Chapter 1

Allison's POV

She was ten hours into her sixteen hour shift. Feet aching and head pounding, Allison Jared removed two aspirin from her pocket and downed them quickly, followed by a few sips of water. God, I HATE the midnight shift. I should have never picked up for Megan, the ER is full of crazies tonight. She cursed her friend for having the flu. Allison previously worked in the Emergency Room, but she had left to work in the ICU. She had spent the past two years loving the people and learning a lot, but tonight of all nights, she would help out a friend in need and go back to her old stomping grounds.

"Hey gorgeous, we have a bus coming in, ETA seven minutes. Your patient, we're swamped. Thanks Beautiful." The slimy voice of Dr. Don Wilson crept into her ears. Yeesh. The man had asked her out several times after she had transferred and each time she'd said no. The guy gave off an aura that made her say…no thank you. Every other nurse practically swooned when he entered the room and flashed them a mega-watt smile, but not her. Allison had a very reliable judge of character, and her verdict was: stay away.

Allison quickly checked on her other patients; all were stable. She then quickly scarfed down the other half of her almost-forgotten turkey sandwich. All they knew about his new patient was that he was a 36 year old male with a possible broken leg and ankle, nothing else. Living in New York City, this was actually pretty tame; Allison had become used to gunshot wounds and stabbings and batted an eye at them like they were nothing. At least it's not a fire….no fires tonight. Fingers crossed. Her parents had both died in a fire when she was 17, leaving her with her two younger siblings (15 and 14) to care for. They lived with her grandmother, but Allison could see her mind was starting to go and knew she had to act fast. She graduated from high school a year early and began taking nursing courses right away. She graduated from nursing school at the age of 20 and had been working ever since. At the age of 28, she often felt 58. She worked very hard and put both of her siblings through college. Her brother Tim also went into nursing and worked in the psych unit of the same hospital. Her sister Gwen has just gotten into Johns Hopkins through a scholarship program and would be a doctor in a few short years. She felt so much pride when she looked at her siblings but often felt disappointed in herself. Her parents had wanted her to go into the "family business," but their deaths had ended that. No time for this right now, Allison thought, time to work.

The flashing lights of the ambulance lit up the lobby of the ER. Allison hurried to the front door to meet them. The doors slid open…and Allison immediately regretted taking on this patient. A rather beat-up looking red-headed man was being lifted out of the ambulance, strapped and handcuffed down to the stretcher. The look on his face…absolute rage. Oh God. What the hell happened?

Allison walked up to Santiago, her favorite paramedic, to get the scoop. "What the hell Santiago? What did you say to this guy to piss him off? You're never handling my patients again," she joked. He smiled, then rolled his eyes. "You have NO idea the night we've had with this guy, Ally. Won't tell us his name, won't tell us anything. Someone found him passed out in a dumpster on 8th Street. Apparently they saw him jump off the roof of a three-story building and into a dumpster, I guess to cushion himself? Not enough garbage…his leg's gotta be shattered. He's pretty cut up in general from it too. He keeps saying he's fine and to let him go…sedatives aren't touching him. There's no way he's leaving here tonight…he's refusing to say anything but keeps yelling "my face," at me. Listen…I think I know who he is…I think it's that Rorschach guy. The super hero dude? He was wearing this when we got to him…we had to take it off to check him out, mama." Santiago handed Allison a black and white mask.

Allison stared back in shock. She'd heard of this Rorschach guy before. Running around the city, sometimes causing more trouble than it's worth according to most. Her parents would have loved him though, "fighting the good fight" no matter what anyone else though. She vaguely wondered if they had known each other, but scratched that thought right away – they were gone before his time as the anti-hero. I bet his psych profile would be miles long, Tommy would know better than me. I admire him though…I've seen in the papers what he's done and read in between the lines. He really does help people who need it the most, even though his methods are unconventional. Allison took a deep breath, clutching her clipboard to her chest. This is going to be fun…I'm gonna need a drink.