Nadine - The Beginning

16. Nadia

I go into the doctors office the next day to check on the patient. Mary stays behind to work on something else.

Dorceti sees me walk in and comes running over. "Welcome back. Can you feed that old monster again? He just won't eat anything for us."

I laugh a bit. "I can try."

"Thank you. I'll tell the doctor you're here. He was waiting on you before he did the exam on yesterdays patient. After the exam I'll give you the mans broth."

I nod. "I'll wait by the desk."

I can see in the patients room as I walk by his door. It looks like his two friends are back and they brought a third today. They seem to be in good spirits.

I sit down by the desk and the doctor comes out a minute later. "Welcome back Nadine. I waited to do todays assessment so you could join."

"Thank you doctor." I get up and follow him into the room.

"Good afternoon gentlemen I am Doctor Cruor, this is my assistant. We will need you to step out for a few minutes so we can do an exam."

They all nod and leave.

"Ok so now we are going to recheck all the wounds. See here the arm is red and starting to regrow. That's what we want to see. Let's check the legs next. Good and now for the chest and stomach." The doctor lowers the mans gown and I can see the wounds are already starting to close. "Everything looks good. If you look in where the stomach is still open you can see the start of the intestines regrowing."

I look in and sure enough there are what looks like baby intestines. "Oh yea I see them."

"Now we check his mouth."

I look in after he does. "I think it looks good."

"Yes it does. So we will just leave that size of tube alone. The girls will keep the blood in the container up there. But you always check when you do an exam. Every day it should be checked by you. Never trust anyone else to do it."

I look up at the container and he laughs. "Well I can see in to it. You may have to lift it out of there and look in." I reach up and take it out so I can look in it. "As long as the container is half full, that is enough for a day."

"It looks good then."

"Yes it does. But always remember to check it. Don't trust someone else to do it."

"I won't doctor."

"Great do you have any questions?"

I shake my head.

"Ok let's see if his friends have any."

The doctor opens the door and let's the guys back in. "How is he doing doctor?"

"He's doing good. He's right where we expected him to be. He will be unconscious for another day or 2 but then he will be able to wake up."

"How long will Mikhal be in here?"

"Maybe 4 or 5 days. He's healing fast but he is regenerating a lot of tissue. It will take time."

"Can we stay with him?"

"Visitation ends at dinner hour gentlemen. Opens back up after breakfast."

"Thank you for everything doctor. I really didn't think he was going to make it."

"He's doing good. You got him here fast. That helped his odds."

After a few more questions we make an escape from the room. "Sometimes you get lucky and the friends are away for a bathroom break and you leave without being questioned to death. Not those 3 though."

I just smile and walk to the desk to pick up the broth.

2 days later we go back for our next shift.

"Good morning Nadine." The doctor is at the main desk with the other servants. "We need to come up with something else to call you. We don't want anyone knowing you're here. The common vampires would be coming up for everything to see you."

"Oh I never thought about that."

Dorceti jumps up. "What other names do you like? You could be a Cleo or a Tera or a Sunrise or a Sunflower or even Sky."

I sit there for a minute trying to think of something similar to my name. I like my name. I don't want a totally different one. "How about Nadia? It's close enough."

"That will work Nadia, let's go check the patient. His arms and legs should be in now and he'll be waking up shortly. Elkie is in there now. You never want a patient to wake up alone. It's fine to let a patient wake up with his friends in the room. But make sure you trust them to actually stay in there."

"Yes of course."

The 3 of us walk in the room.

"How's he doing Elkie?"

"He's starting to stir a bit but not awake yet doctor."

"Ok we're just going to do todays exam. Nadia while don't you take the lead today."

"Ok sir." I walk up and check the blood and the patients mouth first. "Those items look good." I check his arms and legs next. They are all grown in and look normal. "Arms and legs look good." The doctor nods. I lower his robe and look at his chest and stomach. "It looks all good here except for this pink area on his stomach." I point to it so the doctor can see.

"Yes a little pinkness means it's still healing. But that is no reason to keep him unconscious. That will be of minimal discomfort for a day. You will want to press on the stomach now. Like this." He starts pushing into the mans stomach with his hands like he's feeling around. "You are looking for any hard lumps. If you find one he may need opened back up." He moves his hands off the mans stomach.

I reach up and start pressing and feeling. "I don't feel anything hard."

"Good. I didn't either. So, as of right now we are going to continue letting him wake up. Once he is awake we will do another exam. Make sure he's not in pain and that he has feeling in his arm and legs."

We finish up and walk out to the center desk. Vitchen must notice me and Mary are not doing anything from 3 floors away. She comes rushing in and tells us to study the herbs in the cupboard. We need to learn what all of them do. So that's what we do until lunch.

Lunch time rolls around and I feed my normal lunch patient.

"You look much better today sir. You have a good color to you. Are you a bit better?"

