She shoved her feet back in the bed and sunk of into slumber, awakened periodically through the night for random pains, but as the morning came through the frosted glass window, she felt the need to call someone to close the god damned blinds. Maybe she was allowed to get up and move today.
To get up and at least— pee, oh god, why was she not clicking the call button hard enough?
"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming!" snapped Lovina, opening the door and putting down a little paper cup full of tablets onto the bedside table. "What do you want?"
"I need to pee- can I use the crutches?" She nearly begged, tears flooding her eyes. She was already in a sitting position, too afraid to lean on her legs for support.
She groaned and hurried over to get them, sitting the crutches by Antonia's hands and holding an arm out for her to balance on if she needed. "Don't put any weight on your right leg," she warned.
Antonia slung herself on the crutches, landing on her left foot with ease. Ah. So easy; and her right leg was still playing around. Dear lord, she hoped her ass looked good, since the gown was peeking out. Hi, Lovina! Lovely morning we have here! "Thank you," She nearly moaned, finally getting to where she was needed.
Lovina stood outside the door for her, just in case. She had temporarily lost the use of two fingers, after all. Muttering under her breath, Lovina checked her watch. Just ten minutes and her shift would end. She could hold on that long. Probably.
She was done, washed her hands as best as she could with eight fingers and one leg, and limped right on out. "Did anything bad happened while I slept?" She asked, hovering around the room. Good lord, vertical positions felt so nice like this...
"Your friend woke up," she nodded, watching her hobbling to the window. "He was in a state about you being hurt, but he couldn't tell us anything either. And Gilbert's getting a cast put on his wrist."
"Ooh! I want to see this!" She laughed, nearly rocketing out of the room to see how they were doing. "What's their room numbers?"
"No, no, no..." Lovina pulled her back cautiously and stood between Antonia and the door, arms crossed. "They're both getting told off, just stay here until later."
"Aw, c'mon, honey, what are they getting yelled at for?" Antonia did a little spider-action, moving backwards with her crutches. She was on fire with these things!
"Gilbert wouldn't shut up about making you drive last night; you were all completely useless..." Well, Antonia was unconscious, but that was far from the point. "I was supposed to give you hell for the alcohol level in your blood..." She remembered awkwardly.
"That was because Gilbert decided to spike my already strong drink..." She rolled her eyes, finally getting some memory of that traumatic experience back.
Lovina gave her a harsh look again and crossed her arms. "You need to tell me all about these guys, they sound like bad news."
She shrugged, not caring on the matter. "Gilbert's just an old friend; we get in trouble a lot together, but Francis at least tones us down and he's our voice of reason... We're all connected! They're nice."
"He tones you down?" She snapped, putting a hand out to stop Antonia before she tried a one-handed crutch balance. "Sit on the bed."
"Yes, nurse..." She sat down with a plop, trying to get a wedge of hair out of her face. "Am I getting another IV?"
"We'll see how you are later, your blood came back fine... you're AB negative, since you were asking earlier. Very rare." She went to the charts clipped on the end to give them a final run-through. Everything seemed to be in order before she ended her shift. "I'll change your dressing and then someone else will take over," she informed her, and started fiddling with cotton pads.
"What?" She nearly demanded. "No. No, you got to stay with me." Antonia ordered her in her raw, scared voice. "Where are you going?"
"Home," she said simply, sitting on the bed, avoiding her wires and pushing her chin up gently to get a better look at her head, picking apart her bandage and taking it off slowly.
"Are you still going to be my night nurse?" Lovina did look tired; she'd have to stay up during the night and sleep all day so she could try and meet her. Last night obviously didn't go so well.
"Yes, stop moving around!" she hissed, taking a wipe to the sewn wound at her hairline and taking away the dried blood. "What do you care? They'll do the exact same as I do."
She straightened up, holding as still as possible. "No, no, they don't, you're so much nicer and cuter than the other ones...
