Chapter 6
Dr. Nathan Frick sat in his wheelchair looking as if he didn't have the strength to roll it closer to the hospital bed, let alone get in it. It was obvious to everyone in the room now that he was Roy's roommate. After the shock of what John had said to him had worn off, Dr. Frick managed to find a smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right, but when there isn't another doctor for miles around what choice do I have?"
"Can we at least help you get into bed?" Johnny offered and before Dr. Frick could object John was pushing the wheelchair closer to the bed and then after the IV bags were hung from the ceiling mounted rack Chet moved in next to him and helped John to lift the ailing doctor onto bed.
They were just pulling his covers around him when Julie walked in with hot packs draped over her arms. "These need to go on his right calf." Julie gestured toward the doctor with her ladened arms.
John made short work of doing the task as gently as possible and in the process got a good look at the dark and swollen lump in the doctor's calf muscle. "That's a pretty impressive blood clot there, if I do say so myself," Johnny commented.
During this time Roy had turned in his bed so that he was facing his roommate and could more fully take in what was going on around him.
Julie, her hands still needing the clean bandages, unceremoniously sat in a chair next to the doctor's bed. "Doc, you need your rest. Like you've said to me numerous times, I know just enough to be dangerous, but I know that if you don't start taking better care of yourself that blood clot could end up being fatal." She sat for a moment searching for the right words. "I didn't have a choice about the guy with the femoral artery, I had to either call you or let him die. The same has to be said of the burn patients earlier today."
"That's right, I was the only one around who could stabilize them but you have to give yourself credit. You got each one of them here alive and against some nearly impossible odds."
"What about the next time? You can't take care of yourself and everyone in this region at the same time. You cover two counties as it is and part of a third. You know as well as I do that if you had a patient with the same diagnosis that you gave yourself you'd have had them shipped out to a specialist days ago, probably before that."
"What about the rest of you? Who's going to take care of everyone around here while I'm gone?"
"You forget that I know about the medical college offering to send some people down here to learn about rural medicine."
"Yeah, a bunch of fourth year medical students with a teleconferencing feed back to one of their instructors."
"If I understand things right, the instructor they'll be in constant communication with is a doctor, a pretty good one if he's being allowed to teach, with three to four almost doctors doing all the hands on work around here. That's just a hitch or two better than what we have now with a bunch of nurses and EMTs phoning and CB conferencing with you." There was a moment of silence that told all in the room that Julie had made her point. "Besides, who knows, you just might find that one of those fourth year medical students might want to come back and work alongside of you. Kind of give you a break once in a while."
That was the moment Nurse Brown chose to walk in the room with the bandaging supplies she had been sent for. The drape between the beds was drawn as Dr. Frick changed the bandages from his sick bed. The three off duty firemen talked quietly on their side of the curtain and the plan was being developed that Chet and Johnny were about to become volunteer nurses and aids to take care of Roy and do what they could to help Dr. Frick. Johnny knew the need for Roy to be woken up several times for neurological checks and he was sure he could talk to Dr. Frick and learn anything else he could do to help out.
The talk on the other side of the curtain was also quiet but they did hear Dr. Frick question Nurse Brown about why she chose to apply the bandages the way she did. Any reply they could hear sounded like a grunt instead of words but they did here her say one thing. "I couldn't think of another way to make sure she remained out of commission until her burns healed. As we now know that didn't even work."
When Nurse Brown stormed out with the garbage created by the treatment she left the door to fall shut in her wake.
Julie was then able to pull the drapes so that the two groups could talk together and the first thing the firemen from LA noticed was that her new bandages were much less confining. Her right hand and arm were still bandaged nearly to the arm pit but she had a free thumb, that didn't appear to be burned at all and only the next two fingers were covered in fluffy bandages. The bandages on her other hand were focused on her palm and wrist leaving all of her fingers free and only a few of them looked to be red with first degree burns.
"Thanks, Doc," Julie waved with a newly bandaged hand. "Now, what do you say you let me take these three men with me? Between me, the paramedic guy and the other EMT we can monitor the head injury and change ice on the neck injury to keep him comfortable. There's no way you're going to get the rest you need with all that happening in the same room."
"Are you sure your dad wouldn't have a major problem with that, I mean isn't your family having a big event out at the ranch tonight? I'm not sure that's in the best interest of a concussion patient."
"You know my dad, all I'll have to tell him is that there are three men and that one of them is named Roy and he'll break out the best. I'm sure we can put them all up in the bunk house. It's far enough away from the main house to keep the noise of the festivities from bothering them. There's a kitchenette and bathroom with showers and more than enough beds for all of them." Julie then turned her attention to the three firemen and continued. "I'm sure you will all be welcomed at the festivities tonight but I'm just as sure that Roy and I will grab any excuse to leave."
"Yeah, I'm sure you will," Dr. Frick gestured very understandingly. "Of course whatever happens needs to be in agreement of our guests here."
Roy leaned back and let out a sigh, the eyes of his two friends were on him and he knew the decision was up to him. "Before I answer that question I think I need to better understand what seems to be going on between you and me." Roy pointed to Julie and all Julie could do at first was smirk.
