Awakening the Shy Nurse

by Alison Roberts

  His smile became suddenly a lot more genuine as his gaze shifted to catch Lisa’s and, for the first time, it was impossible not to smile back. He was making her feel so welcome and as though he really did believe she would be a welcome addition to their team, even though he had only just met her. There could be relief making that welcome more pronounced because he could get away from a conversation he obviously didn’t want to have but it didn’t matter... Lisa was going to make sure that Hugh wasn’t disappointed with his new staff member.

  Janet was also very welcoming and, after she had taken out Rita’s IV line, dispensed the medication Hugh had prescribed and discharged her, the older nurse took Lisa to find her uniform and then continue her exploration of the ship’s medical facilities as she heard about what her duties would entail.

  It was during this additional tour that Lisa became aware of a background hum of sound that was new and an odd sensation that something was changing in the air around her. Janet smiled at her expression.

  ‘We’re underway,’ she told Lisa. ‘I love that moment when we leave shore and head out into the freedom of the open sea. It’s what keeps me coming back every season.’

  Yes. Lisa could recognise that it was the distant hum and vibration of extremely powerful engines that she could both hear and feel, and the realisation hit her that this massive vessel and the thousands of passengers and crew on board were soon going to be far from land and reliant on what suddenly seemed like a very small medical team to deal with any medical or traumatic emergency that might happen.

  They were also on the way to somewhere Lisa had never been in her life and the combination of potential adventure and challenge was...well...it was enormously exciting, that’s what it was. The hum and sensation of movement was coalescing somewhere in the pit of her stomach in a tingle that was not unlike the one she had experienced earlier today, when Hugh Patterson had been holding her hand, but this was far more acceptable. Welcome, in fact, because it was almost completely a professional kind of excitement.

  Whatever this exotic position threw at her for the next couple of weeks, she was going to do her absolute best. She always did, of course, but there was an incentive here that was a little different from anything she’d experienced before. She had to admit that part of that incentive was a little disturbing, however. While it was perfectly natural to want to do her job exceptionally well for the sake of anybody who was ill or injured on this ship, and she’d always had that determination wherever she’d worked, what was different this time was why it seemed almost more important to impress her new boss.

  * * *

  I found your ship online. Looks amazing!

  It’s totally unreal. There are bars and restaurants open all night, shows like you might see on Broadway, fitness clubs and dance classes—you name it, it’s happening on board this ship.

  I found a page with pictures of all the important people who had lots of stripes on their shoulders.

  They’re the officers.

  Lisa was curled up on her bunk, typing rapidly in the message box on her laptop screen. Conversations with Abby were both more reliable and a lot less expensive this way than by phone.

  The ship’s doctors were there too.

  They’re considered to be officers as well. The nurses get privileges too. We can go anywhere we like on board and not just keep to the crew quarters for meals and things.

  Who’s the doctor with the beard?

  That’s Peter.

  And who’s the other one? The really *really* good-looking one?

  Hugh. He’s the one I mostly work with.

  Oooh... Lucky you.

  A string of emojis with hearts instead of eyes made Lisa shake her head before she tapped back.

  You’re just as bad as every other woman on board. We had four of them in the clinic yesterday, all trying to outdo each other to get his attention and...get this...two of them had come in to ask for the morning-after pill because things had got “out of hand” the night before at some party.

  Wow...not the best line to take if you want to get somebody interested, I wouldn’t have thought.

  Lisa was smiling as she responded.

  No. And anyway there are strict rules about the crew fraternising with the passengers.

  What about the crew fraternising with the crew???

  It was a winking face at the end of Abby’s message this time.

  Not going to happen.

  Why not? Is he single?

  I haven’t asked him.

  Why not?

  I’m not interested.

  Oh...yeah...right... Why not? Because he’s too good-looking? Doesn’t wear socks with sandals?

  Lisa leaned back against her pillow and closed her eyes for a moment. She’d been busy enough settling into her new environment in the last couple of days so that she could concentrate purely on her work and find her way around this enormous ship. There was a lot of work to do during the often busy open surgeries at the medical centre, which ran for a couple of hours both morning and early evening, where she was responsible for triaging any patients that arrived and dealing with minor cases that didn’t need to see a doctor, like small lacerations or medication needed for seasickness.

  Between those hours, there seemed to be plenty of administration to take care of, new people to meet and calls to what had so far proved to be easily managed situations in cabins or public areas of the ship.

  But now that Abby was teasing her, there was no getting away from the fact that she was not immune to Hugh Patterson’s charms, however confident she was in being able to resist them. Not that she’d had to resist them, mind you. He was both charming, friendly and great to work with, but it was patently obvious that she was a curiosity to him and she knew why. She’d seen one of the type of women he was attracted to, for heaven’s sake, and she couldn’t be more different to the sophisticated, confident and sexy blonde that had accompanied him back to the port in Barcelona.

  The woman that he’d been kissing with such...thoroughness...

  Oh, no...there it was again. That tingle that she thought she had actually conquered over the last busy days. Distraction was needed.

