Twins Make Four

“So I’ve been told. And don’t worry about this place, your secret is safe with me.” She took another bite of her pop-tart and then checked her watch. “What are you doing here so early anyway?”

“I wanted to check on the woman from yesterday. She’s doing good. She’s in recovery now.”

“What exactly happened with that again?”

“I was taking Lucy for an early morning run and she took off after a stray cat. By the time I got her to stop, there was this woman. I saw her just as she fainted and bashed her head on a metal fence.”

“Goodness, honey.” Molly reached over to briefly take my hand. “I know that had to be scary.”

I nodded. “I thought she was going to die.”

“Well, thank goodness you were there. Not everyone can stay as calm under pressure as you.”

I laughed humorlessly. “That’s the thing I struggle with most. I always feel like I’m on the brink of panicking during emergencies. You’d think that in all my time working in this field, especially in this department, I’d be better at it.”

“That’s interesting. Because in my time working with you, I’ve never seen you lose your cool during an emergency. Maybe you freak out on the inside, but it doesn’t show. And it definitely doesn’t impair your judgment. You’ve got amazing instincts, Tessa. Knowing that you panic on the inside just makes what you do all the more impressive. You’re going places, honey. Mark my words. There’s only great things in store for you.”

“You make it sound so impressive.”

“You are impressive.” Molly nudged my arm. “No wonder he likes you.”

“Does…does everyone know?”

Molly shook her head. “No. I’ve only heard muttering from the people that saw Evan snap at the security guard who was giving you a hard time yesterday. But it’s just speculation. I don’t know what you’re worried for though! As gorgeous as Evan is—if I had anything going on with him, I’d probably get a t-shirt made, declaring it to the whole world!”

I laughed outright again. “You are crazy, Molly. The policy. I don’t want my job at risk.”

“And you are crazy lucky! Now stop, Human Resources could care less about that handbook, hell if they opened it once in a while themselves, maybe they could use it. Stop worrying!”

I sighed. She was right, no one would probably even notice our little affair. I needed to relax, and enjoy what I had.

“Have you seen Evan today, by the way?”

Molly wrinkled her brow. “Come to think of it—I haven’t.”

I pouted. He hadn’t said anything about taking the day off.

“He must have taken the day off. Maybe you wore him out too much.”

“Molly,” I said, slapping her arm and causing her to give another hearty laugh. She pulled away from the table. “Well, it’s time to report for duty.”

“Yeah,” I said, standing also. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure thing,” Molly said, throwing away her pop-tart wrapper and heading out the door. I left shortly afterwards, deciding to head back to the on-call room to make a cup of tea as I waited for my help to be needed.

When I entered, a few nurses were inside—two making coffee and one watching the news on the television overhead. They all smiled and nodded at me as I came in.

“Slow day today, huh?” I said. It was unusual for there to ever be more than two people in the on-call room at any given moment.

“Yeah,” one of them responded. “Let’s hope it stays that way!”

“I hear you,” I said with a chuckle.

“Good job yesterday, by the way,” she said. “I heard you helped paramedics save a woman’s life, and you weren’t even officially on-duty.”

I waved my hand dismissively. “It was nothing. Just doing my job. The way I see it, when someone needs help, I’m always on-duty.”

“You should totally think about teaching nursing students. Or at least mentoring them,” one of the other nurses said.