Page 47 of Keeping it Real

One of the other nurses snorted.“Does that mean you aren’t shacking up with that stud goalie with the bedroom eyes?”

“If by shacking up, you mean are we roommates?Then the answer is yes.Nothing more.”

“Mmm, mmm, mmm.”The charge nurse shook her head.“I never thought I’d say this about you, Sheridan Cobert, because you are an excellent nurse, but I am deeply disappointed you are not jumping that man’s bones.”

“That goes for me, too,” Finn’s therapist chimed in as he strode up to the nurses’ station in the center of the ED.

“Trent, what are you doing here on a Friday night?”Sheridan asked him.

“I get reduced rent on my hospital office space if I”—he winked at her—"volunteer one weekend shift every other month.I’m your mental health attending with social services tonight.Buckle up.Friday nights are usually bumpy.”

She rolled her eyes at him.“You forget I have a trauma center background.”

“I was surprised I didn’t hear from you yesterday.”

She sighed.“Finn had an asthma attack.By the time I got him all sorted out, the day was over.Maybe we can take our dinner break together and I’ll fill you in?”

Trent gave her a thumbs-up before following a PA into one of the bays.

The charge nurse tsked at her.“You do know you’re wasting your time with that one, right?He’s gay and happily married.”

Sheridan smiled at her.“Which makes him the perfect confidant.”

“Any idea what brought on the asthma attack?”Trent asked a few hours later when they were in line for sandwiches in the cafeteria.

“Unfortunately, I do.”

There were lot of curveballs coming out of nowhere that summer.I have no idea what really went down.

The guilt Sheridan felt about “what really went down” that summer was so palpable, her hands shook.She put down her tray before her mineral water spilled everywhere.Yesterday’s conversation about Finn’s paternity had been like navigating a minefield.But at least she’d had the truth on her side for once.If Alek started asking more questions, she wasn’t sure how she would divert him.

Except the only other person who knows the truth is gone.

Trent eyed her shrewdly.“That bad, huh?”

She paid for her sandwich and followed him to a table in the corner.

“He’s wetting the bed,” she said when she sat down.

He paused with the sandwich halfway to his mouth.“Finn?Or the hockey stud?”

She shot him a look.He chuckled as he put his sandwich down without taking a bite.“Believe it or not, this is good news.It means the sleeping giant of grief is finally waking up.”

“I know.But how do I fix it?”

“Youdon’t.”He shook his head at her.“I haven’t known you very long, but it’s obvious you’ve never met a problem you haven’t wanted to solve.Except Finn needs to put in the work to process his grief.You and I are here to act as the guardrails.You can’tfix itfor him.”He gave her hand a squeeze.“I’m good at my job.Trust me on this.You know as well as I do that Finn is going to feel this loss for the rest of his life.You can’t take it away from him and carry it yourself.Especially when you’re dealing with your own baggage.”

She snorted.“Baggage makes it sound small and lightweight.”

“The goal is getting patients to a point where it feels that way.”

“I guess I want Finn to have a less difficult path than I did.Less drama, you know?”

“I do know.But there are no short-cuts with grief.”Trent smiled at her.“Finn will have some things easier, though.Because he’ll have you as a sounding board.”

“And to change the sheets every morning,” she joked half-heartedly.She didn’t mind covering for Finn, but she hated that yet another thing was going wrong in his life.Gunner had invited Finn to spend the night after the game tomorrow.Finn had declined in terror.

“The less of a big deal you make out of it, the better,” Trent told her.

---