#charole

— — —

TWO YEARS PRIOR

Carole hated night shifts just as much as anyone else. She’d tried to get it put in her contract that she couldn’t do them, being a single mother and all, but the nurse manager didn’t care, and signed her to a four-on four-off shift pattern. Bradley was nine now, so more aware of what work required of her, not as vulnerable as a baby, but still a child that couldn’t be left on his own. 

The money at this place was good, however, better than anything she’d gotten in Texas. The people didn’t seem to be as friendly, she’d never lived in a big city, especially not the Capital City, so seeing how much people disregarded each other shook her.  Someone could shove you walking by and they wouldn’t even turn around to apologise. It scared her to think that Bradley was growing up in such a cold environment, she’d have to teach him some southern values. 

Wind bit her as she crossed the street and headed for Metro. She’d had to sell her car to afford the deposit on the apartment, her mother didn’t see why this move was such a good thing if she had to sell her car just to get there. Texas was a state meant for cars, though, her mother also didn’t understand why people would take a bus. 

She did the zip up on her jacket just as a woman knocked into her shoulder, sending her stumbling to the edge of the sidewalk. This was just what she meant. She doubted the woman had even noticed, no one else had even looked up from their day to see if she was okay. 

With how fatigued her body felt, how liquified her mind was, she didn’t have the patience to deal with idiots like this. Her feet were marching her before she could second guess herself. Her sister had always said she looked cute when she was angry, so she never took her seriously, well she hoped her face was as mad as she felt, because she was moments away from setting on fire when she saw the woman collapse to the ground. 

A few people around her crowded around her unmoving form. Carole ran to her and lent down. 

“It’s okay, I’m a nurse.” She said. 

She found her pulse point on her neck with ease as she watched for breathing. When her chest rose, and she felt a thready pulse lightly beating under her fingertips, she let herself exhale. Gently, she moved her head to one side and began to move her to the recovery position, this woman was lucky enough to pass out in front of the hospital, it’s like she’d planned it. 

“Hey, ma’am, can you hear me?” She could hear the southern twang in her voice more each day she’d been here. “I’m Carole, I’m a nurse, can you hear me?”

One of the bystanders had found some form of ID in her purse. “Her name’s Charlotte Blackwood. Looks like she works with the Navy.”

Carole glanced at the ID. Seriousness, a sense of confidence and ease exuded from the photo. Looking back at the woman lying next to her, she saw little comparison. 

“Charlotte? Can you hear me?” She shook her slightly then turned to the group forming around her. “I need one of you to go into the ER of that hospital and tell me I’ve got a woman in her mid-thirties that’s collapsed.”

A man sprinted down the road and across the walkway. Cars beeped as he ran with disregard to his wellbeing and disappeared into the looming grey building she’d just emerged from. 

“Charlotte, someone’s gone to get help, alright?”

Much to her surprise, she got an answer. “Charlie.”

The woman, Charlie, rolled her head toward the sky and pushed herself up. “Everyone calls me Charlie.”

Carole reached into her bag and gave her the bottle of water that was more than a little room temperature. She watched her drink in such a way that her dazzling red lipstick didn’t smudge the bottle. The water made them glisten, her hair was hardly dishevelled and-

No. No. She was not attracted to this woman she’d just met. No, she wasn’t. 

“Well, Charlie, I’m Carole, I’m a nurse at that hospital over there.” She pointed toward it. “The hospital we’re going to get you checked out at.”

She opened her eyes, startled. “No. I have to get to work.”

“Oh, you’re going to be of much use to the Navy, or whoever you work for, if you collapsed on your way to work? If this is how you are before work, how are you going to be during, with all the stress?”

She held up her hands, her manicured hands, and smiled. “I appreciate the concern but I assure you I’m fine.”

“No you ain’t.”

“Yes I am, I’ll even tell my boss to take it easy on me if it makes you feel better.”

“What would make me feel better was if you came with me to get you checked out.” She said. “How do I know you’re not diabetic going hypoglycemic? Or you’ve got a fatal heart condition, or have some kind of epilepsy?”

Charlie didn’t have an answer for that. She resolved to staring at her like a problem that wouldn’t go away.  To prove her point, she stood up, not taking any of the hands outstretched to her as she rose to her sharp pointed heels.

“I assure you, I’m fine.”

Carole saw how she swayed on her feet and put her arm under her’s to support her. “Wanna bet?”

— — —

“Hey, Carole, I thought you just got off?” Marty called from the other side of the desk. 

“Yeah, but someone-” she tilted her head to Charlie leaning on her as they walked. “Decided to collapse just as I was leaving. So I need someone to look her over for me.”

Marty got up from his chair where he was nose deep in charts. Some of her shifts were down in the paediatrics department of the ER, so she was familiar with all the fatigued faces that cropped up. Bradley spent a lot of time here when her shift ran over, it always did as a nurse. 

“Sit her down here,” he said, patting the bed in the slightly crowded area. “You said she collapsed?”

Carole nodded and reached for the blood pressure cuff as he passed it to her. “Yeah, she bumped into me, I turned around and she was passed out on the floor.”

Marty glanced at Charlie, she rolled her eyes. 

“You make it sound like I had a heart attack, I was out for a minute or two, maybe I didn’t have any breakfast, but it’s nothing to worry about.” She said. 

“We’ll be the decider of that thank you.” He said, then turned to Carole. “We can take this from here, Carole, you just got off and we're backed up.”

She shook her head. “If you don't mind, I'd like to see this one through, we've got a bet going.”

