Page 12

Brice

“ O uch! It hurts so bad!” The small kid yelled in his tiny voice.

I knew he was in pain because his nose had started to bleed around the rim.

I was sure my mini-forceps weren’t helping the situation.

His mother had brought him in because he had a Lego lodged inside his nasal cavity.

I guess there was no avoiding this part of the job.

Adults stuck things in their asses and kids their noses.

“I understand, Jeremiah, but we can’t stick things that don’t belong in our noses. You know you have the best name,” I calmly said on my final attempt to pull the block out. I wanted to distract him long enough to retrieve it.

“My middle name is Jeremiah.” He gave me a big smile as I told him, making his nostrils flare out enough for me to pull the Lego out.

“There we go, it’s out, Jeremi….. ”

“Paging Dr. Washington, you are needed in trauma. Paging Dr. Washington, you are needed in trauma,” was the voice that came over the hospital intercom.

What in the hell?

Like the calls, I was ready to ignore the page before Nurse Newton came rushing in.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but could you step outside a moment?” She asked, then looked at my patient apologetically. I stood and followed her out the door.

“Dr. Washington, they need you in surgery.”

“Surgery? Where’s Dr. Douglas?”

“He left thirty minutes ago with a stomach virus.”

“Dr. Clinton?”

“He called out, but they didn’t call anyone else because they knew you would be here with Douglas,” she said apologetically.

See, that’s that bullshit!

“Go now, hurry, it’s a female,” she said. Before I jogged off, I heard her enter the room behind me, apologizing to the patient and telling his mother that she would finish.

A woman?

I picked up the urgency in my jog and went into a light run as I went to the emergency department’s operating room.

When I arrived, I handed my lab coat to the nurse and proceeded to the sink to begin my surgical scrub.

As I washed up thoroughly to my elbows three times, a nurse helped me into my sterile medical attire, while another nurse rattled off the patient’s information and status .

“The patient is a woman, thirty-six years of age, with two gunshot wounds.”

“What’s her current status?”

“She coded once, but we were able to bring her back. She’s lost a lot of blood. We were hoping you could locate the source so that we can administer a transfusion. She’s a fighter.” I nodded and followed her into the operating room.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Tayla.

My heart nearly stopped beating. I also noticed that she had cut her locs, leaving her hair close-cut and shaven. I couldn’t move.

“Dr. Washington, you ok?” The anesthesiologist asked. I snapped out of my trance and stood over top of Tayla’s body, assessing the damage.

Who in the fuck shot her?

I didn’t have time to think about it. I threw all my knowledge and skill into saving her life.

I was thirty minutes into the first of Tayla’s wounds.

I’d repaired all the damage the bullet had done when it ripped through her.

As I carefully sutured the closure, the monitors went into a frenzy.

Tayla’s blood pressure dropped rapidly. Her heart finally stopped, and I was pushed to the side by the barrage of surgical assistants that immediately went into action.

My stomach dropped as they strapped the defibrillator to her chest and started the charge-up process before yelling out.

“Clear!” I stood by with my hands in the air, making sure not to touch anything so I could go as soon as they got her back. I took my eyes off the scene before me, looked at my hands covered in Tay’s blood, and began to panic. Sweat was starting to soak through my protective gear.

“Get her the fuck back,” I yelled letting my emotions get the best of me while my heart was slipping away from me on the table.

“Clear!” I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds. If she was about to leave me, I didn’t want to see it.

Come on, Tay. Baby, you gotta pull through for me!

A singular beep could be heard before it progressed into a steady sound. Relief washed over me as I exhaled the breath I was holding. She wasn’t out of the clear yet. So I immediately got back to work, moving faster this time so that she could receive blood.

After I’d been in the operating room for hours, saving the life of my best friend. I needed some air. I walked back through the corridors until I arrived at the patient lobby. Stephon met me. He was holding a car seat with an infant boy who couldn't have been more than a few months old.

“Damn, Steph, you and JoJo snuck another one in there?” I spoke.

I was grasping for any sign of humor that I could find after being scared shitless that Tayla's life would slip away on that operating table.

His face held a look of discomfort before he looked around the lobby, then nodded, motioning for me to follow him outside .

“Let’s step out,” he said. I followed his gaze and saw that there were too many eyes and ears in the vicinity, and he’d rather not have them in our business, whatever that was.

I followed him to his Ford Raptor. When he opened the back door, I saw Devin sitting in the seat beside the base to which Steph was connecting the child’s seat.

After he’d secured it, I walked around and climbed into the passenger seat.

Once the door was closed, I closed my eyes and let the dam break.

I couldn’t control the tears as they fell before I let out a lone wail that faded into silence.

