A/n: Yes, I'm starting yet another multi-chapter story. I just have way too many ideas and inspirations; I simply have to write them out before I forget them.
This story, "Borderline", is centered on the ER of a hospital in a big city. Obviously, like in most of my stories, there will be pairings and OCs. It's rated T for language, gore (it's a hospital after all), and violence. Average story from yours truly, yes?
Anyways, let's get started.
Xxx
It was a normal day at the Saint Vargas' Hospital ER.
Some minor injuries or people simply freaking out over nothing, and a few major cases that required some sort of surgery or intense medical care.
Andelko Begovich, a twenty-nine year old ER Trauma Nurse with three years of experience to his name, was leaning on the desk that belonged to his receptionist friend, chatting during a break. The receptionist was thirty year old Pavla Prockofijev, a long brown-haired woman who shared similar experience to Andelko, but had only started work at Saint Vargas' a few months ago.
"Any good work today, Andy?" Pavla questioned the black-haired nurse in front of her.
"Best we've gotten so far was a high school student with a broken arm." Andelko replied, scratching a bit at his beard.
"Slow day then, huh?" Pavla assumed before letting out a yawn. Tiredness was a plague that afflicted most in the ER; working so many hours was grueling. Andelko was working a slow twelve hours today, and he was only in the third hour of working. The pay was good though; just over 45 dollars an hour was worth the lack of sleep.
"No kidding… I've got nine more hours of this; maybe thing will pick up and keep us awake today." Andelko glanced to his watch and sighed.
"I better get back to work." He said. "I'll talk to you during lunch."
Andelko meandered down the many halls of the hospital, sticking his hands in the pockets of his black scrubs. He checked on a few patients, making sure things were going fine with the machines and such, before heading back out of the room.
When he saw a fellow Trauma Nurse jogging down the hall, he turned around.
"What's going on?" He asked. The woman was Elizibeta Hedervary, a twenty-six year old who was fresh out of college, but had proven to be extremely reliable when it came to the ER.
"We've got our first big one of the day, Begovich. Severe polytrauma to a male college student." Elizibeta explained as Andelko hurried along beside her to the entrance of the ER. As the male patient was brought in, the paramedics wheeled the gurney down the hall. Andelko could now see the extent of the injuries on the student.
The young man, already unconscious, was bleeding profusely from the head, neck, and chest. There were numerous cuts along his body, along with shards of glass and what looked to be small pieces of metal.
"What happened here?" Andelko questioned the paramedics.
"Motorcycle crash. He was hit by a car that ran a red light going a high rate of speed. From what we know, he hit the windshield of the car, and then rolled off onto the ground, ending up on top of his destroyed motorcycle. He wasn't wearing a helmet." One paramedic explained.
"Alright, I need him stabilized and in the trauma center immediately. Once he's stabilized, I need the okay for x-rays of his torso and head. Once that's done, we'll operate to fix any internal injuries and seal up the cuts that we can. Get the trauma team all down here; I know I'm not able to save him alone." Andelko ordered; he loved his job. Saving lives was something he enjoyed. He had lost some patients to their injuries, sure, but whenever he could save a life, it brought him so much pride. This college student was in danger of losing his life and Andelko knew it was his job to get him stabilized and off the path of dying so soon.
Once they had the patient in the trauma center, Andelko quickly washed his hands then slipped on a pair of latex gloves, along with a mask over his mouth and nose. The main trauma team consisted of Andelko, Elizibeta, and three others. The most experienced and professional of them was the thirty-eight year old Sadik Adnan, a Turkish man who had studied the wonder that was the medical field for a long time. He and Andelko, though very disliking of eachother, worked together as leaders on the trauma team. The next on the team was twenty-seven year old Apostol Svetozar, a well-trusted Bulgarian man with a heart that revolved around the medical field, even though he had only spent a year as an officially licensed nurse. Finally, they had their ever-silent Bosnian, twenty-eight year old Zlatko Pilav.
