Still - h.s (au)

Chapter 9

Grace

My head was hurting a little today. Probably because of the bottle of whiskey Martha and I shared yesterday when we got back to our room. It was a small one, but for me, someone who is not used to drink alcohol at all, it was more than enough to get me a little tipsy. We spent most of the evening drinking and talking about what had happened with Calvin but also with Harry.  I still don't know why this specific patient is having such an effect on me, but I cannot wait to find out more.

But now it is not the time for that, because I am back to work, even if my head is slowly killing me.

I feel free and much more relaxed after what happened yesterday with Calvin, and I did not feel any remorse at all for breaking up with him as I should have. I just hope he is not feeling terrible about it because it would break my heart. If there is something I hate is to hurt people, but sometimes it has to be done.

"Grace?" One of the nurses calls me while I am sitting in the office room going through the files of the new patients, updating some details. I have been here for three hours and it has been quiet so far, most of the patients were asleep because it was still very early in the morning. But now the sun was rising, and they should be starting to wake up to eat breakfast.

I look back to find Vanessa standing by the door, with a worried expression on her face. She is one of the nurses in my course. We were all waiting to turn eighteen so we could take the final exam. She was a nice girl, but we usually did not work together as we did opposite shifts.  But today she must have exchanged her shift with someone else to be here.

"Yes?" I ask putting down the papers.

"There is a patient that is asking to see you. Well, demanding actually." I furrow my eyebrows confused almost guessing who this patient might be. "I saw that he was in pain, but he refused to let me help him. He kept asking for you, he is in bed number-"

I don't even let her finish. "Four? Yes, I know who he is." I sigh, storing the files in the right place again. "Thank you, I will take care of him." I say to Vanessa standing up quickly before heading to his bed.

He cannot do this every time he needs assistance. I may be his nurse, but it does not mean that he cannot be treated by another nurse if I am not around. I almost run to his bed a little worried about what he might have, and all you can hear in this quiet room is the sound of my shoes hitting the floor. When I get to the end of the room and stop by his bed, I get worried when I see him in pain.

His eyes are closed, and his hand is on top of the open wound. Could it be infected again? "Harry?" I say softly. As much as I wanted to scold him for calling for me when another nurse could make the pain go away, this is not the time. But definitely later when he is feeling better. "What is happening?"

Harry opens his eyes slowly when he feels my hand touch his forehead just to check if he has a fever or not. His temperature seems normal which is a good sign. "You came." He says with a faint smile on his lips.

"Yes, of course I came." I shake my head stating the obvious.

I remove his hand from the top of his abdomen and open his shirt gently, trying not to touch his skin with my cold fingers. "It began to hurt when I woke up." He explains and I am quick to remove the bandage. "Is it infected?" He knew well enough that the worst thing that could happen to him was getting another infection on his wound. The previous one almost killed him.

I let out a breath I did not know I was holding back when I see his wound looking perfectly fine. It was actually healing faster than I had anticipated. "Everything is fine. There is no infection." I say smiling. "I am not sure why it is hurting so much, but maybe it is just the fact that it is healing."