“Martin get in here now!”
Dr. Asshole is on patrol again. Danielle murmured matter-of-factly to herself.
“Coming” She responded as perky as possible, making a face as if she had just eaten rotting fish. Danielle so hated Dr. Whitten.
“You have a patient in curtain three.” He practically threw the patient’s chart at her.
Danielle scanned the chart, while walking to curtain three. With her left hand she pulled the curtain open, not even looking up.
“Kevin Richardson?” She asked, making sure she had the name right. She looked up slightly.
“Yeah, that’s me.” Stated the man lying on the hard bed rubbing his neck.
Danielle could feel herself become hot as she peered into his eyes, dark like the clear night sky in Septmeber. The twinlke in his eyes shining like the stars among that very same midnight scene.
Danielle, get a hold of yourself. Her conscience finally kicking in and reminding her that this was a patient.
“Wha...What seems to be the problem?” She stuttered.
“Well, my collar bone really hurts.”
Danielle slipped on a pair of latex gloves and walked over to her striking patient.
Danielle, not professional. She always hated the fact that she had a conscience.
“Does this hurt?” She questioned as she felt around on his neck.
With pain in his voice he muttered a ‘yes’
“Okay. Any back, chest, or head pain?”
“No. Just my collarbone.”
“Okay” she replied as she scribbled some notes onto his chart. “It looks as though you’ve broken your collarbone but we’ll make sure with an x-ray. Is there any medication that you’re allergic to?”
“Just penicillin.” He answered plainly.
Boy did I luck out with this doctor. She is beautiful. Her eyes, her hair, her lips. He looked into her eyes and he completely melted. What is happening to me? Stop it! He scolded himself.
“You'll be taken up to x-rays to make sure what’s wrong before we make a decision on what to do.” Danielle informed him as she helped Kevin off of the rock hard bed and had a near by nurse direct him down to radiology where Danielle would be with him shortly.
The uncomfortable gurney always made Danielle stiff, but she got used to the bed on wheels. However, her sleep schedule was thrown off from her odd shifts and trying to get any sleep at two in the morning seemed almost impossible for her now. She was just about to drift into a light snooze when a loud, shrill voice came from the pitch-black suture room.
Emma slowly dialed her mother’s phone number with shaky and sweaty hands. She waited with anticipation as the phone rang once... twice... five times, before she hung up without leaving a message. Emma knew that the reoccurring dreams, which played over and over again in her head, had to do with her mother, but she could never figure out what was really going on in the dream. She stared into the hall mirror as she pulled her shoulder length, strawberry red hair into a ponytail to reveal her emerald green eyes. Walking out the front door and on to her driveway, she could feel the cold concrete on her bare feet. The ground was wet due to the continual rainstorms that always occurred in January. She closed her eyes for a moment to take in the newly moist air. Her concentration was broken by the now too familiar sound of an emergency ambulance. Her thoughts turned to Nickolas and how she had pushed him away once again without a reason why.
It’s not that I feel challenged by him. It’s his fault, always trying to get me to talk to him. So I don’t want to talk. I don’t have anything to say to him anyway. Emma rambled quietly to herself, trying to release some of her burden. She knew she had to apologize, but for someone like Emma, it took a lot to carry out an apology.
“Why do you even care?” Asked Mark as he scrubbed his hands and put on some OR scrubs to ready himself for his next patient in need of an operation.
“I just don’t want her to over work herself.” Nick answered, speaking only half the truth about Emma. “I mean, the girl works like 90 hours a week because she’s on her internship and she rarely asks anyone for help.”
“So? What’s your point?” Mark implored annoyed, but didn’t listen long enough to hear Nick’s answer.
“I just worry that’s all.” Sighed Nickolas as he looked intently at the shiny, tiled floor and slipped some latex gloves over his washed hands. He glanced at the clock and noticed the time, 4:58.
Emma should be here in an hour or so. Nick said to himself, calming his nerves.
“Let’s go with the bad.” Kevin gave his best smile, just showing off his pearly whites.