Marty handed her the blood pressure cuff as he clicked his pen. He rolled through the question as she rolled her eyes to most of them. No she wasn't on any medication, her dad had high blood pressure but her family was healthy otherwise, she'd been feeling mostly fine as of late.

“Are you sure?” Carole reiterated.

“I think I'd know if I wasn't fine.”

“You're the one who collapsed.”

Charlie sighed. “Maybe I've been having more headaches, and I've been tired lately but that comes with my job, it's stressful.”

Carole finished taking her blood pressure. “87 over 42, that's pretty low.”

She sagged where she sat. Under the fluorescent lighting, her skin appeared washed out. Purple bags hid under a layer of professional makeup. If she could be prescribed a thousand year nap, even that wouldn’t work against how tired she looked. 

Marty turned to Carole. “I want a full set of bloods done.”

“Bloods?” Charlie's eyes went from her to Marty. “I don't do needles.”

She went to get up but Carole placed a careful hand on her wrist. Her big eyes softened on her as she tentatively sat back down again.

“When you're a patient at this hospital, you do.”

Charlie gulped. “Can you make it not hurt?”

“As best I can.”

— — —

A few hours, and a lot of phone calls later, Charlie’s test results were back. When Carole had seen them, she hated to admit that a little rush of pride shot through her spine. That was not very generous of her, not like the nurse she was supposed to be. It was very much like the woman she was, however. She was mature enough to recognise her faults. 

Marty strode ahead of her as they approached the bored looking Charlie. After calling her workplace, and doing as much as she could with the documents and notebooks in her bag, she’d told her they were classified three separate times, she’d succeeded and laid back in bed, defeated. 

“So, your blood results are back.” Marty said.

Charlie shot up in the bed. “So I can go home.”

“Not without a prescription you’re not.”

“What?”

Carole hid a smile. Seeing her pout made her melt into adorability, she kept going from the hottest woman she’d seen in a while, to making fire rage through her with how entitled she was, to forming into a cute ball that Carole just wanted to comfort. 

“Your test results, combined with your symptoms, have led to my decision that you have Iron Deficient Anaemia. I’ve prescribed you some iron tablets that you can get filled from the hospital pharmacy, and there will be a letter with your regular doctor. I recommend treatment for six months before we review you.”

“Anaemia?” 

“Yes.” Marty said. “It's when you're deficient in something. In your case, iron.”

“I know that, but that's something I could’ve gone to my doctor about. I've spent hours here for anaemia?”

Carole took a deep breath. “It can be serious. What if you collapse somewhere more dangerous, it can weaken your immune system so you could get really sick, or you could get some really serious conditions like tachycardia or you could go into heart failure.”

When her eyes widened, she knew she'd gone a bit too far. Dammit, her mouth always ran away with her. 

“But now we know we can treat it, right?”

“I guess.” Charlie sighed, then said. “You won the bet.”

Carole, who had gone to put on her jacket and finally go home to Bradley, turned around. “What?”

“When you dragged me in here, when I tried to assure you I was fine, you said, wanna bet? So here I am, losing a bet, and giving you free reign over the prize.”

She thought for a moment and took in how the woman's hair formed a halo in the artificial lighting. Her lipstick hadn't been smudged and lay crisp in the lines of her lips while making them enticingly soft. 

“Well, it depends.”

Charlie tilted her head. “On what?”

“If you like men, fifty dollars.” She said. “And if you like women, your number?”

After blinking at her for a second, she picked up her purse from the floor next to her. It was as neat as her makeup, and clothes, and pulled out her purse. Carole’s stomach dropped. Of course the hot, argumentative, put together woman didn’t like women. She’d gotten her hopes up again. 

“I guess I’ll have to give you both then.”

She stared down at her hand where a slip of paper, scrawled handwriting that didn’t match her personality, and a fifty dollar bill, lay in her manicured hands. With a shaking hand, she took it, slipping both in her pocket and willing a lopsided smile to her face. 

“I guess I’ll have to buy you a drink with this, huh?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “To make up for wasting my time.”

She feigned a gasp. “Wasting your time? You’ve got a prescription ain’t ya?”

A blush rose to Charlie’s face and Carole realised her southern accent had come through again. 

Charlie’s head tilted downwards, eyes looking up through her lashes. “I guess.”

“Well, I’ll give you a call.”

“Yeah, you better.”

— — —

TWO YEARS LATER

Carole, sleep still in her eyes, stared vaguely at her. “So, what’s that meant to mean, then?”

Charlie sighed and rolled over to lie on her. She lay a kiss on her cheek, then her jaw, up to her ear. 

“I need my fifty dollars back because I don’t like men anymore, I don’t think I ever have.” She said. “I think I was just trying to prove my parents wrong, that’s why I went to college so far away, and felt empowered to go into physics, and work with the Navy. I never dated anyway, and all the guys I dated were risky-”

“Like that navy guy who was your student?”

“Yeah, some cocky, rebellious guy who my parents would hate. But I never felt amazing with them, they never made me relax by their presence or give me butterflies when they kiss me. If something went wrong, I didn’t feel hurt if I had to let them go but I don’t think I could give you up if I tried, baby.”

A slow smile rose to Carole’s face. Sleepy, soft and gentle like sunshine through the blinds on a Sunday morning. The sunshine filled her as she kissed her nose then down to her mouth. 

“Huh,” Carole mumbled in between kisses. “I guess I’ll get it to you by tomorrow, and you can buy me a strong coffee for all this sleep you’re making me lose.”