His Healing Touch, page 1
“His Healing Touch”
An M/M Gay Romance
Max Hudson
© 2020
Max Hudson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is intended for Adults (ages 18+) only. The contents may be offensive to some readers. It may contain graphic language, explicit sexual content, and adult situations. May contain scenes of unprotected sex. Please do not read this book if you are offended by content as mentioned above or if you are under the age of 18.
Please educate yourself on safe sex practices before making potentially life-changing decisions about sex in real life. If you’re not sure where to start, see here: http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com/safe-sex-resources/ (courtesy of Jerry Cole).
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.
Edition v1.00 (2020.02.26)
http://www.maxhudsonauthor.com
Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: Bob, RB, JayBee, Naomi W., and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Chapter One
Trenton glanced down the long hallway. “Looks like it’s gonna be a long day.”
The woman next to him was Martha, another nurse at the hospital. She had been working there for over a decade and had always been something of a mentor to the man that was only a year out of nursing school. “Probably.” She shrugged.
He laughed. “It doesn’t matter to you at all, does it?”
“I’ll never complain about overtime.”
He nodded. “It’s nice to have that extra money in case I want something.”
“Exactly. Everyone is so eager to get off of work these days.” She glanced down at the list of patients on the floor. “Looks like we got a couple scheduled to come in this afternoon. So, we need to be ready for that.”
“Do we have enough empty beds?” He glanced back at the board, quickly absorbing the information that was presented.
“As long as nothing hits us by surprise, we’ll have every bed full and just enough space for everyone.”
“Well let’s hope that nothing goes wrong then.” Trenton squinted at the board.
“You know that’s never going to happen.”
“We could put beds in the hall?” He made the suggestion with a hint of a chuckle under his words.
“They would probably just make us jam them into rooms.”
“But we wouldn’t have space for everyone.”
She grinned. “I think they might just tell us to make it work.” Carefully she switched the hand she was hauling her supplies around with.
“Of course, they would. Let’s see. There has to be another way to handle it.”
She thought about it. “I got nothing.”
“There has to be something we can do.”
“Our jobs until they decide to spend the money to give us better facilities.”
“Our facilities are fine. We just have no space to fit all the people.”
“The town is just growing faster than we can keep up with.” She shrugged.
He tilted his head as he checked the patient files that they had to address at the start of round check-ins. “We could storm up to the door and demand the administration do a better job?”
She laughed, perhaps a bit too loudly for most people’s comfort. “That may be an idea. It would sure get their attention.”
“I bet it would.”
“They still wouldn’t fix the fact that they overbook us.” He shook his head.
“There’s nothing that they’re going to do about that either. They have the patients and need a place to put them.”
“Do you think that they’re ever going to get the money to expand this place?”
“Who knows.” She shrugged. “I think they have the money, but as long as we can make it work, they’re not going to upgrade anything.”
“You’re probably right.”
She laughed. “Let’s talk about something happier.”
“Sure. How’s the husband?”
“Being himself.” She grinned. “Working a lot of extra hours. We’re planning a trip around Christmas to see the family.”
“That has to be a lot of fun.”
“What about the kids? They doing anything new?”
She shook her head. “Working hard at school and work. Mostly getting along just fine. They don’t need so much from us anymore.”
“Except tuition?”
“Well, that’s always a problem. They’re making a life for themselves.”
“What about you?” She tilted her head.
It was his turn to shrug. “I don’t have any plans any time soon.”
“You don’t need to work your life away.”
“I like having money to spend.”
“You don’t spend any of it.”
He sighed. “I might want to someday.”
This made her laugh, her graying brown hair bouncing as she moved down the hallway. She was a lot older than him, having worked at a different hospital before she had moved to work at this one. It gave her a lot of history in the medical field. But she wasn’t the type to rub that in and easily made friends. Trenton was a little jealous of that, but she was so hard to be jealous of. “You’re going to keep saying that until you die on the job.”
“Oh, hush.”
“You sound like an old lady when you do that.”
He smirked. “Maybe that’s the goal.” He moved to follow her down the hallway so that they didn’t have to shout. Working close by made it easier as they hit the first room on their rounds. There wasn’t much to be done there. Just some measurements to be taken on the patients. One of them was napping so he had to be woken up.