Danielle tried to act as professional as possible. “Bad news, your collarbone is broken.”
Kevin looked down then back up at Danielle.
Gees, those green eyes are perfect. Danielle thought as she stared into his eyes and then quickly looked at his chart again.
“Good news, you get to wear a bright blue nylon sling!” She blurted out.
“Well that just makes it all better.” He stated sarcastically.
“Here is your referral to help with the pain. Any reaction, come back right away. Craig here will help you to the pharmacy. And I am sorry that it took so long. It's almost 5 am.” And with that she started to walk out.
“Dr. Martin?”
Danielle turned around, her hair hitting her shoulder. “Please, call me Danielle.”
“Dr. Mar... I mean Danielle, would you... like to go somewhere tonight? Because, well, you seem really interesting and I would like to get to know you better.”
“I don’t think so.” Then Danielle was out to her next patient, leaving behind her first possible date in 5 months.
“Mommy? Mommy?” The young girl screamed as she ran down the dark corridor. “Mommy?” She pulled a white sheet off of the huddle figure on the floor just as a blurred creature grabbed her by the arm. The child reached up, about to unmask this strange foreigner when...
“ It’s 6 o’clock in the Bay Area and it’s a blustery day in San Francisco,” Emma’s alarm sounded to wake her from her draining sleep. She was covered in sweat and her heart felt as though it would pound right out of her chest. She felt tortured by thoughts as she slept and was glad that she didn’t have to face it anymore; at least not this morning.
“Why do I keep having that same daunting dream?” Emma questioned herself, scratching her head. “And why does my damn alarm always go off before it ends?”
She tore the tangled sheets off of her sweating body and jumped in her shower. Emma stepped out of the misted bathroom with a towel wrapped only around her long hair, leaving the rest of her body uncovered. Slipping into some blue scrubs, she grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter and a fruit & cereal bar out of the cupboard; Emma never had time for a decent breakfast these days. She moaned and yawned as she finished the rest of her morning ritual, giving herself plenty of time to get to work. Dr. Whitten was always on her case, and it only got worse if she was late.
Emma plucked her wool mittens off of her protected hands, only to throw on a pair of latex gloves to ready herself for any patients as she stepped into the prominent hospital.
“Anything up Doug?” Emma asked, a bit concerned to see her colleague at the hospital at 6:40 in the morning. She could tell by the rings under his eyes that he had pulled an all nighter.
“ No, it’s pretty slow this morning. Thank God”
Emma set out to the lounge to put her purse and keys in her locker as she waved her hand in the air to signal to Doug that she had heard his response. She reached for the handle on the door to enter the lounge when the large metal doors came instantly towards her face.
“Oh my God! Em, I’m so sorry!” Nick panicked as he ran over to help Emma off of the cold floor. “I’m so sorry Emma.” Nick repeated himself, not knowing if she had heard him the first time.
“It’s okay Nick.” She said as she struggled to stand up only to fall to the floor again, after she had propped herself up the first time. “If anything, I should be apologizing to you.”
Nick looked strangely at Emma as he held her by her arms and lifted her up off the floor once again. He didn’t know why Emma thought that she owed him an apology.
“Em, you don’t have to say...” Nick was hushed by Emma.
“Carter, I hardly ever hand out apologies, so when I give one to you, you should take it.” Emma stated to him before she realized that he still had a grip on her arm. She pulled her arm quickly away from him and was about to open her mouth when,
“Carter, you gotta... you gotta take the ambulance down to Embarcadero.” Doug hurriedly spat out. “Riley, you gotta go with him. There was a car crash and the other paramedics are backed up with that fire!”
Nick took a quick glace at Emma and run out towards where the ambulance was parked. Emma grabbed her white coat and rushed to join Nick in the ambulance.
The sirens were sounding and it made Nick’s adrenaline rush. He grabbed the medical kit and ran towards the sight with Emma close on his heels. Emma shoed the awaiting police officers out of the way so that she could tend to her patients. News stations already had their camera crews set up and were filming everything that happened. It made Emma tense.
