2. Prescription For Love

“I’m great. Everything’s cool. Margie’s mom is here. Are you coming home soon?”

Abby hesitated. “I don’t know, honey. I can’t leave until some other doctors show up. Maybe.” “Hold on.”

Abby frowned. Now what?

“Dr. Remy, this is Ida Rivers.”

Abby sat up straight and released Flann’s hand. Ida Rivers’s voice was kissed with a hint of the South that did nothing to make it any less commanding.

“Hello, Mrs. Rivers. This is Abby Remy.”

“Nobody can work around the clock without food. You’re ten minutes from the house. I can have breakfast ready for you and the rest of the family by the time you get here.”

“Um.” Abby glanced at Flann, who was grinning slightly maniacally. She shot her a glare. “Well,

I

”

“I’m tracking down my husband and the rest of my children now. Seven o’clock. You can go back to work after that if needed.”

“If at all possible, of course.”

“That will be just fine. See you at seven.”

Abby held the phone out to Flann. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Makes sense. Cafeteria is probably not going to open for a while. And it doesn’t take much longer to get to Presley’s than it does to chase down food in town.”

“I suppose we could all use a break and some food. If it’s quiet.”

“I’ll check on the postop patients, and you can get the ER sorted.”

Abby knew when she’d been beaten. “You should let me change the dressing before we leave.”

“Good enough. I’ll meet you down here as soon as I’m finished upstairs.”

Abby stood. “I’ll round up Presley and Carrie.” She paused. “What about Glenn? She’s been up al night.”

Glenn was practically part of the family. Flann would have mentioned inviting her herself in another minute. “Sure.”

“Great.” Abby jumped up and hurried for the door. “I’ll find her.”

“Great,” Flann muttered, ignoring the quick spurt of jealousy. “Terrific.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Call me if you need me, Angie,” Flann said, clipping the postop order sheet to the front of the patient’s chart. The computer network was iffy with the power outages, and she didn’t want to chance the orders being lost. She’d never really given up the habit of writing notes by hand anyhow. She’d watched her father do it when she’d followed him around as a kid, and the mystique of pulling charts from their racks and delving into the mysteries within still lingered. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

The recovery room nurse, who usually covered the ICU, nodded. “I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t gotten in last night, Flann.”

Flann grinned. “Where else would I be?”

Angie laughed. “I can’t imagine.”

“Besides, Franklin got in and really made a difference.”

“Like old times.” Angie, a fifty-year-old who’d trained at the Rivers’s nursing school before it had shut down, shook her head sadly. “Sometimes I wish we could turn back the clock. I miss the old days.”

“Maybe with the new administration, we can bring back a little of the old too.”

Angie snorted. “You think? Now there’s a new head in the ER. More change.”

“Abby’s great. She’s not going to hurt us.” Flann had seen Abby in action enough to believe what she was saying. And she’d gotten to know her now, believed in her commitment to the Rivers.

“I hope you’re right.”

A patient’s IV machine beeped, and Angie went off to check it. Flann took the stairs down to the ER, eager to see Abby again. She was nowhere in sight but Glenn was at the nurses’ station, filling out a chart. She looked as alert and unfazed as she did at six in the morning at the start of a routine day. Her sandy hair was unruffled, her shoulders straight, her blue eyes crystal clear. Now that Flann thought of it, Glenn was damned good-looking. Just the kind of steady, solid woman who’d appeal to someone looking for a relationship.

“Have you seen Abby?” Flann asked abruptly.

Glenn looked up. “Hey, Flann. She’s in ten, giving discharge instructions to a woman with a fractured wrist.”

“How’s it going down here?”

“Everything’s pretty much cleared out. Abby just checked with fire rescue, and they’ve only got one in the bus. Mrs. Wilcox—shortness of breath again. Andy is set to handle that.”

“Can we sneak out for a little while?”

Glenn nodded. “Sorry I didn’t get up to the OR, but Abby was swamped. I figured it would be more efficient for me to get the pre-ops ready down here so you could just keep them rolling through.”

“It was a good call. Better to get them triaged down here as fast as possible.”

“That’s what Abby thought too. She had things working like clockwork. She’s got a way of getting everybody to put out a hundred and ten percent without even trying.” Glenn grinned. “Abby’s like a

general directing troops, but she leads from the front. I’ve never seen the ER click so well.”

Abby, Abby, Abby. Flann bristled a little. “I don’t know, I thought we always did pretty well.”

“Hey, it wasn’t a comment about you. I didn’t mean to suggest—”