to fill me in?” Offering to listen was one of the things she did best. Though she often couldn’t change things, listening helped. Stress was an everpresent issue for healthcare workers. Venting could help.
“Head-on crash. Damn drunk driver going the wrong way on the highway access.” He shook his head and reached for a suture kit.
“Oh, my.” The nerves that had been rumbling inside her now shot to every corner of her mind and heart. A few seconds passed before she had control of the emotions that wanted to go wild. Her parents had been killed by a drunk driver when she’d been twenty years old, her sister twelve. An incident that had turned her instantly into the main carer of her young sister. Each time she dealt with the situation again, she had to keep her emotional distance to get the job done. Some wounds never healed completely and this was one of them.
Looking down at the patient between them, she stroked his hair back from his face with a hand that trembled. “In those sorts of crashes, everyone suffers, don’t they?”
The cardiac alarm rang out, and Piper’s gaze flashed to the monitor. Her heart rate accelerated along with the patient’s. Something was going on that they hadn’t picked up on yet. “He’s having EKG changes.”
“Sixty-cc syringe with a cardiac needle—now.” Taylor moved out from the head of the stretcher to the patient’s left side. “No time for niceties, just get it ready.”
“Here.” Piper placed the syringe into his open hand. Urgency hummed through her, and she hoped that Taylor’s efforts could save the patient. Even in the right place at the right time with all of the best medical care available, people still didn’t make it.
Without a word, Taylor placed the tip of the needle between two ribs below the man’s left armpit and inserted it as far as it would go. Blood immediately flashed into the syringe and Taylor extracted excessive blood from the pericardial sac, which was causing pressure on the heart. This was why the heart sounds had been muffled.
“He’s bleeding into the pericardium. We really need to get him to the OR.”
“Are they expecting him?” The alarm continued to screech, and Piper reached up to silence it, the noise making her nerves jump more than they already were.
“Yes. We put them on alert when we got the call.”
Glancing at the monitor, Piper was pleased to see the lethal rhythm resolving. The patient wasn’t out of danger, but at least the immediate crisis was over. “Nice one, Doc.”
“He had a chest contusion, so it was expected. Let’s get this guy to the OR.” Dr. Jenkins removed his goggles and mask.
Piper paused for a brief second, then continued to pack the patient’s IV for transport. When she’d looked up at Taylor, a shock of electricity had shot through her. He was simply the most handsome man she’d ever seen. Even with a two-day growth of beard, the shape of his strong jaw was clearly visible. His full mouth curved up slightly as if he were reacting to some slight amusement. But it was his eyes that devastated her the most. Blue, crystal clear, and piercing, they were look-right-into-your-soul eyes.
She had to focus on the patient and not on the flutters that rolled in her stomach. She hadn’t reacted this way when his face had been covered, so why should she now? He had been just another doctor she’d worked with, right? But unmasked? Oh, he was absolutely gorgeous.
“Piper? Are you ready?” Taylor asked, and shrugged into his lab jacket.
“Yes, Doctor. Just finishing.” She clamped the transport monitor onto the rail of the stretcher.
“It’s Taylor, please.”
“Okay, thanks.” She smiled at him and swallowed down the bubble of attraction that wanted to surface. “Ready to go, but you’ll have to lead the way. I don’t know where the OR is.”
“Happy to.” Taylor grabbed a rail on the stretcher and assisted Piper to push the patient down the hall where an OR team waited to put him back together again. Taylor gave his verbal report to the surgeon, and Piper gave hers to the anesthesiologist.
After handing the patient off, Taylor was ready for a break. The new nurse had certainly had her trial by fire and survived, so he was sure she could use a break, too.
“Ready for a cup of coffee?” he asked, and led the way back to the ER and to the staff lounge.
“I should really check in with the charge nurse and let her know I’m here.”
They entered the staff lounge. Someone had brewed a fresh pot, as the bright fragrance of exotic coffee hung in the air. Piper sniffed appreciatively, and her eyes went soft. “Oh. I suppose one cup first won’t hurt, will it?”
“Hardly.” Taylor poured for them, and Piper fixed hers with milk and half a packet of sweetener. “It’s not like you weren’t working. Emily just didn’t know it.” “Emily is the charge nurse, then?” Piper asked, and plopped down into a chair.
“Yes. She was with one of the other traumas that didn’t survive.” He hated that. Hated that he couldn’t fix each and every patient that came through his doors no matter the cause.
“Oh. It’s tough to lose patients that you work hard on, isn’t it?” There was something in her eyes that was vulnerable, painful, but it wasn’t any of his business.
“Yes, it is. Especially when the problems could be prevented.” Taylor sat beside her and tried not to think of the two patients he’d lost that morning. Though the odds had been stacked against survival from the start, he still felt like a failure when patients under his care died right in front of him. He didn’t like to lose.
His cellphone rang.
“Dr. Jenkins.”
He listened for a moment with his eyes closed and a finger pinching the bridge of his nose. “And just how messy is it, Alex?”
Pause as he listened. “Can you clean it up by yourself?”
More listening. Bigger headache forming behind his eyes.
“I’ll come home at lunch. Don’t worry about the stain on the carpet. Or the walls. Or the couch. It’s okay. See you at lunchtime.”
Amusement fairly sparkled off Piper as he looked at her.
“What?” There was nothing amusing about his end of the conversation.
“Nothing.” She sipped her coffee, but couldn’t hide the gleam in her eyes. “Your son home alone?”
“Nephew. Staying with me for…” he looked at his digital watch “…five more weeks and six days.”
“Not counting down the days, are you?” she asked.
“No, just the seconds.” He showed his watch to her and the time counting down every second of that period.
“You’re serious. You’re really counting down the time like that?” Her blue eyes widened as she looked at him in surprise.
“I’m doing my sister a favor, and that’s when the favor ends.” Not one moment longer. He had a life to live, airplanes to jump out of and mountains to climb, all before the summer ended. Putting his life on hold was a temporary measure. Very temporary.
“I take it you aren’t happy your nephew is with you?” she asked, then paused. “Not that it’s any of my business, I realize.”
“It’s not that I’m not happy. It’s just a completely different way of life than I’m used to. People here are taking bets on how long it will be before I drag my sister home from California to take Alex back.” He leaned his head on the back of the couch and groaned. There were headaches and then there were headaches.
“Oh, that’s so sad,” she said, but laughed.
“No, what’s sad is that he opened a grape soda on my couch, carpet and walls.” Not that it