Take Care

by Ash Johnson

  I look up at Blake and my face flushes red before I look back down at Jay, who is grinning widely, showing off his straight, white set of teeth that have been appearing in my dreams throughout the week, along with other parts of his body.

  “I never thought I would see you again, Ada. I’m so glad that I had to come to the hospital now,” Jay says, his thumb running back and forth across the inside of my wrist.

  “What?” I say incredulously, “Why the hell would you want to get hurt and come to the hospital? Why would you want to fight in the first place? That’s crazy.”

  “I fight because I’m normally really good at it and I like it, but I’m happy that I had to come to the hospital because you’re here. I had no way to get a hold of you after you left last weekend and I never thought I’d see you again,” Jay says, sounding relieved as he talks.

  “Never see me again? I live three streets down from you guys. I bet you pass Elle’s house every time you drive to get to the main street.” I raise my eyebrows and smile as I watch Jay let out a small chuckle and lay his head back on his pillow.

  “Are you serious Ada? That’s tragic and hilarious all at the same time,” Blake laughs loudly.

  “Yeah, I walked home from your house the other night. It’s really close. We should all hang out sometime, maybe barbeque or something,” I say, trying to lighten Jay’s mood because he seems a bit frazzled.

  “That would be a lot of fun. You and Elle are a blast to hang out with,” Blake says through his grin and then winks at me.

  “Yeah, I bet you think Elle’s a blast,” I say, pointing my finger in Blake’s direction. Elle told me all about their bathroom naughty time. All that Blake can do is laugh and look down at the cell phone that is sitting in his lap.

  “Well boys, I have to go check on my other patients-“ Jay squeezes my hand that is still in his and cuts me off before I can finish my sentence.

  “Will you be back here to talk to me some more?” He whispers.

  “Yes Jay, I’ll let the doctor know that he needs to come look at your ear and nose and after I check on my other patients I’ll be back to hold your hand so you don’t cry when he resets it,” I wink and pull my hand loose from Jay’s grip as he laughs then winces from the pain of either his nose or his ribs.

  “Great Ada, I’m looking forward to you being my hero,” Jay smiles and waves as I start to walk out the door. I think that my panties melted off from his smile alone.

  I stop just outside his door so that I can lean against the wall and try to get my wits back. I’ve had that man on my brain all week and now he shows up at work and kisses me like that, making me lose focus on anything but him. Before I can stand straight, I hear Jay talking to Blake.

  “Oh my God man, it’s really her,” Jay says, the excitement ringing in his voice makes me smile.

  “I know Jay, you’ve been whining about not seeing her again all week and here she is. Don’t let her get away from us this time. Well, at least get a little information out of her before you let her go so that you can find her again. You’ve been a nightmare to live with this past week,” Blake huffs.

  I hear Jay laugh and I walk away to check on my other patients. Before I can walk into the next room I feel my cell phone vibrate in the pocket of my scrubs. I pull it out to check it and gasp at what it says. It’s from the unknown number that sent me the text last weekend.

  Unknown-Don’t you dare

  I look around to see who is around me. There is a woman in jeans and a yellow t-shirt walking down the hallway to my left, her long, dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail and a potted plant in her hand like she’s going to see a patient.

  The hallway to my right is empty so I start walking toward the nurse’s station to see if there is anyone standing there. Carla, Marley, and Diane, all night nurses that I work with regularly, are bustling around the station. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but curiosity gets the best of me and I decide to text back as I walk to my next room.

  Ada-Who is this?

  I instantly get an answer.

  Unknown-Someone you don’t want to fuck with

  The answer makes me very nervous. I decide that when I’m off in the morning, I’m going to talk to Ronan at the police station and see if we can trace this number and maybe find out who it belongs to.

  Chapter 12

  Jay

  “Oh my God, I thought I was hallucinating when I woke up and saw those eyes,” I sigh and bring my right hand up to run it through my hair. When I opened my eyes and saw her, my mind immediately flashed back to having her above me in bed. Now I might just get another chance in the sack with her, which I’m totally okay with.

