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Chapter 3

ER nurse Jo Bright had just stepped out of a pediatric treatment room and closed the door behind her on a screaming infant and its worried parents when she heard the ruckus around the corner. She was used to hearing ruckuses in the ER, but this one sounded a little louder than most. She walked quickly past the ER desk, plopping the baby’s chart down for the doctor’s perusal as she went, and turned the corner, not even trying to guess what she might see once she did.

What she saw was a staggering, disheveled, belligerent redneck (as evidenced by his black tee shirt that proclaimed REDNECK in humongous white lettering on the front and back) being frog-marched into one of the treatment rooms by a very tall, redheaded Certified Nursing Assistant (as evidenced by her pink uniform—the nurses all wore white). Jo had about thirty seconds to admire the redhead’s technique before the treatment room door closed behind her.

The redneck’s voice came through it immediately. “Hey, that sure is a purdy little ass you got there, honey. Feels all firm and—” The voice stilled suddenly, as though cut off. He spoke no more.

Jo wondered what the redhead had done to him and found herself smiling. The Redhead and the Redneck. Good name for a movie. Or just Redhead and Redneck. Revenge of the Redhead. Redhead and Redneck’s Excellent Adventure. The Silence of the Redneck. Perfect.

The nursing assistant stepped from the treatment room and closed the door behind her, patting her hair with her other hand. She glanced up, saw Jo watching, and spoke in a soft Southern accent that was a little more accentuated than Jo’s own and probably made men’s erectile tissue quiver. “He’s sleeping like a baby.”

“I bet he is.” They smiled innocently at one another and Jo put out her hand. “Jo Bright.”

“Alice Pearl.”

Jo’s hand disappeared into a long, slender one that felt somehow soft and hard at the same time. She looked up and wondered just how tall Alice Pearl was. She hoped the woman didn’t mind shorter guys, because she wouldn’t find many taller ones this side of the NBA. With that hair and those eyes and that figure, though, the ones she did find would be on her like snow on Everest. The woman also moved quietly, with a fluid grace that Jo envied. She’d always been something of a klutz herself.

She realized she was still holding the other woman’s hand and a kind of low-grade thrill shot through her. She frowned. She’d never been attracted to women before, had never met one that turned her on, but there was something about this one... She let go of Alice Pearl’s hand. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I just started yesterday. I’m a traveler.”

“Oh, really! I’ve always wondered about that. How do you like it?”

“So far, so good. It’s my first assignment.”

“Where are you from?”

“New Orleans, but I’ve been living in New York for a while.”

“Well, I hope you enjoy your stay here. I gotta see about a baby that won’t stop crying. Possible meningitis.”

“Poor thing. Do you mind if I tag along?”

“Sure, come on. Maybe you can get him to calm down. He’s wasting all his strength.”

They could hear the baby crying all the day down the hall, through the closed treatment room door. When she opened it, Jo thought she felt her eardrums flutter in protest. The baby’s mother was holding him, pacing the floor. The father sat in one of the plastic chairs, head in hands.

Alice Pearl had to put her mouth against Jo’s ear to be heard. “Has the spinal fluid been checked yet?”

“Yes, but the results aren’t back.”

“Poor thing.” Alice held her arms out. “May I have him?”

The mother gave up the screaming child almost too easily. Jo watched Alice snuggle the child against her breast and coo to it, wondering if the woman had any children of her own. She certainly seemed the nurturing type. The baby screamed louder, if that were possible. Alice caressed the small form, passing her long fingers from the top of the head to the soles of the feet in a somehow questing gesture, then laid her palm gently on top of the small, downy head. She seemed to close her eyes for a moment, as though in silent prayer. The baby quieted somewhat. She raised it and kissed its silken cheek. It hiccupped once and fell asleep.

The baby’s father had raised his head and a huge, moronic smile had blossomed on his face. Jo thought how sweet it was to see such relief, such fatherly love and compassion, and then realized that the guy was looking at Alice Pearl. Alice turned her back to him and bent over slightly to hand the baby back to its astonished mother. The father’s eyes snapped to the delectably rounded ass and the moronic smile decayed to idiotic.

