by Susan Harper
Felicity was moved to tears. She had never expected the unit to be named after her. She was just doing her part for the community and the hospital. This new unit held the latest in medical research and equipment. A small hospital didn’t always have the resources it needed to treat different cases. With this unit, the hospital would be able to help its tiniest patients have a great start in this world. Other hospitals boasted of units like this that were larger, but this hospital was small and the staff knew almost everyone who came through the doors. If someone had come through those doors a month ago, they might have had to be transported to a larger hospital farther away. Now they could be taken care of right here in town. Felicity was happy to make life somewhat easier for new parents needing this new wing.
A few cameras went off, and the small crowd clapped. Felicity felt her heart swell with pride to see her name on a plaque leading down into the hospital’s new NICU. A few reporters asked Dr. Morrison some questions, and he responded with short answers. There were a few refreshments set up by the hospital staff lining one side of the wall that Dr. Morrison pointed everyone toward. “Ms. Overton will be here to answer questions and to make a comment,” said Dr. Morrison. “But in the meantime, please enjoy some of the refreshments my staff has provided.”
The crowd dispersed, and Felicity stepped away from the podium and toward her friends who had huddled together. Before she reached them, she was stopped by a reporter who asked several questions about the Rose Youngling murder as well as about her involvement in the incredibly successful fundraising event. The reporter then, off the record, asked for Felicity’s card because her sister was looking for a wedding planner. Felicity thanked the woman profusely before at last being able to catch up to her friends.
Felicity was glad that so many people had turned out for the ceremony. The hospital needed all the support it could get, and the publicity from the opening of the NICU wing would help them draw attention to the hospital and its youngest patients. Felicity looked at her friends and smiled. It was good to see Autumn there. Felicity still had nightmares about walking in on Candice in Autumn’s room. Felicity shivered and smiled, glad to have everyone there. It seemed like yesterday that Autumn was in the ER fighting for her life. Candice was behind bars, and Autumn was back at work. Everything seemed to be coming together for her friends.
Jack, in the typical t-shirt and jeans he wore when he was not on patrol, smiled brightly at her. “Way to go, Felicity. You got your name permanently etched into a piece of Newnan.”
“I’m honored,” Felicity responded. “But I feel kind of bad. You and Jefferson and Veronica and Autumn did just as much as I did.”
“Oh, please,” Autumn moaned. “I almost got myself killed by being careless in the lab.”
“Yeah, but you saved me just a few hours after coming off of sedation. You were really impressive, Autumn,” Felicity insisted. She then elbowed Jefferson. “And Jefferson found the apple seeds in the tobacco.”
“Ha! You mean because of his clumsiness, you found the apple seeds in the tobacco. All he did was knock the woman’s purse off the table,” said Veronica.
“Shut up, let me at least pretend I was useful this time,” Jefferson quipped.
Monte nudged Dawn in the side. “I guess you and I were pretty useless, huh? We didn’t do a thing.”
“Do we ever?” Dawn asked and then laughed.
“So,” Veronica sang, drawing attention to herself as she was quite known to do. “I have a pass to the NICU, Felicity. Want to go check out what all your hard work has done?”
Felicity grinned. “I really would!”
“Okay, you guys, give us two gals a minute and we’ll meet you downstairs in the lobby. I say we all grab some lunch,” Veronica said and hooked her arm into Felicity’s. “Come on, superstar, let’s get you away from the paparazzi.”
Felicity laughed and followed Veronica toward the double doors that required a passcode to get through. They headed down the rest of Overton Hall and into the NICU. The area was essentially a large, open lobby with various little rooms around the lobby in a circular manner. “Hold on, we’ve got to scrub up,” Veronica said, pointing her toward a large sink. Veronica showed Felicity the proper way to scrub down in preparation for going into one of the baby’s rooms. After getting cleaned up, Felicity followed Veronica into one of the little rooms surrounding the lobby.
They had designed the rooms to suit the needs of the babies, their parents, and the staff. The rooms were big enough to hold the incubator with room to get to all of the sides quickly, if necessary. There was also a rocking chair in the corner so as the babies grew, they would be able to be held and rocked in a comfortable chair. All of the equipment was quieter so as not to disturb their sleep or worry their parents. There was even a cot in the corner so a parent could spend as much time as was possible with their newborn child. Overall, the room was made to look more like a nursery and less like a hospital room. With this new incubator, more parents could stay nearby. Before this, they would have had to have their babies transported to a larger hospital farther away. The doctors hoped the location would provide more of an opportunity for parents to be with their newborns as much as possible.
Her stomach fluttered with excitement to see the large incubator housing a little baby inside. “This is Julie,” Veronica said. “And I’ve got to nip her little toe to get a blood sample to the lab before I go to lunch. This is the new incubator they bought with the funds you helped to raise.” Veronica went right to work, and little Julie was quite a champ. She squealed only for a second from getting her foot pricked.