  “No man, not hallucinating, but you are damned lucky that you found her. I was going to give you two more days of sulking and pouting around our house before I KO’d you myself,” Blake states with a small smile. His comment makes a chuckle escape my lips.

  “If I wasn’t hooked up to an IV and in a world of hurt right now I would get up and kick your ass for even thinking that you could knock me out,” I point at Blake, but then smile back because my life is good.

  I have just found her. Ada’s here and she’s still as gorgeous as I remember. I can still picture what she looks like tonight, even with her out of the room. Her short blonde hair is straight, reaching under her chin and is held back by a few bobby pins, showing off her awesome eyes and tiny nose.

  Her delectable little body that I haven’t been able to rid my brain of is hidden by her cute hot pink scrubs and a pair of black Nike’s.

  I don’t realize that I’ve zoned out thinking about how delectable Ada is until Blake waves his hand in front of my face.

  “Hello? Earth to Jay. Man, are you in love with Ada or something?” Blake narrows his eyes at me, but backs his body away from my reach and leans back to pull his cell phone back out of his jeans pocket.

  “Dude, of course I’m not in love with her. I don’t even know her,” I answer. I know that I like her a lot more than any girl I’ve ever been with, including Julie the bitch, the woman who killed the idea of long term relationships for me a long time ago, but I highly doubt its love. Maybe something more along the lines of an awesome bed mate, or maybe it’s being able to connect with someone that doesn’t adjust their crotch every five minutes.

  When my eyes connect with Blake’s, his eyes widen and he points at me.

  “Holy shit, you really like her. How in the hell did that happen man? You’ve never been this crazy about a girl before, and you’ve been with plenty of them since I’ve met you. I actually met a nurse a few minutes before you woke up named Cassie that I thought you would have been interested in, but now that I see you’re being pussy whipped by Ada I might just keep Cassie’s phone number to myself.”

  “You can keep that number to yourself then, Blake. I have no interest in calling another chick, especially one that Ada works with.”

  His mouth drops open like I’ve just told him that Pam Anderson’s tits are real.

  “Wow. So Ada, huh?” he asks, starting a conversation without really starting it.

  I shake my head slowly, feeling the sting of pain radiating from my nose as I do, and shrug at Blake.

  “I don’t know what the fuck happened man, she’s just different and I’d like to hang out with her again,” I tell him as I imagine those eyes for the thousandth time today. “I can’t believe they live down the damn street from us, though. That’s crazy!” I say, trying to get off the subject of how much I like Ada.

  I don’t want to dive into it at the moment. Then I notice that I’m smiling a little too widely as I process that I’m finding out a lot more about her. I try to reign in my excitement, but Blake catches it and smirks at me before I can get it under control.

  “I know, that’s hilarious. Now that we know where they live we should hang out with them. I wouldn’t mind the chance to get inside of Elle a few more times. That chick was a freak in the best possible way,” Blake sighs and runs his ha
nd across his buzzed hair a few times.

  After a few minutes of silence, a tall, but overweight and balding man in a white coat and blue scrubs walks into my room and picks up the clipboard at the bottom of the bed where Ada left it.

  “Hello Mr. Hunt, my name is Dr. Miner. Your nurse tells me that your nose is broken and needs to be set. I have the x-rays that were taken when you were first brought in and I see that it was a clean break, so we’ll just push the bone back into place and let it heal naturally.”

  Just then, Ada walks back into the room with an empty syringe and gauze, looking a bit distracted and nervous. Even though her gorgeous eyes are wide, her forehead is wrinkled and she’s biting her bottom lip so hard it looks like it might start bleeding.

  I want to ask her what is wrong, but the doctor hands her the clipboard and instructs her to get a cold pack and some ibuprofen ready. She nods, places the clipboard back in the holder at the end of bed, setting the syringe down on the food table against the wall, and walks out of the room as the doctor approaches the side of my bed.

