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SWEETER THAN A NIGHTINGALE
by Tyde

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Chapter Four

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It's amazing how quickly things in life can change. What was once a quiet, almost empty room suddenly became a flurry of activity. Doctors and nurses appearing from either end of the hall and heading into room 464. Hands all over him, hooking up machines and reading gauges.

"Blood pressure is 86 over 50."

"He's lost consciousness."

"Could be a blood clot. Let's get him into theatre".

The voices bounced off the walls and seemed to amplify in Hermione's head as she helped push Ron's bed down the hall toward Theatre Seven trying not to let the other medics see the tears that decorated her cheeks. He looked so small on the bed, his face paler than usual and a slight wrinkle to the brow as if he was in terrible pain.

"Right give me 10 ccs of-"

Hermione blocked out the words of the doctor and instead dug her wand out from under her robes. She stood behind the surgeon and his assistants and pointed her wand at Ron and watched the blood pressure gauge rise slowly bit by bit till it finally reached a more acceptable level.

"Blood pressure normal. What the hell was that?"

The doctor scanned the room and all the nurses looked confused; Hermione quickly adopted the same look.

Ron's eyes fluttered open. "Hey. What happened?"

But before anyone could open their mouth his eyes rolled back into his head and he started to seizure. He was flopping all over the bed like a mullet out of water before someone grabbed him to make sure he didn't swallow his tongue or fall onto the floor.

"Fluid on the brain, we'll have to drain it"

"Doctor, his heartbeat is slowing"

That was too much for Hermione; she got as quickly out of there as possible. She sat down outside in one of those horrible moulded plastic seats they provided for concerned family and friends.

She couldn't figure out why it was that when something went wrong she would run away. It was the second time she'd abandoned Ron is his time of need but the pain she felt at seeing him so helpless was too overwhelming.

I don't understand. He was responding well to treatment, the therapy was going well. This can't happen. A car accident victim was rushed past her and into Theatre Six as she rested her chin on her hand. Why can't I face this? If I'm going to be a professional I'm going to have to deal with situations like this every day. But it's Ron. My best friend for over eleven years. I can't lose him like this. Gemma was by her side handing her a Styrofoam cup filled with camomile tea.

"Thought you could use this. He relapsed, huh?"

"Blood clot or fluid on the brain, I'm not sure. He was fine Gem; he was getting better. Why is this happening?"

"Medicine isn't perfect Hermione"

"That's just the thing, Muggle medicine isn't, but wizard practices are. You only need to treat the patient once and they are fine. It's just so frustrating"

"Why didn't his parents transfer him to St Mungo's after he started to improve?"

"Cause I told them he'd be fine here, they trust me with his life. I don't think they should have"

"Hermione, now is not the time for self pity, you've done all you can, Dr Trager is a brilliant surgeon, he'll fix him. You'll see"

And she was right. Dr Trager did 'fix' Ron. But they had to start the therapy all over again. For some strange reason Hermione found herself not minding at all with that part.

~*~

It had been two weeks since his last episode and he was recovering nicely. They spent half the day in the therapy room where he was learning to walk again on his leg.

"Honestly Ron, you'll never get better if you don't do it properly"

Hermione broke the levitation spell he'd performed on himself with her wand and forced his feet to the ground. He'd snatched it out of her coat pocket when she'd been supporting him so he wouldn't fall over.

"One foot in front of the other, you can do it"

"It hurts Mione"

"Where's that Gryffindor bravery you used to have? Captain of the Quidditch team Ron Weasley being waylaid by a little bit of pain? I don't think so."

He looked on the verge of whining and she thought it very odd to see a grown up Ron whinging like a ten year old. "Truly it hurts"

"Okay. Drink this" she shoved a bottle of icky tasting Painless Potion at him. His lip curled up in horror at the stench emanating from the bottle.

"You know on second thoughts, doesn't hurt so much" he walked a few steps while smiling through the pain. "See!"

"You're a devil you know that"

"And you love me for it"

"Just about as much as a Niffler running loose in my flat" Hermione retorted but she was grinning as she said it.

~*~

Hermione sat in the nurse's lounge with at least a dozen books surrounding her. A thick volume concerning the various muscles and tendons in the legs was opened up on her lap and she blew upwards at a stray piece of hair that kept getting into her eyes.

"Tough work?" Gem asked her as she settled down in a nearby chair with a cup of peppermint tea. "Did you even go home last night? You're looking very tired"

Hermione barely glanced up at her friend, her head still very much stuck in the book before her. "The armchairs in the patient rooms aren't as uncomfortable as they seem'" she answered sheepishly. "There was a spare blanket in the cupboard and besides, the more I read up about it the more effective the treatment will be and I can get him out of here and back home. It's so frustrating not being able to just give a wave of a wand and fix him up."

"People have miraculous recoveries all the time Hermione, and it has nothing to do with magic. The doctors wouldn't notice. Just do it"

"That's the thing though, if I could do it I would but I haven't learnt enough. I haven't been back to St Mungo's since Ron was brought in here. I just didn't want to leave him alone"

She circled a paragraph with her highlighter about treatments for atrophy in the calf muscles. "He puts on a brave front but honestly Gem, he's scared. He didn't grow up in the Muggle world, he's had to have a pretty rude introduction to it all and on top of it all he doesn't have his wand. Ron has been attached to that wand ever since third year at Hogwarts. It was almost like another limb to him. I'd catch him sneaking down into the common room in the early hours of the morning to polish it by the light of the fire. He's more attached to it that his owl, Pig. After his rat turned out to be evil he would look after that wand like it was a pet, he truly loved that wand. He'd never admit it though. And now it's gone, thrown out with the rest of the rubble".

