2
1617 Words
-Blair
It’s been a month since we moved to this little town, and I already missed New York. I could also tell Alex wasn’t happy about moving here. He missed his friends and was struggling to make new friends here. It hurt my heart to see him not be the happy little boy he once was, but I knew he was young and would bounce back. I had to keep telling myself he just needed to make a new friend, and then he would get back to his normal self. I also knew he could see how unhappy I was and knew that could have something to do with how he viewed this place. So I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to learn to love this place and hope Alex would as well.
I started at the hospital a week or so ago and was comfortable with Mandy, the nanny I had hired. She was a mother herself with a couple of boys a few years older than Alex. I told her if she ever needed to bring them over, she was welcome to. She was grateful for my offer because her husband and their father sometimes worked outside of town, leaving her to tend to the kids herself. She didn’t need the job but said she enjoyed getting outside of her own house sometimes, and taking on nanny jobs was the best way to put her skills to work. And the best thing was Alex loved her right off the bat and looked forward to the days she worked. I was happy to see he also got along with her boys as well and slowly seemed to be getting back to his happy self. I loved seeing him excited about things again. As for the hospital, it was so much slower than I was used to, but I was happy to be back to work, well, for the most part. I still enjoyed what I did, but the Doctor that ran the emergency room here, I could tell, didn’t care for me much. But with the lack of qualified doctors applying for the position, he was left with no choice but to hire me. This meant he did his best to make my life hell, and with that well on display, the nursing staff chose to hardly give me a chance as well. I found quickly that they had no issue with second-guessing everything I did and had no problem going to Dr. Jones before administering any kind of treatment to the patients. This was frustrating, but I knew one day they would learn to trust me. I didn’t know how soon that day would come, though, as I walked in for my last day of work for that week. The day had started like any other day so far, a sprained ankle here, a broken arm here, fever and cough there, and so on. We didn't see a lot here that I saw in New York. At least not until about midday. I was doing stitches on a guy that cut his hand with a hunting knife when one of the male nurses poked his head in. "Doctor Walker, sorry to interpret, but we need you in room one right away." I did the last stitch on the guy, "I'll be right there." This was a first, but I wasn’t about to question it out loud. "The nurse will be back in to go over everything with you. And will get you out of here." The guy smiled, "thanks, honey." I gave the guy a small smile as I pulled my gloves off, throwing them out as I left the room. Tim, the nurse that had poked his head in, was waiting outside the door for me. He handed me the chart for room one, "We have a female that was just brought in by the sheriff's department. She was definitely in a car accident. The sheriff says she ran off the road, hitting a tree. But he suspects she was fleeing from the guy in room 10 and wants us to do a full exam, including a rape kit." As he spoke, we walked to the room, and I flipped through the chart. "Alright, get Mr. Snider out of here and go over cleaning and follow up for his stitches and then send me a couple of female nurses." He nodded and left as I walked into the room. The woman looked like hell but looked like a fighter and seemed to relax when I walked into the room. "All of you out, sheriff, that includes you." The sheriff and Dr. Jones, along with the paramedics, all piled out of the room. Dr. Jones, not looking happy, I ordered him out. The woman, noticeably relaxed as I closed the door behind all the men. I pulled the stool over next to the bed and sat down, "Jaylee, I'm Dr. Walker. I will be taking over your care while you're here. I will also make a note on your chart that no males are to take care of you. All nurses are to be female from here on out, ok?" With a nod, she relaxed a bit more. "Good, is there anyone you want us to call for you?" She nodded again and gave me her boyfriend's name and number in a small voice, and asked that he be the only one allowed in to see her. I nodded, making a note on her chart. "Of course. Now I need to do a full exam and make sure we get you taken care of. They have asked me to do a rape kit. Is that ok with you?" She wiped at her eyes and nodded, "yes." Just then, there was a light knock on the door, and two of the female nurses came in with everything we needed. We started with cleaning her up as much as possible, but the closer we got to the rape kit, the more worked up she got. We gave her something to help calm her a bit, and she seemed to do better as we continued. This was by no means the first time I had seen a woman that had just been raped, but it always broke my heart that a fellow woman had gone through something so traumatic. And by the looks of it, she had been raped multiple times. As I was finishing up, she started bleeding, and my heart broke more. She had been pregnant, and with everything she had been through, her body couldn't handle it. We helped her as she miscarried the baby, helpless to stop it as none of the medications we gave worked. Then they had to go and walk the guy they thought was responsible for this right by the room, and she lost it. I had to give her sedatives in the end. I hated to do it, but it would be better for her to rest in the end. Her body needed to heal, and she had a long road ahead of her. Both mentally and physically. Once we were done, I stepped out into the hall and was greeted by the sheriff, who now had a court order to have her records along with the rape kit. I gave him a copy along with the kit, "I don't know if this state considers fetuses to be a human life or not, but she had been pregnant. She was still in her first trimester, but she lost her baby because of the stress on her body." With sadness in his eyes, the sheriff nodded. "Thanks, doc. I will add that to the list of charges for this guy." I nodded before walking off.
The rest of my day pretty well sucked. I tried calling the number Jaylee gave me but got a woman instead. I told her I was a doctor at the hospital and was trying to get a hold of Brandon. He was listed as next of kin for one of our patients. I didn't even say her name, and the woman broke down in hysterics wanting to know if Jay was ok. But when I wouldn't give her any information, she hung up on me. Then we no more than got Jaylee upstairs, and I locked down her file due to a pending investigation. I was called out to the waiting room by one of the floor nurses because there was a mass of people there wanting information on Jaylee. When I walked out there, I was greeted with a room full of massive guys all in leather and biker gear and women who looked similar. All of them looked at me as they went silent. One of the women all but jumped me as she came over to me, "how is Jay? Can we see her? What happened?" I held up a hand, silencing her, "all I can tell you right now is she is sleeping. She has, however, asked that we only speak to Brandon. Is he here?" The woman looked behind her briefly, then looked back to me, "He isn't here yet. I'm his mother. Surely you can tell me." I shook my head, "sorry, she made her wishes very clear. Once Brandon is here, we will speak with him. For now, I'm sorry but no visitors. She needs to rest." I stepped back into the locked unit and made it clear with the nurses that before they let anyone in, they check their ID and make sure he is who he says he is. And no information is to be given to anyone but him.
- Writer