The five of them, though a rather young group, had proven to be one of the most reliable trauma teams ever constructed in the hospital.
"Alright, let's get the patient's clothes removed so we can see what we're dealing with here. Apostol, you have his information, correct?" Sadik asked, starting to cut away the bloodied fabric of the patient's clothes with scissors.
"Yes, I do. This is twenty-three year old Jamie Supple, an Auto Maintenance student at a local university. He has no medical issues, and has never been in this hospital before. It'll be safe to use whatever we can since he won't have any allergic reactions." Apostol explained as he read over a clipboard.
"He's losing a lot of blood; have blood transfusion equipment on the ready in case we need it. What blood type are we dealing with?" Andelko questioned.
"Uh…" Apostol looked over the papers for a moment. "Wow... AB positive. We'll be able to give him what blood we have handy."
"Apostol, make sure we have AB blood on the ready. If we don't, then we'll use something else. The right type of blood-"
"Is what is best for the patient; I know." Apostol interrupted Andelko.
"Well, stop stalling and make sure we have enough on hand. Bring what you can; we don't know how much we'll need." Sadik said. Apostol hurried to go check on the blood supply. Meanwhile, Andelko, Sadik, and Zlatko were working hard on stopping the bleeding from the wounds on the patient, while Elizibeta was hooking him up to machinery so they knew what his vitals were like. Elizibeta studied the screens of the machines carefully.
"His vitals are dangerously low, guys. We need to get this bleeding stopped and fast, or else we may be in danger of losing him." She warned.
"We're working on it, Liz." Sadik replied.
The medical procedures to stop the blood were going roughly, but they were now figuring out what the major wounds on the patient's body were. There was a large laceration on the left side of his neck that was proving hard for the doctors to seal. There was also a gash on the side of the college student's head that they were working on, as well as numerous cuts on the torso of the young man.
"Liz, check with radiology and make sure that they have a machine on the ready so that when we get this man stabilized we can figure out if there is anything wrong internally." Andelko requested. Elizibeta nodded and headed out of the center to the radiology center nearby.
"Zlatko, keep an eye on his vitals." Sadik ordered. Zlatko glanced up at a few of the machines, working quickly to help the patient.
"His vitals a dropping slowly; we need that blood transfusion as soon as Apostol gets back. If he doesn't get back here soon I'm afraid this patient will bleed to death." Zlatko explained.
"Shit… Apostol, come on… we need that blood…" Sadik muttered, frustrated with how much time it was taking Apostol to get the blood they needed.
A few moments later, Apostol hurried into the room with a cart which carried the necessary supplies for a blood transfusion. Here were at least fifteen packets of AB blood in the cart.
"Will this be enough?" The Bulgarian asked.
"Yes, now shut up and get this man the blood he needs." Andelko ordered. Apostol nodded and started hooking the patient up with intravenous blood. Zlatko glanced up at the machines monitoring the man's vitals.
"Still dropping." He said.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it…. Come on… We're doing all we can here…" Sadik was growing increasingly frustrated; he didn't want to lose any patients today.
"We'll be moving into Class IV Hemorrhaging soon at this rate." Andelko informed.
"Apostol, how's that blood coming?" Sadik asked.
"It's coming, it's coming. I'm trying my hardest to give him as much blood as possible, but it's not working." Apostol explained, hastily switching empty packets of blood out for fresh ones.
"God damn it, he isn't going to last much longer… Where's Liz?" Andelko questioned.
"Right here, Andelko." Elizibeta returned to the room and immediately got back to work, trying to do what she could to prevent heir patient from dying.
"What was the word from radiology?" Sadik asked.
"They've reserved an area for our patient once we have him stabilized." She responded.
But the patient didn't stabilized.
"Vitals just took a steep drop; he's facing exsanguination now…" Elizibeta informed. The doctors did all they could, but it was no use. When a prolonged beep was heard from one of the machines, they rushed to get the defibrillator. They tried their best, shocking the patient and trying to get him back, but it was no use.
