An Infirmary Lullaby
More terminal-Genta, my apologies... Thanks to Ninety-Six Smiles for your continued help and support.
BTW; Anna and Kate (mentioned in this chapter) are two characters in My Sister's Keeper.
Nation's POV...
I grab for my frap as the oscillating fan hits me with another blast of hot air. August in Denton is always stifling as hell despite the fact that we're in Ohio. But I am in the On-Call room of Denton Public Hospital, in scrubs, with two other doctors and a nurse.
"Fuck it..." Dr. Frank Furter whines, pulling off the shirt of his scrubs and tossing it across the room, "I should have never gone to med school..."
"Just because of the heat-wave?" counters my brother, Dr. Cosmo McKinley, Nurse Laura Ansalong chokes on her Icee.
"Gosh, Frankie- ach-shit-"
"Drink water, Laura."
"Can't,-gah-it boiled!" Laura coughs and spits a chunk of Icee into her hand.
"Disgusting."
"WHAT'RE YOU SAYING?" Laura squeals, rubbing the chunk all over her body, "So cold!"
My pager starts to beep, as do Cosmo's, Frank's and Laura's.
"ER, why would the ER page us?"
"Five-car pileup?"
"Bus crash?"
"Plane accident?"
"Fat people?" We jump up,
"We're pathetic..." Frank interjects as we leave the on-call room.
"24 year old female, leukemic, collapsed-"
The ambulance pulls up to the doors of the ER and almost kills Laura, the paramedics pass Cosmo and Frank a stretcher, and I barely see the patient before a young man with brown hair and glasses jumps out of the ambulance,
"MAGENTA, STAY AWAKE! PLEASE!"
"Sir, are you her husband?" Cosmo interrogates,
"Yes, Brad Majors- HEY!" the man grabs Frank by the shoulder, "YOU'RE DEAD!"
"I'm a doctor, asshole, and it's amazing what we can do."
"Frankie-!"
"Pipe down, Laura, I know this guy, I know her too, she used to work for me- abdomen's rigid, she must be bleeding internally... Page someone, dammit! And Nation, stop standing there like a bump on a log, you need to intubate!"
I hold an oxygen mask over the patient's mouth as the blood starts to spurt out,
"COSMO, A LITTLE HELP?" I scream as blood splatters across my scrubs and face, the woman's eyes flutter open and she stares glassily at me, "Ma'am, you're at Denton Public Hospital-"
"I- uh-uh-"
"Is she okay?"
"CAN SOMEONE GET HIM AWAY?" I slide a hand behind the woman's back and lift her forward so the blood drains down. Cosmo puts in IV in and Laura closes the ER doors.
"Okay, Magenta Alvarado, age 24, hospitalized for AML sixteen times in the past six months." Cosmo clarifies to the roomful of interns, residents and our patient and her husband.
"And she has kidney dysplasia, she received a transplant at the age of thirteen from her sister." Laura adds, hanging a few clear bags of saline on Ms Alvarado's IV pole.
"Is her family estranged?"
"No, but they live an hour away. Mr. Majors has made her illness a full-time job since they've been married."
"It's true." says the man next to her bed, smirking a little, "Magenta's my life now."
"YEAH, AFTER A DISASTROUS ONE-NIGHT STAND AT MY PLACE!" Frank screams, Mr Majors flips him off. I can't believe this is my co-worker...
"Can we get back on track?" An intern cuts in,
"I agree." I cover,
"Mr Majors, if I can talk to you for a few minutes." Cosmo requests, Mr Majors stands up, Frank follows them with a disdainful look on his face.
"Okay." I announce, "Do any of you assholes have any idea what medications Ms Alvarado-"
"I DO I DO I DO!" hollers an intern who I don't know, "Ummm, chemo, radiation, various others, specified heeeere..."
"I don't need to see." With a loud, violent gasp, Ms Alvarado is coughing herself awake, "Okay, clear out, she's awake." the interns skitter away, giggling. Laura backs slowly out of the room, smirking.
"Mmmm..."
"Ms Alvarado, you're at Denton Public Hospital, you collapsed-"
"I'm not stupid, I know where I am. I know this hospital like the back of my- ahh-" Ms Alvarado flinches and I incline her bed, "Where's Brad?"
"Is that your husband?"
"No, he's my cat. Of course he's my fucking husband." Ms Alvarado runs a hand through her long red curls, "So who are you anyway?"
