Page 5 of Love Medley (Med Wreck Romance #1)

Chapter five

Jake

A s I wait for sign-out from Denise, who is clocking out from the morning shift, I feel my body relax as it absorbs the active hum of the Blackwell Emergency Department.

All around me, doctors, nurses, patient techs, social workers, and specialty consults bustle around doing their individual tasks.

I love the organized chaos—somehow the ebb and flow settles me.

The Blackwell ED is one of the biggest in the region.

Associated with the Blackwell School of Medicine, it’s a Level One trauma center equipped to handle the most complex and acute cases in the area.

We can pretty much call on any specialty under the sun.

Need Plastics for management of a facial laceration?

Give them a page, and they’ll be here within half an hour.

Need Ophthalmology? Good luck with getting them to consider it an emergency, but they’re available.

GI? Usually one of their in-house people will run down to eyeball the patient and sometimes even take care of the admission process.

Not to mention, if there is a mass casualty situation, like a huge wreck involving a multiple car pile-up, first responders will direct a large portion of the injured here.

There are one hundred beds in our ER, but in a pinch, we can transition some of the other rooms to fit more patients.

Like other ERs of our caliber, we have trauma bays, negative pressure rooms to prevent airborne diseases, consulting rooms, procedure rooms, and probably several more that I can’t even remember off the top of my head.

I’m usually in the nursing bay, catching up with charting and watching the vitals of the patients, or hanging up IVs, drawing blood, or giving meds.

“Hey, Jake?” A hesitant, familiar voice startles me out of my thoughts.

“Hey, Sam,” I say, trying not to sound resigned.

My neck immediately feels tight again, the ease I’d found in the rhythm of the ER vanishing all at once.

Sam Greenleaf, one of the ER secretaries, is part of the reason I took this job in the first place.

I figured that not only was Blackwell a terrific place to work, but also, it would give Sam and me time to figure out if we were right for one another.

Turns out it didn’t take long. A week after I started working here, we broke up.

For a moment, I remind myself I had other reasons to take this job, not just Sam, and that I’m meant to be here.

“Um, can we talk over there?” Sam looks pretty, her pale hair pulled back into a ponytail, her blue eyes worried.

“Sure,” I say. “Hey, Denise, I’ll let you finish up, and I’ll be back for signout in a few minutes.”

Denise nods, deep dimples appearing in her dark cheeks. “Sure thing, doll, take your time.” She glances over at Sam curiously, then goes back to her charting.

Sam and I walk a few yards away where we can have a little more privacy.

“This is really embarrassing,” Sam says, her eyes darting around. “But I’m dating someone new. And I should have put two and two together, but—”

Oh, hell no. I don’t want to hear this. While we ended things amicably, we aren’t the type of friends who tell each other about our personal relationships. I hold up my hands, cutting her off. “Whoa, Sam, you don’t need to tell me about your new boyfriend. You don’t owe me anything.”

Sam shakes her head. “God, I’m not an idiot, Jake! I know that! But…it’s Sterling.”

I stare at her, stunned. “What?”

Sam looks miserable. “I swear I didn’t know he was your brother. But when we were talking about our families and Sterling brought up your name, I realized. I feel awful.”

I scramble to order my jumbled thoughts.

Okay, some of this is my fault. While I’ve definitely made an attempt to talk to Sam about my family—specifically my issues with my father—Sam didn’t understand where I was coming from.

She has amazing parents and three sisters that she considers her best friends, basically the opposite of my situation.

The few times we broached the topic, she ended up encouraging me to reconcile with my father because “you only have one family.” I know she meant well, but the result was my complete evasion of the subject.

Subsequently, Sam has never met anyone in my family, and my family was never aware of her existence.

In fact, I’ve never mentioned Sterling by name, and I've certainly never told her he was a surgeon at Blackwell Hospital.

And now, my deflection is biting me in the ass because in a bizarre twist of fate, Sam and Sterling are somehow dating.

But the situation is awkward enough that I can understand why she would want to clear the air.

While I appreciate the gesture, part of me wishes I could have lived in ignorance for a bit longer, because this new development is throwing me for a loop.

Then I notice Sam is looking at me expectantly, and I suddenly realize she’s waiting for my blessing to date Sterling.

Uh, even I have limits.