"You've not had any other nurses," she sighed, pressing a new cotton pad to her head and applying a dressing over the top. "Stop being difficult,"
"Gilbert posted on his wall that his nurse was really big and mean and didn't treat him like an adult." She said matter-of-factly. "I think I'm the luckiest, Lovi."
"On his— it's Lovina, by the way— how did you see that?" she asked, frowning down at her.
"I saw it right before you took my phone away... I think." Antonia answered, ignoring her name comment easily.
"He probably wasn't acting like an adult," replied Lovina haughtily, taking a new wipe and dapping some of the bigger cuts on her face. "Do you need anything before I go?"
"My phone and a hug?" She asked, smiling in relief at the blood being wiped away with her gentle fingers. Antonia almost hated to see her go.
"You have a lot of bruising..." Lovina answered hesitantly, going a little pink and fishing her phone out of the drawer again. "I'm not going to give you a hug if it's going to hurt you."
"It won't! It won't!" She laughed, opening her arms. "I'm used to a lot of pain, don't worry!"
"C'mon, c'mon!" She hopped up on her crutches and got her nurse while she could, planting her face between her delicate neck. "Thank you for all your help... I'll see you tonight!"
"I don't—!" She was silenced at being crushed against the woman, both of them groggy and worse-for-wear. Lovina softened and brought her arm up carefully to pat Antonia's back.
Just as she shifted, there was an obnoxious wolf-whistle from the door, and Lovina jumped back. Gilbert smirked at the women and nodded to his friend. "She's a quick mover, isn't she?"
Antonia plopped back down on her bed, seeing, as she couldn't get to her albino friend from where Lovina was hovering. "Gil!" She cried, her hands touching her own cheeks with delight. "How's the old body, huh? Who was your nurse?"
"I don't know, some old bitch," The man shrugged, walking over to the bed and picking up a crutch—
"If you take that, I'll cripple you," warned Lovina, pointing a finger at him, her face burning from being caught. "Do you have any idea what you did to her? She could have killed all of you! You don't spike people's drinks!"
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Antonia. "Is this the one you were talking about?"
"She's cute isn't she?" Antonia laughed, trying to be on her best behavior for her nurse. "But next time, you're driving. I had to sleep with an IV! And I tried to pull it out and she caught me..."
"Yeah," He supposed, giving her a look-over. He thought she was somewhat plain, actually, but whatever. He scraped the chair over by his foot and sat down, pulling a marker pen out of his pocket and holding up his damaged wrist.
"I'm sorry, Toni. But, look! You can be the first person to sign my cast! I told them to leave it white so you could draw shit on it. Cool, right?"
Lovina cleared her throat loudly. "Excuse me! I was in the middle of dealing with my patient!"
Antonia gasped, nearly grabbing his wrist and signing it all big, but just enough room for others, then a little heart. "Sorry, Lovi, what else do you need?" She shoved Gilbert away from her with her feet, listening obediently to her spunky new friend.
"I..." Shit. She had nothing to do for they'd just been hugging. Gilbert was leering up at her, she wasn't even sure he knew he was smirking —it just seemed like his default expression. Arrogant bastard. "If you don't need anything else, I'll leave."
"Good, we're fine," He answered for Antonia, taking a spoon off the bedside table and using it to scratch inside his cast. Lovina looked at her patient again anyway, just in case.
She nodded, smiling at her and kicking her friend again. "I'm fine, don't worry. I'll be good!" Antonia piped. "Have a nice sleep-day!"
"Ow!" he complained loudly, going to slap her back and thinking better of it at the last second, huffing in his chair.
"Fine. Good." She nodded, fumbling with the hem of her scrubs, trying not to look at Gilbert, who she'd taken an instant dislike to, and turned to leave. "I'll see you tonight, then."
"Hasta luego!" She cried out to her, once she realized she had left, turning back to grab her phone from the desk. "So, how's Francis? Is he still out?"
Lovina left without another word, slightly putout. She found her coat at the end of the corridor and pulled it on, giving a timid nod and a, 'good morning, sir' to the chief of her residency as he made his way upstairs. She hated that guy, too.
