Evelyn sighed, grabbing yet another chart out of the bin that sat on the counter at the nurse's station. It had been a long day and she was tired. Orthopedic shoes or not, her feet were killing her and, as usual on busy days, she was beginning to get a headache. Glancing at her watch before she flipped open the chart Evelyn sighed again. Four o'clock. Only an hour or so before she could go home and relax.

It wasn't that Evelyn disliked her job – in fact the immense amount of work was one of the things that had kept her at Mercy Memorial for the past five years. It wasn't that she was a workaholic because she definetly loved her off days, but the workload kept her so interested and busy that she usually never even realized her shift was over until she saw her replacement arrive. If there was one thing she couldn't stand it was a job that didn't keep her moving. She had always found it essential to maintain a pace that was slow enough for her to handle, but quick enough to keep her busy.

The variety of patients helped too. Evelyn had heard some stories from patients that she would never forget. It was easy getting most of them to open up and relax, as long as you spent some time with them which was becoming a sorely neglected practice these days. Too often Evelyn had seen patients trying to explain or open up to doctors or even some of the interns, and too often she had seen the same patients get the brush off.

Evelyn realized that she had been standing by the nurses station for far too long, woolgathering. Noting the room number on the chart in her hands she began walking, reading up on her next patient at the same time.

"Damn," she mumbled to herself. No vitals, once again. Well, at least Gregg, their new intern, had noted the fact that he was a male.

Evelyn glanced at their new hire, a fresh graduate from the local community college. Gregg was a good kid, if a bit clumsy, but he seemed to have an aversion to taking vitals. Something she would have to remind him of – yet again. In fact, he hadn't even gotten the patients name or age either. It was easy to get along with the staff most of the time, though being the charge nurse for her shift was a hell of a lot of work. In school she had never imagined being able to fire people or make the decisions she had learned to make in the past few years, but here she was doing it. It became a lot easier when she thought of the reasons she had to let people go, or remind them of their duties. Far from being problems that happened only within the office, these issues affected patients directly and was therefore a good reason to fix them as quickly as possible. Every time a difficult decision came up, that was the logic Evelyn relied on – do what's best for the patients.

She continued to read, compiling EMT notes and the admitting nurse's chicken scratch from when they had brought him in. Her brows raised in surprise as she realized that he had already been seen by a doctor. It was unusual for a patient to be consulted that quickly. The patient had contusions, minor for the most part, but one that would require stitches. It was a good sign that she had been left the responsibility of stitching him up. Had his laceration been serious the doctor would have done it himself. Possible concussion, CAT scan recommended. For the third time Evelyn sighed. It looked as though this one may take a little while. She smiled to herself, taking a small detour to grab a cart and pack it full of the supplies she would need to treat his cuts. At least she would be busy, and maybe if she was lucky he would have a story to tell as well.

Convinced she had all she would require, Evelyn wheeled the cart into room 219. The curtain was pulled so she couldn't see the occupant and, as was usual, she called out a greeting to warn him of her presence.

"Knock knock," she said, trying to sound upbeat. "I'm your nurse, Evelyn. I was going to see if we couldn't fix you up a little bit."

"Oh aye, come in. I'm decent." He had an accent but she couldn't place it, and she felt gratitude at the smile in his voice. It was rare to find patients who actually smiled at the staff. Usually Evelyn was treated with a wariness that bordered on rudeness. Most people didn't realize that, even though some of the procedures they were put through were painful, they were necessary in the long run. Evelyn had been screamed at more than once for just doing her job. Though it was rare, it was nice to meet people who understood that in order to get better sometimes they needed to just grin and bear it.

She grabbed the edge of the curtain and pulled it back along its track, finally tucking it in behind the unused equipment in the room. It was a pretty good bet that this patient wasn't going to need oxygen or the heart monitor. Wheeling the cart closer to the bed Evelyn glanced at her patient.

The first thing to catch her eye was his hair. It was a bright red, contrasting directly with the white pillowcase his head was resting on, and had been spiked to stand straight. The next thing that Evelyn noticed were the bruises and cuts covering most of the exposed skin that she could see. There was a bruise along the side of his neck where it looked like someone had close-lined him with a hard object, a cut on the right side of his face along his jaw line, a split in his lower lip, bruises all along the left side of his face, and his right eye was swollen and blackened.

Evelyn whistled low and raised her eyebrows, unloading the cart and setting everything up she would need to put in a few stitches. "Wow," she said chuckling, donning a pair of exam gloves.

He rolled his impressively bright blue eyes and smiled back. "I haven't had to fortune to see meself yet but I'm hearin' I look a mess."

Evelyn smiled, ripping tape and getting bandages ready to be pulled from their protective paper sleeves. "I've definitely seen worse but yeah, you look pretty bad. What happened?"

His brows immediately lowered at her question, and he winced at the pain that the movement caused him. "That's the funny part. Seems I've lost a bit o' me memory. Truth be told, I believe I've lost all of it. There was a lad here earlier askin' me name and for the life o' me I couldn't remember. Not e'en my first name."

There was almost a pleading note to his voice, as though Evelyn had the answer he sought and knew his name. She tried to imagine how scary it would be to wind up in a strange place with no memory of who you were or where you were from or what your family looked like. Terrifying, she thought with an internal shudder.

"Well it looks like you got knocked around pretty good, so it's no surprise that you can't remember much." She spoke as she worked, trying to put him at ease as she applied bandages to the smaller wound on his jaw. "Memory loss is usually temporary, just a result of trauma to the brain. I'm sure you'll remember everything, given time. You'll be scheduled for a CAT scan as soon as I'm done suturing the worst of the lacerations. The doctor can let you know how serious the trauma is or isn't and can give you a better idea of what's going on."

