Love On Call

Glenn called Flann a little after one a.m. When Flann picked up the phone, she sounded as if she was wide-awake, just like always. All told, married life hadn’t seemed to change her all that much, only the restlessness was gone.

“Why do you never call me with good news?” Flann asked.

“What fun would that be?”

Flann chuckled. “What have you got?”

“Believe it or not, a gunshot wound to the hand.”

“Member of the service?” Flann said quickly, referring to those in uniform—law enforcement agents, firemen, first responders.

“No, a ten-year-old boy who for some reason was up long after his parents had gone to bed. Apparently there was a party and they weren’t paying too much attention. He found—get this—his mother’s twenty-five caliber in her purse and decided to take it apart to see how it worked.”

“Jesus. How bad is it?”

“Not bad enough to need ortho. Metacarpal is fractured, but looks like a washout and a splint will take care of it for now. You want me to call them?”

“Nah,” Flann said. “If you do, it’ll take until dawn for them to get there and then the OR will be backed up tomorrow. You and I can have it done in an hour. Call the OR.”

“Already done. Consent’s signed and he’s in the holding area with his grandmother. His parents—well, I didn’t think they were quite in any state to sign consent.”

“Pretty sure I was coming in, huh?”

“Never known you to pass up a case.”

Flann laughed. “I haven’t heard from you at night for a while.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t doing much tonight.”

“Saturday night.”

“Like I said, the OR’s ready.”

Flann must’ve taken the hint. She didn’t even bother trying to get a rise out of her. “See you there in fifteen.”

Glenn hung up and looked around the empty surgeon’s lounge with its outdated, cracked vinyl sofas and mismatched end tables littered with cups and takeout containers, and felt more at home than in her apartment. She’d sat there a thousand times before, just like this, and the only thing that had changed was her. Mari had left soon after their shower and cold pizza meal, and she hadn’t been able to do anything since except think about the way Mari had felt stretched out above her, the way Mari had taken her and allowed herself to be taken. By the time she’d decided she was going to make herself crazy if she didn’t stop, it was already dark, and the best place to be on a lonely Saturday night was the ER. A couple of the nurses gave her a knowing look when she walked in and scanned the board for a case to evaluate, but everyone welcomed her back. Old home week.

She closed her eyes and let her mind go blank, an old habit that allowed her to be ready for anything at an instant’s notice, but kept her from thinking when there was nothing to be done about anything. Not the next mission, the next emergency, the next death on her watch.

A foot nudged her leg. “Yo, sleeping beauty. You done with your beauty rest?”

Glenn cracked an eye and grinned up at Flann. “I only need a couple minutes, but I let you sleep most of the night.”

“You doing all right?” Flann asked with unaccustomed seriousness.

Glenn flushed, wondering how much showed in her face. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know anymore.”

“Mari?”

“Yeah.” Glenn couldn’t deny her.

Flann’s grin widened, part sympathy, part amusement. “Believe me, I’ve been there, and I’m still there. But take it from me, it gets a lot worse before it gets better.”

Glenn shoved herself to her feet. “Thanks, I knew I could always count on you.”

*

“You know what, my mama ought to be taking the biscuits out of the oven right about now,” Flann said when they wheeled the boy into the recovery room and left him to the nurses. “Let’s head that way.”

Glenn nodded. She should be tired, with almost no sleep for two nights running, but the last thing she wanted was to face the empty bed she’d last shared with Mari. “What about Abby—should we go get her and Blake?”

Flann shook her head. “Abby’s been working nights all week, and the two of them aren’t early risers anyhow. I’ll bring them home something from the farm.”

“How is it, adjusting, you know, to a family?”

Flann shrugged as they walked out into the dawn. “Weird, but it feels like it’s always been this way, or at least it always should’ve been this way and I was just too dumb to know it. Abby and Blake are as much a part of me as the rest of my family. I can’t imagine life without them.”

A twinge stabbed at the soft spot behind Glenn’s breastbone. An attachment like that, a need like that, was more dangerous than anything she’d ever experienced or wanted to think about. She wasn’t cut out for family attachments, hadn’t been raised to it the way Flann and the rest of the Rivers sisters were. She was born a loner and had learned to be alone, and maybe she should stop fighting the natural order of things.

“Suits you.”