"First of all, at least as far as I know, there is nothing going on between the two of us," Julie was smiling and blushing severally, "What you've stumbled into is a warped family joke," Julie shifted in her chair focusing on Roy but being very careful not to advance on him in any way.
"It's kind of a long story but since you're the current brunt of the joke I think I should explain it to you. It will also serve as a good evaluation of your mental status." Taking in a deep breath and looking around with a bob of her head toward Chet and John indicating that they should sit, Julie began.
"See, my Father's name is Carl, so is my first brother. Then along came twin girls with names of Beth and Anne, then myself and five years later came my younger brother, Roy. You all met him at the accident."
"The one who has trouble with the sight of blood?" John let everyone know he was following along at least sort of.
"That's him. Well as time went on my twin sisters each married a man named Carl. That makes for a real hoot at family gatherings if you get my drift. Then Carl married a girl named Beth Anne. Now tonight there is a big swinging shindig at the ranch where, to no surprise to anyone, my baby brother Roy is going to repeat the announcement he made at a private family gathering last week. Seems Roy and the local dietitian, and cute little bombshell named Julie, are announcing their intentions to join in matrimony."
By now Chet was counting names on his fingers and putting two and two together. "So you're expected to marry someone named Roy."
"That's right," Julie grimaced more than smiled "And according to my father I should have done it several years ago."
John, Chet and Roy shared a reserved snicker and an understanding then looked at each other and the bed ridden doctor in silent communication as to what they should do when Dr. Frick asked another question that they only half understood.
"What is your father saying about you getting custodianship over Frank?"
"That's all the more reason for me to take these guys home with me. Dad's not too apt to yell at me too long in front of company."
Nothing was said for a while then Julie rose to her feet. "I'm sure you would like to talk about it among yourselves for a while so I'll go see what I can find out about the fire and check on my love struck brother.
Julie left the room and Dr. Frick rose up on one elbow and turned to look at Roy DeSoto and his friends. "You have no idea how I hate to admit this but, um, especially with the accusations of a relationship with Miss Clark, even though they're totally unfounded, you'll get better care by her hands. That's why I had you moved into a room with me but um, yeah, being in here with me will help a bit but you'll still get better care with Julie, and I can promise you there will be no strings attached."
"What has that other nurse got against Julie?" John didn't pull any punches. "The last time I saw that much venom come out a woman towards another woman there was a man involved."
Dr. Frick flopped back against the pillows on his bed and let out a deep breath. Finally he nodded yes and turned back to the three firemen. "Julie's not kidding about her old man; he wants his daughters married, young and well. The two oldest girls met their mates at a finishing school. Julie was determined to have a career, to be able to make a difference. Her father was nudging her toward a boy in these parts by the name of Dirk Jackson, but Julie said her goodbye's and headed off to a four year nursing program on a scholarship. Her father, even though he can easily afford it, won't pay for such an education because he feels guys don't want wives that know more than they do."
Nurse Jessica Brown quickly moved in as Dirk's girl, gave him everything he wanted, tried to supply his every wish. In three years time he never proposed marriage but that didn't dissuade our Nurse Brown.
"Julie worked hard in school and then with two quarters of school left, Julie comes home to take care of her mother through her losing fight with cancer. Dirk started spending a lot of time at the Clark Ranch but whenever I was out there doing what I could for her mother, Dirk was with the boys and other ranch hands. I know the kind of time Julie spent with her mother; I can't believe she had any time what so ever to spend with anyone else."
"Well, her mother died, we knew she would, and then the word starts getting around that Julie lost her scholarship and wouldn't be going back to school right away. About two months after her mother's funeral there was a big community gathering, the sheep shearing extravaganza, something we have every year and brings in quite a crowd. They always have a band and square dancing. After the band had everyone going, they were just taking a break to get some punch and this Dirk stepped up to the microphone and proposed marriage to Julie right there in front of the crowd."
Now Dr. Frick paused to see if all the guys were following and by the looks on their faces they were not only following they already knew what happened next.
"Wasn't anyone in the crowd that knew Julie very well at all, that didn't know she was just waiting for a private moment to tell him that no way on earth she was going to marry him, but, well come to find out in the next month or so, there were more than a few ladies who had been sharing their affections with this creep and they all instantly hated Julie Clark. To make a long story short, three months later Dirk Jackson is on his way to a long vacation at the state prison with a whole laundry list of crimes, including extortion, embezzlement, and statutory rape just to name a few and Julie is off to work in an aid station with a brush fire camp to earn money to finish her schooling. Last I talked with her about it, she's heads back to school next month and she's taking a mentally handicapped man from here in the area with her in hopes of getting him into a training program where he can learn how to help support himself and live independently."
"I've been kind of hoping she'd be graduated and ready to take over at one of my clinics when Ozella retires. She'd be great for the job but I'm not so sure the job or even the territory would be great for her."
Just then all conversation comes to a halt as another nurse walks into the room. "It's past time for your pain medication Dr. Frick."
"I think I better pass this dose, Nurse, I need to be somewhat alert around here."
That was the statement that let Roy and his friends know that they needed to take Julie up on her offer and get out of the way so that the good doctor could allow at least most of his treatment and hopefully get some rest.