Author's Note: I swear, I am no good at releasing one chapter a day in a story, but I assure you, all 25 chapters will be up come Christmas day. Anyway, between growing tired post releasing the last chapter, and putting all my energy late last night into The Splat Trivia game, which I sadly, bombed on during the final hour, because my knowledge of All That and Kenan and Kel is very rusty, I had a lot of fun nonetheless. Without further adue, let's get on with the next chapter, and sorry if I'm once again, a day behind.
Chapter 18, Kimi's Internship
Their first year of college had been a success, and they were well into their second year of college, and what looked like to be their second Christmas in Boston, as Kimi got a nursing internship at Mass General over the winter holiday break in between semesters. She was on break that evening, grabbing a small bag of peanuts and a soda from a vending machine, before she had to get back on duty, when Zack gave her a call, to see how she was doing.
"Don't worry Zachary, my shift ends at eleven." Kimi said into the phone, as she glanced up at a clock on the wall that told her, she only had five minutes left of her break before she had to go back on duty.
"Ok my little dumpling, I'll be there to pick you up at eleven. Don't want my baby roaming the streets of Boston very late at night on Christmas." Zack said into the phone, as he was at their apartment, decorating a small Christmas tree they had gotten for the season, and putting the star on top, as with how busy their lives had been this year, they didn't even get around to decorating their Christmas tree until Christmas day itself.
Kimi just scrunched her eyebrows together, as she felt like a baby when Zack insisted on being there to walk her home late at night in the big city, but she also knew he was only doing it to protect her, so she didn't argue, letting the unpleasant thought go and smiling.
"Thanks honey. I've gotta go. Kiss kiss." Said Kimi into the phone, before she hung it up, put it back into her pocket, and put back on her white nurse's coat, being ready to be on duty.
Her shift started at three in the afternoon on Christmas day, and so far, she had treated a gentleman who came in with a burn on his foot, after dropping the hot turkey he had been cooking in the oven for Christmas dinner, and right before she went on break, she took the blood pressure and the information down for a little boy who appeared to have a broken arm. Apparently, he and his cousins had been rough housing, and the child fell off the couch. It was a sad Christmas not only because she had to stay behind in Boston a second year in a row to do this internship, but witnessing all of these enjuries on Christmas, didn't exactly put Kimi in a cheery mood.
However, she loved helping people, and nurses were there, to help people feel better, and in the grand scheme of things, that's what this holiday was all about. So she gritted her teeth, as she counted down the hours until she could finally go home and spend some quality time with her boyfriend, as she'd get the next day off.
"Nurse Kimi Finster, we need you down in emergency." Said a voice over the loud speaker.
"Duty calls." Kimi thought to herself, as she headed down to emergency, where there was an eldery lady suffering from a heart attack.
Luckily, there were paramedics there, so Kimi didn't have to do this job by herself, but it wasn't an easy job, as this woman was screaming from the chest pains, making it difficult for anybody to do anything, as she was squirming around, only making the pain worse.
"Mam, you need to calm down. You're only making it worse." Kimi said in her calmest voice possible.
Soon, they had the woman on a table and sedated. For this job, while the doctors examined her, Kimi was there to take notes on their observations of the woman's vital functions, etc. Kimi wrote down everything they said in her notebook, then handed it over to the doctor to share with the lady's family that was sitting out in the emergency room.
As the hours of Christmas wore on, Kimi tended to removing a little boy's splinter, fluffing the pillows for a man who was recovering from hip replacement surgery, and administered eye drops for a patient who had undergone Glaucoma surgery two days before Christmas. Originally, he was suppose to have his surgery at Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, but he was transferred to Mass General at the last minute, when his doctor went on vacation, and he couldn't put off the surgery any longer.
"That's the last one Daniel." Said Kimi, as she administered the last eye drop into the patient's eyes and put the cap back on to the bottle.
"Thank you mam." Daniel replied, as he lay back on the pillows and closed his eyes.
"Merry Christmas." Kimi said with a smile before turning to leave Daniel's room.
"Merry Christmas." Daniel replied.
Finally, it was eleven, and Kimi could leave to go home, and to her pleasant surprise, when she got outside of the hospital doors after clocking out, Zachary, wearing his dark blue winter coat and a red scarf, was waiting there for her. Back at the end of the semester, Kimi told him he was welcome to go home for the holidays, as she'd be just fine by herself, but Zack didn't feel right leaving his girlfriend to walk home alone at night in Boston, especially when he saw her schedule, and for the week between Christmas and New Years, she was working the 03:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. shift at the hospital, making her walk home late at night, when anybody could be lurking about in the MBTA tunnels. She tried reasoning with him, but he wasn't going to have any arguing with her, and his decision to stay home was final. Besides, it gave him time to work on an extra credit project he was doing for an upcoming class he'd be taking the following semester at school. He was going to make a doll that would help young toddlers enrich their vocabulary at an early age, and help them improve on sharing and better their motor and social skills. When he posted about it on his Facebook wall, Stu, Tommy's dad wrote back, telling him about a doll he invented some years back called Mr. Friend, and asked if Zack would like to see the blueprints for that invention. He replied with an affirmative to that, so Stu emailed him the blueprints, and using that and his own design, he was working on the skamatics for this robot.
