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"Excuse me, Nurse...?" One of the new interns, one with dark hair and eyes, was looking at Nic from across the counter like she could answer all his questions and solve every problem he had. To be fair, she probably could.
A new intern was pretty much a shot at the dark, you never knew what you were going to get. Sometimes they were really nice to the nurses and treated them like they had brains, others told the nurses to stay in their lane and shouted that they were the doctors. The latter never made it very far.
Nic extended her hand across the counter for him to shake. "Nicolette Nevin. Please, call me Nic."
The new intern shook her hand. "Devon."
Nic smiled at him. It seemed like this guy was going to be one of the good ones. She didn't have much evidence other than the fact that he wasn't forcing her to call him 'your majesty' or assuming she knew who he was already. "What can I do for you?"
Devon thought for a moment, presumably trying to figure out how to word whatever he was going to say. "My resident is a piece of work."
"Oh, you got Conrad?" Nic chuckled.
He smiled. "I think that's his name? I've been calling him 'Fuckass' in my head."
"That works better for him. It might be his middle name, honestly." She shrugged playfully. "What aspect of Fuckass are you speaking of, specifically?" She folded her arms.
Devon sighed. "I think he's hurt? But he keeps blowing me off."
Nic half smiled at him. "Are you talking about the breathing or the knee?"
"What?" He seemed shocked that there was more than one thing, and that she was aware of them. "The knee, I guess. He's, like, limping. But, hang on, what's up with his breathing?"
"He gets out of breath doing pretty much anything. I think it's asthma. He thinks it's fine."
Devon sighed. "I just met him, but that makes sense. His walking thing isn't new?"
Nic shook her head. "It's an old injury. I think he broke it in Afghanistan when he was out there with the Marines."
Devon's eyes widened as she spoke. Apparently this was the first time he'd heard any of this, and Nic had to admit that having all of this information dumped on him at once had to seem absurd. Conrad was odd, there was no doubting that. "Does he just walk around in pain all the time, then?"
"As far as I can tell," Nic replied. "I don't think he really knows how much pain is normal. Obviously, it's zero, but I don't think he believes that."
"Ugh," Devon groaned, pressing the heels of his hands over his eyes. "And he won't listen to anyone about a mobility aid?"
Nic shook her head.
It seemed like Devon was about as distressed about this as any doctor would be for a patient. Nic wished that would actually mean something to Conrad, that he'd take the time to at least consider what anyone else had to say about it, but he was used to being the person to take care of others. Conrad didn't want anyone taking care of or worrying about him.
"Listen, Devon," Nic said, reaching behind the counter. "Bradley, Irving, and I have been trying for over a year to get him to use a cane. We got as far as having him pick one out," She set a green aluminum cane on the counter. "But he just won't even try it."
"I was wondering where you ran off to, Pravesh."
Nic and Devon both jumped a bit as Conrad seemingly materialized out of nowhere a few feet away.
Devon cleared his throat. "Um, I was just..." he trailed off, probably realizing how obvious it was what they'd been doing. The cane was still on the counter, and they didn't know how long he'd been standing there.
"He was telling me you're still being a contrary toddler," Nic told him. Devon seemed shocked and terrified that she would talk to him like that. She figured Conrad had told Devon that he'd cut him from the program if he stepped out of line. For all Nic knew, that was true, but it wasn't something she ever had to worry about, not being Conrad's intern.
"I'd like to think I'm acting at least a little better than a toddler would," Conrad said, smiling at her.
Nic shook her head. "A toddler would act more reasonably, now that I think about it."
Conrad scoffed half-jokingly. "I don't believe this," he said. "C'mon, Pravesh, we're leaving,"
Devon shrugged and followed him as he started away.
"Where the hell did this come from?" Conrad asked a few feet away, looking down at the cane in his hand.
Nic grinned at Devon, and he smiled back at her. He'd slipped the cane into Conrad's hand as he'd been talking to Nic, and he hadn't noticed until that moment.
"Please, Conrad?" Nic said, sighing. "Try it out. All I'm asking for is one day. If you don't like it, we'll never bug you about it again, and if you do find it useful..." She tried to think of something Conrad wanted other than pain relief. "You can pretend it was your idea all along."
Conrad looked at the cane in his hand, turning it over as he considered the deal. “Fine. Give me my intern back."
Nic looked at Devon, shocked this was working. Devon seemed almost as surprised as Nic was. She leaned over the counter toward him and murmured, "Give me an update at the end of the day. I don't trust him to do it."
Devon nodded. "I will," he agreed, then left with Conrad, who did appear to be actually using the cane properly instead of just carrying it or half-assing it.
As Nic was packing up her stuff in preparation for the end of her shift, Devon came back up to the nurses' station. She looked up at him. "What's the verdict?" she asked.
Devon considered. "He limps less with the cane, and I think he likes using it. He's in the process of naming it."
Nic smiled. "That's a good sign."
"Yeah, he told me to tell you he's glad that he thought of using it all by himself," Devon continued.
"I think I'm going to like working with you," Nic said, smiling at him. "We can work together to keep Fuckass in check."
Devon smiled back at her. "This did go surprisingly well."