Chapter 53

As Diana hurried down the hall, she turned into Kayla and the girls' suite. Kayla was sitting on the couch, her laptop open in front of her.

"Come on, I gave Mother and the girls something to do; we need to go hear about Caitlin's day. From what little she would say at supper, there were a few bumps in her first shift."

Kayla looked up at the beautiful woman standing before her. "Yeah, I heard what she said. It sounded as if it might be a little personal, though."

"So what?" Diana returned. "How many times do I have to tell you that you are family now? We don't have secrets from family." Diana held out her hand much as she had recently done for her mother. "Let's go; they're waiting on us."

A couple minutes later, Kayla in tow, Diana entered the bedroom. "Sorry to keep everyone waiting."

Caitlin was sitting on the bed leaning back against Jeff. "Oh, we found something to do," Caitlin said as she buttoned her blouse partway back up.

Diana, having felt the orgasms, laughed. "I thought you might have." Taking a seat beside her husband and ushering Kayla to sit in a nearby chair, Diana nodded for Caitlin to start. The other wives stopped their separate conversations and pulled their chairs closer.

After taking a sip of soft drink that Joyce handed her, Caitlin told about her day:

"When I got to work, I stopped by the intensive care unit where the night shift was still giving their report to the day shift, so I got to meet both crews for the day. Of course, the way nurses' off-days run, it will be awhile before I can meet everybody who works in the unit." She took another sip of coke and continued, "Anyway, their report went down pretty much the way I'm used to, and the day shift charge nurse invited me to tour their unit.

"I was prepared for a little bit of resentment because of the hospital bringing someone from outside to make changes, but other than one nurse, there wasn't any — or it wasn't obvious, anyway. While I was there, they brought a patient in who, among other things, needed a blood glucose run STAT, so they called for the lab to come and run the sugar test." Caitlin sat up straight, "Did you hear what I said? Instead of the nurse checking her patient's sugar levels, they called for the lab to do a simple blood glucose test. You can buy the machines for thirty or forty bucks at Wal-Mart and they are a tenth the size of that monstrosity the lab brought in. It took the lab thirty minutes to come to the unit, and their machine another full minute to give the results after the lab tech stuck the patient's finger. The one from Wal-Mart will give the results in five seconds, and in thirty seconds, I can teach an idiot to run the test. But the hospital's standard procedure is to use the lab for all blood work."

Caitlin sighed. "I called around and found that one of the hospitals in Denver still does it that way, too, although most have gone to the nurse checking glucose levels, and the change has been in effect for many years. Having the lab come in for that must be forty years out of date." She paused a moment, then went on, "Nurses frequently need to know what a patient's sugar levels are, and they need to know it in a hurry. Okay, say the patient's sugar levels are low — extremely low. You treat it, then shortly, you need to know what's happening with your treatment. Everyone doesn't react the same way. The nurse needs to check again — and in a timely manner. Calling the lab back to send a tech to do another check might get a quick response, but then again, the lab tech might be tied up somewhere else in the hospital doing something just as critical. Stupid. This is stupid, yet this isn't the only hospital still doing it. But if I truly have any say in things, this is going to change."

Jeff looked over at Diana and winked.

"And, you should see the IV catheters they're using. The nurses have had six needle sticks in the last six months while trying to use the clumsy things. They tested that model in my hospital and they didn't last a day."

"Your hospital?" Jeff gently chided.

Caitlin stopped for a second, "Well, you know what I mean, but I guess I need to watch that. The hospital I used to work for," she corrected.

"Then I asked to see their protocol list, starting with their protocol for a new patient with extremely low glucose levels. Things went downhill from there. Do you know they have no protocol for IV infiltration of dopamine? I talked to the resident, and he didn't even know about the procedure, although it's been around for many years. He did go and look it up, though. But we'll talk about that later."

Another sip of drink and, "I got the guided tour today and met a lot of people. I particularly wanted to meet the head of the procurement department, as they refer to what we used to call purchasing. He claimed to be in meetings all morning, so it was late afternoon before I even got to meet him. Even then, he only had a couple minutes for me, saying he had someplace he had to be."

