Page 70 of Torn In Two

I made my way through the crowd of people, sidestepping those sitting on the floor because we’d run out of chairs hours ago, and stopped at his side.

He spoke before I could even ask what the matter was. “Female, forty-three. Came in complaining of headache, nausea, and vomiting.”

I glanced at the patient and smiled but then turned to Hawk. “Has she been through triage?”

He nodded but then frowned at the woman. “She has, but she downplayed her symptoms, didn’t you?”

The woman gave a chagrinned grimace. “I don’t want to be a bother to anyone. You all work so hard here, and there’s other people in worse condition than me—” She let out a yelp and doubled over, clutching her stomach.

Concern had me crouching in front of her and pressing my fingers to her neck to check her pulse.

Hawk rubbed a hand down the woman’s back but focused his attention on me. “You’re gonna find her heart rate is sky-high, and look.” He pointed to the woman’s wrist, peeking out from beneath her sweater. “Rash. I can tell just from touching her that she has a fever. She can’t be sitting out here in the waiting room.”

“I’m fine, truly,” the woman protested, straightening as the pain passed. “I’ll wait my turn like everyone else.”

I held a hand out to her. “Guess what? It’s your turn! Kara will take you into exam room three, okay?”

I’d raised my voice when I’d said Kara’s name, and she glanced up, listening to my instructions and scurried to do as I’d asked. Carefully, she helped the protesting patient out of the waiting room.

By the time I turned back, Hawk was already rushing into a cubicle. Vomiting noises came from behind the curtain, mixing with Hawk’s deep voice offering reassurances.

“Would you look at that,” I mumbled to Willa, one of the head nurses who gave up her time here each week. She followed my line of sight, both our gazes landing on Hawk, who was disposing of the vomit bag.

“He’s great,” she agreed. “Kara too. They’ve both been the biggest help the last few weeks. It’s a shame they aren’t qualified. Because I’d happily have either of them on my staff.”

I glanced at her. “Really?”

She nodded, rubbing at the old burn scars on her neck absentmindedly. “Absolutely. Hawk has brought a few patients to my attention, and he was spot-on the money each time. He and Kara both work harder around here than most of the paid staff do. Neither of them ever complains about the shitty jobs we have them do either.”

I’d noticed the same, but I’d thought that was because I was paying Kara and Hawk more attention than I would any other volunteer.

I saw another couple of patients and was on my way to collect a third when whistling caught my attention. I did a double take when I realized it was coming from Hawk, scrubbing his hands at the sink.

He noticed my expression, and his quickly turned into a scowl. “What?”

I tilted my head, my curiosity piqued. “Are you…happy?”

“I’ve spent all morning cleaning out vomit buckets and piss pans. Do I look happy?”

I laughed. “Actually, yeah, you do. You’re walking around here smiling and whistling, despite the low-level jobs we’ve given you to do.”

He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Whatever.”

I just waited. “You like this job.”

He sighed. “Don’t turn a shitty volunteer job into something it’s not. Maybe I just got laid. Whatever.”

I shook my head. “Didn’t need to know that.” I glanced at Kara, smiling kindly at Mr. Holdsworth, who came in every week just because he was lonely.

Hawk elbowed me. “Hey. Not her. Fuck off. I don’t want her thinking I’m walking around here blabbing about our sex life.”

I raised an eyebrow. “But you did get laid. If not her then…” I widened my eyes at him, remembering the man he’d been with when they’d brought Kara to the hospital. “Oh! I didn’t realize you and Hayden were actually brother husbands in the biblical sense..”

He sighed, tugging me aside. “It’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it?”

He glared at me. “You’re doing that shrink thing where you keep turning it back on me.”

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