This is only my second fanfic... I wasn't going to write another one but this story has been playing in my head. Please review and let me know if its worth continuing.. Thanks for reading!
"Dr. Dana Scully, Please dial extension 7855. Dr. Dana Scully, Please dial extension 7855."
Dr. Dana Scully heard her name paged over the P.A. system. She was exhausted. Her shift ended almost three hours ago. She was dead on her feet but she knew the hospital was understaffed. It had been a particularly bad flu season so far this year and it was only the beginning.
The P.A. system announced her name and the extension once more. She was making her way to an in house phone. Knowing most of the hospital extensions by heart she wasn't surprised when the voice on the other end scripted that she had reached the emergency room.
"Dr. Scully here, I was paged." She stifled a yawn. "I'm actually on my way out. Dr. Arjmit is on call this evening. Have you paged him yet? He should be here by now." Scully glanced at her watch realizing how late it was and the on call doctor should have been here hours ago.
"Um, well, no we have no need to page him. He's right here." The voice sounded hesitant and a little frightened on the other end.
"If Dr. Arjmit is there why are you paging me?" She was frustrated. She fully understood how busy the E.R. had been but she had handled her shift plus more without bringing in another physician.
"Well, Dr. Scully, because he was brought here by ambulance. He seemed to have suffered a seizure most likely brought on by a high fever from flu like symptoms." Scully realized the weariness in the E.R. associates voice and his name suddenly popped into her head.
"Ok, Jason, I'll be right there." Taking a deep, heavy breath, Dr. Scully made her way back to the Emergency Room. She hoped that she would soon be able to get her second (third, fifth?) wind. If she thought she already had a long night, she was sadly mistaken.
xxxxxxx
After the worst night she could ever remember working in medicine, Dr. Scully finally made her way home after almost a twenty hour shift. The hospital had called in reinforcements from other local hospitals. This was unheard of but they had no other choice.
She had never felt so exhausted in her life. It was mid morning but she knew she could sleep for at least ten hours easy. Slowly making her way to her front door she spotted her neighbor standing in front of his doorway watching her walk. They had become somewhat friendly since she moved here almost two years ago but he always struck her as a bit odd.
"Good morning Dana. Long night?" He was an older gentlemen. Always dressed as if he was on his way to an important business meeting. He stood there smoking his cigarette, watching her make her way closer to her front door.
"Long night doesn't come close to accurate. You know Mr. Mulligan you really should consider quitting. I would hate to see you come into my E.R. as a patient because of it." She gave him a tired smile as she put her key into her lock, opening up the door of her cozy apartment.
"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Charles." The older gentleman called to her as she smiled and closed the door behind her.
She made her way into her bedroom and could barely keep her eyes open long enough to take her clothes off. Once she was in her comfortable pajamas, she lay on her bed and couldn't even recall closing her eyes. She was already fast asleep.
xxxxxx
The sound of her pager going off woke her up with a start. For a moment she was disoriented.
She was having a strange dream. One of many she has had many times. In these dreams she wears a badge and carries a gun. Strange images come and go. Theres always someone familiar with her but she can never see his face. Sometimes these dreams are so real, so vivid, it takes a moment for her to come back to reality.
She thought she was still at the hospital when she first opened her eyes until her vision fully adjusted to the dark and she remembered coming home and laying in her own bed. She picked up her pager from her night stand. It was a 911 from the E.R. She got up from her bed and sat there for a moment trying to get her bearings. Her head was pounding. She had slept for more than twelve hours but it hadn't stopped her body from feeling over tired. She felt as though she had drank too much the night before and was suffering from a hang over.
Her pager went off again. Picking up her phone she called in and this time heard the voice of a woman named Adeline.
"Oh, Dr. Scully, thank God you called back. I know you should be off today and I'm sorry to bother you but we're unable to get anyone else to come in. Every other doctor has been to sick to come in, has been admitted themselves or just plain refuses to come in." Adeline was usually very calm and collected. Her new anxiety made Scully become completely alert now.
"Ok, Adeline, just calm down for a second. Tell me whats going on." Scully was getting dressed as she spoke to the woman. The feeling of her dream completely vanishing.
"Everyone is sick. I mean everyone. This flu is getting out of hand. We don't have the staff to support the amount of patients we have coming in and we are running out of room. We should have been put on divert but the other surrounding hospitals have already beat us to it." The young woman sounded like she was ready to cry.
