by Dale Mayer
Just the ease of Elliot’s movement and how comfortable he was in his own body now struck Finn as odd. Not so much odd, just … so natural and so graceful. It made Finn realize how awkward he was in his own physical state. He was unappreciative of his body, and, in some ways, it felt as if he’d been paired up with a brand-new partner in the military and they hadn’t had time to work out their idiosyncrasies to blend together. It had never been like that before. He’d always been a perfectly fit physical specimen.
Until the accident.
And now, well, now it was as if he hated his body and his body hated him.
“You look absolutely fantastic,” Finn said to Elliot.
Elliot grinned. “Well, besides the fact that I’m healing at an incredibly fast rate—and Dani here would say that emotional and physical and mental healing also has to happen in order for us to move forward in leaps and bounds,” he said, “I am happy. I’m fit. I feel good, and, for the first time in a long time, it feels as if life isn’t like I pulled the short straw.”
Finn immediately recognized the feeling. “Right,” he said, “and I’m still stuck not only with the short straw but it’s way shorter than it was originally.”
Elliot burst out laughing at that. “Oh, I do remember feeling that too,” he said. “There’s only so much in life that we can really blame others for before we have to deal with the reality of what we’re stuck with.” He motioned at the missing lower leg on Finn’s right stump and asked, “Have you been fitted for prosthetics yet?”
“They had to do more surgery to change the way the stump was because the prosthetics were soring me up,” he said, “I haven’t had a chance to try again. I’m hoping to do that while I’m here.” He glanced at Dani with one eyebrow raised.
Dani immediately nodded. “That’ll be one of the first things we try to get you into, but, in the meantime, you’ll have crutches.”
He winced at that. “The back and the right shoulder don’t like crutches,” he said apologetically.
She gave him a serene smile that immediately made him suspicious.
Finn glanced at Elliot, who was also grinning. “I’ll get crutches and will have to suffer through it, won’t I?” he asked glumly.
“You will,” Elliot said. “Hathaway House doesn’t do too much on the babysitting level here, and you’ll be glad for it. It’s a tough journey to start. Yet it’s an absolutely wonderful journey when you get to your destination.”
“How much longer are you here for?” Finn asked, already worried. “I hope you’re not leaving too quickly because it’s partly because of you that I’m here,” he said, glancing between Dani and Elliot.
“I’m here for one or two more months, but I think I get to graduate soon,” Elliot said. “Just some fine-tuning now.”
Immediately Finn felt lost, knowing he would be here much longer. He still had Dani, whom he knew, but Elliot had been somebody who knew him in his old life, understood what he’d gone through and understood what shit he was dealing with now. “Well, obviously I wish you all the best,” he said lightly.
“No sending me away yet,” Elliot said. “I’m still here for a while. Don’t you worry. Besides, I’m likely to settle close to town.”
At that, Finn frowned. “Why? Your family is back West, aren’t they?”
“Not exactly sure where I’ll end up yet,” he said, “because I have some new family that really matters to me. So I’m not ready to pull up roots from here and go back there again.”
“Just make sure it isn’t an attachment to the recovery process,” Finn warned.
Elliot laughed and laughed. “Oh my, I’m so glad you said that. Because you really need to have that mindset when it comes to dealing with the stuff you’re going through here,” he said as he turned to look at Dani. Elliot smiled. “Isn’t that right, Dani?”
Dani smiled and nodded. She picked up half of her muffin and offered it to Finn.
He stared at it, his stomach grumbling. “But it’s bran,” he said. And then he winced. “You have no idea what bran does to an already damaged digestive system.”
“Sometimes it’s supposed to be the best thing,” Dani said with a shrug. “But we have many other options, from carrot to chocolate chip.”
At the words chocolate chip, his eyes lit up.
Elliot chuckled. “I’ll go get myself one. Do you want one?”
Finn nodded slowly. “Well, I have to eat sometime,” he said.
Dani agreed. “We have lots of other food choices here, if you want something other than a muffin.”
He remembered seeing all kinds of hot dishes inside, and he realized that, with the stress of moving, he had hardly eaten breakfast. Besides, the hospital food had been pallid, lukewarm and tasted like flat Jell-O. “Maybe,” he said.
Elliot smiled and said, “How about I pick you out something? Do you promise to try it?”
Finn nodded. “Maybe not breakfast this time. A sandwich maybe? Nothing fancy,” he said. “I’m not super hungry.”
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
Finn watched as Elliot casually walked through the dining room as if he owned the world. “It’s hard to believe the condition he’s in,” Finn said.
“True enough,” Dani said. “All kinds of improvements are being made on many levels with every patient here. Don’t judge anybody else or yourself. The scale doesn’t slide evenly, and it doesn’t slide in only one direction.” At that, she stood and waved at somebody else. She leaned over and said, “Excuse me. I have to speak to somebody,” and she disappeared around his back.
He sat here for a long moment, thinking about her words, acknowledging just how much truth was behind them. It had been the same in his recovery. Six SEALs had been in Finn’s original team. Two had died during the mission—one more had taken his own life—and, of the three left, he would have considered himself to have been hurt the worst and showing the least amount of progress.
