“What?” she gasped. “You can’t mean that.”
I didn’t, but I was going to make Layla suffer for a little bit since she was basically forcing me to ask Easy for Snapper’s number. “As soon as I get you his number, you need to put your transfer in.”
“Birdie,” she whined, “I will lose my mind if I have to work in the ER.”
I shrugged and headed to the elevators. “How badly do you want Snapper’s phone number?” I called.
“Fine!” she huffed. “But I better be scheduled only when you are working.”
“Now you’re just dreaming,” I laughed. I pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors slid open.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
I stepped into the elevator and turned to look at her. “To get your phone number.” The doors slid shut while Layla let out a whoop of glee.
She was so going to owe me.
I wasn’t going to make her move to ER, but I wasn’t going to let her forget that I was the one who played a part in her hooking up with Snapper.
Well, hopefully, my getting his number led to them hooking up.
The elevator glided up to Neuro ICU, and I headed to Easy’s room.
“Knock, knock,” I called. I pushed open his door and was surprised to find only Easy was there.
“Doc?” Easy called.
“Just me, Birdie.” I closed the door and moved to the side of his bed. “I’m on your right.” His head was still bandaged, but he was wearing a black t-shirt that was stretched over his muscular chest and looked more alert than he had.
He turned his head with his eyes open, but I could tell he still couldn’t see me. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“I was just doing some reading and thought I would come up to see you since I’m not too busy in the ER,” I explained.
“Reading? Anything that might help me see again?”
I shook my head.
“Birdie?” he called.
He’s blind, Birdie. Use your words. “Um, no. It was more answers to why your vision hasn’t come back yet.”
“And?” he drawled.
“Swelling.”
“That it?” he laughed.
“Well, the short answer is yes. You have swelling in your head from Dr. Gus going in and sort of moving things around. He did nick your optic nerve, which just added more swelling.”
“But he took the tumor out, so shouldn’t there be more room for swelling? Dr. Gus had said the tumor was the size of a grape, so since he took that out, there should be space now, right?”
“Well, yes, and no. The tumor was taking up room, but it was room it shouldn’t have been taking up in the first place. So things were sort of moved around in your head, which happened slowly. When Dr. Gus went in, it was quick and abrupt, which sort of jostled things.”
“So my head needs to get used to being normal.”
I tipped my head to the side and smiled. “Well, yes, but I don’t want you to think you weren’t normal before.” It wasn’t like Easy was trying to grow a tumor in his head. His body did that all on its own.
“Just had a tumor in my head, doll. Totally normal.” He laid his head back on the pillow and draped his arm above his head.
