Blurred Lines

by Naughty Aphrodite

  He headed towards her, however, only when his phone began to vibrate in his hand, did she realize that he was around. He picked it up just as she turned around to meet his gaze.

  “Caleb Pace,” he said without taking his eyes from her. He could not remember the last time he had felt this way- warm and hopeful. It was such a tiny sliver, but as he watched her place a small batch of pastry into the oven, he realized that her mere presence intoxicated him to such excitement.

  “We have a burn victim!” the resident said. “We have been trying to reach you all night, where did you go?”

  “Something came up,” was all the explanation he gave, as he watched her wash her hands under the running faucet. She was dressed in the pair of shorts and shirt that he had changed her into the previous night, and as she cleaned her hands and then pulled her hair into a ponytail, he could not believe how in the space of just a few hours, this place that had been nothing more than a house to him, had begun to feel like a home.

  “The burn victim,” he said into the phone, “speak up.”

  “He was just brought here with third-degree burns, what do I do?”

  “Third degree?”

  “Yes!”

  “First of all calm the hell down. Secure his airway first and begin intubation.”

  “The trachea is already swollen,” the resident reported a few moments later.

  “Then perform a cricothyroidotomy. When you’re done, set up IV lines with 2 liters of warm saline hydration. Then immediately start to dress the burn. Tell the Head Nurse to immediately contact the burn center to get them out of there. Make sure you take note of his blood circulation as you work. If burn contracture begins immediately perform an escharotomy.”

  He kept giving out instructions as he guided the resident until she came over to the table with plates each filled with some biscuits and eggs. She flashed a smile at him as she sat down and for a second, it cost him his train of thought. Only when the resident began to bark into his receiver did he recover himself. He rounded up the instructions and drew the plate to himself.

  “Thank you for the meal,” he said to her, and after a few moments, she responded.

  “Thank you for helping me out last night. How did you find me?”

  “I searched for you,” he said and kept eating. Soon he was done and rose with his plate to head over to the sink. He subconsciously began to clear all the mess that she had made, and the reminder of her messy kitchen habits made his heart swell with emotion.

  “I’ll do it.” She stood up, but he sent her a cold glance. She immediately fell back into her seat before it occurred to the both of them that he had scared her.

  A strange silence ensued before he began his questioning. “You seem to like that drink,” he said, just as the hollow sound of the emptied bottle began to come through her straw.

  She shyly out it away. “You have so many of it, do you drink it every day?”

  “Not really, but I always ensure I have a supply in my fridge. It’s an old habit.”

  “Oh, you must really like it then.”

  “I don’t… but my fiancé did. Seeing it and consuming it reminds me of her. It’s a little token of her presence that I need to remain sane.”

  “Oh,” she said in a remorseful tone. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  He didn’t respond.

  Soon he was done and came over to take his seat. Just as he expected, she began to speak before he did, wringing her hands in anxiety.

  “I’ll leave in a few hours,” she said. “And I truly didn’t intend to run away without paying for my bills. I just wanted to secure my job and then return.”

  “But you lost it,” he said. At first, he saw the flash of suspicion in her eyes that he was mocking her, but when she met his gaze she saw that he was not.

  “You found out.”

  “I did.”

  Silence.

  “So what are you going to do now?” he asked.

  “I’ll get another job, I don’t have much savings but I’ll be able to scrimp together as much as possible. I’ll sign an agreement if I have to with the hospital, but I will pay them back… and you. Thank you for your kindness.”

  He stared at her, and when she finally found the courage to lift her head, he said. “I’ll recommend you for a job at the hospital.”

  “What?”

  “The pay there is decent and much better than whatever you may make working anywhere else in this town.”

  A few moments passed yet again, and then he rose to his feet. “Take your time to consider it,” he said. “I have to return now.”

  “What could I possibly work as?” she asked. “I have no medical training.”

  “Leave that to me,” he said and walked out of the house. It was only when he’d entered his car that it occurred to him that she might run away again. He tried to dig deep into his memory of his understanding of her personality, but when he couldn’t find any assurance, he sighed deeply and hoped for the best.

  Chapter 9

  Joan took the rest of the day to make her decision. But few hours after Caleb left, the symptoms of a fever began to plague her. She found some medicine for it in his cabinet and went to sleep. When she awoke, a fear gripped her heart at the decision that she knew she was going to make.

  “It’ll be for just a little while,” she told herself and placed the call to the hospital to speak to Caleb.

