Nerds on Fire (40 page)

She spoke with them and then took them
in to see their son. She also allowed them to touch his hands,
briefly and to talk to him. It was necessary for all of them to
create a bond, but with Brandon so fragile, this was
difficult.

Trixi checked his chart
again and noted he had gained weight. When she told his parents
this, their relief and happiness was palpable. Weight
gain
—
something so
small but significant in a desperate little life like
Brandon’s.

Eventually his parents left,
reassured, and Trixi moved on to her next patient. Each baby was
unique and each needed proper medical care and
attention.

One good thing was the day sped by.
When she looked at the clock at one point, it was already two
o’clock. No wonder her stomach had been sending up distress
signals.

“
Tracy, I’m leaving to eat
lunch.”

The nurse frowned at her. “Lunch was
two hours ago.”

“
Dr. Forrester was
concerned about little Madison.”

Tracy peered down the hall. “You
better run or you’ll miss it all together.” The nurse indicated the
small team marching their way.

Trixi turned tail and fled the
unit.

It had been a long day already, but a
good one.

“
I need to stop off at the
grocery store. Is that okay?”

“
Yes.” Mark’s easy
agreement earned him a sunny, if weary, smile.

This man made her life so much
nicer.

She had her dream job, and now her
dream man, on top of a great family and home. It was as though her
entire world was finally coming together.

After Mark parked the car, they exited
and he tucked her hand into his as they strolled into the store.
She selected a basket which he took and then with him holding the
basket for her, she choose what they needed and rarely had to
release his hand. Trixi decided she loved shopping this
way.

Humming in contentment, they turned
the corner and came face to face with Chrissy.

“
Trixi.” Chrissy’s tone
bordered on hostile. It took Chrissy a moment to notice Mark, still
holding Trixi’s hand. Her eyes roved over Mark, assessing him, and
then her full lips turned down as she turned back to
Trixi.

“
This is my boyfriend,
Mark. Mark, this is Chrissy, a former girlfriend of my
father’s.”

“
I’m his fiancée,” Chrissy
corrected. She was all smiles for Mark, but her eyes hardened
whenever she looked at Trixi.

Trixi felt sorry for her. Chrissy was
so busy calculating Mark’s net worth she completely missed how
impressive he was as a person.

Tightening her grip on Mark’s hand,
Trixi wasn’t surprised when he slid closer to her. His solidarity
was appreciated so she squeezed his hand. How she had gotten so
lucky, she didn’t know.

“
Chrissy, you and Dad broke
up weeks ago.” Trixi reminded her softly. “He’s in a new
relationship.”

Chrissy’s back stiffened. She didn’t
say anything, but Trixi was certain she was well aware of this. She
felt for Chrissy. Trixi wondered if the woman was mentally ill, but
there were no other indications. She was simply in denial that the
Wintermyer estate and wealth had slipped through her avaricious
grasp.

It was sad.

“
It was nice meeting you,”
Chrissy cooed at Mark, whose hand tightened around
Trixi’s.

His reply was noncommittal and
quiet.

When Chrissy turned back to her, those
blue eyes glittered like diamonds. Was there a harder substance on
earth?

“
Trixi.” Her tone was
nothing like she had used on Mark.

“
Chrissy.” Trixi adopted
the same quiet manner as Mark. Really, this woman’s life was the
saddest she had ever seen. She had beauty and money of her own, but
they weren’t good enough. Her air of discontent and greed did more
to mar her natural beauty than a huge wart would have
done.

Chrissy flounced away, her shopping
basket filled with some lettuce and a carrot.

“
That is one unhappy
woman,” Mark commented.

“
Yes. Maybe it’s why I
never liked her for my dad.”

His eyes were understanding. “What is
there to like?”

“
She hated the fact I own
my house, instead of Dad.”

“
Let me guess, she informed
you as soon as they were engaged you needed to move
out.”

“
Yes. It came as a nasty
shock to realize it was Dad who was moving, not me.”

“
What did she do when she
realized your dad inherited the Wintermyer estate?” His voice
indicated he knew all too well.

She grimaced. “The conversation wasn’t
pleasant.”

“
Was he dating Nina by
then?”

“
Yes, I believe
so.”

“
He moved fast.”

“
I think meeting Nina
finally made him realize he didn’t want to be with
Chrissy.”

“
Meeting a real woman does
that.” He raised their clasped hands to his lips and kissed hers.
“A man knows a good woman when he finds her.”

Her heart melted all over again. She
thought she heard a gagging noise from somewhere behind them, but
Trixi didn’t pay attention. She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed
him for real. His ensuing grin told her he didn’t mind in the
least.

“
A woman knows when she
finds a good man, too.”

“
I hope so.”

Chapter 39

A dull, achy
headache proved persistent by Saturday, during her twelve-hour
shift. When Trixi realized she couldn’t concentrate, she finally
gave in and took some painkiller.

“
Trixi, can you come and
look at Brandon?”

“
Of course.” Trixi hastily
took another swallow of coffee, to wash down the painkillers,
hoping the caffeine would not only keep her awake, but open the
blood vessels in her head and therefore lessen the pain.

She set her travel mug down and then
followed Stephanie, one of the best neonatal nurses Trixi had ever
met, to the incubator where Brandon dozed. Except he wasn’t dozing
now. His underdeveloped lungs wheezed as he tried to cry. It was
pitiful and heart wrenching.

His miniature fists waved
listlessly in the air, while his skin was mottled and...
something else
. Trixi
leaned closer to inspect his fragile skin. It looked dry and
uncomfortable. In addition, there was a patch that might be the
start of an infection on his right arm.

