Chelsea Stevens was fuming.
“You knew?! I can’t believe this! Kris, this doesn’t make any sense. Tell me you’re joking.”
Ten minutes earlier, Chelsea had raced into Kris’ office certain that when she shared what she discovered with the Director of Nursing, her new hire Derek would be fired immediately. As the charge nurse on her floor, Chelsea took it upon herself to verify the credentials of every new nurse that came into her unit. So naturally when she came back from a weeklong vacation with her husband and discovered that Kris had hired a new nurse in her absence, the first thing she did after clocking in was to log into the state database to look up his information. That’s when she made the discovery.
To her shock, Chelsea realized after a few minutes of digging around that Derek didn’t have a nursing license in the state. In fact, as far as she could tell, he didn’t have records of any kind on file with the state. Kris had somehow completely neglected to do even a basic background check and now here this guy was, almost a solid week working on the floor in the nursing rotation.
“Chelsea, calm down.” Kris responded. “I knew when I interviewed him that it would take him a while to get acclimated. That’s part of why I brought him onboard right away, so he could spend a few days shadowing the other girls before you got back and started into his official training shifts with him.”
“Training shifts? Kris, you know the state regs better than I do. We can’t do this. You can’t just let someone with no medical training and no licensing shadow my nurses for a few days and call everything good! If the state found out about this, we’d be in so much trouble. They’d probably close us down. You, me, and every other RN in the chain of command could lose our own licenses! Listen to me Kris, this is BIG.”
Kris sighed. “Okay Chelsea, I’m hearing you. Here’s what we’ll do. Head back to the floor and have Derek come up to my office. I’ll talk to him about the situation and we’ll plan a course of action and go from there. Sound fair?”
“By ‘plan a course of action’ do you mean fire Derek? Because I don’t want to risk my career by training and supervising someone who isn’t really a nurse.” Chelsea responded.
“I mean” Kris replied sternly, “we will plan a course of action. I’ve been a nurse a lot longer than you have Chelsea, You’ve got to trust that I know what I’m doing. Now please, head back up to the floor and send Derek to see me.”
Unhappy with how nonplussed her boss appeared to be from the revelation, Chelsea stormed out of the office, making her way to the elevator and across the care center to her nurse’s station. Two of her floor nurses, Jen and Sara, were there discussing the latest episode of some reality show while they charted. Derek, who Chelsea hadn’t even officially met yet, was nowhere to be seen, nor was Julie, her other nurse on the rotation.
As she was opening her mouth to ask the girls if they knew where Derek was, Chelsea stopped, caught off guard by yet another discovery: neither Jen nor Sara appeared to be wearing a bra. It wasn’t as obvious for Sara, a brunette whose petite frame and tiny breasts didn’t need much support to begin with. But then there was Jen. Taller and curvier with an hourglass figure that made most men drool, her girls were definitely set free, with nipples clearly visible through her scrub top.
‘This whole day just doesn’t make any sense’ Chelsea thought to herself, before clearing her throat and asking Jen and Sara if they’d seen the new guy.
“Oh yeah,” Jen spoke up, “I think he went down to the lounge on the north corridor with Jules.” She and Sara exchanged a knowing glance and both girls started giggling.
Still irritated from her meeting with Kris, the girl’s reaction only pissed Chelsea off more. What’s so funny, and why are they all the way down in the far break room when the shift just started? She snapped back at her subordinates.
“I don’t know what you girls’ little inside joke is all about, but we have work to do and I need Derek back here RIGHT NOW.”
Sara jumped up, volunteering to get Derek. Chelsea watched her sprint down the long hall, turning and disappearing down the north corridor on the far end of the floor. Several minutes later Sara, Julie and a guy that Chelsea assumed must be Derek rounded the corner casually making their way back as they joked about something. They were too far away for Chelsea to hear their conversation, but one thing was plainly obvious to her. Like Sara and Jen, Julie didn’t appear to have a bra on under her scrubs. As they strode towards the nurse’s station Julie’s generous tits swung freely from side to side. Julie laughed at something Derek said as she retied her red hair into a bun and wiped something off her chin.