  Lisa opened her eyes and started tapping again.

  How are things for you? Do you still like the hostel?

  Love it. It’s so much easier to be close to campus like this and the food’s great. Miss you, though.

  Miss you, too. Got a date for your driver’s licence test yet?

  Next week. And guess what?

  What?

  I’m going to try out for a wheelchair basketball team. I need some more exercise, what with all the great food in the canteens.

  Hope that’s not as dangerous as wheelchair rugby.

  Lisa hit the “enter” button before she stopped to think that maybe Abby wouldn’t appreciate the warning but it had always been difficult not to be over-protective of her little sister.

  Sure enough, she could almost hear the sigh that came with Abby’s response. And she obviously wasn’t the only one who would prefer a distraction.

  Stop being a mother hen. Tell me about where you are. Have you been on a shore excursion yet?

  Not yet. My watch was on duty for the stops in both Corsica and Marseilles. Next stop is Nice, though—tomorrow—although we actually stop around the corner in Villefranche sur Mer because this ship is too big for the Nice port and we have to take small boats to get in to shore. We dock at dawn and then the ship doesn’t sail until about ten o’clock at night and I’m just helping with the morning surgery hours so I’ve got most of the day and the evening to go sightseeing.

  OMG...on the French Riviera? You’re living the dream.

  I know.

  Lisa found an emoji with a huge grin.

  I’ll send photos but try not to get too jealous.

  Don’t sen
d a photo unless it’s you and that cute doctor alone in some romantic French café. Preferably drinking champagne.

  LOL Lisa sent back.

  Give it up, Abby. Not going to happen.

  But, despite any firm intentions, it was what she was thinking about as she shut down her computer, climbed into bed a bit later and switched off her light. Champagne. Delicious food. An outdoor eatery, maybe shaded with grapevines. Someone playing a piano accordion nearby. And a companion who was only biding his time before taking the opportunity to kiss her senseless. Lisa could actually feel the tension of that anticipation. The curiosity. Desire...?

  No. She pushed it away, rolling over to find a cool patch on her pillow. She’d certainly never found a kiss that lived up to that level of anticipation. It was the stuff of romance novels, not real life. It was just easier to toy with fantasy when she was temporarily “living the dream”, as Abby had reminded her. Floating on the Mediterranean in a luxury cruise ship. Heading for land in a country that was famous for romance as much as anything else.

  And there she was again...imagining being on the receiving side of a kiss like the one Hugh had been giving the gorgeous blonde. Not necessarily with Hugh, of course...just a kiss like that.

  Oh...who was she kidding? It had to be Hugh, she realised as she was drifting into sleep. She’d never even seen anyone kissing like that in real life—she’d only read about it, or seen it on a movie screen. But this wasn’t real life, exactly, was it? Lisa was already deeply into a very odd mix of real life and fantasy and the lines between the two were already a bit blurred. About to indulge herself by drifting further towards the fantasy side, it was a rude shock to hear the strident beeping of her pager. She snapped on her light and reached for the small device.

  Code One, the pager read. Lido Deck.

  Lisa was out of bed and hauling on her uniform in seconds. There was no time to even think about what her hair looked like. Her cabin was the closest to the medical centre. She had to go and grab the rapid response trolley and head for the deck that had the swimming pools. Hopefully, someone else from the team would join her quickly but, for the moment, she knew she was on her own.

  Her heart skipped a beat and then sped up as she raced along the narrow corridor towards the medical centre. This was definitely real life and not any kind of fantasy and she was on the front line. Lisa had no idea if any of the other medical staff would also be responding to this call, even if Code One was the most urgent kind of summons. She might well be on her own until she found out whether the situation was really serious enough to warrant extra staff at this time of night.

  It had to be well after midnight by the time Lisa had commandeered a service lift to get her to the Lido deck as quickly as possible. Heads turned as she raced past people wrapped up in blankets lying on deckchairs. It was a movie night where a huge screen had been lowered on the other side of the largest swimming pool, the deckchairs lined up in rows to accommodate the audience. Red and white striped bags of popcorn got spilled as a crew member in a white hat jumped out of Lisa’s way. She passed restaurants that were still open and she could smell the variety of food on offer—from burgers to Indian meals.

  There were people everywhere, laughing and having fun, even dancing in the area that Lisa was heading for where there was another pool and two spas, which made it feel quite bizarre to find a knot of crew members and others around a figure that was slumped against the side of one of the spa pools, wearing only a bathing suit.

  Lisa could hear that the young man was having trouble breathing as she crouched down beside him, feeling for his pulse on his wrist. It was rapid and very faint, which suggested his blood pressure could be low.

  ‘I’m Lisa,’ she told him. ‘One of the ship’s nurses. Can you tell me your name?’

  He opened his mouth but all she could hear was the harsh sounds of him trying to move air through obstructed passages.

  ‘His name’s Alex,’ someone told her. ‘We got him out of the pool because he started coughing and couldn’t stop.’

  ‘Are you asthmatic, Alex?’ Lisa was pulling open drawers on the resus trolley. She needed to get some oxygen on her patient and probably a nebuliser to try and help him breathe.