He was so tied up with his project for the bulk of the day, as he let Kimi sleep in that morning, since she had such a late night the previous night on Christmas eve, that they hadn't even opened their presents to one another, and figured they'd just wait and celebrate Christmas the following day, when Kimi had the day off. That, Other than taking a break around dinner time to grab some food and decorate their Christmas tree, he spent the bulk of the day on his project, that is, until he looked up to stretch, and saw it was getting near ten at night.
"Oh my gosh! I'd better get to Mass General to pick up Kimi!" Zack thought to himself, as he bundled up in his winter coat and scarf, and headed for the T, which was on a weekend schedule for the Christmas holiday, so it wasn't running as frequently as it did on normal business days.
He did manage to make it in time, and was pleased when he saw Kimi come out of the building, bundled up in her long pink winter coat.
"Ready to go sweetie?" Zack asked.
"Yes, I am Zack." Kimi replied.
Just as they were about to leave the hospital parking lot and head for the T, they heard some cries of pain coming from a woman nearby in the parking lot.
"What was that?" Zack asked.
"I don't know, but my feet are tired, I'd just, like to go home." Kimi snapped between clinched teeth.
But the painful cry sounded again, which got Zack really concerned, and as Kimi listened, she too got worried.
"Ok ok, it is my duty to help others who are in need, and that woman does sound like she's hurt, so let's go see what's up." Said Kimi, as she and Zack approached the woman in the parking lot.
She was leaning against a dark purple mini van, clutching her stomach, and looked like she was nine months pregnant.
"Mam, what's going on? Can we help you?" Kimi asked the woman.
"I'm… In… Labor…" The woman cried in pain.
"Now now don't worry, we'll get you help." Said Zack, as he gently took the woman's hand, and together, he and Kimi tried to help her head towards the doors of the hospital.
The woman though collapsed in the parking lot, unable to move.
"I can't move. It hurts too much. I think the baby is gonna come any second." Cried the woman in panic.
"Calm down. Breethe. Breethe." Kimi ordered calmly, as the woman took some deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves and do her lamars breathing.
While Kimi had never delivered a baby before, she had seen enough videos of it in some of the classes she was taking in college, that she knew what to do. With Zack's help, out in the parking lot on that cold, winter Christmas night, they delivered the woman's baby, just as a doctor and a security guard came out to see what was going on.
"Oh my!" Exclaimed the security guard, as they saw Kimi with the new born baby girl in her arms.
"Thank you! Thank you!" Exclaimed the woman, as she sat up, exhausted, cold, soar, and happy, and Kimi handed her the new baby, which she had cleaned up with the remaining paper towels that were in her lunch bag, as she took lunch with her to eat on the T on the way to work.
"You're very welcome, and congratulations." Said Kimi with a smile.
"Uh, excuse me, but we should get you and your new child inside at once." Ordered the doctor who was with the security guard.
The security guard went inside and came back with a blanket and a wheelchair, to which he wrapped the baby into the blanket, and helped the new mother into the wheelchair, taking her inside the hospital where it was warm. Once Kimi and Zack saw this woman and her new born baby were being well taken care of, they made a run for the T station, where they managed to catch the last Red Line train going back to Brookline.
By the time they got home to their apartment, they reached the doorstep at one minute to midnight. Once there, they stopped and caught their breaths, as they longingly stared into one another's eyes for a minute before going inside.
"Zachary?" Kimi asked.
"What is it?" Zack replied.
"That had to be, the most, miraculous Christmas I ever experienced in my entire life." Said Kimi.
"I agree." Zack replied.
Then, they stood there for a few more minutes, taking in all they had witnessed within that last hour. Once they got over the shock of what they had witnessed, Zack gently cradled Kimi's cheeks in his hands, turning her face towards his, gazing passionately into her eyes.
"Honey, do you think, we could bring a little miracle into this world?" Zack asked.
"Oh Zachary, we're not even married, let alone engaged, and I do wanna finish school first, but I promise to make that happen for us someday." Kimi replied with a smile, as she leaned in and the two of them shared a kiss, before going inside to get warm.
Once inside, Zack and Kimi changed into their pajamas, and climbed into bed, where the exhausted Kimi hit the pillow and collapsed from exhaustion, not uttering another word.
"Merry Christmas sweetheart." Zack whispered into Kimi's ear, as he gently kissed the top of her forehead, tucked her in, then pulled the blankets on to him, and snuggling up next to her in bed, he too, closed his eyes and went to sleep.
And this, ends chapter 18. So, what will happen the following year? Find out, next time.
Author's Note: Part of this chapter was inspired by an episode of Cousin Skeeter I saw a while back, when Bobby and Skeeter volunteered for a day at a hospital, and helped a woman in an elevator deliver her baby, which I believe she had twins or triplets, I can't exactly remember now, but thinking about that, and thinking about the career path I had Kimi take in my stories, gave me this idea for one of her Christmases while she was studying to be a nurse. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and, there'll be more, coming very soon.