Chapter 3
On the Road Again
Showered, dressed and back on the road my mind began to wonder what might happen in my future. With the place in the ARMY, I had refused to enter into a permanent relationship, and the few relationships that I had tried failed miserably. So instead I took to adopting the "hump and dump" philosophy that my brothers has enjoyed. After a few times of using this method I found, that it too, was not for me. So I invested a buttload in toys off the internet and called it good, safe, kept me sane and no boys in sight. Sure I got teased mercilessly by my brothers for it, but really what could they say about it? So needless to say in the back of my truck, in a black lock box was my toy collection. No I am not going into detail what lays in that little… Ok not so little… black box.
I was messaging Melanie back and forth with my voice to text as I drove down the highway, getting more excited as I got closer and closer to New Jersey. As I neared the New Jersey border I got a phone call from Capital Health Regional Medical Center, my new employer, asking if I could come in for work tonight, fill out my paperwork and start right away as the impending storm had whipped Trenton, New Jersey into a state of panic. The ER was flooding with cases, and every extra hand was required on deck. My body already perking up at the thought of being able to be back in the action so soon had my adrenaline beginning to flow. I told the Chief of Staff that I would be in as soon as I could to get everything figured out. I texted Melanie and let her know what was going on, she replied back with that was just fine because with the weather there she was out working anyways.
No lies, I was kind of bummed that I didn't get to go straight out to the ranch and help Melanie, but I was happy to be going to work. After pulling into the employee section of parking and questioning my way to the HR office I finished filling out my paperwork, got my ID card, locker key, directions to the locker rooms and schedule for the next month. Running through the halls I felt my adrenaline beginning to pump through my system. Quickly throwing my crazy brunette curls into a messy bun and putting scrub pants on over a pair of spandex I grabbed out of my duffel, the shirt over top of a tank top, I clipped my badge and ID card to my pocket, hung my purple and rhinestone Littmann Classic Stethoscope around my neck and we were off to the races.
Finding my way down to ER was a combination of following the signs and the chaos. Ah chaos we meet again my good friend, time to get moving. I checked in with the Chief of Staff who happened to be at the nurses station. He sent me over to help the next people in line. As I got out to the waiting room and called the name listed at the top of the chart, "Lester Santos", I looked up only two notice two things. One, there were now two tall, muscle bound sexy as all get out men now walking towards me, and two, my Victoria Secret panties were now ruined. I mean, it had been years since I had a social orgasm, and the two were sex on legs. One obviously Latin descent, creamy latte skin tone, gorgeous green eyes, spiky ink black hair and very gingerly packing his left arm. As I met them halfway was I threw out "Ah you must be Lester Santos." His green eyes sparkled with mischief, guess he wasn't feeling too much pain. Both mens faces split into smiles. God Damnit I still can't censor my thoughts, Helen Plum always said I was born without a filter between my brain and my mouth. In other words whatever I am thinking tends to just come right out. It was then that the second man introduced himself. Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome's real name was Bobby Brown, the medic for Rangeman Inc. and had already given Lester painkillers on the way over, anticipating the long wait in the ER room. Thus making his wait easier for…. "Wait did you just say Bobby Brown?"
He pinned me with a strange look before giving me a curt nod. Out of habit and somewhat out of awe I snapped to attention saluting him, which must have looked strange to the rest of the hospital. A smile graced Bobby's handsome features as he gave me a slow salute before asking how I knew who he was. "My name is Stephanie Plum, but most everybody calls me Needle. I was an Army Ranger, and always strove to be the best, which I guess was you!" I was majorly girl crushing right now and needed to get it under control. Tearing my eyes away from Bobby's gorgeous smile, I took a quick look at Lester's arm before pulling him to a bed so that I could sit him down and ask the boring array of questions which Lester referred to Bobby to answer, unless it had to due with pain levels. I put him in the computer for X Rays, but being as busy as we were I wasn't able to stay and talk.
It was around half an hour later when I received the page that the X Ray machine was ready, and since everyone was so swamped with the accidents I would have to be the one to take him down. Finishing up with the set of stitches I was putting in a brave young girls arm, I sent her and her mother towards the front desk for check out with a smile and lollipop. She reminded me so much of myself when I was her age.
