One Summer In Santa Fe

“Bring him over Sunday afternoon, and we’ll go through everything I need to know about being a parent for six weeks.”

“Thank you so much, Taylor. Somehow, I’ll make it up to you.”

“Right.” Was there anything that could truly make up for this lost time? Then again, was six weeks that much to sacrifice if he could help out his sister and nephew? He wasn’t that selfish.

“Sure I will. When you have kids, I’ll be the best auntie they’ll ever have.”

“Having kids of my own seems pretty farfetched at this point in my life.” There were no guarantees that he’d be a better parent than his own and childhoods like theirs should be avoided at all costs.

That should be avoided at all costs. Caroline was certainly trying to give Alex a good home and a stable life despite the challenges of being a single parent. No, he’d be better off just living his life single and being a good uncle to his eleven-year-old nephew.

“If you ever stop jumping out of airplanes and climbing mountains by yourself, you might meet a woman that intrigues you enough to keep your feet on the ground.” She patted his shoulder and gave him a look that made his stomach knot. “Then it will be easy.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn’t we have this conversation when you tried to fix me up with that nurse friend of yours?” The memory of the disastrous arranged date made him shiver. Never going there again.

“We did, but repetition helps. Someday you’ll get it.”

Doubtful, Taylor ushered her out the door and returned to the ER where it was safe.

Nurse Piper Hawkins walked into the ER on the first day of her new travel assignment to pure chaos. Before introductions could even be made, she shoved her purse under the desk and dove into the fray. Adrenaline pumped through her system, and she was ready to tackle anything. At her best in the midst of an emergency, she just hoped the other staff would accept her help quickly. Every assignment was different, and she hoped this one would be a good one. First impressions were always important, and she was about to make one right now.

“I’m new here, but someone give me a job to do,” she said at the first trauma room. With only one doctor and one patient present, Piper figured this was as good a place to start as any.

“You a nurse? Glove up. I’m going to have to intubate this guy and get him off to surgery.” A tall man in green scrubs spoke to her from behind protective mask and goggles. Only his eyes were exposed, and they were intently focused on the trauma patient in front of him.

“Got it.” Piper grabbed gloves from the box on the wall rack and put them on, then a pair of goggles from her pocket. Automatically, she looked at the monitor and assessed the patient’s vital signs. Blood pressure was low, and the heart rate was erratic. “I’m Piper Hawkins, your new travel nurse,” she said, and grabbed the suction setup and cleaned the patient’s mouth.

“Taylor Jenkins, ER doc on today.”

“Tell me what you need.” While noise and movement went on all around them, Piper felt as if she and Dr. Jenkins were in a world all their own. Just the two of them focused entirely on the patient in front of them. This was why she was a nurse, stepping right into the chaos and knowing exactly what to do to save a life. This was what she had trained to do.

Dr. Jenkins nodded to a cupboard behind her as he struggled to keep the oxygen mask on the patient’s face. “Intubation tray, in there.”

“You okay with me helping on this?” Piper asked, knowing some physicians preferred to work with certain nurses, but in an emergency situation, that didn’t always work.

“You qualified?” Taylor asked, and paused to shoot her an inquiring look.

“Absolutely,” Piper promised confidently.

“Then I’m good. Open the tray.”

Nerves still made her hands shake, and she almost dropped the tray on the floor, but managed to catch it and keep it sterile. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She was such a klutz sometimes and a blush lit up her cheeks and neck.

“It’s okay. Just relax a little,” Taylor said. “Take a deep breath.”

The sound of his deep voice and the reassurance he was trying to give her did help. She gave a worried glance at him, but he was as calm and relaxed as he sounded and some of the tension left her shoulders. Some doctors would have just barked at her not to be clumsy, but Dr. Jenkins hadn’t. He must have nerves of steel. That alone calmed her own nerves somewhat, and she connected with the cool energy that seemed to roll off him, trusting him immediately as they worked on the patient together. Confidence like that didn’t come along every day. This wasn’t the first day on the job she had envisioned, but it was the one she was receiving, and she was going to do her best to focus on the task at hand.

Piper tore open the sterile intubation tray and assisted Dr. Jenkins to place the breathing tube through the patient’s mouth and into his lungs. The tube helped to control the airway and allowed the doctor or anesthetist to place the patient on a mechanical ventilator. After the airway was secure, they could deal with the rest of his injuries.

