Heart's Desire Ch 1

Chapter One

“She is beautiful!” I told Tara through tearful eyes.

I was having a hard time expressing my feelings at that moment. Tara had been my best friend for almost as long as I could remember, all too often she had been my only friend. Although my grandmother loved me and Jason, my womanizing brother, with all of her heart, the loss of my parents was hard and not a lot of children were willing to overlook my unprovoked fits of rage when grief would rear its ugly head. It was not surprising when I was bestowed the name “Crazy Sookie”; I would have probably described myself that way too back then. Tara, however, seemed to see through all that, maybe because she had her own demons, but for whatever reason, we became best friends and we have been so ever since.

And now here we were celebrating the birth of her first child. Little Nava had been born 7 weeks premature, but she was perfect. We had all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the doctor told us that although she was definitely small and would have to stay in the hospital for a few weeks to get her weight up, she would be fine.

Everyone had been at my house for a late spring BBQ when Tara’s water broke, she was not due for almost another 2 months and her panic stricken face said it all. I quickly wrapped her in an old afghan from the back of the couch that everyone complains is hideous, but I love it for sentimental reasons, and helped JB get her into his car. Jason and I followed close behind them to the hospital (if you can call a 32 room facility a hospital). Bon Temps is a small town with small resources, the hospital is not much to speak of, but they can usually stabilize a patient well enough to get them transferred to one of the bigger hospitals in Shreveport or New Orleans. Fortunately their neo natal unit is pretty impressive so Tara was in good hands.

It was almost lunchtime the next day when we finally decided to leave Tara so she could get some rest, my adrenalin rush was wearing off and if I was tired, I knew Tara had to be exhausted. I kissed both of them on the forehead and made my way out of the room. Hoyt had come by earlier and picked up Jason, so I could head straight home to bed, fortunately I had the dinner shift at Merlotte’s and I had some time to take a nap before having to be lucid again.

I stepped out of the elevator and almost ran smack into my housemate.

“Hey chic, where are you off to in such a hurry?”

“I’m so sorry Sookie, I didn’t mean to run over you, we are swamped here today and I’m bustin’ my ass to get these patients their lunch served before it’s dinner time.”

“Did everyone call in sick?” I smiled at my poor attempt at hospital humor. Amelia was not fazed.

“No, it’s been like this for a couple of months now; with the economy so bad and the nursing shortage, almost our entire nursing staff has moved to Shreveport. Add to that the lack of volunteers due to schools being out on vacation, and we hardly have the manpower needed to get the trash cans emptied”.

Amelia was good people. She came from money, but you would never know it to see her. She had relocated to Bon Temps from New Orleans during Katrina although with her family’s money she hardly needed to be evacuated, she could have gone anywhere during the recovery, but felt she could be of assistance and signed up to help the Red Cross and FEMA. It was during this time that she and I met. I had just lost my grandmother, my last living parental figure, and I needed something to get my mind off of my problems so I threw myself into helping others get over theirs. She and I became fast friends and I offered to let her move into my home to help drown out the silence of being the only one in that big old house and that’s where she has lived since. She had been a great friend to me and I would do anything for her which is why I shouldn’t have been surprised when through my sleepy eyes I asked, “is there something I can do to help?”

Oh please, oh please say ‘no’.

“Oh Sookie, I love you, are you sure you’re not too tired?” She asked while pulling me down the hall not waiting for a response. “I could really use your help getting some patients fed”.

OK, well at least it’s not bedpan duty, I thought, I can do this, I’m a waitress for Pete’s sake, I can sling grub with the best of them!

“Sure, just show me what I need to do”.

She led me further down the hall to the last section of rooms at the end and stopped outside of one of the room to pull a tray of food from the large rolling cart stationed in the hallway.

“Here is the food for the patient in Room 29B, he’s recovering from a bad accident and is his injuries make it impossible to feed himself right now, so if you will just help him with that I will love you forever!”

Wait! What? Did she say I was feeding this guy??

“Amelia, wait! I can’t feed someone! I thought you needed me to pass out the trays! I don’t know anything about feeding somebody. Here, you take the tray and you feed him, give me something else to do to help you.”

“Sookie, please; I need you to do this for me. I have too many other things that need my attention right now; I don’t have time to sit with him for an hour while he eats. You’ve got to help me out here. Pleeeease?”

Jeez, how could I say no to that face? I could see in her eyes just how desperate she was for my help so I knew I couldn’t turn her down.

“OK, Amelia, but I get to pick the flick for the next 2 movie nights.” I stated I might as well get something out of this deal.

“Deal! Thanks Sookie, you’re a lifesaver!”

We walked over to the door to 29B and Amelia knocked a couple of times on the door, to warn the patient inside we were coming in. I can only imagine some of the sights you could walk in on in a hospital; I hoped we gave this guy enough notification.

“Sookie Stackhouse, this is Eric Northman. Eric, Sookie will be helping you with your lunch today, is that OK with you?”

I rounded the corner of the room and looked up to see who was going to be my lunch date today and OH MY GOD!

TBC