Radclyffe - Love On Call

Flann grinned. “Well, if it ever is…that—one of us, me or your mom, we’ll probably know something about whatever that is.”

“Yeah. Maybe. Sure.”

Flann resisted the urge to tousle his hair, but she really wanted to. He was so sweet, although she’d never say so. Teenage boys weren’t sweet, not in their minds. But he was. He was good and kind and sensitive. She deeply, deeply feared he was going to get his ass kicked more than once, more than most teenagers. She didn’t want that to happen. Wouldn’t let it happen if she could help it. She squeezed his shoulder. “I gotta get back to work. I’ll see you at home tonight.”

“Right.”

Flann turned away, and Blake called to her. “Hey, Flann?”

Flann looked over her shoulder, one dark eyebrow raised.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Blake peeked into his mother’s office. She was sitting behind her desk, her head tilted back, her eyes closed. He wasn’t sure if he should interrupt or not but she knew he was there, she always did.

“Come on in,” she said, eyes still closed. “Is there blood?”

“No, no injuries.”

“Good.” Abby opened her eyes. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Margie were going on rounds with the vet.”

“I was going to, and then I thought I’d come talk to you instead.”

“Okay. Is something wrong?” She had a horrible thought. “Please, please don’t tell me you want to move back to the city, because that is so impossible.”

“No way,” Blake said dismissively. “I don’t ever want to move from here. But Margie and I were talking.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Come on, Mom,” Blake said in his long-suffering tone.

Abby laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I know the two of you never come up with anything together except brilliant ideas. So what is it?”

“We decided that we need to get as much clinical experience as we can, before we get our formal training and set up practice together.”

“Meaning?” Abby said, wondering if either of them would ever go through with their teenage dream to become vets, return to the community, and set up a practice together. She’d wanted to be a doctor as long as she could remember, and she’d never wavered, but many teenagers their age changed their minds about the future along with their hairstyles. Add to that the fact Margie had never had much experience outside her hometown and Blake’s big city exposure hadn’t been exactly great—they both had a lot of the world left to see. “So did you change your game plan?”

“No, but we thought we should get some human experience as well as, you know, animal.”

“I see. Humans not being animals.”

“You know what I mean, Mom.”

“It’s a good idea. A lot of techniques in human medicine are applicable to veterinary medicine, and believe it or not, there’s actually some crossover the other way around. What were the two of you thinking?”

“That we’d split the summer,” he went on quickly. “I’d start here and Margie would start with Dr. Valentine, and then we’d switch.”

“Doing what?”

“Well,” Blake said slowly, “that’s kind of where I thought you could help. Like…I don’t know—whatever you need us to do, volunteering, I mean.” He grimaced. “And I don’t mean standing around greeting visitors.”

“Honey, this isn’t Home Depot. We don’t have greeters.”

“That’s good.”

“Give me a minute.” Abby sorted facts. They were both sixteen, or Blake would be in a few days. Legally they could do volunteer work at the hospital. Unpaid, but that was only fair, considering they were also completely unskilled. They were both bright, mature, and sensitive kids. “We could use a volunteer in the ER, and I bet Flann could use one in the OR.”

“Really?” Blake’s heart skyrocketed. “That would be incredible.”

“Do you have any idea what that would be like?” Abby said gently. “Those are two of the most challenging areas of the hospital. The patients we see are often very sick or seriously injured, even dying. It wouldn’t be easy, and it might be scary.”

“You do it every day. So does Flann.”

“I know, and it never gets any easier.” Abby tried not to think of the Hoffertins and the still, pale body of the beautiful young girl on the cold stainless steel table, her mother and father broken in grief. “And it’s still hard on us too.”

“I think we can do it, both of us. Please, Mom. We could help.”

“It would be mostly scut—taking things to the lab, helping the nurses change sheets and clean rooms, that kind of thing.”

“That’s okay. We’d still see things, learn things.”

“I’ll have to talk to Presley and Harper and make sure they’re all right with it. And clear it with Flann too, but I’m sure she would love another body up in the OR to help out.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Blake just about vibrated while managing to stay in one place. “I’m gonna call Margie and let her know.”

“Tell her it’s not a done deal,” Abby called after him.

“Got it.”

She smiled as his footsteps disappeared down the hall. In a few short months, he’d transformed, not just physically as he transitioned, but emotionally and psychologically. He was happy now. His happiness filled her with joy.

And his life wasn’t the only one that had changed. She thought of Flann and the night ahead. Still smiling, she speed-dialed a number and waited. “Glenn? Let’s get the newbies into the conference room and bring them all up to speed.”

Chapter Six

Mari slumped on the narrow bench across from her locker and tried to summon the energy to pull out her purse and drag her weary body down the hill, through town, and back to her apartment. Twenty more minutes of movement seemed like an eternity. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so tired. She could, actually, but then she hadn’t been just tired, she’d been drained of everything: energy, will, even hope. Not now, though. This was an altogether different form of exhaustion. This was the aftermath of a campaign waged and won. Beneath the nagging ache in the small of her back, the twinge of pain in her calves, and the faint harbinger of a headache throbbing at the base of her skull, she felt anything but hopeless. She hadn’t worked so hard in over a year, and she’d been so busy all day, she hadn’t been able to think of anything except the patients, their families, and her obligations. When she wasn’t treating one of them, or discussing a case with Abby or Jason Monroe, the other ER doc, she was supervising one of the new students. And somewhere in the midst of all of that, she’d had to meet with Glenn to review the curriculum, only to discover she had a lecture to give the next morning at seven a.m. She looked at her watch. In exactly twelve hours.

Mari closed her eyes and groaned.

“How are you doing?” Glenn said from somewhere so close behind her, Mari jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bother you.”

“No,” Mari said, springing up on suddenly shaky legs. She caught herself with an outstretched arm on the lockers. “You didn’t. I was just…thinking.”

Glenn frowned. “You look a little whupped.”

“Long day.” Mari opened her locker, fished out her bag, and slung it over her shoulder. She smiled brightly—at least she hoped she looked perkier than she felt. She wasn’t sick, she knew the difference, but she didn’t want any questions about her doing the job. “Good day, though. I think I’m still on West Coast time.”

“Uh-huh.” Glenn leaned her shoulder against the bank of lockers. Mari was trying to pretend she wasn’t almost out on her feet, and she wouldn’t embarrass her by telling her the act wasn’t working. She appreciated pride, and guts. It had been a good day, different than what she was used to, but surprisingly satisfying. If she wasn’t used to eighteen-hour days she’d be beat herself. After the chaos of the mass casualty alert first thing in the morning, four bright-eyed and eager PA students had arrived on their doorstep, greener than green, and they had a full board backed up of routine patients to see. Some of them had already been waiting several hours. Glenn had planned a full morning of orientation talks and tours for the students, but patients came first. The newbies didn’t seem to mind. Their first clinical rotation and Glenn had to sort them out on the fly, get them assigned to a senior supervisor, make sure they understood the chain of command, and keep an eye on them all day. Overseeing new troops in the field whose entire orientation included little more than an exchange of names wasn’t anything new, and at least under the current circumstances, they weren’t likely to get themselves blown up if they made a mistake. But the potential was there, figuratively if not literally, for them to FUBAR a trusting civilian, and that was unacceptable. So Glenn spent the whole day with eyes on the students even though each had their own assigned supervisor.