The Fairy Tale Bride(2)

He slowed his steps as he entered the ped ward and held out his hand to  stop the swing of the doors. Most of the patients would already be  sleeping. He just needed to check with the nurse in charge if anyone  needed reviewed.

Mary walked out of one of the treatment rooms as he approached. "Hi Adam. Didn't expect to see you here."

He smiled. "Dan King just phoned in sick."

Mary raised her eyebrows. "The dreaded bug?"

He nodded. "I'm just here to see if you want me to check on any patients."                       
       
           



       

Mary walked over to the desk and handed him some charts. "I need a  prescription for pain relief for Jonah, antibiotics for an infected pin  site for Jodie and," she sighed, "a whole new attitude for Kayla, our  teenage diabetic."

"Anything I can help with?"

She shook her head as she handed over the medical notes for each kid. "I  don't think so. I'm thinking of sending our guardian angel in to speak  to her  –  to see if that can make a difference."

He frowned. "Guardian angel? Who is that?"

Mary looked up at him and pointed to the room across the hall. "You haven't met Lisa, our volunteer?"

He looked over into the room. There was a spotlight above the bed  beaming down onto a book in the volunteer's hand. She was perched on the  bed with her arm around the little girl she was reading to. It was  obvious the little girl was comfortable around her. She had her head  resting on her shoulder and was murmuring along with the story.

He'd never seen Lisa before. She was dressed entirely in black  –  black  yoga pants and a black t-shirt, her dark hair twisted on top of her head  in some kind of knot. Pretty, in an understated kind of way. The only  bit of color around her was her red-tinged lips.

She seemed completely and utterly at ease. And her melodic voice floated  out into the hall towards him. "Cinderella couldn't believe her eyes.  Her rags were gone and in their place was a dress of blue satin with  jewels that glistened in the lamplight."

"Is that like the dresses in your shop, Lisa?" the little girl asked.

Lisa nodded and smiled. "Oh, I have lots of dresses like that, Faye.  Once you feel a bit better we'll get your mom to bring you to my shop  and you can see them all."

Adam turned to Mary. "Seems odd that your guardian angel is all dressed in black. What does she do?"

Mary laughed as she picked up the charts he'd signed. "Actually her  nickname around here is the Fairy Tale Bride  –  not that she's married.  Lisa owns the bridal shop in Marietta and she always comes in here and  reads the kids fairy tales. They love her. And so do we. Faye's mother  has two other kids at home and can't stay overnight with her daughter.  Lisa comes in every night and reads her fairy tales until she falls  asleep."

A buzzer sounded further down the corridor. "Give me a minute." Mary  said, waving her hand as she started walking towards the blinking red  light. "I've got one more thing I need you to do."

It was fine. It wasn't as if he was in a hurry and to be honest, he  hadn't managed to pull his eyes away from Lisa. It was odd, he'd been in  here nearly two months and thought he'd met most of the town's  residents, but he hadn't seen Lisa at all. He was sure he would have  remembered her.

The bridal store? He frowned as he tried to remember it. It wasn't  exactly somewhere he would visit. Ah … yes, he remembered it now. If he  were on the right side of the hospital he would be able to see the store  from the hospital windows. The bridal store was on Front Avenue, next  to the Pizza Parlor. He gave a little smile. He wondered what the  dresses would smell like in there.

He listened as she continued with the story, lowering her voice and gently stroking Faye's hair as her eyelids drooped.

He'd always liked peds  –  even though he didn't usually cover here  –  but  most of the staff were in their fifties and sixties. Lisa was the first  person he'd seen here who didn't have grey hair.

Her voice was melodic and Faye's eyelids started to gradually droop as  the tale of Cinderella moved onto Sleeping Beauty and then Rapunzel.

Mary came bustling back along the corridor. "Sorry about that. I got  waylaid." Her eyes followed his gaze. "I can see you found something to  pass the time." Her smile reached from ear to ear.

Adam started. "What was it you wanted me to do?" He wasn't exactly sure  he liked being caught ogling one of the volunteers. In a place as small  as Marietta they'd probably have him engaged and married before he even  left the hospital tomorrow morning.

His last two fleeting dates had been met with a score of nosey questions  by his colleagues. It seemed if you sneezed in this place someone knew  about it.

Mary walked over to the trolley and pulled a film from its envelope  pushing it up on the light box. "Can you check this x-ray? It came up  just over an hour ago. Ryan Connor is still wheezing even though he's on  his nebulizers."

Adam flicked the light on behind the x-ray and stepped forward. "There,"  he said pointing to a little blur on the x-ray. "What was Ryan doing?  It looks like he's inhaled something." He squinted a little more at the  x-ray. "Is that a coin?"                       
       
           



       

Mary's eyes widened. "It certainly looks like it. What do you want to do?"

"It needs to come out. If we take him down to endoscopy I should be able  to get it out in a few minutes. Are his parents still here?"

Mary nodded. "Give me a few minutes to speak to them."

Adam started writing some notes and phoned down to prepare the endoscopy  suite. Lisa had just finished reading her final story and carefully  eased her arm out, settling Faye on the pillows and pulling up her  sheets. She tiptoed out of the room.

"Hey." She smiled. "I don't think we've met." She held out her hand. "I'm Lisa Renee, one of the volunteers."

He reached out to take her hand and was surprised by the firmness of her handshake. "Adam Brady."

She tilted her head. "How come I haven't met you before, Adam Brady? Are you new in town?"

There was a little sparkle in her pale blue eyes. In the dimmed hospital  lights the black clothes didn't seem quite so harsh. Her skin was  slightly tanned and her dark brown hair had definite hints of red.

He nodded. "I've been here a few months, but I've learned in Marietta  you're considered a newcomer for about fifty years. I guess I've got a  long way to go."

She smiled. Nice, white straight teeth. Peds was becoming more  interesting every second. "You can bet it on. You need at least three  generations before you're considered anything other than a newcomer.  Have you found a place to stay or are you in the hospital residences?"

He shook his head. "I found somewhere really quickly thanks to Mary, the  nurse here. She had a friend who was selling a house on Bramble Lane  just ten minutes from the hospital. I closed on it and moved in last  week."

Something flitted across Lisa's face and, if he wasn't mistaken, her gaze swept over his hand.

"How do your family feel about moving to Marietta?"

Ahh. That was it. "There's no family. Just me." Bramble Lane was  probably considered as houses for families. Detached three and four  bedroom houses. Probably not single guy material.

She gave him a curious stare. "You don't seem to have any accent. Where are you from originally?"

"Washington, DC. I graduated from University of Washington and worked in  a few hospitals in Washington, DC, then Montana." Was she smiling just a  touch again?

"And you like it here?"

He almost laughed out loud. Was she going to start asking for  references? "Well, I've bought a house. So I'm planning on staying a  while."

He glanced down at her well-worn pile of books. "Fairy tales? Do you always read them to the kids?"

She nodded and waved her hands. "Nothing better than a bit of make believe. Especially in a place like this."

He felt himself bristle a little at her words. The ped department here  was one of the warmest, friendliest places he'd experienced. He kind of  knew what she was getting at; he just didn't like someone saying it.

Her eyes had drifted back to one of the rooms that contained a kid  having cancer treatment. "Sometimes make believe is better than  reality." Her fingers brushed over the well-worn books and she gave a  little smile. "For adults as well as kids."

What did that mean? Her phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket. "Excuse me."

She started talking lowly. All wedding stuff  –  it must be a business call.