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Chapter 1
Brett
When I accepted the job at the community hospital, I knew the hospital was tiny, but I didn’t realize how small until I drove up on the day of my intake paperwork.
I knew instantly that it wouldn’t be like my last position where I only knew the people in my department and no one else. That place was just too big to foster those kinds of relationships. Even when I went to the cafeteria for my break, I rarely saw anybody I knew. It was nice when I needed to decompress and escape into myself, but it was also very isolating.
This was going to be better. I could feel it.
Sure, it was hundreds of miles away from everyone I knew, but I never really fit in there anyway. Being the only unicorn in a pack of wolves was not ideal. I was orphaned after my parents were hit by a semi whose brakes failed when I was only a baby. I remembered nothing other than the pack. I loved my foster parents, and they would’ve adopted me and made me theirs if the pack was open to interspecies members.
They weren’t, though. They called it being “old-fashioned.” I called it discrimination. They let me live there, go to school, and complete chores everyone was expected to do, but I’d never be pack.
I used to get mad at my foster parents. Why didn’t they fight for me? Did they really love me? Why didn’t they move where we could be a real family? It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I understood their choices. They were trapped. I didn’t like it, but I got it.
In hindsight that was probably for the best. It made it easier for me to go to nursing school and apply to hospitals all over the country. If I’d had one friend, I might not have taken the leap, the one that led me to this very hospital.
I walked in the front doors and studied the signs as I tried to figure out how to get to human resources. They were less than helpful. There were arrows pointing to elevators they named after people, wings they named after other people, and offices they named after yet more people. I supposed if I lived around here all my life, those names might’ve meant something, but Albert Elevator and The Wendy Wing gave nothing away.
“You need help finding someone?” the woman behind the far counter asked.
Upon closer inspection, it was a volunteer check-in station. I wasn’t a volunteer, but she had a warm, welcoming smile, and she offered, so I might as well take her up on it.
“I’m so lost,” I admitted. “I’m Brett, and I’m new here. I was trying to find human resources. It says here that it’s in AL6.”
“I got you.” She leaned over the counter and pointed down a long corridor. “If you go down this hall, on the left-hand side there’ll be two elevators. You have to take Trevor, the right one. Go down one floor, and Albert 6 will be right in front of you.”
Albert. Of course it was another name. I was going to need a study guide. “Thanks so much.”
“No problem. I’m Claire, by the way. I’m here most Mondays, but other days as needed. I help coordinate the volunteers.” She kept gushing about what she did. I didn’t want to be late, but she was so proud of her work. That passion was obvious in her voice and demeanor. She must make so many people’s days brighter. “Here.” She handed me a map. I so needed that. “It’s my pleasure to welcome you aboard.”
I gave her a final smile and thank-you and went down the hallway, looking to the left and getting in the right elevator and going into HR. It was just as easy as she said.
Because I’d applied from a distance, my previous meetings had all been on Zoom. I’d already done a lot of the preliminary paperwork online, but parts of it needed to be signed by hand and scanned in, which was a whole level of ridiculous if you asked me. That was fine. Whatever it took to help me start the new job in my new town as I forged my new life.
Lily from HR had me fill everything in and then took pictures for my ID. We went over details on how to fill out my time sheets, how to request shifts, and all the protocol details that involved her department in some capacity or another.
When we were done with all the boring stuff, she walked me up to my floor. I was in a general wing named Victoria. They’d had two positions open, and I opted to be here over the heart unit because I liked the diversity. The only downside to this position was I was on call for the emergency department one day a pay period.
Emergency wasn’t my favorite place to be assigned. I wasn’t great with the wait periods and seeing people not being helped for hours, unable to do anything to remedy it. Emotionally it wore on me. I was good under pressure, and it was a department that they were currently lacking, so I didn’t mind helping. But it was not a place I could be long-term, that was for sure.
As I walked through the halls, I couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere of the hospital. It was friendly and welcoming, a stark contrast to my previous workplace. The walls were adorned with cheerful murals that were recreations of children’s artwork from the local school. And the number of people who stopped to say hello and introduce themselves was novel—to me, anyway. When the hiring manager had explained there was a sense of community here, I’d assumed it was similar to when they told people it was “like family,” in that it was nothing like one and meant you had to work too hard. I was happy to be proven wrong.
Lily gave me a tour of the different nurses’ stations, and an empty room on my new floor. I even got to meet my supervisor, Stan, who sounded thrilled that I was coming. He seemed like a genuinely nice person, someone who really cared about his staff. I loved that.
Then Lily and I went down to the ER so I could see where I’d be working some of the time. The person whose job I was replacing had retired after being in the hospital for 35 years. I considered that a really good sign that this was an excellent place to work. Like me, they were the person to be called if needed in the ER, and they’d only been called twice in the past six months, which I didn’t think was too bad.
I was starting on nights, which I didn’t love, but that was okay. It was a four-day work week, great pay, a new town, and a fresh start. Didn’t get much better than that. I thanked everybody and told them I’d be there for my first shift.
It was still early enough that I could get some of my errands done. I’d flown in last night with two suitcases and a carry-on. That was all I owned at this point. The small cabin I was renting came furnished, so I didn’t need a lot, but I did need to get some food for the fridge and pantry, a shower curtain, some cleaning supplies, and a very basic tool kit. A quick stop at the hardware store and the grocers was in order.
The grocery store was remarkably decent here. I gathered up a ton of fruit and veggies. My beast being a herbivore meant it was the big bulk of my diet, and my one big concern about coming here was that they might not have the variety I was used to, but they did. They even had one kind of melon I hadn’t heard of.
As the day went on, a weight lifted from my chest regarding the decision to move here. This was the place for me. People were nice, the scenery was beautiful, and I wasn’t “that unicorn” anymore. I was Brett the nurse, and sure, I was still a unicorn, but not in the same way.
I wasn’t even sure that my old pack realized what they were doing when they referred to me like that:
“Oh, what’s Harry doing?”
