Recovery Period

Chapter 5

She looked down at Nico, cuddled against her chest beneath a blanket, in the dark...in the office where she worked. This was not good. She realized in a panic that she had gotten way too caught up in this girl's care and she needed to disengage and fast. She could get fired for this, there was definitely a line being crossed here although she couldn't put her finger on exactly why. There was also the matter of Nico's cut to deal with and she was not about to call another doctor in here to do the stitches while she snuggled a patient.

The question was: how the hell was she supposed to move? Nico wasn't big, but she didn't weigh nothing, and Raina had a feeling that as soon as she started to shift, her patient was going to object loudly. But, her job was more important and the last thing she needed was someone other than Auggie seeing her in this position. She sat upright and Nico did, in fact, whine in displeasure at being moved, but Raina was able to slowly move her onto the bed and cover her with the still-warm blanket Auggie had provided. 

With the lights off and the tablet softly playing Up!, Nico was effectively half-asleep and settled onto the bed by herself quickly. She turned onto her side to face the tablet and Raina went to correct her position to protect her foot, but thought better of it and slipped out the door. She waited there for a few moments and when Nico didn't make a sound, she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to walk to her next patient's room and nearly ran face-first into Auggie in her haste. 

"Someone's distracted," he teased.

"Oh, you are such an ass. You could have gotten me fired!" she growled at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"By who? You're the only doctor on shift and it's not like we had any better ideas. That kid wasn't going to lie still any other way and she still didn't really 'lie still', did she?"

"What do you mean I'm the only doctor? Where's Dr. Lopez?" she asked, forgetting her annoyance entirely. If she was the only doctor now, her behavior was even MORE out of line. She had 3 other patients who had been waiting while she was tied up with Nico and her stomach clenched with guilt.

"She started feeling weird and when we finally got around to checking her out, she had a fever. So she left," Auggie said.

"Jesus. Okay, well, I need to get moving then. Also, for the record, Nico's like 26. Definitely not a kid."

Auggie snorted, "Woman, you're like 35. She's a kid to you."

"Coming from the OLDEST nurse on staff, that's rich," Raina snorted, shouting the word for emphasis. She laughed as Auggie nudged her shoulder with his fist and she pushed past him, shaking her head at the entire situation.

"Look, I'm not judging, I'm just saying. I've never seen you look legitimately scared for a patient...especially over a cut." He followed behind her down the hall, not seeing the troubled look on her face as he continued. "I'm honestly not sure how she got herself here. She doesn't seem...all there to begin with and she was clearly freaked by the injury. She tried to use paper towels for god's sake."

Raina stopped short and turned around to study his face. He was serious. That's really what he thought was going on? She had a mental handicap? "I think you're missing something there, maybe that was just the closest thing and she panicked. She's smart enough. Able to answer all my questions, anyway."

"Yeah, okay, but what questions? What happened? DOB? Anyone could answer those if they had a license to drive."

"Hm...I suppose you have a point there. Probably worth going back to see if we can figure out her level, see if we need to enlist a social worker."

Auggie nodded his ascent and followed Raina to the next patient's door. She grabbed the clipboard and quickly read the chart, then opened the door and greeted their next patient.

Meanwhile, Nico remained burrowed in the cotton hospital blankets with Mol, staring at the tablet while the movie she wasn't absorbing played. Her brain still felt so foggy and slow, which wasn't completely unfamiliar to her but not being able to contain or prevent it was unusual. Her body's exhaustion wasn't helping, nor were the warm blankets and dark room. She fought it a while, but succumbed to sleep before the movie was over.

She was awake again, still alone in the room, while the credits rolled in front of her on the screen. She pushed it away and sat up, watching as Mol nearly tumbled to the floor. She caught him, muttered an apology, and then stared at him in shock: she'd slipped. Fully. In this urgent care with strangers and...wait a second, did that hot doctor HOLD her?

Nico slapped a hand to her own forehead in disgust. She needed to get this stitches bullshit over with and get out of here. She suddenly remembered the call button on her bed and she glanced at it, momentarily caught up in the daydream of pushing the button, seeing Dr. Casey come in, and slipping immediately. She shook her head and wrinkled her nose at the button and the mental picture. Not here, not now.

It was another 2 hours before Raina and Auggie were both back at Nico's door. "Ready?" he asked her, raising one eyebrow.

"Nope."

She opened the door and was surprised to find a very upright, very annoyed Nico. "Uh, hey Nico. Feeling better?" she cautiously asked, stepping into the room to let Auggie in as well.

"Hey there little lady! Ready to get all sewed up? You're gonna have a seam just like your bunny friend!" Auggie said cheerfully, carrying in the supplies without looking at Nico. 

Nico tracked the nurse with her eyes as he talked to her like she was 4 in front of the hot doctor. She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing, quickly shifting her hostile gaze back to the doctor. "No, I'm not. All you've done so far is put ANOTHER hole in my body," she snapped, waving her left arm where the IV was attached. "I'd really like to go home. Now."

Dr. Casey was startled by the shift. She suddenly felt even MORE self-conscious about the events earlier in the day than she had when she was worried she was going to be seen and fired. "You were pretty dehydrated from losing blood, you needed an IV. We're ready to do the stitches and then you'll be discharged and you can go," she stated flatly.

Nico laid back against the bed and folded her arms over her chest. "Let's get on with it, then."

Auggie was fully bewildered by the entire thing. Who the hell was this kid? Not even a few hours ago she was so vulnerable that he was worried about sending her home alone, the way she'd arrived. But now she was a harsh, bitter woman with what must be split personalities. He shook his head and kept his mouth closed, settling by Nico's injured foot to begin prepping it for Raina.

Dr. Casey said nothing else and Nico wasn't sure how she felt about it. She was angry that she was still here, sure, but mostly she was...embarrassed and those feelings always made her defensive and prickly. But she'd clearly hurt the doctor's feelings and she could feel the shame of that misdeed creeping up, coupling with her own internalized shame and driving her further into herself.

The silence in the room was deafening. Auggie was pretty sure if it stayed this quiet, they'd be able to hear the stitches going in and that is not something any of them needed. He walked over to the tablet and flipped it toward him, as clearly Nico wasn't going to use it. 

Nico's reaction was a total reflex. She reached for the tablet as soon as it started to move away from where she had put it and Auggie noticed, unable to hide the smirk crossing his lips. It wasn't there long, but both Nico and Raina saw it. "Sorry, did you want this? It's super quiet in here and I thought some background noise might be nice," he stated, putting his hands up defensively. Nico was frozen in time and it was a moment before she slowly shook her head, sitting back against the bed and refolding her arms over her chest.

"Nah, that's fine. Just uh...didn't want it in yall's way. Was gonna move it for you," she muttered.

Auggie nodded and turned the tablet fully toward him, selecting a nature show from the Disney app. He pushed it back toward the bed and tilted the screen so that Nico could see but it wasn't pointed directly at her. Her eyes gravitated to the animals automatically and Auggie nudged Raina as he returned to his supply tray. She glanced up at him from where she sat near Nico's injury, unsure of what he was trying to do. He handed her a pair of scissors without further comment and they got started.