And Kyle had to be out of surgery now.Would it hurt to find out how he was doing?She moved to the nurse’s station.
Cindy glanced up.“You’re still here?Good.I’ve got some more paperwork for you.”
“Great.”Bane of every doctor’s existence.
Cindy handed over a screen and pointed to the areas requiring signatures.“Can I remind you that your shift finished twenty minutes ago?”
“Technically, yes.But I wanted to check in on the status of some of my earlier cases.”
Cindy’s eyebrows lifted but she only said, “Any in particular?”
It’d look far too obvious to inquire about a certain hockey player.“How is Janice?”
“The hit-and-run vic?She’s doing okay.Up in recovery, should get discharged soon.”
Past midnight on a Saturday night wasn’t the ideal time to be going home, but still, they needed the beds.“That’s good.”
“Oh, and in case you’re interested, they found a grade four laceration on the kidney of Kyle Tinker.”
Her pulse increased even as she nodded, poker-faced.“He’s out of surgery?”
“Yeah.They’re keeping him overnight to make sure his blood counts don’t drop.He’s up in recovery if you want to see him.”
“I don’t.”
“Mm-hmm.”
She busied herself with signing documentation, refusing to meet the speculation sure to be in Cindy’s eyes.
“His parents are coming here,” Cindy announced.
“Whose parents?”she asked.
“Kyle’s.”
Her head rose, and she quickly scanned the room, peering out to the waiting area.“Where?”
“Huh.Interesting that you seem more concerned about seeing them than you are about him.”
That’s because she’d always known they hadn’t liked her.She’d never been good enough—in all senses of the word—for their goals for their son.Her lips tweaked without amusement.And hadn’t she proved them right.So now, to think they were here at her workplace, a place where she felt increasingly safe and mostly secure yet still sometimes struggled to find acceptance with colleagues like Dr.Visek, well, she sure didn’t want to bump into them unknowingly.
She scrawled the last signature, laid down the stylus pen.“Sorry, gotta go.”
“Yes, you do.”Cindy smirked.“They’re not here yet, in case you need to know.”
“I don’t,” she said.“See you Monday.”
“I forgot you’re not on call tomorrow.Drive safe.”
“Will do.”
She always did.While she often took public transit during the day she knew it was hard to feel safe around here at night.And living in the burbs with her mom meant driving was a no-brainer.
A careful reconnaissance of the emergency’s waiting area revealed nobody she needed to avoid.So she went to the multistory parking garage, beep-unlocked her old battered car, got in, and started the winding descent of coiled ramps until she reached street level.Then it was the slow merge onto the freeway heading south.At least it wasn’t as busy as during peak hour.
Her fingers drummed the steering wheel as she thought over that earlier encounter.Of all the hospitals in all the world he had to roll into hers.Then she had to be the one to initially treat him.What were the chances?
Pretty good, apparently.
