One Human Loving Another

By D.J. Fronimos

Overwhelmed by the COVID-19 chaos in her hospital, ICU nurse Melissa is comforted by newly-arrived travel nurse Courtney. Drawn to Courtney against her better judgment, lonely Melissa manufactures ways to spend time with her, and is encouraged by Courtney's obvious determination to woo Melissa, especially when she learns that Courtney did not volunteer to help out for purely unselfish reasons. After Courtney confesses she is looking for a partner and it appears she is very interested in Melissa, both are highly tempted to throw caution to the wind and see where their mutual attraction might lead.

Both know all too well the dangers involved in letting their guard down, so the two nurses strictly adhere to social distancing rules even outside the hospital. But keeping their distance physically becomes harder and harder to do as they get closer emotionally. One night Courtney shows up unexpectedly at Melissa's apartment. Will Melissa be able to ignore the virus and just be one human loving another?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Oct 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646566105

Book preview

5

Chapter 1

Code Blue, ICU 6! Code Blue, ICU 6! Code Blue, ICU 6!

Shit! Melissa dropped the supplies she was holding on the Central Supply counter. That’s my patient. I’ll come back as soon as I can for all this. The supply room guy looked irritated.

Well, too damn bad if you have to put the stuff back. My patient is dying!

Getting off the elevator, Melissa pulled her hair cover and N95 mask out of her scrubs pocket and hurriedly put them on as she headed for the double doors of the ICU COVID unit. She swiped her ID badge in the badge reader on the wall adjacent to the doors and they swung open, revealing the activity taking place all along the hallway. Melissa maneuvered her way past IV poles and crash carts and nurses’ laptop carts, and finally made it to room 6, where the code team was already at work on Joe. Melissa grabbed a yellow isolation gown out of the top drawer of the isolation cart and struggled into it. She tried three times to tie the gown closed before finally getting the strips of paper into some semblance of a bow.

Shit, shit, shit! Sliding her sweaty hands into gloves was another challenge but she finally was able to push the glass door open, sliding her plastic face shield into place as she entered the crowded room and pulled the door shut behind her.

What the hell happened? Melissa cornered one of the other RNs once she saw that the Code Team was already performing CPR and knew she’d just be in the way. He was doing so much better this morning!

The nurse turned toward Melissa and she saw that it was Angie behind the mask. You no sooner left to go to Central Supply when his O2 sats started dropping. I mean, really bottoming out. I think he may have thrown a clot. Did you notice any swelling in his legs earlier?

Melissa thought back over the day, another in a string of hectic days she’d been moving through almost like a zombie. Over the past few months, COVID-19 had finally reared its ugly head in her city and her normally quiet hospital had become a war zone. Had she overlooked some critical finding? Was it her fault that Joe had taken this turn?

Honestly, I didn’t notice anything different. I mean, not bad-different. His vitals were actually pretty good today and his labs had started looking more promising. I had high hopes that he was going to make it out of here. God damn it! Why today of all days?

Is one day better than another to code?

Angie wasn’t trying to be funny, but the nurses almost couldn’t help sharing a dark sense of humor, what with all the crap they saw on a daily basis.

"Of course not, but it’s the timing. Joe’s wife called earlier. Their daughter just gave birth to their first grandchild this morning and she wondered if there was some way