"Perhaps it's time to get him a new one"

"You can't just go out and buy one. The wand chooses the wizard, I'd have to take him to Ollivanders myself."

"Well he's allowed day release, say you're taking him to visit his family and instead take him to the wand shop"

She grinned. "It would certainly cheer him up. He's been down in the dumps lately"

"Exactly, he's sick of being couped up in a sterile environment like this. Take him out for the day"

"Great idea but I want it to be a surprise"

Putting a bookmark into a page titled Tendonitis she hugged her friend thank you. "I'll just have to blindfold him or something."

~*~

Knocking firmly on his door Hermione walked in carrying a bed pan.

Ron looked at her quizzically. "Um Mione, I can actually get out of bed, you've seen me do it. I don't need that anymore"

She ignored his comments and simply wiggled her wand in his direction. Within moments he was freshly washed and dressed in a spiffy set of dark green robes and a jaunty charcoal coloured wizard cap. He noticed she was also in wizarding robes, a dark red that seemed to shimmer when she turned this way and that and a beret with an eagle feather pinned to the side.

"What's going on?"

"A little excursion Ron. Get into the wheelchair"

He did as he was told and she checked her watch.

"Five seconds to go. Hold onto the bed pan with me" she instructed as she grasped onto the wheelchair with her other hand. The Portkey ride was fairly smooth and after years of practise they landed solidly and didn't fall over. Ron looked around him in wonderment.

"Ollivanders? You brought me here to get another wand?" his voice cracked slightly with emotion. "Mione, you're just brilliant"

He hugged her round the waist, his head of flaming hair pressing itself into her stomach, and she felt herself beaming with happiness.

"Thought it might get you to shut up and pay more attention to your recovery"

Mr Ollivander had approached Ron then with a few boxes in his hand.

"Mr Weasley. If you would please" he held out a wand which Ron took with a slightly shaking hand. Nothing happened.

The same nothing happened with five other wands and Ron wondered if he had only been destined for his old wand. As he took a hold of the sixth wand the shop owner had thrust at him it emitted a weird type of pastel wave from the tip, slowly more came out until it formed itself into a bunch of flowers. The flowers hovered in the air in front of Hermione as she looked on amazed.

"That's your wand my boy! Ms Granger, I think the wand wants you to have these" he scooped the flowers out of the air and handed them to her.

She smiled coyly and looked at her feet for a moment. "Thank you Mr Ollivander".

She handed over the money for Ron's wand, amidst protests from him, and wheeled Ron out of the shop.

"Have we got time to pop into Quality Quidditch supplies? They've got a new Chudley Cannons book out."

"Sorry Ron, straight back to the hospital – they'll be checking up on you soon no doubt. I can't get Gem to hold them off forever!"

"Okay," he grumbled as a stethoscope provided them with travel back to his hospital room.

Brightening he took his new wand out of it's box and brandished it at her like a sword.

"Thanks for the wand Mione. It means a lot" his eyes searched out hers and a look of true sincerity passed between them. "Really"

She bent to kiss him quickly on the cheek. "You're welcome Ron. But if I see you using that in this hospital I might just be forced to put you in restraints"

An unusual feeling washed over Ron and he shifted slightly in his seat. All tied up with Hermione being his nurse? Well if that wasn't a recipe for something naughty he didn't know what was! He was quite sure she hadn't meant anything like that and he mentally slapped himself wondering why it was that he was thinking of his best friend like that in the first place.

He certainly never thought about Harry like that.

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Author's note: Can you see that through the monitor? Tears of joy are streaming down my cheeks at the amount of reviews I've got. My last story only got as many reviews as chapters and this has already exceeded the review to chapter ratio so I'm gushing with happiness. It also does wonders for shortening the amount of time it takes to blast out another chapter. I think there is just one more chapter to go. So thanks to my reviewers:

lissa – Thanks for that! I never want my stories to end either, I get too involved with the characters. I don't think I can make this a very long one though, I'm not too good with romance fics. But I'll try to make it as long as possible for you! ;o)

Hermione Weasley – thanks, I like it too! :oP And adding me to your favourite author's list too. Shucks! When I get some time (v. busy at work at the moment) I'll check out your two stories.

wm_law – I was recently in hospital and I was dreading the whole sponge bath thing so I thought I'd factor it into the story. Thankfully I didn't have to get a sponge bath :oP

L James – I couldn't kill off Ron even if Lord Voldemort was holding a wand to my heart and said that I would die if I didn't do it. I love Ron too much to do that, but it's always good to play with the characters a bit...and the reviewers :o)

Xodox – Thank you! I have a love/hate relationship with hospitals at the moment. I was in one three weeks ago to for an operation, *pain* but I was enthralled by the IV drip!

jenruki-gal4ever – Wow! I've never elicited such reactions from people before. As you can tell up there, he's not dead, but I do like cliff-hangers :oP

*star*smiles:) – Thanks for the encouragement! I was just about to post this chapter up and I get yet another email from the bot telling me there is another review. It's like a flurry. My workday was very crappy the moment before (damn creditors screaming for payment over the phone) the review came - thank you, you brightened up my day!