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She approached the glass door and opened it.
The clinic was packed with people. Some sat, some paced, some comforted small children, and they were all waiting for appointments. She’d never seen so many people lined up before a clinic even opened. That spoke silently of the great need of this community, but also of the quality of care they received there. Even though her nerves still tingled with anticipation, she knew this was the right move for her. She hadn’t taken her career choice lightly when she’d entered nursing school despite the protests of her family, and she wasn’t stopping now. Anyone who stood in her way could just get lost, including her family. Helping people who needed it gave her satisfaction that matched nothing else in her world. Somehow she saw parts of her mother in each patient she took care of. For her mother it had been too late, even before she’d been diagnosed. Cancer had invaded before she’d even known what had been wrong. Vicki wanted to help keep others from experiencing the same loss that had changed her life as a teenager. But this atmosphere was at complete odds with the type of hospital she had been working in for the past five years.
Looking around, she quickly found the nurses’ station. “Hi, I’m Vicky, your new nurse.” She hoped the woman remembered her from the interview last month.
A thin, gray-haired woman, who looked as if she might have known Florence Nightingale personally, peered up at Vicky over half-moon magnifier glasses. “Yes, Vicky Sterling-Thorne?” she asked in a cheerful and kindly voice.
“Yes. I prefer just Thorne, though. Makes the paperwork easier.”
“Right. Just to refresh you, I’m Tilly McGee. Come on back, and I’ll show ya round.” She rolled her wheeled desk chair back and opened a side door for Vicky to enter. “As you can see, we’ve got a full docket today, so you may have to work on your own some, check vitals here and there, that sort of thing. Orientation could be a little unorthodox.” She shook her head, as if knowing something that Vicky didn’t.
“That’s okay. I’ll try to be helpful where I can. That’s why I’m here.” She turned and bumped into someone who had entered the station right behind her. “Oh, sorry.” She looked at the handsome man, who took a step back from her. The blue scrubs failed to identify his status at the clinic. “Are you one of the nurses?”
A crooked smile crossed his face, and his deep brown eyes lit up for a second. “Some days I’m everything. Nurse, unit secretary, lab tech and clinic doctor all rolled into one.” The smile he tossed her way was brief but welcoming.
Vicky blinked. “That’s an impressive job description,” she said, intrigued at his response. Here was a man who could multitask.
“It is.” The welcoming smile faded away to what could only be an expression of mistrust. What had she done already to invite that? He sighed. “I guess you’re the new nurse, aren’t you?”
“Yes. You look disappointed already.”
“I wouldn’t call it disappointment.”
Wariness stirred inside her. Had her family reputation preceded her so quickly? She gave a sigh of her own and hoped to head off any bias from the get-go. “My name is Vicky and, despite what you may think, I’m a nurse, that’s all.”
He nodded. “Just to let you know, quickly, our last nurse didn’t return from maternity leave, and we’ve been shorthanded for weeks.”
“The agency nurses worked for a while, but we need a full-time nurse, not a stopgap.” Tilly grumbled her words without looking up from the computer.
Vicky nodded and gave a tight smile, understanding some of the man’s reluctance. Despite the glowing references she had sent over, he had no confidence in her skills as a nurse. Time would change all that. “Well, I’m here to help. Where do we start?”
“Introductions, I guess.” He glanced around. “Carlos is around here somewhere. He’s the assistant extraordinaire, don’t know what we’d do without him. And I’m Dr. Miguel Torres. We’re not too formal, so call me Miguel.”
Reluctantly, he stretched a hand out and shook hers in a firm but brief grasp. His hand was warm and not soft, like most of the men she knew who made money with their hands, but nothing else. The texture of Miguel’s hand made her think he used his hands for building things and a slight shiver rocked her. She hoped that wasn’t an omen. Work was her reason for being there and she hoped that she didn’t have to remind herself that the boss was a hands-off relationship.
“Glad to be here.”
Stepping back from her, Miguel glanced at the purse and lunch bag in her hands. “Tilly, can you set her up with a locker? By the look of that bag, she’s going to need one.”
She watched Miguel stride toward the triage area and wondered if there was anything behind that comment or was she just too wary of new people based on the experiences of her past?
“Come on, honey. I’ll get you set up.” The two women completed the task in a few minutes. Tilly returned to the desk to organize the patients, and Vicky noticed Miguel engaged in what looked like an urgent situation. He was trying to take a blue-faced baby from a young mother.
“He’s not breathing, he’s not breathing!” the woman cried, and clutched the infant more tightly, not knowing she was harming him further.
“Let’s have a look,” Miguel said, his soothing voice trying to gain control over the situation, but the anxiety of the mother was overwhelming.
Vicky rushed forward. Unable to interrupt the conversation, she leaned closer to the baby and blew a puff of air onto his face.
Startled, the infant jumped and took in a breath. And then another. And in seconds it turned from a ghastly blue to a lovely, normal shade of pink.
Openmouthed, the mother gaped at Vicky. Miguel raised amused eyes at her and gave a surprised look. The situation lost its tension in just a few seconds.
“What?” she asked as she looked between them. Had she done something wrong already? Seemed as if she was always stepping in it somewhere, but she didn’t want to do that her first day on the job. This was a job she wanted and needed. Messing up was not an option, no matter how much money her family had. It wasn’t hers. She paid her own way based on her nurse’s salary.
“What did you do to him?” the mother asked, her demeanor much calmer than it had been moments ago, though she still breathed rapidly.
“I just stimulated his breathing reflex. Something I learned in my first rotation in the nursery at my previous hospital.” She gave Miguel a concerned look. “Once in a while newborns just forget to breathe, and if you blow a puff of air on their faces it startles them, and they take a breath. That’s what baby reflexes are for.” Vicky reached a hand out to the mother and patted her back in a soothing manner, trying to ignore the intense way that Miguel watched her, but the fluttering in her stomach wasn’t going away. The intensity of him was going to take some getting used to. “Is it okay if we take a look now?”
“Yes, yes, yes. Dr. Torres, I’m so sorry!” Tears now poured down the mother’s face as she relinquished the baby to Vicky.
“It’s okay,” Miguel said, and squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll take a look and make sure everything is okay, just to be sure.”
Vicky handed the baby boy over to Miguel and engaged the mother in small talk to help calm her down and give herself a moment to beat her nerves down. “What’s your name?”
“Tina.”
“Why don’t you have a seat for a second? I’m sure that you’re worn-out.” Vicky guided her to a nearby chair.
“I am. I’m shaking.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, as if she felt chilled from the experience. “I thought he was going to die.”