Kiki shook her head, but her eyes softened as if a heavy weight had been lifted.
“When will you leave?”
“When I’m no longer needed here. One, two weeks at the most.”
Saying this aloud made it real. He had been hiding from life and it was past time to start living it again.
“You tell your husband to take you there when you get out of here. You don’t want the kids to get sick.” Trent knew how to push a mother’s buttons. “I’m home only to sleep right now.”
He stood ready to make his exit.
Kiki held his hand, tears swam in her eyes. “Your mother would be proud.”
Yeah… she would have been.
Trent found Jack waiting outside. “Did you find who you were looking for?”
Jack shook his head. “I was told she’s at the other hospital.”
“Let’s go then.”
“What?” Monica took a call from Deb, who was still in California and taking a break from her day job.
“Pat’s on a warpath. Said you didn’t clear your schedule before you left and that it was your responsibility.”
Monica’s jaw ached from grinding her teeth. “I had the shifts covered.”
“Someone called in sick.”
“How the hell was I going to fix that? Staffing said they’d take care of any issues.”
“That’s not how Pat’s spinning it. We’ve had two short shifts when you were supposed to be on.”
“Ah, f**k.” Losing her job was not supposed to be part of a relief effort.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Word has it that one of the patients there died because of a nursing mistake.”
“Here?” Monica’s insides started to boil.
Deb went on to tell her about a reporter somewhere on the island that was following a story of a rich tourist who didn’t make it and how the family was holding the Borderless Nurses and Doctors responsible for their death.
“That’s ridiculous,” Monica told her friend. “We’re all doing our best with toothpicks and duct tape. I’m out of tape, bandages, most of the antibiotics. It’s a freaking war zone, Deb.”
“Either way, Pat’s gunning for you, and not in a good way.”
Monica couldn’t think about this now. “What the hell am I supposed to do about that now?”
“I just don’t want you to stress about getting back.”
“I’m on the schedule next week.” Monica’s stay was self-limited.
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
“Pat took you off.”
That bitch.
Her job was her independence. Her life.
“I’m sorry, Monica.”
“Not your fault. I’ll take care of it when I get back.”
“Be careful.”
Monica disconnected the call and leaned against the back of the building where she’d taken herself for privacy. A legal team worked with the doctors and nurses in the program. Walt and Donald would vouch for her, raise hell if the hospital, or Pat, fired her for being in Jamaica.
But it sucked that she even had to think about any of that here.
Sucked!
Monica ran from patient to patient, hour to hour. Tents had been set up outside in an open field for those who were ready to go home, but didn’t have a home to go to. There were children in another tent who had yet to have a parent or family member collect them. The despair started to weigh on Monica.
She’d heard Walt mumbling about their leaving. Already four members were slated to depart within twenty-four hours. “But there’s still so much to do.”
“I know,” Walt had said.
“How long are you staying?”
“Another week.”
Monica had thought she couldn’t be in Jamaica, but without a job to go home to, what was her hurry? Wouldn’t it just be like Pat to force her to come home just to throw her job out the window.
She needed to talk to Walt about her options but he’d already returned to the main hospital. The poor guy was being dragged around more than she was.
Tauni held a teenage girl’s leg as Monica wrapped it in a bandage. “Do we have any more four-by-fours?” The square bandage material was in extremely short supply.
Tauni moved her hand to give Monica room to tie off the bandage. “Less than half a box.”
“I’ll call Walt and ask if he can spare more when he comes back tomorrow.”
“The government says we’ll get more soon.”
The government, as Tauni called them, promised all kinds of things soon. Yet soon had yet to come. They brought food with armed guards and had no problem pushing people away from the trucks with excessive force. It was downright scary. Hunger was becoming the next national disaster.
People were becoming short with each other, the goodwill effort was bending to the basic human needs. Goodwill was in the toilet when your family was hungry.
Monica released the girl’s leg and offered a smile. “It’s looking good. Healing perfectly,” she told the mother who sat at the girl’s side.
“Thank you.”
Tauni nudged Monica’s shoulder and nodded toward the door. “Looks like you have a visitor.”
Monica glanced up and saw Trent. Beside him was an even more familiar face.
She squealed and all but ran to hug her brother-in-law.
“Hey?”
She felt a hand on her arm, pulling her away from Jack.
“Hey?” Trent’s frown was lethal. He kept looking between the two of them. “You two know each other?”
“Yeah, he’s—”
Trent threw his hands in the air, stopping her words. “I don’t want to know.” He turned and started to storm away.
“Wait up.” Monica grabbed Trent’s arm and spun him around. What the hell was his problem? “What’s wrong with you?”
“Me?” Trent glared at Jack and returned his glare to Monica. “What about you? I wouldn’t have kissed you if I’d known there was someone waiting for you at home.”
Monica’s jaw dropped.
“Kissed you?” She heard Jack say.
She poked a finger in the middle of Trent’s chest. “You might wanna check your testosterone at the door, buddy. Jack is my brother-in-law. As in married to my sister.”
It was Trent’s turn to drop his jaw.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh! You thought I’d…” God, what he must think of her. Never, even in all her Ice Queen days, did she fool around with more than one guy at a time. She couldn’t even date different guys. She turned her back on Trent and placed all her attention on Jack. “Hi.”