True to her unwillingly given word, Dr. Morales had indeed caused no trouble with any transfers from the ER to the ICU. Things had gone back to running smoothly. Hayley was relieved by that, because she had been worried she’d antagonized the doctor a little too hard during the whole scene, and that it would cause problems for patients again. But seemingly, everything was fine. Except that even when Hayley walked over to the ER for anything, Deborah was either not in sight at all or she slipped away as soon as they made eye contact.
Looking at Deborah now, standing frozen in the middle of the cafeteria, halfway to their table with a tray of pasta and garlic bread in her hand, Hayley could see that the woman would flee the room if she could.
She found Deborah Morales’ reactions to her to be interesting. She could run Hayley over in a corridor and be a breezy bitch and a half about it, but if Hayley stood up to her in any way, she turned as red as the tomato sauce on their pasta and seemed to lose the ability to speak. Which seemed very out of character for a reckless, cocky departmental chief with a superiority complex. And yet…
Deborah visibly shook herself and came over to the table. “Doctor Bellows. Nurse Milton.”
“Hi, Chief.” Paige grinned and glanced between Hayley and her boss. “Having a good day?”
“Good enough.” For just a second, she looked like she’d actually sit down with them. Hayley held her breath.
Nope. With a curt nod to Hayley, and not one more word, Oakridge’s chief of Emergency Medicine turned on her heel and walked out of the cafeteria, tray and all. Hayley chuckled. “I don’t think we’re supposed to take the cafeteria dishes with us, are we?”
Paige propped her chin on her hand. “I’ve known Deb for a long time, Hayley. What the hell did you say to her the other day? You got deep under her skin.”
Hayley looked down at her plate and fiddled with her pasta in a show of faux modesty. “Aw, shucks. I didn’t donothin’. Just told her to check her ego at the door when it came to patients.”
“Tame, for you. The results are undeniable, though.” Paige shook her head. “Crazy stuff. Are yousurethe two of you aren’t secretly flirting?”
“Jesus. Did they spike your pasta with magic mushrooms?” Hayley felt herself getting wound up at the very idea of flirting with Deborah Morales.
But before she could say anything more, the pager at her hip went off, and she grabbed it.911,it said, and that wasallit said. Not good.
“Paige, I have to get back to the unit, can you?—”
“No problem, I’ll take care of your tray, go on, go.” Paige waved her off.
Hayley booked it back to the ICU, where the previously quiet unit was now a frantic pod of activity. Doctors and nurses were gathered around one room at the end of the corridor.
Ernest’s room. Hayley’s blood ran cold and her feet felt nailed to the floor. It took what felt like an eternity for her to get moving and head towards the room she’d been in less than an hour ago. She’d left a cheerful lecher there in his bed, and now she was walking into a maelstrom of chaos centered around a body in a bed, a body too still, too pale, too unmoving while doctors and nurses worked on it. A body not responding at all to the alarms blaring out of the machines around it.
She stood in the doorway, cold with shock, able only to watch as the ICU team fought heroically… and couldn’t save Ernest.
Mirenda approached her cautiously. “Boss lady?”
“He was fine,” Hayley whispered. “He was supposed to go up to Cardiac…”
“Hayley, you know his health was touch and go all month,” Mirenda said gently, taking Hayley’s cold hand in her warm one. “You know people in our care, anything can happen, even if they’re fully stabilized.”
She couldn’t think. There was a roaring in her ears. Tearing her hand out of Mirenda’s, Hayley turned and raced out of the ICU.
Wanting to be far from where Ernest’s body was lying lifeless in an ICU bed, Hayley ran towards the other end of the hospital, towards the Dermatology wing. It was a newer part of thehospital, renovated just a couple of years ago, and the staff lounge there had features others didn’t, like individual pods for “reflection,” whatever that meant. For Hayley, it meant there was a guaranteed place she could go and enjoy relative privacy while she dissolved into tears.
It seemed most of Dermatology was still down in the cafeteria for spaghetti day. The lounge was deserted. Hayley fled for the reflection pod at the very back of the lounge and reached for the handle.
Then she realized she was about to open up an occupied pod. Through the glass door, her eyes locked with those of Deborah Morales, holding a forkful of spaghetti over her plate on the tiny pod table, the both of them absolutely frozen in place.
Hayley moved first, backing up and running for another pod. She flung the door open and hurled herself inside, sitting down and immediately crumpling over the table. Arms pillowing her head, she burst into sobs that racked her entire body.
It wasn’t often that a patient's death got to her like this. But she’d spent so much time with Ernest over the last month, since he’d alienated all the other female nurses and wasn’t very cooperative with the male ones. Despite his partial pervy insistence, he’d been a sweet man. He’d enjoyed fishing on the weekends, was a big Chargers fan, had proven to be surprisingly well-read. He’d been a widower for five years and missed his wife terribly. He liked applesauce and disliked scrambled eggs.
An hour ago, he had been a whole, happy person, and now he was simplygone. Hayley thought she’d never stop crying.
There was a tentative tap on the glass door. Startled, Hayley lifted her head and stared through the door with her swollen eyes. Deborah.
“Can I… Are you okay?” Deborah asked, looking as though she wanted to be anywhere but there. Hayley knew the feeling.
Reaching over, she pushed open the door. “Of course I’m not okay. What kind of a question is that?”
