Danger Zone

-Chapter 2-

Courtney's Point of View

I could have sworn I heard Bradley say something before I walked out of his room but my ears could be deceiving me especially at this time of night. Once I got back to the nurse's station I took some notes and jotted down some updates for Bradley's medical chart. I then pulled my phone out of my scrubs pocket and set a timer for 2 hours. In 2 hours I would go back to Bradley's room and check on him, since he has a concussion I have to wake him up every few hours so I know he isn't going to fall into a coma. Since working at the medical center I have seen so many concussions; which have ranged from not too bad to dangerous. When concussions go from 0 to 100 so quickly they scare me the most.

While I sat in one of the swivel chairs behind the desk of the nurse's station one of my closest friends was just coming to clock in for the day. Josie and I were hired on at the same time together, so ever since then we have been extremely close. After Josie clocked in and set all of her things down she came and sat in one of the swivel chairs next to me. "So how has it been so far?" She asked. I turned in my seat so I could face her before answering with "it's been something alright. I'm already assigned to one patient." She leaned forward and said "already? Lord what happened? Was it anything serious?" I leaned back before saying "well it's one of the Naval Aviators from the Naval Station." She looked at me wide eyed before saying "oh gosh usually those are pretty serious." I shook my head and said "I know right, but this one isn't so bad. The guys were playing football on the beach and one of them sprained his ankle and got a concussion."

"That definitely is a pretty mild injury then." She said. She then asked "well is he hot?" One thing you need to know about Josie and I is that we are boy crazy. I giggled before I answered her by saying "yes thank goodness it's a pretty mild injury. Oh my gosh Josie I can't believe you just said that." She then said "well is he? If you claim him then maybe he has a friend for me." I couldn't stop blushing once she said that. She could immediately tell by my ever flushing cheeks that I thought that Bradley was cute. She then said "oh you must give me all of the details."
As I was about to begin my timer on my phone went off. I looked at her and said "saved by the bell." Josie just shook her head and laughed before saying "I'll get all the hot gossip from you later Courtney." I grabbed my notepad and clipboard before taking off down the hallway to Bradley's room.

Once I got there I slowly opened the door and walked inside. I set my things down on the small table in the room. I then checked my watch for the time and it was right on the dot midnight. I wrote the time down on the white board and on my clipboard. After I had everything written down I walked over to where Bradley was. I bent down a little bit and slowly placed my hands on his right shoulder. I shook him slightly while saying "Hey Bradley. I need you to wake up for me. It's been 2 hours." That didn't wake him up, so I thought to myself what could I do? I then thought about something... I took my hands off of his shoulder and placed one in his right hand. I squeezed his hand before repeating what I had just said to him. After saying it this time I felt his hand squeeze mine back. He then let go of mine so he could rub his eyes before looking at me. He then asked me "what time is it?" I looked down at my watch before answering back and saying "it's a little after midnight; 12:10 to be exact."

He looked at me and smiled before saying "damn that's it? I feel like I have been asleep for ages now." I laughed and then said "nope it's only been 2 hours. Now that you are awake I have to have you stay awake for an hour before you can go back to sleep again." He looked at me wide eyed and said "hold up you never said anything about that? I'm ready to be sleeping again." When he said that I laughed and said "I figured you would have known that. I mean it is common sense with a concussion." He scoffed and said "do I look like a doctor to you?" He then said "well if I have to be be up for an hour are you going to stay with me? I mean since you are my assigned nurse after all, we should be getting to know each other and do some late night talking."

I stood there stunned for a few minutes. I had never had someone ask me to stay with them let alone say they want to get to know me before. After I processed what he had said I simply nodded and said to him "it would be my honor Lieutenant Bradshaw." He smiled and said "well pull up a chair then."

We began by just telling each other about ourselves. "I'm sure you already know but I'll formally introduce myself to you. My name is Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw. I am a Naval Aviator for the VFA-87 Golden Warriors, I specialize in flying F/A-18E Super Hornet. And my call sign is "Rooster." Tell me something about you pretty girl." I smiled at him before saying "My name is Courtney Alden. I am a registered nurse. I have been working here at this medical center for 4 years now. I mainly work here in the Emergency Room." After I said that I then asked Bradley  "have you grown up here in California all your life?" He responded back with "yeah I have. I've pretty much been at the Naval Station. My dad was a Lieutenant, Naval Flight Officer, and RIO." "What about you?" He asked. "I actually grew up in San Mateo, California. That is super cool that you have grown up here near or at the Naval Station." He replied back and said "yeah it was pretty cool actually. My dad is a huge inspiration to me."

After talking and learning more about one another the timer on my watch went off and it was time for Bradley to get some more sleep. I made sure he was comfortable before saying "I'll be back at around 3 o'clock or so to wake up up again." He smiled and said "okay, thank you for staying with me for that last hour. I really enjoyed it." I smiled at him and said "it is no problem at all. I quite enjoyed it myself."