One Word Prompt: Hospital
Mirandy
Because I had some interest, I thought, okay, sure… and so this will be a loose drabble sequel to 'Ambulance.'
Everything was rather rushed once the medics arrived.
One had tried to pull Miranda away, and Andy had remembered screaming for the older woman to come back… which she promptly did, her soft hand returning to comfort her as she spoke with the medic. Andy had gone from vomiting to dry heaving, as there was most likely nothing left in her stomach besides acid that burned her nose and throat.
She remembered speaking to a medic, who was asking her all sorts of questions.
What is your name?
Do you have allergies?
What is your sleeping schedule? Andy could have sworn there was some sort of snorting laughter from Miranda when the man had asked that one.
What did you eat this morning?
Do you have a fairly regular diet?
Are you sexually active?
Is there any chance you could be pregnant? Andy almost thought that Miranda's hand had faltered in it's soothing movements across her back, but then the medic kept talking, and it was pushed to the back of her mind.
When was the last time you had sex?
How long have you been in pain?
How long have you been vomiting?
Where is the pain that you're feeling?
Can you point, and describe what it feels like?
The medics began to help her move, to put her onto a stretcher, and she whimpered, screwed her eyes shut, and cried out like a child as soon as she felt Miranda's soothing hand being removed from her back.
But then, fingers brushed across her forehead, and across her shoulder, squeezing gently before the stretcher began to move.
Andy swallowed back a wave of tears, and kept her eyes screwed shut, trying her hardest to ignore the waves of pain that were pulsating through her abdomen. She didn't even want to imagine the looks from her coworkers as she was wheeled passed open glass offices and conference rooms.
She heard the thundering of heels, and gasped out.
Those heels were Miranda's heels. Miranda was following them.
"Nigel, you are in charge until further notice."
She listened as hurried steps joined beside the thundering heels, "What's the matter?"
Andy choked on a painful chuckle… only Nigel would ever dare to ask questions.
"They aren't sure, but I informed them that it seems very similar to when Caroline had appendicitis. I will be traveling with her to Presbyterian, and will remain with her until I see fit. I will not be having an assistant die on me. It will only feed unnecessary rumors."
"Well, don't frighten anyone too much. I'll keep the fort under control."
Andy smiled as she heard the sound of the elevator's bing, and coughed violently, turning onto her side to dry heave.
"Do be careful, dear, wouldn't want a model to slip and break something," Miranda's icy- sarcastic tone made Andy only cough more as she tried to laugh, and then that soft hand was being smoothed over her back again, and the elevator doors closed, and Miranda was humming some tune that Andy thought maybe she recognized.
Her coughing, gagging, fit calmed, and the hand moved from her back to rest still atop her upper arm, but the soft humming didn't stop.
Andy shifted a little again, gasping in pain and swallowing before she opened her eyes to stare through bleary eyes at her boss.
Miranda was standing just beside her head. Her face stoic and cold, and not looking down at her, but the slightest squeeze of her fingers told Andy that her boss knew she was looking.
She closed her eyes again and focused as hard as she could at the feeling of Miranda's hand against her arm.
One finger.
Two fingers.
Three fingers.
Four.
Her thumb.
Her thumb, as it was moving in teeny little circles.
One circle. Clockwise.
Two circles. Counter clockwise.
Three circles. Clockwise.
Four. Clockwise.
Five. Counter Clockwise.
One. Clockwise.
Andy squished her eyes shut tight, focusing as hard as she could. Breathing as best she could in time with those teeny little circles of Miranda's thumb against her arm.
Then… everything slowly faded out… and became black.
/DWP/
Andy moaned as her stomach rolled, and churned.
"Andrea, take a slow breath, it will help a little to settle your stomach."
Miranda…. Miranda had such a lovely voice.
"Good, that's good. You'll likely still feel sick for a few hours as the anesthetic continues to wear off. You don't have very much in your stomach right now, but if you need it, I have a basin available, just give me a groan, and I'll grab it for you."
Oh… Miranda...
She tried to snap her eyes open, but instead it was a slow flutter, and then she was staring up into her boss' electric blue eyes, "M…" she swallowed. God, her throat was dry, "M…anda…"
"Yes, Andrea. However, there is an 'err' in there. M-err-anda. Unless of course you're Emily, then it sounds more like slurred Mirror-anda."
Andy felt her lips twitch, and she closed her eyes again, feeling rather content at letting Miranda's joke… was it a joke?... stew in her brain.
