No matter how enthusiastically she takes on that task, guilt always follows.
She’s a sweet old dear and she loves those cats as much as I do, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling bad that she has to tend to them when I can’t make it home.
I quickly type in what I know about the drunken patient into the computer, sign it off, and then resume my loop of the trauma bay once more to see if anyone else is in desperate need of attention.
Halfway around, Nurse June catches my eye.
“You look dead,” she murmurs, looking me up and down. “You got much left in that tank?”
“As much as you need,” I reply. “Although I won’t mind if everyone stays off the roads for the next twelve hours.”
“You and me both.”
“What happened to the woman here?” I nudge the empty bed on my way past, noting a lack of a chart.
“She’s in surgery. They think her leg can be saved.”
“Good news.”
“Of which there is precious little. The cops want to speak to you as well.”
“About?”
“One of the victims is claiming a nurse was too rough with him and she says you were tending to him also. The cops just want your version of events.”
“Which patient?”
“Glass chest man.”
My brow lifts. “Everyone treated him with care.”
“I know. I think he’s just after somewhere to place his anger at the accident.”
“He isn’t placing it at the feet of my team. Where are the officers?”
Just as June turns to point through the doors leading deeper into the hospital, a crash of metal hits the floor and a man yells.
The drunkard from before surges up from his bed and shoves away the doctor trying to tend to his bleeding.
“Get away from me!” he yells. “Get the fuck away! What are you trying to do to me!”
He shoves at the doctor again.
I sprint forward, landing on one knee as I catch the doctor before he hits the floor and injures himself, then I’m on my feet and grabbing the drunkard’s arm.
“Sir, these people are trying to help you. Calm down!”
“Calm down?” He swings one hand wide, his hand curled into a fist. “You’re not sticking anything in me, ya hear? I don’t need it. I don’t even need to be here!”
“Sir, you’re injured and you need to be seen to before you lose too much blood. Please, return to your—” Another fist flies toward my face and I duck, narrowly avoiding it.
As he swings the next fist, I catch his forearm and follow his motion to twist his arm behind his back, trying to subdue him as he stumbles out onto the main floor.
“Get off’a me!” he yells.
His elbow flies backward just as I turn and it cracks into my jaw, sending me back against the bed as pain explodes through my face.
“Call security!” Pushing off the bed, I lunge after him as he throws a punch at the doctor who previously tried to help him.
