INTRODUCTION
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Cocky Doc is a standalone story inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s British Bedmate. It's published as part of the Cocky Hero Club world, a series of original works, written by various authors, and inspired by Keeland and Ward's New York Times bestselling series.
1
DREW
“DR. MONTGOMERY to the children’s wing. Dr. Montgomery to the children’s wing.” I hear the page over the hospital’s intercom. I glance down at the pager attached to my scrub pants and see the message was sent two minutes ago.
It’s never a good sign when I get called on the hospital’s intercom system, so I quickly take off from the ER and head for the stairwell. I see I don’t have time to wait on the elevator since there are at least ten people waiting on it as I push the door open and bolt up the stairs. It takes me ninety or so seconds to reach the pediatric floor and arrive at the nurses’ station. “Talk to me,” I call out to Brianna, the lead nurse working today.
“Your patient in four’s vitals are all over the place the last thirty minutes. I’ve tried everything I can think of and they won’t stable out.”
“All right, I‘ll go take a look,” I tell her before turning and heading down the hall to room four. “Knock, knock,” I say as I rap my knuckles against the door before pushing it open. “Mack! I hear you’re giving the nurses a run for their money today,” I greet my five-year-old patient.
“Something like that,” she wheezes from the hospital bed.
“Thanks for coming, Dr. Montgomery,” Mackenzie’s mother, Heather, says from her daughter’s bedside. She looks nervous as the monitors’ alarms are going off with the current rhythm of Mackenzie’s heart.
“Of course. Let’s take a look and see what we can do to make things work.” I reach up and silence the alarms on the monitors, then place the tips of my stethoscope in my ears, rub the end against my palm to help warm it up, and slip it beneath Mack’s hospital gown. Her breathing is labored, and the rhythm of her heart is not normal. “I’m going to up her oxygen support and adjust her meds, for now. Hopefully that will stabilize her today,” I say, doing my best to assure Heather.
“Any news on her placement on the transplant list?” Heather asks as she pushes the hairs that have fallen into Mack’s eyes back.
“Nothing new today. I’ll make a call and see if we can get moved up at all with today’s changes.”
“Thank you. As much as I wish for a heart to become available today for her, it breaks my heart knowing what has to happen for that to take place.”
“I know. It’s never an easy situation, but I’ll see what I can do about her placement on the transplant list,” I assure her as I document everything in the computer, sending my new orders to the nurses so they can get the medications adjusted. “Has the child life department been in to see you guys yet?” I ask, knowing that when they visit patients it can help with their spirits, and that can do miraculous things with helping stabilize vitals.
“Not yet,” Heather tells me as she takes a seat in the chair next to the bed.
“I’ll see what I can do to get someone up here. Maybe once Mack’s vitals stabilize, they can take her down to the playroom for a bit.”
“I’m sure she’d enjoy that,” Heather tells me, just as my pager vibrates against my hip. I finish up my last note and sign out of the computer before looking down to see who’s paging me. I close my eyes so that Heather nor Mackenzie see me roll them after reading the page. It’s a nurse from another department paging me for a quick fuck in the on-call room. Unfortunately for her, I’m no longer interested. I went there once already and regretted it immediately. She’s been nothing but clingy since and won’t leave me alone.
“Don’t hesitate to call the nurse or have them page me if anything changes. I’ll be back this afternoon to check in and see how Mack’s adjusting to the med change, and hopefully have news on the list.”
“Thanks, Dr. Montgomery,” Heather says to me before I leave the room.
2
MEGAN
I ENTER the staff locker room, stopping at my locker. I still can’t believe that I’m here and working my dream job. Child Life Specialist my badge reads. Having been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at eighteen months, I’m no stranger to hospitals or child life specialists. I used to love it when they’d visit with me during my hospital stays, or even just routine visits to the doctors. The really good ones had a way with helping keep me calm when life got me down, and that is exactly what I aim to do for the kids here. If I can make an impact on just one child going through something hard, I’ll have fulfilled my goals.
“Are you Megan?” a woman asks from my left. She has a bounce to her step, one of those always happy and bubbly people, who can’t help but brighten any room they enter. She’s got shoulder-length hair that bounces with each step she takes toward me and appears to be in her mid-thirties, if I had to guess.
“I am, you must be Lucy. It’s nice to meet you,” I tell her, reaching my hand out to shake hers. “HR told me to find you this morning.”
“Yep, I’m excited to show you around and get you out on your own. We’ve got some great patients up here.”
“I’m excited to work with them. All the new-hire paperwork and classes last week were boring, but I knew they were necessary for me to get to the fun parts of the job.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of all of those videos,” she groans. “How about we get going and get to that fun?” she suggests.
I place my backpack and jacket in my locker and grab my water bottle from the holder hanging off the side of my chair.
“I’m just going to fill my water bottle quickly,” I tell Lucy as I roll over to the water fountain and top off my bottle before heading out to the nurses’ station to get my assignments for the day. I was released to work with patients just this week and still need to learn my way around the children’s wings.
“Hey, Brianna,” Lucy calls as we approach the nurses’ station. “This is Megan, our new CLS for the wing. I’ll be showing her around today and then she’ll be on her own.”
“Hello, nice to meet you,” I greet Brianna.
“Oh, hi! Nice to meet you! I heard we finally hired someone, so welcome.”
“Thank you, I look forward to working together.”
“Do you have a list of patients for us?” Lucy asks Brianna.
“I do, and Dr. Montgomery just asked if we could make sure that his patient in four can have someone visit her once her vitals stabilize.”
“Absolutely, just let me know once they do and I’ll make sure one of us makes it in to see her. Anyone else a priority today?” Lucy asks, scanning the list on the tablet before she hands it over to me to look at.
“The little boy, Stanley, in room one, loves playing Legos, so just be prepared for that,” Brianna tells me. “Otherwise, I think seeing them in any order should be fine.”
“Got it!” I pull up Stanley’s chart to take a quick look at things and get a quick overview of his case. “Should we start with Stanley?” I ask Lucy.