Kena shows up forty-five minutes before her shift. She is dressed in her scrubs and looks ready for business.

"Bliss, I need to talk to you before-"

"I do not wish to speak to you," she snapped.

"Bliss, I-"

"The man that called me that is long dead," she ground out in an icy tone that would have made a polar bear shiver. "Don't ever call me that again."

"But… You're my Bliss," he whispered.

"I'm nothing to you," she shot back at him. "If the Health Region is willing to go along with this farce, then so be it. But I'm through with you after tonight. I'm tired. I'm tired of the fighting, I'm tired of the constant strain. I'm tired of the stress. I've had enough." She turned on her heel and marched onto the floor as if she owned the place. Tyr followed her, determined to have his say this time. He watched his wife greet people, passing off the cameras as part of a television episode. She didn't bother introducing him to anyone, but then again, she didn't introduce Chef Ramsey either, so he didn't feel left out and jealous.

"Kena? Did you know this thing with the cameras was going to happen?"

"It's all my fault," the woman said, looking guilty. "They're in the middle of shooting for Kitchen Nightmares and they wanted footage from my job. I don't-"

"Really? We're going to be on Kitchen Nightmares? That's so cool," Lisa exclaimed. "But wait a minute. Why would they want footage of you on the job? They've never wanted footage like that before."

"Beats me. Let's just get through this shift, okay? It hasn't even started yet and I'm already ready for it to be over."

"Especially since we're down four nurses tonight."

"Four?" she said in a strangled voice. "We've never been four nurses down before."

"I know. This is going to be a nightmare," Lisa agreed before getting back to her research. The evening nurses research in silence and neither male has the heart to disturb them.

"Kena, you're the unfortunate one that has seven patients tonight," Cheryl told her a few minutes later.

"What? Why me?" she asked.

"Because you're the one that brought the cameras that scared all my nurses away," the older woman shrugged, walking away. "How's your blood pressure?" Kena groaned without answering but got back to researching.

"How do you know which patients you have?" Tyr asked in a timid voice that really didn't match his personality. She shot him a baleful glare but answered just the same. "Patients are divvied up by acuity - how sick they are, how heavy a patient they are both physically and load wise, and sometimes location. We're assigned our patients by the charge nurse, and in this column here-"

"There's your name," Tyr finished for her. "Wow… you're going to be running with all those patients. They're not all next to each other either."

"I'll be fine," she said with an absent-minded shrug as she looked up her next patient. By the time it's time to start, the computer room is full of nurses researching their patients. The four empty chairs in the room are a testimony that there aren't enough nurses for the task tonight.

Cheryl addressed the room just before starting time. "You all know that we're down four nurses tonight. Also, this is Chef Ramsey. He and his crew have been given permission by the Region to film us on the job. They won't be going into the rooms of the patients and you are allowed to ask that your face not be seen in the video. But they are going to film us, so bring your A-game. Might as well get started."

Everyone seemed to take this as their cue to get to work. The shift started out busy, with several mini-emergencies for Kena's patients. But she handled them with complete calm, in her element at last. Suddenly it was very clear why the loss of a team member hadn't affected her last night. Both men noticed that everyone was interested in the woman's blood pressure. The chef, remembering her comment about being hospitalized, pocketed Kena's pain pills to see what would happen.

Ramsey caught one of the nurses making an off-color remark and started to ream her out for it when Kena intervened.

"Oh, no, no, no. This is not your playground, chef. You don't get to come in here and judge my co-workers."

"Did you hear what she just said?"

"Yes, I heard what she just said. Personally, I think it's kinda funny. Especially since it's true." The chef's jaw drops as he gawks at her. Tyr snickers at the chef but doesn't comment on the situation. "You have no clue - no clue - what we go through on this unit, especially on days like today. And there's never been a day like today. If she needs a little black humor to get through it, then she can have it. And you as an outsider don't get to step all over her coping mechanism." Kena stomped away, leaving a very confused chef in her wake.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Chef Ramsey asked anyone around him.

"Beats me," Tyr said, secretly pleased that he wasn't the only one in the doghouse. He wondered what the rest of the night had in store with Kena snarling at the good chef. Seeming to realize this himself, Chef Ramsey goes off to make peace with the nurse. He finds her mobilizing a difficult patient. Kena ignores both the men as she helps the seventy-two-year-old back to her room. Once she's finished, she turns to the chef.

"Round two?" she growled.

"How about a complete surrender?" he said. "I'm sorry that I hurt your friend's feelings and I'm sorry that I took my shock out on her. You're right. I have no right to judge. I just got here." The woman blinked in shock, then sighed.

"Look. There is no cavalry set to ride in over the mountains for us. We're short four nurses on this shift and three for nights. It never ends and it never lets up. We are under tremendous stress here. And that's not even accounting for personal baggage. Sometimes you just need a safe place to be able to say something outrageous. For us, it's just considered nursing humor and it's some of the darkest, most pitch-black humor on the planet. Those at the gallows blush at our humor. It's sick and twisted and funny as hell. If you can't handle it, you might want to pack up your crew and leave us to our fate. It's only going to get worse from here on in."