"Nah, he's awake," replied Gilbert, helping himself to a glass of Antonia's water. "But they changed his nurse because he was annoying the last one." He cackled at the thought of it. "He's getting broken in."
"Aah! That sounds like Francis!" She laughed, glaring at him for just a second for taking her water. At least she was able to see her friend, again. "The only bad thing I did was take out my IV- Which really hurts, don't do it —and apparently my heart rate spiked and Lovina was tracking it, and she found out I took it out really quickly... What about you?"
"Why did you need an IV?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, as if she was being purposefully dramatic.
"Something about eye drops in my blood to make up for the loss of it? I forget! It was really—" She was cut off by an angry blond haired man stomping past her room and to the nurse's station. "...Gil, you might want to go back to your room, there's a really mean looking guy out there..."
He frowned and turned around in the chair, leaning back as far as he could over the arm to try to see round the corner, which didn't work. He shrugged and started up the conversation again; mean looking people didn't bother him much. "Your nurse seems really..." He stopped himself at the sight of Antonia's expectant face, and rephrased. "Uptight."
"Aah, nah! She's just a stick in the mud until you wriggle her loose. She was probably just stressed because it was the end of her shift." Antonia reasoned, plucking her water from his hand.
"She didn't look stressed when I got here," he said, raising his eyebrows and putting his feet up on the bed, careful just to tap Antonia's arm so she spilt a little water on herself. "You both looked pretty comfortable to me."
"Well then you got here! I had just loosened her up and then-" She scowled at the water on her apparently new gown, once again cut off by the blond man coming quickly towards her room. She hopped back into bed, dabbing her pink and green polka-dotted paper gown with the now sparkling clean sheets.
"Ms. Carriedo." The authority of residency nearly barked, slamming the door shut behind him as he checked over her charts, not even noticing the silver-haired man.
He held back a laugh and stretched over the back of the chair to watch the new nurse moving around. He kept his feet up on the sheets and fiddled with his cast, distracted by what was going on.
She didn't like him all ready. He didn't come in with his face all in tears, and he didn't look friendly or open for conversation. "Yes," She answered as professionally as possible.
"Unless your friend here is an intern, he needs to get out." Arthur wanted to just tap the end of the tipped chair back and send him flying out; but he was a patient, too... "Now," Antonia was dreading these moments, wishing desperately for the instant when Lovina would come back.
"I'm an intern," He nodded, craning up at him and grinning. "I was just helping Miss Carriedo after she spilled all her shit all over her. I think she's unstable." Gilbert smirked at Antonia, disregarding the man beside him.
"Gil, leave!" She hissed, shoving his feet off her bed. "Go make out with your Russian nurse or whatever!" Arthur was patiently waiting, at least. He had to be calm, forceful, and tender with these two.
The albino man got up and left, smirking and shrugging the whole way out back to his room without a word. Antonia looked up to the male nurse with apologetic eyes, only to be met with a gaze that cut through her heart and sorrow that made her slink back into the bed.
Antonia didn't love the hospital as much as she did when Lovina was around.
. 0 .
Lovina had had a long, lonely day of sleeping and studying, giving her grandpa a quick call, since it was all she could afford - he was still in Italy - and thinking about her impossible new patient. Her impossible, stubborn, irritating new patient with fantastic feet. She shook her head as she gave the door a tap to let Antonia know she was coming in, and walked into her room.
"I'm fine, leave me alone!" She called, her voice cracking in terror, before she snuck a peek. There, before her, in all her glory was her nurse. The right one. She nearly started crying, she was so relieved. "Oh, Lovina, thank God you're back!"
"What's the matter?" Se asked, picking up speed to check her over. "Are you hurt?"
"No! I'm fine! But the blond-haired bushy-browed man of Satan's womb isn't!" cried Antonia, clutching the woman towards her. "He is so rude and so mean and so- God, his hands are just so-" She made all of these gestures that made her IV containing her pain meds flap around like wings.
