Detached-chapter four

Chapter Four

“Are you ready for some coffee?” Karen asked as Kelly was putting away her charts.

“Yeah, let’s go. I’ll let Becky know we’re leaving the floor,” Kelly replied.

“Already taken care of. I helped her pass meds so she wouldn’t make a fuss about us going off the floor together,” Karen informed her.

“You are such a schmooze, Karen,” Kelly smiled, “and I love ya for it!”

“Let’s go before she changes her mind,” Karen held open the door for Kelly and they headed for the elevators.

Everyone on the elevator was talking about the murder. Two nurses wearing pink scrubs featuring cartoon bears said they had confirmation that it was Molly Sims from four west and that Jane Simpson had been interviewed by the police and had been allowed to go home.

“I know Simpson can be cold hearted, but I somehow doubt that she would kill one of her nurses for chronic tardiness,” Karen snickered.

A visitor turned and glared at them all and got off at the next floor tossing a “hmmph!” in their direction.

“We probably shouldn’t be discussing this in front of the general public,” Kelly observed.

At the next floor when the chrome door opened, Dr. Michael Stevens boarded the elevator. He saw Kelly and Karen and nodded.

“Hi,” Karen said. Kelly just smiled.

“Kelly, where are you headed?” Stevens asked, toying with the stethoscope around his neck, then removing it and shoving it into the pocket of his lab coat.

“Cafeteria. We needed a coffee break,” Kelly answered.

“Good, thats where I was headed. I still need to talk to you, and since that didn’t work out yesterday, do you mind if I join you? I’ll buy,” he offered.

Karen winked and said “Oh, good. Then I won’t feel guilty about leaving you, Kel. I need to get back up to the floor and help Becky."

Kelly shot Karen an “I’ll get you for this” look, then smiled sweetly. Karen had been insisting for months that Michael Stevens had more than a passing interest in Kelly. Kelly had explained that he was just about to pop the question to Becky Britain and that she wouldn’t get in the way of that for all the money in the world. Karen said that he was looking for a way out of his relationship with Becky but was probably worried about her vindictive streak.

Kelly was a contrast to Becky. Kelly had fair skin and shoulder length honey blond hair. Becky had long wavy hair that was shiny and almost black. Becky's skin was always tanned and her eyes were deep brown. Kelly's eyes were the palest of blues. They had very little in common as far as Kelly could tell.

“See ya later,” she promised Karen through clenched teeth, maintaining her smile.

The cafeteria was usually packed with visitors from eleven-thirty in the morning until visiting hours ended at eight. It was only ten-thirty now, so the large room filled with round tables was relatively empty. There were groups of employees on coffee breaks and the conversations all seemed to center around Molly Sims’ demise.


Michael led Kelly to the Doctor’s Dining Room door but she hesitated at the threshold. “It’s okay, you are my guest. It’s no big deal in here anyway, just a little more peace and quiet, that’s all.”

“I’d feel more comfortable out here,” Kelly explained.

“It’s Becky, isn’t it. You don’t want it to get back to her that I was having coffee with you in the Doctor’s Dining Room.” He shook his head, sighed, and turned toward the general dining room.

Kelly felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment and was momentarily unable to move. She hadn't realized that her thoughts were so easy for Michael to read. She didn’t want to give Becky any reason to think something was going on between her and Michael. Becky was the suspicious type and had already begun to consider Kelly her enemy. After a beat her feet began working again and she hurried to catch up with Michael.

“I was just hoping to over hear some of the gossip out here,” Kelly said trying to lighten the mood.

“Oh?” Michael smiled.

Kelly winked and took a sip of her coffee. “I have to give report to Karen when I get back, you know. I need some juicy stuff.” The coffee was strong and a little bitter. Kelly could smell cinnamon tolls fresh out of the cafeteria oven and wished she hadn't passed one up for the sake of her diet.

“Well, I’ll get to the point then. I wanted to let you know that I’m working on getting Clara and Rita out of your hair. We are trying to get them into long term care and it should be a go before the week is over,” he explained.

Kelly put down her coffee and frowned. “Where are you going to send them? They aren’t wealthy. There aren’t any long term facilities around here that I would want to see them go to. They are better off here. Is this about money? The hospital doesn’t want to waste any more money on a lost cause?”, Kelly’s voice rose as she spoke.

“No, of course it's not about money,” Michael defended. “Kelly, I thought you would be pleased. It will make your job easier not having to deal with them, won’t it?

“Dr. Stevens, that isn’t the point. I want what’s best for them, not what makes my day easier. This is my job, nobody said it was supposed to be easy.”

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Michael immediately noticed her use of his title. He had asked her several times before to call him Michael, except in front of patients. He was not a formal kind of person and he wanted to be a lot less formal with Kelly.

He admired the way Kelly was able to connect with patients that even he had difficulty connecting with. She was instrumental in getting some of the patients to begin opening up by befriending them during activities therapy. She would then encourage them to be more open with Michael. He would often ask for her input on how to approach a patient that he wasn’t able to make progress with. She had always been a great help to him.

Michael had tried asking Kelly to have coffee with him outside of the hospital several times but something had always interrupted him. He had hoped this meeting would provide an opportunity to ask her out, but instead he had made her angry.