"Oh, aye," he said, nodding gingerly.

"The EMTs noted a deep cut on your left side. I'm going to need to clean that out and possibly stitch it if it's too deep. Could you take your shirt off for me? I'll be right back with the anesthetic."

"Sure," he said compliantly, sitting up slowly.

Returning a moment later she saw him struggling with the stained and ripped t-shirt. It was obvious by the grimace on his face that the movement was causing him pain.
"Whoa, whoa," Evelyn said gently, grabbing the hem of the shirt. "Would you mind if I cut it off? I mean, it is sort of ruined." She poked a finger through one of the numerous holes in the piece of cloth.

He smiled in relief, showing Evelyn a mouth full of straight, white teeth. "Mind?" he asked. "I was about to ask ya if I could borrow some scissors meself. By all means be me guest."

She gently pulled the shirt away from his side and front, running a pair of scissors up from the bottom of the shirt to the collar. It fell away, exposing a large chest and very muscled stomach. Never being one to stare, Evelyn removed the rest of the shirt as gently as she could. It was only when the shirt was completely off that she realized how large he actually was. Evelyn was no waif, but he dwarfed her, making her feel small even though he wasn't standing. The muscles in his shoulders and arms flexed and moved beneath his skin as he balled up the shirt and threw it in the garbage pail nearby.

Evelyn cleared her throat, as though that would chase away the fact that she had been watching his muscles. "This may be easier if you lay on your right side and raise your left arm over your head so I've got enough room. " Evelyn pointed to the deep wound between two of his ribs on the left side.

He lay down slowly, pain evident in his expression. Once again Evelyn tried to distract him as she worked, hoping maybe it would put him at ease a little.

"It looks like you got lucky," she murmured, cleaning out the cut. "The edges are even so it won't be hard to sew you right up. You're going to feel a little sting but I have to give you a local anesthetic. Just bear with me and try not to move too much."

He sucked in air over his teeth, hissing as the needle disappeared underneath his skin, but didn't move.

"Okay, almost done," Evelyn whispered, concentrating on what she was doing. Finally, she removed the needle and disposed of it. "There, now just give it a minute to numb up and we'll be in business."

"I think it's done the job already," he said, glancing at his side to see what he couldn't feel. He reached for the cut but before he could touch it Evelyn grabbed his hand to still him. His striking blue eyes found hers and she could see the question in them. Taking a deep breath she cleared her throat again, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.

"Its been cleaned," she explained hastily, dropping his hand and averting her eyes, hoping he couldn't see how uncomfortable she was becoming. What was wrong with her? It wasn't like she had never treated a handsome guy in the ER before. So what was the big deal now? "If you touch it I'll have to clean it out again," she finished, giving herself a mental shake to center her attention.

Grabbing a sealed package she tore it open, plucking the pre-threaded needle out. Seating her fingers comfortably around the curved needle, she glanced at him. He was watching her with interest, looking at her hands and what was in them.

"You may not want to look," she said, settling herself a little bit closer to him in order to get a good angle to see what she was doing.

"Aye," he sighed, turning his head to stare at the wall directly in front of him.

She set to work, sewing evenly and finishing quickly. Sitting up slightly she checked her work and prepared the butterfly tape to help keep the skin from splitting or the stitches from popping out. Bending her head again she put the first butterfly on and felt him shift as he lifted his head to inspect her work.

"That's a fine job," he said, smiling. "Thank ya."

She glanced up at him and smiled back. "Well thank you but I'm not done yet. After these are on I'll bandage it up and then you can thank me."

He chuckled, laying his head back down. "I've no doubt ya know what yer doin'."

A few minutes later she applied the last piece of tape and stood. "You were right," she said grinning, "I guess those years of school really paid off."

He laughed at her joke and she smiled. "You're welcome," she said as he sat up again. "You may not want to move around too much and definitely let someone know if it opens back up and starts bleeding. We don't want you opening those stitches up, especially after all the hard work I put into them." She put on a fake frown and wagged a finger at him. "That means no more fighting, or whatever it was that landed you here."

Playing along he lost his smile in mock seriousness. Holding up his right hand he put it across his chest. "Cross me heart, I'll be good."

Evelyn finished disposing of the wrappers and glanced at her watch. "I've got enough time to talk to Pete, the CAT scan tech and see if he can get you in sometime tonight, but after that I'm off for the day. My replacement should be here anytime and you can let her know if you need anything. The doctor wants you here at least tonight to monitor you."

He nodded in understanding but Evelyn noticed the concerned look on his face. "Is there anything I can do right now?" she asked, hoping he'd reveal what was wrong.

"Aye, I was wonderin' – " he sighed, running a hand through his hair making it stand on end. "I know you said me memory would most likely come back but what'll I do after this?" He held his hand out, motioning around the room. "Ya know, what if I don't remember?"

Evelyn knew what he meant. What if he didn't have a memory by the time they released him? It was a good question, but she didn't know if she had the answers. What would he do?

It's not your job to figure that out she mentally admonished herself. Really, what was her problem today? First she had to practically pry her eyes off of him, and now she was concerned about his welfare even when she knew she couldn't do anything about it.

"Has anyone from the police station been in to see you yet?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Na, but tha lads who brought me in said the police would be contacted."

Evelyn nodded in understanding. "Well, I'm sure they've spoken to the police already but if you'd like I could put in another call to get them here a little faster. Someone out there must have reported you missing, and they'd be the ones to help you."

"I'd appreciate that very much," he said softly, smiling.

"Then consider it done." Evelyn turned and walked to the door. "And remember," she said, turning back for a moment, "no hopping around."

"Promise," he replied, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the pillow. Evelyn left, closing the door softly behind her.