  She looked a bit scared. I want to know if she’s okay or if she needs some help with anything, but the doctor starts to put pressure on the sides of my nose as he inspects it, making me wince and grit my teeth to hide the pain.

  “Do you think the nurse can hold my hand while you’re putting my nose back in place, doc?” The question comes out before I even have time to stop myself. I sounded like the biggest pussy in the world, but it would be nice to be touching Ada in some small way, and if I look like a pussy, then so be it.

  The doctor lifts one brow and inspects me before he speaks again.

  “Don’t you fight for a living?”

  I’m smiling sarcastically as I let out a huff of air, now knowing that this doctor thinks I’m a major pussy. I look down to my lap and nod in answer at the doctor.

  “So, you trade punches with other enormous men for a living and you need a tiny, ninety pound nurse to hold your hand while I reset your nose?” he chuckles at me. I roll my eyes and look over to Blake, seeing his face turn bright red and his body shake while he holds his palm over his mouth to silently laugh at me. I flip him off and look back to the doctor.

  “Never mind, you assholes,” I say, shaking my head at both of them.

  Just then, Ada walks back into the room with a blue cold pack and a little cup with pills in it. She sets them on the tray table at the bottom of my bed and stands there, waiting for the doctor to crack my nose back into place, but he looks back at her with a huge smile.

  “Ada, this gentleman has requested that you hold his hand while I reset his nose. Do you think you could help him out?” Dr. Miner says, his round body bouncing up and down with his laughter. She nods and smiles at the doctor, but seems distracted by something.

  “Of course, Dr. Miner,” Ada answers, walking up to the side of my bed and grabbing my left hand and sandwiching it between both of hers.

  As soon as she steps close, the smell of flowers and sugar assaults my mangled nose so I breathe her in. I close my eyes and try to focus on Ada’s hands as I wait for the doctor to get this over with because I know it’s going to hurt like a bitch.

  “Okay on the count of three. One, two, three,” Dr. Miner says, and then I hear a loud pop rumbling through my brain and my eyes are instantly watering. I open my blurry eyes to see Ada smiling at me and slowly turn to my right to see Blake cringing. He must have heard the pop as well.

  “So, you’re going to need to cool it on the fighting for at least six weeks so that your nose and ribs can heal properly. You will possibly have two black eyes from your broken nose; just keep a cold pack on it until all swelling goes down. There will also need to be someone to keep an eye on you for the next 24 hours because you are showing signs of a slight concussion.” Dr. Miner looks up at Blake who nods his agreement.

  “Okay, now that your nose is set, Ada will drain your ear of the fluids and we’ll leave you in here for about an hour to get your bearings, and then you’re free to go,” Dr. Miner nods at me and then turns and walks out the door.

  “Are you doing okay Jay?” Ada asks, still holding my hand in hers. I look up into her eyes, one blue and one green, and can’t help but smile at her.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine Ada, thanks so much for holding my hand because I’m a pussy,” I answer her somberly, but smile when I hear a small giggle escape her lips.

  “You aren’t a pussy, Jay. I’ve seen bigger men than you full out crying for things much smaller than a broken nose getting reset,” she smiles at me and squeezes my hand once before letting it go and walking toward the end of the bed for the pills and cold pack.

  “Are you okay, Ada?” Blake asks her. So I’m not the only one who sees that something is bothering her.

  “Huh?” she says, finally shifting her attention over to Blake and widening her eyes. “Oh yeah, everything’s fine Blake, don’t worry about it,” she shakes her head a few times and walks over to me, handing me two white pills and a glass of water.

  “Here Jay, take these and keep that ice pack over your nose for a little while so that the swelling stays down.”

  She walks back to the tray table and grabs the empty syringe and then makes her way to the left side of my bed, instructing me to turn my head to my right so she can drain my ear. After a slight pinch from the needle pushing into my skin, Ada gets the fluid drained and puts the gauze over my ear, taping it down and then throws the needle away in a red box on the wall. She removes her latex gloves and then barely turns to look at me.

