Irie Kotoko looked at her watch with a sigh, this was her fifth night shift in a row at the hospital since the outbreak of meseals on the children's wards at the Tongan university hospital. Kotoko had not been home in nearly a whole working week much to her family's dismay. She didn't even see her husband around the hospital because he was too busy either with surgeries or had got to go home for the well needed sleep that a doctor should get.. Nurses on the other hand, are not so lucky in catching a few hours of sleep when extra hands are needed during times such as the current situation.
Kotoko looked at her watch then peered into her empty coffee cup with another giant sigh. She was beyond exhausted not just mentally but physically, the hospital was demanding so much out of her she rarely had time to herself to sit down and have a bite to eat here and there during the dragging days and the endless, quiet nights. This did not surprise Kotoko however, she had been a nurse for three years now and had been through basically everything you could imagine, anything from getting lost in the hospital to losing a patient in a bathroom.. True story. However the thing Kotoko could never get used to was the time her shifts take away from her family life, she missed irie kun, yukki kun, Oba-sama and her father. Not to mention the comfort of her own bed, the quiet privacy of her own bedroom and the deliciously filling home made food that she tried to help Oba-sama with when she could. She missed her life, and the sly comments from her husband. Kotoko missed being Kotoko.
Kotoko sighed again getting up to place her coffee cup into the bin, she looked at herself in the reflection of the mirrored walls, she gramiced at her tired, pale appearance, she looked drained and in well need of a bath and a good nights sleep, she no longer looked like Kotoko, she looked like an echo, a thinner, worn out Kotoko who was running on empty. There was a reason why she was on shifts all the time, Kotoko couldn't bare to return home. Yes she missed her home life, her old life but her home life had changed dramatically. Months ago she and irie-kun were happy and about to enter parent hood, months ago she was 9 months to term, that was 4 months ago.. 4months ago was where it all changed. 4 months ago was when Kotoko went into labor and gave birth to a small little girl. Kotoko got out her phone and flicked through the pictures stopping on one in particular and let out a sob.
'Here lies the daughter of irie, noaki and irie Kotoko, Kotomi.' Was seen on a small stone and next to it was her husbands.
Kotoko was now an echo of her true self because her true self died along with her daughter and her husband, months ago Kotoko lost the battle, and now she's got to live with a broken heart.