married and shouldn't be looking at her like that when his wife was right there talking about her pregnancy, especially one where she was worried about complications. It was still a little thrilling to be the focus of such scrutiny, and she could feel her whole body going hot and tingly at the prospect. She was still young enough that the thought of a married man was a thrill, even though she knew that it should be repulsive to her.
Focusing instead on the doctor and the man's wife, she tuned back into the conversation.
“I wouldn't worry. Everything seems fairly normal to me, but to be on the safe side I think we'll keep you in and monitor you. It's still going to be a few hours before your baby arrives, but we'll be on standby for an emergency c-section anyway.” He turned to Tina, unaware of the woman's panicked look to her husband. “I'd like you to be available should I need you.”
“Yes, doctor,” Tina said, thankful for something other than the husband to focus on. The woman looked at her, still a little panicked, though Tina waited for the doctor to leave before she squeezed her hand. “Please don't panic. Everything will be fine – the doctor knows what he's doing.”
The woman settled back into the bed, and her husband took the seat. He had yet to introduce himself, or to say anything at all, but that wasn't unusual. Tina had seen many husbands remain silent, well up until their wife started to give birth. She stood, smoothing down her uniform and shifting her throbbing foot in her shoe. It did little to ease the pain, but it was the kind of throb that you got used to the more active you were, and she was almost done with her shift. “I'll send in the midwife to help you along, but I'll be one call if the doctor needs me.”
“Thank you,” the woman said.
Tina bowed out before the man could say anything.
When she made it to the staffing desk, she had some saving grace in that the attending nurse was nowhere to be found. Mary, one of the other student nurses who attended the same college as Tina, gave her a quick smile and handed over a clipboard. “These are the patients that need seeing to on this floor before you finish.”
“No problem,” Tina said. She wasn't going to finish her list, but she didn't care a whole lot. She wondered how the hot guy was going to han
dle being a dad, and she was struck with the image of him holding a baby. She was so caught up in the image, that it took Mary snapping her fingers to bring her back to the ward.
“You in there?”
“Yes,” Tina said, blushing. “Sorry, what?”
Mary rolled her eyes, grinning. “Spill the beans.”
“No,” Tina said, immediately. Though she was having trouble coming to terms with the fact that the hot guy was married, that didn't mean she wanted any of her co-workers to know. If she did, it certainly wouldn't be Mary, who was known to be the biggest gossip around, not only in the hospital, but in the classroom as well.
“Killjoy,” Mary muttered.
Tina turned on her heel and made her way to the other end of the ward, looking over the notes of her first patient. She was well practiced in changing beds, sponge bathing and administering medication. They formed a fairly large part of her job, though she couldn't help her attention drifting as she did them. Often she could talk to the patients and get to know them a little better, but during the night, that wasn't really an option when she was administering medication, so it was a boring task.
Her fingers slid against the IV line, making sure she was transferring the correct fluid, and then dropped it, picking up her clipboard and moving onto the next patient. She got through a couple before she started to think back to the hot man from before. Why do I keep finding myself thinking about him?
She could feel her cheeks flame at the thought of his attention, and she stopped paying attention to what she was doing. She'd been filling IVs since her first day on the ward, and it was easy now to flit from cubicle to cubicle and administer the medication all the while thinking about the man whose wife was about to have a baby down the hall.
It wasn’t until Tina was halfway through her rounds that she heard that she'd messed up. She was helping one of the younger patients, a young girl who loved to talk about her horse, back into bed after visiting the bathroom. “Rest now,” Tina said, smiling. “Breakfast will come before you know it.”
Closing the curtain on the little girl's grin, Tina turned and ran straight into Mary. She looked out of breath and her eyes were wide. Tina frowned. “What's the matter?”
“Attending's looking for you,” Mary said, using the distant nickname they used for the attending nurse. Nobody wanted to personalize with her enough to use her name, though they all knew it.
Tina panicked inwardly. “Why? I've done all the jobs I had to do!”
Mary looked uncomfortable. “I don't want to – you should go and find her. She's at the staffing desk.”
Trying to get any more information out of Mary was futile, so Tina hurried down the hall, swiping her hair back behind her ear. It was starting to fall out of her ponytail with all of the running around she was doing, and she hastily pulled it back up into the hairband as she hurried along, knowing that if she was in a state when she arrived, it would only make the attending's attitude worse.
“Tina! Where have you been? Do you have any idea what you've done?” The attending nurse was already shouting at Tina before she'd even walked fully into the staffing area.
“I don't understand, ma'am.”
The attending nurse continued to launch into a tirade about one of her IV change overs and the damage it had done. Tina had been so focused on the guy downstairs, that she hadn't focused properly on one of the IVs. She was disheartened and devastated to think that she might have hurt someone, however small, and the fact that this was one of the kids she liked the best on the ward made everything worse. She took everything, head bowed so far that her chin was resting on her chest. Her hands were twisted in front of her and she didn't know what to say, didn’t say anything at all. It took all of her self-control not to burst out crying. When the attending nurse was finally done shouting, she was glaring down at Tina, her face red with rage, her arms folded in front of her chest. “You will not be doing any of the medication for the rest of your time on my ward. Get out of my sight.”