The man was a bit grumpy about it. “Again?”
Trenton offered a soft smile. “Sorry, just doing our job.”
“Can you do it quickly?” The man was grumpy.
“Just need to take your blood pressure. It won’t take long. I promise.”
He grunted his consent, so Trenton got it over with as quickly as possible before slipping out of the room. Martha was already waiting outside. “What a grump.”
He laughed. “Can’t really blame him. No one likes being in the hospital.” Trenton laughed lightly.
“I know I don’t like it at all.”
He smirked. “You would be fine if I was your nurse.”
“You think you’re that good, huh?” She smirked.
“I’m often told that I have an amazing bedside manner.” He grinned. He didn’t actually feel that way but joking like that made the shitty parts of the job a lot easier.
“I think I have a better bedside manner than you.”
He shook his head. “Are you really going to turn this into a competition?”
“That’s a very real possibility.” She grinned at him.
He laughed again, raising up the patients in the next room. “What are you two so happy about?”
“Just laughing and joking,” Martha smirked as she unpacked the blood pressure cuff.
“Nice to see someone enjoying their jobs.” The older woman in the bed smiled. “You young people work too hard.”
“I’m not that young.” Martha poked back while Trenton made his way to the other bed. “I’m almost your age.”
“Nonsense, have you gotten a look at you.” The old woman tsked at the younger lady.
“Every morning in the mirror.”
“Both of you are older than me.”
“That’s because you’re a baby yet.” The woman teased as Trenton walked to the other side of the room and looked at the empty bed. He decided to wait to see if the man was just in the restroom.
“He is, but he’s a good kid.”
“And handsome.” The old woman in the bed laughed and winked at the female nurse. “He’s a good-looking young man.”
“He is, and single too,” Martha commented.
The woman in the bed raised an eyebrow. “Is he?”
“Mhm.” The older nurse shared some conspiratorial knowledge. And both women turned to look at the man in the room with them. “He says he doesn’t have time to date anymore.
“Anymore?”
“I think he just doesn’t want to.”
Trenton ignored it, deciding that he would be walking into a trap if he did anything. “Is this patient around here anywhere?”
“I think he’s out taking a walk of some sort.”
“I’ll have to come back later then.”
“I’ll let him know to expect you.”
Martha smiled. “We’re going to miss you when you get out of here.”
“That’s why you’re keeping me around so long, dearie.” The older woman was the sweetest patient on the floor. It was sad to look at her chart and realize that she probably wasn’t going to ever leave the hospital again.
He didn’t mention that though. Simply walking over to the older woman and softly laying his hand on her arm. “Did your kids come by today?”
“Tomorrow. They still have work.”
He nodded. “Of course. They come to visit a lot though, don’t they?”
“They have a lot of love. The best kids a mother could have.”
Martha smiled. “You might have a fight on your hands with every other mother everywhere.”
The older woman laughed out loud. “Of course, I would. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be very good mothers, would they?”
They finished up, still laughing and joking around as they made their way out of the room. Only fifteen more of them to work on.
“You may not get a chance to see that guy.” She nodded.
“Oh?”
“He’s one of the ones supposed to be released today.”
“That wouldn’t be so bad, though. He’s a young man.”
“It’s nice when people get out of here.”
“Especially him.”
“A bit of a grump.”
Trenton nodded. “That’s a sure thing. He hated being here.”
“Nobody likes being here.”
“The people that do like being here, should probably be getting other help.”
“That’s a sad truth, isn’t it?” He sighed.
“Hey, stop worrying about all of that stuff.” His workmate shook her head. “It doesn’t do any good to start being a pessimist on me now.”
“Sorry, I guess I can’t help it.”
“You seem to do that more and more these days. Is everything ok at home?”
“Not really much of anything going on at home.” He shrugged. “Same old apartment as ever. Nobody I’m really dating or anything.”
“That’s a sad state of affairs, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Maybe not.” He couldn’t get the thought out of his mind. That his workmate doubted him heavily for his life. The doubt that he could ever do anything other than work his life away in this hospital and go home exhausted at the end of the day to sleep in a lonely apartment.
And his partner in crime seemed to get that because she was laughing along as they made their way through the floor until it was time for lunch.
Chapter Two
Griffin looked down at the wheelchair that the nurse was presenting to him. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid that I am, sir.”