She opened and closed her mouth a little, trying to moisten her lips and throat as she spoke out, "Fff… fun…ny."
"Yes, I quite thought that myself. You can drink water, if you would like, but Caroline and I have both found that ice chips were preferred. I have both, if you feel up to it. It might make you feel more nauseous though."
Andy felt like she was floating as she forced her eyes to open again, "Thhhh…" she swallowed again, "thirsty," she croaked out before she closed her eyes again.
"Then I guess we'll try water first. You're going to have to help at least a little, because you are much more grown up than a seven-year-old."
Suddenly an arm was being pushed beneath her shoulders, and her body was being pushed slightly forward. She blinked a few times and felt her head lolling backwards before she was able to straighten it back out, "Good, now, here's the straw. Drink slowly, Andrea, or you are going to regret it."
A finger, and then a straw was pressed against her lips, and she greedily pulled it into her mouth, sucking at the liquid quickly before she remembered Miranda's words and immediately slowed down. Taking three moderate swallows, she released the straw and hummed.
So much better, it was so much better.
She yawned and felt the arm slowly lowering her back down, "The grogginess will start to fade soon, as well. Go ahead and drift back to sleep, the nurse will be by in about thirty minutes."
Andy giggled and yawned again, rolling her head so that she was facing the direction Miranda's voice was coming from, "M…kay…." She fluttered her eyes open to see a… what she hoped was a small smile on Miranda's face before her eyes closed again.
Then there a hand, a very light touch on her upper arm.
One finger…
Two fingers…
A thumb… a thumb that was moving in teeny little circles.
Clockwise.
Counter clockwise.
Clockwise.
Counter… clock…wise….
Andy yawned and everything became very quiet, and then dark.
/DWP/
Sucking in a quick breath, Andy squirmed a little as light filtered passed her eyelids. Yawning, she stretched out a little, and hissed when she felt something pull in her stomach, immediately scrunching back up so that the pulling stopped.
Opening her eyes slowly, she blinked from the bright lights, and raised a hand to rub at her eyes until they were adjusted. She felt her eyes widen at what she saw.
Miranda Priestly.
Miranda… Priestly… was sitting beside her. Her face was resting in her hand, and her elbow was resting on the arm of a rather uncomfortable looking chair.
What in the-
She blinked her eyes again, and glanced around… noticing that she had a few monitors around her, and an IV stuck into her left elbow crease.
She was… she blinked and swallowed… in a hospital.
She searched her brain, wracking it for information in her slightly hazy mind.
She had been in insurmountable pain for several hours….
Then… she scrunched her brow… then Miranda had come in.
Miranda had… Miranda had… checked her temperature. Miranda had kissed her forehead, and rested a hand on her cheek.
Miranda had asked her a question, about her pain… then she had… she had called for an ambulance.
Her brain began to fuzz over, and she yawned, shaking her head a little to make the fuzziness go away.
Turning her head back, she looked calmly at her boss.
Her boss was sitting beside her in a hospital, in an uncomfortable chair, clearly asleep- or at least dozing enough that she didn't realize Andy had woken up- in a rather awkward position.
Miranda had comforted her in her pain. Miranda had- a sudden recollection of a soft hand drawing soothing patterns on her back rushed to mind, followed by a soft thumb drawing circles on her arm- been so kind to her.
Letting out a little moan, she blinked and swallowed, and cleared her throat before speaking out, "Miranda."
The woman in question jerked silently, her eyes flying open, her whole body stiffening from it's somewhat relaxed state. Miranda's head swiveled to her, her electric eyes catching her gaze, "Andrea, you're awake. How does your head feel?"
Andy gave her a tiny smile, "Little fuzzy."
Miranda nodded, "Are you feeling groggy, or just a little tired?"
"Just… just a little tired."
"Good, that means that the anesthesia has mostly worn off. Are you feeling nauseous? Any tightness in your abdomen?"
Andy shook her head a little, "No…" she yawned, "no, just a little pull when I moved my legs."
"Yes, that's from the sutures. It'll ease up soon, just don't do anything risky and jerky. Are you thirsty? If you're not feeling nauseous than I have some apple juice, and some orange juice, or just water. Not Pellegrino, but it's adequate."
Andy felt herself giggling, and for a split second thought she saw a smile tug on the older woman's lips, but it was gone as fast as she could think it, so she replied, "Apple juice, sounds wonderful."