Jo coughed somewhat pointedly and Alice turned quickly, catching the man, who started guiltily. Jo told the parents that she’d let them know the second the spinal fluid analysis was back and followed Alice out of the room. “What did you do?”

Alice shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. He just cried himself out.”

“Yeah, right.” Jo looked up at her suspiciously, wondering about the redneck. Two very loud patients had become two very quiet ones, in the company of Alice Pearl, who apparently did not like noise.

Suddenly the redhead’s ears seemed to perk up. “Ambulance on the way.”

Jo listened but could hear no sirens. They cut the sirens within a block of the hospital, anyway, and she rarely heard them in the ER. She didn’t hear this one, either. But she heard the radio behind the desk when it chattered to life, the siren in the background almost drowning out the paramedic’s hurried words. “Randolph ER, this is Rescue Six enroute Code Two. We have a 27-year-old female, apparent slasher victim. Vitals as follows: Temp 98.8, pulse 104, resps 24, BP 110/60. Estimated 60 cc blood loss. Bleeding is controlled, lactated Ringer’s infusing TKO at this time. ETA two minutes.”

A feminine voice in the background seemed to be chastising someone severely. Jo couldn’t make out the words but the tone sounded like a witch who’d just discovered her broomstick covered with KY jelly and a suspicious stain.

She hurried to prepare Trauma One and found Alice Pearl already there.

***

Jo heaved a sigh of relief and pushed open the door of the ER employee lounge, a glorified hole-in-the-wall that boasted a Pepsi machine, a sofa that had once belonged to Methuselah, and a few uncomfortable plastic chairs scattered around a coffee table loaded with old magazines, stained from God knew what. It was the end of her shift but she needed to rest before driving home. What a night.

The baby that Alice Pearl had mesmerized had continued to sleep after apparently popping a gas bubble or maybe forgetting about a nightmare. Its spinal fluid had tested negative for meningitis and its blood and urine had also checked out fine. It had gone home with its relieved parents about the same time the redneck had awakened, seen Alice Pearl standing over him, and, apologizing profusely for his asinine actions and bad language, practically run out of the ER like all the devils of hell were after him. There had been lots of other sick and injured patients on her shift, but the slasher victim had been by far the worst—not because of her injury, which was really minor, but because of her title as Silliest, Most Impolite Bitch We’ve Seen in Quite a While.

Cody Pruitt, a young paramedic who’d been working the ER for about a week, slouched through the door and sprawled onto the dilapidated sofa. His voice was a bewildered half-sigh. “Un-fucking-believable.”

Jo grinned. “Yep.”

“Is it like this a lot?”

“Yep. Especially this time of year. Virus season.”

“I counted twenty-two abdominal pains, eleven cough/fever/sore throats, six headaches, four toothaches, and I think it was eight diarrheas. In one shift. We had more nonemergent cases than we had emergencies.”

“We always do, thank God. Just think what it would be like if all those cases had been MIs, CVAs, MVAs, and SOBs.” Jo was referring to heart attacks, strokes, motor-vehicle accidents, and patients who were short of breath.

Cody turned onto his side to look at her. “What’s the worst shift you can remember?”

“Easy. The night a cylinder of nitrous oxide exploded at the chemical works north of town. We had about a hundred workers, all came in at once, drunk as lords and laughing like hyenas. They were dancing and singing and not one of them had any talent. It was like the worst American Idol auditions you’ve ever seen. Not to mention grabbing our asses. That was quite a night.”

“Oh, man.” Cody’s eyes started to slip closed, then opened, then widened. He was looking past Jo at the doorway behind her. She turned and saw Alice Pearl entering. Had it not been for Cody’s enamored stare, she wouldn’t have known she was there. She’d never known anyone to move that quietly, even in nurses’ shoes. Her heart flip-flopped and she frowned again. This was getting really strange. She swallowed and spoke past the badger that had just taken up residence in her throat. “Hey, Alice, how’d it go?”

