Nursing The Doctor by Bobby Hutchinson Read Free Book Online Page A

going.”
    Greg had his eyes closed again, and he heard the soft rustle as Elise slipped her coat on, the clicking of heels as both women left the room, their voices fading as they walked down the corridor. Elise’s perfume lingered, and he tried not to breathe it in. He could hear what they were saying.
    “He’s in a great deal of pain. He’s self-medicating with morphine, and it often makes patients hallucinate,” the nurse was explaining.
    Elise’s soft voice replied, “Of course, I understand.”
    She doesn't understand anything. Greg wanted to call the nurse back and set her straight, but instead he triggered the mechanism that would drip morphine into his system and bring oblivion.
    To hell with them all. Elise and his brothers weren’t a part of his life when he was well, why should they bother him now? Didn’t he have the right to decide who visited him and who didn’t?
    And he was going to tear a strip off Ben when he saw him next. Ben had no business notifying Elise without his permission....
    The medication kicked in and the dream place beckoned.
    He went gladly.
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    Greg swam up from some infinitely horrible place and knew he was in terrible danger. A menacing male shape loomed over him, its eyes demonic. Hands pushed and prodded at his body.
    “Get away from me.” Sweat trickled down the sides of his face and he held his finger on the call button until at last a nurse appeared.
    “Yes, Dr. Brulotte?”
    “Get this man out of here,” he gasped. “He’s not a doctor, he’s pretending he has medical knowledge and he doesn’t. He’s going to kill me, he’s going to inject me with something...something... lethal.”
    “Dr. Brulotte, Kenny is an orderly. He’s just trying to make you more comfortable. You’re having a reaction to the morphine again. You’re overmedicating and it’s making you hallucinate. Now we’ve told you about this before, you have to ease up on the trigger. Morphine brings out the very worst qualities in a person, and it causes these hallucinations you’re having.”
    Greg’s rage was instantaneous. “Damn you, I’m not hallucinating. I’m a doctor, for God’s sake. I know what I’m talking about. What’s wrong with you, you stupid woman? You’re incompetent, you’re all incompetent. I want to
talk to my physician right away. Edward Fyfe. You go page him, STAT. Where the hell is he? I never see him.”
    “Dr. Fyfe was in to see you less than an hour ago, Dr. Brulotte. And he agrees with the nursing staff that you have to stop overmedicating with the morphine. He’s going to remove the IV tomorrow and put you on oral meds.”
    “How long since my operation?” They lied to him all the time. He was going to catch them at it and report them, because he knew the operation had been yesterday.
    “This is the third day, Doctor. It’s Wednesday. Your operation was Sunday.” She turned and walked away, leaving him with the orderly, who shifted his injured leg, sending a bolt of pain through Greg’s body.
    Deliberate, his mind concluded. He would report them all, the entire staff on this floor. They were all against him. They were going to kill him. It didn’t matter how much morphine he used, he’d be dead soon anyway.
    Rebelliously, he pressed the trigger that released another dose into his system, and then he dipped once more into the half-world of wild dreams that he’d inhabited for an endless time.
     
     
    Early Thursday evening, Lily hurried into the Granville Island Restaurant, her eyes skimming the crowd for Frannie.
    Kaleb had been late home from his course tonight to take over with Gram and Zoe, and then it had been tough to find a parking space. She was late.
    “Lily, over here.” Frannie was seated at a cozy table for two near the windows that looked out on the water. She was sipping a glass of wine, and she got to her feet as Lily approached. The two women hugged affectionately.
    Lily was tall, but Frannie was even