POV Jess
I glance over Cole's file and I already have an incoming headache, this file is huge, more like a novel. I only have one other patient tonight but I have a feeling I'll still be unbelievably busy.
I feel ridiculously uneasy about Roman and I can't help but take it personally. I don't know whether to try to talk to him or leave him be; I don't know my place, and it's frustrating me. I decide just to send him a quick text.
Me: You okay? You seemed upset.
Roman: I'm fine
Well that went well, I guess I'll just leave it at that.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I'm hoping it's Roman again but it's Charlotte.
Char: We're on our way down
Me: I'm not ready for this
Char: too bad
Fuck. I'm really really not ready for Cole to be in my space for god knows how long. I haven't seen him since the accident and my anxiety is through the roof. I try to busy myself but it's not working, with every passing second my nerves are on high alert.
I hear Charlotte's voice from down the hall along with a few others. My stomach is doing flip-flops, and I think I'm going to be sick. They come closer and into my line of sight. I feel my face draining blood I must be as white as a ghost. I see Cole's legs before I see his face. The broken leg is wrapped in white bandages with a large blue brace wrapped around it keeping it firmly in place. My eyes drift to his exposed tatted hands and arms that sporadically have gauze covering wounds. A dozen and a half steri strips are perfectly lined along his clavicle and several are placed on his face. His eyes are bright but I can't quite decipher the color from where I'm seated, his hair dark is disheveled. He looks like an absolute disaster and beautiful all at the same time, a beautiful disaster.
I catch Char's eye as she is situated behind his head rolling the bed my way, she mouths "ha-ha" at me and I glare at her forgetting that everyone can see me but not her. She's an asshole and she knows it.
"Which room Jessica?" Charlotte antagonizes, that bitch knows what room. I want to mouth fuck you to her but I have an audience.
"312," I point to the room across from me.
She gives me a sly smile instigating the situation and having the upper hand because no one is batting an eye her way they're all locked on mine, minus Cole, who couldn't be any more bored with my existence.
They start to roll Cole into his new temporary home because let's be real, this guy ain't leaving any time soon. Wyatt, another ICU nurse calls over his shoulder at me, "We'll get him all set up and hooked up to the monitors for you."
"Thanks Wyatt," I emphasize his name so Charlotte gets the hint she's on my shit list.
Cole's stats are now connected to our monitors so that we can see them at all times. Gradually CNAs start to migrate out of the room until it's just Wyatt and Charolette left to no doubt make sure he's settled in correctly. After about five or so minutes they come out together, strategically on Charlotte's part.
"Good luck," she sings out with a cheesy smile.
"Break at 11? Cafeteria?" I yell out to her as she passes by.
"Sorry, too busy," she says turning her head over her shoulder and I take the opportunity to double middle finger her to deliver a fuck you. Her head falls back in laughter at my upcoming misery.
As of now I can't do much with Cole other than monitoring until Roman comes back from wherever the hell he is with instructions.
A call light goes on and it's from Cole's room, blood pumps hard throughout my body and nerves have spread like wildfire. I need to interact with him, one-on-one. I figure for the first ever real encounter that I would be alongside Dr. Ridley and eventually ease into one-on-one but here we are, plan and god laughs. Real funny…
I take a deep breath and over dramatically release it into the air. I stand up and straighten out my now wrinkled scrubs, push my chair in trying to waste as much time as humanly possible.
Room 312 is directly across from the nurse station and is generally left vacant for the sickest of patients so that we can keep an even closer eye on the patient in case of emergency. Rooms 310-13 are usually always a fall risk as well. Not only is Cole always going to be in the vicinity of my workspace but given the injuries sustained a couple of months in the least is what we're looking at until he's officially discharged.
I'm only a few steps away from the door when I hear Cole's voice for the first time, unfortunately, it's an angry one as he yells out "helloooooo? Anyone there??"
The next couple of months are going to test me in so many different ways I could just feel it in my bones, no doubt number one being my fucking patience.