by Ann McMan
“Yeah,” Syd said, as she took hold of Maddie’s face. “About that. At some point in the near future, we’re going to have a long discussion.”
“What about?” Maddie asked.
“Well. It might have something to do with your imprecise use of medical terminology.”
“Oh really?” Maddie pulled away and looked at her. “In what way was I imprecise?”
“Do you really need to ask me that question?”
“Apparently.”
Syd sighed. “Let’s just say it might have something to do with an extremely misleading and inaccurate use of the phrase, ‘it’s going to hurt.’ ”
“Oh . . . that.”
“Uh huh.”
“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this discussion.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to hate it.”
Maddie sighed. “Great.”
Syd hefted her purple-clad leg. “How long do I have to wear this thing?”
“Six or seven weeks. Longer if you’re not careful.”
“Define ‘careful’ for me.”
“In this case, ‘careful’ means you should refrain from giving in to any sudden impulses.”
“Such as?”
“Use your imagination.”
Syd narrowed her eyes. “You mean I can’t use it to kick your ass?”
“Precisely.”
Syd shook her head. “You lead a charmed life, Dr. Strangelove.”
“I didn’t used to, but I certainly won’t disagree with you now.”
Syd smiled at her. “Well, lucky for me, I already know how to get around on crutches.”
“You do?”
Syd nodded. “I fractured my other leg when I was a junior in college.”
“Really? You never told me that.”
“I don’t know that I want to tell you now, either.”
“Oh . . . okay. Lemme guess.” Maddie crossed her arms. “It must’ve involved a surfboard.”
“No, brainiac. But it was a boating accident. I slipped on the deck of my father’s little sailboat and smacked into the boom.”
Maddie shook her head. “The Perils of Pauline.”
Syd spread her hands. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
They heard two short blasts from a car horn.
“I think my ride is here. Wanna get me a set of leg irons?” Syd smirked. “Or are you gonna carry me outta here?”
Maddie raised an eyebrow. “Now there’s an idea.”
“Oh, no. No more heroic feats from you until you let Lizzy stitch up that leg.”
“My leg is fine, Syd.”
“I wish I could say the same for your pants.”
Maddie looked down at her ripped and bloodied pant leg. “Yeah. I guess I should put on some clean scrubs before I see any more patients.”
Syd nodded. “It’s probably a good idea. And while you’re at it, you might want to wash your face, too.”
Maddie raised a hand to her cheek.
“Do I look that bad?”
“Afraid so. Want a run-down?”
Maddie nodded.
Syd crossed her arms and looked at her critically. “You’re stressed, exhausted, filthy, and completely disheveled. I’ve never seen you look less professional.”
“Jeez, don’t hold back. Is there anything else?”
“Yeah. One more thing.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“No? What is it?”
Syd leaned toward her until their faces nearly touched. “You’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And when I saw your muddy face above me at the high school, I fell in love with you all over again.”
She kissed her. When they parted, Maddie seemed to have regained some of her customary smugness.
“The hell with it,” she said.
Before Syd could protest, Maddie scooped her up into her arms.
“Are you nuts?” she asked in alarm. “What the hell are you doing?”
Maddie limped across the room with her.
“Curb service.”
“What about your leg?”
“It won’t get any worse now.”
Syd realized that it was pointless to argue.
“Is this covered by my copay?” she asked.
“No. But I’ve got some ideas about how we can work that out.”
“I’ll just bet you do.”
Syd opened the door, and Maddie carried her down the back hallway toward the waiting car.
MADDIE AND LIZZY worked tirelessly for the rest of the day, stitching up cuts, taping sprains, extracting shards of glass and splinters of wood from countless arms and legs, and listening to shocked and dazed storm survivors unreel a panoply of fantastic tales of near epic destruction.
Six cases of more serious injuries had quickly been dispatched to the ER in Wytheville, and Tom Greene had already called Maddie four times in an angry panic, warning her not to send any more patients his way, then shifting gears and begging her to rush over and help triage the crush of wounded people clogging the hospital waiting rooms.
Maddie patiently assured Tom that she would make her way over to the hospital as soon as her own waiting room was under control.
Lizzy walked into the hallway when Maddie was on the phone with Tom—again—and waited for her to hang up.
“Look,” Lizzy said. “If he really needs you over there, Peggy and I can try to manage things here.”
