Q Without U

Then his brown eyes opened wide. The mouthful of ice cold draft had coursed down his throat. But the flavor that lingered on his tongue was not the pleasant taste of beer. It was an odd, metallic, slightly acidic taste.

His tongue felt thick in his mouth. It was hard to breathe; Ulysses imagined he could feel his throat begin to swell, the passageway begin to close up.

Dr. Olsen was talking, but Ulysses did not hear the words.

*.*.*

Two days after his ordeal at the Dead End, Ulysses was discharged. He pulled on the freshly laundered hospital scrubs and briefs and thanked Molly and the other nurses that had cared for him.

Then he took a cab to the Dead End bar and retrieved his car.

"Quinn called for you," was Katie's response when Ulysses entered.

"Missed you too, Mother, no, no, I feel fine, thanks for asking, those were lovely flowers you sent and I really enjoyed you coming to see me while I was in the hospital," Ulysses said as he walked to his room.

"Oh dry up, Ulysses," Katie said.

When Ulysses returned to work the following Tuesday, he was told that Dr. Marcus Olsen had been fired and was currently under investigation by the AMA. Eric and Joe, the two maintenance workers were given a two weeks suspension, without pay for their involvement. Joe shrugged and accepted the suspension, but Eric angrily quit.

Those actions did not affect Ulysses. He was glad to hear that Marc had finally incurred some consequences of his actions. Joe and Eric, he did not know them, other than to nod 'hello' to them as their paths crossed in the hospital corridors.

But Quinn had also been suspended, pending an investigation into the alleged attempt to poison Ulysses.

"Think if I talked to her supervisor?" Ulysses asked Dr. Thompson during a rare lull in the chaos of the ER.

"Wasn't Bernie; Paula Lambert's one made that decision," Debbie shrugged.

"Think if I talked to Ms. Lambert?" Ulysses asked.

"Honestly? I really don't think it'd do a bit of good. I mean, you can try, but..." Debbie said and looked up as an ambulance screamed up to the sliding glass doors.

The drug overdose didn't survive and Debbie set her mouth tightly and called the police. The friend that had called 911 was being very tight lipped about her friend's name or her parents' names.

Under threat of arrest, Robin Schalyer gave the victim's name as Alicia Begnaud, and gave the name of the school friend that had sold them the pills.

"Just another day in the ER," Debbie muttered, looking at the almost peaceful face of Alicia Begnaud.

"Stupid shit like this? Can see why my mother's an atheist," Ulysses spat, angered over the needless death.

An elderly man, thinking he may be suffering a heart attack distracted the ER staff for the next twenty minutes.

"Oh my God no!" Alicia's mother screamed, seeing her daughter's lifeless body.

Ulysses caught the woman before she hit the floor and helped an orderly lift the moaning woman onto a gurney.

"Yep, just another day in the ER," Ulysses muttered as he clocked out.

"Yep," Brian McNichol's agreed as he clipped on his ID badge, preparing for another day in the ER.

With a weary nod, Ulysses walked along the back corridor toward the employee's parking lot. Paula Lambert and Ulysses stepped out of the hospital at the same time, both heading to their cars in the employee parking lot. Paula did ask how he was feeling; had he fully recovered from his experience. Ulysses asked how her three cats and two dogs were doing.

She had shared with him that she'd recently lost one cat and her partner had decided to replace Clint Eastwood, her orange tabby, with a floppy eared basset hound. They named the hound Elvis Presley.

"Well, duh, what else would you name a hound dog?" Ulysses had laughed and Paula had smiled.

So, now whenever their paths crossed, he asked about her 'kids.'

"They're rotten, just rotten animals," Paula smiled.

"Hey, uh, Ms. Lambert?" Ulysses asked as she unlocked the door to her BMW. "If uh, if you were looking for a lawyer, uh, handle a divorce?"

"Nicole Banks," Paula said. "Took over Sophia Coutre's office when Sophia retired."

She opened the door of her car.

"For what it's worth? I'm sorry," she said.

Ulysses nodded his head. Looking into her eyes, he could tell that the hospital administrator sincerely meant it.

His cell phone did a search and the number for Coutre and Associates popped up.

"I uh, hi, I'd like to make an appointment with Ms. Banks," Ulysses said when a pleasant sounding woman answered the phone.

"Actually, I'd like to not even know Nicole's name, know that she exists, never ever need her," Ulysses thought.

He made an appointment for the next day, thanked the woman, and drove home.

"Quinn called; I am not your secretary," Katie snapped when Ulysses came in.

"Tell her, don't tell me; burn anything for supper?" Ulysses asked.

"Homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, Mr. Smarty Pants," Katie snapped.

He sat down, ate, thanked her, which earned him a grunt and went to his room.

"Quinn, quit calling my mother, huh?" Ulysses sighed when Quinn answered her phone.

He cut off her entreaties by repeating what Katie had said. His mother was not his secretary.

Then he disconnected.

Nicole Banks was an attractive brunette, very stylishly dressed in blouse and skirt. Ulysses could see a matching jacket hanging on the back of her chair. When Ulysses said Paula Lambert had recommended her, the young woman smiled.

