Page 88 of Dangerous Love

Nic

The hallways of the Logan General ED appeared longer and longer every shift since I’d come back from my six weeks’ leave. As far as everyone was concerned, I was nothing but an entitled nurse who’d abandoned ship, smack-bang in the middle of a Brisbane Health realignment.

What other choice did I have?As soon as I’d escaped the gang members, I’d taken off overnight to my sister’s house in Perth and stayed there until I was assured that none of them were after me. Not that Cooper could look for me with his brain pureed all over his office walls, but how much could I trust the sons or the other gang members?

Not a great deal.

Hailey, one of the registered nurses in triage gave me an awkward smile. I smiled back, praying to God that everyone would finally move on to another topic of workplace gossip. Though none of them said it to my face, I’d heard all the rumours. Each as ridiculous as the next one. I’d fallen pregnant. Had an abortion. Eloped, and later got divorced. I’d been caught gambling, but only because I was out of rehab for the weekend. And the worst of them all: I was just a useless practitioner.

That last one had stung more than the others, because I saw it in their eyes as they congratulated me for my NP status. The jealousy. The pity. The judgment. Becoming a Nurse Practitioner had been my dream, and I’d finally achieved it. Too bad it came right as everyone thought I’d lost the plot. In my defence, it wasn’t like I could tell anyone about my PTSD from having been kidnapped by one of the worst criminals in history.

Cooper’s gang had me locked up for two days… I agreed to treat their wounds and not report them, in exchange for a pee bucket… I caught a taxi from a double-murder scene… Oh, and Hal Cooper isn’t missing. He was shot in the head, execution-style, by his youngest son.

I shuddered at the memories, my palms rubbing my forearms, the phantom bruises still burning. They could judge me all they wanted; all I’d cared about was surviving one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and I’d succeeded. Now that I was finally back, in body and mind, I was ready to give it all to my patients.

“Good morning, Melinda. How was your long weekend,” I asked the nurse unit manager.

The NUM nodded in my direction. “Oh, Nic, good timing. I need to speak with you. Do you have a minute?”

I tilted my head. “Sure. Everything okay?”

She motioned to her office at the end of the corridor. “Of course. It’s great news, actually, but why don’t we chat inside?”

Something tightened in my chest. I’d worked in government long enough to know that when your manager had good news, you were either offered more work for the same pay or sent to a shitty department. I settled on one of the grey tub chairs in her room while I awaited my fate.

“So, first of all, congrats on the NP coming through officially. What an achievement,” my manager crooned, the exaggerated praise triggering my will to live.

“Thanks,” I said. “I got the status a few months back. Appreciate the compliment, just not too sure why now.”

She shuffled on her chair until her legs were crossed higher than a skyscraper. “An oversight, Nic. However, what the organisation doesn’t want is to waste your talent.”

I waited for the punch line. If I’d learnt anything working for public health, it was that therealwayswas one. “Right.”

“I’ve approved your secondment as an NP in Wacol. It’s wrong to keep you here as a clinical nurse when you’re clearly overqualified. How exciting is that?” Her fingers twirled in the air like she’d just told me I’d won the lotto.

“Shouldn’t I be the one applying for secondments?” I deadpanned. Not that I didn’t want to finally be recognised as a nurse practitioner, I certainly did, but I only half appreciated my hand being forced in the matter. “Is this about me taking six weeks’ leave without any notice?”

She flinched, her fingers crawling to her earlobe. She pulled on it while she cleared her throat.There it is.“I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed, Nic. I run an emergency department after all. “

I bit the inside of my cheek, the bitch in me wondering why Cooper’s dickhead thug hadn’t pulled her off the street instead. “I didn’t have a choice.” I paused, careful in choosing my next words. “I had personal issues.”

She scoffed. “Don’t we all?” Her hand landed on my knee. She patted my leg a couple of times, her patronising glare making me want to jab a friendly dose of Droperidol straight into her thick thigh.

Not like that, you don’t.“I had to go interstate for a while. Family emergency. I came back as soon as I could,” I hissed. My heart rate spiked when I pictured Cooper’s blood seeping through the dark carpet at my feet. I took a deep breath, steadying the panic attack looming in the thickened air.

You’re not there. No one can hurt you. It’s over, Nic.

“Nic?”

You’ll never lay eyes on another Cooper ever again. Those sons of bitches are out of your life.

“Nicole? Are you listening?” Melinda’s pitchy tone snapped me out of my self-induced flagellation.

“Yes. I heard you,” I said, my voice shaky. “We both know I don’t have a choice in this amazingopportunity, so why don’t we cut to the chase. Tell me where I’m going.” I’d had enough. How bad could it be? I knew most hospitals in the district, and other than sending me to the other side of Brisbane, patients were patients no matter where they were treated. Plus, on the upside, working as an NP, I’d be completely autonomous, write my own patient list, and not have to deal with the bureaucracy of Logan.

“Dalton.”

Dalton Park?My mouth dropped. If that wasn’t a punishment, I didn’t know what was. “The home of psychiatric patients? Seriously, Melinda? I’m not even trained in mental health.”

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