Danni was glad that the compromises were ones that everyone would be able to live with. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘almost everyone.’ She still wasn’t sure that she would be able to do it, but she was willing to walk through hell if she had to for the support group to become a reality. ‘I’m not about to be the cause of this not happening.’ She thought about her nice and easy world as she was used to it. It was never going to be the same. At least not for the rest of the time that Garrett Trivoli was here in Pittsburgh. She sighed at that thought and felt the butterflies once again coming to life in her stomach.
Garrett’s mood was somber and thoughtful as she matched strides with her friend while they walked away from the office. She was pleased that she had stood her ground enough to get them the training that they would need to be a cohesive team. She realized that it would be taking away from her time in the O.R. but didn’t want to chance any unforeseen problems with her new friend. The surgeon cast a wayward glance in the nurse’s direction. ‘I bet she’s scared to hell and back.’ She was amazed at how much she was finding out about this woman. More than she had known about anybody in her lifetime. ‘Lucas, you’d be proud of her. She’s just like you, following me wherever my path leads.’
Chapter 2
The days seemed to fly by with little or no effort on the part of Danni. Her mind was being kept occupied with thoughts of everything but her normal nursing duties. First it was the rigorous physical conditioning that started off each and every morning for both her and the surgeon. It was to give them better strength and endurance for the days ahead. At times, she wondered if they were ever going to see a patient again. Thanks to the Cardiac Rehab Unit, they were able to use the indoor walking track each morning before the daily patrons made their way to it. With the weather turning more and more towards winter, it proved to be a blessing in disguise. She just couldn’t imagine herself being pried out of her nice warm bed to run out of doors. At least this way she was able to wake up a little first without the help of the elements.
They were already into the second week of their training when they were informed of the demands on their time for additional classroom periods and mock flight simulations to round out their days. If anybody had thought that this was going to be a piece of cake, they were badly mistaken. Danni could remember her days in nursing classes in college and thinking that they were tough with little or no time for herself. Now she found herself wishing for those days once more. They were cramming everything that they could into her, from how to use pieces of field equipment on the patient, to how to suppress the outbreak of fire in the helicopter while in flight. With each new day and skill that she learned, her admiration for the members of the EMS System and Flight Crews rose considerably.
At times Danni found herself enamoured with the thought of being a part of the "White Knight’s" team and swooping in with rotors-a-whirling to rescue the victim of trauma from the clutches of death. Then there were the other times, mostly at the end of the day, when all she wanted to do was just go home and die in a hot bath. Today was one of those. They had been learning to move patients on and off of the helicopter. It sounded easy enough, besides, she and Garrett moved patients in the trauma room all of the time. Boy, was there a difference when it was just the two of them and not an entire trauma team plus the medics to help. Garrett seemed to have no problem, but with the nurse’s petite frame and stature, she was finding muscles that she never knew existed as she tried to compensate for her size.
‘Gosh! I feel like every muscle in my body is crying for attention.’ Her body seemed to just melt into the warm water of the bath as she lowered herself down into it. The suds of the bubble bath encased her body as it passed through them.
Danni didn’t know whether her shoulders were sore from lifting the dummy filled stretcher in and out of the back of the helicopter or from the constant hunching over that they had to do when in the vicinity of the blades on the rotor. ‘I wonder how Garrett can keep up that posture?’ Then, when she thought of watching her friend in the O.R., standing stoop-shouldered as she worked on the patient. The nurse began to shake her head. "It figures! She’s used to it."
"Used to what, Danni?" The tall surgeon yelled out as she stopped outside of the door in the hall.
‘Caught, again!’ The blonde stuck her tongue out at the door. "Nothing, Gar. I was just talking to myself." ‘Sometimes I swear that she hears better than an owl.’ Then she laughed to herself as her mind played with an idea. ‘I wonder if Superman had a sister?’
"If that hot soak doesn’t loosen up those muscles in your back, I could give you a massage when you’re done. Danni…Danni…." Garrett listened for a reply but there was nothing but the sound of small splashes coming from the room. ‘Poor kid. I don’t think she realized that it was going to be this strenuous. I sure hope she isn’t going through all of this for nothing.’
The woman thought about all the things that they had been doing together as a team now. Each one learning more about the other without really trying to. When they worked as a team, their catalyst was pure instinct. ‘We’re either going to do this together…or not at all. I'll never find someone that knows my needs like she does.’
She started to walk back towards her room. The more she thought about the young woman that fate had brought into her world, the more Garrett realized how empty her world had been. ‘I don’t really think that I’d want to do this with anyone else.’ Then she smirked and shook her head. ‘Who’d be able to put up with me…especially in such cramped quarters?’
Garrett thought about the turbulent rides that she had in a helicopter, her mind then compared those to Danni’s growing motion sickness in the back of a swaying ambulance. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t let her eat before we take that first flight…just in case?’ The surgeon made a mental note to look back in on her friend in a little while then went to check on her mail.
Danni yawned, as her body was beckoning her to rest. The day was quickly catching up to her. Her body had finally allowed itself to come off of full alert status, and now…it needed sleep to heal and strengthen itself. The tired nurse succumbed almost instantly to the lure of the warm water as it swaddled her into sleep.
"Danni…Danni…" the throaty tones echoed in her head. "Ahhh! There it was!" Her muscles recognized that sudden feel of warmth as it stretched across her shoulders. Her flesh seemed to move willingly with the pressure as the strong touch molded her like clay in an artist’s hands. The gentle kneading sensations acting like a cosmic regeneration of some long ago depleted life force. Every change of direction causing the electrically charged particles to run rampant throughout her body, registering passions and delights beyond her realm of thought. She could feel her body tingling now as it betrayed her silent want to it’s very core.
Shadows of the night now loomed across her eyelids as the dark form called out to her from above. The outstretched hand summoning her with a warming sensation that would fill her body with its own language of the night, causing it to soar aloft in the sweet basking glow of the heavens as she floated amongst the clouds. Tender, so very tender was that soft, lingering touch that her body wanted nothing more than to melt at this very moment, never again to feel the need for another’s touch.
Her senses were dulled now as the last waves of exhaustive pleasure rolled through her body taking all of the aches and pains from her. She could hear the world calling to her and with a blurry eye, chose to slowly grasp on to her place and time. There, coming into a sharper view in front of her was the dark form, with beams of dazzling light emitting from around it. It seemed so surreal that it took her breath away, causing her to gasp for air.