Arlene James - His Private Nurse

“What the hell do you mean she’s not coming in?” Royce demanded of the male nurse easing his bandaged leg down onto the pillows arranged to accept it. Knowing that he was going to lose the traction bar soon was a great relief, but it seemed secondary to the fact that Nurse Gage wouldn’t be tending to it. “She has to come in. She’s a nurse, and she has patients who depend on her.”

“She also has days off just like everyone else,” the man told him, his smile flashing white in his dark, squarish face. “I, Carlos, will take care of you today.”

Royce tamped down his impatience and forced a smile. “Great. That’s great. Uh, when did you say Merrily, er, Nurse Gage would be back?”

Carlos shrugged, saying off-handedly, “Day after tomorrow.”

The day after? But he was due to check out of here tomorrow! Wildly he thought of stalling that for a day, but the idea of spending one more night in this torture chamber made him shudder. He might have done it if he’d been able to see his kids, but Pamela had decreed the hospital too traumatic for them, and under the circumstances he was forced to agree, so his only contact with them had been by telephone, when he could convince that suspicious nanny that he was who he said he was and should be allowed to talk to them. No, he had to get out of here so he could schedule a real visit, and the sooner the better, but that brought up a whole other set of problems.

He really couldn’t manage on his own, but he would not go to his parents’ house. Dale was well-meaning but no one’s idea of a nurse, even if he could’ve spared the time from his busy practice to play that role. So Dale was calling home care agencies looking for someone to stay with Royce for the next few weeks. Royce grimaced at the thought of some stranger living in his house helping him tend to his most intimate needs, but what else could he do? Unless… He realized suddenly what had been in the back of his mind almost from the moment he’d been told he would be going home soon. It probably wouldn’t work, but he knew that he’d kick himself later if he didn’t at least try.

“Listen,” he said as the nurse turned away. “I have a favor to ask. It’s real important to me.”

The man shrugged good-naturedly. “Sure, as long as it is not against doctor’s orders.”

“It’s not against doctor’s orders,” Royce promised him. “I just need you to contact Merrily, I mean Nurse Gage, for me. Can you do that?”

Obviously surprised, the man stroked his chin. “I don’t know. Personally I hate to be called on my day off.”

“Please,” Royce said. “If you could just get her a message, tell her I need to see her… Look, I’ll pay you. It’s that important.”

The man seemed insulted. “You do not have to pay me. If it is that important to you, I will see what I can do.”

Royce relaxed slightly. “Thanks. H-how soon? I mean, how soon can you call her?”

Carlos Espinoza glanced at his watch. “I have a break in about forty minutes. I will try then.”

Forty minutes. Royce bit his tongue to keep from urging the fellow to make the call now, immediately, instantly. Forty minutes, and then how long before he heard from her? Would he hear from her at all?

Merrily sat in the kitchen thumbing through a magazine. When the phone rang, she didn’t even look up, knowing that Jody would prefer to get it himself. A moment later, when he yelled for her, she felt a mild spurt of surprise. Rising from the table, she walked to the end of the bar that separated the den from the kitchen. Jody sat in his recliner, staring at the television screen.

“What is it, Jody?”

He didn’t look away from the screen. “That call was for you.”

She folded her arms. “Why did you hang up, then?”

“Guy said that a Mr. Lawler wants to see you. I said I’d pass the message. That was it.”

Royce! For a moment she stood frozen in place. He wanted to see her. She didn’t stop to wonder what he wanted or why it was important enough to contact her at home. She didn’t question who had actually made the call or when or how she was supposed to make contact with Royce Lawler. She only knew that he wanted her, and that was more than enough at the moment.

“I’m going out,” she announced as she moved back through the kitchen. Jody shouted at her that it was too late to be going out, though in truth it was only a little past eight. Ignoring him, she grabbed her handbag from her room and, mindless of the sandals, shorts and simple tank top that she wore, darted out through the garage door.

Her small, two-door car sat curbside in front of the house. Lane, who was in construction, always got the garage because the tools piled in the back of his pickup were liable to be stolen if he left the truck out, or so he claimed. Merrily couldn’t help recalling that when their parents had been at home and their mother had parked her car in the garage, Lane’s truck had sat beside their father’s in the drive and nothing had ever disappeared from the back of his truck then. Now Jody parked in the drive, leaving one side free for Lane to come and go, and she and Kyle jockeyed for position curbside in front of the house.

For once, Merrily was glad that she didn’t have to back out of the garage past Jody’s SUV and ease between Kyle’s sedan and the neighbor’s minivan into the street. It was much easier just to jump behind the wheel and take off. By the time Jody figured out she wasn’t paying him any mind, heaved himself up out of the recliner and made it to the front door to yell at her again, she was already pulling away from the curb.