"I am starting to feel better thank you. I'm still quite weak though. Would you mind helping me?"

"Of course not. I got some broth for you today but would you like to try something a little thicker?"

"Broth is fine. Let's just stick with that for a couple more days."

I just smile at him under the veil.

"What is your name?"

"Nadia. Yours?"

"People call me Ben."

"Well it's nice to meet you Ben."

"You too Nadia. I'll tell you something. You're the nicest one here. The others try to shove food down my throat then leave."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

He nods and I feed him the rest of his lunch.

"That's all Ben. You did great. Yell if you need anything."

"I will and thank you Nadia."

I look back and him and smile. He's so nice.

I get rid of the dishes and walk back to the center desk. "He's such a nice man." Vitchen looks at me over a stack of boxes. "He ate everything today. He also seems to be getting some color back."

"Good. We should be able to kick him out soon then. He's not been nice to anyone else. Must know who you are."

"I don't think so."

"Nadia our patient is awake now. Let's go do that assessment."

"Yes doctor."

I walk in the room and the 3 friends are there.

They all smile and one tells us he's awake. I smile back at them. "We need to do our afternoon exam. We will answer questions when we are through." I hold the door so they get the hint.

They all walk out.

"Great. We're here to do our afternoon exam Mr. ?."

"Mikhal."

"It's nice to meet you Mikhal. You were in quite bad shape when you got here. What can you tell me about the accident?"

I give the doctor a funny look and he ignores me.

"We were out hunting. We were climbing on a mountain. I must have stepped to close to the edge. I remember falling. It was scary."

"Yes your friends say you fell down quite a ways and then had a boulder land on you. You should be happy they got you here so fast."

"I am doctor."

"Mikhal this is my assistant Nadia. We are both going to check your injuries."

"Yes doctor."

"Nadia your going to want to check the legs and arm first. Make sure they look correct and have feeling everywhere."

I nod and pull the sheet off exposing his legs. This is so weird. 3 days ago I had my hands in this man. But now I have to touch his legs and it just feels wrong. "Let me know if at anytime you can not feel me touching you."

"Yes ma'am."

I run my hand down both of his legs. "You can feel all this?"

"Yes doctor."

I'm surprised by someone calling me doctor. But I like it. I touch the bottoms of both of his feet and he jumps a little. "Did that hurt?"

"No. Just a little ticklish."

I smile and cover his legs back up. "Nothing wrong with that. Hold both of my hands with yours please. Good now squeeze. Good. Nice pressure in both." I run my fingers up hit arm. He is so hard. So much muscle. "Can you feel all that?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Ok arms and legs look good."

"Thank you Miklah, now she's going to check your chest and stomach."

"Can you lower your gown to your waist please?"

"Yes ma'am." He takes his arms out and lowers it. He looks so much different now. I run my hands over what use to be his broken ribs. "The ribs look really good sir. They healed perfectly."

He just nods and stares at my veil.

I run my hand over the pinkness on his stomach. "Should I press on this pink area to check for hardness doctor? It's still quite pink here." I run my fingers over the pink spot again. The doctor looks up at me and I swear I see something move under the sheet.

I look up at the mans face and he looks away from me.

"Yes Nadia. Always check the pink areas. A bit of poison, or a rock in this case, could have been missed. By pressing around you could find something. Always better to be thorough. If not, you may have a return patient in a few days."

I press around on his stomach a bit. "I don't feel anything odd doctor."

"Good. I will just double check that part." He feels around the mans stomach. "I agree with you. Nothing feels off. Mr. Mikhal, your stomach is still a bit pink and it may take another day to heal but you have done wonderfully. I would like you to stay another day so we can look at that stomach tomorrow."

Mikhal sighs. "I was hoping to get out of here today. My parents are having a feast for my little sister. She's old enough to find her mate now."

"Oh yes, that is a big milestone. I tell you what. If you can promise not to eat anything but broth and liquids tonight, I will discharge you."

"Oh thank you doctor."

"But... You will need to return in the morning for a follow up. We need to watch your stomach. That is more pink than I like."

"I will do that doctor."

"Also, if you have a lot of pain tonight, I will need you to return right away."

"Yes sir. Thank you."

The doctor nods and we both walk to the door. The second it opens the friends are asking questions again. All at the same time and it's hard to understand any of it.

The doctor puts his hand up and they all stop talking immediately.

"He is to only have broth and liquids tonight. Any pain at all he needs to return immediately. He also needs a follow up exam in the morning. Do you all understand?"

"Yes sir." They all say it at the same time.

"He is free to go." He turns and looks at Mikhal. "But be sure to go easy tonight. Broth and rest."

Mikhal nods and the 3 others start helping him up.

The doctor closes the door behind us and looks at me. "Good job Nadia. Now we just wait on the next emergency. You're doing great."

"Thank you doctor." I can't help but smile under my veil.