Since the story is finished, I figured I'd put this in the beginning. This story is now in another community. The Best of the best Daryl/OC by alicemeetwonderland. So thank you! It's exciting to know that others appreciate all the hard work I put into this story.

Working at a hospital you see all sorts of crazy things. But this, this was different. When the first patient was brought in, I had to ask the cop to tell me again, because what he said was so crazy.

"This guy was trying to eat him. We had to shoot the nut job about 20 times to bring him down. Must have been on some serious shit." The cop shook his head and leaned against the wall.

I knew that cop, his name was Jerry. He had been on the force for about eight years. I have a natural dislike for cops, but Jerry was different. He wasn't on some power trip, or enjoyed making life difficult for people. He really wanted to help. If it was someone else I would have thought that he was exaggerating, but not Jerry.

"Well I have to say this is my first attempted cannibalism." I joked, trying to ease the feeling of dread that had seeped into the ER from the outside world. To make it in the ER you either had to find ways to laugh, or the horror of human cruelty would burn you out so fast. "Anyways, I called Dr. Marsh down once I took a look at him. He's taking him up to surgery now. The surgery is gonna take hours and I doubt he'll wake up before tomorrow. Why don't you have someone come back then."

"Yeah, I guess" Jerry sighed, scratching his head. "Might as well cut out, my shift ended about an hour ago. What time you outta here?"

"My shift ended about an hour ago too, but they're short a doc tonight so Jim asked me if I could stay till the evening rush dies down. Its starting to thin out so I'm hoping maybe about another hour or two. The good thing about being an NP is that I'm still hourly. Means overtime, lots and lots of overtime. Its good though, Jack's birthday is coming up and I want to surprise him with a trip to Brazil for Carnival next year. He's always wanted to go. " Smiling, as I thought of my handsome husband, I finished my notes and placed the chart back in the rack.

"Stella, that is one hell of a gift. I hope Jack knows how lucky he is."

I laughed, "Of course he does. I remind him every day!" Just then a nurse came up and gave me another chart. "Looks like duty calls. I'll see you around Jerry." As I turned away I flipped to the complaint page. Quickly I turned back around "Jerry wait!" I called rushing up to him. "You won't believe it but I got another biting. What are the odds? Says here that a guy has multiple bite wounds from an intruder. Look, I got to go take a look at him, but let me know if you hear of anything else like this, would you?"

"You bet. Why? What are you thinking?" Jerry replied, his voice laced with concern.

"I don't know, but one biting is strange, two in a night is something...something else."

And that's how it started for me. That's the moment that I knew somewhere in my bones that life was going to change.

I know this is short, but I wanted to introduce my OC in her own way. Next chapter Daryl Dixon! Stay tuned.