"Hi… Um, I'm Robin Scherbatsky. You called me about twenty-five minutes ago?" Robin blurted to the nurse as soon as she got to the front desk at the hospital. Around her in the waiting area, people were staring up from their books and magazines with sympathy as they wondered what had gone on in the poor girl's life, causing her to rush to this kind of place at 10:30 in the evening.
"Hi, miss. Could I have your number please? We may need to check the records." The nurse replied, emotionless still, and Robin wondered how she did that.
"Um…" she, again, spoke quickly and soon the nurse was up and tapping away on her keyboard.
"We did call you, from the emergency unit," the nurse declared after a quick browsing of the data in her computer. "Second floor, first doorway on the right side and down the hall; that's where you'll get more information as we're not quite sure what is the case here." She finished, and Robin dashed off into the lifts.
"Come on, come on, come on," she muttered under her breath, jabbing the elevator button repeatedly as if that would magically make the lift arrive faster.
Emergency unit, oh god, she thought.
Seconds passed by, and although it felt like ages, the lift came soon enough and she stepped inside and pressed the button to the second floor, her heart pounding and her head a mess.
She prayed he would be all right and she hoped for nothing more than that.
"That stupid office party," she cursed under her breath as she ran out of the lift, down the hallway and through the first doorway, not knowing what to expect.
What she saw next was a pretty shocking sight with a tinge of gruesome, but she had to be reminded that she was in an emergency unit after all, and if people were fine as they were, they would not need to be there in the first place.
Eyes rapidly scanning the crowd for Luke, she could feel her heart rate going up once again and butterflies in her stomach, just like this afternoon on the very same day as they had their lunch together at their favourite spot. Except this time, the butterflies in her stomach was more like a churning of bad feelings, and that made her sick.
This should not be happening at all, she thought, trying to remain calm and compose herself as she failed to locate her boyfriend. I should be getting ready for bed right now and he should be having a blast with his colleagues… Not… Not like this, whatever this is.
Desperate, she approached a nurse who was busy running around shouting a ton of commands and giving instructions to even more nurses. She seemed to be in her early thirties and looked friendly enough, despite all the yelling Robin had just witnessed she had done.
She scanned her uniform for a nametag, and sure enough, she found one.
"Hi, excuse me… Sorry," she stammered, suddenly feeling weak and helpless, intimidated without a reason. "Jodie," – the nurse's name – "Do you… I mean, have you seen Luke Fielding? I'm sorry; I'm just looking for him. The hospital called and…" She spoke even quicker now, though her voice sounded hollow, as she looked into Jodie's eyes with a glimmer of hope.
"I take it you are Robin?" Jodie replied, and at once, Robin could feel her shoulders sag with immense relief.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, a little too loudly for a tired-looking emotional wreck like herself. The nurses here probably see lunatics like me seven days a week, she thought. They would've been used to this by now. "I mean – Yes. Where is he now, do you know?"
"I do. They got him in here about twenty minutes ago. He's in surgery right now. We rushed him in for a CT scan immediately when he arrived, when he was still slightly conscious, and we found your name on his recent contacts on his phone so we assumed you're related to him." Jodie spoke eloquently, and Robin wondered how she managed to keep calm at all.
"Yes… Yes. I'm his girlfriend," she blurted, holding onto Jodie's arm subconsciously as support, and she was right about the nurse being friendly, as she did not seem to be taken aback or mind her sudden move. She did not shy away, nor did she frown at her behaviour. She simply allowed her to do it, as if she knew what Robin was going through as of then, as if she understood.
And while Robin was fairly certain Jodie did not have a clue on how she was feeling and was absolutely sure she did not understand, it still felt good knowing someone cared.