***CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE***

Danny looks at his watch; he has forty-five minutes until the end of his shift.  Danny Sanchez, a nurse’s assistant, enters room #210.  He props the door open with his cleaning cart and turns on the overhead fluorescent lights. He is supposed to be cleaning the room, but instead Danny’s is looking for something that he had placed on the bed earlier. Danny looks up and notices someone asleep on the sofa.  Upon closer inspection, he notices that it’s a young woman sleeping in her clothes and baseball cap.  He surmises she really doesn’t belong in the room and that she’s probably just crashing.  Danny debates if he should wake her?  He stares at her for a moment (he’s a good judge of character).  She’s a cutie and she looks harmless she won’t be any trouble.

Danny touches Tina’s shoulder,  “Hey kid, wake up!  You’re not supposed to be in here.”  He shakes her shoulder this time.  Tina says, “Mom let me sleep!”  Danny smirks.  “Come on wake up girl I don’t want you to get into trouble,  you’re not supposed to be in here.”  Tina suddenly sits up and with a startled look on her face she says,  “Where am I?  Who are you?”  Danny explains.  “I’m just making my rounds on the Celebrity floor.  I’m a nurse’s assistant and I have to clean this room.  I have a reason to be in this room what are you doing here?”

Tina rubs her eyes and remembers she has to fabricate a story.  She begins  “I saw the orderly’s take a woman out of here a few hours ago, and I thought why let a perfectly good sofa go to waste.”

Danny laughs as he extends his hand to Tina,  “That’s a good one.  I like you.  What’s your name?”

Tina doesn’t hesitate.  “Katie O’Hern.” 

Danny smiles and introduces himself. “Katie O’Hern , my name is Danny Sanchez.  Why are you sleeping here?”

Tina begins her phony story.  “My friend works over in ICU.  I have to wait for him to get off work so he can drive me home.  He said to find myself a place to crash for a few hours, because I can’t stay in ICU.  I moved here two weeks ago from Chapel Hill, and I don’t have a car yet so I’m at the mercy of my friends.  I can’t afford a car anyways I’ve only been at my job for a week.”