Chapter 16: Nurse of the Year

The ballroom held four hundred people in black and gold.

Heath and I stood at the back wall, behind the last table.

My rented tuxedo itched at the neck.

"Breathe," Heath said.

"I am breathing."

"Slower. Your hands are shaking and you haven't done anything yet."

At the front, on a stage with white roses, the hospital's board sat along one long table.

Sabine sat at its end.

She did not look back at us.

She had told the technician at the sound desk to expect a short video from the legal department.

That was the whole favor she had asked for, and she had gotten it with her own badge.

The host tapped the microphone.

"Our Nurse of the Year was chosen by his colleagues," he said. "He is the best of us, and he has had a very hard month."

The room clapped.

Tobin rose from the second table in a pale suit.

His silver cufflinks caught the light as he climbed the steps.

He took the microphone with both hands.

"Thank you," he said, and his voice was already trembling. "I can't say how much this means."

A woman at the front table wiped her eyes.

"I became a nurse because I believe nobody should be alone in the worst hour of their life."

Heath muttered something I will not repeat.

"This year, I was attacked," Tobin said. "In public, by someone I was trying to protect."

The room went soft and low.

"But I forgive him. I want you all to know that."

Four hundred people clapped for his mercy.

It was my turn.

I put down my glass.

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