by Cara Malone
“Veronica,” she said, waving her down.
Veronica had been working in the ER for a long time and she was one of the most skilled nurses on staff, in Krys’s estimation. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop her from widening her eyes in horror as she saw Krys and Darcy’s blood-spattered faces.
“What the hell-” she said, coming over to them.
“Stay back,” Krys ordered. “Can you get us four paper masks and some sterile wipes? And an empty room would be great.”
Veronica moved quickly, going over to one of the supply carts that was beside each bed in the ER and retrieving the things Krys asked for. She passed them out to Krys, Darcy, Mary and the boy’s mother while Krys filled her in.
“The boy came into the free clinic with a high fever, uncontrollable coughing, and hemoptysis.”
“I can see that,” Veronica said. “You look like you just walked off the set of a horror film.”
Krys told Darcy and Mary to put on their masks, then did the same and stepped closer to Veronica so she could lower her voice. There was no sense in inciting a panic. “I suspect tuberculosis. He fits the demographic and his symptoms match, too. Darcy and I were exposed to bodily fluids, his mother may be infected, and the clinic receptionist, Mary, was in the room, too.”
“Okay,” Veronica said, spurred into action. “I’ll tell Dr. Whitmore, then get you to a private room.”
“Get someone to comfort the mother, too,” Krys said. Veronica glanced at the woman, still standing wide-eyed in the middle of the room and holding her paper mask limply at her side.
Veronica nodded and said, “I’ll handle it.”
She went to the boy’s bedside to convey Krys’s message to Dr. Whitmore, who immediately moved the boy to a private room at the perimeter of the emergency department. The boy’s mother followed them into the room, and then Krys watched Veronica go to the nurses’ station to call in the exposure.
Krys knew she’d be the right one to handle this situation with calmness and efficiency. Exposure to an infectious, highly contagious disease like tuberculosis was no small matter and if it wasn’t handled right, the other ER patients could be at risk, too. If Krys couldn’t do it herself, Veronica was the next best woman for the job.
“What’s going on?” Mary asked while they waited, her voice muffled through the mask. She was shaking slightly and looked thoroughly freaked out – she was young and she’d never had to deal with anything like this before.
“It’s going to be okay,” Krys tried to reassure her. “They’re working on the boy right now, and then they’ll come to take a look at us.”
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Darcy asked.
“They’ll want to keep him contained as much as possible while they treat him, but I think he’ll pull through,” Krys said. “Kids are resilient and Lakeside is a good hospital.”
“What about us?” Mary asked. “What’s going to happen?”
“The chances of us actually catching TB, if that’s what it is, are pretty slim,” Krys said. “Even less likely for you since you didn’t come into direct contact with bodily fluids.”
She’d never done any of this before, so all she could tell them was what she remembered from her disaster preparedness training and her textbooks.
“They’ll administer TB tests for all three of us,” she said. “It’ll most likely be a blood test, which will tell us in a couple of days whether we’ve been infected. Even if it comes back positive, there’s a good chance we’ll have latent TB rather than the active kind, which is what it looks like the boy has. We’ll all need to take time off work until the results come back and limit our exposure to other people until we know whether we’re infectious.”
“And if we are?” Mary asked.
“Then we get treatment,” Krys said. “Simple as that.”
She had Mary mostly calmed down by the time Veronica came back and escorted the three of them to an empty patient room at the end of the row. She closed the door behind them, saying that she’d send Dr. Whitmore to see them as soon as he was finished with the boy, and then all that was left to do was wait.
Krys tried to be calm. It wasn’t in her nature to sit around and do nothing, though, and there was one thing she could do to help.
“Mary, you stay on the other side of the room, okay?” she said. “There’s no need for you to be exposed any more than you have to. Darcy, sit down on this bed. I’m going to clean you up.”
“I can go wash my face in the sink,” Darcy offered, but Krys gave her a stern look.
“And spread infectious bodily fluids to your mucous membranes? Great idea,” she said. She gestured to the bed closest to the door. “Sit down.”
Darcy did as she was asked, removing the paper mask. Krys opened a packet of the sterile wipes that Veronica had given her and carefully cleaned the blood from Darcy’s face, avoiding her nose, mouth and eyes. Darcy kept her eyes fixed on Krys while she worked and Krys could feel her heart hammering in her chest with every swipe of the cotton pad. She wondered if Darcy could hear it.
She hadn’t expected to get this close to Darcy, especially not after she turned her down cold in the courtyard tonight. What was that and why would Darcy even want to date a workaholic with no other discernible interests?
Krys felt the back of her neck growing hot when she remembered Mary standing behind them and she finally broke Darcy’s steely gaze. She cleared her throat and said, “There – all clean. I’ll ask for a couple fresh masks when Veronica gets back.”
She went into the small en suite bathroom and used the mirror to clean her own face, and by the time she got back into the room, Dr. Whitmore had arrived with Veronica in tow.
“How’s everyone doing in here?” he asked as he slid the door shut behind him. He and Veronica were both wearing masks and paper gowns as an extra layer of protection.
“Okay,” Mary said, her voice still a little bit shaky.
