We tried every single medical prescription to bring her back to regular health, but every time she takes a single pill or a drop of liquid medicine; she would choke and her face would turn pale. Her medical records don't say anything about her, her previous medical prescriptions, how many times she's been visiting the hospital, nothing about her whatsoever.
It doesn't even state her birth-year, first, middle, and last names either. It doesn't have any record of her being a registered citizen either. Who is this girl?
Four months pass along and her health has been getting worse every day. We took drastic measures by giving her syringes of adrenaline seeing if it would help, but we lost her heart-rate twice; so we stopped giving her any sort of medical care. We let her be, and see if she would recover on her own.
So far, there hasn't been a sign of her recovering. She's just been laying there, her chest rising and falling, rising and falling. She's breathing regularly, which is a good sign, but we're not completely sure if it means she's healed.
No one has come to pick her up, or mourn for her health. This girl is already weird as she is, not being a registered citizen, no-one coming by to see if she's alright, no birth-date, or names for that matter. Would anyone care, anyone in this hospital, care if we let her go?
I place my gloved hand over her tender yet cold hand that lies beside her hip, why do I have this gut feeling to… to bring her into my home, and treat her as if she was important? I quickly let go of her hand as I realize that I'm squeezing it.
Everybody has already left the building and its night-shift for me along with Anne, the woman who flirts with sick patients or just anyone who seems they need a flirt in their lifetime.
"Atticus, why do you always do double shifts, it seems so exhausting, darling!" I hear Anne say as I walk past the front desk, I straighten my medical coat and turn to her.
"Well, I guess it's because…" I stop myself, and realize I'm staying after work for a girl who doesn't exist in this world. "Because I just like to spend time here," I quickly avoid the trouble I was going to spew out, and turn away from Anne as I continue back to the unknown girl's room.
As every other day, I check her vital signs, blood pressure, if she's breathing alright, and to see if she'll ever wake up. She sleeps almost all the time, she never gets up until it's exactly 11:36 PM.
Luckily, it's almost the exact time she wakes up. Maybe I can try to converse with her again; I better get her something to eat before she tries to talk to me. She's probably starving.
I leave my medical coat on the chair that sits beside her hospital cot, and walk out the room. Quickly walking towards the break-room and remembering I left my cold uneaten soup in the microwave right before everybody left for home. I tap a few buttons and it begins to reheat the soup, I look at my watch and see its four minutes before her awakening.
My heart is racing, and I wonder why. Is it because if I miss this chance to talk to her, will I have to wait again and again until I do? The beeping of the microwave snaps me out of my trance and I take out the barely hot soup; yanking a plastic spoon out of the utensil box that sits alongside the microwave and fast-walking back to the girl's room.
I get there on time, to see her slowly getting out of the bed, having trouble at first but she is able to sit up. "Oh, I see you're awake." I nervously say, holding the soup in both my hands, with the spoon in-between my fingers.
She turns to me, her cherry red hair in a curled mess. I sit down, and offer her the soup. Her shaky hands reach for the bowl, but she quickly rethinks the thought and takes her hands back in a snap. "Don't be scared, it's just soup. You're probably hungry so I heated it up for you." I hold the bowl in one hand, as I take the spoon and dip it into the soup. She's watching me as I do this, and I slowly put the spoon up to her face. "Here, just a taste wouldn't hurt."
My hands are slightly shaking, but she moves her face closer to the spoon and opens her mouth as I slowly tilt the spoon upwards to pour the warm soup down her throat. She chokes for a second, but she swallows nevertheless.
I smile, I'm making progress. She gives me a blank stare as I quickly dip the spoon back into the soup and feed it to her, I do this for a couple of minutes and she then stops me. "You're already full?" I say casually, and she turns to the window. The moonlight making her face glow and I cannot see her face during this, but only her tangled and curled hair. "What are you looking at? You haven't seen the moon positioned like this before, or what?" I get to my feet, and walk over to the other side of the bed, to see her light silver eyes.
Her eye color is unusual, but it intrigues me. "Can you…" I gulp, and her head turns to me. "…Can you perhaps, tell me your name?" I can tell already tell I'm blushing; it's very embarrassing, a doctor like me blushing at a patient like her.
But she responds without talking, she shakes her head gradually side to side. She doesn't even know her own name that is… if she even had a name before.
"I'm Atticus Moore." I sit on the bed, moving her legs a little bit away so I don't accidentally hurt them in any sort of way. "I am a doctor, and to be more specific, I'm your doctor. I've been watching you, and making sure you haven't died yet for the past couple of months." I smile, and she seems to respond in slow motions. But her blank stare soon turns into a shy little smirk.
I'm getting somewhere, finally! "Can you talk?" I ask, and she doesn't respond; instead she just looks out the window. I move closer to her, and place a hand on her cheek. She doesn't react, but she allows me to check her for any sort of physical marks.
I haven't checked her body whatsoever for bruises, tattoos, any strange marks or anything else. But I finally see something that interests me; a dark fleshed coloured scar resides on the back on her neck. "Where did you get this?" I ask her, and she gently shrugs her shoulders. I smile, and take back my hand.
Maybe I should tell her a story before she starts sleeping again, "so… Do you want to hear a story about my ancestors?" I ask her, and she quickly looks at me; getting excited. She likes stories, I should remember that. I chuckle, "alright so uh, my grandma was a mystical warrior that lives far from here. Some say she was a hero until she died, ha… Thinking of it now, she was a wonderful person. I never got to see her since she died just a year after I was born, and I guess… I always dream about meeting her former self, when she was younger, just to see how she became the person she was."
