Nanny for the Army Rangers by Krista Wolf
Three
DELILAH
“And that’s it, huh? I got the wind knocked out of me?”
The doctor stood over me in the pre-dawn light, yawning like a champion. He had a cup of steaming hot coffee in one hand, and my chart in the other. It was a scene right out of any weekly one-hour medical drama.
“Well we’re still waiting on a second round of bloodwork, but—”
“Why?”
The man standing at the foot of my bed looked back at me in confusion. It wasn’t a question he was ready for.
“What do you mean why, Ms. Gallo?”
“What was wrong with the first round of bloodwork?” I asked. “Anything?”
He looked at his chart again, as if it provided answers it somehow didn’t before.
“Well no, but—”
“What about the chest X-rays?” I asked. “And I believe you did an MRI?”
He swallowed, dryly. “The X-rays were negative. No broken ribs. You have bruised ribs though, which can be just as bad. In fact, even if you had broken your ribs—”
“I know, I know,” I cut him off. “The treatment would be the same. You can’t wrap them anymore — that’s a thing of the past. It inhibits breathing, and the bones heal at a more shallow angle than they should.”
I’d learned most of this information in my secondary anatomy classes already. Of course that was back when I was still going to classes, and still enrolled at the University.
“So my bloodwork is clean, I didn’t break anything, and I didn’t hit my head,” I said plainly. “I passed out from not getting oxygen into my lungs — a direct result of hitting the ground so hard.”
The man wrinkled his mustache, which at this point in his life was fifty-percent grey. “It would seem so, yes,” he said uncertainly. He glanced at the chart again. “Apparently, when you fell off the bleachers—”
“Jumped,” I corrected him.
“What?”
“I jumped from the bleachers,” I said again. “I didn’t fall.”
The doctor put down his coffee and picked up his pen. When he looked at me again, he was scratching his chin.
“If you’re telling me you intentionally jumped Ms. Gallo,” he said gravely, “I’m afraid we need another type of doctor here.”
“I didn’t jump jump,” I sighed in exasperation. “God, why does everyone always assume the worst?”
“Then what did you—”
“I leapt off the bleachers to save a falling kid,” I explained. “He was a little boy. Blonde hair. Blue eyes.” I scanned around, not exactly knowing what I was expecting. “Is he here at the hospital? He’s okay, right?”
“I haven’t heard anything about a little boy, Ms. Gallo.”
“Good,” I sighed with relief. “If he’s not here, he’s probably fine. I absorbed the entire impact, I’m pretty sure. The way I landed, I’m gonna be feeling it for a while.”
I leaned forward and reached back at the same time. A sharp flash of pain flared along my right side.
“Yeah… I definitely bruised some ribs.”
I’d been groggy during the ambulance ride, but came to my senses pretty quickly in the ER. I’d let various staff do their thing for half the night, poking and prodding me, and then slept for the other half. By now though, I was done.
Past done, actually.
“Any sign of the two guys who saw me fall?” I asked hopefully. “Tall. Dark. Handsome. One had a closely-trimmed beard… the other maybe a goatee, or—”
“No,” the doctor shook his head. “I haven’t even a clue what you’re—”
“Never mind then,” I said, reaching for the IV line in my arm. “Thanks for everything, doc. I’m sure the billing department will be in touch.”
The man watched incredulously as I carefully removed the IV, stowed the lines, and reapplied the medical tape bandage on my arm. As I grabbed my phone and punched up my Uber app, he looked so shocked I thought his Styrofoam coffee cup might drop from his fingers.
“Can you hand me my clothes?” I pointed. “And pull the curtain?”
“Ms. Gallo!” he cried. “You can’t just—”
“Leave?” I chuckled. “Sure I can. Watch me.”
I hopped down from the bed, onto the cold tile floor. Damn, why did hospitals keep the floors so cold all the time? Couldn’t they spring for some underfloor heating?
“But you’re not discharged!” the doctor scowled. “You still have to wait for—”
“A different doctor from the next shift, to come look at my chart for a third time?” I finished glibly. “Another set of redundant blood tests?”
“You can’t just—”
“Should I wait two hours after that for my discharge papers?” I laughed. “Another hour for someone to find an unoccupied wheelchair and an orderly to bring it up here?”
“But—”
“Yeah, all that bullshit’s gonna take six or eight hours,” I said. “And that’s at the minimum. I won’t get home until dinner, and I’m already starving.”
I reached for my jeans and slipped them on right in front of him, pulling them up beneath my open-backed hospital gown. By the time I reached for my shirt, he’d turned bright red.
“My way’s better,” I said, finishing the rest. “Believe me.”
Trapped on the other side of the room, the doctor had nothing to do but look at the floor until I’d finished dressing. I winced as I gingerly pulled my shirt and sweater over my head, then slipped into my sneakers and dropped the gown unceremoniously onto the bed.
When the man opened his mouth one last time, I cut him off before he could even start.
“Lots of rest, plenty of ice, and stay off my feet for a while,” I chuckled. “Right?”
“Well… yes, but—”
“But what?”
He pointed downward, to the empty chair where my clothes had been. Only it wasn’t empty.
“I was just going to say, you forgot your jacket.”
Sitting in the middle of the laminate-and-steel chair was a large black leather jacket. It had studs on the shoulders too, exactly like—
Exactly like the guy holding the little girl wore, back at the aquarium.
“That’s not my jacket,” I said reflexively.
“Well it definitely came in with you,” the doctor shrugged. “I know that much.”
I picked it up, shocked by the sheer size and weight of it. It smelled like leather, and oil, and steel — all manly things. Cologne, too. The scent was virile, without being overpowering. Sweet and musky and delicious.
Still feeling a little chilly from the thin hospital gown, I slipped it on. The sky beyond the window had faded from purple to blue, with a yellowish tinge.
“That coffee’s from the shop downstairs, isn’t it?” I asked. “Is it any good?”
By now the doctor was on autopilot. He shook his head slowly.
“Never mind then, I’ll figure something else out.”