Chapter Seven

"Kaylee, you have a new patient in Room Four and the man in Room Five is puking again." Allie, one of the ER unit assistants, sidled up to me, handing me the freshly made chart for the patient in Room 4. "I have Mr. Smith in Room Three ready for his EKG, and we are just waiting on Dr. Gregory to come consult. By the way, how was your sister's wedding?"

"It was great. I think Iowa needs an ocean," I said with a grin. Allie giggled in agreement as I flipped open the battered blue plastic binder and started scanning through the patient's history. Thomas Birch. Male, age sixteen, fell skateboarding. Complains of 8/10 pain in wrist. No known allergies or other pertinent medical history. It was looking like a fairly routine-but-busy day.

At least the busy day would keep my mind off a certain someone. "We'll probably need X-rays," I said after reading the file. "Will you find out what the wait time is down in Radiology? And go ahead and let Marta know that Mr. Birch can have the standard p