“How’s the kid?” Krys asked.
“He’s stabilized now,” Dr. Whitmore said. “We’re still working on getting his temperature down. We did a TB test on him and his mother, but we won’t know anything for at least twenty-four hours so we’re going to perform the test on the three of you as well and take precautions.”
“See?” Krys said to Mary. “I told you it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
“Not at all,” Veronica confirmed warmly. Dr. Whitmore was all business in his interactions with patients, but Veronica was one of the good ones, taking time to reassure people instead of just whipping from one bedside to the next. She explained, “It’s just a little blood test, and you should remain in your home until the results come back to prevent the spread of infection.”
Dr. Whitmore produced a handful of test kits from the deep pocket of his white coat and Krys volunteered to go first. Then Darcy had her blood drawn, and finally it was Mary’s turn. Dr. Whitmore gave them instructions to avoid contact with others as much as possible – even family members – and said that they could go home.
He left the room and Mary hopped down from the hospital bed, saying, “I’m exhausted. I might just sleep until they call me with my results.”
“Don’t forget to call off work and your next clinic shift,” Krys said. “You can’t go back until you get the all-clear. Actually, I might just stay here as long as we can spare the private room.”
“You want to stay in the hospital until you get your lab results back?” Veronica asked, looking cynical. “Why?”
“I practically live here,” Krys said. “As soon as I’m cleared for work, I’ll be right back anyway, and if I’m infected, I’ll need to be here for treatment.”
“You’ll be more comfortable at home,” Veronica suggested. “You’d have access to TV, your own bed, and snacks that don’t come from the hospital cafeteria.”
Krys shrugged and said, “I don’t watch TV and if I stay here, maybe I can get caught up on my charting and check out some of the medical journals that I never have time to
read.”
Veronica rolled her eyes – she was used to this sort of thing from Krys and she knew how futile it would be to argue, so she said, “Suit yourself. You can stay as long as we don’t need the bed.”
“Thank you,” Krys said. “I appreciate it.”
“On the off chance that you actually have TB, you have to actually rest though,” Veronica said. “Promise me.”
“Sure,” Krys said, and again, they both knew she had no plans of following through on that promise. It sounded good, though.
“What about my dad?” Darcy asked. “And my dog… if I go home, am I going to risk spreading the disease to them?”
“It’s unlikely, but possible,” Veronica said. “If you end up testing positive, we’ll want to take their blood as well, just as a precaution.”
Darcy looked at the second bed in the private room and asked, “Could I just stay here, too?”
Krys’s heart skipped a beat at the idea of being stuck in a room with a woman who asked her out no more than an hour ago. It would be at least twenty-four hours before they got the results of their bloodwork back, and the prospect of spending it in isolation with Darcy was mortifying.
She wished she could convey that telepathically to Veronica – get her a room of her own – but Veronica just smiled and said, “We’ve got two beds in here. I don’t see why not. I’ll get you two some scrubs from the locker room so you can take off those bloody clothes.”
Krys looked down at the front of her shirt. She hadn’t even noticed the spatters there in all the chaos. Veronica left and Krys said goodbye to Mary, who was still wearing her paper mask just to be safe. Then it was just her and Darcy alone in the room.
“Was that okay?” Darcy asked. “Asking to stay with you?”
“Yeah,” Krys said, trying to sound casual and not looking directly at Darcy. Into the depth of her eyes.
She told herself to stop that. What good would it do to dwell on an unexplored desire so soon after a rejection? Maybe the whole experience would serve as a warning to Darcy - when you ask Krys Stevens out on a date, you’re inviting all types of chaos into your life, up to and including TB scares.
“Are you sure?” Darcy persisted. “I just thought you had a good point about needing to be here if the test comes back positive, and my dad’s coming home tomorrow – it seems reckless to risk infecting him and then letting him go out on a transcontinental flight next week.”
“Yeah, it’s totally fine,” Krys said, managing more confidence than she felt. “What about your dog, though?”
“I’ll call my brother to go over there in the morning and feed him,” Darcy said. “Harvey’s been getting a little clingy, anyway. A little time apart will do us some good.”
Krys smiled, and then Veronica returned with a couple sets of scrubs for them. They took turns changing in the bathroom, and then Darcy flopped down on the bed nearest the door and put her hands behind her head.
“Not bad,” she said. “The VA hospital had better pillows, though. These ones are a little too reminiscent of pancakes for my taste.”
“Yeah, this isn’t my first rodeo, either,” Krys said. “I mean, I’ve never stayed in the hospital but I’ve slept here plenty of times. Here, let me show you how to make the best of the bed.”
She came over to Darcy’s bedside and showed her the controls, pushing a few buttons to move the bed so that it was essentially a recliner, with the back and legs elevated for optimal comfort. Darcy looked at Krys with far more interest than the controls and Krys stuttered her next words as a result.
“Umm, or however you want to configure it,” she said, pushing the remote into Darcy’s hand. “You can play around with it.”
“Thanks,” Darcy said, smiling and flashing her perfectly white teeth.
