It was a moment before Marie realized that the sound she heard was not of her making. Somewhat startled, she quickly dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and sniffed in the remainder of her tears. It would have to wait until she was by herself. Clearing her throat from its hoarseness, she croaked out the words. "Come in." Gathering up the spent tissues in her hand she hurriedly tried to hide them from sight. ‘Gosh, don’t let this be bad news.’ Marie’s brow furrowed with her growing fear of the unknown.
The figure bathed in light from the hall stood like a guardian angel at the door. The form moved into the room with such grace that, to Marie, it seemed to float. The sullen woman closed her eyes hoping desperately that this apparition was not some form of good-bye from her longtime lover. As much as she wanted to be in her presence, she didn’t want it to be like this.
A single tear broke through the dam of closed eyelids and embittered self-restraint. Marie could feel it escaping down over her cheek. Then, she felt the warm touch to her cheek and heard the soft words on her ears. ‘No! No! If I don’t listen, if I don’t hear that…then she can’t be gone.’ She tried to shut the world out of her life, out of her love, out of this time.
The words would not stop, but instead continued on. The soft soothing tone of the voice seemed mellow against the dark of the night with its growing fears lurking in every shadow. Finally Marie forced one eye to open, taking in the vision in front of her. It was not a heavenly body to the forlorn woman, anything that did not resemble her soulmate was a godsend.
"Marie?" Danni looked upon the patient lying in the bed as she tried to ascertain her emotional state. "It’s me, Danni. I’m the nurse that took care of you with Dr. Trivoli in the Trauma Room."
The tiny gasp at the recognition of the nurse coincided with her heart as it fluttered with relief. "I…I remember you."
Danni smiled and let her hand come to rest on the woman’s shoulder. "I hope you don’t mind." The nurse motioned to the drop of moisture on her finger. "I’ve always thought that a single tear shared between two isn’t as hard to bare as one shed alone."
At first, the idea didn’t make sense to Marie, but the more that she thought about it, it made the most sense that she had ever heard. It was in this light that the woman let the corners of her mouth twitch upward into a half smile, not wanting to aggravate the stitches that had been used to close the laceration on the side of her face.
"How did one so young get to be so wise?" The whispered voice challenged the nurse.
"I think that sometimes I’m older than dirt. Pretty good disguise…eh?" Danni winked and let her broad smile shine through the abyss that the woman was climbing out of.
The older woman began to smile nervously then stopped with the twinging pain that resulted from the stitches in her face. "Oww!"
"Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you hurt. Really, I just thought that maybe you’d like to have someone to talk to…I mean…while we wait to hear about Chris." Danni was amazed at the delicate features of the woman before her. Now that the bloodstains were all removed, it allowed the beauty of the woman to grab you at first sight. She still had the youthful skin and physical appearance of a much younger person, the tinges of gray at her temples adding a well seasoned look. Her hazel eyes sparkled with the attention she was being given.
Marie nodded her head. "Yes, I think that I might like that." She studied the nurse trying to figure her out. "You always dress like that?" She pointed to the Flight Suit.
Danni looked down at herself. "No, actually we were paged out to assist with the trauma disaster. I’m the Flight Nurse on the Flight Surgeon’s Team."
"Your doctor…she’s the Fight Surgeon?"
"Yeah," Danni nodded her head as her smile grew bigger. "She’s the one operating on Chris in the O.R." Danni face brightened as she thought about the surgeon. "Gar…er…Dr. Trivoli is a great surgeon. I’ve seen her do things that an ordinary surgeon wouldn’t even think of. Chris is in the best of hands."
"Oh, is it…I mean…was she bad," Marie bit her lip, "They won’t tell me anything about her."
"Do you two have a legal document…a written power of attorney?"
"No, Chris wouldn’t think about it. She said that we were too young to worry about things like that." Marie tried to get her mind off what her life had been. "You seem to think very highly of this surgeon. Have you known her long?"
The nurse had to think about how to answer that question. "You know there are times that I think I’ve known her for ions but in the reality of it all, I only met her on July first of last year." Danni shook her head. "I guess living with someone, you get to know them better than you know yourself."
"Then you two are…"
The smile faded from the nurse’s face. "No, we just share the house that I own. She’s a Fellow and her year will be up in a few more months."
"She’s going to stay, isn’t she?" Marie found herself wanting it to be so.
Danni shrugged her shoulders. "I…I don’t know." Now it was the nurse’s turn to look for another subject. "Chris told me to tell you something for her." She paused trying to remember the exact words. "She said to tell you: ‘Tell her I love her...Then, now and forever.’ Yeah, that’s it." Danni grabbed the older woman’s hand and clutched it upward toward her mouth then kissed it. "Give her that from me, she said." The petite woman looked, trying to gauge the effect that it was having on the woman before her.
Marie’s face paled and her eyes searched the nurse’s face. "How? Those phrases are what Chris always says to me when we are apart from one another. How did you know?"
"She told me, right before she went up to surgery."
"That’s my Chris, always worried about me." Her voice trailed off as her mind wondered down a timeless path of their souls’ journey together.
"How long…I mean if you don’t mind…How long have you been together?"
"Not long enough." The patient smiled thinking about their time together. "It’s been over 35 years since we first met."
Danni pulled a chair over closer to the bed and sat down on it. Her full attention now focused on the woman in the bed. "I’m curious, how did you know that you were…I mean…that she was…gay?"
"Hmmm…You know back then being gay wasn’t as accepted as it is today for you young folks. You really put yourself out on a limb if you just came out and said anything."
"Oh, I see. It’s not any easier today, either." Danni sighed. "I’ve always known that I didn’t fit in with the way my mother had my life planned out. I just didn’t know what it was that I wanted until now."
"I guess that would be the tall, dark-haired surgeon?" The older woman watched Danni cautiously as a blush tinged her cheeks.
"I’m friends with her but I’m not sure that she’s…"
"Gay?"
The nurse nodded her head. "I don’t even have a clue."
Marie reached out her hand and let it rest down on top of Danni’s cloth-covered knee. "How about I tell you the story of me and Chris? Maybe it will help you decide about the surgeon."