Miranda nodded, and turned around, leaning over and revealing a table that had small cartons of orange juice and cartons of apple juice, and a pitcher of water. Miranda grabbed one of the little cartons of apple juice, popped it open, and pulled a straw out of a little red cup. Slipping the straw into the carton, Miranda turned back to her, "Drink it slowly. Do you need any help, or will just shifting the bed into a more upright position be enough?"
"Help?" She cocked her head to the side.
Miranda nodded, "Yes, to lift yourself up, or to hold it while you drink."
Andy shook her head, feeling a blush creep up her neck… had she needed help earlier… she wondered before she replied, "No, I think I'm okay."
Miranda gave her a slightly skeptical look, "All right," she grabbed a little remote that was tucked into the side of the hospital bed, and Andy felt the bed shifting slowly, and she was no longer lying flat, but her torso was a slight incline… she smiled… like a beach lounge chair, "if you can reach your right arm up to take the juice, then I'll leave you to it. The anesthetic makes motor skills slow and rather inadequate."
Andy reached out, finding that her arm felt a little heavy. However, she managed to take the carton from her boss' hand, and not drop it as she sipped at the juice. After a moment she lowered her arm to the bed, holding loosely to the little carton as she looked at Miranda, "What happened?"
"You passed out in the elevator, most likely from the pain you were in. I was rather lucky in my diagnosis of appendicitis. They did some blood work, and some scans, and your appendix was swollen. They wheeled you to an OR, and upon my orders did a Laparoscopic Appendectomy. It has much better results, with much less noticeable scarring, even though they cut into you three times instead of one. Three small scars are much less invasive than one large one. It was about a forty-five minute, almost an hour-long procedure, and there hadn't been any breakage. They patched you up, and took you to recovery."
Miranda smirked as she continued, "Family and friends are usually not allowed in recovery, but the glories of my horrendous threats sure do work beautifully. You were in recovery for about two hours, but the anesthetic must have hit you rather hard, because it had only barely started to wane when they transferred you here to your hospital room. You've been in this room for a little over four hours now, and have been drifting in and out of a groggy consciousness. You were somewhat coherent when the nurse came in an hour ago, but this is the most responsive you've been. You'll be here for another nineteen hours, then you'll be discharged."
Andy gaped a little. That was the longest amount of time she had ever heard Miranda speak, her many lists of commands and demands included. Miranda had just given her a rather thorough, yet brief run through of what happened. She swallowed, "Oh. Thanks." She spoke dumbly, not really aware of what to do.
Miranda's lips quirked again, "Of course."
Andy smiled brightly, and- leaving the carton of juice on her bed- reached over with her hand, plopping it onto Miranda's knee, and grasped one of the pale hands that were sitting regally in Miranda's lap, "Thank you, Miranda." She said earnestly, "Thank you, for helping me." She squeezed the hand in hers gently, feeling surprised when the older woman didn't pull away.
A silent moment passed before Miranda spoke up, "You're welcome, Andrea." Then she gave a soft huff, waved her free hand through the air and noted with an air of false indifference, "It's not as if I could just allow an assistant to die on me. I will not be named a murderer, that would be horrible for my image."
Andy felt her smile grow wider as she laughed out loud, a feeling of joy bursting through her chest when she felt the softest of squeezes on the hand that was still holding Miranda's.
This was Miranda.
This wasn't some Dragon Lady, or Ice Queen.
This was the Miranda the mother, Miranda- the woman who had a heart that she kept blocked off from invaders- and Andy felt so very special that she got to see her.
A/N: So, what did you think?
I'd be happy to hear.
Reminder: I don't have a beta, so everything I write is written, then skimmed over by me.
I haven't had any complaints, but I'm sure that there are many typos throughout my work.
Whenever I reread something, I'm always being sure to check and catch mistakes and fix them.
So, I hope you enjoyed this.
I have some prompts that I'm working on, and 'The Soldier' is almost ready for posting. I've got a rough layout for Chapter 14 of H-A-H, and for G-D-T. However, I am not sure when I will be getting either of them up. :(
I will ALWAYS get a prompt done (unless explicitly stated otherwise) so it may take a while, but if any of you have sent me a prompt on Tumblr, I WILL GET TO THEM!
I'm even going to eventually get back to my old Castle fics... but I don't have an idea of when that may be. They're still a minor trigger issue for me, due to things that happened while I was working on writing them. It's a work in progress.
I'm still crazy behind in my classes, and am trying to get caught up... even though I didn't do anything today cause I got home from school and ended up taking a five hour nap (FUCK MY LIFE!).
Reviews are loved and appreciated.
All my love,
CBC