  “I’ll come check on you in about an hour and then we can get you released and on your way, okay?” She nods, and turns to walk out of the room. I push my brows together and look over at Blake, who has the same expression on his face; both of us trying to figure out what’s up with Ada.

  Chapter 13

  Ada

  I walk out of Jay’s room feeling out of sorts. I know that nothing can happen to me while I’m at the hospital because we have excellent security here, but it scares me to think that someone has been watching me and knows what I’m doing all the time.

  I’m wondering if it’s Rob, but I changed my number and I have his phone number still programmed into my contacts, so unless he changed his number as well or has another phone, it’s not him.

  I can’t think of anyone else that would be watching me, though. I just need to shake it off and tell Elle about this in the morning. Maybe she can come with me to the police station to find out who this is.

  “You are such a bitch!” I hear whisper yelled behind me.

  I turn to see Cassie, normally a day nurse that must have picked up a shift tonight, walking toward me and shaking her finger at my face, her dark brown hair and matching eyes standing out against her pale skin and hot pink scrubs.

  She’s a few inches taller than I am and a bit heavier as well, but I still think I could take her if I had to. I have never gotten into an argument with Cassie in fact I’ve always been overly nice to her, so I have no idea why she would call me that.

  “Why am I a bitch?” I ask trying to think of anything I’ve done to her. I rarely ever talk to her since we work different shifts, and when I do see her I’m normally hiding in another room and trying to avoid Greg, so we don’t speak a lot.

  “Because you get to work on Jay Hunt, you lucky girl. I’ve seen him fight a few times. He’s so freaking hot! I would never let him out of my bed if I had him in my grip. And you have Greg chasing after you, too. How do you do it, Ada?” Cassie is smiling but at the same time giving me an odd look, like she’s trying to hide her anger.

  “Yeah Jay’s pretty cute, huh. Well I need to get to work, but maybe I’ll see you for lunch?” I say, waving and walking away from her without looking back for her answer.

  I don’t want to talk to her about Jay and I really don’t want to talk about Greg. I didn’t know she was interested in Greg, but she can have him. Maybe that will get him off my back.

  I feel like an ass f
or just walking away from her, but I’m too distracted because of that text to talk to others if it doesn’t involve work.

  With three new patients in rooms and attended to and my mind momentarily off the text message, I make my way back to Jay’s room and make sure he’s ready to be discharged.

  I walk through the door and see that Jay is sitting upright in the bed, holding a large vase filled with a huge bouquet of sunflowers, my favorites, in front of him. He looks around the flowers and smiles at me.

  “I got you some flowers to thank you for holding my hand when I needed you, Ada,” he croons through his enormous, panty melting smile. I’m trying my damndest to keep my knees from shaking when he smiles at me like that. I smile back and walk up to the side of his bed as he holds the vase out for me to take.

  “Jay, that is so sweet and just what I needed tonight. Thank you so much, but how did you get these? You still have an IV attached and you aren’t supposed to be out of bed,” I say, glancing around the room and noticing that Blake is nowhere to be seen.

  “Blake went and got them from the gift shop for me and then ran back downstairs to grab a cup of coffee from the cafeteria before we leave,” Jay explains. I smile and nod at him, then look back at the beautiful flowers in my hands.

  “Are you sure you’re doing okay, Ada? You seem a little out of it tonight, like something is bugging you,” he asks, tilting his head and leaning forward until I turn my attention back to him. I take a deep breath and let it out in a huff before I answer him. So much for my mind being taken off of that message.

  “Yeah, I’m okay Jay, really. I just have some stuff going on right now, but it’s nothing to worry about. I have it under control, okay?” I say gently, hoping he’ll just drop it.

  Reluctantly, he answers me, “Yeah, okay Ada, but I’m always here to help you out if you need it, alright?” I smile and nod again, trying to get my eyes to stop watering because I don’t want to cry in front of Jay. After a few deep breathes and a shake to clear my head I look back to Jay and remember why I came in his room.