"No. No, I can handle it," Ramsey said. "I didn't realize that the situation was so dire."

"No one does. We do good work and we make it look easy. So easy in fact that the state seems to think that they can get along with less of us. And then come the sick calls… It's a mess."

"I understand. And I'm going to find Melissa and apologize to her right now."

"We'd appreciate that," Kena said in relief, glad that the chef got it.

"Hey! How come I don't get off so easily?" Tyr complained. Kena glared at him, but before she could explain exactly why he didn't get off the hook so easily, an alarm went off that hadn't gone off before. Kena was suddenly hyper-alert and not paying attention to him at all.

"Code Blue, unit 54, level 5. Code Blue, unit 54, level 5. Code Blue, unit 54, level 5."

"We need a location," Kena said into her intercom. An announcement came back over the overhead pager for everyone on the unit to hear.

"We've called code blue in room 7." Kena didn't seem to hear whatever else was said. She was too busy racing down the hall in the fastest gait she could manage without flat-out running. Tyr followed her and then stood in awe as she assumed control of the chaotic situation in the room, organizing the nurses into roles as they recorded vital signs and the actions of the team, started IVs, and did CPR on the dead patient. At that moment he knew just how wrong he'd been to try and take Kena away from this profession.

[For the camera] "Her skills are needed here. They would only be wanted in the restaurant. This is where my Bliss belongs."

They manage to bring the person back and she's sent to the ICU. Now it's time to return to her own patients. Kena is now running behind giving the 'dinner meds' as she calls them. This includes insulin for her diabetics.

"I'm so sorry for the delay. We had a code in another room. Here, let me give you your insulin. Would you like me to heat up your food while I'm at it?"

"Hmph! That's the least you can do. All you youngsters are primping for the camera while my food is getting cold! Back when I was a nurse we knew how to treat people."

"Madam, someone just died while you were sat waiting for your supper," Chef Ramsey said in a harsh voice.

"And that should interrupt my supper why?"

"You selfish-"

"Don't worry about Ms. Rebecca. She used to be a nurse. She knows all about code blues and how time is of the essence. She would never condemn a person to death just so that she could eat a little sooner," Kena said with an even look at her patient.

Rebecca looked thoroughly chastened, accepting her heated up dinner without comment and digging in with gusto. Immediately after dinner, one of her patients threw up and a second one needed to get to the bathroom. Making a judgment call, she helped the one patient to get to the bathroom before going to see the one who threw up. The night is full of judgment calls like this, minimizing harm and apologizing for delays. But the rest of the unit is having problems handling their increased workload. A patient dies of old age and liver cirrhosis and the student nurse looking after her is devastated.

"I should have been there for her at the end," Mabel sobbed at the front desk.

Kena immediately hugs the girl, allowing her Charge Nurse to answer the phone. "Oh, honey. What could you have possibly done to delay the inevitable?"

"I could have given her that backrub she asked for!" Both seasoned nurses burst out laughing at that. Mabel looked hurt, but Kena held onto her through her mirth.

"Sweetheart, nobody's that good at backrubs, not even me. The next time you feel the urge to do something for a palliative patient, just make time to do it. As you've observed, they can go at any time." Mabel nodded, her tears drying up. "Come on. Let's take a short walk and talk about this death-delaying backrub."

"She really is good at this," Chef Ramsey said, stopping the camera crew when they went to follow the nurses off the unit.

"Kena is a natural. She should be in charge, but she doesn't want the responsibility. She's 'content to be a worker bee' as she calls it. Now why would a cooking show be interested in a nursing unit?" the nurse asked in an astute manner. Both men looked down, guilt written all over their faces. "Hmm. I knew whatever has been sending her to the ER must be from her home life."

"The ER?" Tyr asked in confusion.

"Who are you again?" she asked.

"I'm her husband!"

"Oh, well I really shouldn't be talking her business on the floor," she hedged, looking desperate to gossip. "But since it's an open secret on the floor and you're family and she's not a patient, I might as well tell you. Kena has taken over a dozen trips to the emergency room over the past three years. Why do you think we keep asking about her blood pressure? Why do you think she keeps a full bottle of Advil on her at all times? Her blood pressure is so high at times that we're afraid the poor girl is going to stroke out. She only stayed in the hospital once and immediately checked out AMA - against medical advice - after her treatment. Whatever happened two months ago must have been a doozy. She was supposed to be working and instead she came to the unit in tears and babbling. She said that she was headed to the emergency room." Tyr looked guilty. He remembered exactly the fight that had driven her out of the house that time.

"She never came home that night. I just assumed she stayed at a hotel."

"Kena would tell you never to assume as it makes an ass of you and me." The newsy woman let that sink in before continuing. "Anyway, she won't talk to anyone about why her blood pressure is so high all the time, even with medication, but we've always figured that it has something to do with her home life. And since she doesn't have any plans for children…" The woman turned the full force of her glare on the attractive man. "No wonder she always comes to unit events alone and refuses to talk about her family. I'm sure her blood pressure will drop back to normal once you're out of her life."