“Kelly, I am sending them together to Sherwood Place. They will be happy to be going together and Sherwood Place is a reputable facility. It has never had a citation of any kind filed against it.”

She stared into her coffee cup. “Okay, whatever you say,” she replied sullenly.

Michael sighed. This was going terribly. Not much more could go wrong. Then Kelly’s pager went off and she reached for it automatically. “I’ve got to go. Now,” Kelly said getting up and heading away from the table.

Michael gently grabbed her arm and said, “ I’ll head back with you, wait up.”

Kelly threw him a desperate look and tried to pull away. Michael let go just as he noticed Becky standing in the entrance to the cafeteria, glaring at him; anger smoldering in her dark eyes.

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Kelly looked down when her pager went off and saw the message from Karen letting her know that Becky was on her way to the cafeteria looking for her. She jumped up to leave but Michael reached out for her arm. Before she could break his contact she saw Becky heading directly toward them.

Kelly glared at Michael and he dropped her arm. She smiled nervously in Becky’s direction and said “Hey, I’m on my way back upstairs now. Take your time, I’ll page you if anything comes up.” She slipped past Becky, leaving her with Michael.

Poor Michael, he was left to suffer Becky's wrath. But, it was his own fault. He shouldn’t have been meeting alone with Kelly and he definitely shouldn’t have grabbed her arm. What was he thinking? He could have told her about Clara and Rita on the unit, or not at all. She had no control over where patients were sent once they left the hospital and he had never consulted her before on such matters.

Maybe Karen was right. Kelly really didn’t want to believe that, but maybe Michael did have an interest in her and was looking for a reason to spend time with her. If that was the case, though, then why was he still dating Becky and allowing the rumors to circulate about the seriousness of their relationship. Everyone believed that he had already bought a ring but was waiting until Becky’s birthday at the end of the month to pop the question.

Kelly’s pager went off again as she stepped into the elevator. Another message from Karen letting her know that Jonathan was being brought back to the unit any minute and she would like Kelly to be there rather than having to page Becky. Kelly hit the reply button on her pager and sent a “yes” message back to Karen.

She was looking forward to seeing Jonathan. She decided she would delve back into his chart as soon as it was ready. By now the history should have been filed in the chart so she would have something more to go on.

Kelly usually didn’t read patient histories beyond their diagnosis. She liked to keep an open mind and not have too much information on them that might bias how she thought of them and how she treated them. This didn’t mean she was reckless, not by any means. She erred on the side of caution with everyone. No one was allowed to get behind her no matter how trustworthy they seemed. Everyone was considered potentially harmful.

Not knowing too much about her patients also helped them to trust her. She would ask them simple questions about why they had been admitted and when they asked why she didn't already know the answer it gave her an opening to tell them of her policy of not reading the histories. Sometimes they would open up to her, sometimes they would lie, but eventually she would piece together the truth by observing them and listening to the conversations they had with others during group. If anybody was exceptionally dangerous, Karen would alert her to read that particular chart.

This system had worked for Kelly so far. So, she asked herself, why am I so intent on reading Jonathan’s chart before I interact with him? There must be a reason: intuition, premonition, being spooked by Ben? Okay, she could accept the first two possibilities, but didn’t like the third one at all.

Kelly emerged from the elevator onto the open psychiatric ward and walked through it to the nursing station. Just as she was about to open the door, she felt that tingling sensation on the back of her neck, like she was being watched. She controlled her fear and turned slowly to see Ben watching her from his room across from the nursing station. He nodded at her knowingly and slowly closed his door. She hurried into the nursing station, no longer hiding her uneasiness. The station was empty so Kelly continued through to the closed ward. She didn’t want to be alone.

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“Wow, that was fast,” Karen said as Kelly walked onto the ward. “Did you get my message about Becky in time?”

“Not exactly. I imagine she is giving Michael hell right about now,” Kelly answered. “I’ll tell you the rest of the story later,” Kelly said as the private elevator slid open to admit Jonathan onto the ward.

*****************************************************

Back in the nursing station Kelly waited for Karen to finish the readmission note on Jonathan. “You never told me what you know about Jonathan,” Kelly commented.

“There really isn’t much to tell except that he definitely has a substance abuse problem. He had cocaine on board when he was brought in, and he has lots of track marks on both arms from shooting up. They don’t look recent though, and he says he hasn’t done and IV drugs in about a year.”

“Really?” Kelly sounded disappointed.

“We don’t have his blood test back yet, but he could be H.I.V. positive. He has the history for it, that’s for sure, and he has never been tested,” Karen said.

“Great, that stinks,” Kelly commented. She didn’t have any positive feelings about the outcome of Jonathan’s testing. She had seen it too many times before. Very few heavy I.V. drug users that ended up here were lucky enough to escape AIDS.

“He doesn’t have any current symptoms and he’s been using for years. He might not have AIDS, you know. Why are you so into this guy anyway?” Karen recognized Kelly’s behavior as uncharacteristic.

“I honestly don’t know. It’s just a hunch, I guess.”

“A hunch about what?” Karen raised her eyebrows, maybe there was something she had missed.

“Well, maybe not a hunch exactly, just a feeling, and intuition. I don’t know what it means. There is just something enigmatic about him and I love to solve a good mystery.”

“A good mystery, huh? That’s all this is about?” Karen smiled. “Well, everyone likes a good mystery. Even me. I’ll check into it.”