  ‘He’s allergic.’

  Lisa looked up at the young woman in a red bikini. ‘To what?’

  ‘Strawberries. He told me when he didn’t want to try my strawberry daiquiri.’

  ‘He said he had an adrenaline pen in his pocket,’ A crew member added. ‘But we haven’t found where he left his clothes yet.’

  ‘Okay...’ Lisa slipped an oxygen mask over Alex’s face. ‘I’m going to give you an injection right now,’ she told him.

  Her own heart rate was well up as she located the drug she needed, filled the syringe and administered the intramuscular injection. An anaphylactic reaction could be a very satisfying emergency to treat if it responded rapidly to adrenaline and the frightening swelling in the airways began to settle, but it could also be a situation that could just as rapidly spiral into something worse—potentially life-threatening.

  Waiting the few minutes to see if a repeat dose was needed gave Lisa a chance to take some vital signs and check Alex more thoroughly, and that was when she noted the diffuse, red rash that was appearing all over his body.

  ‘You didn’t drink the daiquiri, did you, Alex?’

  He shook his head. He was holding the oxygen mask against his face and his eyes, above the mask, were terrified. Even through the plastic of the mask, Lisa could see that his lips were swelling.

  ‘I kissed him.’ The girl in the red bikini burst into tears. ‘This is my fault, isn’t it? He’s not going to die, is he? You have to do something...’

  She did. Nebulised adrenaline was the next step, along with a repeat dose of the drug by injection but, even if that started to make a difference, Lisa was going to need help and, as if she’d sent out a silent prayer, the figure that pushed through the group of spectators was the answer she would have wanted the most.

  Hugh Patterson.

  ‘Fill me in,’ was all he said. ‘I’ve got some crew bringing a stretcher.’

  ‘Anaphylaxis to strawberries,’ Lisa told him. ‘Diffuse rash, hypotensive, tachycardic and respiratory obstruction with stridor—oxygen saturation currently eighty-eight percent. First dose of adrenaline was about three minutes ago but there’s no improvement.’

  ‘No worries.’ His nod let Lisa know that he’d absorbed all the information and he knew how serious this was. His tone was still laidback enough not to alarm anyone else, however. ‘Let’s get another dose on board. And can you set up a nebuliser as well?’

  Lisa drew up the medication as Hugh put a hand on their patient’s shoulder. ‘We’ve got this, okay? But we’re going to take you down to our medical centre where we’ve got all the bells and whistles. I’m just going to pop an IV into your arm while we wait for your transport.’

  Lisa knew her way around the trolley drawers by now so she was able to hand Hugh everything he needed before he had to ask. A tourniquet to wrap around Alex’s upper arm, an alcohol wipe to clean the skin, a cannula to slip into a vein and then the Luer plug and dressing to secure the access. Lisa prepped the bag of saline by puncturing the port with the spike of the giving set and then running fluid through the tubes to eliminate any air bubbles. Hugh was attaching the line to the Luer plug as the crew members arrived with the stretcher and then helped lift Alex onto it.

  ‘Carry that bag, please, Lisa. And squeeze it. We need to get that fluid in fast.’

  They moved swiftly through an increasingly subdued crowd of people on the Lido deck, into the lift and then down to the deck they needed. Lisa was relieved that they would soon be in their well-equipped treatment room. She was even more relieved that she had Hugh by her side. They had just been working seamlessly, side by side, to stabilise this patient and she was sure that
they would have things under control in no time.

  ‘On my count,’ Hugh said to the crew. ‘Lift on three. One, two...three...’

  Alex was being placed smoothly onto the bed as Lisa reached up to flick on the overhead operating theatre light and she caught her breath in a gasp of dismay as it went on. Alex’s head had flopped to one side and his chin had dropped enough to close his airway completely. He had clearly lost consciousness.

  Hugh heard her gasp and his gaze locked on hers—only for a heartbeat but it was enough for a very clear message to be shared. Their patient’s condition had just become a whole lot worse. They were in trouble and Hugh was counting on Lisa’s assistance. She could also see the determination not to lose this battle in those dark eyes.

  Lisa tilted her head instantly in a nod to let Hugh know she had received the message. That she would do whatever she could to help. That she shared his determination to succeed. And then she took a very deep breath.

  CHAPTER THREE

  IT WAS VERY likely that other members of the medical staff on board were already making their way to help with a Code One emergency but the non-medical crew members who’d helped transport their patient were dispatched to make sure that Peter knew what was going on. In the meantime, the situation was escalating so quickly that Hugh and Lisa were the only people available to deal with it and they would have to work fast to save this young man’s life.

  The bag of IV fluid that Lisa had been squeezing to administer it more quickly was empty so she reached for a new one. Fluid resuscitation was an essential part of dealing with anaphylactic shock. As was oxygenation. As she worked to set up the new bag of saline she could see how smoothly Hugh was working to tilt Alex’s head back to try and open his airway and then, using one hand, to shift his stethoscope over all lung fields to listen for air movement.