Snow Angies
A/N: Just a random little idea that popped into my head. Enjoy!
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"Is she alright?" an elderly lady asked, picking up the phone at her small, old apartment.
"Yes, the operation was a complete success. However, she'll need to stay over for a couple of weeks until she's fully recovered," Derek Stiles said, absentmindedly flipping through a stack of paperwork on his desk as he watched the rain fall outside. "That means...oh, she'll actually be able to return home right on Christmas day!"
"That's wonderful," the woman replied. "What time should I be there?"
"Whenever's convenient for you, Mrs. Newell. Sometime in the morning would probably be best." The young doctor heard a slight knock on his office door, and a moment later Angie Thompson walked in. She walked over to her desk and sat down, promptly beginning on her own paperwork as she waited for Derek to be finished with his phone call.
"That's wonderful," Mrs. Newell repeated. "I'll be there as early as I can. Thank you, doctor, for saving my granddaughter."
"I'm glad I could help," Derek said, meaning it. "Good-bye." He hung up the phone, and Angie put down her pen and looked up at Derek.
"Was that...?"
"Yes, it was Mrs. Newell. Er...how's Roxy?" Derek asked, running his fingers through his hair.
Roxy was a 7-year-old girl who had been recently admitted to Caduceus for contracting a strange disease that was difficult to treat, and often fatal, even to adults. The disease had been in an advanced stage, and she'd been in critical condition. The only thing that was worse than her condition, however, was her attitude. She seemed sad and withdrawn, speaking only when she had to. She also seemed to dislike things that were bright and cheerful. And though her condition was cured, her attitude was still as bad as ever.
"The same," Angie sighed. "I don't know what it is. I was just in her room, checking to make sure there were no problems with her medication so far, and she just glared at me the whole time. Do you think we should be concerned, Dr. Stiles?"
It was obvious that, whether Derek thought they should be concerned or not, she was going to be anyways. She was twirling a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger as she listened for Derek opinion.
"Well...maybe she just needs some time to recover...we'll keep checking on her, though," he added quickly, seeing Angie's expression.
"I hope," Angie said, looking out the window at the rain. This was the third day in a row that the weather had been dark and rainy. And more storms were predicted to come.
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"Hi, Roxy!" Angie said cheerfully the next day as she walked into the young girl's room. The small redhead just stared at her, clearly annoyed at Angie's perky attitude. 'Oh, boy...' Angie thought as she pretended that Roxy was not in a bad mood. Again.
"How are you today?" the blonde nurse asked, smiling as she examined a clipboard over at the counter by the window. Rain was pounding at the window, and thunder occasionally boomed overhead. Flashes of lightning provided an eerie glow that illuminated cars as they zipped by on the road near Caduceus.
Roxy waited until Angie was looking right into her eyes. And then, in as flat of a voice as Angie had ever heard, she said:
"Fine."
"Oh..." Angie said, taken a bit off guard at the girl's piercing gaze. She seemed to be looking down on Angie, even though she was laying down in a hospital bed, clearly the weaker of the two. "Well, that's nice! It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, did you know?"
Roxy showed no reaction whatsoever. She just kept staring, her eyes completely devoid of emotion.
"Well, um...in that case...have you had any pain, particularly headache...?" Headache was often a sign that the patient was going to have a relapse.
"No."
"And no consistent coughing?" Angie said as she jotted a few things down on the clipboard. Coughing typically indicated an allergic reaction to the medication being used, and could progress to problems in the lungs if left untreated.
"No."
"Alright, then. I'll let you rest some, for now." Angie said, placing down the clipboard back on the counter. She smiled at Roxy as she walked out, but the girl simply looked out at the storm that was raging outside.
Once outside, Angie went down to the staff lounge to get a cup of coffee before moving on to her next group of patients. She saw her friend and fellow nurse, Leslie Sears, inside, talking to Sidney Kasal.
"Oh, hey, Angie!" Leslie said, smiling brightly and tapping an empty spot at the table, signaling to Angie to sit down.
"Hey, Leslie," Angie said, sighing as she raised the foam cup of coffee to her mouth. It warmed her insides, but it didn't lift her mood.
"Why so down?" Leslie asked, cocking her head to the side a bit.
"Roxy."