"… We've done all we can. Apostol, Liz, you stay and clean up around here…" Sadik said, dropping his tools on a metal tray then removing his latex gloves and mask. Andelko and Zlatko followed in his steps, removing their gloves and masks as well.
They walked out of the room somberly, though frustration lingered on all of them. Sadik sighed and leaned against the wall outside of the trauma center, shaking his head.
"So much blood loss... We can only do so much…" He muttered.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Adnan. You did all you could. We all did." Andelko said.
Sadik shook his head and walked off down the hall, most likely to go and be on his own for a while. Losing a patient was always hard, especially when they were so young. Losing someone in their early twenties was difficult to handle; they died far too young.
"I'll go write out the papers for the morgue. Will you contact the family? They're in the lobby now." Zlatko asked Andelko.
"Yeah, I'll take care of the family matters…" This was the worst part of the job; delivering news that no one wanted to hear.
Andelko sighed a bit and went out to the lobby where the family was. There were both parents, what looked to be a wife, and a young child.
"Are you the family of Jamie Supple?" He asked. The family turned to him.
"Yes, is he alright?" The mother, Andelko assumed, said. Andelko sighed slightly.
"We did all we could for Jamie. But we couldn't save him… I'm sorry." He apologized. The family broke out into tears and sobs; the mother and wife especially. The child was confused from the looks of it, and the father seemed to be holding back his emotions for the sake of the others.
"The morgue will contact you once the body is ready to be sent to the funeral home… Again, I'm sorry for your loss…" With that, Andelko left the area, taking a deep breath then letting it out slowly. These were the times when his brain begged him for a cigarette, but he had kicked that addiction of his to the curb two years ago.
He tried to shake off the loss of the patient and continue about his work, checking on patients and making sure everything was in order. When lunch came around, he exited the hospital with Pavla, the receptionist from earlier. They walked down the sidewalk, heading to a nearby café.
"I heard you guys lost a college student earlier today." Pavla said. Andelko nodded.
"Yep… He bled out. We couldn't revive him once his heart stopped." He explained.
"So sad… Who told the family?"
"Zlatko kind of dumped that responsibility on me. He went and filled out the paperwork, Sadik went off to do God knows what, and Liz and Apostol were in charge of the body… Not a good day for me. It didn't seem too bad at first, but when Liz hooked him up and checked his vitals, things went downhill from there… Blood transfusions didn't work and there were too many wounds for the five of us to work on…"
"Don't let it get to you too much. You have an appetite at all?" Pavla asked.
"Not really…" Andelko replied.
"You know you should eat something, Andelko. You've still got five more hours of work to do. You can't work on an empty stomach."
"I know, I know… I'll just buy a bagel or something…"
"Good."
As the two entered the café, clad in their scrubs with their identification badges pinned to their shirts, people stared. The nurses and doctors at the hospital often came through the café, but it was still an odd scene to see.
Once the two had gotten their meals, Andelko sticking to a rather bland plain bagel, they sat at a nearby table and began to eat.
"I don't know what's worse, losing a patient or you forcing me to eat something…" Andelko commented.
"Oh stop complaining, Andy. You know you'd do the same for me." Pavla responded.
"Yeah. I would." The other hospital employee said, taking a bite of his bagel. He stared out the window, mind drifting off into thoughts, mainly about his patient, but also about something else that was going on.
Elizibeta, being the matchmaker she was, had set Andelko up for a date with a Serbian friend of hers. Andelko knew what Elizibeta had told him; Novak Novkovic was the guy's name, and he was a twenty-five year old former soldier. Novak had suffered a devastating leg injury when working on some military machinery, and had his right leg from the knee down amputated. Novak had accommodated a prosthetic limb, and lived a normal life, working as a pianist.
"Andy? Are you listening?" Pavla's voice caught Andelko's attention, bringing his mind back to reality.
"Huh? No, sorry, I wasn't…" He muttered.
