Page 4 of The Seal's Promise

The Return

The forecast fora full moon was her first clue that it was going to be a bad night at the Sandy Point hospital, which was really just a glorified clinic. There was no cardiac wing or obstetrics floor, only a two-story, thirty-bed small-town hospital with just enough resources to save or stabilize a life long enough to get the patient flown to the nearest major hospital an hour away. There were eight nurses and two attending doctors, one of whom was fresh out of medical school and another with one foot out the door. They were short-staffed going into the evening shift, and Brooke had a bad feeling that they were about to get rocked by the full moon and Friday night crowd.

“What is it about Fridays?” Nurse Steph asked as she peeled off a pair of gloves and grabbed a tablet from the charging station.

“Don’t say it, don’t say another word, or you’ll jinx us and I can’t stay late tonight. Max will be crushed if I miss our big campout.”

Nurse Steph exchanged a look with the desk manager, Nora, who sported a similar smirk.

“You sure it’s not you who’ll be disappointed if you don’t get to spend the night with Coach Stone during that campout?” Steph asked.

With a heavy sigh, Brooke leaned against the high counter that sat about ten feet from the front door of the hospital. “No, as attractive as he may be to the greater population of women here in Sandy Point, I will not be joining his harem of mommy groupies.” Before she could elaborate, a man walked in holding his arm that hung at an odd angle.

“I think I dislocated it,” he said with a grimace.

“Yup, this is going to be one of those nights,” Steph said, ushering the new patient over to an open bay with curtains on either side.

Before Brooke could argue, another patient walked in. “Damn.”

“You better let your dad take Max on that campout,” Nora said.

Two hours later, every intake bed was occupied by a patient, there were people crowded in the waiting room, and half of the other rooms were full for one reason or another.

“When is it going to slow down—it feels like the entire town is here tonight!” Dr. Tommy said as he dropped off another handwritten chart. They’d already burned through the batteries on the few tablets they had, and were forced to revert to their older method of tracking patients.

“Stop saying that, you’re jinxing us and more patients arrive every time,” Nora whined.

While Brooke was technically the administrator for the small local hospital she was also a nurse, so she helped see patients during almost every shift. She’d been trying to recruit more doctors and nurses for the last year, but the lure of subpar small-town medical amenities and lower pay than a big-city hospital weren’t exactly the selling points she needed to be competitive.

“Do you have any more leads on filling the empty attending physician jobs?” Dr. Tommy asked.

“I’m doing another recruiting trip to Georgia State next week,” Brooke said.

“It’ll be a long, hot, busy summer if we don’t get some help. I’m not sure how much longer we can get Dr. Jones to stay on.”

Nora scoffed. It was no secret that Dr. Jones was not only ready to retire, but often acted like he already had. He kept to his own schedule, working only the Monday through Friday day shift, and had every holiday off. He said he’d earned it, and while he wasn’t wrong, it left Dr. Tommy with every other hour of the day to contend with.

Before Brooke could respond, a huge man with sandy blond hair, broad shoulders, and familiar blue eyes appeared in the doorway. Everyone’s head popped up to look, even Dr. Tommy stared. The man was carrying an older woman in his arms and his determined eyes landed on Brooke.

Dalton Hart was back in town. There was one quick beat of recognition and then he was barking orders at them.

“I need a bed, X-rays, and a full workup.” He didn’t even stop at the front desk, just kept moving past them until he found the next open bay. He laid the older woman down, and Brooke sprang into action.

“Mrs. Barb, it’s Brooke. You’re at the hospital—what happened?” The woman’s eyes were closed but she squeezed them shut tighter as her mouth opened and closed, but she didn’t speak.

“She fainted, but she didn’t hit her head, and I don’t think anything is broken,” Dalton huffed. “But she’s disoriented so I’d like an IV and some X-rays to be sure.”

Dr. Tommy arrived and started to check Barb’s vitals. “I’ll put in an order for an X-ray, but I have to warn you that it’s going to be a little bit of a wait. In the meantime, let’s go over some history, and can you fill these out?” He handed Dalton a clipboard holding a stack of paperwork.

Barb’s eyes fluttered open. “All this isn’t necessary. I just had a little spell. I probably had too many margaritas.”

“You haven’t had a drop today, and don’t lie to the doctor, it’s not helpful,” Dalton admonished her.

“Mrs. Barb, we’re going to give you some privacy to speak with Dr. Tommy, and then we’ll just run a few tests,” Brooke said, pulling the curtain around one side of the bed and giving Dalton a stare.

“I’m not leaving. I need to know what’s going on and I’m her next of kin.”

“Fine, I have no doubt Mrs. Barb will let you know when and if you overstay your welcome in her personal business.” She then closed the other curtain and walked away down the hall. The last thing she needed was to get into an argument with the boy who broke her heart in high school. The fact that he didn’t even recognize her spoke volumes about what she’d meant to him, but she’d already learned that when he left town without even saying goodbye.

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