The nurse in the room cooed over Julie and reassured her. The nurse had on cute panda bear scrubs. Felicity noticed that all the nurses in the unit were wearing cute scrubs. They were pink with flowers, bears, trucks, and other cute designs. The walls were filled with rainbows and sunshine to brighten up the ward. The nurse smiled and Julie settled back to sleep.
“She’s so precious! I see why you love working in the NICU now,” said Felicity.
“I know, and you know the parents are always so worried too. It’s nice to be able to be there for people who are going through a premature birth with their babies. Julie here has been in this incubator for three days now, but her daddy got to hold her today for the first time.” Veronica left the little room with the blood sample, and Felicity followed close behind. Veronica sent the blood away to the NICU’s personal lab, and the two women began their walk back down Overton Hall.
They passed a room and Felicity looked in. It was a larger room with a quiet hush. It had cozy seats and a television quietly playing cartoons. There was a man and his son sitting, waiting to hear from a doctor. The man was anxious, but was playing one of the many games available with his son. The game seemed to provide a much needed distraction for both of them. There were magazines and books on a table. On the walls were pictures of the countryside and other calming scenes. In the corner was a machine dispensing coffee and hot chocolate. There were assorted wrapped snacks on a table beside it and a mini-fridge with water and different juices. This was the waiting room for the NICU. It was designed to help keep anxious parents calm while they awaited news about their newborns. Felicity thought of the gentleman in the emergency room on Halloween night, anxiously awaiting news about his wife. She imagined he might have still been pacing here, but at least he would have been closer to his child. She was glad that the hospital had considered the parents as well when designing this wing.
“So before we get back downstairs to the main lobby, I got something juicy I just have to share with someone before I explode!” Veronica exclaimed.
“You are just awful, you know that?” Felicity chastised. “You are such a gossip.”
She could only imagine what Veronica was going to tell her. Was there a new, cute doctor at the hospital? Was there a nurse with a scandal? It could be anything when it came to Veronica. She usually meant well, though, especially when it came to Felicity. Veronica had bee
n the gossip of the group for as long as Felicity could remember. Why would she change now? Felicity looked at Veronica and smiled, waiting for her to spill.
“I can’t help it. I love me a good story,” she said. “But even you are going to appreciate this one. Guess who I caught leaving the Senoia jewelry store yesterday?”
“Who?”
“Monte. I nabbed him just as he was leaving, and you know what he told me?” Veronica squealed.
Felicity grinned. It was hard not to find Veronica’s ungodly excitement amusing. “What’s that, Veronica?”
“He was ring shopping!” Veronica practically shook. “That’s right! Our little Monte was ring shopping for Dawn. He’s going to ask her to tie the knot.”
“Are you serious?” Felicity questioned. “Wow. That’s wonderful! It seems so fast, though. They just started dating six months ago.”
“About nine months, apparently. They kept it a secret a lot longer than I initially thought. Clever, those two. But, wow! I’m so excited for them!” Veronica led Felicity toward the elevators as they spoke. She pressed the button and the two waited patiently for the elevator doors to open. A couple of doctors Veronica knew walked by and said hello.
“Nine months is still pretty fast, don’t you think?” asked Felicity.
“Maybe so, but you got to think about how long those two were friends before they started dating,” Veronica said as the elevator doors opened. They hurried inside. “I mean, they’ve known each other since freshmen year of college where they went to nursing school together. Now they’re both doing this big career change thing together, Monte with his deejaying thing and Dawn studying to become a teacher. They bring out the best in each other, and they’ve been through a lot together.”
“I suppose so,” said Felicity. Her mind went back to the cute little baby girl, Julie, for a moment. “We’re all getting to be that age now, huh? That age where you’re supposed to start settling down. Start a family.”
A nurse walked by and asked Veronica a question. Veronica answered her and gave her some instructions regarding another patient. A young woman walked by with her baby and stopped to thank Veronica for everything she had done. She hugged Veronica. Veronica smiled and caressed the baby’s cheek. The baby cooed and settled into sleep.
“Has that been on your mind lately?” Veronica asked curiously. Felicity knew better than to divulge too much to their group’s gossip.
Felicity shrugged as the elevator doors opened up on the main floor. “Maybe a little. We’re not stupid college kids anymore. I run my own business. Things are going good as far as my career goes.” They stepped off the elevator together. Felicity could see the excitement in Veronica’s eyes, but she chose to ignore it. “I think it’s time I settled down, though. You know, start dating at least so that I could actually find someone to settle down with.”
Veronica squealed again. “All right, who is it? Going to give Jack another try or are you going to quit teasing poor Jefferson?”