  “Do you want me to come over now?” she asked after she had relayed her choice to him.

  “No need,” he said. “I’m already home.”

  She jumped up from the bed and confused at what to do, she just went to stand awkwardly by the kitchen table as he came in. She hurried to take a bag of groceries from him and then went to place it on the counter, rummaging through the bag to see what he’d bought. It was all the essentials and some things that she particularly liked but she didn’t say a word.

  “I forgot to remind you to restock,” she said and began to arrange the produce in the empty fridge. “You had very little food left.”

  “Hm,” was his response, and she watched as he went over to the sink to wash his hands.

  “What do you want to eat?” she asked him, and he glanced at her.

  “What do you want to eat? I’ll order in.”

  “Uh, no need. I can just cook something. I…”

  “Joan,” he called and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Do you not realize that you’re still a patient?”

  She shut her mouth then and listened as he placed the call. She told him what she wanted when he asked and soon they were sat at the table, eating in silence.

  “About the job,” she began.

  “What about it?”

  “Can I ask of what it will entail? I can clean the wards, or help out the nurses.”

  He was silent for a while before he spoke. “You’ll work as a resident doctor,” he said, and her fork clattered from her hand and onto the plate. He looked up at the clash of steel against ceramic.

  “A resident doctor? Are you joking?”

  He shook his head. “We need more doctors,” he said.

  “But I’m not a doctor.”

  “I’m sure you are,” he said, and she stared at him.

  “Do you accept?”

  “Of course I do not! Are you setting me up to kill someone?”

  “Okay then,” he said.

  “What do you mean by okay?”

  “You have to figure out some other way to pay for your bill as that is the only job available to you.”

  She was astounded. “What kind of hospital do you run? How can someone be put in such a position without proof of capability?”

  He had the audacity to smile, as though he had just recalled a private joke in his head. “That’s one of the perks of working in such a small hospital,” he said, the bureaucracy rampant in bigger ones are non-existent here. Did you take any medicine today?”

&n
bsp; “Yes, I did,” she answered absentmindedly. “Are you serious about this or are you just toying with me?”

  He ignored her question, but she was too distracted to notice. “Which ones did you take?” he asked.

  She informed him, but then lifted her gaze to his when she saw that he had suddenly gone quiet. “How did you know to take those drugs?” he asked. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came to her.

  “I guess I just know,” she eventually responded. “My mother used to be a nurse.”

  “That’s a lie,” he said.

  “Why would I lie to you?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “Yet.”

  “I do not accept your offer,” she said.

  “Then be prepared to pay every dime you owe.”

  Joan felt tears fill her eyes, but she lowered her head to hide them from view. “You’ll be given a supervisor for a few weeks,” he said. “And if by then your expertise is proven, you can stay on for as long as you like. And if not, I’ll let you go.

  She perked up at the clause. “You’ll let me go?”

  “Was that all you heard?” he sounded amused.

  “Will you let me go if I’m not up to standard?”

  “I will,” he said and she brought out her hand for a handshake agreement. “I’ll do as you say.”

  Chapter 10

  From his peripheral vision, Caleb watched as Joan adjusted and readjusted the collars of her white coat.

  It had been three full weeks since her surgery, and he was quite confident of her physical state, however, she seemed so nervous and it worried him that perhaps he was making a mistake. Regardless, he refused to change his mind.

  When they arrived at the ER, he called together all the present nurses and residents. She stood behind him just as he was about to begin speaking, but when he noticed it, he stepped to the side and gave her a stern look. She raised her head then and plastered a smile on her face for the world.

  “This is Doctor Joan Kim,” he said, and looks of astonishment reverberated throughout the room.

  He stated Aisha’s medical qualifications, right from the schools she attended to the experience she had gained over the years. When he was done, the whole room had their eyes on her but Joan didn’t even notice. She had widened her gaze on him. He turned around to leave and she went after him.

  “Dr. Pace, Dr. Pace!”

  He didn’t stop, so she grabbed his arm and jerked him around. Caleb gazed calmly down at his wrinkled coat and reached out to straighten it before turning his gaze to her.

  “What is the matter?”

  “How could you introduce me that way?” she asked. “Are you trying to turn me into a fraud?”

  He stared into her eyes, his heart aching so much for both himself and her, but none of this he could show. What was the truth? Was she truly pretending or had she really forgotten it all? Was he even doing the right thing by forcing all of this on her? What was he to do?

