More Than a Job's big surprise!

More Than a Job has received a Warm rating by the author.


This excerpt is unedited and used by permission of Lynette Endicott.

                                    Enjoy!



"I'm Paige Hamilton, a friend of Don's." Time to bluff if he was going to get any attention. "I've been on the phone with his guardian and mother. She's on her way, but she wanted me to tell you she hopes you will do a scan." Well, if she knew the details, Meg would certainly require a scan.

"His guardian has requested it?"

"I'm worried, too," Paige pressed on. "He seems less responsive than usual, and I've known him for ten years. Aren't you concerned?"

"How is he less responsive?" Finally she had some attention.

"He keeps dozing off, and he doesn't open his eyes to answer my questions until I've asked two or three times. He could be in pain, of course, but it could be caused by something more."

Dr. Curtis sat down and wrote the order, and within minutes Paige sat in the waiting room outside the x-ray area, where they would check Don for broken bones and other injuries.

Paige sat back to relax, to close her eyes for a moment. Only a moment, because suddenly everyone around her moved very fast. First the technician told her the doctor needed to talk with her right away. Then the doctor who came wasn't the first one, but a neurosurgeon.

"He has a bleed on his brain," he told her. "We are going to do emergency surgery to evacuate the blood. If we don't, the pressure can cause serious injury or even death. We are taking him to prep him now."

Paige stepped up to the stretcher as they moved Don from the room. Paige took his hand and walked beside him. "Hey, Don, you awake?"

He didn't open his eyes, but frowned as if he were trying to open them.

"Your mom and I will be here when you wake up. It's going to be fine. You'll be okay."

"Miss, you'll have to wait in the waiting room," an attendant urged, and then Don was out of her hands and in surgery.

She should report this as neglect. It should never have happened.

"Miss?" A nurse said. "I need you to sign a consent form."

"I can't." Paige sighed. "I'm not his caregiver. I'm just a friend." She picked up his medication book and leafed through it. "Will this do until his mom arrives?" She handed her a general consent for emergency medical treatment, on the form she'd designed, signed my Meg.

The nurse studied it for a moment, then nodded. "This should be fine," she said. "Let me make a copy, and I'll get the original right back to you."

Or to the new case manager. Somebody should be here by now. Somebody from the new company should care enough to be here and handle the things Don needed. This was not good.

"What do you mean, he's in surgery?" The voice was strident, angry, out of control. "How can he be in surgery? Who gave consent for that?"

He had to be the new manager of Robinson, Inc. Paige almost gagged when the realization sucker punched her. Well, all was not lost. Now she knew whom to tell, whom to hold responsible, but she wasn't going to be seeing much of him after today. A man who would let this happen to Don was not a man she wanted in her life.