Fallen Angel From Revenge to Redemption (5 page)

            ~Darren~

4 Months Later

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life you have a thousand reasons to smile. -Unknown

Winter had turned into summer. The kids were out of school. The local colleges were on summer break.             

Today was mine and Shanice’s fourth month anniversary. We were good together. We kept a weekly date night and I had started staying over her house more than I was coming home.

We went to the taste of South Carolina Festival. We had eaten so much food and made a list of so many places to try for a date night. We also went to the South Carolina music festival and listened to some great groups like Sunshyne P and The Root Doctor’s. My girl danced and sang her heart out.

We still haven’t consummated our relationship but we had come pretty close a few times. She had told me about her last boyfriend and I sincerely understood her need to take it slow. I was amazed at how much I didn’t mind waiting for her. She was really someone special. She had meet my son on a rare weekend where my son’s mother hadn’t minded me getting him. She was good with him and he seemed to like her.

Sam and Domonique were dating pretty heavily now too. It seemed that we both had lucked out. Sam was a goner when it came to Domonique but he refused to admit it.  She acted the same way. Yeah, they were meant for each other.

I had a few minutes before my shift would be over when the call came over for all units to respond to a criminal domestic violence situation were shoots had been fired and an officer was done. When dispatch gave the address I recognized it as Omar and Alyssa’s address. I radioed in that I was responding, turned on my blue lights and punched the gas.

My heartbeat was running away in my chest. I had worked with Omar for so long and just the thought of something being wrong with him was killing me. Shanice was afraid that we were missing something; well here was the proof that we were. We failed these two kids and probably their mother too.

              ~Shanice~

We rise by helping others. –Robert Ingersoll

Today, the hospital had been a madhouse. I walked back to the nurse’s station and grabbed up all the charts and went one by one to the eleven rooms that we have in the back. Next I went back to the front desk and began to triage the patients that we didn’t have a room for yet. Then I had to deliver blood to the lab for analyzes I got to chat with Lamar, but not for long.

It was close to the end of my shift when we got a call that a police officer had been shot in the line of duty. Several people were being brought in as a result of a criminal domestic violence call that had gone terribly wrong. These calls were always the worst, even more so now that I was dating a police officer. It was also hard because of my background. My first thought was to call his cell and make sure that he was alright but I decided against it. I decided then and there to suck it up. This situation wasn’t about me but about this family that was coming in. I needed to make sure that everything was ready to go for them when they arrived.

I got on the phone and called everyone alerting them that we had an all hands on deck situation. I then called the blood bank and advised them to have o negative blood on standby. I helped the other nurses to get the four bays cleaned and changed over and we just waited. It was only a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity. My chest was hurting from holding my breath. I kept having to remind myself to breathe. I stood there ringing my hands together with anxiety as I began to hear the sirens approaching.

The chief of surgery was standing beside me and reached for my hands before asking, “Are you okay?”

I looked up and nodded my head in the yes motion.

The door swung open and the first patient a female in her late thirties who was hanging on by a wing and a pray. She had taken a severe beating. She was rushed into the O.R. along with a general surgeon and his team. The police officer an older gentleman was wheeled in with several gunshot wounds to his upper body and was taken swiftly upstairs by the chief of surgery and his team. Right behind him, a young girl was wheeled in with obvious head trauma. Her features were familiar. When she reached out and grabbed my hand, I realized that she was the young lady from the department of social services. It was Alyssa. My heart was on the floor.

“Take care of my little brother please,” she asked before she was taken back. Her face was swollen and streaked with tears. This was the first time the young lady had spoken more than two words to me.

I nodded my head again in the yes movement. I was praying for the best but prepared for the worst. When the gurney with the Omar was rolled in, we rushed to it. It was surrounded by police officers and Darren had his hand over a wound around the child’s abdomen. I replaced my hand with his and advised that we had him. I looked up making eye contact with him but he seemed to be frozen in place. I said to him again with a little more force, “We got him.”

As we rolled the Omar back to the elevator, the fifth gurney came through with the shooter. The sheet was already pulled over his head.

We worked for hours on the Omar and finally got him stabilized. I washed my hands and pulled off my face mask. I went and checked on all four patients who were all in recovery. As I walked out of the recovery room, I pulled off my scrub cap and walked into the employee locker room. I leaned against the wall and sank to the floor and buried my face into my hands and cried. This man had destroyed his family and for what. I knew the numbers on this situation all too well. In the great United States of America, one- third of its women are the victims of criminal domestic violence. We have more shelters for animals than women and children who find themselves in a violent situation. I continued to sit there on the floor as all the information I knew about criminal domestic violence flooded through my head. Alaska, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee where the top ten states in regards to domestic violence. After a long moment, I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands. I walked over to the sink and turned on the water, then grabbed a handful of paper towels so I could clean my face.

Just as I was finishing up, Lamar walked through the door.

“We saved them all,” Lamar said.

“Amen to that,” I said back releasing a pent up breathe. I wish we could have helped in some way before all of this. I talked to her the other day, I missed it,” I said beating myself up.

“This is not on you Shanice,” Lamar said as he approached me and began to rub my back.

“You started a relationship with her that day. She felt safe enough to come down to the Help Center with her baby brother. Kids are often told not to discuss family business with people outside of the home. This is not on us. I won’t allow you to do this to yourself,” Lamar finished and was quite it for a few minutes.

“Look our shift was over hours ago, let’s go look in on the victims and go grab something to eat,” Lamar suggested.

On cue, my stomach started to grumble. I did have enough class to be shame faced but only for a minute because Lamar doesn’t know how to let things slide.

