Burn Into Me (Into Me Series Book Two)

Chapter Ten - Shift

I sip the warm drink in the paper cup in my hand, appreciating the most wonderful part of this time of year... pumpkin spice lattes. Yes, I'm one of those. I do not give a fuck if you think they're overrated or disgusting or whatever. I am unashamed. My love for PSLs runs true and deep. So shut the fuck up and let me enjoy it.

Achem. Anyways...

I scroll through Bernice Walters' chart, scribbling down a brief report on my report sheet. BNP elevated, high sensitivity troponins down-trending and negative, BUN and creatinine high, potassium low, H&H stable, and chest X-ray without any acute findings. Stabley-unstable. I can handle that.

The unit phone rings and Rosie answers, scribbling something down on her pad of scrap paper. Jon walks up to the nurses' station, scruffing my hair up with his hand as he sits down next to me. I laugh and roll my eyes at him as I fix my hair.

"What's up, kiddo?" he asks me.
"Oh, you know, same old, same old," I reply lazily. I exit Bernice's chart and click into my next patient's. "You got someone for me?" I ask, glancing at him quickly over my shoulder.
"Yeah, bed 17," he replies, leaning back in his chair.
"Okay, give me like two seconds to clock in and then we can start," I nod.
"Absolutely, I'm in no rush," he smiles.

I stand, walking over toward the time clock where a few others wait. I say my good mornings to Mark and make small talk with him as we wait out the last minute before we can clock in. 0653 rolls around, Mark swiping his badge and putting his finger on the sensor. I repeat the same process, looking around for Caroline. She's never late. She's always one of the first people here. I shrug it off and walk toward the nurses' station.

"Hey, Hart," Rosie calls from the front.
I divert myself from walking back to my seat to walking to her, "What's up, Rosie?" Yes, she has the same name as our dog. Yes, it's weird.
"Staffing needs adjusted, Caroline just called off," she informs me.
"Of course she did..." I mutter, rolling my eyes. I grab the assignment book from Rosie and glance at what we're working with today. We surprisingly actually have an extra RN that was going to be helping hands, luckily. "Hey, Jen," I holler, setting the book down and glancing around the desk.
"What's up, Hart?" she asks, walking over toward me from where she stood with Theo. He gives me a small smile that I return, along with a curt wave.
"I have to pull you off of helping hands and give you an assignment, Caroline called off last minute," I explain.
Jen rolls her eyes and sighs, "Fucking really? Again? She called off, again?"
"Again, what does that mean?" I ask, confused. Again?
"She hasn't been in for a shift in two weeks, how did you not know this? Aren't you two like attached at the hip?" she wonders, cocking an eyebrow at me.
"Not recently, it seems," I mumble. "Has anyone done a well check on her?"
"Theo did when she called off two days ago. She slammed the door in his face and told him to fuck off," she shrugs.
"Huh..." I hum, feeling even more confused.
"I'll take the assignment though, I don't care, honestly," she smiles.
"I appreciate it, more than you will ever know," I respond, grabbing her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

I find my way back to Jon and my computer, huffing as I settle into the shitty office chair beneath me. "Okay, let's do this," I nod to him. He gives me report quickly on the 9-year-old that came in with a fever in the 104s that is unresponsive to meds. Once he finishes, I get report from two of the new nightshift nurses that I don't really know all that well, including report on Bernice.

I glance around the nurses' station looking for Penny but find that she is nowhere to be found. I pull my phone out of my scrub top and send her a quick text to make sure that she is okay. She's my new grad, so since I'm here, she should be too. It's not like her to not be. I respond quickly to Jackson's "I love you" text that he sends every morning. I also send a text to Caroline, asking her if she is okay and if she needs anything. She'll probably ignore me again, but she can't say that I'm not trying.