Living with the Nurse

Chapter 23: Jess

Nick was gone, having left for work hours ago- but he was still on my mind. Or at least an image of Nick was. I had gotten up and done Lucy's early morning cares, and gone to the bathroom. I had been able to see Nick on his bed, his door wide open. The light from my room made sure I didn't miss a detail. He was buck naked, not a stitch on him. There was a blanket over his legs, as if he had kicked it off sometime through the night.

He had at least been facing away from me, so the only thing I saw was his back. And ass. I had wanted to bite that ass. Instead, I had used the toilet and returned to my room. Nick may have stared in some R rated dreams, and he was still on my mind now. It was almost time for him to come home, too. I needed to clear my head and stop thinking about him. Or at least stop thinking about his ass. Sighing heavily, I glanced outside. It was still pretty warm, perfect weather for the park.

"Lucy, you wanna go to the park?"

~~~

Walker was already there, as if he lived there or something. I grinned at him, sending a wave his way. Moose spotted us, racing over. Lucy squealed, arms waving in excitement. As soon as Moose was close enough, she had her fingers through his fur. I grinned, petting Moose while Walker ambled over. He pecked me on the cheek, a usual greeting on his part.

"How are you?" I had forgotten how much of a bedroom voice he had, always at that low octave that probably drove women insane. Personally, I preferred Nick's voice. Especially when he was half asleep and all gravelly.

"Great. You?" He grinned at me, a cheeky one full of promise. It wasn't doing anything for me. I should have been undressing him with my eyes by now, but I wasn't interested in the no-doubt perfectly sculptured body beneath his clothes. It was like my libido was broken- at least for other men. It was certainly working when Nick was around.

"Much better now" he had some serious bedroom eyes happening, and not even those were having any effect on me. I laughed, shaking my head in response. There was nothing else I could do. Lucy distracted me, coughing. Again. My eye brows pinched, concern entering me. I had already deep suctioned her twice, and gotten massive amounts of secretions out. She shouldn't have had anything else to cough up.

I tensed, leaving the suction unit on. Slowly turning it off, I quickly scanned Lucy. She was a little paler than normal, something I hadn't noticed. Her oxygen was fine, but kept dipping. I had passed that off as her having cold feet. She was definitely working a little harder to breath. Grabbing a thermometer from the pram, I wasted no time in taking her temperature.

"Shit" it was 38.5 degrees. How had I not noticed this? She seemed fine, but there were all the little things.

"What's wrong?" Walker was beside me, confusion marring his perfect face. Swallowing, I quickly tucked the thermometer back into the prams pocket. Turning Lucy's oxygen up a little, I double checked that her probe was on her toe right. She was at least saturating well enough, still in the high 90s.

"I think she's sick. Maybe a cold or a virus. I've got o get her to the hospital" and we had only just gotten out, too.

"She'll be okay, though, right? I mean, it's just a cold?" He seemed so unsure, so out of his depth. He definitely didn't know much about kids, let alone special ones.

"Depends. It could be life threatening if it gets bad" he quietened, obviously unsure of what else he could say. I left, briskly walking Lucy home. Lucy at least didn't throw a fit over leaving Moose and the park, only grumbling a little. Wasting no time at home, I grabbed the ready packed supplies and over night bag. I had planned for emergencies, and was ready to leave within ten minutes. Lucy didn't mind, but got upset when I started the car. She was a little bit more grumpy than usual, but not too bad.

Parking was murder, everyone wanting to get a good spot; happy to cut in front of people to do it. There wasn't even any disabled bays available, making it harder than usual to just park. Of all days, today has to be the busy day. One woman took my spot, happy to quickly slide in. I resisted the urge to flip her off or toot my horn, not wanting to upset Lucy.

Another soon opened up, closer to the Emergency entrance, so I pulled into that one. I was strapping Lucy into her wheel chair as the woman came past, her oxygen sitting on the floor until I slid it in. The bitch who had stolen my spot had at least looked guilty, after seeing Lucy. Especially after I sat beside her in the ED waiting room for twenty minutes.

Her son, who was probably about 12, looked like he just had a sprain. I had gotten to ED first, since her kid was hobbling the and slowing her down, so I was able to get Lucy up there first. The woman behind the counter looked bored out of her mind, but kept a friendly smile on her face. I didn't know many ED staff, but had a feeling I was going to be seeing them a lot in the future. She glanced at Lucy, eyes doing a subtle double take.

"Name?" She was at least to the point with me, having been less so with the previous person. It was like they had to talk slow to some people and put up with their bad jokes.

"Lucinda Webster. Here's a previous ID" handing Lucy's last wrist band over, I let the woman find Lucy in the system and do what she had to. She slid it back across, her other hand still typing.

"What's wrong with Lucinda?" I gave a brief run down, showing her Lucy's care plan.

"I was told to immediately bring her in if I was concerned with her breathing. She's definitely working harder than normal" the nurse- Connie, as her name tag told me- nodded, returning to her computer.

"Take a seat around the corner, we'll bring you through the back as soon as we can" I pushed Lucy to the waiting area and just waited. I let myself feel a little smug when the woman who had cut me off and taken my spot was sent away, told it was just a sprain and to ice it. Until I remembered how ignorant some people were. Most people didn't realise this was happening, or that there were kids like Lucy. I couldn't hold that against them.

~~~

"Your nurse will be with you in a few minutes. Just flag someone down if you need something in the meantime" then she was gone, curls bouncing. They were almost like Lucy's curls, except faker. Less authentic. Lucy was starting to get wriggly, already. Her fever had gotten worse, but seemed to be calming down after I gave her some paracetamol.

Staring down at her, I noticed she seemed tired. That was the thing about Lucy. She was fine, but could go down hill so fast- especially if it was a respiratory thing. She didn't have well functioning lungs, relying on oxygen to keep her going. A little cold was worse for her than normal people. Tracing her little face, I grinned at the tape holding her oxygen tubes to her face. There was flowers and hearts all over the taping, courtesy of Marie's artistic skill. She had insisted on helping me re-tape Lucy's tubes, making sure to make everything pretty. I wasn't going to say no to that.

"You feeling tired, baby girl?" Lucy yawned again, eyes closing a little. Taking advantage of the bed they had given us, I took Lucy out of her chair and laid her on her back, careful to position her so that she wasn't going to get pressure sores. I had to keep close in case she coughed, especially while she was on her back.

Her focus was caught by the mobiles hanging from the roof, entertaining her enough to keep her happy. Eventually, she fell asleep. Making sure her oxygen tank wasn't going to get knocked over, I perched on the edge of her bed and stroked her chest. She made a little sound, a little sigh of contentment. I grinned down at her, suddenly tired as well.

We were probably going to be admitted, just a few days after she had been discharged. If that wasn't bad luck, I didn't know what was. She probably caught something when we were here last. I wasn't sure where else she could have gotten anything.

"Bed nine. Hi, I'll be your nurse today..." Our nurse trailed off, once he looked up and got a look at us. He glanced down again, as if to check the notes in his hand. I swallowed, suddenly unsure. It wasn't because our nurse was a giant, at least seven foot tall, or because he was wide and thickly packed with muscle. The only thing I could think was simple. Why the hell didn't he tell me?

"Nick?"