Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“I did my ER rotation when I trained, the same as everyone else.”
“Years ago! And you hate it down here!”
“I can handle it,” I said. And prayed that was true. That ER rotation had been the worst six months of my life and this would be way worse, an ER with a skeleton staff. But if I wanted to save Rebecca, I had no choice.
“That’s one doctor,” Bartell said grudgingly. “You need more.”
“I’ll do it.”
I caught my breath. The voice was a low rumble, shining with Irish silver. I looked to the back of the room and found Corrigan gazing straight at me.
“You’ve been here one day!” said Bartell in disbelief. “You barely know your way around!”
“Beckett can show me,” said Corrigan, gazing steadily at me.
“Me too,” said a young, blonde-haired woman.
Bartell sighed. “Taylor, you’re a med student!”
“She’s a quick study,” said Corrigan. And I saw Taylor’s face light up with pride.
“This is crazy,” said Bartell. “You’d need nurses—”
“Right here,” said Krista, pushing her way to the front. Adele and Lina were right behind her and a handful of other nurses joined them.
“I’m staying too,” said Maggie. “Got to keep things running.”
Bartell opened his mouth to protest... and then let out a long sigh instead. “You’re all crazy,” he muttered. Then he shook his head ruefully. “Guess I’d better call my wife and tell her I won’t be home for a few days.”
I blinked in disbelief. “You’re staying?!”
He looked embarrassed that he’d been caught being nice. “Someone has to make sure you don’t burn the place down.” He did his best to scowl.
I wanted to hug him. But he saw the look in my eyes and put his hands up defensively. “Yeah, yeah, okay,” he said. “We still need to evacuate everyone who can make the journey. We’ve got less than two hours before the blizzard hits.”
I nodded gratefully... and ran.
The next two hours passed in a blur as we discharged all the patients we could and transferred all the ones we couldn’t to ambulances for the long trip to Colorado Springs. I made sure to check in on Rebecca and it was a good thing I did: she was watching all the other patients being wheeled out. “Everyone’s leaving,” she said as soon as she saw me.
“Not me,” I told her. “I’m staying right here with you. And I’m even going to move you downstairs, so I can keep an eye on you.”
“Back to the ER?” She actually sounded excited.
“Back to the ER,” I said. I was operating on adrenaline and the reality of what I’d signed up for hadn’t fully sunk in yet but the fear was already starting to churn in my stomach.
I moved her bed downstairs to the temporary intensive care area we’d set up in one corner of the ER, then ran to help with the other patients. It was a frantic, breathless panic: all of us could feel the blizzard breathing down our necks. We had to work so fast, in the final half hour that it turned into a production line: gurneys flowed out of the elevator and kept moving all the way to the ambulance bay with doctors running alongside to check charts and nurses loading supplies and hanging fresh IV bags. At last, we were down to just four patients who needed to be evacuated.
“Come on!” yelled Bartell. “The blizzard’ll be here any minute!”
Krista and Adele grabbed the first patient’s gurney, Lina and Bartell took the next and Maggie and Taylor the next. I grabbed one end of the final gurney—
And then Corrigan was there at the other end. I wanted to thank him for staying, for supporting my crazy plan but, as soon as I looked into those blue eyes, I struggled to get the words out. He’d lost that cocky hardness for a second and was looking at me with such a mix of lust and longing….
“Let’s move!” said Bartell.
We pushed the gurneys out to the ambulance bay and—
I let out a shuddering gasp as the cold hit me. The temperature had plummeted and a bitter wind was howling, lashing our exposed skin. The snow hadn’t started yet, but it was close.
We pushed the gurneys into the waiting ambulances and handed the charts to the paramedics. They raced away the second we had the doors shut. A steady stream of cars started to roar out of the underground parking garage: everyone was desperate to get out of town before we got cut off.
All seven of us clustered around Bartell as he started to speak. “We’ve done all we can,” he said. “We’re down to six critical patients. I figure we can cope with that. So it comes down to what traumas come in over the next few days.” He looked around at us. “If we’re lucky, the worst we’ll get is a couple of sprained ankles from people slipping on the ice.”