You're safe with us

Chapter 25

Her intern Dr. Bell was already waiting for her. "Dr. Deluca are you okay?" "Yes. I am okay. What do we have today." Carina said, telling the intern with her look that this is non of her bussiness. "Lisa Newman. 34. Came last night. She is 2 cm dialated and her water is broken. Its her third kid and she is doing well. Tina Trueman, she is one of your patients. She has twins and she is 4 cm dialated. And Rosie Sparks she is one of your patients too, she is 4 cm dialated. " "Thank you. I will go introduce myself to Ms Newman and then say hallo to the other two. I want you to do vitals on all three of them every hour and tell me if something is off. I will come see them in two hours to see if they have progressed." "Okay."

After Carina had done what she said. She slipped into her office. She quickly swallowed some Ibuprofen and sat on her chair. The bandaid on her forhead was soaked. Carina wanted to go change it, when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in." "Hello, my friend. A birdy has told me you are injured." Amelia tweeted as she came in. "What birdy?" "I'm not telling on my sources. Come here i have 10 minutes to surrgery." "Its not that bad. I just slipped with my bike." "Carina you are bleading." "I was just about to change the bandaid."
Just a little mishap on the way to work, that's all."

But Amelia wasn't convinced, their eyes narrowing with suspicion as they took in Carina's pale complexion and trembling hands. "You don't look fine," she insisted, reaching out to offer Carina a steadying hand. "Maybe you should sit down and rest for a bit."

Carina shook her head stubbornly, brushing off her coworker's concern as she forced herself to take a step forward. "I'm fine, really," she insisted, her voice tinged with irritation as she limped away from her office. "I have patients to see."

But as Carina made her way through the hospital corridors, her steps faltered with every agonizing movement. The pain in her leg was becoming unbearable, a relentless throbbing that seemed to echo through her entire body with each passing moment.

With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Carina realized that she couldn't keep up the charade any longer. She needed help, and she needed it now, before the pain became too much to bear.

Swallowing her pride, Carina sought out the nearest nurse's station, to page Amelia. Within moments, she was whisked away to the emergency room, where she now waited.

Dr. Leyla Sherbaz entered the examination room with a warm smile, her eyes filled with concern as she took in Carina's battered appearance. "Hello. I was told to patch you up?" she asked gently, her voice laced with empathy as she approached Carina's bedside.

Carina winced as she shifted on the examination table, the pain in her knee throbbing with renewed intensity. "Are you a new doctor? I don't recognize you. And yes. I had a little accident on my way to work?" she admitted sheepishly, avoiding Leyla's gaze as she recounted the embarrassing details of her bike crash. "Yes. I just moved over here from Germany last week. I was supossed to just shadow Dr Hunt today, but now he told me to take care of you."  "Ah okay. Whats your specialty?" "Aneasthesiology and Trauma. I'll be working as an Attending in both. Oh i haven't introduced myself. Dr. Leyla Sherbaz." "Dr. Carina Deluca. I moved here fro Italy seven years ago." "Oh okay. Fellow european." "Si." Carina said getting gradually more uncomfortable. "Okay lets look, shall we?"

Leyla's brow furrowed with concern as she began to assess Carina's injuries, her skilled hands moving with practiced efficiency as she examined Carina's leg for any signs of serious damage. "You took quite a tumble," she remarked sympathetically as she looked a the road rash on her leg.

Carina nodded, her jaw clenched with discomfort as she fought back a wave of nausea. "Yeah, it was pretty rough," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper as she tried to downplay the severity of her injuries. "I don't know if that is a general rule, but i my old hospital, we said doctors make the worst patients, i think it applys here aswell." "My wife is a firefighter, they are worse?" "Even worse? Do you want me to call her?" Whenever you meet someone new and you have that little comeout, when you mention your wife or girlfriend, the other person usually stops and waits to see if they had understood you correctly. Not so with Dr. Sherbaz. And Carinas sympathy for her trippled. "Do you want me to call her?" Carina shook her head."I will do that later."

Leyla wasn't fooled by Carina's attempts to brush off the pain. With a reassuring smile, she reached for a bottle of pain medication, her voice firm but kind as she urged Carina to take one.

"I will get you booked in for an x-ray. I don't think the knee is broken, but just to be sure and i want to try if i remember how to order one." "You can always ask the nurses or interns to order." "Okay. But i got it. And before you leave. I will use you as a trial patient, your abdoman is bruised and while i trust my hands in saying there is nothing wrong, i want to try the ultrasound, would you mind?" Carina chuckled. "Okay. But just to try it out. It isn't that bad. It was just the handlbar of my bike." "Yeah. Let me decide that."

After they had ruled out any internal bleeding Leyla patched up the cut above Carinas eye got her ready for the x-ray.

"Hey. Lelya. Is okay if we go by firstnames?" "Sure." "Would you and your partner?" "Just me and my daughter. Raya." "Would you and Raya want to come over sometime? My wife and i are adopting an teen girl and she was originaly born in Germany. Maybe you could like speak your language together or i don't know. She had it pretty rough before she came to live with us and she was forbidden to speak german and stuff so maybe she would like that?" "Of course. Ask her. I would always like to come over. We know noone here so, yeah. Great." "Here put your number in. I'll call you after i spoke to my wife and my daughter." "Great."