Page 72 of Deprivation

I watch as he stares back in fear, big blue eyes full with unescaped tears.

“A popsicle!” I clap my hands, emphasizing the good news.

His lovable face brightens as he blurts, “Can I have wed?”

Leaving his room in search of a “wed” popsicle, I see Meghan. “Oh, he makes my ovary hurt,” I say.

“Don’t you mean ovaries?”

“Nah, I only have one. If I had a child, that’s the kind I’d want. All boy.”

“Yeah. Well, Kat… you know what’s required for that to happen, right?”

I return her question with a glare. I’m painfully aware of what is required and what is so blatantly not happening in my life right now.

“You could’ve been rocking on that boat is all I’m saying,” she smirks, rocking her hips front to back.

“Holy crap, Meghan. You heard that?” I ask, not realizing my rant had an audience.

“The Kat Kelly, Nick Barnes soap opera appears to be prime time entertainment around here lately.”

“Oh, god,” I groan.

“Ah, don’t be so hard on yourself. I’d give anything for a guy like that to be sniffing around me. Only difference is I would’ve just walked out on my shift and said, ‘Show me your plank, captain! But in Kat Kelly style, you told that hot piece of man candy where he could get off. Never a dull moment with you around!”

“Jeez, can I be any more ridiculous? It’s no wonder I’m alone.”

“Well, let’s just say… I thought he still owed you some major groveling after the way he talked to you in the ER that day, but I think you guys might be even now,” she tsks at me. “Shame, I’d have parlayed that grovel into some major sucking up.”

“Who’s sucking who?” Jessica pops into the conversation as only she can.

“Trust me, no one is sucking anyone,” I reply.

“Kat’s just realizing she wasted a major opportunity. We really need to teach her the art of eliciting a good grovel,” Meghan winks.

“Oh, he’ll be back. He’s got it bad,” Jess replies. “The whole time she was raging on him, he had that look of ‘yes, ma’am. Can I have some more?’ We’ll see him back here sniffing around. You mark my words.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, you two have lost your minds.Iwouldn’t talk to me again! And he’s hot, he could have anyone. Why would he want to go out with a psycho?” I ask in complete earnestness.

“Maybe he likes a little crazy,” Jess waggles her eyebrows.

* * *

“Kat, your girl is headed back to the ER with constipation. That’s a new one for Katrina,” Meghan blurts as she scurries by the breezeway with her hands full of IV tubing and fluids.

I consider this momentarily. Maybe sheistaking narcotics. They’re notorious for causing constipation. Perhaps I’ve been all wrong about this girl and she’s simply addicted. At least I won’t have to hear any pleas for pain medication with this complaint. Her only treatment might be an enema.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Jess comes to the front nurses’ station to advise Katrina has arrived and dramatics have ensued. “She’s going for the Oscar on this one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know how she usually arrives? Moaning about how much pain she’s in until you walk in and she smiles big, forgetting why she’s there. Then, she quickly puts her ‘I’m in so much pain you just have to give me Percocet’ mask back on.” She laughs. “Well, she hit the door with the whole costume on today.”

I head for room five and see Mark Snow and Miller Fishburn trying to help Katrina slide from the ambulance stretcher to our ER gurney. She’s clutching her abdomen and moaning throughout this transition and doing very little to assist. I start to feel my arm hair stand up a bit as I walk into the room and see the look on her face. It’s not lost on me that even if her usual motives are looking for drugs, whether to take or to sell, she’s still a human being who can get sick. My main concerns are appendicitis or an obstruction.

“Katrina? What’s going on? When did you start feeling like this?” I press, trying to calm the alarm bells that have started to go off in my head. “Is it your stomach?”

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