Lori Avocato - Dead On Arrival

So I sat there staring at him in the little Victorian kitchen, which looked more like a librarian lived here than a macho paramedic, thinking, What the hell am I going to do? when the urge to kiss him shocked the hell out of me.

I made some excuse about seeing the rest of the house. At least it was an interesting place, and he bought my reasoning for taking the unguided tour while he rested. Naturally Dano had not volunteered to show me around, but had merely shrugged and sat himself at the kitchen table to read the daily newspaper.

Since he hadn’t seemed to mind, I walked through the dining room, which had old mahogany furniture, chairs with needlepoint mauve roses, lacy curtains that looked genuine and antiques-in the corner was an old China tea set on a lace-covered pedestal table.

I had to shake my head. There was an air to the house of antiquity, yet it was freshly kept up and not musty, as one might expect. He had to have inherited this place. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine Dano decorating in this taste. Then again, he lived here without changing anything. Hmm.

ER Dano was one hell of a dichotomy.

In the living room, I sat on the rose-colored Victorian couch. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing; as a matter of fact it made me think of how prim and proper ladies must have been in the Victorian era. They had to be, to sit this straight. White porcelain vases holding silken floral arrangements sat on the sideboards. Wait a minute. I got up and walked to them and ran a finger along the petals, which came off in my hands.

Real flowers.

Real flowers? Dano had real flowers in his house? Man. This was almost creepy. I turned to see him standing in the doorway. Whoops.

“Hey,” I mumbled.

He nodded. “I’m beat. Going up to bed. Remember, not too close when you annoy the hell out of me.”

I smiled. “Um, Dan. These flowers are beautiful. Did you arrange them?” Now if there was one thing I just knew ER Dano would not want to talk about, it would be flowers.

But he looked at them and said, “My therapist had me take a freaking course in floral arrangement.”

I laughed. “Yeah, right. Really. Did you do them?”

He walked over to them and poignantly took a brown petal from a rose much like he’d done outside. “My old lady had a greenhouse. She taught my sister, and I used to watch-as a kid. And, the therapist part is true.” He turned and looked past me as if his mom and maybe sister were in the doorway. “Helps. They help.” With that he walked out of the room and up the staircase.

I stood there and thought, I’ll bet it does. Anything to take his mind off the daily tragedies of life that ER and the crew of TLC faced.

My eyelids fluttered. The annoying buzzing tickled my ears, and I opened one eye to look at the digital clock on the bedside table. Midnight. Geez. I thought it was time to get up for work. I turned over and shut my eyes-then realized this wasn’t my bed.

I sat bolt upright and I looked around the old Victorian room where I’d been sleeping. Oh, right. D-day. Time to take my life into my hands and check on Dano. I’d peeked in on him just before I’d gone to sleep myself, but he’d been awake and growled the date and time as I’d said good night.

As I rolled out of bed and slipped on my shoes, I had to smile. I’m sure he was fine, since his attitude never adjusted one second.

When I padded down the short hallway, I noticed light coming from under his door. Hmm. Maybe Dano couldn’t sleep and was up reading. I slowly eased the door open despite the squeaking sound the old thing made.

Dano was fast asleep. The Tiffany lamp on his bedside table was still lit. Oh well. Guess he dozed off and forgot to shut it off. I only hoped he hadn’t gotten too tired because of the head injury. Purposely I walked to the edge of the bed, reminding myself of my nursing days. It almost felt as if I were making my rounds on the unit where I used to work.

“Ah. No. No!” Dano mumbled.

“Are you-” I started to say until I realized he was sound asleep.

Dano talked in his sleep. But the thing was, he sounded disturbed by something. Suddenly he lashed out with a left jab.

I stepped back. Geez! He could have knocked me out with that one. I remembered what he’d said about not getting close. Dano must have known that he was a restless sleeper. A very restless sleeper.

He tossed and turned, still mumbling, so I got as close as I could, thinking I could move back fast if need be, and said, “Dano. Dan, it’s Pauline.”

I stepped back as Dano suddenly sat upright.

“Dan?” I asked.

But he merely looked my way in a glassy stare. Not a word, and he was out of bed and walking toward the door. Dressed in black boxers and no tee shirt, Dano looked hunky, but when I realized he was sleepwalking, I had other things on my mind other than how hot he looked.

What should I do?

My sister Mary had a child who walked in his sleep and the doctor had told her never to try and wake him. Dano was out the door already! So I hurried to follow him but found him standing in the hallway, rubbing his head as if in pain.

“No. No. I should have. I should have given the epi. She died because of…” His eyes locked on me. He paused, blinked. “What the hell?”

Dano had woken himself up with some nightmare that sounded like an ambulance run gone bad. It wasn’t any that I’d been on with him, as I didn’t remember a patient needing epinephrine. No. Dano must have relived a case from the past.

Standing there, looking at this hunk of a guy appearing so confused and upset, I had to wonder how long it had taken for him to burn out from such a stressful job.

Soon enough to commit fraud for money?

“I’m fine,” he growled and headed into his room.

When I went to the doorway, he was already under the sheets with eyes shut. “Good,” I said.

“Thursday. It’s freaking Thursday, Nightingale. Go to sleep.”

I nodded and mumbled, “Technically, it’s already Friday.”

“Semantics,” he said, and I knew his head was fine.

But what demons did ER Dano face on a nightly basis?

I tossed and turned in the bed with the too-soft mattress, knowing that I couldn’t fall into a deep sleep, or I might not get up to check on Dano. Then again, I also knew he might show up at my doorway in a sleepwalking state.

That one kept me awake the longest.

But I reminded myself that I worked tomorrow, or later today, and had to get some rest or not be in any shape to assess or treat patients. With my luck, I’d get a helicopter run.

“Aye!”

I flew up to the sound of shouting coming from ER Dano’s room. Damn! Thank goodness I’d had the common sense to wear real clothes and not pajamas. I jumped out of bed and ran down the hallway.

He wasn’t up but was flailing back and forth in the bed, arms swinging as if in a fight, and pillows flying.

“Oomph!” One hit me in the stomach and, if it were heavier, it would have knocked me over. As it was, it knocked the wind out of me. The damn feather pillow weighed more than Spanky!

Dano continued on until I could no longer stand watching. I cautiously stepped forward, remembering how the patient had hit him today. If I got knocked out, I’d be no good to Dano.

“Hey. Dan. I’m here. It’s all right. You’re dreaming,” I said in the softest yet clearest voice I could manage. Enough to wake him up, yet quiet enough not to startle him.

I knew I had to rescue ER Dano from his dreams, his nightmares…himself.

I got close enough to touch his arm, all the while using soft words to calm him down. I grabbed it until he quieted and stopped fighting me.

As if a switch turned him off, he stopped immediately, looked me in the eyes and shut his.