He wrote out a check and retained the attorney's services, filled out the paperwork and actually broke down and cried as he signed the paperwork.

"Any kind of break up is hard," Nicole offered softly. "But, just like pruning a rose bush? In the end, it helps the bush grow better."

"I was happy growing wild," Ulysses said bitterly.

"I know you were," Nicole said. "But sometimes we don't have that choice."

Nicole filed the petition, then contacted Richard Boudreaux.

Quinn was puttering around the house when she heard the doorbell. She ate because she had to, not because she wanted to. She showered because she had to, not because she wanted to. And she was cleaning the house because it needed it. And the simple activity kept her busy.

She checked that her tee shirt covered her chubby belly, that her shorts had not risen to expose her chunky butt, and answered the door.

"Hi Quinn, how's it going?" Richard smiled. "Sorry, hi, I'm Richard; I'm Bernie's husband."

"Huh? Oh, oh yeah, we met at the Pizza party," Quinn said.

"Yeah, that's right," Richard smiled.

"So, what can I..." Quinn asked.

"And you've been served," Richard said, handing Quinn an envelope.

Quinn took the manila envelope, face wrinkled in confusion. Richard snapped a digital photograph of her holding the envelope and walked away.

Quinn waved good bye to her supervisor's husband, then closed the door.

"Dear God, please let that not be what I think it is," Quinn begged.

*.*.*

In an effort to cut a deal, Marc tried to claim that it had been Quinn's idea to use the Sulphur based anabolic steroid in Ulysses' beer. But after Quinn testified, the Assistant district Attorney also slapped perjury charges on Dr. Marcus Olsen.

Against the advice of Sonny Lambert, his attorney, the doctor had decided on a trial by jury. He was sure he'd be able to charm any female jurors to declaring him innocent. And if they couldn't persuade the rest of the jurors of the handsome doctor's innocence, they would certainly give him a reduced sentence.

"Twelve to twenty five?" the no longer proud man squealed when the gavel came down.

"A man almost died, Marc," Sonny Lambert drunkenly slurred.

"You're drunk," Marc snarled.

"No shit. And you're screwed," Sonny smirked.

Quinn Lee lost her nursing certificate. She would be able to reapply in one year's time to the nursing board.

She took a job at the Wagon Wheel Day Care Center in Bender, Louisiana. There, she would get to work with babies, and toddlers.

She did not fight the divorce. Ulysses offered to sell her his half of their home, but Quinn tearfully told him, that without him there, it wasn't a home. Without him there, she did not want to stay in the house.

They were able to sell it for eighty four thousand dollars, and after paying off the twenty thousand four hundred and eighty dollars owed, they split the profits.

As they signed the papers for the sale of the home, Quinn looked across the table.

"I'm sorry," she admitted.

"I am too," Ulysses said.

"I, I miss you," Quinn whispered.

"Me too," Ulysses said.

After leaving the attorney's office, Ulysses drove to the Dead End bar. He checked his watch, determined that it was five o'clock somewhere and got out of his car.

On the stage, a pretty strawberry blonde was swiveling and gyrating to a Nine Inch Nails song that Ulysses did not recognize. A patron dropped a five dollar bill into her tip jar and the dancer gave the patron a beautiful smile.

"She's new, huh?" Ulysses said when an Asian-American waitress approached his table.

"Yeah, just started on..." Dawn Li said, then recognized Ulysses.

"You're him!" she said.

"I'm him who?" Ulysses asked.

Guy got poisoned here," she said and scurried away before Ulysses could order a St. Elizabeth's draft.

A moment later, the attractive blonde woman that had been dancing on the stage when Ulysses met with Dr. Olsen was at his table, smiling widely.

"Hi! I'm Heather; I was here day you got poisoned," the blonde said cheerfully.

She hugged him, pressing his face into her substantial cleavage. She then gave him a jammy kiss on his forehead, leaving a splotch of bright red lipstick.

"I prayed and prayed you'd be all right," she enthused, sitting down uninvited.

"Me too," the waitress smiled, rubbing his arm affectionately.

"Wow," Ulysses said, blushing under the attention of two beautiful women. "I uh, well thank you. As you can see, I'm all right now."

"Uh, Heather, you on break or something?" Kirsten called out as the strawberry blonde was skipping off of the stage.

"Don't go nowhere," Heather implored as she got to her feet.

Ulysses ordered a draft and a plate of nachos. He'd skipped lunch because of the appointment at the lawyer's office, but just wasn't hungry enough for meatloaf, the plate lunch of the day.

"I'll give you extra," Dawn Li whispered in his ear, blowing warm air. "Heather loves the nachos here."

'Some Like It Hot' by The Power Station boomed out and Heather stepped onto the stage. She flashed a brilliant smile in Ulysses' direction as she danced.

"Here you go, Honey," Dawn Li said, putting his draft in front of him.

Dawn Li put a second draft and a heaping plate of nachos in front of him just as Heather was skipping off of the stage.

"Now I'm on break," Heather announced to Kirsten as she struggled back into her top.

