544The day had been unusually quiet. As Ana wandered around from room to room, checking on each patient on her floor, she was surprised to see that there had been no complaints today. Her elderly patients had - for once - eaten and taken a bath without much of a fuss, her seriously injured patients were managing their pain without asking for a higher dosage, and the emergency ward had been abnormally quiet.
Being the largest trauma ward in all of Seattle, it was unheard of to not have any people rushing through those double doors - either from a burn, gunshot, or car accident. Ana decided to be thankful for the tranquility of the hospital - not because her job was easier today, but hundreds of people had stayed out of harms way.
Carla - Ana's mother - always wondered why Ana would want to work in a trauma unit. There are deaths everyday and Ana had always been so sensitive and grew easily attached to people. Her mother feared that the death of dozens of people each day would wear down on Ana, which it did. It ripped Ana's heart apart to see people suffer, but with each survivor a little piece grew back.
The happiness a person feels from seeing someone pull through a serious injury is worth all the hurt of seeing the life slip away from someone's eyes.
Ana was so engrossed into her own thoughts, that she didn't even notice she was just standing in the middle of the hallway. She shook her head, pulling herself out of her inner ramblings. She checked on all her patients once again, then made her way down to her station. She turned on her desktop, filling in each of her patients' daily chart.
Nothing had changed from yesterday, except Mr. Smith was making much better urine today. It looked like his kidney's were getting stronger, but no matter how much progress he made it was still highly likely that he would need a transplant. Ana's heart sunk as she thought of his position on the waiting list. She would never admit it to him, but it didn't look as though he would be getting a kidney anytime soon.
She exited out of Mr. Smith's chart after filling in the new information, then pulled a book out of her desk to do a little reading. She would need to check on her patients again in an hour - or sooner if they called for her - but an hour was plenty of time for Ana to catch up on her reading. After she had joined Saint Joseph's hospital staff, her care-free life had disintegrated. She had no time to read, jog, shop, or even eat. Either she was too busy or too tired, but Ana didn't mind. Of course sometimes it was a bummer, but her job filled her with pleasure and joy. She loved each of her patients like family, so giving up a part of her personal time was no problem.
Thirty minutes later, Ana was in the middle of a nail-biting scene in her book. She clutched to the pages, completely memorized by the words on the pages, losing herself in the story. Just as one of the characters was about to announce his love for the female protagonist, the emergency siren rang, the double doors bursting open.
Ana jumped, her heart racing from the loud shock. She closed her book, immediately getting up to see what was wrong. Even though Ana was just an RN and never actually helped with the patients when they entered the trauma ward, she usually took over and became their primary care-giver once their vital signs were stable.
She saw Dr. Grace-Trevalyn racing down the hallway alongside the gurney. Dr. Grace was the head of the pediatrics ward, which confused Ana. Why was she in the trauma center?
The patient must have been a child.
Ana moved from her station, trying to catch a glimpse of the victim as they passed by her. She saw Dr. Grace's face as they raced passed her. Her usually pristine hair was falling out of her hair-tie, the loose strands clinging to her forehead were there were numerous beads of sweat gathering. Her cheeks were tear-stained, her skin completely ashen and devoid of any color.
Ana gasped - Dr. Grace looked horrible. Who was the victim to her? She knew that Dr. Grace was a very loving woman, but she had never seen her cry over one of the children that came into the hospital.
As their forms grew further and further, Ana caught a glimpse of the person lying on the stretcher. To her surprise, he was a grown man. His body was covered in open wounds, making her stomach roil. The gashes were large and angry, blood leaking profusely from each wound. Her jaw dropped. The only time Ana had seen someone look worse than this man was when she had taken care of a burn victim.
From the sight of the poor man, it didn't look like he would pull through, especially from the amount of blood he was losing.
As she took in the sight of the man one last time as they turned the corner, Ana almost wanted to cry too.
Three hours later, Ana couldn't get the sight of that man out of her head. She bit her lip as she thought of whether or not he survived. She kept imagining Grace's face and the complete look of anguish that was present. She knew that man must have been important to Grace - her husband perhaps?
Or her son?
Ana's stomach dropped as her heart filled with anxiety. She had only conversed with Grace a couple times, considering they worked on completely different floors, but she knew how great of a woman she was. She couldn't bear the thought of her going through such a traumatic experience.
Ana closed her book, giving up on even trying to read. She had been on the same spot for the past three hours - she was definitely not going to get any further in the story. She got up from her station, getting ready to make another round on her floor. It was around three A.M, so many of her patients were sleep; however, she routinely checked on them, just to make sure they were okay.
Although she did this everyday, Ana knew she was searching for something more than just the safety of her patients. She was looking for an answer to the question that plagued her mind for over three hours.
She needed to know if that man was okay.
There was something about him that just drew her to him. Of course it was due to Grace's relation to him, but also there was something else she couldn't quite put her hand on.
She checked on each of her patients - who were all resting peacefully - then made her way around to the other side of her floor. The hallway she was on now was primarily Kate's section.
Kate was her best friend, whom not surprisingly, she met while working at Saint Joseph's. The first day they met, they immediately clicked. It must be true about opposites attracting, because Kate was the polar opposite of Ana. While Ana was meek and semi-prudish, Kate was vulgar and intrusive.
Which made Ana love her even more.