Krys went over to her own bed and sat down. Outside the room, there were monitors beeping and voices calling to each other across the emergency department – all the sounds that felt like home to Krys. In this private room, though, the silence was palpable.
“Hey,” she said. “About earlier-”
“You don’t have to explain anything,” Darcy said.
“I want to, though,” Krys said. She had to clear the air now if she was going to get through the next twenty-four hours in this room. “I don’t really have a lot of dating experience and I don’t want to screw up – especially if we’re going to be working together at the clinic.”
“Well, thanks for sparing me,” Darcy said.
“I also don’t have a whole lot of time for dating,” Krys soldiered on. “Hell, I wouldn’t even have time for a social life if my friends didn’t force me to hang out with them outside the hospital from time to time.”
“But you have a good time when they do?” Darcy asked.
“Yeah,” Krys said.
“Good to know,” Darcy said.
Krys frowned. That wasn’t exactly how she’d wanted the conversation to go, but since she was essentially salting the wound of her earlier rejection, there wasn’t much else to say. She picked up the television remote from the console between them and said, “Do you want to watch your precious Dancing with the Stars?”
“Nah,” Darcy said, cracking and giving Krys a smile. “It’s not on this late at night. I think I’m just going to get some sleep.”
“Okay,” Krys said. “Goodnight.”
“Night, Krys.”
8
Darcy
The next morning, Darcy opened her eyes with a jolt.
She didn’t recognize the room she was in and for a few seconds, her body ratcheted into a panicked state as she tried to figure out what was going on. Then she glanced over at Krys in the hospital bed beside her and remembered what had happened the night before.
Krys was sitting up in bed with a tablet in her lap and about a dozen medical journals spread out in front of her. There was a picked-over breakfast tray on the table at the foot of her bed and she was sipping from a pink plastic coffee cup.
“Good morning,” Darcy said a little groggily as she oriented herself in the room.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Krys said, looking at Darcy with amusement. “Do you always sleep this late?”
Darcy looked at the clock on the wall. It was past nine a.m. and the sun was streaming through the window behind Krys, enveloping her in a warm light. She looked more beautiful than usual, and it might have had a little something to do with the idea of seeing her first thing in the morning, like a lover in Darcy’s bed.
She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, saying, “Never.”
“Must have been all that excitement,” Krys said wryly. “You were sawing logs.”
“Sorry. Did I keep you up?”
“No, it was kind of cute,” Krys said. Then she averted her eyes back to the medical journals around her and added, “Your breakfast’s probably cold. You could page one of the nurses to heat it up if you want.”
“No, I don’t mind cold food,” Darcy said, finding her tray table at the foot of her bed and pulling it closer. She took the lid off her breakfast plate – the same pink plastic as Krys’s coffee cup – and found a pile of scrambled eggs, a couple links of sausage, and a pair of hash brown patties. There was a small bottle of orange juice and a cup of coffee as well. “This is impressive.”
“Better than the VA?” Krys teased.
“Maybe,” Darcy said. “Let me taste it first.”
Darcy ate, realizing as soon as the first bite of eggs touched her tongue that she was ravenous. While she cleaned her plate, Krys immersed herself in her journals and then a nurse that Darcy hadn’t met before came into the room.
He was wearing full protective gear – a paper gown and mask like the nurse and doctor had worn last night. Krys was friendly with him, joking about how she’d love to get the all-clear to go back to work, and then he told them what he knew.
“The boy is doing well this morning,” he said. “I can’t give you any more details right now, but he’ll survive.
We put a rush on the bloodwork and are expecting to get it back this evening, so if all goes well you can sleep in your own beds tonight and stop taking up ours.”
This last bit was a tease directed at Krys.
“Hey, I’m working here,” Krys said, gesturing to the journals and tablet spread over her bed.
The nurse laughed and rolled his eyes, and then left to go on his mid-morning rounds. Krys turned her attention back to her journals, but Darcy had nothing to do and no desire to watch whatever mind-numbing shows were on the television at this hour, so after she called her brother to ask him to look out for Harvey, she decided to try to steal Krys’s attention away from her work.
“So,” she said. “There’s nobody back home wondering where you are?”
“Nope,” Krys said. “I live alone.”
“Do you like it that way?” Darcy asked. “Because I’m going absolutely out of my mind being all by myself every time my dad’s out of town. I’m too used to living with a hundred other people in my barracks.”
“I’m hardly ever there,” Krys said. “But I’m a terrible housekeeper so I guess I’d rather live alone than catch hell from a roommate.”
Darcy nodded. She didn’t agree, but at least she was beginning to understand Krys.
“What are you doing?” Darcy asked, nodding at the journals.
“Just catching up,” Krys said. “There are medical advancements made every day that can help save lives, and I’m so busy dealing with real patients in the ER that I hardly have time to learn about them. I figured now would be a good time to do some reading.”
“Makes sense,” Darcy said. She could hardly argue with that.
“I’m sorry,” Krys said. “I must be a terrible bedmate.”
Darcy smiled out of the corner of her mouth. There were a few choice quips she could make about that, but she decided against it. Krys seemed like the skittish type and she didn’t want to scare her off. They weren’t really stuck in this room, after all.