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Chapter 2: Routine

Last night I had stumbled home in a daze, I hardly remember driving home never mind how I managed to drag myself to my bedroom and fall onto my bed. I woke up this morning to the sound of the beeper on my alarm clock; still in my work clothes and with my light on, it seemed that I also fell into my sleep induced coma before I brushed my teeth, gross. I rolled off the bed and walked heavily to the attached bathroom. My parents were doing pretty well in the money department and had bought me this cute little bungalow as a graduation present; they were always so proud of their daughter that was going to become a doctor. The truth is I graduated when I was 22, because I had skipped grade 6 and 7 as well as grade 9. This was partly because I was a good student and partly because my dad influence at my elementary school. When I arrived at the bathroom I did a double take, was that really me in the mirror. I looked like I had just come back from the biggest party of the year; my walnut coloured hair, which usually fell 2 inches below my shoulders in ringlets, now looked like a frizzy mess. My hazel eyes were blood shot from lack of sleep and my makeup from yesterday was streaked in places. I ran for the shower.

After a long, hot shower I headed back to my room wrapped in a towel. My room was a fair size, big enough for my desk, double bed, dresser and my old vanity that I just couldn't bare to part with. The general theme of the room was dark wood furniture and my walls were painted a light purple. As I walked past my end table I noticed the time, 5:30 okay so I still have… HALF AN HOUR! I ran to my closet and frantically yanked on my extra pair of work clothes, looking in the mirror I pulled my hair into a high ponytail and brushed on some mascara. I looked over to my full length mirror, I looked presentable and I still had 15 minutes to get to work, I can do this, I can do this.

Oh my god I can't do this, I am going to be late and Mary is going to put me on coma duty for the rest of my life! I looked out into the line of traffic in frount of me as my heart sunk; I had five minutes to get to work. In all of the years I have been working while I was at school I have never been late, and now I was going to be late on the first official day of at the new hospital. The only silver lining was that I was in Bracebridge, the town I lived in as a child, and not a big city. There was no other choice; I decided as I pulled over to the nearest parking spot, I would have to walk. After five minutes of jogging and a short cut through a bush I was at the hospital, a little worse for wear but at least I was there and only a few minutes late.

I walked through the doors and with Mary no where in sight I set out to room 105, my patient's room. I made it all to the door when I saw her on the other side of the hallway, but at least Mary was looking the other way. Using all the stealth I had accumulated from years of sneaking in after curfew, I tip toed over to the room opened the door, promptly tripped over my own foot and crashing face first to the floor. Thank god this guy is still sedated or this would be really embarrassing. I got off the floor with a grunt, and possibly a few choice words that would make my mothers face lose its colour, and then went to check the clip board that would have my instructions for the day. On the top of the page read John Doe, code word for we have no idea who this guy is, it looks like they couldn't even keep him lucid long enough to get his name. Great, that meant that he was too dangerous to be awake for one second, note to self: make sure you always have him on the right amount of sedatives.

As I continued to read the rest of the patient's stats, I felt the back of my head tingle with a feeling that I was being watched. I knew that it was stupid because I was in the room with a man who was on such a high dose of sedatives that he should not be waking up until next year, but still I couldn't shake it. Slowly I turned around and looked at the bed, only to find that staring back at me were a pair of brilliant blue eyes. All my breath escaped my as I slammed myself into the far wall and stared back open mouthed. It was only then that I realized that I had forgotten to turn on the lights or open the shades, and now his eyes seemed to glow in the dark. I waited for a good 5 minutes, but still he did not move or even blink for that matter. He did not seem to be staring at me, but at something just past me and his eyes were unfocused. I stood absolutely still for a few more minutes before I had the courage to move my lips.

"Sir, are you alright?" my voice quivered a little more than I would have liked.

There was no answer not even a twitch of acknowledgement from the strange man in the bed, he just continued to stare straight ahead. Then it hit me, he was dead. Oh my gosh, I knew the sedative was too high, stupid me for not saying anything! I walked up to the side of his bed and looked down at his face, I was stunned. This was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, he had strong angular features that were softened but his smooth pale skin. His pin straight hair was even longer than mine and appeared to be the colour a silver moon in the dark; it looked so soft, I wondered if I could touch it. What was I doing, this guy might be dead and I am just sitting here oogling! I am a professional god dammit; I do not oogle at dead patients! I snapped myself out of my trance and checked his pulse, yep still there, breathing, yes still breathing. Okay then what the hell was going on, was he brain dead, ignoring me maybe? I had to find Mary.

I ran down the hallway in vain, where was that woman when you actually wanted to see her? My patient could very well be mentally damaged beyond repair and I can't do anything about it because I do not deal with coma people I deal with injured people that I can cut open and… oh, there she is.

"Mary! I think there is something very wrong with my John Doe, he is not responding to any reaction tests and he just keeps staring at the goddamn ceiling and…"

"You think I don't know about this already? I have already been into check on him and the doctor confirmed that he is fine. Besides, there are a lot of things that don't make sense about this one, follow me and I will fill you in." Mary replied in a voice that reminded me of a bored tour guide; well excuse me for not realising that this guy was a freak of nature, I'll be sure to read the minds of the doctors before I ask next time.

I waited impatiently for Mary to grab her check list with her patients on it, as well as the updated stats for my patient, which she had conveniently forgot to put in the room before I arrived. Just as I was starting to wonder if maybe she was taking so long in hopes that my patient would die before we got there, she started walking to his door. She walked in the door and barely seemed to notice that "John" was still staring at the ceiling, when was she planning on telling me what the hell was going on?

"He first opened his eyes about 30 minutes after we administered the sedative, you can imagine our surprise, but since he has not moved or even blinked since then, the doctors assume it is his way of sleeping." Mary explained as if talking to a 3 year old, "There are many things we don't understand about this patient, and anything you are told is not to be repeated to anyone, understand?"

"Yes, I understand" my excitement was building by the second, what was the big secret, did he have some kind of rare disease that was just discovered? Was I going to be famous for taking care of him?

"Why don't you come over here and take a look at his ears." Mary suggested with a strange look on her face. I walked over cautiously; I was still uncomfortable around his unwavering stare. I very gently moved his hair away from his ear, not before noticing that it was impossibly soft and silky, and then froze. His ear looked normal at the lobe, but as you traveled up it came to a defined point at the tip. The strangest part was that it did not seem strange at all on his face, but like it simply added to his beauty making him unearthly. Was this some kind of strange plastic surgery, or maybe this was part of his mysterious 'disease' that involved silky hair, pointed ears and sleeping with your eyes open. As if reading my mind, Mary spoke up.

"We had a plastic surgeon come in and look at them, they haven't been altered at all, it seems they are completely natural. His other tests have shown strange results as well, it is as if he is not even human."

It wasn't until then that I noticed that my head had moved so close that my nose was almost touching his cheek. Embarrassed I pulled back quickly, and turned to Mary with a thousand questions in my mind, only to find she had left the room. How was I supposed to treat a patient when I had no idea what was wrong with him, or if he was even human? This was silly of course he was human, Mary is just joking, and the hospital would never leave a brand new resident in charge of an alien. In fact, I bet those ears are a birth mutation, or even a break through in plastic surgery. To reassure myself, and partly out of curiosity, I reached out my hand once more to touch the point of his ears. That was strange, they felt so real, but I bet if I pinch a little I would feel the plastic. Faster than I could blink, a hand grabbed my wrist with a grip of steel; I felt all my breath leave my body and my face drained of colour. I gazed down to find two enraged blue eyes staring back at me.

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