"What about the meeting you were going to have with reps today, not to mention the administrator?" Jeff asked.

"I only saw Mr. Adair for a few minutes. He took me into his office, sat me down and apologized for having to leave today, but said he would be gone most of the day. He had rescheduled the rep meetings for tomorrow. He also brought in his assistant and told her to show me the hospital and introduce me to everyone. He made it very clear to her that I could go anywhere and ask anything I wished from anyone. He said he had already had a meeting with department heads to make sure I had access to anything I needed. He had reiterated with them that we were going to review and update nursing equipment and procedures. He told me to come to him if I had problems with anyone."

Caitlin stopped again for a moment, then hesitantly said, "I'm ... getting some bad vibes about this whole thing, though. I found out that Mr. Adair has only had the administrator's job for two months, and he wasn't promoted from within. I haven't heard where he came from, or what he did before, but I'm a little worried ... I tried to tell him when he called me a couple days ago that we shouldn't talk to the reps yet. I needed to see what was going on and check out the equipment the hospital was currently using, but he scheduled the meeting, anyway. Then when I got there this morning, he had to be out of the office for most of the day, and has rescheduled the reps for tomorrow. Shit, I need to work a week or two in my intensive care unit to get used to what's going on before I start making decisions about nursing supplies and equipment. And if I'm going to do this, I need to work as a floor nurse at least a few days, too."

"What happened to the old administrator?" Jeff quietly asked.

Caitlin looked up at Jeff. "I was told he had a massive stroke and his left side is paralyzed. They said that coming back to work was out of the question. He's retired now, and has to have help to do most anything."

"That's sad," Diana said.

"I suggest you sternly voice your objections about the meeting with the reps so soon, and request time to get used to the intensive care unit before you have to make recommendations. And I agree; this whole thing seems ... odd."

Caitlin snuggled her back into Jeff's side and he put an arm around her. After a moment, she pulled one of Jeff's hands to her lap, idly tracing the tip of her finger around his thumbnail. Amused, Jeff smiled at her and let her think.

"I had three nurses subtly ask about you," she grinned up at Jeff. "They saw my wedding ring, and I know they were dying to ask how many wives you have. None of them ever came out and asked, but there were enough innuendoes during the day to make me believe that they had at least heard rumors."

"Well, we've eaten at several restaurants in Winter Park, not to mention shopping. Seeing all of us with only one man around all the time delivers a pretty clear message," Diana said. "We knew it would happen sooner or later, and I don't really care. All I can tell them is to eat their hearts out. He belongs to us," she laughed.

"I don't think that's what the men are thinking," Jeff chuckled. "More like, 'it isn't fair for that bastard to have all those beautiful women.'"

Diana got up from the bed, walked over and took Kayla's hand. Leading her back to Jeff, she gently pushed Kayla down to sit beside him like Caitlin was doing. "We've been leaving someone out of our loving."

Kayla blushed deeply. "I..."

The rest of whatever she was going to say was cut off by Jeff's mouth descending on hers.

In a bar in Winter Park, Greg McMasters, head of procurement for the hospital, sat at a booth in the back corner. Aaron Solomon, McMasters' assistant, quickly walked over and slid into the seat across the table from him. The two exchanged abrupt greetings.

"McMasters."

"Solomon."

"My girlfriend is pissed," Solomon groused.

McMasters grinned at him. "Well, you should be smart enough to take care of that."

Solomon, who had been trying to catch the attention of the waitress, snapped his focus back to McMasters. "All right, you're my boss and all that, but I've told you before, that's an old, worn-out joke. My being smart like Solomon is something I heard all the way through school, and it didn't get much better in college. Even one of the instructors there popped off about it when I made a bad grade on a test. Let's forget it, huh. I'm fucking sick of it."

"Oh, aren't we touchy tonight," McMasters sarcastically said, unperturbed by Solomon's ire.

"Yeah, well, you would be too. I had just gotten her tits out when you called with this 'emergency' meeting."

McMasters, whose beer was empty, managed to attract the waitress. She was sitting at a table with a big guy who was wearing a Stetson. "She seems more interested in talking with that cowboy than she does in making money."