“Okay, thanks for telling me,” I tell her curtly. “I appreciate the heads-up.”

A frustrated expression appears on Sam’s face as she snaps, “If you had just introduced me to your family like a normal person and not been so closed off for the entirety of our relationship, we could have avoided all of this! ”

I stare at her in shock, especially because we rarely fought while we were dating. But maybe that was part of the problem—it’s clear now that we had a significant breakdown in communication.

Sam immediately backtracks with an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you’re right,” I say as guilt floods my gut. “Do what you want to, Sam, but please don’t expect me to like it. You’re not a bad person or anything. This is just an awkward situation, okay?”

After a quick nod, Sam flees, and I end up feeling like an asshole because she’s right—I’m not blameless in this situation. But everyone has their raw spots, and mine is my family.

But come on, my ex is dating my brother .

Sterling, the man that seems to get everything he wants, the approval of my father and now my ex-girlfriend.

Despite the fact that Sterling’s already divorced two women, he's had no problem locating additional members for his harem. It appears that my ex couldn’t escape his gravitational pull either.

And a voice in my head, sounding suspiciously like my father’s, informs me that Sam has finally discovered the more impressive Whitlock to date. I can't even blame her.

It’s not even the fact he’s dating Sam that’s bothering me. My ego’s a little bruised by the revelation, sure, but we’re not together anymore—it’s none of my business what she does.

It’s just more proof that I don’t measure up.

I remind myself that I made the right choice to become a nurse, but I still feel like I failed—because it wasn’t the choice my father wanted. And somehow, that matters more than it should .

Damn. Okay, I have a long shift ahead of me, and I need to get it together. Whatever I’m feeling on the inside, I’ve learned not to show it. I paste on a confident smile and head back to the nurses’ station.

After getting sign-out from Denise, I bury myself in work, managing multiple patients requiring blood draws, IV placement, and medications. While I'm finishing up some charting, I hear someone call, “Jake, come here for a sec.”

It’s Alicia Cummings, the charge nurse, standing next to a gangly kid in blue scrubs who doesn’t look a day over twenty. “This is Thomas Kane,” she says, gesturing at him. “He’s a PCT in the ER who’s interested in becoming a nurse, and I was hoping he could shadow you today.”

Patient care technicians, like Thomas, are very helpful to have in the ER—they take vitals and help out with patient care.

“Sure.” I’m startled that Alicia chose me of all people to guide him—I’ve only been at this job for five months. But I turn towards him, smiling, and shake his hand. While Thomas has a shy, toothy grin, he unexpectedly has a firm grip; I bet he’s going to do just fine.

Fortunately, the ER is packed today, so it’s the perfect time to shadow—there should be plenty to see.

I did this myself, back when I was still figuring out whether I really wanted to be a nurse versus me just wanting to stick it to my dad.

But as soon as that first shift started—the energy, the unpredictability, the way nurses eased the patients’ fear and pain—it hooked me.

I hope Thomas will feel that too.

Alicia nods. “Great. Room 3 is on the chest pain protocol. He needs labs drawn and an IV placed with a saline lock—can you do that?”

“I’m assuming that the doc already looked at the EKG? Let me grab stuff from the Pyxis. Are the orders in?”

Alicia shrugs at my questions and vanishes into another room.

“You guys get medications from the Pyxis, right?” Thomas asks as we walk over to the massive light grey machine sitting in the corner.

“Yeah, you have to badge in every time, and you have to have a doctor’s order to take out any medications. But orders are hit or miss in July.”

Thomas raises his eyebrows. “What’s so significant about July?”

I grin. “The interns are brand new and don’t know what they’re doing yet.”

Thomas laughs. “Oh, that’s why so many people in white coats are walking around with confused looks on their faces.”

“Yup.”

But I’m surprised to see that the orders are already in the system, placed by someone named Lucy Chang.

“Well, I stand corrected.” I point to the screen. “This is a med student order. And look, she’s already bugged her attending to sign the order for her—that’s the doc that oversees everything she does. Five stars for this one.”

After I grab the IV supplies out of the Pyxis, I motion to Thomas to grab one of the metal stands with attached trays sitting in the hallway. Together, we head to the patient’s room .

After knocking on the glass to herald our presence, I slide the door open and enter the room.