I needed a new place, new faces to block out the old ones. A change of scenery was what I so desired, so when I came to California, this seemed like a perfect fit for me. I was a physical therapist at Boston Hospital for about ten years and decided to leave for personal issues. I had gotten a job at the Los Angeles County hospital and it couldn’t have been more of a perfect fit for me. Even though I never put my sexuality out there, my boss immediately knew I was gay, being gay herself made me feel a little bit more at ease in my new home. I was only there for a couple of weeks before she had called me out on it. By that time, I had already become comfortable with her, the doctors and nursing staff.

“Bette you’ve got three patients in ICU that will keep you occupied all day,” Dana said, “first is Mr. Fieldstone in 202, hip replacement surgery, second Mrs. Jones in 217, whom had pins put into her elbow and Ms. Lerner in 219, who had surgery to fix the muscles in her leg and needs a general idea of her physical therapy. Shit, I forgot, Ms. Lerner is deaf, so if you want, you can wait until her interpreter is around.”

“That’s ok, I know how to sign. One of my cousins is deaf.”

“Wonderful. Well if you need me, I’ll be in my office.”

As I got to the ICU, I walked to the nurse’s station and looked at their schedule for the day. I scratched my head because the nurse’s name by my first patient’s room number didn’t register.

“Hey Cheryl, who is Tina and where can I find her?”

“Oh yeah, I just saw-er a minute ago,” she said looking around. Cheryl was my her favorite clerk because she was from back east and had that New York-ish Jersey accent that made me feel at home.

“Storage room,” Eric, one of the nurses said as he walked by.

“Thanks, how was your vacation?”

“Wasn’t long enough,” he said and laughed.

“It never is,” I said and walked down the hall, I walked in the store room and a gasp got caught in my throat. I walked in to find a beautiful five foot five, blond moving boxes around. She had an athletic build and her navy colored scrubs made her blue eyes the most beautiful pair I’d ever seen. She looked at me, and her eyes just beamed with kindness and her smiled made my heart melt.