Hey, whassup? You must be my new boss lady. I’m Derek” the man casually said to Chelsea as the trio approached the nurse’s station. “You wanted to see me?” Everything about this guy rubbed her the wrong way.
“Not me.” Chelsea replied curtly. “The director of nursing. Kris wants you in her office. NOW. And if you make it through that meeting, You’ll have to deal with me next.” Her scowl told the other nurses everything they needed to know, and they quickly got back to their morning paperwork.
“Cool cool,” Derek replied, keeping his casual tone as he looked Chelsea up and down, very obviously checking her out. “I got you. I’ll go talk to the big boss lady and I’ll see you in a bit.” Before Chelsea could scold him for his utter lack of professionalism, Derek was off, strolling down towards the elevator to head up to the administrative offices. Chelsea let out a frustrated sigh and joined the other nurses in their morning routine.
For as insane as the morning started out, the next two hours were shockingly normal. Chelsea, Julie, Jen, and Sara saw to their patients, filled orders, and Chelsea even had a chance to send her husband a quick text promising to tell him about her crazy first morning back from vacation when she got home that night. By all counts, things had returned to being routine.
‘Well, mostly routine’ Chelsea thought, reflecting on the fact that somehow all three of her nurses had decided over the week she was gone that bras were suddenly optional at work. It was definitely irritating Chelsea, and she knew she needed to address that issue with her nurses at some point.
Another deviation from the norm was that the girls all seemed to be talking about Derek a lot. From the topics that came up, it was clear they were very into him. All three of her floor nurses couldn’t seem to stop talking about his cute scruffy haircut, how blue his eyes were, and on and on. For someone they only met a few days ago, the girls all seemed a bit more infatuated with him than she’d expect.
Chelsea could almost understand this infatuation from Sara and Jen - both had been single for a while and they were more of the party girl type. It kinda made sense that those two would enjoy a male presence at work. The fact that Julie was just as into Derek as the others was definitely weirder, though. Jules was engaged to an awesome guy named Bryce, and at least up until she left on vacation, all Jules could talk about was wedding planning and how excited she was to be marrying the man of her dreams. It was so cute it was almost sickening. So it was definitely strange that almost three hours into their 12 hour shift Julie hadn’t brought up Bryce or the wedding once, but couldn’t stop herself from gushing over how great Derek’s music taste was or how funny his jokes were, or any number of other compliments. Chelsea made a mental note to add “toning down the Derek adoration” to the list of things to address with her staff later on.
But before she could call that awkward staff meeting, Chelsea knew she had to decide how to handle the whole situation with Kris hiring a so-called nurse with zero qualifications. Hopefully Kris fired Derek and she’d never see him again. That would be the easy answer and would explain why he still hadn’t returned over two hours after heading to the office. But if she didn’t fire him, what then? Chelsea couldn’t risk her own license by supervising an unlicensed nurse. Would she have to quit? Should she use her authority as charge nurse to fire him herself? Would she need to report this to the state?
Chelsea was still mulling over her options when she heard the ding of the elevator down the hall and looked up to see Derek step out and stroll casually towards her. The way he was so laid back about everything was royally pissing Chelsea off, so she decided this was it. He was still here, so Kris must not have fired him. ‘As soon as he gets back to the nurse’s station, I’m going to call him out on his qualifications right here in the open and let him go.’ Chelsea told herself. If she was lucky, the other nurses, hearing that Derek is a fraud with no license, might snap out of their obsession and get back to normal.
As he arrived at the nurse’s station, Derek smiled at Chelsea. “Hey boss lady, I made it through my meeting with Kris and I’m still here, so it only makes sense that you and I should find someplace private to talk.”