The hospital was less than ten minutes away from the house, which was one reason her parents had agreed three years earlier that she should take the job there. She had never regretted the decision. She loved nursing. She was good at it, and the money was generous enough to allow her to pay off her school loans in record time, make a substantial down payment on the sporty little economy car she was driving and stash a sizable amount in savings every month.

As she parked in the employee’s lot and hurried into the hospital, she thought again that she really ought to move out on her own. She could afford it. Why she should consider doing so now, however, was something she did not want to address. Instead, she concentrated on getting where she wanted to. The moment she entered his room, however, she realized that she could have chosen a more opportune moment to visit, since the room was already crowded with medical staff, all of whom clustered around the side and foot of his bed.

The traction rod had been removed, and they were in the process of replacing the heavy bandages on his right leg with a stabilizer, which was really just a heavy elastic bandage with steel rods attached and Velcro closures. It would serve in place of the old-fashioned plaster cast, such as the one on his right arm and shoulder, and allow the doctors to periodically check the surgery incisions required to properly set his leg bones. After counting four practitioners, including the doctor, his assistant and two nurses, Merrily knew that she didn’t need to be in that room at that moment.

All thought of beating a hasty retreat evaporated when Royce spotted her and exclaimed, “Merrily! Hey. Come on in.”

Carlos Espinoza glanced over one shoulder, grinned and said, “That was fast.”

So it was Carlos who had left that message.

Royce waved her over, exclaiming, “Free at last! Man, that traction stuff is for the birds.”

“If you don’t stay off this leg,” the doctor warned from the stool rolled close to the bed, “you’ll be right back in it.”

“Don’t worry,” Royce replied meaningfully. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

The doctor looked up at Merrily, who had moved to stand next to the head of the bed, and said, “See to it that he doesn’t.”

She thought it odd that he should direct his orders specifically at her, but she just nodded. The orderly at the doctor’s elbow slid the spread stabilizer beneath Royce’s leg, which the two nurses held suspended slightly above the bed. Bright red with white trim, the contraption would be hard to miss in the weeks it would have to be worn. The nurses gently lowered Royce’s leg, and though he winced when it met the padded lining of the stabilizer, he winked at Merrily and said softly, “Thanks for coming.”

She just smiled and shifted her weight self-consciously. At the exact same moment, Carlos started to turn away from the bed. The two bumped, and Carlos apologized cheerily, though Merrily felt her face glow red with the knowledge that it was her fault. What was it about Royce Lawler that turned all her fingers to thumbs and her feet to blocks of clay?

As Carlos left the room, Merrily grasped at something to say to deflect attention from her clumsiness. “I see the IV and morphine pump are gone.”

“He’ll be getting a shot of painkiller when we’re done here,” the doctor said, threading a strap through the metal loop opposite and carefully tightening it. “And he’ll have to continue taking those injections for a while. The anti-inflammatory and antibiotics can be taken by mouth. I’ll leave prescriptions at the nurses’ station. The leg should be kept dry and elevated as much as possible. I’ll see him again in about a week. You’ll have to call my office for an appointment.”

Again, it seemed as if the doctor was speaking directly to her, but Merrily dismissed that and said to Royce, “Did you get all that?”

“Got it,” he replied, smiling. Those heavenly blue eyes seemed to be trying to telegraph her a message, but she wasn’t receiving.

The doctor finished what he was doing and got up off the stool. “Okay, that about does it. Nurse Gage, would you lift the foot of his bed, please?” Merrily bent to activate that function of the bed. The doctor went on as the other two practitioners left the room. “I suggest you rent a wheelchair for use at home and when you have to be out in public, which you really should keep to a minimum for several more weeks. I’ll see to it that your dismissal packet has a list of equipment providers in it.” He peeled off his latex gloves and added, “I’ll see you in the morning about six, and you should be ready to go by ten. Takes a few hours to process the paperwork. Any questions?”

He looked first at Royce, then at her. Merrily just looked at Royce, who shook his head and said, “Nope. None I can think of at the moment. Thanks, Doc, for everything.”

The doctor smiled and nodded, then he pointedly addressed Merrily again, saying, “Do me a favor, will you? Keep him away from stairs. I don’t want to have to put him back together again.”

Merrily blinked and opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn’t think what to say to that, so she simply closed it again and nodded.

The doctor dropped his gloves into the appropriate waste receptacle. “I leave you in capable hands then,” he said, and with that walked out.

Merrily stared at the door as it slowly swung shut behind him. “Well. That was odd.” She turned her attention back to Royce. “He kept talking to me like I’m your personal nurse or something.”

Royce ducked his head sheepishly. “I, um, might have, like, accidentally led him to believe that.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m not supposed to leave here unless I have someone who can take care of me.”

“But you don’t,” she immediately deduced.

“Uh, not yet.”

Was this what he wanted to speak to me about? Disappointment skewered her. “Okay, well, I can recommend a couple of reputable agencies.”