Finding Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book One

Chapter 3. To Save a Life*

Chapter 3. How to Save a Life by the Fray

As the boy began to stir, Evan watched as the quiet man came near. He held back a few feet, looking as if he expected the boy to be frightened of him. Evan was very aware of him standing just behind her, close enough to touch, but it was definitely not because she was afraid.

"Is he going to be okay? He wasn't bitten, was he?" Drozdan asked quietly.

"I didn't see anything that looked like teeth marks, just claw marks on his arms and legs. A few bruises and a bump to the head. He should recover, with just the scars to remind him," Evan said, trying to encourage the man to come closer as she attempted to make space between the two of them.

"Mom...mom? What...why?" the boy began to mumble as his eyes fluttered open. He looked around at the people leaning near him, trying to focus through pain and the aftermath of a concussion. He looked to his mother, then his father, a person in green clothes that looked like a nurse, and then he looked at the red haired woman in a white coat he supposed was a doctor. He blinked and then looked past her to the tall dark man standing beside her. His heart rate sped up, sending the monitor alarms into a beeping frenzy, and he began to struggle to get up, reaching out to his dad. His eyes widened in alarm, but then it seemed something came into focus in his mind. He relaxed back onto the white sheet, but kept a wary eye on the stranger.

"Who are you?" Nathan asked huskily, his throat still thick from his sleep.

When the quiet man seemed at a loss for words, the doctor said, "This is Emil Drozdan, the man who saved you. He brought you to the hospital, so we could fix you up."

The boy seemed to realize just then he was injured. He winced and began to look at his arms and threw back the blankets to look at his legs. He began to cry quietly, tears running down his face, trying to put on a tough façade. His parents reached out to soothe him, reassuring him he would be okay.

"I'm going to go. I don't want to intrude on this," Drozdan said thickly to Dr. Whitman.

As he turned to leave, the boy's parents once more looked to him with gratitude. He nodded in their direction and walked away. Evan excused herself and hurried after him.

"Wait! Are you going to be okay? You don't seem like you're hurt, but are you okay? You know...emotionally...you look really upset," she said with concern in her voice, hating the way she had trouble communicating simple thoughts at times.

He turned to her slowly and gazed into her empathetic eyes, causing her heart to flutter. He smiled a half smile that seemed to be an attempt to reassure her that he would be okay. He shook his head at her expression.

Before Evan could say another word, the overhead speakers blared out, "Code blue, four west...Code blue, four west."

"Well, that's me. I need to go," she said, reacting to the overhead page. "I hope you are going to be okay. Come back and see me if you need anything. Maybe even just to talk. Really...anything."

He turned and slowly walked down the hall toward the exit. While Evan watched longer than she should, he turned and glanced over his shoulder at her. Evan couldn't shake the haunted face of Emil Drozdan from her thoughts as she turned and headed for the stairwell. It affected her more than she wanted to admit, made her want to go after the dark stranger and talk to him, find out what was behind the black eyes that seemed to bore straight into her soul. But she didn't follow him. She pushed through the door to the stairs and ran the four flights to the fourth floor, ready to face her next challenge.

Evan rolled her head back and forth, trying to work the kinks out of her neck. Her night had gone downhill from the time she answered the code blue call. The frail woman who had coded was all but dead when she got to her. While she performed chest compressions, waiting for the rest of the code team to arrive, she felt the energy drift away from the woman's body. At that moment, she knew they would go through the motions for the woman's family, but the outcome would not change. Sometimes it was just not to be, stealing from Death.

After that, a motor vehicle crash was called in to the emergency room, with several critical patients. Of the four that arrived, only one survived the night. Three died in the emergency department. The fourth would most likely survive, but he was at high risk of overwhelming infection. The wounds he had received included a ruptured intestine and open fractures, which usually had multiple complications. Evan had done her best, and that was saying a lot. Her extra senses allowed her to focus her treatment to the most critical injury for each patient, but she was not God. Exhausted, she sagged into a chair at the charting station, counting the minutes until her shift ended.