He was right, she realized. As much as she wanted to call him out here and now, it was a better idea to go someplace private. After all, Kris apparently didn’t fire him, so maybe there was something she didn’t know about. She was still pissed about the whole situation and wanted him gone, but it wouldn’t hurt to get him alone and address it all there. Not too alone, of course. The way he checked her out earlier gave her bad vibes. The med room next to the nurse’s station was private, but close enough to the front that nurses, patients, and security staff would all be close by if she needed help.
“I couldn’t agree more, Derek.” Chelsea replied. “Come on over to the med room and we can -”
“Actually,” Derek said, cutting her off. “You agreed that we should go somewhere private, so it only makes sense that we’d go someplace really private, like the lounge in the north corridor.”
Of course he was right. While the med room was private, it wasn’t very private. Somebody could walk by and hear what she was saying, Chelsea thought to herself. If she lost her cool, it would be embarrassing. The north corridor is totally vacant and the lounge at the end of the hall was pretty much never used aside from her own nurses. That really would be the best place to have this conversation.
“That works for me,” Chelsea told him. As she got up from her desk to start heading towards the vacant end of the building Derek addressed the other three nurses, “the boss lady and I might be back there for a while, so it only makes sense that you three would pick up her work for the rest of the day.” As the girls nodded in acceptance, Chelsea found herself agreeing too. She hoped this would be a short meeting, but regardless, it really did make sense for the girls to take the rest of her workload for the day. With that she and Derek headed down the hall.
Once the two rounded the corner into the north corridor and were out of sight from the main hall, Derek slowed down just enough that he was behind Chelsea. When she turned around to make sure he was still with her, She realized he was definitely checking her out again. Between her silky blonde hair, bright green eyes and generous breasts, Chelsea was used to getting looks when she went out, but this was work and Derek was a subordinate. She found herself irritated and a bit creeped out from his behavior. Still, she just wanted to get this over with, so she turned and continued towards the lounge so she could confront Derek, tell him to take a hike, and get on with her life.
Finally they reached the end of the corridor and Derek followed Chelsea into the lounge. As he entered the room Derek closed the door, and Chelsea turned around in time to see him setting the lock.
“Hey! No no no no no!” She scolded Derek. “I said I wanted to talk privately, not that I wanted to lock the doors. Let’s unlock that right now.”
“Chill out boss lady.” Derek almost laughed. “You were the one who agreed to meet back here, so it only makes sense that you’d want to lock the door for extra privacy.”
Of course he was right. She did want to meet in the most remote corner of the building. If you’re going to be that far removed from the rest of the building you should just go all the way and lock the door to make sure nobody walked in while she was verbally tearing him apart.
Like the rest of the north corridor, the lounge was a bit dated. The room was a fairly decent size, with a faded but super comfortable sofa along the wall close to the door, a few chairs around a beat up conference table in the middle of the room, and a small kitchenette at the far end. With no windows and being about as far away from the daily grind of the care center as you could get, this was definitely the best place to have this confrontation, and locking the door was definitely wise, Chelsea decided.
“Okay Derek, fair enough. Just have a seat and let’s talk about your credentials.” When Chelsea said this she assumed Derek understood that she wanted to sit at the conference table, but much to her chagrin, Derek plopped himself down right in the middle of the sofa. “Derek, this is a serious meeting, not a casual conversation. When I said have a seat I meant that I wan-”
“Actually boss lady,” Derek said, cutting her off again, “when you told me to have a seat you didn’t say where, so it only makes sense that it’s okay for me to sit wherever I want.”
In her mind, Chelsea suddenly realized that he was right, and it really wasn’t a big deal. She could call him out regardless of where he was sitting. No, Derek parking his butt on the couch didn’t bother her, but something else he said definitely did.
“Never mind about the seating, but Derek, before we start this meeting, I need you to stop calling me boss lady. It’s rude and unprofessional. You can call me Nurse Stevens, or even Chelsea, but I have to insist that you quit calling me boss lady. Do you understand?”
