Annie O'Neil - The Nightshift Before Christmas

“Sorry, I’ve got to get to this patient.”

“Yup! I’m certainly looking forward to mine!” He mimed snapping on a pair of gloves with a guess-it’s-time-to-suck-it-up smile.

If she was feeling generous, she had to give it to him for keeping his cool. Assigning him a rectal examination as a “welcome gift” was not, she suspected, the reunion he had been hoping for. Then again, finding out her estranged husband would be her locum for the next week wasn’t much of a Christmas present for her, so tough again! Hadn’t two years’ worth of sending him divorce papers given him enough of a clue?

“Uh... Kate?”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to move so I can get my patient’s Christmas ornament back on the tree?”

“Yes!” she blurted, embarrassed to realize she’d been staring. “Yes, of course. I was just...” She stopped. She wasn’t “just” anything. She stepped back and let him pass.

“I’m happy to see you, too, Katiebird,” he said at the doorway, complete with one of those looks she knew could see straight through to her soul.

She rubbed her arms to force the accompanying goose bumps away.

“Me, too,” she whispered into the empty room. “Me, too.”

* * *

“Hello, there... Mr. Kingston? I understand you’ve got a bleeding—” Katie swiftly moved her eyes from the chart to the patient, instantly regretting that she’d wasted valuable time away from her patient.

Unable to resist the gore factor, the young man had lowered his hand below his heart and tugged off the temporary tourniquet the nurse had put in place. Blood was spurting everywhere. If he hadn’t looked so pale she would have told him off, but Ben Kingston looked like he was about to—

Oops!

Without a moment to spare Katie lurched forward, just managing to catch him in a hug before he slithered to the floor.

“Can I get a hand in here? We’ve got a fainter!”

Katie was only just managing to hold him on the exam table and smiled in thanks at the quick arrival of— Oh. It was Josh. Natch.

He quickly assessed the situation, wordlessly helping Katie shift the patient back onto the exam table, checking his airways were clear, loosening the young man’s buttoned-at-the-top shirt collar and loosening his snug belt buckle by a much-needed notch or two as she focused on stanching the flow of blood with a thick stack of sterile gauze.

“Got a couple extra pillows for foot elevation?”

“Yup.” Katie pointed to the locker where they stored extra blankets and pillows. “Would you mind handing me a digital tourniquet first? I’ll see if I can stem the bleeding properly while he’s still out.”

“Sure thing.” Josh stood for a moment, gloved hands held out from his body as they would be in surgery, and ran his eyes around the room to hunt down supplies.

“Sorry, they’re in the third drawer down— Wait!” Her eyes widened and dropped to Josh’s gloved hands. “Weren’t you in the middle of...?”

She felt a sharp jag of anger well up in her. Typical, Josh! Running to the rescue without thinking for a single moment about protocol! Was simple adherence to safe hygiene practices too much to ask?

“Done and dusted.” He nodded at the adjacent exam area. “He’s going through the paperwork with Jorja.” He took in her tightened lips and furrowed eyebrows and began to laugh. Waving his hands in the air, still laughing, he continued, “You didn’t think...? Katie West—”

“It’s McGann,” she corrected quietly.

“Yeah, whatever.” The smile and laughter instantly fell away. “I always double-glove during internal exams. These are perfectly clean. You should know me better than that.” His eyes shifted away from hers to the patient, the disappointment in his voice easy to detect. “You good here?”

She nodded, ashamed of the conclusion she’d leaped to. Josh was a good doctor. Through and through. It was the one thing she’d never doubted about him. He had a natural bedside manner. An ability to read a situation in an instant. Instinctual. All the things she wasn’t.

She slipped the ringed tourniquet onto the young man’s finger and checked his pulse again. It wasn’t strong, but he’d be all right with a bit of a rest and a finger no longer squirting an unhealthy portion of his ten pints of blood everywhere. He’d need a shot of lidocaine with epinephrine before she could properly sort it out, so she would need to wait for him to come to. Being halfway through an injection wasn’t the time when a patient should regain consciousness. Especially when Josh was leaping through curtained cubicles, coming to her rescue. She jiggled her shoulders up and down. It wouldn’t happen again.

“Are you nervous, Doc?”

“Ah! You’re back with us!” Katie turned around in time to stop the young man from pushing himself up to a seated position. “Why don’t you just lie back for a while, okay? I have a feeling your finger didn’t start bleeding half an hour ago, like it says in your chart, Ben.”

He looked at her curiously.

“Is it okay if I call you Ben?”

“You can call me what you like as long as you stitch me up and get me outta here, Doc! It’s Christmas Eve. I’ve got places to go...things to do—”

“Someone to drive you home?” Katie interrupted. “After your fainting spell, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to get behind a wheel.”

“And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to boss someone around on Christmas Eve!”

Katie backed away from Ben as his voice rose and busied herself with getting the prep tray ready. Emotions ran high on days like this. Especially if the patient had had one too many cups of “cheer.” Unusual to encounter one on the day shift, but it took all kinds.

“Cheer” morphed into cantankerous pretty quickly, and Ben definitely had a case of that going on. She stared at the curtain separating her from her colleagues, knowing she’d be better off if there was someone else in the room when she put in the stitches.

She sucked in a breath and pulled the curtain away. “Can I get a hand in here?” She dived back into the cubicle before she could see who was coming. Josh or no Josh, she needed to keep her head down and get the work done.

“Everything all right, Dr. McGann?”

At the sound of Jorja’s voice, Katie felt an unexpected twist of disappointment. It wasn’t like she’d been hoping it would be Josh. Her throat tightened. Oh, no... Of all the baked beans in Boston Harbor... Had she? Clear your throat. Paste on a smile.

“Yes, great. Thank you, Jorja. Nothing serious, just thought we could do with an extra pair of hands now that Mr. Kingston here has rejoined us.”

* * *

Josh tried his best to focus on the intern’s voice as he talked him through how he saw things panning out on Christmas Eve based on absolutely zero experience, but he couldn’t. All he could hear was Katie, talking her patient and the nurse through the procedure in that clear voice she had. The patient had definitely enjoyed a bit of Christmas punch before he’d arrived, and Josh didn’t trust him not to start throwing a few if he was too far gone.

“Hey.” He interrupted the intern. “What did you say your name was again?”

“Michael,” the young doctor replied, unable to keep the dismay from his face. He’d been on a roll.

Tough. Fictional projections weren’t going to help what was actually happening.

“Michael, what’s your policy on patients who’ve had a few too many?” He mimed tossing back some shots.

“Oh—each ER head is different, but Katie usually calls the police.” He looked around the ER as if expecting to see someone stagger by. “Why?”

“Just curious.” He gave Michael’s shoulder a friendly clap with his hand, hoping it would bring an end to the conversation. “Thanks for all the tips,” he added, which did the trick.