But he doubted the others would agree with him.
Fiona Smithers picked up two coffees and walked over to join the nurses at their favorite table before Fiona started her morning shift. She sat down to see Dani waving at her. She stood again, murmuring to the group, “Sorry. I need to talk to Dani.” She walked across the cafeteria, holding a coffee in her hand, as Dani met her halfway.
“Hey, glad to have you back again,” Dani said. “I forgot you were due in today.”
Fiona chuckled. “How could you possibly have forgotten? Like I could leave this place for very long,” she said affectionately. She gave Dani an awkward one-armed hug, making sure not to spill any coffee on her.
Of course, she’d come close to leaving a little while ago after a patient had perceived a personal relationship that wasn’t there. The scenario had an ugly end, and she was still smarting from it. But life moved on, and the patient had left—thankfully—and the ensuing weeks had been calm and peaceful.
“I wanted to introduce you to my friend and a new resident here,” Dani said.
“Only you would call them residents,” Fiona said. “Nobody wants to live here. You know that, right?”
“Well, I’m a resident, and I live here,” Dani said, chuckling, walking slowly to give Fiona some background on Finn. “His name is Finn. I knew him back in the first year after high school,” Dani said. “We were volunteers for several animal organizations and used to do the Walk for Paws things to raise money. He went into the military at the end of that year, but we’ve bonded quite well during that time. When he needed a place for rehab, I offered it to him, but he wasn’t ready. Finally, he gave me a quick call a couple days ago when we happened to have an empty bed, and I brought him in.”
“Sounds like it was perfect timing,” Fiona said. She wondered at the wisdom of bringing in friends to a place like this, but, so far, Dani had been very good about keeping personal relationships and paying clients on a very good balance. “Is he a good, good friend?”
Dani slid her a look and then chuckled
. “He’s a good friend but only a friend.”
“I’m sure Aaron’s relieved to hear that,” Fiona said with a smirk.
Dani flushed. “Aaron trusts me, and I trust him,” she said with a big smile. “We can’t wait to get married.”
“Good,” Fiona said. “And that should be pretty darn soon, shouldn’t it?”
“Potentially. We haven’t really set a date and don’t want to make too big a deal out of it. We might just get married in town and call it done,” Dani said. “Life is busy, and I can’t really have a wedding at home with everybody here. That’s more than I want to put on people, so I might just do something small in town.”
“Invite me when you do,” Fiona said. “If I’m not working, I’d love to come.”
Dani gave her a smile. “Will do,” she said. “That’s another issue. Whoever we invite will have to get others to cover their shifts, and I don’t want hard feelings. So it’s back to that whole ‘might just do a few people in town’ thing.”
“Makes sense. We can always have a big reception afterward here. I’m sure the kitchen staff would be happy to put on something to celebrate the day, like we do for any other big holiday.”
“You know what? That’s not a bad idea,” Dani said thoughtfully. “Aaron is coming home at Christmas time and Thanksgiving.”
“How’s he doing in school?”
“I think it’s rougher than he thought it would be,” Dani said comfortably. “But it’s his passion, and he’s getting phenomenal grades. I think it’s the toll of the daily studying and the exams and reports,” she said with a smile. “And, of course, he wants to come home.”
“Right,” Fiona said. “I tried a long-distance relationship when I was in nursing school, but it wasn’t for me.”
“It’s not for everyone,” Dani said. “When you think about it, it’s hard to be separated from the one you love.” She approached the table where Finn sat and motioned at him.
Fiona looked at him and saw a shock of red hair that made her grin. Tall, lean, with freckles across his face that made him younger looking than he was, because she could see the world-weariness in his eyes, and the pain in his body as he held himself stiffly on one side. She recognized some of the aftermath of his injuries but was interested to hear what else was going on.
As Dani came around the table, she smiled at Finn. “Here’s somebody I want you to meet. This is Fiona Smithers,” she said, “one of our nurses here. You’ll see her a fair bit. She’s assigned to your team too.”
Finn held out a hand, and Fiona shook it gently.
“Hi, nice to meet you,” she said.
“Wow, somebody from the Old Country,” Finn said.
“Maybe originally,” Fiona said, “but it was generations ago.”
“Well, I was born here too,” Finn said, “but my mother’s from Ireland.”
That helped break the ice a little bit. He seemed to relax, but she noted the pain up and down his spine just from the way he was trying to settle in his wheelchair. She glanced back at Dani. “Has he had all the intros to the place yet?”
“No,” Dani said, “we got sidetracked here with coffee. Elliot’s bringing him a sandwich.”
Fiona nodded and kept her next comment to herself.
Elliot appeared then with a big sandwich.
Fiona looked at it and laughed. “If you can eat all that, you’re doing pretty well.”
Finn looked at the sandwich in shock. “Good Lord,” but Elliot sat down beside him with one of equal size.
“I cut it in half in case you can’t eat it all,” Elliot said. He picked up his first half and chomped his way through it.
Finn looked at the food, looked at the ladies and said, “I’m not used to eating this much.”
“Your body needs the nutrients,” Fiona said. “Go ahead and eat. I’ll talk to you later.” And she turned and walked away.
