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she hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt. She had so many injuries that there was probably nothing you could have done to save her.”
    “Probably ,” Tanner echoed pointedly. “See, even you can’t tell me for certain that I didn’t fuck it up. I know for a fact that most other nurses wouldn’t have. Chauncey would have immediately caught it.”
    “Bullshit. We all miss things. We’re only human, after all. We just have to hope that it doesn’t happen again and that it makes us better nurses in the end.”
    “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have a dead teenager on your conscience,” Tanner retorted, that bitter tone creeping back into his voice.
    “You can’t keep thinking that way. It’ll end up destroying both your career and life,” Ben said, sadly.
    Tanner knew Ben had a point. Hell, he’d said the very same thing to himself countless times. The only problem was that Tanner didn’t know if he had what it took to forgive himself. If anything, being back at the hospital only made him doubt himself more than ever.

    Chapter Three
    After working under Ben’s supervision for three nights, Tanner couldn’t decide if he liked the guy or wanted to have the idiot admitted to the seventh floor for a psych evaluation.
    Ben was a great nurse. Not only was he knowledgeable and efficient, but the patients all loved him. Nevertheless, it was the other part of Ben’s personality that troubled Tanner. Flat out, the guy had a dozen screws loose and was two dozen cards short of a full deck.
    If the guy wasn’t playing pranks such as the time he put apple butter into the breakroom coffee pot, then he was jawing off some outlandish story. At least Tanner thought they were outlandish. He really didn’t think that Ben could have done half the crap he claimed he did during his off work hours.
    Tanner was just finishing the charting for the end of their shift when Ben came up. He was holding a big mug of coffee and looked a little less rambunctious than usual. In his other hand, he held a glucometer.
    “I need you to do a favor for me,” Ben said.
    “I don’t know about that. The last time I agreed to do a favor for you, I found myself stuck giving Mr. Elders an enema. Since he’s a runner and a kicker, that was something I never want to experience again.”
    “Oh, come on! It wasn’t that bad.”
    “Did I mention that he’s a biter, too? I still have the bruise on my arm in the shape of his dentures.”
    Ben rolled his eyes. “You’re such a lightweight. I have full-out scars from that man’s choppers. You can relax though, because that’s not what I was going to ask you to do.”
    Tanner still didn’t trust the little shit, but since Ben was technically his trainer, Tanner didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. “Fine, what do you need?”
    Ben handed him the glucometer. “Can you go to radiology and check Ricky’s blood sugar? I would go do it myself, but I have to give a report to the next shift.”
    Taking it, Tanner glanced down dumbly at the device as if he’d never seen it before, which was stupid since he used the damn thing several times each shift. It was just that he’d always used it on patients, but never had he imagined having to use it for Ricky.
    “I didn’t know he was diabetic,” Tanner finally said, his chest aching a bit.
    “Yeah, he has been for a while now.”
    “Are you worried about him or something? I mean, if he’s been diabetic for that long, he should know how to test his own sugar levels.”
    Ben took a deep drink of coffee before sighing. “Ricky is great at taking care of others, but he’s shitty at making sure his own needs are attended to.”
    Tanner didn’t need to hear any more. He left the nurse’s station and rushed to radiology. He found Ricky alone in the large room that served the ER department. Tanner paused for a moment, his breath catching in his throat as he drank in the image of the other man.
    Ricky wore his usual maroon scrubs since