Dark Desire (The Sequel to NSHD)

This Could Present a Problem

Owen

Katie was still asleep when I left this morning for work. I figured she probably needed the sleep. Alex was pretty content with the bottle I gave him before I left and quickly dozed off again. So she should be able to sleep in a little longer today.

The morning has been pretty steady at the hospital today. A lot of sick kids though. Just about every one of them has had the same general complaints. The doctor is leaning towards a case of food poisoning because all the kids were at the same birthday party last night.

“Hey Cheryl, I’m going to go take a break. Page me if you need me,” I said as I walked down the hall.

She just acknowledged me by waving. I think she was talking to her daughter on the phone. I headed towards the cafeteria; I remembered to feed Alex but forgot to feed myself. I quickly grabbed some food and headed over to a vacant table. I pulled my phone out to call Katie when I heard a voice behind me ask, “Is this seat taken?”

I looked up to see Natalia standing next to the table, I gestured for her to sit down.

“It’s Owen, right?” She asked.

“Yep that’s me,” I replied as I slid my phone back into my pocket.

“No baby today?” She smiled as she took a sip of her coffee.

“Nope… left them both sleeping at home.”

“You have two babies?” She asked looking quite confused.

“Well I have a baby boy and my wife…she is my other baby.” I smiled then let out a little chuckle.

“Oh I see now…I feel stupid.”

“Why?” I asked as I shoved some food into my mouth.

“I thought you actually had two kids and had left one at home yesterday.”

“So how do you like it here so far?” I asked trying to change the subject.

“It is definitely not what I am used to…It is quite odd.”

“Why do you say odd?”

“I’m not used to having so much downtime in between surgeries… Does anything actually exciting ever happen in this town?”

“We have our share of small town excitement.” I laughed.

Beep Beep Beep. My pocket was vibrating. It was the pager.

“Well looks like we have some fun and excitement coming in now…I gotta get back to work. Nice talking with you again.” I quickly got up and put up my tray then dashed down the hall back to the ER.

“What have we got?” I asked Cheryl as I rounded the corner.

“Four year old little boy vs. car,” she replied glumly.

I could hear the frantic mother crying and screaming as they brought the little boy in on the gurney. The kid was screaming to so that was a good sign at least.

“The car clipped him…the driver managed to swerve in time not to hit him head on. The driver will be following behind shortly he hit a telephone pole when he swerved,” Scott explained as we transferred the little boy to the bed.

Scott explained that the kid most likely had a broken arm that had been splinted and some minor lacerations and bruising. The driver of the car was not as lucky.

“I turned my back for just a minute and he was gone,” the mother cried to the officer who was questioning her about the accident.

I gave the boy some pain medicine into the IV that the medics had already stated. Dr. Thomas came in and quickly assessed him giving orders for an x-ray of his right forearm and a CT scan to make sure there were no internal injuries.