“I thought I almost lost her, Steph. I almost lost her man. I can’t lose anybody else. I can’t man,” I said with my voice unrecognizable to the grief and fear that consumed me. Steph leaned over and wrapped me in his arms as I let out all I had. I could also feel a hand on my shoulder.

“We got you, Brice. It’s family over everything!” It was Devin. I sniffed and swiped my hands down my face, wiping away the results of my breakdown. I hadn’t cried like that since my father died. Unlike then, I had my brothers here with me.

“What’s the deal, D?” I said, reaching in the back to dap him up. The tension in the car was thick. I was uneasy because I couldn’t take any more bad news tonight.

“What’s going on, Steph?”

“First, how is Tayla?” he asked. My eyes pierced his in anger, but he was unaffected by my mood shift.

“She’s good, man. Why wouldn’t she be? She had the best fucking surgeon money can buy,” I bluntly stated.

The back of his hand touched my chest across the console, signaling me to calm down.

Stephon had a calming spirit. He’d just used it on me moments ago, but I wasn’t sure if I would let it work this time.

I looked down at his hand and took a deep breath.

When I stared into the rearview at Devin, it suddenly dawned on me that he knew she was my Tay when he asked the other day, which riled me right back up. He started to speak before I could ask.

“My mother hired her months ago to be the center's director.”

“So let me get this right. For months you’ve been around me with this knowledge and didn’t say shit?”

“Well, why would I? Y’all don’t talk anymore, right?” He asked.

“It’s fucking complicated,” I said, letting out another sigh.

“Uncomplicate the shit for me then. That’s why I didn’t tell you that I knew before; if you didn’t want to talk about the shit then I wasn’t either.

Also, I’m supposed to be running a safe childcare center, and I can’t have word getting out that the fucking director has been shot.

Now I have to make up some shit to tell the staff and try to keep this shit out of the fucking news,” Devin rushed out calmly. Then he continued.

“Brice, when Tayla moved from Cali. I immediately remembered her as being connected to you. You two were always together. I knew something was up because you hadn’t spoken about her since you moved here.

She passed the background check and I didn’t find shit.

My mother is very discerning. She told me that Tayla wasn’t running from something but to it and to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Unlike the two of you, I trust my fucking family! So talk, Brice,” he said .

“You do know that you don’t run shit anymore, right D?” Stephon stated.

“So talk, now, Brice,” he followed. They both laughed, but I didn’t find a damn thing funny.

“Fuck the both of you,” I huffed out.

“What happened to all that shit you were talking about? How you were going to get on my last fucking nerve. It goes both ways nigga!” Steph said.

“Tsk. JoJo and Steph here showed up like the wild fucking West, claiming Tayla had a part in my father’s death. Then proceeded to shoot up my shit before I could get any answers.” My anger had reached its peak. Brice was no longer present.

“Enough of this shit! All I want to know is who the fuck shot her and whose baby is that?” I boomed into the car.

The deep resonance of my voice startled the baby, causing him to cry out.

Devin leaned over and took the baby from the seat, cradling him.

He immediately stopped crying. I took another deep breath, but it was too late to calm down.

I blew out the breath I had inhaled, hoping the anger would leave my body.

Silence once again filled the truck. Stephon took a phone out of his pocket and played a recording.

“She called me this afternoon, and this was what I heard on the other end.” I listened as Nina confirmed that when she killed my father, Tayla did not know.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the sounds of gunshots rang out through the phone’s recording.

I counted five shots. Tayla had two gunshot wounds.

Nina had tried to kill her. The other shots ?

“Did she get her?” Steph shook his head.

“D and I were having lunch. We got there as fast as we could. There was a trail of blood, but no Nina.”

“Does JoJo know? I asked Steph.

“She does, but she needed a minute. Today was a lot for everyone.”

“That wasn’t the first time she’d called me this afternoon, though,” he said, pausing.

“She apologized and told me that she would fix this whole situation. The last thing she said was for me to promise to care for him. I thought she meant you until D explained.” I turned my pissed-off expression to Devin.

This nigga keeps more secrets than the government.

“Brice, this is Bryson Ezra Washington, your almost four-month-old son,” Devin said.

I looked down at him. His face was the perfect mix of mine and Tayla’s.

The uninhibited drunken night I’d spent fucking my best friend until we drained each other flashed in my mind.

It was also the first time I’d ever let my true feelings for her break through the ice.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who had trust issues.

Why didn’t she tell me?

“Steph, could you look out for him until after my shift? I need some time,” I solemnly said. He nodded.

“Thanks, man,” I said as I climbed out of Steph’s truck.

To say I was shocked would have been an understatement. I spent the rest of the night in and out of Tayla’s room. After each of my patients in the children’s hospital, I would find my way back to her side, afraid that she wouldn’t make it through the night.