Felicity merely rolled her eyes and waved toward the group of friends who were gathered in the midst of the hospital’s lobby. Veronica, likely realizing she was not going to get any more information from Felicity, bolted toward their friends and away from her. Felicity shook her head, knowing that Veronica was already divulging the conversation she had just had to the rest of their group. Honestly, Felicity huffed, she couldn’t even wait until I wasn’t in the same room to start gossiping about me?
The lobby was still filled with guests from the ceremony. The reporters had cornered Dr. Morrison and were asking him some more questions about the new unit. The other guests were eating the finger foods provided by the hospital. Felicity recognized a few of them from around town and waved to a couple that she had catered for in the past. There were some doctors and nurses there, taking a break from their long shifts to mingle with the guests and enjoy a quick bite. The nurses worked so hard, they deserved a break. Felicity turned her attention back to Dr. Morrison. He waved and she waved back. It was good to be helping the hospital with this worthy cause. The new NICU unit was perfect and the press from this event would promote the hospital and its staff of incredibly hard-working doctors and nurses. Felicity was glad to have been able to help make this happen. It was a beautiful outcome from a most horrible night. Felicity looked over toward her friends.
She felt herself blush when she saw both Jack and Jefferson glance in her direction with perky smiles, and she was certain that Veronica had told them all about her comment about wanting to settle down and start dating. Dealing with Jack and Jefferson’s endless badgering toward one another in a desperate attempt to one-up the other was not her idea of a pleasant lunch with friends.
Sometimes she wished Veronica would keep her nose out of everyone’s business, but then she would not be Veronica if she was not interested in knowing who was seeing whom or who was buying a new boat or who was getting a divorce. Veronica meant well. She thought her intrusions were helpful to her friends. She was a dear friend and Felicity would not change anything about her.
“So where are we going for lunch?” Felicity asked her friends once she caught up with Veronica.
She hoped the question would divert Jack and Jefferson enough so that they could all eat in peace. It would be nice to sit with everyone and discuss everything that had been going on the past six months. People were always saying that their small town was boring, but she and her friends knew better. She was glad that the Younglings knew who had murdered their grandma so they could get on with their lives. Linda had actually called and booked their next family reunion with Felicity and Jefferson. Their business was gaining support and they were booked solid for the next few months.
It was nice to be able to get out and eat with her friends today. Now, where should they go? There were only a few places in town, but they were all cozy and well-loved by the group. It was a beautiful day for a walk around town. The air was cool and crisp and the humidity was low. Days like this were rare in her town, so she hoped they would make the most of it.
Felicity figured she would have time to enjoy the lunch before she had to start working on her next catering project. Felicity and Jefferson would be catering a dinner for the local football team. She had planned to do a super bowl-themed event, as the team had won their division. In her head, she saw many snacks and a large football field-shaped cake. Felicity knew how much those boys could eat, so there would be a lot of food needed for this event. The trustees were paying for the meal and they said no holds barred. She wanted it to be a special event for the boys. Felicity brought her mind back to the event of the day. Seeing that unit had really made her feel good, both for the families that would be using it and the staff that would be running it.
“You pick,” Jack insisted.
Jefferson agreed. “Yeah, you’re the honoree today, right?”
The others nodded in agreement. Felicity sighed. Her eyes were suddenly drawn toward the hospital’s main entrance. A tall, well-built gentleman in a charcoal gray suit entered. His thick, black hair was neatly combed, and he carried with him a briefcase in one hand and a small bouquet of red roses in the other. The man approached their group and Felicity could see the man’s sparkling blue eyes. “Felicity!” the man said happily, startling her group of friends.
Autumn nudged her. “Mmm…who’s your friend?” she teased.
The man in the suit smiled and handed Felicity the roses. “So sorry I missed your ceremony!” he exclaimed. “I got held up in court today.” His pretty eyes darted toward the group and he smiled, showing off his lovely white teeth and perfect jawline. “Hi,” he said perkily. “You must be the friends I’ve heard so much about, right?” He looked straight at Autumn. “The forensic pathologist, Autumn, am I right?”
Autumn released her awkward giggle. “Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry, but who are you?”
Felicity cringed slightly to see the intimidated looks on Jack and Jefferson’s faces as the man wrapped an arm right around her
waist without being the least bit shy about it. “Um…” Felicity stammered. She had thought she was more prepared for this introduction, but he had surprised her. And she certainly had not expected flowers. “Everyone, this is Brian Stanford…my…um…”
“Your what?” Jack asked, doing his best to hide his disappointment. Jefferson looked like he was going to be sick, and Felicity felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach.
Brian, completely oblivious to them both, spoke without missing a beat, “I’m her boyfriend.”
Thanks for reading Murder in the Morgue. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, it would be awesome if you left a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
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