I turn to the girl, and notice she's laying back in the bed, her face lit beautifully in the moonlight, and she gives me a cheerful smile. I look down at my wrist-watch and see that it's almost one in the morning. "You better get to sleep now, huh?" I get off the bed, and put on my medical coat. But just as I am about to leave the room, she's stumbling to stay on her two feet.
"Do… don't…" Her voice is shaky, as if she hasn't talked in years. I drop her medical prescription papers just to catch her before she pummels to the tiled floor.
"Don't wear yourself out, you have to sleep." My left hand is carefully positioned on her upper back, and my right hand is gently caressing her waist.
But she tries to whimper out words again, "no… no s… sleep." She must be finally awakening from her deep slumber, this is it.
I help her off the floor, and pick her up as if she was a baby. She's light-weighted, and she feels very skinny. I place her on the bed, and tuck her in. "I understand you don't want to sleep but, all you've ever been doing since you got here was sleeping. It's best if you kept sleeping." I tell her, but she resists from ever sleeping by sitting up.
She then gives me a determined look, "no sleep." She says in a perfect voice. I nod, and untuck her.
What am I going to do with her then? If she doesn't want to sleep anymore, does this mean she has finally recovered? I take off my medical coat and wrap it around her. "You seem healed enough… let me take you home."
I clean up the patients' room, and turn to her who's leaning against the door. "Ready?" I ask her, and she nods.
Will taking her back to my place really help her? What if she gets sick and I don't have the medical equipment to help her? I shouldn't worry, if she looks and acts fine; then I shouldn't worry as much.
As I walk down the hall with her in my arms, I look at Anne and scoff. "I'm taking her back to my place, she has recovered and at a late time."
Anne sticks her tongue out, "sure whatever, honey."
I roll my eyes, and walk out with the unnamed girl. "We'll get there shortly, it isn't a far walk." I'm in an embrace with her, just to keep her warm; all she's wearing is a patient's dress and my medical coat to keep her from shivering cold.
"I'm sorry if this is so sudden but, I've been thinking about this on a regular basis and I know it seems like a crazy thought but… Well, nobody knows of you, nor do you have any sort of records about you. You're practically an alien to us, and I want to make sure that you aren't what everybody else in the medical ward thinks of you." I stop to take a gulp of air, "a weirdo, a freak, a…" She stops me, and I am yanked back from her sudden stop.
The mess on her head, which is her hair, is covering some of her face and a few strands of hair flow with the soft midnight breeze. Her silver eyes stare into mine, and I can tell that she wants me to stop saying those words. Have she heard others talk about her when she was awake? I can take a guess that Shirley or Craig have been talking about her while outside her doorway, those loud mouths.
We continue walking, but we once again stop from her tripping and landing on her knees, getting them slightly scrapped. She's still very weak, she hasn't eaten, and she's been spending her days in a bed without moving whatsoever. As a doctor, and a man living by himself with a female roommate who acts like she doesn't give a crap about me, I just have this feeling to worry about everything and anyone.
I sweep her off her feet and she cuddles against me as I carry her back home, this is a better way of keeping her warm and making sure she doesn't get fatigued any more than she is already, I guess this is just a man's instincts.
Finally we get back to my place, and I open the door, noticing that it was unlocked. I hear my roomie, who is named Kellie Collins, making a ruckus in the kitchen. I ignore her, and I think the girl does too.
I drag my feet as I walk upstairs, feeling tired but I am able to make it to my room in no time. I let the girl sit on my bed as I change into my nightwear, I then throw her a few tank-tops and male shorts. "It's a dumb idea I know, but it's the only thing I got and I don't want to ask Kellie for any clothes or else she'll think I'm some pervert."
She slowly puts on the top and shorts, but she probably needs help with taking off the medical dress. I unclip it for her, and yawn loudly. "You sleep on the bed, I'll…" I get an extra thick blanket from my closet and wrap myself around it, looking like a worm. "I'll sleep on the floor, alright?" I turn away from her, my face going red. "I've seen people naked before at the hospital, what makes this any different?" I think to myself, and I remember that I need to give her a name. So I wiggle back around to her, and she's still staring at me. Her hands on her thighs, and her head slightly tilted.
"I need to give you a name; do you have anything in mind?" I look up at her, and she looks out the window to see the moon staring back at her. She gasps in a cute manner and I have the urge to say aw, but I don't. Instead I just chuckle at the adorable sound she made. I then snap my fingers, "how about Kae? It's short, and sounds cute for a girl like you." I somehow made that into a compliment, a flirty compliment.
Kae turns to me, and nods. "Atticus." I hear her say, and I quickly look up at her. She gives me a sweet smirk, and pushes the medical coat and patient dress off the bed. I get to my feet, and tuck her in just because of male instinct… or was it doctor instincts?
"Good-night Kae, I'll see you after work tomorrow." I get back onto the floor, and wrap in the blanket. I can hear Kae breathing, and I know she can't sleep. Not when she's finally awoken from her coma-like slumber. I'm happy for her, and I can finally feel success as a doctor. My previous patients… some never made it, and a few are still residing in the hospital. I close my eyes, and sniffle.
Good-night Kae.