"Adeline, your doing just fine. You did right by paging me. I'll be there as soon as I can." Scully hung up the phone, adrenaline running through her now. She made her way back out to her car and once again saw her neighbor, Charles S. Mulligan, standing outside smoking a cigarette. It seemed as though he had been standing there since she came home yesterday.
This time there was no time for small talk. She had to get over to the hospital asap.
xxxxxxxxx
If at all possible, the E.R. was in even worse shape than was described to her. For the first time she could remember since practicing medicine she felt unsure of herself. Not sure where to begin. She made her way over to the charge nurse.
"Tamra, you want to bring me up to speed here?" Tamara and Scully had a great working relationship. Over the past two years they had developed a skill for understanding what the other needed without many words to be exchanged.
Tamara filled Dr. Scully in on the situation. This years flu had been the worst in recent memory. They had cases from moderate to severe. The severe cases had all been sent up to the ICU where they were just about completely out of room. For the moderate cases they had made a makeshift over flow area in the hospital staff conference room. It was a large room with no permanent furniture in it so it was easy to turn it into what was needed at any given time. Now it was a triage area.
Dr. Scully took the worst of the worst cases that was there that night. She didn't want to risk the health of anyone else. They needed as many bodies available as possible and for the life of her she couldn't remember ever getting sick before. She held on to this thought as a badge of bravery. Her thoughts trailed off…. She actually couldn't remember a whole lot these days. She felt like there were gaps in her memory or in fact the memories that she had were just dreams. She usually just attributed it to being over worked or no longer being a young girl.
A loud commotion brought Dr. Scully back to the present moment. She scanned the E.R. trying to find the source. Letting all of her senses kick in she spotted the cause of the loud voices. There was a man that was being held back by one of the security guards and a male nurse. This man did not seems to be suffering the same ailments as the rest of the patients there that night. She decided she would try to calm the situation. These patients here where frightened enough as it was.
"Excuse me gentlemen but there are a lot of sick people here tonight that you are all disturbing. Please let me know what the problem is here and I am sure we can calmly come to a solution." She stood her ground and looked each of the men into their eyes one by one.
It was the security guard that finally spoke. "This man was caught trying to sneak into the J.E. Hoover building. He should have been arrested but because a few of the men he was around displayed symptoms of the flu the police officers refused to take him into custody." The man sighed. "Now he's here."
"Sir, my name is Dr. Dana Scully, if you would be willing to talk to me without getting excited these men can leave us both alone and we can talk. How does that sound?"
"I know who you are Scully," they man spoke through gritted teeth, staring intently into her eyes. Both the security guard and the nurse looked at Dr. Scully quizzically.
"I'm sorry Sir, but I think you may have mistaken me for some one else. Listen guys theres a private room in back we just cleared out. Why don't you get Mr..?" Scully looked at the man to finish her sentence by offering his last name. He stayed silent. The guard told her the name on his license read Fagen W. Mathew.
The the nurse and security guard walked away with the new patient in tow. He seemed to have calmed since first entering the hospital. Dr. Scully decided to finish with the patient she was with before the interruption.
Almost thirty minuets later she made her way toward the private room and noticed the security guard had used restraints on the patient. "Mr. Mathews how are you feeling?" He hadn't even looked up at her. At this point Dr. Sanders entered the room. He was one of the other physicians that were on tonight.
"Hi, Dr. Scully, crazy night tonight huh?" He looked so pleased with himself. She just looked at him. "Uh, anyhow, I gave this man a sedative. He should be knocked out pretty soon. I called in a psych consult. He seems to be delusional but not caused from any drugs or alcohol that I can tell. There's no reason why he should be wasting our space or time in the E.R. They'll be bringing him up to the psych ward shortly."
"Scully." The man groaned in the bed.
"Well, you certainly seem to have made an impression on this man." The doctor smugly chuckled and left the room.
Dr. Scully made her way closer to the restrained man. "What is it Mr. Mathew?" His eyes were closed and she could tell that sleep was near.
"Remember." This was all he managed to say. He was now completely under the effect of the sedative that was given to him. Two men from transport entered the room with a gurney and they expertly moved the patient without disturbing him, onto the gurney, making their way with him to the psych ward.
Dr. Dana Scully stayed frozen until she heard her name being called from across the room and knew that she was needed. She moved into action but could not get herself to fully concentrate on the task in front of her. That man….. her thoughts trailed off as she heard her name being called louder. She knew she was in for another very long night.