"Ah." Leslie said, looking out the window. Most of the Caduceus staff knew about the patient's strange attitude, whether they were part of her treatment or not. Word traveled fast at Caduceus, something the faculty all learned quickly.
"I wonder why she's so sad?" Leslie said to no one in particular.
"It's too bad she has to stay over Christmas," Sidney said, clearly on his own train of thought. "That's never fun..."
For some reason, when Angie heard Sidney's response, a light bulb went off in her head. "I've got an idea!" she said, jumping up from her seat and rushing out, leaving two very confused colleagues behind her.
Only a minute later, Angie arrived at Robert Hoffman's office. She knocked on the director's door as she caught her breath, and soon she heard the man say "Enter."
"Director! I have a favor to ask you!"
Hoffman looked strangely at her for a moment at the outburst, but motioned for her to sit down. "And what, Miss Thompson, might this favor be...?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well..." Angie said, and she began to explain her plan.
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Monday, December 19th...
"This. Is. Ridiculous." Victor Niguel hissed at Angie as she passed by, small bells ringing on her green shoes with every step she took.
"Come on, Victor! This is awesome!" Tyler Chase said, the blonde surgeon, adjusting his green hat as he snapped a picture of two children sitting on Santa Clause's knees...
...or rather, Hoffman's knees.
Angie's plan had been to set up an unused room at Caduceus like the parts at malls where they had "Santa Clause" and "elves," for the children at Caduceus who wouldn't be able to go to visit one of the fake Santas. And with help from all the staff, it had been a total success.
Victor, however, was ruining the vibe. He stood by the velvet rope to let the kids in to tell "Santa" what they wanted for Christmas (the portion of money that Caduceus gave very year to various charities would go to pay for some of the gifts that the kids asked for). Victor would open the rope for the kids, and say various un-festive things, the most common being:
"Alright, get in there, already!"
"I've got important stuff to do, you know!"
"Come on, come on, we don't have all day!"
Tyler was taking pictures of the children with "Santa," Leslie was opposite of Victor, letting the children out with another velvet rope, Sidney was at the refreshments table, making sure that there were no spills or other problems, and Derek was going around taking pictures of the children at play with the various toys set out and the "snow" that carpeted the floor, which was really a cottony material that wasn't going to cause colds in children that were already sick, or still recovering. Various other Caduceus faculty walked around, watching over the children. Some of them were assigned to certain children who needed constant supervision, such as the very young ones. Christmas music played in the background, throughout the entire room thanks to carefully placed speakers. To make it all even more magical, it was actually snowing outside as well.
And, of course, everyone was dressed as elves. Victor had only shown up at the threat of being forced to take three days off from the lab if he didn't, and those three days were starting to look pretty good compared to dressing up as an elf in front of a good portion of the staff and spending lots of time with two of his least favorite things to be around: children and festivity.
Meanwhile, one floor up, Angie was trying to convince a certain patient to go down to the party.
"It'll be lots of fun!" Angie promised, looking at Roxy hopefully.
"If I go, will you leave me alone?" the girl asked.
Ignoring the sting of the remark, Angie nodded. Roxy sighed and began to shift into a sitting position. Angie helped her into the wheelchair by her bed, and in only five minutes they had taken the elevator the floor below them, and were soon in a room full of cheery music and laughing children. And a grumpy elf named Victor.
"See? Isn't this worth coming out of the room for a bit?" Angie asked Roxy, who didn't respond.
Motivated by the fact that she had managed to get Roxy to come, Angie said, "Would you like to go visit Santa?"
"Sure," Roxy replied dully.
Once it was her turn, Roxy was helped onto "Santa's" knees, and he said, in a merry voice, "Ho, ho, ho, hello there, little miss! What would you like for Christmas?"
"Can I ask for anything?" she said, looking up at "Santa."
"Anything at all!" he replied.
She looked over at Angie, who smiled and nodded encouragingly.
Then, turning her wide blue eyes back to "Santa," she said, very clearly, "For Christmas, I would like a new nurse."
"Santa's" eyes widened, Leslie's jaw dropped, and even Victor looked a bit surprised. No patient had ever had anything bad to say about Angie. In fact, she had even been requested more than once.