  Without a thought, he lifted his hands to her face but at his touch, she flinched and took a step back.

  “Where is the supervisor you promised me?”

  “He’ll be watching you,” was all he said.

  Her voice went up a notch. “When do I meet him?”

  Caleb opened his mouth to respond, but then sirens and screech of an ambulance drew their attention towards the entrance doors. Three nurses came running out of the ER to meet the ambulance, and soon a gurney was rolling in a patient.

  “Dr. Caleb,” the Head Nurse hurried up to him. “The patient has a hemorrhage from a ruptured spleen.”

  “His vitals?” he asked.

  “Blood pressure is 70/40, and heart rate is 140.”

  He turned his gaze to Joan. “Congratulations Dr. Graves, you’ve just received your first patient.”

  “What?”

  Caleb turned around and began to walk away. “Dr. Pace!”

  He could hear the despair in her voice, but he refused to turn back. It was only after he heard her footsteps run into the ER that he turned around and saw the Head Nurse watching him.

  He spoke to her with his eyes and she nodded, before hurrying into the ER.

  Call me the instant she is unable to handle it.

  Chapter 11

  Joan headed over to the man with an ultrasound machine at hand, and almost collapsed upon his examination. He truly had a fatal hemorrhage from a ruptured spleen. Cursing Dr. Pace and everything he was in her mind, she tried her best to remain calm and called over one of the residents.

  “You need to drain out the blood in his abdomen,” she said to him. “Can you handle that?”

  “I can,”

  “Alright, I’m going to focus on doing a ligation to stop the hemorrhaging. I need to find the tear or else he’ll bleed to death in five minutes.”

  “Shouldn’t we move him to the OR first? It’s a very bad call to open his abdomen here, it’s not a sterile environment.”

  “Let’s move him to the Hybrid Room then, he won’t make it if we have to go all the way to the OR.”

  “His vitals are dropping!” the nurse by her side said, and Joan stopped in her tracks. She fisted her hands in despair and said with a shaky voice. “Somebody please get me Doctor Pace, I can’t do this alone.”

  A nurse ran off to do as she’d asked while she stared at the neck brace around the patient’s neck confused as to what to do.

  “Dr. Graves!” the Head Nurse called and she snapped back into action.

  “Um... uh,” she took the stethoscope from around her neck and listened to his breathing. “His lung sound is weakening. Give him uh… 10 liters of oxygen and uh… get- get an IV and hydrate him.”

  “Got it!”

  “BP is at 60/40, heart rate is 128,” the announcement came.

  “Hook him up to a ventilator, I need to perform an intubation. Get me a bowl of water to wash my hands,” she called out as she worked. “And some gloves, and a surgical robe.”

  “Are you really going to cut open his abdomen here?” the resident asked, horrified, and she snapped at him. “What else do you want me to do? Let him die by moving him around? Stop talking to me! Have you gotten the blood out?”

  Confused at the order not to talk to her, he answered either way. “I just inserted the trocar,” he said.

  After she was done, she hurried away to wash her hands and began to put on her gloves. “Put the ventilator on CMV mode, and get a propofol continuous infusion in him,” she said as she struggled with her gloves. “Also some rocuronium.”

  When she was done, she came back over and asked. “How much blood have you extracted?”

  “About 400 cc’s, and more is still coming out.”

  “Scalpel,” she said, and the moment she received the blade, she held it over his lower abdomen. Her hands were shaking. Someone came over then to wipe the sweat from her brow, just as the tears gathered in her eyes. It had been four years since she had even come close to such a situation, how could he thrust something so complicated upon her? She was going to kill this man!

  “Where the hell is Caleb?” she yelled, and the nurse came running back. “Dr. Pace is on an important phone call,” she said. “He said to tell you that he will be here when he is done.

  Joan could not believe her ears.

  “Bastard!” she cursed and tried her best to focus. She took deep breaths and then made the slit down his lower abdomen.

  “Suction,” she called and was handed over the gauze. She cut a wider opening and then praying to God, slipped her hands inside and began to search for the torn blood vessel.”

  “His vitals are dropping,” announced the nurse in panic and Joan wanted to slap her silly.

  Eventually, she found the vessel, and let out a cry of relief.

  “Hemostat,” she called, barely able to speak, and it was handed over to her. She clamped it and then tilted the handle to a nurse. “Hold onto this,” she said. />