Maddie sighed. “Tom already has enough cooks in his kitchen. The best we can do is continue to treat as many patients as possible here, and keep them out of his ER.”
That seemed to make sense to Lizzy. She looked down at Maddie’s pant leg. “Why don’t we duck into the supply closet for five minutes so I can dress that cut on your leg?”
Maddie looked at her with narrowed eyes. She noticed that Lizzy was carrying a laceration kit. “Did Syd call you?”
Lizzy took hold of her elbow and steered her toward the closet. “I’ll never tell.”
Once inside, Maddie perched on a stool and propped her leg up on a stack of boxes so Lizzy could have easier access to the jagged cut on the side of her calf.
Lizzy cut away part of Maddie’s torn trouser leg and proceeded to debride the wound. “Yeah. You’re going to need some stitches on this one.”
Maddie watched her work. The small redhead looked more tired and disheveled than Maddie had ever seen her look. Clearly, this day was taking an emotional toll on all of them.
“What was that racket I heard a few minutes ago?” she asked.
Lizzy chuckled. “You mean that crash that came from Room Two?”
Maddie nodded.
“I was stitching up a cut on Roma Jean Freemantle’s arm, and she knocked over my suture tray.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “Why on earth did that happen?”
Lizzy swabbed Maddie’s leg with Betadine. “You tell me. Charlie Davis ducked her head into the room to check on her, and Roma Jean jerked halfway out of her skin.”
“Charlie Davis?”
Lizzy nodded. “That cute little deputy of Byron’s.”
“Charlie Davis?” Maddie asked again.
Lizzy looked up at her. “Right. Charlie. About so tall.” She held up a gloved hand. “Blonde hair. Great smile.” She winked at Maddie. “Plays for your team . . .”
“My team?” Maddie asked.
Lizzy looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh,” Maddie said. “That team.”
Lizzy shook her head and held up a syringe. “Need something to bite down on?”
“I think I can handle it.”
Lizzy gave her the shot of Lidocaine. “Good. I don’t think our patients would appreciate the sound of blood-curdling screams emanating from the storage closet.”
“Very funny.”
“I do try.”
Maddie closed her eyes. “This is sure one day for the record books.”
“I know
.” Lizzy sat back for a moment to let the Lidocaine take effect. “Thank god we haven’t heard any reports of fatalities.”
“That’s for sure. And Tom didn’t mention anything more dire than the types of injuries we’ve been seeing, either.”
“More arrows in his quiver.”
Maddie opened her eyes. “What do you mean?”
Lizzy shrugged. “Don’t pay any attention to me. I’m just being selfish.”
“About?”
“Dr. Greene has been making noises about cutting the funding for my position at the end of my contract.”
Maddie jolted upright. “He what?”
Lizzy quickly took hold of her leg to prevent the dressings from falling to the floor.
“Hey, sit still. I don’t wanna have to do this all over again.”
“Sorry.” Maddie relaxed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Lizzy looked at her. “He didn’t say anything to you?”
“No, of course not. This is the first I’ve heard anything about it.”
Lizzy sighed. “He’s such a sleaze ball.”
“You’ll get no argument from me about that,” Maddie said. “But what makes you say that in this particular context?”
Lizzy gently tapped the perimeter of the cut on Maddie’s calf. “Is that numb yet?”
Maddie nodded.
Lizzy commenced, making a row of tiny stitches. “He wants me to take a staff position at the hospital. I have no desire to return to that kind of nursing, and he knows it. But he thinks he has me over a barrel. If he pulls the funding for our parish nurse program, then I’ll either have to sign on with him, or move someplace else to find work.”
Maddie was fuming. “We’ll see about that.”
Lizzy glanced up at her. Her brown eyes looked tired. “Don’t take this on like a hair shirt, okay? I know this clinic can’t afford to pick up all of my salary, and I never expected this position to last forever. I’ll figure something out.”
Maddie’s mind was racing. Fucking Tom Greene. That man was a perpetual thorn in her side.
She watched Lizzy continue to work. “What does your Tom say?”
Lizzy had been dating Syd’s brother, Tom, for nearly a year now.
Lizzy smiled. “Tom says I should move to Blacksburg and find work there.”
“And what do you think about that idea?”
Lizzy tied off her last knot and snipped the ends of the silk suture.
“I think it’s too soon. Tom is a lot of fun, but he’s got some growing up to do. And I’m not ready to leave Jericho. I feel at home here.”