However, the only things that the poor nurse acknowledged were the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
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Despite Roxy's outright rude statement to Angie, she still tried various tactics to cheer up Roxy throughout the week leading up to Christmas day:
Tuesday, December 20th- She build at least one hundred snowmen, all different shapes and sizes and draped in her own scarves and hats, right outside Roxy's window. Roxy said that they made her feel like there was an army coming to attack her.
Wednesday, December 21st- This time, she dressed up with a wig, glasses, and a pretend name tag, and said that she was a "new nurse." Roxy's response was, "Maybe I should have been more specific. I wanted a new nurse that wasn't annoying."
Thursday, December 22nd- When Roxy awoke, her entire room was decorated merrily with tinsel, a synthetic pink mini-Christmas tree adorned with ornaments, rugs bearing jolly messages, a bright red-and-green stocking hung up in front of the window with the word "ROXY" written on it in gold glitter, and various other festive decorations. "I don't like pink," Roxy said, "And red and green are opposites on the color wheel. It's tacky."
Friday, December 23rd- Determined to make Roxy smile at some point before she left, Angie made fifty Christmas cards, all by herself, and placed them on any surface they would fit on. The reply? That they were "another way to remind myself that there's no one else who's going to take the time to write to me."
Saturday, December 24th- Out of ideas, Angie didn't have any bold surprises for Roxy when she woke up. "Finally," she said when Angie came to check on her.
But late in the night, Angie came in and laid a rectangular box under the pink tree, wrapped in red-and-green and adorned with a large gold ribbon. A small card rested on top of it and said "Merry Christmas, Roxy" in fancy script, and was signed "Your Annoying Nurse, Angie."
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Christmas day 3:00am...
The snow was perfect, smooth, and soft white. The trees were coated with snow, and there was at least two feet on the ground. Yet somehow, the road hadn't iced over.
Angie sat cross-legged in her pajamas in her car, not really knowing why she was there. She was one of the lucky few at Caduceus who had Christmas off. And even if she hadn't, why would she be there at three in the morning?
She looked up at Roxy's window. The blinds were closed, and Angie could picture the girls lying in her bed, peacefully asleep, looking like a beautiful little angel with her long red hair splayed out over her porcelain white skin. Angel...
Angie hopped out of her car, barefoot and in her pink satin pajamas, and proceed to cover the entire lawn with snow angels. She didn't know how many, all she knew was that there were a lot. Enough to make her think that she'd never be warm again.
Right in the middle of it all, she shuffled along her feet, writing "MERRY CHRISTMAS ROXY" in enormous letters. When she finished, she ran all the way back to her car, and then stopped by the pharmacy on the way home for some cold medicine. She was sure she'd get sick after all of that rolling around in the snow, barefoot and not bundled up at all.
But it was worth it.
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Christmas day, 9:00pm
Angie lay in bed, with a fever, runny nose, and headache, watching a marathon of Christmas movies on TV. She was almost asleep, when the phone rang.
"Hello?" she said, sniffling as she reached for another tissue.
"Ang, it's me, Derek," the surgeon said.
"Oh, hi doctor," she replied.
"Are you alright? You sound a little sick..." Derek said, concerned.
"I'm fine." she said, sipping a bit of water. "Can I help you with something?"
"Oh, there was something I wanted to tell you..." he said
"Yes?" she asked, turning down the television.
"I just got back from a church program, you know, for Christmas. And I saw Roxy."
"You did?" Angie said, sitting up a little straighter. "Did you talk to her?"
"No, I didn't get the chance, but she was talking to her grandmother. She said something about...her mother being in prison. And her father having died."
Angie swallowed and bit her bottom lip. Now the girl's sadness made sense. "Oh." was all she said.
"But, she also mentioned you, Ang." he continued, "Something about a the best Christmas ever. Oh, and something about snow angels, too...do you know what that's about?"
Angie's heart leapt. "Doctor, what was she wearing?" she asked excitedly.
"Um...a blue dress, I think. Kinda sparkly, maybe, but I don't really remember. I wasn't really paying attention to that..."
Angie didn't hear the rest of what he said. Roxy had gotten her gift.
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A/N: You have no idea how much fun I had describing the Santa scene and coming up with random things that Angie could do while trying to cheer up Roxy. :)
Thanks for reading! :D