"Ooh, nachos! Can I?" Heather asked, again sitting down uninvited.

"Yeah, she gave me extra," Ulysses smiled and Heather dug in with gusto.

"By the way, what's your name?" she asked, nodding her thanks as Dawn Li put a bottle of water on the table for her.

"Ulysses, Ulysses Lee," Ulysses said.

"From The Iliad and the Odyssey? Or from the civil war?" Heather asked.

"Civil War; my mother thinks we're related to Robert E. Lee," Ulysses said.

They sat through a Latin girl's energetic routine, an African-American woman's routine, and the beginning of the strawberry blonde's routine when Heather gave him a jammy kiss, directly on his lips.

"Up next; thanks for the nachos," she said.

"Welcome," he smiled

She gave him a second kiss then scampered away.

He wasn't drunk, but Ulysses was pleasantly buzzed when Dawn Li and Heather Breaux told him that their shifts had come to an end.

"Oh, okay," he smiled. "Well, can I have the bill then?"

"Bill? What bill?" Dawn Li asked.

"You're our guest," Heather said and again kissed him.

"Well, guess I need to order myself a cup of coffee now," Ulysses said, realizing he had too much alcohol in his system to drive.

"Want the coffee here? Or..." Dawn Li asked.

She leaned and put her mouth to his ear, "...the coffee out our place?"

"Use real half and half," Heather offered.

"Would have to be an idiot turn that down, Ulysses smiled. "And my momma didn't raise her no idiots."

Ulysses did get to drink Heather's freshly ground coffee and did get to drink it with half and half creamer. He did not get to drink the rich, robust coffee until four thirty the following morning as he was preparing to leave their one bedroom apartment for a shift at the hospital. He watched as Heather selected the coffee beans; she seemed to like to mix several different beans together. The tight camisole top barely contained her large breasts. Ulysses had been pleasantly surprised to find out that Heather's 34E breasts were natural.

He had not been surprised to find out that Dawn Li's 30D breasts were the work of a skilled surgeon.

"Texas made and Texas proud!" Dawn Li had whooped, cupping her large breasts for Ulysses to suck and squeeze.

Heather's skimpy bikini panties stretched tightly across her luscious buttocks, and when she turned, Ulysses could see her puffy pubic mound outline through the lacy material.

"Sorry about waking y'all up so early," Ulysses whispered; Dawn Li was still asleep.

Heather smiled a dazzling smile, shrugged and kissed him. She then cranked her coffee grinder. The movements made her beautiful breast jiggle and jostle.

"Got an electric one," she confided in a low whisper. "But, really? Love doing it by hand."

She poured a carafe of ice cold water and within moments, the small apartment filled with the delicious aroma of fresh brewed coffee. Ulysses was served a large mug; the service came with a soft kiss.

"What time you go in anyway?" Heather asked as she sipped her own cup of coffee.

"Six," he said.

"Six? Ooh, and it's only four thirty now," she enthused and gripped his cock.

"Need to shower and shave, hell, need to wake up," Ulysses smiled.

"Oh, can shower here," she suggested.

She rubbed his bristles.

"And we got a razor blade for that cute face," she continued.

"Nuh uh; we tried taking a shower last night. Remember?" Ulysses smiled and she flashed him another brilliant smile.

"Yeah, well, tank only holds twenty five gallons," she shrugged. "So what you going do?"

She smiled a playful smile.

"Plenty of water when me and Dawn Li shower together," she said suggestively.

She then toyed with his shirt button, smiling up into his brown eyes. She kissed him again.

"So, uh, then what time you get off?" she asked.

"Four," Ulysses said.

"You come on back?" Heather invited. "We're off today."

Ulysses drove to his mother's house, smiling.

"I'm not running a hotel here, just come and go as you please," Katie snapped as Ulysses entered the darkened living room.

"No kidding; hotel's got nicer staff," Ulysses agreed. "Won't be home again tonight, okay?"

*.*.*

Paula Lambert called for an audit of medical supplies for each floor of the hospital. Ulysses had performed the last inventory count for the ER supply closet, so the tedious task of counting each bottle, each bandage fell to Brian McNichol's.

"One bottle Sulphate Ana... Aw, shit, seal's been broken," Brian muttered, crossed the item off the computer printout and tossed the bottle into the trash can.

THE END

**Author's Note: I write these stories for my pleasure; I post them here for your enjoyment. I do sincerely thank you for reading my stories.

I also thank those that take the time to leave comments, positive and negative. And thank those that take the time to rate my stories.

I do not, however, read emails. The few that I did read were so vulgar, some even threatening that I simply delete them without opening them. Really? You hate me and you hate my stories that much? Then don't read them. There are some very talented writers on this site.

To fill in any blank spots you may have. Ulysses did not know that Dr. Marcus Olsen planned to lace his beer with the Sulphate Anabolic steroid. So, before leaving work, Ulysses went into the supply closet of the ER, broke the seal on a bottle of Sulphur based anabolic steroid and poisoned himself in an effort to frame his wife's lover.

Have a warm and fuzzy day. What the hell; you made it this far? Have two or three warm and fuzzy days.