ENGLISH ROSE
CHAPTER 1
It was Anna's full 2nd month in the states and 3rd week as Desk Clerk in County General Hospital. She had now just about managed to put a name to everyone's face all accept for one particular staff member Dr Luka Kovac. Perhaps it was due to the fact he worked mixed shifts, or was it the fact that she just found herself getting distracted whenever he was round the desk. She had never engaged him in conversation, but he'd smile at her in acknowledgement whenever he was on shift. Either way at this particular moment in time she couldn't care less, she was having a horrible morning. The X-ray department had messed up on urgent X-rays Dr Benton had asked her to order for a patient that was due in the OR, a patient's relative had yelled abuse at her when she told them that he couldn't see his mother as Dr Greene was treating her and last but not least she was feeling homesick for England. "I want to see my mother now" shouted the middle aged stocky man" Anna took a deep breath she could feel the heat rise slowly in her cheeks. "Sir, I appreciate your upset and anxious, but I'm sorry she's being seen to by one of the Doctors at the moment and I…. She was cut off in mid sentence by Dr Carter who had heard the commotion and managed to calm down the man by showing him where he could get a cup of coffee from and where he could wait till Dr Greene had finished.
Anna sighed and closed her eyes calming herself down, she could feel a headache coming on, which was the last thing she needed. "Right next" she said to herself. Her desk as usual in the mornings was a disorganised mess of charts left from the night shifts and post it notes with the usual "Sorry Anna didn't have time to file away, please can you file", there were X-rays to go back and patient's medical files to go back to the records department on the 10th floor. Sometimes it was a case of "where do I start?"
Seeing as the morning was so far a disaster she decided to take the case files back to records on the 10th floor, at least the elevator ride there and taking the stairs back down would clear her head. She gathered up a large pile and was just about to leave the desk when Dr Benton rushed passed to use the phone sending the pile of notes scattering on the floor and underneath the desk. Anna wanted to cry she could feel the tears start to well up in her eyes and her cheeks flush "Just stay professional" she kept reminding herself in her head. She bent down under the desk and started picking up the files. He didn't even apologise after finishing his call and just dashed right off again. "Typical" she thought, as she carried on putting papers back inside files.
" Hey what happened here" Luka said as he just came on shift. Anna shot up immediately forgetting her head was half underneath the desk "OUCH" she yelled as she smacked her head hard against the desk, she certainly was going to have a headache now! Holding the back of her head with one hand she gingerly stood back up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I didn't see you down there, are you ok?" He looked at her observing that she looked a little unsteady "Yeah I…just feel a bit dizzy" she replied as she held onto the desk for support, "I'll be fine." she weakly smiled though gritted teeth of course she was lying it hurt like hell. "Well you don't look ok to me, head injuries can be serious come on let me check you over." he said gently grabbing her arm. "Honestly really Dr… Dr I'm sorry I always forget your name…." "Dr Kovac, Luka Kovac, see even more reason to get you checked over he laughed as they walked slowly to examination room two.
Once in the examination room Luka helped Anna up onto the treatment bed "Anna isn't it if I remember rightly, It would be hard not to guess by all the post it notes left on the desk." He asked with a slight hint of laugh in his voice trying to put her at ease. Anna smiled nervously she stared to feel a bit woozy as he gently examined the back of her head trying not to cause her further pain, she couldn't work out if it was because of Luka's aftershave or the dizziness. "Well Anna you've got a minor gash to your head, that's going to need stitches I'm afraid. Anna sighed this was all she needed "Great, the day just gets better and better" she replied and smiled up at him as he met her gaze. " I just need to check your eyes" he said reaching into his white lab coat and taking out an eye torch, he was instantly struck by her beautiful green eyes as he shone the torch to look at them. "Humm, your pupils are a bit dilated, do you still feel dizzy?" he asked "A little, but it's going now, I just have a headache." Luka put the eye torch back in his pocket. "Well just to be on the safe side I want you to have a CT Scan okay, that was quite a bang you had there, what's your surname Anna?" he took a blank chart and began filling it in with her details. "Thompson, Anna Thompson" The door swung open and Lydia walked in "Hey Anna, what happened?" she started fussing over her. Nurse Lydia doted on Anna like a mother figure, she had done since day one. "It's nothing, I stupidly hit my head when picking up some paper work off the floor, that Dr Benton knocked off the desk that's all." Anna appreciated Lydia's concern, but she hated being fussed over. "Actually it was my fault, I startled her." Luka explained "Lydia could you bring me a suture kit, while I contact CT" Luka asked as he walked over to the far side of the room and picked up the phone and called the CT department. "Yeah sure, no problem" she replied heading straight back out the door and immediately returning with the kit.
It had gone lunchtime by the time Anna had finally had her CT scan done, the painkillers Dr Kovac had given her had cleared her headache and she didn't feel dizzy anymore. As she sat back down on the treatment bed in examination room 2 waiting for him to give her the results back, she sat dreading what sort of a mess her desk would be in now, and how on earth she would get everything cleared by the end of her shift. Luckily Lydia had told Kerry Weaver what had happened, so Kerry asked staff to make sure that they cleared and filed the rest of the days papers away, so that Anna wouldn't have a big mess to come back to. Seeing as the ER was slowly beginning to move at a steady pace Dr Carter helped out with the odd bit of tidying when he had no patients to see. Anna's thoughts were interrupted when Kerry came in, "Hey Anna, listen everything is sorted as soon as Luka comes back with your scan, go home okay. Lydia's shift finishes in 5 minutes and she said she'll take you home."
Anna was about to protest when Luka came through the doors " Sorry you had to wait so long Anna, well good news it's all clear, don't worry about your sutures they should dissolve on their own, I would recommend that you take it easy for the rest of the day though." he said handing her a prescription for some painkillers."Thanks, Dr Kovac" she began to feel butterflies in her stomach "Please call me Luka, and your welcome" he smiled at her. "Luka" she shyly smiled back. "I'll try not to forget your name next time." she replied as she got up off the bed and headed to the door. Luka thought to himself as she left, it was the first time they had ever actually had a conversation and he was intrigued to find out more about her. He put her scans away and was about to head back out the room when he noticed she'd left her prescription on the treatment bed, he picked it up and stuffed into his lab coat debating whether or not he should drop it round and check in on her on his way home.
Chapter 2 to follow!