“I will take that as a yes,” Lamar said walking towards the door, with me following.

“Oh this may not be the time to tell you but Darren is still in the waiting room,” Lamar added.

“Oh my God. I totally forgot he was out there. He is probably waiting on news regarding the injured officer? Not to mention Omar and Alyssa, he has got to be feeling the weight of this just as badly as we are,” I said.

We walked into each of the rooms and I checked vitals on each of the patients. They were all resting comfortably. I recited something that I had learned for myself as I walked into each of the rooms.

“You are a blessed and highly favored child of God. You are beautiful and wonderful made, even the number of the hairs upon your head are numbered. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. You are made to be the head and not the tail.  To lend and not borrow. You are blessed when you go in and blessed when you go out. You are blessed in the city as well as in the country. Everything that your hand touches will turn into a success. If God is for you, who can be against you, I recited from memory over each of them as I went from room to room.

Sometimes people needed a blessing spoke over their lives. I can remember a time when I was in the mist of my storm and those same words were spoken to me.        

               
~Shanice~

Help others to achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours. –Les Brown

As we walked up front, I could hear a woman speaking in broken English. She was upset and the ER registration personal wasn’t being very compassionate.

I quickened my pace, so I could help defuse the situation.

“What seems to be the problem?” I asked.

“Apparently she either has an illness that needs to be treated or a family member here that needs to be treated, but I don’t know because she speaks broken English,” the receptionist said nonchalantly.

“Have you called upstairs to have a bilingual representative sent down to help with this situation?” I asked to see if the receptionist had attempted to follow protocol.

“No, not yet,” the receptionist said letting out a sigh.

“I can help,” advised Darren as he stepped up and took charge of the situation.

He placed a comforting arm around the elderly lady and began to speak with her in rapid Spanish.  When he had gotten the information that he needed, he turned to me and began to explain.

“This is Mrs. Sanchez, she believes that her daughter and grandchildren came in several hours ago by ambulance. She hasn’t heard anything at all and she desperately wants to know how they are,” he finished as he still consoled a now weeping Mrs. Sanchez.

I positioned myself were I could talk to Darren who needed to translate what I was saying back to Mrs. Sanchez and where I could make eye contact with her, which would hopefully convey how sincerely sorry I am before I began to speak.

After a few more pieces of conversation, I realized that Mrs. Sanchez was in fact Omar and Alyssa grandmother.

“Please convey to Mrs. Sanchez that she has my sincerest apologizes on the behalf of myself and the hospital. Please let her know that her daughter and grandchildren all survived their surgeries. They are all in the ICU recovery area right now. It would be about an hour before anyone is allowed to see them. They all have a long road to recovery but we are hopeful,” I finished.

Darren relayed what I had said back to Mrs. Sanchez.

A smile broke through the tears and Mrs. Sanchez was very thankful.  As I finished Maribel a bilingual nurse from another floor was approaching.

“Hello Shanice, Lamar called upstairs and said you needed my help,” Maribel said as she joined us.

“Thank you, honey indeed we do,” I said as I explained the situation to her. Can you order Mrs. Sanchez a food tray from the cafeteria before it closes and make sure that she gets to see her family within the hour?” I asked.

“Who is going to pay for that?” the receptionist asked from behind the desk still with too much attitude.

I let out a sigh, “Whatever she needs give it to her, open her up a tab in my name,” I said clearly frustrated.

“Miss High and Mighty, is not going to have a job tomorrow and she too stupid to know it,” Lamar said to anyone who was listening.

Little did he know she was about to leave out of here tonight I thought to myself. Maribel took over the care of Mrs. Sanchez. I called Dominique and asked her if she wanted to pick up another shift and how soon she could get here. She informed me that she could be there within the hour.

I walked over and told Lamar that I was going to have to work for another hour and that I would have to take a rain check on our dinner.

“I will go around the corner and pick us up a plate and just sit here with you. Just grab a drink for both of us,” Lamar said.

“My man,” I said to him teasingly.

I walked over and had a few words with the receptionist about her patient care skills and informed her that she could have the rest of the evening off. I further explained that I was placing a formal complaint in her file, which would have to be reviewed before she would be allowed to come back.

To my amazement she didn’t argue, she gathered her things and walked out.

I started to clean off the desk and triage patients as soon as I got back settled in. People never cease to amaze me. Why would you take a job that required you to serve all people when you hold hatred in your heart against a fraction of the populations, be it black, brown, red, yellow or white? Why?

I made a fresh pot of coffee for the police officers who were still waiting in the lobby. I decided to fix Darren a cup and take it to him personally. I didn’t think to offer him food when Lamar had gone to grab us something. When I am in the hospital I tune out everything and everyone.

I walked up as casually as I could and reached him the cup. Darren hadn’t introduced me to any more of his co- workers other than Sam. So I didn’t know if we were keeping things low key or what. He accepted it graciously and also reached for the creamer and the sugar.

“Thank you, that is very kind,” he said looking up to me.

His eyes were now just as haunted as mine had been when we first met.

“It was the least I could do, thanks for your help back there as well, I appreciate it,” I responded.

“No problem,” Darren said casually.

“Are you okay?” I asked him looking between him and Sam.

He shook his head no. I wanted to hold him but instead, I took a seat beside him and just held his hand for a little bit.

“How are you holding up?” he asked me making eye contact.

“I am holding on,” I reassured him.

We sat there in silence for a little while before I released his hand. I needed to go check on the other patients.

“If you can, let the other officers know that there is a fresh pot in there if they want some coffee. Thanks again,” I said as I walked back to the desk.