"Dr. Nation McKinley."
"I've never had you before, I've had Frank though. I've known him since I was thirteen, anyway."
"Thirteen, huh?"
"I used to work for him. He wasn't always a... real doctor, you know."
"What did you do for him?"
"...I was his maid."
"He must be loaded."
"He was."
I glance out the window in the door, all I can see is 'Brad' listening to something, nodding occasionally. Ms Alvarado looks down, she's picking at a loose thread in her blanket.
"So, we're going to need to keep you for a while, so we've decided to put you on a higher dose of chemo, which should put you into remission, or semi-remission, and when that happens, we will discharge you."
"Not if I die first."
"Ms Alvarado-"
"Dr. McKinley, am I dying?"
"No. You're really not." I almost snap, I'm slowly getting pissed off, "...Ms Alvarado, if you were dying, we would not be putting you on a higher dose of treatment. You would be on arsenic therapy, which would give you more time, but you're not on arsenic. You're on chemo."
"You're new, aren't you?"
"To oncology, yes. I was a neurologist through my internship. But I'm a resident."
"You look a little young to be a resident."
"I'm 25. Skipped 9th grade. Then 11th."
"Am I going to die?"
"Stop it. Or I'll put you under. I'm a doctor, I'm allowed."
Ms Alvarado glances down again, "Do I need another surgery?"
"Not that I know of..."
"...Get Brad in here..."
"I-"
"Please, Dr. McKinley."
"I don't know if-"
"Nation. My husband, please."
I cough nervously and stand up. I open the door, Cosmo is saying something,
"With many myeloid leukemias- Nation, why are you-"
"Mr. Majors, your wife is asking for you."
"She is?"
"Just a second-"
"Cosmo, the patient comes first,"
"Nat, since when are you-"
"Come with me, Mr Majors." I lead Brad back into the room, Ms Alvarado smiles, he sits next to her.
"How are you feeling?"
"Okay, now that I got to see you..."
Frank makes a gagging noise, I glance at him severely,
"Dr. Furter, do you need to step out?"
"I'm fine, Dr. McKinley."
Brad frowns and pulls Ms Alvarado closer, in a kind of protective way, like we're going to rub off on his precious little wife. It would be an improvement on that little bitch.
Ms Alvarado smiles a little, nervously. "Dr McKinley, when do I start treatment again?"
"Tomorrow." Cosmo and I answer in unison. I cough nervously again. And we back out of the room.
...
"So how about those two?" Laura squeals in the cafeteria as she grabs a box of rubberized French fries and drowns them in vinegar.
"Well, they're... a happy couple. They love each other."
"Of course they do. They're married, that's the point of marriage, love. Like you and Ricky."
"We're not married, but..."
"But you're in love. Or whatever your relationship is centred around..."
Laura shoots me a look and I shut up. Cosmo and Frank sit down at our table,
"I can't deal with those two anymore."
"Who, Brad and Magenta?" Laura corrects,
"You mean, Mr Majors and Ms Alvarado? No, I can't deal with them."
"You can refer to them by their first names."
"No we can't." Cosmo scoffs, "First of all, she's going to be as good as dead in... well, a matter of weeks, and he just annoys me."
"Okay, Magenta is sweet, she's really sweet." Frank counters, "I know her, and yeah, Brad may be an asshole, but you can't be like that to him, he's... just stressed out about Magenta being so sick."
"Excuses, excuses." Cosmo snaps, "Y'know, if I was him, divorce, I'm not about to deal with some whiny little slut crying over her fucking cancer."
"THAT'S AWFUL!" Laura screams, jumping up noisily from her seat so that the whole cafeteria turns around, she sits back down, "Cosmo, you are a horrid person. You cannot say that about a patient and her husband. It's horrible, you're going straight to hell."
"As long as you won't be there with me."
"I can assure you, I won't."
"Alright, Anna Fitzgerald, have fun waiting on your little Kate friend."
There's a moment of silence before Laura runs away in tears. Frank stands up and runs after her.
"Cosmo!"
"What'd I do?"
"...did Laura ever tell you about Sidney?"
"Who's Sidney?"
"... Sidney was Laura's sister. She had leukemia. She died last year."
Did y'all like it so far? I hope so, there's more to come, so just remember that... keep on truckin', I guess...