The Native American Patient

Tara sat in the waiting room chewing her nails, a habit she has when she's nervous. A half hour ago she received a call from the hospital while she was at her friends house. The voice was a machine, a machine! A damn machine voice that was all calm saying her mother was just in a car accident! How the hell do they have the balls to do that! But wait, they feared a scream or something, so they lacked the balls to tell her upfront, she thought. She ran next door to her friend's house and got a ride to the hospital. She tried to get in the surgery room but the nurses wouldn't let her in. So she and her friend, and her friend's mum waited in the waiting room. After another ten minutes of waiting the doctor came out…

~~~what happened to Nick~~~

Nick had taken a while to recognize the woman, she was so mauled up but then he recognized her as Alice, Tara's mother. He ran alongside the stretcher telling a nurse to call her home. Upon arriving in the surgery room he went straight to work after putting on the proper accoutrements. He went to work. Her face was mauled but it was nothing compared to her stomach. So he decided to work on the stomach first. As he picked away pieces of clothing from inside the abdomen he saw to his horror pieces of spleen. She had mono too! Shit! Nick thought to himself. What was he going to do? There was only one thing he could, take out the spleen pieces, close wound to the internal bleeding, fix things up in the abdomen, close the wound and fix her face. But it was easier thought than done.

He started with picking out the pieces of spleen, as much as he could. Then he sewed up the vein. But then he heard that thing that measures your heart rate stop in a long and continuous beep. Nick worked harder on the blood vessel, but the heart rate didn't go back. He heard Alice's daughter yelling from outside. She wanted to get in and see her mother. He couldn't stand it. Then the heart rate came back. Nick went straight to work. He finally closed the abdomen. And started on the head.

He looked around at the mauled head. He didn't know where to begin. He decided he should start with the back of the head, carefully he closed wound and patched on skin. Then he got to the top of the head where a hole chunk of skull was gone! He could see the bloodied brain with hair strands on it. Then the heart rate stopped. He wanted to keep going, to save this woman's life. But it was no use. She was gone. Gone from this hell and onto heaven.

A nurse walked to the door, "I'll go tell her daughter ther bad news."

"No," Nick said. "I'll tell her."

"Okay," the nurse said. "I'll just go get the file."

"Alright," Nick said. He leaned against the wall. He was usually successful. He couldn't believe he failed this. He waited for ten minutes then finally went into the waiting room…

Tara rushed to Nick as he came out. He had a grave look, and she could tell this was not going to be good news.

"I-I'm sorry," nick said. "We were nearly finished with the surgery when she died."

Tara sobbed a little, obviously trying not to cry. Nick didn't know what to say to her. HE didn't know how ot comfort her in this her greatest hour of need for friendship. So her friend came up, a worried look on her face, "Tara, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."

Tara nodded. "I know, Becca. I know. I can't believe, my mother, my own mum who was so strong and brave who raised her own siblings and their children and my dad's children is dead! It's not possible."

Becca hugged her best friend. "Ssh, shh. I know how it feels, Tara. It's okay. You're wound will heal."

"Only to be replaced by flesh wounds from my father!" Tara sobbed. Becca's eyes went wide.

"Oh, my gosh, Tara I forgot about him. I'm so sorry," Becca said. Tara cried on her shoulder.

"why is it bad to be with her father?" Nick asked. Becca looked up at him.

"He's a bit abusive. But it's not your business," Becca snapped. Then Dr. Harriet Lanning, who was standing near by listening, walked over to Nick and pulled him aside.

"Nick, you don't ask personal question like that to your patients," she said. "We are only concerned for their medical health, not their own personal life."

"But it is a health question," Nick said. "That girl has mono, her father is abusive he could possibly manage to burst her spleen! I don't want that to happen."

"It's still apart of their own life. We are doctors, we only make house calls if they call for it."

"Fine. But I don't want her to end up in a foster home, or with an abusive father. I had an abusive father, I don't want her to go through what I had to." Dr. Lanning shook her head.

"Stay away from her personal life. You could just screw it up," she said then left. Nick just snorted a little and walked back.

