Free Head Games by Eileen Dreyer Page A

by side in the medicine alcove.
    Sasha snorted. “Wearing pantyhose is not that bad,” she retorted. “Inheriting a teenager is a disaster.”
    â€œYeah, well, I guess this is God’s way of letting me know once and for all if I could have made a good mother.”
    Sasha stopped cold. “You are not being a mother,” she informed Molly. “You’re being a baby-sitter. You are keeping the little monster out of prison until his parents come back from wherever the hell it is they are to lock him up in his own city.”
    Molly grinned. “That’s what I love about you, Sasha. Your almost maudlin sentimentality. Trust me. I have no intention of making this a permanent situation. I’m too old and poor for that. Patrick is a kid who needs deep pockets … and deaf parents. You should hear what he listens to. I am really not used to that.”
    â€œMy point exactly.”
    â€œBesides, what with the notes and all, it’s kind of nice to have somebody else in the house.”
    â€œAs long as he isn’t the one writing the notes.”
    â€œThey were mailed in St. Louis, Sash. Besides, he hasn’t even seen me in six years. How could I make him that mad?”
    Patrick had also really seemed surprised by the sight of that femur. The femur Molly hadn’t told Sasha about. But then, there was just so much disapprobation she could handle in one eight-hour shift. Especially one as busy as this.

    â€œHey, you guys,” one of the brand-new nurses greeted them on the run, her eyes wide like a bunny. “What do you know about giving thrombolytic treatment for MIs?”
    â€œI know you want to make sure the patient’s upstairs before they try it. It’s a one-on-one nursing situation.”
    â€œHe wants me to give it now.”
    â€œHe who?” Sasha demanded.
    â€œSpizer.”
    â€œDoes the guy fit the criteria?”
    The nurse, a young Korean girl named Nancy, shrugged. “I don’t know. What’s the criteria?”
    â€œSee, that’s what I love about working here,” Molly philosophized, capping the syringe that held her patient’s Ativan. “It’s so challenging that for a few hours I can forget all about silly things like the rest of my life.”
    â€œYou were going to quit three days ago,” Sasha reminded her.
    â€œThree days ago I didn’t have a family to support. You want to do the TPA or shall I?”
    â€œI’ll do it. You pick up my other ten patients.” They were already walking as they talked. “Room five is waiting for films, room six is old Mr. Peabody, and Wilma’s in five for her regular pelvic.”
    â€œWe have any new staff I should know about?”
    â€œYou mean housekeeping cross-trainees? Not tonight. Tonight we’re lucky.”
    â€œYeah. Tonight we have a ten-year-old nurse and Spizer, who wants us to treat everything right here, just like he sees on ER. ”
    Sasha shrugged as she bent for IV equipment to start treatment on the cardiac patient. “It could be worse.”
    Molly smacked her on the ass. “Bite your tongue.”
    Because, of course, it would almost certainly get worse. Especially when called like that, like an incantation.
    And it did. At least it did for Molly.
    She was in trying to talk Spizer out of doing a lumbar puncture on a lady with a bladder infection a couple of hours later when she was paged to the desk. Molly only had to step out into the hall to realize that whatever the secretary wanted her for, it was definitely not business as usual.

    â€œThis came for you,” Marianne said, just pointing, her eyes wide with disbelief.
    So were Molly’s, but for a completely different reason. After working with Molly for less than a year, Marianne Senkosky, a snotty blonde with a sincere aversion to effort, simply couldn’t imagine that anybody in his right mind would send Molly long-stemmed roses. Molly