"What're you thinking about? You're normally a good listener." Pavla tilted her head to one side, wanting to know why Andelko was so distant.
"I've got a date tomorrow… Elizibeta set me up with a guy I don't even know." Andelko explained.
"Well, do you know his name or anything?"
"I just know he's a Serbian named Novak Novkovic… Former soldier turned pianist… Why Elizibeta would set me up with a Serbian, I have no clue. Croatians and Serbians naturally do not get along."
"Well, you can't go basing this man off of his nationality, Andelko. I mean, I'm not a big fan of Serbians either, but maybe this Novak guy isn't half bad. You'll have to wait and see."
"Ugh… I have too much going on in my life to deal with a relationship with anyone…"
"Oh please, Andelko. Everyone knows that you're like the loneliest man on the planet. Face it; you need someone."
"Why does everyone assume that I need things? Last year Elizibeta forced me to take a vacation because she thought I needed a break from work."
"How much were you working?"
"I worked four days a week, all twelve hour shifts, for a month straight…"
"Yeah, you straight overworked yourself then. You know your limit is two or three twelve hour shifts a week."
"So what if I overwork myself? The hospital is getting understaffed anyways. Why do you think we have so many people working overtime? Sadik is at work nearly every day now."
"Well that's just a Sadik thing. He likes his job."
"And you're saying I don't like mine?"
"I'm not saying that at all. Now my job, that's something you can openly say you don't like. I'm dying to get back into working seriously. Being a receptionist is so boring."
"That's what you get for quitting your job at whatever hospital you were working at before you came here."
"Mercy Hospital? Yeah, fuck that place. The management was all screwed up. I'd much rather work here at Saint V's with you. Much more stable environment."
"I'll put in a good word with Antonio. Maybe he'll give you a raise and put you back to actual nursing."
"Or maybe I can replace Apostol on your trauma team. I heard he got chewed out by Doctor O'Keeffe earlier this morning."
"Really? For what?"
"Something about wasting too much time on the job."
"Apostol… Well, I can't say he's a bad guy. He's got his heart in the right place, but he does tend to spend quite a bit of time doing things… He took a while getting the blood transfusion packets the team needed today."
"You don't think that's the reason the patient died, right?"
"No, of course not. Some people can't be saved, and this happened to be one of those people today… Apostol is a good man, and I have to give him credit, but… He just needs to hurry when he does things, you know?"
"Yeah. I know even as a receptionist I try to make things quick. And you as a trauma nurse have to make very quick decisions. If Apostol is going to keep his position on the trauma team he better speed things up."
"Yeah…" Andelko muttered. He glanced to his watch. "We should probably start heading back to the hospital." He said, standing. Pavla nodded and stood as well, following Andelko out of the café.
When they arrived at the hospital, they went straight back to work. Andelko went about his duties, trying not to think of the patient he had lost during the day.
After five more grueling hours, Andelko finally finished his shift and was able to head home. He went to the parking garage beneath the hospital and went to his car, raising an eyebrow at the envelope under one of the windshield wipers. He glanced around a bit before taking the envelope, looking at it.
On the front in pen was simply Andelko's name. Andelko recognized the handwriting; it was Sadik Adnan's. Andelko opened up the envelope, sliding a letter out of it. He began to read it silently.
'Dear Andelko,
Thank you for your work and cooperation when we were operating on Jamie Supple today. You know, every day you're getting better. You're becoming very professional. I look forward to working with you for the next couple of years, even though you and I typically do not get along.
Signed,
Sadik Adnan'
Andelko shrugged a bit, opening the door of his car and tossing the letter aside on the passenger seat. He honestly didn't care much about what Sadik thought; he just knew the man was his coworker and that he had no choice but to work with him.
Andelko had three years of experience in the medical field; of course he would at least act professional about his job. Being a trauma nurse was no joke; people's lives were regularly put in his hands and he was supposed to keep them from losing the lives they held so dear.