Tina was hurrying away from the staffing station as fast as she could go. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she refused to give into them where other nurses and staff could see, so she caught the nearest elevator and hit the first floor. She needed a coffee or something and she would find somewhere secluded where she could privately bawl her eyes out, the guilt of having made such an egregious mistake weighing on her. Grabbing a coffee and standing in the middle of the corridor, not really knowing what to do, she thought about the attending nurse and what she had said, and the tears came to the surface once again. The nearest room was one of the family-only rooms, and she ducked into the nearest one, folding into one of the horrible plastic chairs, cupping the plastic mug in her hands and staring down into the coffee.
She couldn't hold the tears back anymore, giving into them and choking as she tried to take a sip of coffee to calm herself. It didn't really do much to keep her from sobbing, but she was startled out of her crying fit by someone asking, “Are you okay?”
When she peered over the rim of her cup, she looked into the concerned face of the hot husband from before. It took her a while to find her voice, and she was immediately embarrassed about how she must look. She scrubbed at her face with her free hand, hoping that her face wasn't as blotchy and messed up as it usually was when she had been crying, and tried for a small smile. “Not really.”
The man moved a couple of seats closer. “Want to talk about it?”
Admitting that she was slightly incompetent because she was focused so much on how attractive he was wasn't the kind of thing she wanted to admit to a stranger, so she just shook her head. “Just an attending nurse being a little harder on me than expected. I'll be fine after a coffee.”
He nodded, but didn't stop looking at her. Tina shifted under the scrutiny, not really sure what to say or do, and focused intently on her coffee instead. It was the terrible kind that all cafeterias seem to make, but it helped her during the long shifts.
She leaned against the wall and turned to look at the man. She wanted to ask his name, but she didn't want to overstep the boundaries. Perhaps if she made that kind of mistake, he would run. Not that it would be a completely terrible thing; the more sensible part of her was screaming at her to get out of this and leave him alone anyway.
“So,” Tina said, swirling the cup a little. “Are you hiding, too?”
The man smiled, and Tina was a little startled to realize that he was even more handsome. “Something like that.”
There was a silence that wasn't altogether uncomfortable, but she fidgeted a little on the chair anyway. She didn't know what to say, and he was back to staring at her again. It wasn't the scrutinizing expression it had been before, but was more assessing. She didn't want to know what he was thinking about, so she gave him a small smile. “Thank you for-”
“-not helping?”
Tina laughed, nose crinkling. “You did help.”
“That's good,” the man said. He was closer than she remembered him being, and there was something about the way that he said it. She knew what flirting was, knew when somebody was flirting with her, but this was something altogether different. It was more loaded, more like the air around her had compressed. She felt hot all over and her fingers were digging hard into the plastic cup. “Hey.”
Looking up, Tina swallowed. The man was next to her, face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her face. She wanted to kiss him, to find out what he tasted like. She wanted his hands on her, and knew that she was blushing, but his face was perfectly calm and collected, like he knew exactly what he was doing. She had never believed the romance novels that claimed it was all music and angels and perfection, but it was almost as though something was compelling her to move forwards, to lean into the kiss that the man was bestowing on her. It was ridiculous to think that she could feel this way about someone when she didn't even know his name, but there was no denying the attraction there.
She leaned in, unsure whether she h
ad judged the situation correctly, and was relieved when he started to lean in as well. Her heart was pounding in her chest, the way it always did whenever she was about to have a first kiss, and she closed her eyes. The touch of his lips to hers sent a shiver down her spine and she let out a soft, plaintive noise that only brought the man closer. He kissed as though he wanted to take her with him, as though he was going to leave and run from her. She didn't want to think about why that might be – she knew only too well – and closed a fist around his t-shirt, hoping it would be enough to keep him in this room with her.
They broke the kiss a moment later, though she was reluctant to let him pull too far back. Their eyes met for a beat, and then Hot Husband was moving in again, putting a hand on the back of her head and pulling her in for a hotter, deeper kiss. She felt her body respond to his kiss, the pleasure rolling through her chest and stomach, settling there like this was the first time. She had been kissed before, had made out in clubs and in her home, but never like this. It had never felt like this, and she didn't want to believe that romance novels could be right about anything, she didn't want to feel like nothing could be better than this moment.
They made out in a fashion that she usually reserved for whenever she was in private, and not when she was still in her place of work. Their bodies pressed against each other, Tina could feel the heat of his skin against hers. She had almost forgotten where they were, but as soon as she realized that anybody could walk into the room at any moment, she pulled away, placing two fingers on her lips, and giving Hot Husband a searching look.
“Do you want to take this somewhere else?” She didn't know what made her ask, didn't want to think that anything could break the spell that she seemed to be under. It was startling to find someone who affected her the way Hot Husband did, and she didn't want their encounter to end, or for him to realize that he didn't want to be doing this with her – that he wanted to go back to his wife. Pregnant wife.