Her heart tripped as the
ramifications of Brandon developing any sort of infection tore
through her mind. His immune system would never be able to combat
even the most innocuous infection
—
it could easily steal his life
away.

She checked the humidity levels in the
his incubator. They were normal.

“
His skin looks really
dry,” Stephanie said.

“
Yes, but his humidity
levels are fine.” Trixi gestured toward the readout.

Stephanie sucked in a horrified
breath. “That’s why his skin looks terrible.”

“
What?” It wasn’t hard to
feel Stephanie’s horror. The nurse lunged for his chart and flipped
through it, first carefully and then with frenzied
impatience.

“
It’s not in here,” she
wailed. Stephanie quickly adjusted the humidity control, then a few
other dials, before she painstakingly recorded everything in his
chart, making certain the notes were in a different color and
blinking.

“
What’s going on
Steph?”

“
Brandon needs higher
humidity, more oxygen.” Stephanie checked the chart again before
rattling off a few medical terms.

Trixi’s mouth dropped open.
“Oh no.” Horror lanced through her. “
I
changed the humidity
levels.”

“
Of course you did.”
Stephanie sent her an incredulous look. “It’s what you should have
done. There was nothing in Brandon’s chart about his modified
levels.” She clenched a fist and took a deep breath. “Those
instructions should have been recorded the minute Dr. Forrester
issued them after Brandon’s test results came back. But the nurse
on duty failed to do so.”

“
This is not
good.”

“
No, but I can say it was
really busy, and she called in with the flu the next
day.”

“
Oh no,” Trixi moaned. “Did
the virus affect any of the babies?” She brought up Brandon’s
results and perused them. The modified levels Louisa called for
were exactly what any good doctor would have done. Trixi
immediately added additional notes in his chart, based on his test
results which she thoroughly perused.

“
No, she’s extra particular
about spreading germs. Thankfully.” Stephanie bit her
lip.

It didn’t make the situation any
better though. Stephanie was right; the information should have
been added to Brandon’s file immediately. This type of mistake
often meant the difference between life or death for their
struggling patients.

“
This is a tragic series of
events.”

Brandon’s spindly arms fell back to
the mattress, minuscule head listing to the side as his little
mouth quivered. Lost in the land of dreams, he trusted them to do
their jobs. The fact they hadn’t sliced like a scalpel through
her.

“
Steph, we need to go
through every single chart and make certain they’re
up-to-date.”

“
Yes,” the nurse agreed.
They were already too busy, with not enough staff and more sick
babies.

Trixi made an executive decision.
“Let’s call in whoever is on call to take over the patient care for
now. Those charts are too important.”

Trailing into the office, Trixi
notified the on-call nurse and explained what was happening. It
turned out she was the same nurse who had failed to originally
input the orders. Trixi accepted her apology and asked if she was
up to coming in, since she was battling the flu.

“
Yes, I’m still tired and a
little headachy, but I’m fine.”

“
Okay.” Trixi took her at
her word. Then she turned her attention to their tiny patients
until the second shift nurse who had been on break returned. They
put him in charge of the babies and were thankful when Brenda, the
nurse on call, also came in. She helped with their tiny patients
while Trixi and Stephanie scoured through every single patient
chart, with test results, currently in the Level Three neonatal
unit line by line. There were other notes that hadn’t made it
in.

“
We need to hold a
mandatory meeting about this.” Trixi rubbed her
forehead.

Beside her, a subdued Stephanie
nodded. “This shouldn’t have happened even once.”

“
No, but it did.” Trixi’s
mouth pulled down. “I know everyone is overworked up here. I know
we’re understaffed, but this information is too vital not to be
recorded as soon as it’s issued.”

She sent off an email to Louisa and
then one to every single nurse who worked on the floor. Louisa
could determine when to hold the meeting, where, and what to
say.

Her heart in her mouth, and upset
about her part in Brandon’s distress, she finally signed out of her
shift, an hour late. There was still so much more work to do, but
she was exhausted, her headache had returned with a vengeance, and
her throat was a little sore.

Trixi climbed into her car, since Mark
hadn’t worked today. She wanted nothing more than to go home and
crawl into bed. Then she remembered Mark was at home.

No he wasn’t. He had some family
commitments this weekend, and while she had been invited, she
worked all weekend. At least she regretted missing out. Last
weekend had been fun. She purposely didn’t think about the events
of Saturday night into Sunday.

The memory of someone trying to burn
her house down wasn’t conducive to improving her mood. Since her
headache had increased and her stomach teetered on unsure, Trixi
instead turned her attention to Gran. That lady had improved
through the latter part of the week and was feeling better,
although still not her cheerful, usual self.

When she got home, Trixi first hunted
her down. “There you are,” Gran greeted her. Her voice was still
nasally, but she sounded better. Talking set off a coughing spell
though. Trixi handed her a glass of freshly squeezed juice and then
poured herself a glass as well.

They drank in companionable silence.
“How was your shift besides long?”

“
Hectic. We discovered
we’re so busy some of the patient information isn’t getting into
the computers. It’s a huge problem.”

“
Yes, I imagine it
is.”

It could cause them to be sued from
here and back, among other awful things, although the worst would
be to lose a baby unnecessarily. Since her head thumped even more
now, Trixi said goodnight to her grandmother who looked like she
was also ready to go back to sleep and carried both glasses to the
dishwasher. She loaded them and as an afterthought grabbed a
granola bar, the only thing her stomach didn’t protest.