teamBLAZE: carabao? must've hurt... T.T my sister is actually a doctor, so I heard some stories from her as well hahaha and she said ER can be pretty crazy :P
"With this kind of internal haemorrhage… this isn't something new." Gwen commented as she inspected Edward's intestine carefully. "What do you say, Forrester?"
"Yeah."
They completed the rest of the procedure in silence while the interns simply watched in wonder the way Guinevere Kreiss and Neil Forrester could work together seamlessly with minimal to no verbal communication between them—it was as if they had agreed on the work allocation between them beforehand although the truth was Guinevere Kreiss had been paged at last minute and she scrubbed in when Neil had made the first incision.
"Did you say this kid had talked to Reine?" Gwen asked while inspecting for any more haemorrhage in the area.
"Yes."
"Then let her handle his post-op." Gwen said, "Don't give this kid more adult strangers."
"Tell her, then." Neil said dismissively.
Gwen looked up and stared at Neil, "I thought you're on friendly terms with her?"
"And I thought you were blood-related."
"Doesn't mean we're friendly."
Neil didn't reply her anymore. He had learned from his own experience that women would usually have the last word in an argument and another word he said would be the start of another argument.
Silence is the golden rule.
Neil glanced for a moment at Edward's sleeping face and that moment, instead of a sandy blond boy with freckles on his cheeks, he saw someone else.
A golden-haired boy with violet eyes… who had learned the hard way of that golden rule.
Neil would usually let the internist (now, Reine) handle the post-op procedure on her own and most of his patients would never get to know him. The less he talked to strangers, the better. He wouldn't even bother to visit them at their rooms.
But somehow, with Edward Brown, things were a bit different.
His legs led him there, and before he knew it, he was standing across the boy's room, looking at Reine who was chatting happily with the boy.
He had heard, or rather read, the story from Reine's Post-It notes: His spectacles were broken two days ago, so today he went to his school with blurry vision and that was one of the causes of him tumbling down the stairs that caused the teacher, Ms Thompson, to bring him to the ER.
Reine added a P.S., though:
Didn't tally with initial examination. And his words pre-op.
It was just like Gwen had said during the operation. His injuries indicated that he had sustained internal damage for quite some time. The bruises on his skin indicated the same thing as well—alongside the darker new ones, there were some fading marks—those that were already healing.
Neil also remembered what Edward said before he vomited blood:
They said… if I told the teacher… I'm a wimp.
Neil observed Edward carefully: lanky body, glasses, freckles—he seemed to be a very easy target.
And maybe that's why his instincts brought him there.
Reine knew Edward was hiding something, and from his words before being wheeled into the OR, she had a pretty good guess of what the story was. However, she knew that it wouldn't be wise to ask him to spill the story blatantly, so she decided to try gaining his trust.
That evening, after changing out from her scrubs, Reine took some time to visit Edward. She had never seen his parents—another strange point that captured her curiosity—and Ms Thompson, the teacher who had brought him here was a new teacher, so she wasn't much of a help besides promising Reine to pass on the contacts to Mr and Mrs Brown (a promise that hadn't been fulfilled yet).
Reine knew that Edward hid a notebook beneath his blanket. He always shuffled the black notebook every time she came in. Despite knowing that, Reine knew that she should play dumb about it, respecting his privacy, and that evening wasn't different.
"I'm just checking how you're feeling," Reine said, smiling.
"I… I'm fine."
Reine stretched her arm and stroke his hair. "That's good! That means you're healing."
Edward forced a smile.
"Are you not comfortable with me being around?" Reine asked softly.
"N-no… not that! I-I'm comfortable!"
Trying to please the other, she noted inwardly, another sign of a bully victim.
It was then Reine saw Neil near the nurse station just in front of the room through the glass window—and he wasn't wearing his scrubs either. She had noticed him standing there earlier today, too; he seemed to have a vested interest in this particular patient, so unlike him.
"In any case, I'll see you tomorrow, Edward." She said, "G'night."
"Night, doctor." He replied softly.
Reine walked out from Edward's room and walked over to Neil. "What are you doing here?"
"N… nothing in particular." He quickly threw his glance away from Edward who was taking his notebook back from where he had hidden it earlier as well as a pen.
Reine noticed the look in his eyes. It was the look of recognition.
"Why don't you go and talk to him?" she suggested softly.
"I don't talk to my patients."
"There's always the first time for everything." She pointed out, "and besides… I have a feeling that you'll understand him better than I do."
"What are you saying?" Neil asked—in his panicked state, he inadvertently reverted to his British accent. When he realized it, he covered his mouth and refused to look at Reine in her eyes.
However, Reine didn't let that slip by. She crossed her arms, staring straight at Neil.
"Your ability to adjust your accent…" She said slowly, "Why do you need it?"
The next day, Neil finally braved himself to walk into Edward's room. He sat next to his bed as the boy quickly hid his notebook at its usual place and said, "Don't let them win."
Edward turned to look at him and asked, "W-what do you mean?"
"Those bullies," Neil said, "don't let them win."
"Y… you don't understand me, doctor." The boy said bitterly. "You're cool."
"When I was your age, I was fat with freckles on my cheeks." Neil said, and he took a deep breath and said the next sentence in his unconcealed accent, "and I spoke with a very thick accent."
"Your accent is cool…" he noted.
"For my peers, it wasn't. It was a reason not to let me in." Neil said, "they called me His Fatness. And they would do it in a fake British accent. And they would hit me all over, saying that that would help me to slim down."
Edward bit his lower lip, knowing how it felt.
"I learned to shut up, then. I could spend days not talking to anyone in school—not even teachers. Then, I learned how to alter my accent." Neil recounted, "I moved school, and in my new school no one knew I was British. Since then, very few would know I'm British."
The boy stared at Neil intently, biting his lower lip. He eventually found the courage to ask, "Until now?"
"Yeah." He replied, "but that's where I've lost. I let those bullies defined who I am. I changed to fit in, and I lost who I truly was."
Edward glanced at the small bulge under his blanket, the safe haven of his notebook. Neil's voice echoed in his head, in his unconcealed British accent:
"Don't let them win over you too."
Neil's finally come out of his shell and reach out to his patient,
and a glimpse of his childhood
Stay tuned for the next update!
Thanks for reading! Please rate and review!
A/N: I would like to dedicate this Edward Brown arc to all those of you who are being bullied in school, or just simply trying to change yourself to fit in. I was bullied in my old school years ago, and it was horrible. I felt horrible about everything about myself: the way I talk, the way I look... everything. They made me feel I was less of a human than they were. But I realized I lost the game if I conceded to their demands, so I stood up for myself and things started to get better. The way I stood up for myself? I wrote stories and let others read it and give feedback on it. I found out that some loved my stories and they became my new friends. And I simply shrugged those bullies off when they tried to insult me and calling me names. Those bullies didn't apologize or everything, but at least they didn't insult me whatsoever again (I think I tired them out by the cold shoulder treatment). I got the last laugh when I topped the cohort for the national exam as well, and then I moved school and moved on with my life.
My point is: BE YOURSELF. Somebody will love you the way you are, if they don't, they're not worth of your time. That, and please know that you're not alone: there are so many others being bullied in their schools. You are not alone. And many have survived that and moved on, there's no reason why you can't add yourself on this list of survivors. ^^ Cheers!