"Hey, hey!" She scolded, grabbing her hands carefully. "Stop that, you'll pull it out again... do you mean Dr. Kirkland?"
"I mean Doctor Kirk-Fuck!" Antonia met her eyes, shaking her head. Days were horrible but nights were her salvation. "He's so mean..."
"He's a professional, Antonia, and very good at his job!" She replied, as a reflex. "Don't talk about him like that..."
"He's not as gentle as you are, I don't like it, Lovi." She mumbled, relaxing back into her bed.
"Don't say things like that!" Lovina hushed her, looking at the door, just in case. "What if he heard you say that? I don't need him hating me!"
"He didn't say anything bad about you, so you're fine," She itched at her scratches, looking her nurse over. She was still great looking, needed to lose the ponytail.
"... Really?" She asked, seeming genuinely surprised. She thought he had it out for her. "He didn't say anything about your IV?"
"He said it was fine, but he 'fixed' it and made it worse." She grumbled, holding it out for her to look. It just hurt and was distracting now...
Lovina looked at her and groaned. "Antonia, if he says its okay, I can't change it..."
"He's such a prick! And, your hair looks like you slept in it. Here." She sat up, pointing to the doctor's stool sitting around. "Sit on there and come here; I'm going to fix it."
"I have a lot of work to do!" She snapped, taking a hand up to her hair and running her fingers through it. "... What's wrong with it?"
"You need to lose the ponytail, just c'mon, it'll take five seconds." She yawned, clapping her hands. It would be harder with the pulse tracker but she could get it,
"Look, Antonia, I have other patients to see..." She started, taking a seat and taking the band out of her hair. "Be quick. I mean like, as fast as you can, I'm serious."
"Ah, who else do you have to see?" She asked, starting a fishtail, but realizing that was the ugliest thing in Lovina's hair once she mapped it out- so, she tried a regular old French braid, something Francis would be proud of. "It's so thick, what do you use or are you just... Are you Spanish, too?"
"I'm Italian," She told her, very slightly offended, and she didn't quite know why. "A guy was in a house fire last week, I have to check his bandages," The timid intern explained, trying not to shiver. She really got the creeps from the sight of burns.
"That it?" She snorted, as if she could do better. "Oh, oh, I love Italians then, because your hair is marvelous," She mumbled, plucking the hair tie from her friend's hand and tying it all together. Sloppy from the big grey clamp on her finger, but better than her usual ponytail.
"That and a woman with a growth on her foot, a guy who's going blind, another with a damn STD who came in twenty minutes ago..." She stood up and went to go to the mirror in the little bathroom. "And we think the young guy who came in last week has cancer," She added quietly.
She was more depressed from the foot growth woman, and quickly checked to make sure nothing had cut up her feet or if there were little pus bubbles and— she gagged, quickly reaching for her glass of water.
Lovina only glanced at the mirror, pretending to be interested. "Great. Thanks. Much better. Anything else?"
"It would be better if you could see it!" She huffed, slamming her water down before anything came up. "Fine. Go. Be sure to trip Caterpillar-Eyebrow Man."
"Sorry, will I just waste all my time with you, braiding each other's hair?" She asked sarcastically, crossing her arms and glaring. "Or will I go and do my job?"
"You probably can't braid for shit— just go, honey! I'll be right here. Watching... football," She pointed to the cheap, old TV sitting up in the corner, hanging on the ceiling. "Have fun."
"Thank you," she cooed bitterly, walking out and closing the door loudly. What an absolute nightmare, as if she didn't have enough on her plate.
Antonia couldn't help but sit and wait. It was boring, since these two teams were so bad it was giving her headaches. In addition, the pain med dripping into her system were making her so sleepy. With nothing else to do, she just rested her head against the pillow, grateful that when the tyrant left he dimmed her lights down to a yellowish brown. Ah, this was all so cozy... It really did not compare to the constant feeling of walking-on-egg-shells by living with her mother….