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Operation Invisible String ◌ Eddie Diaz

Chapter Four: Oh, no... Did you get fired?

NICOLETTE CAME BACK home almost three hours later to find Gemma and her mother sitting on the sofa, eating pancakes and watching an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Gemma’s most recent obsession). Marceline wasn’t home judging by the lack of her shoes and jacket. She had no idea where Mars could be. Maybe she had picked up an extra shift? Oh, well… Nicolette would have to tell Marceline what had happened later. Or perhaps she could text her? Not to tell her exactly what had happened, but just to let her know something had happened.

“Hey, honey, hey Mum,” she greeted them as she kicked off her shoes (not bothering to put them up on the shoe rack this time) and dumped her rucksack down on the floor. Nicolette made her way over to them and sat down on the sofa next to her daughter, ruffling her hair slightly which made the seven-year-old girl laugh. “Thank you for looking after her.”

“Of course! You know I love spending time with my favourite granddaughter,” her mother, Silvia, responded with a small smile as she looked down at the girl who turned to look away from the episode she was watching to glance up at her grandmother. “But Grandma!” Gemma said with a laugh. “I’m your only granddaughter!”

A light chuckle sounded from Nicolette at this. “Well, she’s got you there, Mum,” she pointed out as she slouched back on the sofa and a stifled yawn escaped past her lips. It had been a pretty long day for the brunette female who’d had a night shift and everything. She had not gotten a lot of sleep either, which really didn’t help.

Silvia couldn’t help but let out a light laugh and nod her head to what Gemma and Nicolette had said. There was no way she could disagree with them. Gemma was the only granddaughter in the Bishop family. In fact, the seven-year-old girl was the only grandchild in their family as Nicolette’s older brother, Julian, didn’t have any children himself yet.

It fell silent between the three Bishop females as they watched the Star Wars episode end and a new one begin just seconds later. “I thought you were working a night shift today?” her mother asked her in a slightly lowered voice as if to not disturb the young girl who had her eyes glued to the screen, completely engrossed with the new episode.

Nic turned her head to look at her mother and nodded slightly, letting her mother know that she was indeed right. “Yes, I did. But uh, I had to help out a friend,” she informed her with a shrug of her shoulders. Nicolette couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the look her mother sent her and she knew she had to elaborate on it. “You know Buck, right? …Giraffe, as Gemma calls him. Well, he has a friend, one of his co-workers needed some help figuring out how to get his son what he needs, so…” Nic shrugged her shoulders. That was about it. …well, almost.

“And… I might help him out with his son, as a home health care aide, meaning I won’t be an ER nurse anymore…” she continued, not sure how her mother would feel about her quitting her job at the hospital in favour of this. “But I think it would be great and it would allow me to spend a lot more time with Gemma. No more shift work, meaning no more night shifts. And his son is such a sweet kid, and he and Gemma are pretty good friends too.”

“Honey.” Silvia stopped Nicolette’s ramble and offered her daughter a smile. “I think that sounds amazing. And if you think so, that’s the only thing that matters.”

Nicolette let out an almost inaudible relieved sigh as she nodded to what her mother had said. “I think it sounds amazing, Mum,” she responded. “I want to spend more time with Gemma.” She meant every single word. Nic had (desperately) wanted a job that allowed her to spend a lot more time with her daughter than the one she had right now, so this was a no-brainer — or at least it should be a no-brainer for the nurse.

Silvia gave her daughter a nod, a smile pulling at her lips. She didn’t care what Nicolette worked with as long as her daughter was happy with her profession. If Nic was happy, Silvia was happy. That was all that mattered to Silvia. And it was a big plus that Gemma would get to spend more time with her mother (a mother that would have more energy if the night shifts would stop). “Then, I think you should go for it, Nic.”

A small smile pulled at Nic’s lips. At least she knew her mother supported her decision, which helped quite a lot. It was a very tough decision for the female to make — to quit her very stable (and not too bad paying) job for something she had never done before. It was a rather scary thing to do for her (…for anyone). However, it just seemed like the right thing for her to do.

“I’ll let him know that I’ll take the job and help him out,” she told her mother and fished her phone out from her pocket. She leaned closer to her daughter to cuddle the young girl as she scrolled through her contacts. Nicolette had barely gotten to spend any time with Gemma. “And I will let the hospital know…” she continued as she began typing a text message to Buck, as Nic didn’t have Eddie’s number.

To: Evan Buckley hey, sorry to bother you, buck, but i don’t have eddie’s number, so would you please let him know that i’ll help him with his son? as a health care aide… perhaps you could give me his number? or give him my number. thanks :)

───── . • . • ⁎ ⋆ ༄ . ✧

HEN AND KAREN had invited Nicolette and Gemma to join them, Denny, Harry and Michael in the park for a playdate for their kids. But it was also a great opportunity for the grownups (though Nicolette did not always feel like an actual adult…) to catch up and just talk to each other. Gemma, Denny and Harry ran off almost immediately, just wanting to play with the Wilsons new dog, Paisley, while their parents laid the red and white chequered tablecloth down on the park table so they could have a picnic.

“Hey, listen… ” Micheal spoke up as he sat down. “I am glad that Athena got someone new. Okay? No, I am,” he reassured them while Hen and Karen placed the paper plates, the sandwiches and the beverages they had brought with them on the table. Nic didn’t get to help. She had tried to help them set everything out on the table, but Karen had just shaken her head and made the female sit, telling her to “relax for once.”

“You should have heard what Harry told me the other day,” he continued. “He says, ‘Dad, doesn’t it seem weird that you’re an architect and Bobby is a firefighter? I mean, you’re there when the buildings go up,” he made a gesture with his hand to show them how the invisible building went up, and then down, “but he’s there when it burns down to the ground.”

