“How are you? Long time no see?” If I wasn’t attached to machines I’d have smacked my head. That was what I came up with after years of silence? The Stan of old would have rolled his eyes.
“I’m fine, but I have other patients.” He beckoned to someone. “You’ll be moved to a room shortly.”
He strode away. I tried to sit up, but a pair of hands pushed me back.
We’d found Stan, but now I had to figure out how to keep him in my life.
4
STAN
In the time since I first started studying nursing until now, I'd seen it all. I'd seen the happiest moments when children were brought into this world only minutes after walking through the door, and I'd witnessed miracles where people who, on paper, should have been long gone made full recoveries. I'd also seen the very worst of things, from a person who stood in front of a train wanting it to be their last day and instead found themselves trapped in their body for the rest of their days, to watching a parent be told their child wouldn't be coming home with them, and everything in between.
But none of that prepared me for the ambulance that came in tonight. The one I watched Axel being wheeled out of. I’d been so pissed about missing his game and having to work, but from the second I scented it was him, I knew fate had me here for a reason. Axel needed me.
It was the first time in my career when I wondered if I'd be able to do my job… to give this patient what he needed. My emotions were running so high and I second-guessed every move. Indecision could easily turn deadly in my department.
Axel was bad off. Really, really bad. As a shifter, the healing process would normally have begun already. But he’d been completely unconscious when he was wheeled in, and according to the report, that was how they found him at the scene. It was my guess that his wolf was probably unconscious as well, and without him, the healing was no different than that of a human.
Now that he was in a hospital, he wouldn't be able to shift, only exacerbating the issue. Having a random wolf end up in a hospital room was not exactly the way to make humans unaware of our existence.
If it weren't for my fox pushing me on, telling me to protect and help Axel, my own little furry cheerleader of one, I didn't think I’d have snapped out of my initial shock. The team was amazing. As tired as everybody was from such a shit-tastic day, you wouldn't have known it from the way they came together to help him. They had no idea he was Axel… my Axel. They didn't even know he was Axel, the hockey star. His clothes were in shreds, and as far as I knew, they hadn't retrieved his wallet yet. I wouldn't be surprised if the police came in with it later after taking care of the scene.
There was nothing more beautiful in this world than the sound of his voice when he woke up. He had no idea how bad off he was, with the drugs running high in him. I told him the list of ailments, but to him, they probably sounded like no big deal… a dislocated shoulder that had been easily put back in place, broken ribs, road rash, busted wrist were no big deal because normally that would be true. But that concussion… that concussion was the real issue because it was what was keeping his wolf down. At least, that was my theory. All the doctors on duty tonight were human, so I couldn't ask them.
Leaving him had been hard. I wanted to stay there and make sure he was okay, but I used patients as the excuse to get out because I wasn't sure I could keep my happy, positive face on while seeing him like that. And there were patients, plenty of them, it hadn't been a lie, but that didn't make it quite the truth either.
Shift over, I wandered back to the room where he was now staying. He'd finally been moved, and I had his wallet in my hand. The police had dropped it off just like I hoped they would. It was an excuse to go see him because he wasn’t in my department and I was no longer working.
As I reached his door, I could hear that he wasn't alone. He said he had nobody, and at first, jealousy slammed into me. Who was this person with Axel? That wasn't fair, though. We hadn't seen each other in years. Of course he had other people in his life. But I quickly pieced together that it was his coach, and his coach was pissed.
"You can't leave! Don't make me call the nurses again." The man wasn’t being soft and gentle on Axel.
"Everything hurts. I'm ready to go."
"Like hell you are! You're not going anywhere. If you don't heal right, you won't be of any use to the team come playoffs."
Yeah, because that was the important thing in this mess. It was all I could do not to go in there and get raging on him. My fox was all for that.
"Just hire a nurse or go to a rehab if you want out so badly. You don’t want our human staff holding you back.” Whoever it was was a shifter, so that was good. It would’ve been better if he was less loud. At least I was the only one who might hear.
My fox pushed at me, and I listened, going inside. “I came with your wallet. The police found it. I think everything’s in here, sir.”
Why was I calling him sir? He was Axel.
“Never mind, Coach, I'll just stay here. I'm not ready to go." Axel’s eyes were on me the entire time. “Coach is pushing me to go to rehab so I can play again.”
“Why don't you just stay with me?" I hadn’t planned on offering, but now that I had, it sounded like the best option possible for him.
Not only was I a nurse and had the next few days off to help him, but my small house had woods nearby that he could shift in. Healing had already begun, so it wouldn’t work as well as if he had been forced to shift when the accident first happened, but it would speed things along.
His coach's jaw dropped. "He can't just stay with a random nurse! What are you, some fan selling things to the paparazzi?"
Goddess, help me. I was about to lose it on this alpha, and it would not be pretty.
"Listen," I said, "I don't know who you are,” which was a lie, I did. I’d been following Axel’s career with a microscope, and as soon as I saw him, I recognized him, “but I’ve just finished working nearly two shifts, picking up the pieces from all the messes that went through the ER today, and haven’t eaten in fifteen hours. I’m exhausted and, frankly, in a bad mood. Having you here accusing me of trying to fanboy to make paparazzi money… Are you freaking kidding me? You can scent me enough to know that I’m more suited for this position than most in my field.”
The coach started to argue back, but Axel ended it. "Coach. This is Stan. My Stan."