The street was a wreck, full of traffic and cones, as it was the morning commute time. Nick began worring after five minutes of working with the patients at the scene; the other ambulances hadn’t arrived. Traffic was stopped as the County Helicopter landed on the crowded freeway. Emma was fumbling with an IV that she couldn’t inject the patient with. Nick noticed this and reached over to help as his patient was put into the helicopter and flown to County Hospital.
“Nick! I got it!” Emma screamed over the loud commotion of the helicopter and constant honking of furious drivers.
“We are you being so stubborn?” Nick yelled at Emma with the bleeding man underneath them. “Just let me help you!” He pushed her out of the way and she fell to the hard pavement, furry ran through her veins. The man was placed in another ambulance and rushed to County Hospital along with the other two patients that were involved in the crash.
Emma ran through the hospital doors. Her fists were clenched, her teeth were clasped shut and the thought of Nick made her blood boil.
He had no right to do that! That was MY patient! How dare he. I go along to help his sorry ass and he repays me by stealing my patient and acting like a big shot. Emma’s thoughts screamed through her head only to be interrupted by the one person that she wanted so badly to scream at.
“What the hell is your problem?” Nick hollered at Emma as he ran through the main entrance to catch up with her.
Emma started to walk away. She knew that she would blow up at him if she stayed.
“Emma, don’t walk away from me!”
“Are you telling me what to do?” Emma asked rhetorically.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s been getting into you lately but I hate it. You never ask for help and one day it’s gonna come back to haunt you. I was just trying to do what was right for the patient.”
“Yeah, well I had it all under control.” Emma lied cold faced.
“Yeah, I could see that.”
“Listen,” She said getting more and more offensive. “I don’t need help from you or anyone else for that matter.” Emma straightforwardly lied as she turned to walk away. She was determined to not let her temper get the best of her like it so frequently did. Yet sometimes what we want isn’t always what we get.
Kevin gave a sigh. Like she would have ever gone out with you! He shook his head in disbelief. No one had ever turned him down so flatly before. He seated himself in his car after waiting an hour in line at the pharmacy for his pain medication. Boy, she was good looking though. He thought to himself in pity for his own heart.
“Emma wait!” Nickolas hollered as he darted to draw alongside Emma. He wanted to fix this with her.
“Look Carter, I don’t want to argue with you anymore.” She stated flatly as he walked alongside her. She could tell that her stealthy attitude was irritating him.
“I want to fix this right now Em. We have to work together weather you like it or not and this cold-shoulder act that you put on is really making me mad. I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”
“That’s just it Nickolas. We don’t have a friendship.” Emma could see Nick’s heart sink when she said this, but she had to look out for herself and as far as she knew, there was no relationship.
She turned away once again to walk back to the recovery room when Nick grabbed her by the arm.
“Emma please,” His eyes pleaded with hers. “I may not be your ‘friend’ but I am your colleague and I do worry about you. And you’re right that was your patient and I had no right, I was just thinking about the patient and I wasn’t focused on your feelings. I’m sorry.”
But Emma didn’t hear any of that, all she saw was Nick’s hand grasped tightly around her arm and the blurred creature that appeared so often in her dreams.
“Don’t you ever touch me like that again you jerk! You don‘t control my life! Just leave me alone!” She screamed as though she were being stabbed and that only drew more attention to their conflict in the busy hospital hallways.
Nickolas quickly let go of her arm. He was taken aback by the loud response from the small framed woman that stood before him.
He yelled out her name once again as she ran down the hall and locked herself in the suture room. She let her body slide down the metal door and she curled herself into a ball on the floor.
He’s just standing out there and probably thinking that I’m a total lunatic. I flipped out on him for no reason, well no good reason. She thought to herself, sinking her soul into even more depression.
“God, mommy, anyone? I need help. Please? Danielle I need you.” She cried alone until only sniffling noises came out of mouth and there were no more tears left to be shed.
