Thanksgiving

Chapter 14

She doesn't look at me, but to Doctor Mitchell. "Doctor? You needed me?" As she steps into the room, she trips on the leg of a chair that is against the curtain wall and quickly catches herself on the footboard of the bed before falling to the floor.

"Yes, I can't get this damn thing to work," he hits the side of it. Unfortunately, that doesn't help.

Blondie steps up to the machine which is inches from me, she still hasn't looked at me. Does she know who I am and is ignoring me? Or does she have really bad bedside manners? I watch her fiddle with the machine and I can see her hands are shaking like a leaf. Something is making her extremely nervous. Maybe she operates medical equipment as well as she operates grocery carts.

"Don't they teach you people anything in nursing school?" says Doctor Mitchell with a snarl. "How long have you worked here?!" he snaps. I'm pretty sure now that I'm not the reason she is so nervous.

Blondie tries to talk and think at the same time. She's nervous as hell because of this mean man. "Umm, 4-, 5-, 5 months," she stutters as she keeps her eyes on the task.

"And in that time you haven't used one of these machines!?" he says angrily.

"Yes, I mean no, I mean..." she continues fiddling, finds the power switch and shuts it down. She counts down from 10 slowly under her breath looking at the ceiling. I'm not sure if that's to calm her nerves or has something to do with the machine. She flips the switch back and it turns on. "Oh, thank god," she mumbles, holding back tears. Apparently the restart worked. "There, sir, I mean Doctor, I mean... it's working." She turns quickly and her leg bumps into my foot - which is elevated on the wheelchair's outstretched footrest. My foot is pushed with such force that it gets knocked off the metal platform and slams into the floor before I can even react.

Streaks of pain jet through my entire body. I scream and reach down to touch my foot – even though I know to touch it will not do anything but make it hurt more. Sawyer bursts into the little examination room. "Is everything ok?" he says as he looks at my doubled over body.

"I am sooo sorry, ma'am. I honestly... I am so sorry." She reaches down and helps my foot back onto the leg rest.

"YOU IDIOT!" screams the doctor. "Did you not see the patient? That's what you're here for, is it not? To help the patient? Get your clumsy ass out of here!" He points to the gap in the curtain.

I'd had enough. Even through my pain, I knew this man was taking his inadequacies out on this girl. Whether I liked her or not, I had to speak up. "Don't you DARE yell at her like that!" I yell at him.

For the first time, Blondie looks to me. I can tell by her face that she did not – until now – realize who I was. As much pain as I am in, I still manage to smile at her, attempting to reassure her that, even though she hurt my son, I'm on her side.

"Mrs. Grey, it has been requested that you receive VIP treatment while you are here, I am doing what I need to do. This nurse has done nothing but prove she is useless." He reaches forward and takes Blondie by the arm and guides her away from my side. "I will make sure she is penalized properly."

"You will do no such thing," I squeeze through gritted teeth. "It's your inability to do your job that made Bl... I mean her have to come in here in the first place!"

Apparently, I've overstepped my patient boundaries. "Mrs. Grey, do you know who I am?" I start to answer him but am quickly interrupted. "I am the head medical director of this hospital. I oversee every resident in this facility. The fact that your husband called me out of a meeting to make sure you were seen to immediately is NOT in my job description! But here I am, doing my darnedest to make sure you're taken care of! I would appreciate a little more respect from you. Money grubbing bitches like you are the reason we can't get our jobs done properly!"