"Well, maybe he'll get lucky tonight, then. More than I can say about me."

"Two of these," McMasters said holding up his empty bottle as the waitress started over. As she turned back toward the bar, "This place is dead tonight. Looks like she would be scrambling for all the tips she could get." Then directing his gaze back to Solomon, "I thought you lived with your girlfriend. What's the big deal about getting interrupted. Tap her when you get home. If she won't give it up, throw her ass out."

Solomon sat back trying to relax. "Not too easy to do. It's her house."

McMasters ignored the remark. "We have a problem."

Solomon hesitated while the waitress put their beers on the table and picked up McMasters' empty. When she was out of earshot, "No shit. Adair said we were to show this Hughes bitch anything she asked for. Since she's one of the whores who belongs to the rich guy who's donating the money, I don't see how we can tell her no."

McMasters took a sip of beer and watched Solomon nervously trying to get his fingernail under the label on his bottle. "What we need to do is stay calm. If Adair had given us a little more notice that she was going to be hired, I could have done a better job of burying everything."

"I wish I had never taken that money," Solomon said as he pulled strips of the label off the bottle and piled them on the table.

McMasters stared at him, irritated at the mess Solomon was making and worried about his remark. "Just remember. We're in this together. One of us goes down, the other does, too."

Solomon looked up, anger wrinkling his brow. "Bullshit. I get a few piddling dollars, and you make a killing. The only reason I got anything was because I found out what you were doing."

"Well, unlike the rich guy on the mountain, I don't run a foundation to help out idiots." Solomon frowned, but McMasters went on. "You found out; you took the money; you're in. Now we need to talk about some things, and I think it's time we became a lot more circumspect in our discussions at the office. I know that bitch is going to want to go over prices. When she does, she's going to see how much we're paying for some of this stuff, and then she's going to want to dig through our invoices. She's a fucking nurse. She's going to realize that we don't use a tenth of what we're being billed for. And if she ever gets into the big equipment side of things, the shit is going to really hit the fan."

"If you're talking about something happening to her, count me out," Solomon said, his voice becoming hard. "Making a little extra money on the side is one thing, hurting someone is something I'm not going to be part of. And besides, if something happens to her, that rich guy is going to be on us like white on rice. And besides that, what is a rich man's whore doing working in a hospital, anyway?"

"How in the hell should I know? That just makes me all the more suspicious, though. To put your mind at ease, we're not going to hurt anyone, but I'm not going to give up my extra income, either. Now let's go over some things I want you to do first thing tomorrow..."

"Well, how do I look?"

Joyce, wearing her uniform, had just walked out of the vanity area.

"You look great, but..."

"Don't say it, Husband," Joyce interrupted, knowing basically what he was going to say. Quickly diminishing the distance between them, she threw her arms around his middle and hugged him. Then grabbing his neck, she pulled his face down for a kiss.

When they broke the kiss, Jeff thumped the soft body armor under her shirt. "I hope you never get any use out of that. Once was far too much for all of us."

"Well, it's brand new, and it smells like it too. Of course, it smells better now than it will when I sweat in it for a while."

"Yeah, I know it's uncomfortable, and it tends to ruin that fabulous figure of yours, but the vest makes me feel better."

"Then I promise to always wear it. Of course, it's policy anyway, but you get the idea," she teased, reaching up to kiss him on the nose.

Jeff cleared his throat, a slightly embarrassed look on his face for a second. Raising his voice to include everyone, "Wives, I have spent a lot of money without discussing it with you, well, other than my Queen, that is." Motioning Caitlin to come to him where he was standing with an arm already around Joyce, "You two are working and will be driving back and forth without me."

"So our husband is jealous all of a sudden," Caitlin teased.

There were chuckles all around. "He knows better than that," Melissa said.

Jeff grinned a little, but otherwise ignored the comments, "The two new Escalades that arrived today are armored. All of our present vehicles will shortly be exchanged for armored ones." Before the women could say anything, he raised his hand a little to forestall what he knew was coming. "There was a delay. The new Escalades were supposed to be here Saturday, but they were delayed reaching the dealer from the company that installs the armor."

"Jeff, I..."