Hargeon Hospital, located in the heart of the Hargeon district. Used by the surrounding districts of Magnolia, Hargeon, Omnibus, and Clover. It wasn't the best hospital. But, people made do and prayed for a competent Doctor when they were treated. If anyone needed serious medical care, they went to Crocus district where a state of the art hospital was located.
In one of the exam rooms, Natsu and Lucy are waiting for the on duty Emergency Doctor to come in and go over the results of the x-ray. Lucy is sitting high up on the exam table and Natsu is in a chair by her legs.
In perfect view of her feet.
He is currently examining her shoes since they are close to his face.
"What is wrong with your shoes? Why are they shaped funny?"
Natsu puts a hand under Lucy's ankle and lifts it closer to his face to look at the design of her shoe. He takes her shoe off and turns it over to look at the bottom. His eyebrows go up in surprise and he takes the other shoe off to look at the bottom of that one.
"These are heals?! Have you been walking in these all day?"
Lucy looks sheepish and gently smiles. "Yeah, my heal broke this afternoon. I broke the other one so I still had something to wear. I have another pair at home, but they're not very comfortable." Her foot swings back and hits the end of the exam table. She grimaces and reaches down to rub the back of her foot. Natsu reaches for her foot and sees that the back of her heal is red from wearing ill fitting shoes for hours. He shakes his head.
"Tch. It's a good thing I carried you in."
Lucy chuckles, "Yeah, it was nice to finally get off my feet."
Knock knock
The ER Doctor comes breezing in, a folder in his hand.
"Ok, Miss Heartfilia. I have your results here and good news is, your nose is not broken! I have a prescription for some Tramadol for you. Just a few days worth, after that use Ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours. You will have some good bruising for awhile, but I expect it to be gone in a month. I have your prescription and discharge papers at the nurses station. You and..." He gives Natsu a distrustful look. "...your friend can make your way there."
"Thank you Doctor."
The doctor nods his head and walks out of the room. Lucy sighs. Thankful that at least her nose isn't broken. Her face still hurts though. She puts on a brave face. Smiling she says, "Well! At least my nose isn't broken! I can take a taxi home and get something to eat! Ahhh! I'm so tired!"
She slides off the exam table and winces as she steps down. She wobbles and almost pitches forward if not for arms grabbing hold of her elbows to keep her steady.
"You are not getting home on your own." Natsu scowls at her and scoops her up. Lucy rolls her eyes and flops her head back. With a big sigh she says, "At this point I'm so tired I'm not even going to argue about you carrying me." Natsu smirks at her and walks out of the exam room. Taking a right, he walks over to the nurses station.
"Hey! You have a wheelchair?"
The two nurses snap to attention and freeze, looking at Natsu in shock.
"Well? Do you have a wheelchair or not!"
One of the nurses jolts, "Yes! Mr. Dragneel!" She rushes around the nurses station and to a closet.
"Who has Lucy Heartfilia's discharge papers?"
"I do sir." The second nurse pivots in her spot and walks quickly over to the printer. The first nurse comes back with the wheelchair all folded out and proceeds to lock it. Natsu eases Lucy down into the chair. He moves out of the way of the first nurse as she moves in to adjust the foot rests.
The second nurse comes around the counter and extends the papers out in front of herself for Natsu to grab. "Miss Heartfilias prescription is right here on top." She points to a smaller paper attached to the discharge papers. "You can get it filled at the on site pharmacy."
Natsu takes the papers and hands them to Lucy. "Right."
He unlocks the brakes and standing behind the wheelchair, he grabs the handles. "Let's go Luce."
As Natsu pushes, Lucy leans over the arm of the chair smiling and waves to the nurses. "Bye, bye! Thank you so much!"
The second nurse walks over to a desk chair and collapses into it, she flaps her hand Lucy's way. While the first nurse scurries behind the nurses station. They both take a deep breath, relieved that the son of Igneel has left their side of the building.
Making their way out of the Emergency Department and into the main part of the hospital, all is quiet and empty. Natsu turns left toward the hospital pharmacy. A short ways down the hallway a night guard sits in a chair against the wall. His head turns and he spots the two coming. He gets up from his chair and facing them, stands with his arms crossed in front of the pharmacy door.
"Can I help you?"
Lucy unclips the prescription slip from her discharge papers and shows the slip to the night guard. "Yes, I am here for my prescription." The guard eyes Natsu speculatively, then reaches for Lucy's prescription slip. He looks at the slip and huffs. Taking the slip from her hand, he turns around, slams his Security badge against the lock and opens the door. Looking over his shoulder he says, "I'll have your script out momentarily."
SLAM
"Jeeze, what's his problem?"
Lucy rolls her eyes up to look at Natsu and sarcastically says, "Gee, I don't know. It has nothing to do with your reputation I'm sure."
Natsu grins down at Lucy and snickers, "I don't know what you're talkin' about! I have a shining personality!"
Lucy rolls her eyes back at him and smiles back. "Sure you do."
Natsu smiles at Lucy fondly and bumps her shoulder with his hand, "So, where are you living now?"
"Here in Hargeon. I have an apartment thats close to my actual job."
"Oh? What job is that?"
"You are looking at the coordinator for the Hargeon Public Library!" She smiles with pride. "It's not far from Magnolia actually. It makes it easier to get to my new job with your Dad."
"What happened to you going into journalism? You were so excited to go to school for that." He moves around her and leans against the wall next to the pharmacy door, his hands in his pockets.
"I did go to Crocus to study journalism and when I was finished I came back home. Or near home, with the intention of getting a job at the newspaper." Lucy's shoulders slump and she looked dejected. "But, they weren't hiring. And they refused to hire for any other position. I had to do something for work, so I started wandering around town and applying anywhere that was hiring near my apartment. I was walking past the library one day and on a whim, went in to look around. It was a mess! Books stacked on every surface, trash cans over full, lights flickering, it was like an abandoned building! I immediately contacted city hall to find out why the library was like that. You know what they told me?"
Natsu smirks at her, finding it funny that she is still so passionate about books after all these years.
"What did they tell you?"
Lucy with an incredulous look says, "They were understaffed and couldn't help me! They had no idea what was going on! I told them they had to find someone to take responsibility for the deplorable state of that poor library!"
Confused he says, "Sooo how did you start working there?"
"I went to a council meeting and demanded they do something about the condition! So many people could use that library! They said they had no one who was interested in coordinating, so I said I would do it!"
Natsu outright laughed.
"Now that I have been working there for the past few years I don't want to work for the newspaper anymore."
With a proud look she says, "I have created a safe place for the school kids to come and study. It reminds me of when I helped you in high school." Lucy looks sad as she says, "I feel bad for the kids in that area right now because the library is closed for repairs."
Natsu opens his mouth to say something when the pharmacy door opens and the Security guard walks out with a small white bag. He extends the bag out toward Lucy to take. "The pharmacy will send you a bill."
Natsu kicks off the wall and casually walks around from behind the guard. The guard whips his head around and reaches for his stun gun as he takes a step back. Natsu smirks at him and reaches for the white bag in the guards hand. "I'll take this."
Natsu grabs the bag and dumps it into a surprised Lucy's lap before he walks around behind her. "I'm ready to get out of here, aren't you Luce?"
Lucy blinks rapidly, "Um. Yeah, I'm ready to go home."
Lucy smiles and gives a small sheepish wave to the security guard before Natsu pushes her toward the main entrance of the Hospital.
It may be sometime for the next chapter to come out. I have an idea of how I want it to go but it takes me awhile to write. :)