Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 07:17:03 -0400 From: zmartin24 Subject: Change For The Better, Chapter 1 A Change For The Better This story is intended for adult readers. If you cannot read this story because you are under the age of 18- 21, or not allowed because of country/state/local laws please visit another website. This story also contains a fictional plot between a fictional character and Brian Littrell. This story does not however intend to imply anything about the true sexuality or personal knowledge about the private life of any celebrity (or other person) mentioned in this story. Also, if you are expecting sex right away, find another story. This one is hopefully going to have a plot and long-term relationship. Now that the legal stuff is done with, lets get started! A little about myself, and the story. This is the first story that I have written for public reading and criticism (hopefully constructive). The story is also going to change POV's a couple of times between the main character and Brian. I am in real life a nurse at a hospital in Up-State New York, and a firefighter for my local volunteer fire department. Due to being still in the closet I will not use actual town/city/place names in this story. All e-mails regarding this story are more than welcome, and can be sent to zmartin24@hotmail.com. OK enough of the bull, We're really going to start the story now. My Name is Zachary Riker Martin, I am 25 years old and a nurse in the trauma/emergency room at my town's hospital, and an assistant chief in my town's fire department. I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock bright and early on a Monday morning ready to start another week at work (I really love my job and wonder why there is a shortage of nurses in this country). After sitting up in bed for a few minutes to get my bearings I went down stairs to the kitchen to make my breakfast. I live alone in a 2 story 3 bedroom house, go figure. After breakfast I went back upstairs to get ready for work. After taking a shower I looked in the mirror and asked myself why I live alone. I keep telling myself that I am too involved in my work and don't have time for a social life, but I knew that I was lying to myself. I don't think I'm ugly or anything, I mean what woman wouldn't like to hook up with a guy that is 6'1", muscular build, blond hair, blue eyes, and has a good paying job. I just was never interested in women and never had the nerve to come out of the closet (little did I know that would change). Arriving at the hospital at 6:45am I parked my truck in the employee parking lot and started to walk towards the trauma/emergency entrance to the hospital. Then I realized that I should have brought a jacket because the cool morning fall breeze cuts through the fabric of my scrubs like I was wearing a window screen. I figured that I would remember a jacket the next day. Anyway, I'm in the hospital now and I'm ready to start my 12 hour shift. I swiped my time card and headed towards the locker room to get my stethoscope and other stuff that I carried with me while at work. When I got to the nursing station in the ER I looked around and saw that all of the other nurses and doctors were all writing on patient charts and looking at recent laboratory reports, obviously taking advantage of a slow period where we didn't have many patients. It was now shift change and time for report. All of the nurses met and decided who was going to take care of who. I got a little 8yr old boy who had come in earlier that morning with a broken arm and a cut to the forehead when he slipped down the steps coming off of his school bus. So I went into the treatment room that he was in and made sure that he was OK, and to tell him that the doctor was about to discharge him and send him home with his parents. While I was talking to the boy and his parents I could hear someone on the emergency radio out at the nursing station. I excused myself from the room and went to answer the radio. "This is University Medical Hospital, Repeat your callsign and go ahead." I said into the mic. "This is Mercy Flight Helicopter 2. We have a 7 minute ETA to your facility with a 26yr old male victim of a head on motor vehicle accident, stand by for report." Said the flight nurse on the chopper. I got a trauma form and a pen and prepared to take report. "We have a 26yr old male victim of a head on motor vehicle accident who is unconscious at this time. His vitals are weak and are as follows. Heart rate 45, Respirations at 8 per minute, Blood Pressure 90/60, Temp at 97.5, pupils are equal and responsive. He has a possible broken left leg, open fracture on his left forearm, 7cm laceration to top of scalp, possible bi-lateral pneumothorax (collapsed lungs), and blunt trauma to upper abdominal quadrant. possibly due to impact with steering wheel. Patient is fully immobilized and responds only to painful sternal stimulation. Patient is on 100% oxygen and we have administered 10 units of morphine." the flight nurse reported. "10-4, no further orders, we will be waiting for you at the landing zone in about 5 minutes. University Medical Center Clear." I informed the secretary to page the trauma team and other necessary staff. I recruited a couple of other nurses and got a stretcher from trauma room 1 and loaded it up with medical equipment and supplies and we headed to the roof. Just as we arrived on the roof the helicopter was just coming into view over the south hill. A few seconds later the helicopter had landed and the flight nurse was taking the patient out of the helicopter, assisted by another flight tech. They met with us and we placed the patient on the stretcher and hooked up