As she did, she glanced back, caught Dani’s eyes and smiled.
Dani always worried about everybody in the place, but those she knew personally before coming here she worried about even more.
Fiona didn’t know why she was worried about Finn. What was going on with Finn that she either didn’t like or didn’t think Finn would like?
Chapter 2
Fiona appeared shortly thereafter for her shift, bright and cheerful as always. She’d enjoyed her week off, but something about getting back home again felt so right. She really loved working here, loved the people, both staff and patients. It was always upsetting to come back and find that somebody had left, and that was the case this time. She studied the charts, looked over at Mina and asked, “What happened to Fred’s chart?”
Mina smiled and said, “He took an early discharge. Transferred to his hometown. He and his girlfriend are now engaged, and he wanted to be closer.” Her tone was so delighted that Fiona realized it was good news all around.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye,” she exclaimed. “I really liked him.”
“And he really liked you too,” Mina said, sorting through paperwork. “I think he left you a note. Aha.” She pulled out an envelope with Fiona’s name on the front. “He did.”
Fiona smiled and reached for it, pulled out the folded piece of paper and read out loud the few lines. “Dear Fiona, I wouldn’t have come as far without your help or your care. Thanks so much for holding my hand on the days when I couldn’t hold my own. Much love and progress in your bright future.” Fiona showed it to Mina. “Isn’t it nice when we have success stories?” she said.
Mina nodded and tapped the note. “You should frame that,” she said in all seriousness. “That’s a lovely goodbye.”
“I know,” Fiona said as she folded it and tucked it away in her pocket. “I’ll figure out what to do with it later. But I’m back to work and reporting as scheduled,” she said with a chuckle. She waved goodbye and headed into the nurses’ station. She was still a couple minutes early, and that was good because she could catch up with her new patients and see about the progress on the ones she had left behind. A week here when she was on duty often seemed to take forever from Monday to Friday, but, when she was gone, it seemed like so much happened that it always shocked her. She walked in and smiled at Anna. “Hey there,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing just fine,” Anna said, smiling. “And don’t you look all bright and cheerful.”
“Hey, a week off, you know what that’s like.”
“Not enough,” Anna said, laughing. “But I leave on Monday.”
“Right, I forgot about that,” Fiona said. “In that case, you better catch me up before you leave because, after it starts to get busy here, I may not see you again today.”
With that, they sat down with the stack of files and went through the progress on the patients. They split up the center by hallways and tried to keep a fairly even workload per nurse, but everybody always had one patient who caused trouble. It wasn’t the same trouble that they would often have in a normal hospital because everybody was here by choice, but there were still problematic people. It didn’t matter where you went or what setting you were in, there would almost always be at least one.
Anna tapped the top file and said, “So, this is Jerry. He was admitted last Monday, the first day you left. He’s progressing and adapting slowly. As you can see, he’s got extensive physical issues, and we haven’t started his physiotherapy yet because, as soon as he arrived, he had a medical setback. He has pulled through at the moment, so, outside of keeping a tight watch and making sure the medications are working, the doctors are on it. By Monday we can start him on physiotherapy.”
Fiona nodded thoughtfully. “It’s funny how that happens, isn’t it? They get here all excited, and then it seems, in some cases, they have a complete relapse, and it’s back to the beginning again.”
“I wonder how much of it is all the shock and excitement of getting here or how much effort it took and if it was too much for the body,” Anna said.
“The thing is, he’s doing fine now.”
“And I see we have another new patient today,” Fiona said.
Anna smiled. “Yes. Finn, he’s a friend of Dani’s. He’s also a friend of Elliot’s.”
“I just had coffee with them. Or, I should say, I just met them while they were all having coffee,” she said. “So, Elliot, I presume, gave us a good reference to bring Finn in, and Dani, being the friend that she is, found him a spot.”
“Dani always tries to get everybody in who asks,” Anna said. “You know that.”
“She does, indeed. And it seems like she and Aaron are making a go of it, so I’m really happy for her. But, of course, her heart is so big, all she wants to do is help heal the world.”
“We need more people like her,” Anna said. “Just think how much nicer the world would be to live in if we had people like her running the country.”
Fiona chuckled. “Can you imagine?” she said. “Then again, we would all be healthy. We’d all be educated. We’d be treating each other nicely. And the world is so not like that.”
Anna looked at her watch and said, “I’ll introduce you to Jerry, and then we’ll see how Finn has settled in.”
“Sounds good,” Fiona said as she picked up her stack of files, put them on the table and then took her tablet. “I’m sure glad we’re digital here. I hear from friends in other places where they’re really behind and nobody wants to spend the budget money and pieces of paper are all over the place.”
“Well, we do both, don’t we?” Anna said, “We have paper and digital, but I think digital is the way of the future. It also helps keep track of what the doctors are up to.”
“True enough,” Fiona said. “Sometimes I wish I’d become a doctor.”
“Not me,” Anna said. “This is the level I’m happiest at. I’m great as a supporting staff, but I wouldn’t want to be the one making the frontline decisions.”
Fiona chuckled. “I hear you there,” she said. “So maybe I’m happy as a nurse and not a doctor after all.”