However, the patients didn't share that same love for Kate. Ana wondered why Kate would work at a job where she had to deal with people 24/7, considering the fact that Kate hated people - especially the elderly. There were many days where Ana's prime amusement came from the loud arguments between Kate and her patients that she could hear all the way from her station.
As Ana passed into Kate's territory, she peeked through each of the rooms, trying to see if that mysterious man had survived in order to be placed permanently into a room.
As she was glancing into a room, she heard a door slam. She jumped, turning around to see where the noise was coming from. Her favorite person was stomping towards her.
"What's wrong, babe?" Ana asked, taking in Kate's furious gaze.
"You know, I don't even know why I fucking try with people," Kate grumbled, linking Ana's arm in hers.
They strolled along the hallway, Ana peering into each room they passed.
"Some injured bastard who's been here for two fucking hours - tops - has already decided to mouth off. It's like, I'm spending my precious time cleaning up your shit and this is how you repay me? I'm a trust-fund baby, I could easily be spending my time getting plowed by Ricardo in Brazil, or doing body shots off of Pierre in France," Kate screeched, ranting as always.
"Wait, wait, wait. Whats the name of your patient?"
"I'm emptying my heart out to you, and all you care about is the patient?" said Kate, appalled.
Ana rolled her eyes. "Kate!"
"Okay, okay, fine. His name is Christian Grey. He's filthy fucking rich. I would gladly marry him, then divorce him for his money, but he's a prick so I don't see that happening."
"Grey? Oh." Ana's heart sank.
She thought she might have been talking about Dr. Trevalyn's husband/son. It must have been another patient that was recently brought in.
"Who were you expecting?" Kate asked, her eyebrow raised.
"No one."
Kate pursed her lips, but didn't question any further. She stopped abruptly, then turned towards Ana, placing her head in her hands.
"My dearest, most beautiful Ana," Kate started.
Ana sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, God, what do you want now?"
"Could you please - pretty, pretty please - perhaps, maybe, quite possibly, take on this scumbag, dickhead, asshole patient that I have? I don't think I can last two days with him."
Ana bit her lip, not sure what to say. She was already taking care of twelve patients - which was extreme - but she knew that that poor man would suffer even more if Kate was his caregiver, so she decided to give in.
Damn her for having such a good heart.
"Alright, fine," Ana agreed.
Kate jumped up, squealing in delight.
"And this is why you're my best friend," she declared.
It was now five A.M and soon Ana's shift would be over. Her eyes drooped with exhaustion, but she forced herself to make another round on her floor - including her new patient on Kate's floor - before she clocked out for the day. As soon as she got home she was sleeping for a long, long time.
Her usual patients were doing good, some had even started getting up for the day. She told them each goodbye and promised to see them soon. As she made her way to Kate's floor, her heart started to race. She didn't know what exactly she would encounter by taking on this new patient. Of course Kate was never good with anyone, but this Grey guy was rich. Ana hated stereotypes, but she knew rich people were a lot harder to deal with than middle class or poor people.
She decided to suck it up and just make herself known that she would be his new nurse - along with Rosa who took over once Ana's shift was over.
She quietly entered the man's room, not wanting to disturb him just in case he was asleep. However, as she entered, her stomach dropped.
It was the mystery man, the one with the severe wounds. Her heart ached as she took in his decrepit form. His body looked so weak and vulnerable that she couldn't fathom how he could have been rude to Kate in such a state.
As she grew closer to his bedside, she realized that he was awake. He tossed and turned, groaning with each movement. He clutched onto the bedside rails, his breathing shallow and rough.
"Mr. Grey? Stay still, moving is going to make the pain worse," Ana said soothingly, as to not frighten him.
He turned his head in her direction, his face contorted in pain.
"Who are you?" He gritted out harshly.
"I'm Ana, I'm going to be your nurse now. Kate was reassigned to another patient," she explained. "If you would like, I could give you a slightly higher dosage. On your chart it says you're taking morphine, so the maximum I can give you is 15mg."
"15mg? What the fuck is that going to do?" He mumbled, clutching the bed-rails even harder.
"Take away your pain, Sir," she said, ignoring his vulgar response. "It sounds like a small dosage, but Morphine is quite strong."
She moved to the medicine cabinet and took out her key from within the pocket of her scrubs. She placed the key in the medicine cabinet, then extracted a vile of morphine. She took the morphine and carried it over to his bedside, taking the syringe connected to his IV and temporarily disconnecting it. She stuck the syringe into the vile, then carefully administered the medicine. She took out the syringe, then placed it back into his IV."How do you feel now?" Ana asked, genuinely concerned.
Christian eyed her cautiously, slowly spitting out, "Okay."
"Good," she smiled. She held up the vile, "I'll write this down on your chart so Rosa knows about your new dosage."
Ana placed the vile back into the medicine cabinet and started to make her way out of the room.
"Wait," he called. "I thought you were my nurse. Where are you going?" He asked.
"I am, but my shift is almost over. Rosa takes over during the mornings," Ana explained.
"Oh.. Will you becoming back tonight?" Christian asked, his voice slurring as the morphine started to kick in.
"Of course," Ana smiled, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Welcome to my new story.
-XoXo
Edit: Jesus H. Christ. I came back to look over some details of my story and didn't realize how many errors I had lol. I rarely proofread (bad habit) so if you guys ever notice anything that doesn't make sense, please let me know. It's very helpful!