Standing By

Decoding and Creating

"Yep," Austin agreed, chuckling.

"Never heard that expression before. What's that mean?" Linzi asked.

"Kinda..." He squinted an eye shut, trying to figure out how to explain it. "When you're so involved in the little parts of the problem that you can't see the bigger picture."

"Hmm. I like that." Avi grinned. "Must be a southern thing."

I shrugged. "I dunno. I have heard it before."

"I've heard it all my life." Chance laughed, Austin nodding along.

"I'm from Texas and I've never heard it," Mitch told Avi.

"I'm from Texas and I have," I retorted.

"And Texas is one hell of a big state." Rob finished his nachos with a crunch.

"Are all of you from Texas?" Linzi asked curiously.

The four of us who were raised our hands, Austin feeling the need to go into detail.

"The three of them," he began, waving a hand towards Mitch, Kirstie, and Scott, "are from Arlington, Texas—"

"Between Dallas and Fort Worth," Scott explained.

"He—" A hand clamped on my head and rolled my eyes upwards towards it. "—is from Nederland—"

I knocked it off. "Southeast Texas. Nobody knows where Nederland is, Austin."

"—he's from Huntsville, Alabama—," Austin continued, bonking Chance on the head.

"Ow, Austin, stop," he complained, rubbing at it.

"Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Mankato, Minnesota—"

Adam's hands flew up to protect his head as Rob stood up to return the head bonk he'd just gotten.

"Tifton, Georgia!" he announced irritably.

"Ow!" Austin cawed.

"Ditto!" Rob informed him, sitting back down.

The door opened again and that cranky nurse stuck her head in. "Linzi, I'm going to the DON and having you wrote up. You have no reason whatsoever to be in here."

Linzi flushed but Avi quickly spoke up on her behalf. "She's my LPN, so yes, she does. And my call light was on."

"Mmf," Carolyn grunted, checking the whiteboard for the list of people involved in his care. Ironically, she was one of the few people not involved. "I'm watching you, Linzi."

"And we're watching you," I retorted without thinking. Woman was being a bitch on a power trip and I wasn't having it. No one told me to shut up either.

With that, Carolyn turned and walked off in a huff.

"Thanks, guys," Linzi told us. "No one likes Carolyn 'cuz she's such a, well, you know, and—"

"Bitch," Mitch supplied helpfully. "She's a bitch on a power trip."

"Yep, exactly how I had her pegged, too," I affirmed.

Chance was squinting at Linzi. "She any good at her job, or just at bossing people around?"

She shrugged. "She's OK enough that there are no complaints on file. She's an RN and she's tenured, so she's hard to get rid of."

"Hell, I'll complain," Austin volunteered for her. "I don't like her and she's done yelled at us once, so I can—"

"We were out of line doing what we were," Rob tried to pull blame back on us.