the heard monitor and other equipment so that we could monitor the patient on the way down to the ER. We were met in trauma room 1 by the trauma surgeon and all of the other trauma staff. Blood was drawn, X-rays were taken bleeding was controlled and a complete head to toe exam was performed. and in the middle of all of the confusion was me. Trauma is basically controlled chaos. When the x-ray results came back the doctor confirmed that the only broken bones were the ones in his left leg and arm. that means that we could take off the cervical collar and get him off of the backboard. The whole way through the procedures I had a strange feeling that I knew the face that belonged to the person on the stretcher, but I just couldn't put my finger on who he was. But he was just very familiar. Then the secretary brought in his chart. Apparently his registration information was completed from a Florida driver license found in his wallet that the flight nurse from the helicopter handed to the secretary. I looked at the chart and the name read Brian Thomas Littrell, born Feb. 20, 1975. I knew that the next few hours for Brian would be critical. He was still in Serious condition. With two partially collapsed lungs, a broken femur, and an open fracture on his left forearm, the laceration to the top of his head was the least of our worries. Just then the trauma surgeon called my name, I looked over to him and he said "Zach, we have to insert a chest tube now so that his lungs will re-inflate!" I hurried over to the trauma supply cabinet and grabbed the chest tube kit and set up the tools. The doctor made an incision on Brian's left side and began to insert the tube. As I was watching the doctor perform the procedure I noticed that Brian had a scar on his chest, over the location of the heart. then I remembered seeing something on TV about him having an open heart procedure when he was younger. I hooked the tube up to the wall suction and watched the monitor to see if his blood oxygen level would go up. "Come on, Come on, go up!" I said to myself. Soon I saw that his blood oxygen level had gone from the 80's up to 93 which was a major improvement. "Nice Job Dr. Billings." I said. "Thank you, but we still have a lot more to do before he goes up to the operating room" he said. We spent the next 45 minutes finishing up as much as we could on Brian before Dr. Billings said "OK people, nice job, he's stabilized, lets get him up the operating room so that they can get that arm and leg fixed." We moved him up to the OR and placed him on the operating table. Brian remained in the OR for over 3 hours while they put pins in his leg and arm to repair the bones. The doctors also repaired the skin on his arm and head. Brian was then moved to the recovery room, where he spent the next 8 hours to sleep off the anesthesia. The rest of the day was pretty un-eventful, a few more minor accidents and a couple of heart patients, and even a man claiming to be in the worst pain in his life. But he just wanted narcotic pain killers. he even had the balls to ask for them by name and dosage. When my shift was over I exited the hospital and again reminded myself to start bringing a jacket to work. I got in my truck and started to drive home. About half way there, my fire pager rang "Department 32, Structure Fire. 756 pride street." I picked up the mic to my fire radio and reported that I was responding. Then I turned on my red lights and siren and drove to the station to get a pumper truck. A few other firefighters were waiting at the station with the truck ready to go. When I was aboard we responded to the scene. The house was almost fully engulfed in flame. I asked fire control to dispatch another alarm for mutual aid. We then immediately began to fight the fire. I found the family and asked if everyone was out of the house. They stated that everyone was. The next 9 hours were spent fighting the fire, and doing overhaul on the house to make sure that it wouldn't catch fire again. Finally I was able to go home. When I put the key in the door to enter my house I could hear Midnight, my 2yr old Black Lab heading to the door barking. I greeted Midnight and let him out into the back yard. After about 5 minutes he came back to the door and I let him back in the house. At that time I realized that I hadn't eaten since breakfast, but didn't care because I was so tired, I looked at my answering machine and saw that I had no messages (as usual). and went upstairs to go to bed. I took a quick shower to wash off the suit from the fire and climbed into bed naked, the only way I could ever sleep. Midnight crawled up on the foot of the bed and we both were asleep very soon after. the next day I had to work an evening shift at the hospital, which meant that I could sleep in until early afternoon. I awoke to Midnight climbing up on the bed to let me know that he was hungry. "Sorry buddy, I guess I forgot to feed you last night. Lets go get some breakfast. After my morning ritual in the bathroom, Midnight and I went downstairs. I let him into the back yard so that he could do him morning ritual, and began to make breakfast, and filled the dogs food dish. I let Midnight back in the house and he knew right where to go. It didn't take him long to find his food. By about 2:30pm I was ready to go to work, and the whole way there I found myself thinking about Brian. Thinking So hard in fact that I had almost been in a couple of accidents myself. I again parked in the employee parking lot and again forgot to bring a jacket. About 6 hours into my shift it was time for my lunch break, and we only had a few patients, so I left the ER and headed to the cafeteria. I discovered that there was nothing