"I have to go now," he said and walked off.

"I can't believe he'd ask a question like that," Becca said. Then she turned to her friend who was slouching in a chair, near crying but trying to hold it back. "Why don't you stay with us tonight?"

Tara looked up at Becca, "Is it alright with your mum?"

"Of course it is, Tara," Becca's mum said. "I have no objection whatsoever."

Tara nodded and they got up and left.

The funeral was the next week, it wasn't anything special. The church Tara went to, Oasis Family Church bought the plot of land and did the funeral out of their hearts. They knew Tara and her mother well, and felt sorry for her. An unexpected guest was there, Nick Kokoris. He was in the back of the congregation. As everyone left after the casket was put into the grave he remained, watching Tara as she stood by the grave. Tara stood by the grave, looking at the simple gravestone that read:

"Alice Emily Froze

Born February 18, 1950 Died November 24, 2002.

Loving Mother, and great woman."

Tara crouched near the gravestone and traced the letters "Alice Emily Froze" and "Loving Mother." Tears would have welled up in her eyes had she not shed them all the day of the accident. Wenesday, November 24 was when her mother died. Thursday November 25, Thanksgiving Day she was alone in her house, silent and laying on the couch. The couch her mother let her sleep on throughout the week because she didn't like sleeping upstairs. She heard footsteps behind her, she knew who it was. "You know, we were suppose to have a big dinner Thanksgiving. We would have all our friends, and family go to the park down the street. Our church would be their too. It was going to be a great Thanksgiving Day, one we would all remember. Everyone was able to come, not one person would be missing. But instead, two were. Mum and me. Then we were going to move my bed down into the computer room, because I always slept down stairs. The weekend was going to be fun. Our family would be with us, my cousins Dino and Brian would be there. We would be going to the park and the school to go cat-hunting. But now I'm going away. To my damned abusive drunk father." Tara punched the ground. "The ass, he has fifteen woman crawling over him a week because he has all this money. He's a local wrestler. He wants to go pro soon. He's also a lawyer. I'm amazed how a lawyer could be so uncivilized. He's a bastard. He had ten affairs on my mum in a week! So she divorced him, and got to keep me. I'm glad for that, but not this. They say your sense of security comes from your father. But when I was with mum, I felt like nothing to hurt me. My mum was a strong Christian, and a strong woman. She had been through a lot. Life in poverty on the reZ, taking care of her sixteen younger brothers and sisters. Getting an education during that. Got shot in the leg and held at gun point from one of her younger sisters drunk husbands. She had been through a lot. I have a lot of respect for her, because she went through all that and still she raised me, and had a lot of patience, and made my life better up to this point than she had ever had as a child."

"Tara, I'm sorry about your mother," Nick said. "And I'm sorry that she had to go through so much."

"Hm, thanks. I'm sorry she died too. But at least she's with God. Though I doubt I will be," Tara said, getting up.

"Tara, I want to help you."

"I don't need anyone's help. You're a doctor, Doc. You're suppose to just be a doctor, see what's wrong, prescribe a medicine and then go on to the next patient. I heard what that other doctor said to you. She's right, you're not suppose to be mixed in with the personal life of your patients. So follow her advice. I could see she's had more experience than you," Tara said then left. Nick watched as she left, he felt so sorry for her. He had to help.

~~~A week later~~~

Dr. Nick smiled to himself as he entered the locker room, another successful surgery. Then he frowned as he remembered what had happened three weeks ago, he still wasn't completely over that tragedy. Well, it wasn't that long of a day today, and now he was going home to watch TV and do some more studying on law, and child abuse laws etc. He got dressed in some casual clothes consisting of jeans, sneakers, and a black sweater over a USA shirt. He walked out of the locker room when two men dressed in suits came towards him. They showed him their badges, they were the police!

"Dr. Nicholas Kokoris?"

"Yes?"

"We understand that you were one of the last people to see Tara Froze a week ago. We would like to speak with you."

~~~End chapter~~~

Okay, I know it was shorter than the first chapter, but hey, I couldn't think up of much for this chapter, but longer chapters later. Don't expect fast updates, I want this to be a **real** drama story. How am I doing so far?

Jester