Page 65 of Ruled By Fate

She helped an orthopedic surgeon reset a dislocated shoulder. She hung three banana bags for dehydrated hikers who’d read their map incorrectly and gotten lost in the woods for two days. She took vitals, took histories, and a patient threw up on her shoes. She didn’t take bathroom breaks, didn’t take coffee breaks, didn’t complain, and didn’t slow down.

By the end of her shift, she was ready to collapse.

That’s when Denise handed her a tablet. “Use our system to update all the patient files from the cases you worked on today,” she instructed without batting an eye. “Give it to Charlie when you’re done. Do not make mistakes. He will tell me if there’s so much as a typo. Do not call me with questions. I’m going home.”

Brie took the tablet and looked at Denise’s retreating form. Then, she stood at attention and saluted.

She recognized the mirthful, pealing laughter before she even turned around to grin at Sherry. She was walking towards her from the nurses’ station with a hot chocolate in each hand.

How lucky am I to have a best friend who always seems to turn up at the perfect time with the perfect beverage? I bet other people’s best friends always turn up to hot cocoa situations without the cocoa.

“Looks like you’ve managed to impress El Commandant. However did you manage?”

Brie gestured at the tablet. “Are you kidding? I’m dead on my feet. That woman has run me into the ground for two days straight, and now I have hours of charting left to do before I can go home and sleep. In what conceivable way have I impressed her?”

Sherry shrugged with a grin. “Well, usually, she yells at the newbies for their mistakes until they cry or quit. I haven’t even heard her raise her voice at you once.”

Brie sipped her hot chocolate and considered this. “Did she yell at you during your orientation?”

“Of course not. I’m practically perfect in every way.”

She grinned. “Obviously. My apologies. So, how did your day go?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. Helped deliver a baby in the parking lot.”

Brie almost choked on her cocoa. “You did what?”

Sherry’s eyes sparkled. “The mom started crowning in the ambulance on the way over, so there was no way to get her up to labor and delivery, and she was screaming so much over the radio that we thought it was an incoming trauma, not an incoming birth, so I got to help deliver a baby boy today.”

“Aw!” Brie made a noise usually reserved for tiny, large-eyed baby animal sightings. “Lucky. I rehydrated some morons who read their nature map upside-down, and a drunk threw up on my shoes.”

“So that’s what I’m smelling.” Sherry wrinkled her nose in good-natured disgust. “Well, thank goodness it was those shoes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Let’s go shopping this weekend!”

Brie had to laugh. No matter how exhausting or terrible the day was, Sherry always lifted her spirits. “Deal. But first, I need to get this charting done.”

“May I make a controversial yet brave suggestion?”

“Go for it.”

“Chart somewhere where people can’t smell you.”

Brie stuck out her tongue, and Sherry giggled. “Call me when you’re done?”

“I can’t. Cameron drowned my phone in eggs.”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, I’ve got some things to wrap up myself. Meet back here in an hour?”

“Better make it an hour and a half. If you want to go home, I can always call a taxi.”

“Nonsense. There are at least fifty people in this hospital I haven’t told about the parking lot baby yet, and it’ll take me at least that long to rectify the situation.” Sherry tilted her head thoughtfully. “Maybe the mother will name it after me.”

“I thought it was a boy?”

“I don’t see your point.”

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