Maddie nodded. “Then let’s just see what we can work out, okay? I’ve still got some cards to play where Tom Greene is concerned.”
Lizzy applied polysporin to Maddie’s wound and wrapped her leg with gauze.
“I just wish I could be more optimistic,” Lizzy said. “But I’ve never felt comfortable around that man. Something about him just gives me the willies.”
“He’s a self-important jerk, but I think he’s harmless.”
“I wish I felt the same way.”
“Has he ever done or said anything inappropriate?”
Lizzy thought about it for a moment. “No. But there’s just something creepy about him.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s his hands.”
“His hands?”
Lizzy nodded. “Yeah. He’s got those long, manicured nails.”
“That’s odd, but not really uncommon,” Maddie said. “Lots of doctors are maniacal about their hands.”
“I guess that’s true.” Lizzy finished wrapping Maddie’s leg and collected her supplies. “Okay. You’re all set. Although you might need to find another pair of pants.”
Maddie looked down at her shredded pant leg. “You think?”
“Yeah. The beatnik look is a bit of a stretch for you.”
Maddie stood up. “Thanks for doing this. Syd would’ve hung me out to dry if I showed up at home without having this taken care of.”
Lizzy smiled at her. “No problem.”
Maddie walked to a laundry bin and pulled out a pair of clean scrubs. “Give me two minutes to change into these, and I’ll meet you back out on the front lines.”
Lizzy nodded and reached for the doorknob.
“Lizzy?” Maddie touched her on the back of the arm.
Lizzy stopped and looked back at her.
“I promise I’ll figure something out.”
Lizzy smiled at her. “Thanks.”
She opened the door and walked out, leaving Maddie alone in the closet.
Tom Greene.
Maddie pulled off her pants and stuffed them into a trash bag. Outside the room, she could hear Peggy telling someone that Dr. Stevenson would be right with them.
She sighed. One crisis at a time. She pulled on the scrubs and went back out to join Lizzy.
Chapter 4
WHEN THE SUN came up the next day, it was clear that Jericho had fared better than anyone had reason to expect. Most of the serious property damage was confined to the main street in town, and to the school. The tornado was officially classified as an EF1—the first ever to touch down in the tiny mountain town. And, although, there were numerous swaths of destruction across the county that varied in intensity, there were no serious casualties—and no deaths.
The Riverside Inn had lost most of its roof and half of the big sun porch that ran along the back of the house. Several of the large white birch trees that lined its long driveway had been snapped and tossed around the property like confetti. Adjacent to the inn, Michael and David’s small bungalow had been all but destroyed when it was hit by an uprooted, one-hundred-year-old Pin Oak. Local construction crews were already spread so thin that repairs there would likely take weeks or months to complete.
Which meant that the boys would be keeping house with the girls for some time.
Michael graciously offered to look for an alternative place to live while they waited on repairs to be completed, but Maddie and Syd were unanimous in their rejection of that proposal. The farmhouse was more than spacious enough to accommodate them all, and having the extra sets of hands (and legs) available to help out during Syd’s convalescence would be invaluable.
One of the front parlors was equipped with a queen-sized sofa bed, so they were able to create a makeshift bedroom for Syd on the ground floor of the house. David quickly nicknamed the space “Central Casting,” and helped Maddie move many of Syd’s personal belongings downstairs, so she wouldn’t feel too displaced while she continued there.
Of course, Maddie elected to sleep downstairs with her, and David expressed enthusiastic support for that idea.
“At least I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep now and then,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Maddie asked. They were upstairs, packing up books, videos, and lesson plans from a list that Syd had prepared.
David rapped on the wall that separated Maddie’s bedroom from the guest suite next door.
“Hello? I don’t want to go blind from having to listen to the two of you swinging from the roof trusses in here.”
Maddie sighed. “I’ll set aside how ludicrous and insane an insinuation that is, and just go straight to asking you to clarify how hearing something could make you go blind?”
David shrugged. “It’s widely known that all kinds of things can result in blindness.”
“David, how many times do I have to explain to you that when you temporarily lost your eyesight during my twelfth birthday party at the roller rink, it was because you fell and hit your head, not because you had just masturbated in the men’s bathroom?”
He glowered at her. “You AMA types always tow the party line.”
“I’m just trying to save you from continuing to cling to these petty delusions.”
“What’s that crack supposed to mean?”
She didn’t reply.