She looked down at the man, who appeared to be in his midfifties. He was unconscious, his face covered in lacerations that oozed blood. A hard plastic neck collar kept him immobilized to prevent injuries to his neck until he could be taken to Radiology for films. He was, in short, a mess. She bit her lip, knowing that he was in serious, if not critical condition. She hoped that their rescue attempt today was going to pull him through and that he had the stamina to survive. The snap of a memory tried to intrude, but she pushed back the unwanted thoughts. Now was not the time to relive the traumatic deaths of her parents. Focusing on the patient right in front of her was her priority.

“Can you keep the suction in his mouth? I’m ready for the tube.” Keeping his gaze focused on the patient’s airway, he held out a hand to Piper.

“Yes, Doctor.” Piper gave him the needed item with one hand and kept the suction in place with the other. She stood beside Dr. Jenkins as he crouched over the patient’s head and slid the tube into place. The tension between her shoulders released. Once the airway was secure, the first hurdle was over.

“That was the smoothest intubation I’ve ever seen,” she said, and secured the tube into place, amazed that it had gone so well as they’d never worked together before.

“Thanks. I did consider a career in anesthesiology, but ER was more to my liking.”

“Well, you certainly are good at it. If I ever need intubation, can I call you?” she asked with a quick laugh.

Dr. Jenkins laughed, too. “Sure.”

She listened to the patient’s lungs. “Good breath sounds, tube sounds like it’s in place. His heart sounds are kind of muffled, though,” she said as she listened to the rest of the man’s chest. “Can you have a listen to be sure?”

Dr. Jenkins applied his stethoscope and listened, confirming her suspicions. “You’re right. He’s had blunt force chest trauma, so I’m sure we’re not out of the woods yet.” He glanced at the monitor and watched for a few seconds.

Piper wiped her forehead with her forearm when the procedure was over. “Where is everyone?”

“We had four traumas come in at once, so everyone’s tied up.”

“Wow. I didn’t think this ER was going to be as busy as my last assignment.” Now she understood why her company had offered such a hefty bonus for this job. She was going to be on her toes from the very start.

“We’re the closest hospital to a major freeway system, so we have all the trauma you could ever want. Today was an unfortunate tragedy.” His jaw clenched and he fell silent.

Though Piper didn’t know this man, she sensed he was disturbed by the events that had taken place today. Those who cared the most often seemed to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“Want to fill me in?” Offering to listen was one of the things she did best. Though she often couldn’t change things, listening helped. Stress was an everpresent issue for healthcare workers. Venting could help.

“Head-on crash. Damn drunk driver going the wrong way on the highway access.” He shook his head and reached for a suture kit.

“Oh, my.” The nerves that had been rumbling inside her now shot to every corner of her mind and heart. A few seconds passed before she had control of the emotions that wanted to go wild. Her parents had been killed by a drunk driver when she’d been twenty years old, her sister twelve. An incident that had turned her instantly into the main carer of her young sister. Each time she dealt with the situation again, she had to keep her emotional distance to get the job done. Some wounds never healed completely and this was one of them.

Looking down at the patient between them, she stroked his hair back from his face with a hand that trembled. “In those sorts of crashes, everyone suffers, don’t they?”

The cardiac alarm rang out, and Piper’s gaze flashed to the monitor. Her heart rate accelerated along with the patient’s. Something was going on that they hadn’t picked up on yet. “He’s having EKG changes.”

“Sixty-cc syringe with a cardiac needle—now.” Taylor moved out from the head of the stretcher to the patient’s left side. “No time for niceties, just get it ready.”

“Here.” Piper placed the syringe into his open hand. Urgency hummed through her, and she hoped that Taylor’s efforts could save the patient. Even in the right place at the right time with all of the best medical care available, people still didn’t make it.

Without a word, Taylor placed the tip of the needle between two ribs below the man’s left armpit and inserted it as far as it would go. Blood immediately flashed into the syringe and Taylor extracted excessive blood from the pericardial sac, which was causing pressure on the heart. This was why the heart sounds had been muffled.

“He’s bleeding into the pericardium. We really need to get him to the OR.”

“Are they expecting him?” The alarm continued to screech, and Piper reached up to silence it, the noise making her nerves jump more than they already were.

“Yes. We put them on alert when we got the call.”