Chapter 2 – Brittany

I wasn't entirely sure how I had gotten here. The walls of the room I had found myself in were a stark white. In the air, a mixture of unpleasant smells was lingering and the bed I was sitting on was definitely not mine. There was a dull, slow pounding in my head, my throat was sore and my nose was runny. I squeezed my eyes together and tried to remember what had happened.

I could remember being at work today, but I had gone home early because I didn't feel well. Then I was sitting and lying around on my small couch at home, unable to get comfy. Without a blanket, I was freezing; with a blanket, I was sweating bullets. Lying down had made me cough; sitting up had made me dizzy. While I was busy pondering on my dilemmas, I somehow drifted off into a shallow sleep. The kind of sleep where your dreams always make you feel chased or in a hurry and you probably move a lot in your bed and you wake up being more exhausted than when you fell asleep.

All I could think of when I had been jerked back into awakening once again by a weird thing happening in my dream was soup. My mum used to make soup for me when I was sick. She believed that homemade chicken soup was the best cure for colds and right now, I believed so too. So since I was apparently having a cold, I needed to get some soup. My parents lived in another town, but it was about half an hour by car and I didn't think that was so far. Plus I didn't know who else would make me chicken soup.

The memory started to get cloudier and cloudier there. I went into my hallway, put on shoes and grabbed the keys to my car. In my memory, the hallway looked all weird and fuzzy. Maybe my eyes weren't working properly. I could remember wanting to get to my car as fast as possible because my knees were being all wobbly.

I tilted my head to one side and then the other. That probably hadn't been too smart. If my knees were too wobbly to stand, they were probably too wobbly for gas and throttle, too. It wasn't like I could remember ever actually getting into my car and driving away, anyway. Did I stay at home or did I just forget about my driving? And how did I end up here anyway? I didn't know this place, so I couldn't have driven here...

I took another good look around. Next to the bed I had woken up on was a little, ugly-looking night stand with a glass of water on it. On the side of the room that I could see to my left, there were large windows, partially covered by thick curtains. The side of the room opposing the windows was lined with wardrobes. I turned around to look at the wall behind me. Sitting on a small shelf mounted to the well was a monitor with funny lines and numbers that made no sense to me on it. Under the monitor, a few cables were connected to some sort of computer –or so I supposed. I followed the cables with my eyes and they were leading ... they were leading to me.

Only now did I notice that there were cables coming out from under my shirt. I started to panic and yanked up my shirt. The cables connected to little stickers that were placed all over my body. Now, I recognised the apparatus from TV. It was one of those things that monitor your heart beat and translate it into lines on a long piece of paper - and I was hooked up to one of those. Suddenly, I realised what kind of place I was at - of course, I was in a hospital.

Before I got the chance to continue my train of thought, the door swung upon and somebody entered. It was a young woman, with dark hair and tan skin, clad almost completely in white. She had to be hospital personnel and I hoped I could ask her how I had gotten here. When she turned her eyes towards me, she halted slightly in her movement and then averted her look nervously. I realised my shirt was still yanked up and pulled it down quickly.

The hospital woman slowly walked towards me and held her hand out to greet me.

'Good afternoon. My name is Lopez and I'm the doctor of this ward. You're Ms Pierce, correct?'

I noticed how she was very focused on not looking at my chest while she was speaking. Weird, I thought, she's easily embarrassed. At work, us girls get changed in front of each other all the time and we're cool with it.

'Yeah, that's right. Brittany Pierce. So pleased to meet you.'

Dr. Lopez was a woman about my age. I had always thought doctors would be much older than that. , I also couldn't help but notice that she was very good-looking. Dark messy locks framed a pretty face with eyes that reminded me of chocolate.

Even though I always hated myself for doing so, her looks made me want to be extra nice to her. It was like I was being thankful that she not only took the time to talk to me, she also made for a very nice sight while we were talking. Before I got lost too far in my thoughts, I shook her hand and wanted to get up so she didn't have to talk to me while I was on this weird bed. The pretty doctor was fast to signal that I should remain where I was and she sat down on the edge of my bed.

'Ms Pierce, are you feeling a bit sick?'

'Well, last thing I remember is that I had a cold and since I still feel kinda bad, I suppose I still have it. And it also looks like I'm in a hospital, so I guess I can't be too well.'

'Mhh, and how exactly do you feel bad? Does your head hurt or you feel like you have a fever or ...?'

'I have what having a cold feels like. My head hurts and my legs and arms hurt a little. And my head feels kinda dizzy but that may be because I just woke up.'

'And do you know exactly why you're here?'

'I don't even know what or where exactly this hospital is. The last thing I remember is walking to my car to drive to my parents.'

'And then the next thing you remember is waking up here?'

'Yeah.'

'Mhhmmh,' the doctor made a humming sound and paused a little before continuing. 'Your neighbours saw you faint in front of your car. They called 911, and so you were brought here, to the hospital.'

'Oh... I should call them and tell them I'm fine. I wouldn't want to worry anyone.'

'I'm sure you'll find the time to do that, Ms Pierce. Do you know whether you ever had an epileptic seizure?'

'Like those kids in Japan that watched Pokémon? No, I don't think so.' The doctor snorted a bit when I said that. It was a dorky snort and it didn't fit her composed appearance at all. I decided that I liked the snort.

'Mhh, and did you experience any weird things when walking to your car? Like seeing colourful lights or hearing strange noises?'

'No, I don't remember anything like that.'

'Okay, so I think that you had a rather bad cold and those sometimes affect the heart muscle. We usually don't even notice that, but sometimes the sick heart muscle gets confused when you exercise. So it doesn't beat properly for just a few moments, but that's enough to make our sick selves faint for a bit.'

I guess that's what doctors sound like when they get to say doctor-like things. There was a spark of excitement in her voice and even though I didn't entirely get what she told me, I had the feeling that she knew what she was talking about.

'Uh huh ... Is that bad or something?'

'No, nothing to worry about. But first, we need to confirm that this actually was the case. The sister will hook you up to an ECG shortly and then take you down to echocardiography, where I'll take a look at your heart. Don't worry, it's quick and doesn't hurt.' The excitement in her voice was still there. It was rather cute, actually. Like my little nephew who was so psyched to tell me about his new plastic fire engine.

'Okay. Sure. I'll just lie back down until then because I feel like shit. If that's okay?' I looked at the woman for reassurance. Something in me wanted her to continue talking but there was a bigger portion of me that felt tired and exhausted.

'Yeah, of course it is. I'll also have the nurse give you some cold medicine.'

'Thanks.'

The young woman - what was her name again? I had already forgotten it - smiled and got up slowly. Her smile was really pretty, her white teeth stood out against her tan skin. If she was just to stay here and smile more, that would have been totally okay with me. She patted my legs under the covers slightly and left the room in a very quiet manner.

There were goose bumps all over my skin and I didn't know why.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it so far. I welcome all critique, spelling/grammar corrections, hate mail, whatever. Also, I have part of the next chapter already written, so I should be able to put it out there soon enough.