A chuckle sounded from the four adults at this. There was no way Nic couldn’t laugh a little.

“Hey, you know, Bobby is a good man,” he admitted once the laughter had died down. “And I think that’s what makes it a little bit harder. I mean, he had this natural paternal quality.”

“Well, listen… You don’t need to worry. ‘Cause, you are those babies' fathers, and they know it.” Karen nodded her head in the direction of where Michael’s son, Harry was playing with Gemma and Denny, and their dog. “And anything they get from him is just extra,” she reminded the man sitting across the table from her as she handed Nicolette a purple-coloured plastic cup. It looked like Michael really needed a bit of a pep-talk right about now.

Michael smiled at her. “Yeah, that’s right,” he answered with a chuckle and the Wilsons nodded in agreement. “But speaking of good men…” Michael paused as his, Hen and Karen’s gaze fell on Nicolette who let out a sigh.

Right, of course… She should have known.

The Bishop female frowned as she looked at them. Yeah… Nic really should have known better at this point. They were all a little too invested in Nic’s love life, but the female knew her friends only meant well — they just cared for her and wanted the best for the single mother, who didn’t seem to have had someone special in her life in forever. And while that was true, it had been a while since she had been on a date, Nicolette didn’t mind it a bit. She was more than content with how her life was at the moment.

“No…” Nic shook her head. “We are not going there…”

Hen raised an eyebrow at the younger female, who had just taken a bite of the sandwich that lay on the paper plate in front of her. “Oh, no, no, no, Ms Bishop. We’re going there because I heard from your dear roomie, that you came home one day and said you had just met and I quote ‘a really hot guy’…”

Several ooh’s were heard from Karen and Micheal (as if it was news to Karen… Hen had 100% already told her!). Nic couldn’t help the scoff that sounded from her at this. Okay, so Hen knew.

“Oh, come on, Nicolette!” Michael said. “We never talk about your love life.”

“Because there’s absolutely nothing to talk about,” she replied before taking another bite of her avocado sandwich. There was little to nothing to discuss regarding Nic’s love life — nothing exciting happened, and she never talked about her relationship with Andrew, Gemma’s biological father. Everyone just knew the little Nicolette had told them; that he bailed on them just before Gemma’s second birthday. “But maybe we could talk about how I’m no longer working as a paediatric ER nurse instead…?” she suggested to them, wanting to change the subject away from her love life.

The bombshell Nicolette just dropped, made them forget all about her love life.

“What?!”

“You what now?” Karen questioned, a look of shock across her features that matched her wife and Michael’s expression to a tee and Nic really could not blame them. It was a very understandable reaction to what she had just told them — it was a bit of a shocker.

Michael’s expression turned into a more confused one (with a hint of worry maybe??) as he looked at the Bishop female. “You’re no longer an ER nurse? Nicolette, what happened? Oh, no... Did you get fired?” he asked her, and Michael definitely looked a lot more worried now that he thought she had gotten fired from her job at the hospital.

Nicolette shook her head as a chuckle sounded from her. “No, I didn’t get fired,” she reassured them and the brunette female noticed how they all seemed to let out a relieved breath upon hearing that the twenty-eight-year-old female did not get fired from her job. “I kind of changed jobs…”

“You changed your job?” Hen repeated, wondering if she had heard Nicolette correctly.

“Yes. Kind of…”

She hadn’t exactly quit her job. Kind of, yes, sure, but not quite. “I’m going to work as a home health care aide, part-time, so I’m still working at the hospital, but just not as a paediatric ER nurse,” she explained to them with a small smile pulling at her lips. Nicolette knew this was the right choice for her. “I’ll just be a paediatric nurse from now on… But more importantly, I will get to spend a lot more time with Gemma.”

Karen offered Nic a smile and gave her hand a light pat. “Oh, I think that sounds great!” It was not news to any of them that Nic had wanted a job that would allow her to spend a lot more time with her daughter than what her job did now, and so Karen, Hen and Michael couldn’t be happier for the Bishop female. They all knew how tough it was when your job got in the way of your family life, and they knew it was especially hard on Nicolette who was a single mother and didn’t have a partner to rely on for help — luckily, she had a lot of amazing friends.

“And I’m pretty sure you work with his father…”

“I do?” Hen narrowed her eyes in a rather confused manner as she tried to think who it could be. “Oh, wait! Right, right, of course. He said that Mr Silver Star was getting help from the best paediatric nurse he knew. What Buck said finally makes sense now. Did you know that you’re the best nurse ever?”

This time, it was Nic’s turn to look confused. Because, huh? Silver star? What? Best nurse?

Hen let out a laugh at the brunette’s confused look. “The best paediatric nurse Buck knows… Who else can it be? You’re the only one he knows,” she commented and Nicolette couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Of course, Buck had called her the best paediatric nurse he knew. “So, I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that you, Ms Bishop, are the nurse that is going to help Eddie… Diaz.”

“The one and only,” Nic answered with a sheepish smile as her daughter came running over. “Mum, come! You have to look at this beetle! Mum!”

Nic gave them an apologetic smile before she got to her feet so she could follow her daughter over to where Denny and Harry were (with Paisley) to look at the beetle they had found.

“Oh… She is definitely going to fall for Mr Silver Star…” Hen muttered to her wife and Michael as they looked after Nic. “And if she doesn't… Then it is time for us to play matchmakers.”

❛ ∗ ╱

for you @chancelloramidala , @spiderlngs & @munsonssswp<3 ily

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