Upon arriving at his home, he walked in the front door and set his keys on the island table. He glanced to the fridge at his left and sighed; he still didn't have much of an appetite. He yawned a bit and headed to his bedroom, where he kicked off his shoes and removed his shirt, tossing it aside in a pile of dirt laundry. He walked to his bathroom, looking himself over in the mirror.
There were dark circles surrounding his brown eyes, mainly from the lack of sleep he'd been getting. Thankfully, he only had a six hour shift tomorrow and was going to be able to suffer through it. It was a morning shift too, so there wouldn't be a lot of business around the ER.
He ran a hand through his short black hair, sighing heavily. Maybe Pavla was right. Maybe he did overwork himself.
He shut off the bathroom light then exited, flopping down on his bed. He closed his eyes for a moment, wondering if he should sleep without doing anything around the house, but then he remembered that pile of dirty laundry sitting at the side of his bedroom. He sat up and opened his eyes, standing and heading over to the pile of clothing. He knew he should probably get the laundry at least done before it accumulated and he became too lazy to do it.
He grabbed a laundry basket from the bathroom and tossed the dirtied articles in it, half carrying, half dragging the load to the washer and dryer down the hall. While he tossed some of the clothing into the washer, his cell phone rang from his pants pocket. He retrieved the device and held it up against his ear with his shoulder while he used his hands to empty the pockets of a pair of jeans he was holding.
"Hello?"
"Hey Andy, it's Elizibeta."
"Hey. What's up?"
"Not much. What're you up to?"
"I am doing the laundry right now."
"Hah, what a coincidence. I am too. We're laundry buddies."
"Laundry buddies, hm? Sometimes I wonder what goes through your head, Liz."
Elizibeta laughed. "So are you still set for that date tomorrow? I know Novak is dying to meet you."
"Ugh, don't remind me… I'll be lucky if I survive the six hours of work I have tomorrow morning, let alone go on a date with him afterwards."
"Oh come on, Andelko. He's a nice guy, and you are too. I know you and Novak will get along great."
Andelko scoffed slightly. "I don't know. Did you really have to set me up with a Serbian of all people?"
"There's been odder couples in the world, I'm sure."
"What makes you think things will work out between me and this guy?"
"I just know. You know what; I'll make you a bet. If you and Novak get along, you owe me fifty bucks. If not, I owe you fifty."
"I don't do deals, Liz."
"Come on, just this once? It's a legit bet, you know."
"Legit? Liz, you've spent way too much time around the med students recently, haven't you?"
"Oh shush. Is it a deal or not, Andy?"
"Ugh… Fine, I'll take the bet."
"Great! I'll be waiting for my fifty bucks."
"Don't be so confident; you have to remember that he and I are two very different people."
"But you're similar in so many ways!"
"Oh, you think so?"
"Hell yeah, I do." Elizibeta giggled a bit. "And seeing two muscly men like you and Novak together will definitely be worth it."
"Oh God, you and your fantasies, Liz…"
"What? You can't deny that you're one of the more attractive men around. Novak is the same way."
"I thank you for the compliment, but seriously, Liz. I wouldn't get ahead of yourself with this Novak guy and me… So not looking forward to tomorrow."
"Aw, cheer up laundry buddy. It could turn out good for you!"
"Hardly."
"You doubt things too much, Andy."
"Eh. I don't think so."
"You doubt that you doubt things much. That's doubting, and I doubt that's a good thing."
"Your usage of the word 'doubt' is giving me a headache, Liz."
"It's a headache you deserve."
"What did I do?"
"Doubt."
"Ugh… Liz, you're going to be the death of me one of these days."
"I sure hope not. Then I'll lose the man I get to tease all day."
"Can I get back to doing my laundry in peace, please?"
"Yes, you can. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Andy."
"Bye, Liz."
Andelko hung up the phone and sighed, putting it back in his pocket then resuming tossing his dirty clothes in the washer.
Once the washer was running, he meandered over to his living room, where he sat on the couch and flipped on the television.
He still wasn't looking forward to tomorrow.