“I can walk just fine.”
“Need I remind you that you’re on crutches?” The woman standing behind her son smiled at the nurse. “You should take the chair.”
“I really don’t want to.”
“All right.” The nurse looked unconvinced. “I guess I can escort you to your room without it, but once you get there and change for surgery, you may be asked to use it due to hospital regulations.” She turned the chair around to lead the way. But she wasn’t leaving it behind.
Griffin quickly moved to follow her. The crutches made things a little harder to do things, but he was determined not to let that slow him down. “Thanks.”
The young woman offered a soft smile in his direction. “You aren’t the first person through here with some pride in his ability to get around.”
“An overabundance of it.” His mother laughed. Her laugh always had a bit of sadness behind it. He didn’t like that sound; it was something that he always tried to ignore. This time was no different. “My boy has always been prideful.”
“It goes that way a lot.” The nurse was teasing him a little.
“Mostly with men, I assume?” Griffin wanted to say something on his own behalf, but he settled for changing the conversation.
“Seen my share of women that do it too. I’ve found that most of the time women have issues with showing that they’re weak when their kids are around. They don’t want anyone to see them as hurt.”
Griffin nodded along. “Sure, that makes sense. Mom does the same all the time.”
“That’s probably where you got the pride from.” The nurse laughed loudly.
“I would say that’s exactly where I got it from.”
“Wow, you two are ganging up on me.” His mother held her hands up in defeat. “You have me.”
“You can’t honestly think that this was all going to turn on me? I’m the one going in for surgery.”
“All right; you come by that pride honestly.” She gave him a sad smile now. Another sight he hated.
The nurse had grown quiet while they talked. The young woman was carefully observing Griffin’s mother, watching the older woman move. She could tell that there was something up.
The rest of the trip to the room was done in relative silence, a few comments and questions answered as they needed to be answered. There was a lot going on for Griffin and he was grateful to not have to keep up with the conversation that was happening.
Once he was alone in the room, stripping out of his clothes he found a moment to think and stifle the nerves that he was feeling. It was an empty room, quiet. A place for him to think and ponder about the direction that his life was going. Once he changed, he sat on the bed and waited for the initial consultation with the surgeon. Someone was going to come and speak to him about what was happening with his leg and what this surgery would entail.
The doctor showed himself into the room with a smile. He hadn’t been expecting quite such a handsome man. “Hello.” The man smiled.
Griffin saw the ring on his finger. Disappointment hit him like a brick, but he hid it. It was a feeling that he had gotten quite used to as his peers seemed to pair up and he remained single. “Hey, you here to poke and prod me?”
The doctor grinned at his patient. “Just a bit.”
“How much do you consider a bit?” Griffin offered a smile to show that he was joking around a bit. “That’s a pretty subjective way of putting it.”
“I promise I won’t take anything that you can’t live without. Does that work for you?”
“That it does, yeah.” Griffin laughed with the other man.
“You seem to be in good spirits at least. That’s a good thing.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“All right. Well, this is a pretty simple surgery. We just have to repair some tendons in your knee. You’ll be off your feet for a few days, maybe a week, but we’ll want you up and moving as soon as possible afterward.”
“That’s what the doctor told me when I was signing up for this.”
“All right. He already gave you the rundown. Did he talk to you about the risks?”
“A little bit.”
“Well, I have to go through them with you anyway, so just stay patient with me.”
Griffin nodded. “Yeah, I get that. Gotta be safe.”
“All right, well, of course, any surgery has risks. That’s perfectly natural.”
“I assume so. Something can go wrong.”
“But with anything, it’s always the infection that’s the most dangerous. So that’s going to be a concern. We do everything that we can do to prevent that.”
“How common are infections?”
“Well, you’re in a hospital full of sick people. We do everything we can to prevent it, but it’s not something we can always prevent. Still, we’re professionals and take all precautions.”
“I can live with that.” Griffin nodded. “How long will I be out?”
“Only three or four hours, depending on how it goes. It’s a pretty routine surgery and from the scans, there’s nothing that should go wrong, but there’s always a possibility.”
“Very small possibilities, right?”
“Very small. You’re a healthy guy, not likely to run into any issues. The surgery is pretty straightforward. It should be a cakewalk.”
