Worlds apart (Levi/OC)

Demons come out to play

It's a calm day. The sun towers over a vast expanse of trees and bushes that sway in the wind. It plays a beautiful melody to the men and women passing through the park; on the faces of those people, the joy of the day is visible. However, for one woman, the atmosphere is nothing but calm and enjoyable. It's a torrent of emotions that leave her heart both breathless and numb; though she chose to walk to the park to relieve her mind from the stresses of the day, she now finds herself sitting on a bench, eyes turned towards the ground, shoulders slouched, and with more stress than her small body can handle. People walk by and stare at her condition but she hardly notices. She's in her own world of doubts and insecurities, painful memories brought on by the events earlier that morning, events that led to the death of a sweet, innocent child at the intensive care unit at Fujikawa Memorial Hospital in Osaka, Japan.

She went to college at Tokyo University. It was a necessary evil that she had to endure but she made it through and graduated at the top of her class.  After taking a few years to save up for a nursing school in Osaka, Japan - Hokutai School of Nursing - she started training towards a license as an Intensive Care Unit registered nurse.  She'd spent years studying the material and graduated the year before but that's all it was. Even her years spent training as an intern didn't prepare her for the world she stepped in to when she'd found a hospital brave enough to take on a woman fresh out of nursing school. Sure, she'd spent years (more so than most university students) learning and honing her skills but she'd never faced death head on until she started working at Fujikawa five months ago. Her patients weren't people dying from old age, weren't addicts recovering from years of substance abuse, and weren't even the lost souls living on borrowed time. She was confident enough in her abilities as a nurse to treat those kinds of patients; however, the terror on the faces of the men and women in the ICU chilled her to the bone. It would always be the same story in her eyes. Injuries that could've been prevented would bring people to her unit left and right and to her it would always seem so pointless. She had this desire to prove herself in the type of atmosphere, needed to succeed but the daily visions of souls barely clinging on to life brought her to tears. That's why she sits alone on this bench, away from the stress and away from the memories of the little girl that lost her life after a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle. She watched as the doctors did whatever they could to help her but by then it was a lost cause. A pointless cause that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"Why do I even bother with this place," she whispered, eyes following the nervous taps of her feet. "I feel so helpless." A lonely tear fell down her eye as she made herself more comfortable on the bench, crossing her legs as she reached in to her bag and pulled out a cigarette. "This is just what I need," she voiced, rambling to herself as she lit the cigarette and put it in her mouth but before she could even inhale the first drag she felt a hand creep on to her shoulder.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" she screamed, the cigarette falling from her mouth in the process. She looked to her left and found her friend and coworker in near hysterics from the scene in front of her. Rolling her eyes, she reached for the cigarette and began to smoke, deliberately blowing some in the direction of her friend. "I see you found me Miyako."

"Yes, I did!" Patting her on the back once more, she took a seat next to her and gave her a look of sympathy. She bit her bottom lip and continued. "Listen Yuki - "

"I don't need a lecture right now!" Yuki glared at her, her eyes motioning towards her source of relief before taking another long drag. "This cigarette is enough to get me through the day."

"But it's been five months," Miyako began, a smile forming on her lips as she attempted to lighten the mood. "Most new hires adjust after the first few weeks."