appetizing in there so I just wandered around the hospital for a while, and all I could think about was Brian. After a few more minutes of wandering I found myself at the doors to the ICU. I went into the ICU and went to the nursing station. I was greeted by Julie, an ICU nurse who was a pretty good friend of mine. We hung out sometimes and I think she had the hots for me. She is beautiful, but as I said before, I never really had an interest in women. I asked her if Brian was in the ICU and she looked at the charts for all of the patients and found that Brian was in room 12. I asked her how he was doing, and she said that he had made a change for the better. I then asked her if she would mind if I went in to check on him. She told me to feel free. After all I usually came up to check on my patients. But this one was different. Brian lit a fire inside me that I had never felt for anyone, and I don't even know him. He's never spoken to me, and I have never spoken to him. But I still felt some sort of connection. I entered room 12 and found a man that was in far better condition than when he came in yesterday. All things considered he did look good. He had a cast on his leg and a connecting rod on his arm with screws that went through his skin to keep the bones aligned. As I closed the door I heard him mumble something, but I couldn't understand what it was. his head turned in my direction and he asked me who I was. "He's awake!" I said to myself. "I'm Zach Martin, I was the charge nurse that helped take care of you in the ER yesterday." I told him. "You saved my life." he said. I told him that I had a lot of help from the doctors, techs, and other nurses. He told me not to be so modest, and that he was eternally grateful for what we did. For the next half hour we talked to each other like we were best friends. In that conversation I asked hem what he was doing in Up-State New York, especially in a small city like ours. "The group is on a 3 month R&R before we have to start touring again and I was on my own little vacation away from the group. I was driving my car back from New England back to Lexington to see my folks, and I guess I had a little set back going through your neck of the woods." he said. then I said to him "It's a good thing you had your 'little set back' around our neck of the woods, because this is the only level 1 trauma center for 150 miles in any direction." Before I went I asked him if there was anything I could do for him. He gave me a couple of phone numbers and asked me to call them and explain what had happened. One was the number for the Firm, and the other was to his parents house in Lexington. I told him that I would call them as soon as I got back down to the ER, and that I had to go back to work. "Please come visit me again, I want to talk more." he said. I promised him that I would and returned to the ER. *BRIAN'S POV* My god he is a hottie. I really want him to come back to visit me, I want to get to know him a little, er-lot better. *BACK TO ZACH* When I returned to the ER I immediately picked up the phone and started to dial the numbers. His parents were first. I found it hard to concentrate on dialing the numbers because my mind was fixated on Brian. When I finally got the number dialed it rang about 3 times before I heard a woman say hello. I told her who I was and what was going on and she stated that the family and her would be on the next flight out. I then called the FIRM and explained to some executive the situation. He stated that an agent representing the BSB would be out within a day. When my shift was over I returned to Brian's room and told him that I had notified everyone that he had requested and that they would all be up soon. He asked me why I was so helpful to him, and I almost said that it was my job, but instead I said "I love to help people in any way that I can, especially the cute ones." I almost shit when I realized what I said. "So you are gay huh?" Brian said in a monotone voice. I said "Yes, but I've never told anyone, If I've offended you I'll leave." "Then I wouldn't get to spend any more time with the cutest guy I've ever seen" Brian said. At that point I almost felt like I was going to melt. Brian Littrell of the BSB said that I was the cutest guy that he'd ever seen. I took a seat in one of the chairs before I fell down and scooted up next to his bed on the right side, considering that the left was pretty much inaccessible due to the casts and monitors. Brian reached for my hand and drew me closer to himself. I leaned in to him and he whispered into my ear. "I want to get to know you better when I get the hell out of here." I agreed and he drew me in again to give me a kiss on the lips. It was the most emotional and heartfelt experience of my life up to that point. and was glad that I remembered to close the door. Just then I heard a page on the PA stating that there was a Code Blue in another room in the ICU. I told Brian that I would definitely be back. As I came out of the room I bumped into Julie who was pushing the code cart towards the other room. As we ran to the Code Blue she looked at me and said "I thought you got off at 7." "I had to visit someone special" I told her. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope everyone enjoyed part one, and if I get a positive response there will be a part two. All comments are welcome at zmaritn24@hotmail.com and I look forward to reading them. This story is written by a person who believes that all those people (Firefighters, Paramedics, Rescue Workers, Civilians, and everyone) who lost their lived on the 11th of September 2001 in the cities of New York and Washington D.C. should be remembered and memorialized.