Always being the one to seek out peaceful alternatives to a situation, Danni offered, "Why not let me show her the ropes. You know, sort of take her under my wing. Hey, look how David turned out."
"Oh yeah! David was so shy that after all these years he still couldn’t get the courage to ask you out." Rosie shook her head, "I don’t think this is the cuddly teddy bear type, not that kind of personality at all."
Danni resented the implied comment. "You don’t think I can do it, do you?"
"Now girls," Mom jumped in, "let’s give Danni’s way a try first. If it doesn’t change the behavior pattern for the better we can always do something else."
"Yeah, I’ll crucify her good."
"My way first, right?" The blonde looked straight into Rosie’s eyes. It was a look that meant business.
Slowly the nurse conceded in her posturing. With her eyes closed and her head minutely shaking approval she voiced, "Right."
"Okay then, it’s over. Danni, you have one month to get some work in on that med student." Karen looked at Rosie. "Agreed?"
"Agreed. You better work fast, Danni. This special project of yours, she is gonna need a lot of work."
"Let me worry about that," her tone was reassuring.
"I bet you brought home strays of all kinds when you were growing up." Karen was chuckling to herself at the thought.
"Well, mostly birds…kittens…puppies," the small blonde winced at the thought of being busted, "and a turtle once."
"Well, now you’ll be able to add an ‘amazon’ to that menagerie," the charge nurse laughed. "Now, time to get to work," she said making an effort to shoo them on their way.
The two co-workers walked over to the nurses’ station and checked the assignment board for their names. As Rosie had predicted, she was assigned the Trauma R.N. position and Danni as her Butt nurse. She looked over at the blonde nurse with a pouting expression on her face.
"I said I would switch with you," Danni reassured her as she reached up and erased their names only to write them back in the reverse position.
"Ooh! I’ll name our first kid after you," she said rubbing her hands together.
"Thanks!" Rosie reached out and gave her co-worker a quick hug.
"Don’t mention it. You know that you owe me, don’t you?" The blonde shook her head disgustedly, "Now, I have to get report from John." Her face twisted up and a chill went over her body at the thought. "Well, better to get it over with quickly." The blonde looked around trying to find the disgusting man but he was nowhere in sight.
***********
It was another busy day in the emergency room; the hallways were lined with patients on carriages waiting to be transported to various destinations within the medical center. The nurse could hear muffled sounds coming form each doorway she passed on her way to the trauma suites. Years of
experience gave her an idea of the ailments or injuries of each patient. Subconsciously, her brain began to register and categorize each one.
Soft rhythmic wheezes…’Room 8: Asthmatic.’
Dimmed lighting and snoring sounds…’Room 9: Post Ictal Seizure.’
Bubbly sounding short breathes…’Room 10: Congestive Heart Failure.’
Soft groans mixed with angered muttering…’Room 10: Orthopedic injury, probably broken.’
It was the usual gamut of complaints typical for July with its mixture of sunshine and oppressing heat and humidity at times. It was no different than any other year. The only thing that ever seemed to change was the cast of characters, both patients and staff.
‘Its like that movie "Ground Hog Day",’ Danni mused, ‘we just keep doing it over and over again until we get it right…until it becomes the perfect day.’
The young nurse turned at the end of the hall into the trauma area. The area was quiet and had an almost eerie feeling to it. She began to check each room for readiness and also the nurse she was to receive report from, John.
Danni was thankful that it was not busy in her domain, it meant that she would not have to jump right into the middle of a life or death situation without knowing the whole story. It was her belief that each patient treated was not just an injury but rather a story in itself. In order to heal the wound it was often necessary to reach out to the soul. Her patients always appreciated this effort. It made them feel like they were being treated as a person and not some anatomical practice dummy, who was there only for the benefit of the medical community.
Leaving the last of the four trauma rooms, the nurse spied John seated in the conference room sitting intently in front of the television that was used for video taped inservices and the reviewing of taped procedures. She could see his moon-pied facial expression, his eyes riveted to the screen and shook her head in disgust. ‘Good gods, he’s got to be watching a porno tape or worse yet, maybe one of his own escapades with some unsuspecting young girl. Ugh!’
Swallowing hard, she walked into the conference room trying not to look at the screen. "Are you ready to give me report, John?" Her tone was very professional. Seeing that he could not tear his eyes off of the action on the screen, she asked, "Can’t you watch this stuff in the privacy of your own home instead of here?"
"Yeah! Maybe I can make a copy of this. Thanks for the idea." He looked quickly up at Danni and then right back to the screen. "It will be over in a minute, you just got to see the raw beauty, the magnificent orchestration of the action with only minimal direction. It’s literally poetry in motion."
Danni rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t want to see this!’ Her mind cringed at the thought. ‘Why did I agree to switch? Rosie, you really owe me big time.’
Static now filled the room as John hit the rewind button on the controls. He slowly inhaled and allowed the trapped breath to emerge as a long drawn out sigh. He was trying desperately to savor the moment. He closed his eyes, a
smile appearing on his face. It was as if he was reviewing it all over again on the back of his eyelids.
"John!"
"Shhh…!" He drew his finger up to his pursed lips. "Please, it’s not often that there is so perfect a moment."
"Just what is on that tape?"
The male nurse opened his eyes. "You want report, right?"
"Well, yes!"
"Then you need to see this video of the first Level One of the new staff year. It’s simply breathtaking." John winked at her, "I know you will enjoy it."
Danni’s mind raced, trying to figure out what could it possibly be that was so delightful that John would enjoy in this trauma scenario. ‘It was probably a big bosom…no, let’s not go there,’ she immediately halted that train of thought.
‘I’ll hate myself for this, but…’ "Okay, show it to me."
Eagerly he pointed the control to the TV and tapped the play button. The clip of video began to play. The patient was hurriedly wheeled into the room and quickly transferred to the trauma stretcher. A commanding voice was snapping out snippets of phrases, directing the flurry of activity for all those in the room. The action was simultaneous and as John had called it, well orchestrated. Danni’s mind was distracted when she caught the appearance of the tall dark haired figure at the bottom of the screen. It was her ‘amazon.’ She was going to have a lot of work to do with her, she wasn’t even were she should have been stationed around the trauma patient. She made a mental note to go over the correct stations for each rank of medical personnel in the trauma setting with her new project. Before she knew it, the patient was being wheeled briskly out of the room. The tape was finished, static noise again filling the air.
"Isn’t that voice like a god’s?" he said awestruck. "And that, is what trauma is all about. Yes, sir, I’ll work with that Trauma Fellow Garrett Trivoli any day. I might get to like it even better than sex…well, at least here at work."