Sophie Jackson leaned against the emergency room reception desk asking "What have you got for me Maggie?"
Maggie Campbell, Charge Nurse for the Emergency Department of Chicago Med, smiled and then sighed "Sorry for this one, probably going to be a handful. Just," she paused "don't take anything he says to heart."
Sophie, raised an eyebrow, "Okay then. Thanks for the warning, I think." Sophie smiled, she'd been covering staff sickness in the ED for 3 weeks now and was really enjoying being back.
Once Sharon Goodwin had discovered Sophie had returned to Chicago, she'd been relentless in trying to recruit her friend back onto the staff of Chicago Med.
"Come on Soph, I need senior nurses like you. Med is understaffed, what will it take to get you to say yes?' Sharon had invited her to lunch during the working day at Chicago Med and Sophie had half expected this 'hard sell', over sandwiches from the canteen.
She smiled at her dear old friend "Sharon, I'm only just back from Miami! I'm still living out of boxes, there's so much to do!"
Not missing a beat Sharon had replied "Part time to start with then?"
Secretly Sophie was glad she'd taken up the offer, although part time had soon become full time and today the ED was backed up with cases including her next patient.
Sophie could hear a loud gruff male voice coming from behind the curtain, the voice sounded angry and frustrated. She turned to Maggie and raised an eyebrow, Maggie smiled mouthing 'You'll be fine.'
Taking a deep breath, Sophie drew back the curtain from round the bed, expecting her patient to actually be in the bed, she almost walked straight into the chest of Hank Voight.
Voight stared down at the nurse, she was shorter than him 5ft 5, blonde, late 40's maybe early 50's he thought, tanned, back from a holiday maybe, pretty.
Without taking his eyes off of Sophie's face he continued to bark sharp orders at whoever he'd been speaking to on his mobile phone. Sophie felt sorry for the person on the receiving end "NO! Ruzek, you and Burgess get on with the interview. I want answers to how the hell this happened and I want them now! Where's Upton? Good." He paused "Get it done." And he hung up. 'Here we go' thought Sophie, police officers were the worst patients, more so than probably firefighters, no wonder Maggie had warned her.
Sophie waited for Voight to sit on the bed, he didn't. He continued to stand there and years of experience told her he was going to try and leave without treatment. Her composure remained calm "Sgt Voight. I was expecting you to be at least sitting on the bed!" she eyed his left bicep, his shirt was ripped and stained with blood. By way of an introduction she continued "I'm Advanced Nurse Practitioner Sophie Jackson."
Voight said nothing, his eyes briefly left her face as he looked over her shoulder towards the exit. "Sgt, I understand from your file you need some stitches in your arm."
Voight glared at her, he wasn't going to make this easy, and no wonder Maggie had sent her in to see to him. He would have scared the life out of one of the young student nurses. Sophie took a different tack.
Looking him straight in the eye she calmly said "Ok. I appreciate the ED is the last place you want to be. Let me do my job and then you can go and do yours. Or alternatively for the sake of staying here for 30 minutes now, you can walk out, no doubt split that wound further and still end up back here but needing more treatment than you currently do. The choice, is yours."
Sophie waited and watched him appraise the situation. His glare softened and a smirk reached his eyes as he simply said 'Ok' and he perched on the side of the bed.
Sophie worked in silence, Voight needed 4 stitches in his bicep. He watched her as she worked, he was angry that he'd been superficially knifed in the arrest and that one of the suspects had got away. He was annoyed at his team, and Platt, for forcing him to the ED.
Sophie could feel him watching her every move and she could hear his breathing gradually slowing, she sensed him calming down. Eventually she quietly asked 'How did it happen?'
'Knife. During an arrest.'
Sophie looked up at him and smiled, his breath caught in his chest. Trying hard to stay focused he asked 'You're not a Doctor?'
'No, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in emergency medicine. Bit of a mouthful but one of the perks is that I get to stitch up hot headed police officers," she grinned at him and he chuckled.
'Sorry about before' he said, looking sheepish 'I need to get back and I don't have time for…."
"Proper medical attention?" she asked with one eyebrow raised.
'Something like that'. He smiled and Sophie thought he was actually quite handsome; his medical file had told her he was a couple of years older than her. She liked his eyes. 'Oh Sophie' she told herself 'get a grip! He's a patient!'
"Well, you are all done Sgt. Usual advice, take it easy, don't get it wet, any signs of infection come straight back. All of which I am sure you are going to ignore.'" She peeled off her gloves.
As he stood, he very gently put his right hand on her forearm and looking her in the eyes softly said "Thank you." He picked up his jacket and left. She could see, or rather hear, him making a call on his mobile as he left the Emergency Dept.
Sophie stood in the medical bay watching him leave. Looking at her arm, she could still feel where his hand had touched her arm. "Huh." She murmured under her breath, then shaking her head she called to Maggie "Mags, who's next?"