I called out before berging through the curtain that separated Les and Bobby from the rest of the room. "Well you ready to get that arm checked out?" The quick nod of his head told me all I needed to know and he was more than ready to have things finished and be out of this damn place.
We determined that he had a nasty break just above the elbow but it didn't require surgery and it was still in perfect place to just get him in a cast and on his way. He didn't look thrilled at the fact that he would be on desk duty for the foreseeable future.
I held Lester's arm in place for Dr. Gardner to put his cast on, I couldn't help but tease him with the hot pink casting material, before digging to the back to find basic black. Bobby talked to me as we worked, when I got out, when I started working here, etc. Lester had to smack him to shut up and get moving once Dr. Gardner was done casting him.
I waved them off and moved on to the next case. The next 10 hours was a blur of activity and injuries. I was wiped by the time I got paged that my shift was over and that I could relax until my official start date next week.
I called Melanie on the way to her house. It was midnight now, and I would be at the ranch in about 20 minutes, looking for a place to crash. She told me that they were just winding down for the night and there would be tea here for me when I got in. God, she knew me too well, just like her mom, who had also made the two of us tea before bed.
25 minutes later I was in my pajamas tea in hand in front of the massive fireplace that dominated the main room. Melanie and I talked and giggled about anything and everything until I was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer. She dropped me off at my room on the way to hers, I crawled into the king sized bed, scooted down in the covers, made sure my phone was plugged in and set off to dreamland.
The piece of shrapnel that I removed from Zip's chest had left a collapsed lung, I stuck some ⅛'' tubing into the same wound the shrapnel came out of, I could instantly hear a difference in his breathing. I started stitching him up the best and quickest that I could. This was so far from an ideal place to sew up a chest from the inside out. I tried to rinse everything out with saline as I went, but undoubtedly I would be using the heavy duty antibiotics in my bad this time. Getting his chest pieced back together took more time than we had, but we were unable to move him until I could at least get him shut.I ended up using more tiny tubing to lessen some of the pressure that the stitches would inevitably place on the tatters that was once his chest.
Finishing up the final roughshod stitch I motioned to Buck to pick him up so I could throw a couple wraps around his chest before injecting a high dose antibiotic straight into his system. We then strapped him to the board and moved our asses deeper into the goddamn jungle. Once we had found a deep enough cave that wasn't already occupied, I sent Buck back to the Jeep to salvage what he could, ammunition, supplies and food. I told him to keep an eye out for my personal pack, not my medic pack which was what I was currently sporting. My personal pack would have much more survival gear, including personal water filters which would no doubt save our lives.
Awakening in a cold sweat once again, I dragged my ass out of bed, put on my workout clothes, and began my morning routine as I had for the last 6 years. Granted the scenery was vastly different this morning. The last 10 years Melanie had made large improvements upon the family ranch. The trees lining the winding driveway had taken a hit during yesterday's storm, and i ended up weaving more so than running. I hit the fence at the end of the driveway turning to begin my run back, from this viewpoint I could see the older barns, that made up the original ranch. The big feed barn that housed all the hay and grain, the shorter and longer training barn with connected indoor arena, stalls with connected runs, thenmare barn with their attached paddocks, and finally the stud shed, which housed the breeding stallions, and facilities.
I could also make out the new additions, which included 2 smaller shed rows for training horses, with covered arena in the middle, and the 2 separate outdoor arenas with roping style alleys. The mare motel had gotten a makeover and an attachment, and there was a new what appeared to be foaling barn. The pastures had been cross fenced and expanded upon, it looked like Melanie and her dad had been buying up the neighboring plots as they came up for sale. The ranch had more than doubled in size. 3 Ponies Ranch had done well for themselves.
I ran up the front steps and to my room, jumping into the adjoined shower before getting dressed for my first day on the ranch. Sports bra and thong, Wrangler Retro jeans, cami and long sleeved shirt. The weather wasn't supposed to be bad but it sure as heck wasn't exactly warm. I followed my nose down stairs and found Melanie making omelets "Boys had to go meet the semi for a big load of hay, so we have the ranch to ourselves for the day.
AN: Glad to have found my muse again. Went to a Clinton Anderson clinic and couldn't help but read these stories on the way home. I hope you like it :)