Alice Pearl had stayed to help wash up a homeless man who’d been brought in by ambulance after passersby had found him unconscious on the sidewalk. He reeked of alcohol and body odor and apparently had not squeezed the Charmin for quite some time. Since he wasn’t in immediate danger, it was standard procedure for the nursing assistants to make him more presentable before the doctor examined him.

“He’s clean as a whistle,” Alice Pearl replied.

“I can’t believe you volunteered for that.”

“Somebody had to do it. But now I have a problem.” Alice Pearl turned and displayed her round little pink-covered ass, each cheek of which now boasted a smeary handprint.

“Oh, my God.” Cody Pruitt was looking at Alice Pearl like a “Survivor” loser at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Alice mistook the exclamation for disgust. “Yes, isn’t it awful?”

Jo spoke through a perplexing stab of jealousy. “I think I have an extra pair of scrub pants in my locker. Come with me to the changing room and I’ll look.”

“Er...thank you very kindly, but that’s okay. I’m sure they’d be too short, and I was just going straight back to the hotel anyway.”

“Hotel?”

“Yes, in emergency cases like this one the agency puts us up in hotels until we can find other lodging for the duration of our assignments.”

Cody Pruitt piped up suddenly, sounding like Barney Fife in an extremely tight athletic cup. “You can stay with me!”

“Oh, that would be...” Alice Pearl turned, smiling, beheld the hungry stare, and the smile vanished. “...impossible. But thank you. You’re very kind.”

“How about staying with me?” Jo tried to keep the tremble out of her voice. Tried to ignore the ridiculous hopeful thudding of her heart. What the hell was going on with her? “I have an extra bedroom, since one of my roommates got married.”

“One of your roommates?”

“Yes, it’s a huge country house. My dream house. I bought it and I’m renting out rooms to other nurses to help pay for it.” Alice Pearl opened her mouth, looking skeptical. “You wouldn’t have to pay rent, though,” Jo heard herself say. Huh?

“Oh, that’s no problem. The agency will take care of that, as long as it’s reasonable.” The woman’s pretty brow was furrowed. She seemed to be thinking about it.

Cody Pruitt had not given up. “Yeah, Jo, but didn’t that maniac strike not far from you? That slasher guy?”

Damn his horny ass. “That was more than a mile away, and besides, lightning never strikes twice.”

Suddenly Alice Pearl smiled at Jo, inducing another flip-flop. “Thank you. I think that’s an excellent idea.”

“Great!” Jo tried to tone it down. “When can you move in?”

“I’ll be glad to help!” Cody Pruitt again.

Alice cast a suspicious glance at him, as though afraid for her private parts. “That won’t be necessary. I have very little to move.”

Pruitt sighed. “But what you have is bitchin.”

Alice Pearl glowered. “I beg your pardon?”

“Never mind him,” Jo cooed. “Let’s go get you changed.”

“I’m fine. I’ll just run home and put some...some spot remover on it.”

“No, really, I have some scrub pants. Tell you what, I’ll change, too, and we’ll grab a bite.” She put an arm around Alice’s waist and propelled her toward the door.

“No!” Alice balked like a young mule. “I mean...I’m not hungry. I really have to be going. We’ll discuss this further tomorrow night. Will that suffice?”

“Sure.” Jo let the woman go and stepped back, embarrassed. “Whatever you say.”

“Thank you. Sorry I have to rush off.” Alice Pearl beat a hasty retreat in her silent way, the door of the lounge slapping shut behind her with a finality that made the lips of both Jo and Cody Pruitt turn down at the corners.

***

Pendergast straight-armed the stairwell door and leaned against the wall, letting it ease silently shut behind him. He blew out his breath in a quiet, “Whew.”

The people of North Carolina seemed very...friendly. A girl would have to watch herself around here, that was for sure.

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