Kena returned to the unit just then with the now smiling student nurse. She was holding her head and made a beeline for her purse after one last low word of advice to the student. Tyr looked at the chef when she couldn't find whatever she was looking for.

"Cheryl, I need to-"

"Oh, thank God I found you, Kena! My patient's chest tube fell out!"

"Did you cover the hole with Vaseline so she wouldn't breathe extra air into his lungs?" Kena asked, putting her purse away and heading for her next disaster. "Cheryl, we're going to need you to page the doctor about this."

"On it," the Charge Nurse sighed. She looked up when the men continued to stand by her desk, then went back to work when they walked away.

"Did you know about this?" Tyr snapped.

"I didn't know the extent of it, but, yeah, she told me."

"I need to have a talk with my wife," he said, moving in the direction of the chest tube.

"Looking for another fight?"

"She's my wife! She should have told me-"

"And what would you have done about it? Besides pushing the situation harder and causing her to have a stroke? There's such a thing as timing, Tyr. And if her blood pressure is starting to climb already, then there's no need to upset her by calling her out on something that she obviously didn't want you to know about."

"She's my wife!"

"That argument doesn't hold much weight when placed against your track record with her."

"What are you two out here yelling about?" Kena yelled out the door, looking annoyed with the two. They shook their heads, neither wanting to reveal the source of the argument. "Whatever. Just keep it down. People are trying to recover here." She walked back into the room, still trying to salvage the situation with the chest tube.

"I want her to trust me again. I've already given up on her working with me at the restaurant. But her stress level is partly due to her work environment. It's not just me."

"I think you underestimate your impact on her life," Ramsey said in a snide voice. "In all the time I've known her, she's never once complained about her job. It's been all about you. Your pressure. Your insistence. Your stubbornness. You are the reason behind her pain, Tyr. No one else." The restaurant owner looked at him, his face a study of shame. Kena passed by the two without acknowledging either one, having received a message that her patient needed help getting out of bed.

By eight that evening, Kena was cringing with every step. Tyr tried to ask her what was the matter, but she only glared at him.

"Lilly, I need you to take my blood pressure," she finally said.

"Oh, no. Not another trip to-"

"Just take the pressure," Kena snapped, holding out her arm. "I didn't ask for your commentary on the situation." Lilly rolled her eyes but took the pressure anyway. It was 213/120. Both women cringed at the number.

"Kena, you've got to-"

"I'll handle it," she said.

"But the last time-"

"I said I'll handle it."

"What is a normal blood pressure?" Tyr asked, feigning ignorance.

"Like you care," she spat at him, walking away. All three people in the hall blinked at her anger.

"It's supposed to be 120/80," Lilly answered for her co-worker. "The last time it was this high, she ended up being admitted."

"Thank you," he said, making his way after his stubborn wife. He found her in a heated discussion with the charge nurse and one of the floor nurses.

"Do you want seven patients, Darlene? 'Cause let me tell ya, it's not fun."

"Kena, you need to go to the emergency room! Your health comes first!"

"We all gotta die of something eventually," the younger woman rolled her eyes and said. She sighed heavily at the shocked looks on the two women's faces. "Look, all I'm looking to do right now is nip down to the store, grab some Ibuprofen, maybe take a bite or two of my lunch, and come right back. I'm not exactly climbing Everest here."

"You haven't had your lunch yet, have you?"

"No time."

"Then how about this? You take your break now, and you do whatever you want on your break. Just be back here in an hour."

"Sir, yes, sir," she saluted her Charge Nurse. Looking back at Darlene, she tried to make peace. "I'll go to the doctor tomorrow, okay?"

"Hmph! If it were me-"

"But it's not. This is my life and we're already four nurses down. I'll be fine. They'd just put me on Ketorolac anyway, so I might as well get some ibuprofen in my system. It's going to be alright."

"It's not," Darlene said in a desperate tone.

"Then it's not," Kena shrugged and walked away. Tyr grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"You should listen to your co-workers," he said.

"You should take your motherfucking hands off of me," she growled back at him. He automatically unhanded her. "Do that again and I'll have you escorted from the building, Ramsey or no Ramsey. You're in my world now." She walked away, leaving Chef Ramsey, Cheryl, Darlene, and Tyr worried about her.

[Gabriela to the cameras] "Kena? Oh, she's a wonderful nurse. Fun-loving, always attempting to lighten everyone's moods. She's always smiling, you know? One of those lights in the midst of darkness."

[Hilary to the cameras] "I have no idea why her blood pressure is so out of control. She doesn't talk about it much. I mean, the unit's busy, but you don't see the rest of us walking around with blood pressures that high. I think it's one of those idiosynchronicity things. She's so happy-go-lucky all the time."

[Seventh Commercial Break]

Don't mess with the Kena! ::giggles:: It's like hassling the Hoff or fucking with the Chuck, some things just aren't done! Anyway, Makena's secret is out. How the heck is she going to handle the rest of the shift? It's already cu-coo bananas. The last thing they need is for the poor girl to stroke out on the unit. It would be insane for things to escalate that quickly, right? Right? ::grins evilly::

See you all next chapter for the answer :D