Page 4

“We’re going to send it to the lab to make sure you don’t have some kind of illness making you feel badly,” Jazmine told him. “It’s going to pinch a little bit, but it won’t hurt for very long. Can you hold still for me?”

“No!” Jamie said again. “I don’t want that!”

“Hey,” Jesse said reassuringly, sitting down on the cot right next to Jamie, and gently putting a hand on his arm. “Jazmine knows what she’s doing. And she’s right, it’s not going to hurt for very long. I’ve had blood samples taken plenty of times, it’s perfectly safe.”

Jamie took in a few shallow breaths, still looking anxious and afraid. But as he looked up into Jesse’s eyes, he swallowed, and gave a stiff nod.

“It’s okay?” Jesse checked. “You’ll hold still and let Jazmine take some blood?”

Jamie nodded again—and then, out of the blue, he reached out and grasped Jesse’s hand.

A new sensation welled within Jesse, a strange sort of protectiveness, as Jazmine wrapped the tourniquet around Jamie’s arm to congest the blood flow, and Jamie’s breathing got a little uneven.

The desire to guard this mysterious stranger grew in Jesse, as well as a stirring in his gut that he couldn’t quite place—especially when Jazmine began to swab the crease of Jamie’s elbow with antiseptic to prepare the area, and Jamie suddenly leaned over and pressed his face into Jesse’s shoulder.

The warmth of Jamie’s skin and the slight flinch of his entire body as a reaction to the pinch were hard to ignore, and Jesse found himself feeling tense and red in the face as he sat there, unable to do anything but offer Jamie a reassuring squeeze of the hand.

When the examination ended a while later, it was confirmed what Nate and Jesse had thought; Jamie had suffered no injuries.

He was perfectly fine. The police were called and came to question Jamie, but with no reports of anything amiss elsewhere in town and no evidence that Jamie had been involved in anything besides the blood on his hands—which they said could have been fake, or perhaps animal blood he’d got on his hands while cooking, not that Jesse actually put any weight on such a hypothesis—they decided there was no cause for their involvement.

They did find it suspicious that he didn’t have any ID, but given his clothes, one of the cops scoffingly decided the kid was just a cosplayer or something, and another one declared in frustration that he thought Jamie was trying to pull a prank or settle a bet, and warned him not to waste any more department resources.

All in all, they were about as helpful as Jesse had expected them to be.

At least they hadn’t arrested Jamie or anything like that.

Still, without ID or insurance, the hospital couldn’t take him either.

Not that they had cause to admit him anyway; by all accounts, he seemed perfectly healthy, and there were other patients who needed actual treatment.

Jamie’s only problem, it seemed, was amnesia—and there was no indication of how he’d gotten it.

“So what’s he supposed to do, then?” Jesse asked Nate quietly, as Jazmine filled out the last of Jamie’s paperwork—at least as well as she could, with Jamie unable to provide many answers. “If he doesn’t remember anything, where’s he going to go?”

“Maybe he’ll find his way home by muscle memory,” Nate shrugged.

“I’m being serious. ”

“So am I,” Nate sighed, rubbing at his temples. “Look, Jazmine can give him some information about the homeless shelters in town, and he can go to one of those for a while. His memory will probably come back in a few days.”

“But we can’t just turn him out into the streets,” Jesse argued. “He asked us what a car was, Nate. There’s clearly something wrong with him.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not something we can treat. Look, I know you want to help him. You’ve wanted to help everyone you’ve ever met, for as long as I’ve known you. But it’s a cardinal rule of the medical field not to get involved in the personal lives of your patients.”

“He’s not my patient,” Jesse protested. “I’m not even a nurse yet; I’m just a college student.”

“Don’t get smart-mouthed with me, kid,” Nate rolled his eyes.

“You know what I’m saying. Consider this some practice for the future, alright?

In this field, you’re just not going to be able to help everyone.

People will come in here with all kinds of problems, and sometimes they’re going to walk out without a solution, and with nowhere to go.

You will never be able to help everyone.

You’ll have to accept that, or you’ll go mad. ”

“Nate, you’ve only had this job for three months. Please cut it out with the ‘experienced mentor’ role.”

“Just promise me you’ll stay out of it.”

Jesse pursed his lips. Nate was giving him one of his ‘serious’ looks; fixing his steely blue eyes on Jesse with a firm sense of decisiveness.

The kind of look that meant ‘do what I say if you know what’s good for you.

’ The thing about Nate was he was usually right.

His advice was almost always sound, and he generally had good judgment.

He’d been looking out for Jesse for almost three years now, and Jesse did trust him to know what to do.

If Nate thought it was important not to get involved with Jamie’s business, he was probably right.

“I promise. ”

“Good.” Nate glanced at his watch, and then grimaced. “That business with the cops took longer than I thought it would,” he huffed. “My shift starts in twenty minutes. I don’t think I’ll be able to give you a ride home, sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Jesse said. “I’ll just take the bus.”

“Cool, let me know when you get to your place.”

“Nate, seriously, stop hovering. I’m twenty-one years old; I can take the bus to my apartment without needing help from you.”

“Fine, sorry,” Nate rolled his eyes. “I just don’t trust those things.”

“Buses?”

“Yeah.”

Nate didn’t trust anything he didn’t control for himself. But Jesse knew better than to say it, so he just gave in like he always did and promised to text Nate when he got home safe, and turned to leave.

Jamie was already gone.

Looking around, Jazmine could be seen checking on another patient elsewhere in the lobby.

She must have shown Jamie to the door while Jesse was distracted talking to Nate.

He supposed that was fine; if he wasn’t supposed to get involved with patients anyway, it wasn’t as if knowing exactly where Jamie wound up really mattered.

Still, Jesse couldn’t help but feel like he’d made a mistake, as he left the hospital and began walking to the bus stop down the block. Injured or not, it was clear that Jamie really needed help, and it didn’t feel right to just leave him to wander around Carson City alone.

The bus stop came into view, and Jesse paused at the sight of Jamie himself, standing on the corner and frowning up at the bus-stop sign as if he wasn’t sure he was in the right place.

Jesse found himself standing up straighter as he closed the distance between them.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Did you, um, figure out where you’re going? ”

Jamie looked relieved to see him, offering a slight smile before sobering and shaking his head.

“Jazmine said I should take the bus to a shelter,” he said, holding up some brochures she’d given him, as well as a couple dollar bills.

“She told me how to get here, and gave me this to pay the fare. But…” he shifted his weight, his cheeks turning pink. “She didn’t tell me what a bus is.”

Jesse had to bite back a smile at the look on Jamie’s face. He cleared his throat, trying to be serious, and not let Jamie think he was laughing at him or anything like that. “That’s alright, I can help with that,” he said. “Um… as for the shelter, though…”

Jamie looked at him earnestly, trembling slightly in the cold evening air. “Yes?”

…Nate was right. Jesse shouldn’t get involved with this. It was complicated, and Jamie could be literally anyone. There was even a chance it could get dangerous, if he were honest with himself. Yes, the smart thing to do would be to help Jamie find a good shelter, wish him luck, and walk away.

But the ‘smart’ thing to do wasn’t always the right thing to do.

“How about you come stay with me instead?”