“Hey, can you help me out? I need to try to get Mr. Dart to join the land of the living. It’s almost been almost a full week.”
She grimaced at Paul’s words, putting the Holiday planning on the back burner. “Yeah, I knew it was coming. Just a minute.”
Putting her phone on the counter, she patted her pockets to make sure she didn’t have anything else that would be ruined. The last time they’d tried to give him a shower they’d gotten as wet as he had.
Dominic Dart was a soldier from one of the small countries that bordered Russia. Ukraine, she thought. Elizabeth said there was no documentation on what had happened to him, but Dominic had an extreme phobia of water now. Raine thought that the researchers had drowned him, then brought him back, possibly repeatedly, but she would never know for sure. Dominic definitely wouldn’t be telling her. He hadn’t said more than a few words about what had happened since he’d been here.
Physically, he was one of the healthiest men on the floor, though he was still battling some skin infections. He had full range of motion and no lingering illnesses, but he wouldn’t be getting out of here in the near future, not unless he became more aware. If he was released he would end up on the streets and dead.
They walked into his room and it took everything in her not to wrinkle her nose. Mr. Dart hadn’t bathed, whole body, for a week now. They tried to be understanding but it was becoming a bit of a health issue. The older man was terrified of water, but Raine had gotten to know him well enough that she could sweet talk him a little.
She didn’t want to hurt him or stress him out, but he had to bathe.
The older man looked up, a resigned look in his eyes. “I know,” he murmured, his words lightly accented. “Paul has been patient with me, but I knew.”
Raine felt bad but she couldn’t risk any of his old wounds becoming infected again. He’d been so many rounds of antibiotics that he was becoming resistant, which was a foreboding sign. Mr. Dart had very thin skin. Though he was only in his thirties, his skin was the texture of an elderly person’s. It was very odd.
“Yes, Paul has been patient, but sir, I can smell your room down the hallway,” she chided with a gentle smile. “We can change your sheets every hour to keep them clean, but you have to bathe as well.”
“I know, Raine. Believe me, I do, but the water…” his dark eyes fluttered shut. “It terrifies me. The doctors have talked to me again and again, but it makes no difference.”
“Well,” she murmured softly, resting a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to try a couple things today. Okay?”
He nodded and followed along as they guided him to the bathroom. Mr. Dart started to shudder, the fear obviously building, and Raine abruptly changed direction. “You know what? Let’s go to the staff locker room.”
Paul gave her a look, and nodded, covering his startlement. Mr. Dart looked surprised as well. “The staff locker room?”
She nodded. “Yes. Let’s get out of this cramped space and spread out. I’ll grab your shower gel and you follow Paul.”
The other nurse led the way from the room, Mr. Dart following along behind like a dog that had gotten yelled at for chasing chickens. She hated making him go through this, but she would find a way to make it more productive for all of them.
They’d tried baths and showers, bed baths, and every variation in between, but he would not relax with water. But maybe it was the environment as much as the water itself. He was definitely more agitated when he was in the bathroom, the smallest room they had tried.
When she arrived Mr. Dart had stripped down to his pale, so-delicate skin with no sign of modesty. It was one of the things that broke her heart most about working here. The men had no sense of their bodies being their own. They just went along with whatever the staff guided them to do. A few had fought them just on principal, but not because they were forced to be naked. Elizabeth had said that most of them were kept in cages about the size of the bathrooms, always unclothed. And she’d been told that they only received showers before they were tested upon, which was another stumbling block with Mr. Dart, she was sure. Whether he realized it or not he correlated getting clean with being tested upon.
As soon as they walked into the locker shower room she could tell that Mr. Dart’s anxiety hadn’t spiked the way it normally did. Paul had even turned on one of the spigots for the water to warm up. Mr. Dart was watching the water, an odd mix of fascination and terror in his expression. “I used to love water,” he admitted. “It was what made me such a good soldier. But now I only fear.”
Raine rested a hand on his bare arm, hoping he would look down at her. “There’s nothing to fear here. You know Paul and I aren’t going to hurt you. Our entire job is to take care of you. Literally. We want to get you to a place where this is just a part of your day, as normal as everything else.”
He looked down at her finally, sorrow in his eyes. “I would like to be normal someday.”
She nodded, giving him a smile. “Would you like me to get in the water first?”
His eyes widened and she was glad he was at least reacting. And she would do this for him if it proved that the water wasn’t painful. It wasn’t what she’d planned, but she would go with her
