Roxy Diaz (punkpenguin) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2014-01-29 15:07:00 |
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Roxy had finally gotten to leave the school grounds. Apparently, no one had told her patient that the cookies which had been circulating around her camp had peanut butter in them. One bite had sent her into anaphylactic shock, which meant an emergency trip to the hospital. She wasn’t saying that she was happy for someone’s suffering, but she certainly wasn’t complaining about taking a field trip either. Technically speaking, she was supposed to report back to the school once she was done, but she couldn’t see the harm in lingering at the hospital for a few minutes – or an hour… Sure, Roxy would have felt horrible if suddenly the barrier dropped and all hell broke loose while she was trolling the halls of the medical center, but the likelihood of that happening was very, very slim. So she busied herself with what she always did when she was killing time: snacking on vending machine pretzels and checking her phone to see if she had gotten any messages. The device had practically been glued to her hands the past few days, mostly because she wanted to make sure she wasn’t out of the loop in case her friends needed something. Some people weren’t lucky, like her, to have siblings who had decided that homecoming sounded like a lame idea.
She had set up camp at the emergency room front desk. When you were a paramedic, you grew to be on good terms with the receptionists, nurses, and doctors that worked primarily in the trauma center. Debbie was working the desk today, and she had always been a fan of unloading all of her work gossip on Roxy. It didn’t matter that the penguin didn’t know half the people she was talking about, or that she didn’t participate; the older lady just seemed to enjoy talking to the colorful youngster. Debbie had left Roxy for a few minutes while she took a bathroom break, trusting her to handle anyone that came up to the desk. Usually no one came, but apparently that wouldn’t be the case today.
“And what are you doing?”
Roxy brought her feet down from where they had been propped up and sat straight in her chair. “Can I help you sir?”
“I don’t know, can you? You don’t seem to be good for much.”
Like a light switch being flipped, Roxy felt her opinion of this man shift suddenly. She didn’t say anything, but merely stared at him waiting for the question she had asked to be answered.
“I’ve been waiting for a doctor to see me for the past two hours. Other people have been seen, people who came in after me. And all I see you lot doing is sitting around like you’ve got fuck all to do.”
She took a deep breath. He was one of those patients. The kind that believed they were the most important people on the planet. They always wanted to be at the front of the line, get their food first, and receive preferential treatment. Roxy couldn’t stand those kinds of entitled people. “Sir, I’m sure there’s a good reason you haven’t been seen yet. If you’d like, I can try to find a doctor?”
“Could you?” The tone of his voice was practically drenching with sarcasm. Roxy didn’t know what was wrong with him, but she really hoped that it was putting him in pain.
She waited until she had stood and turned around to roll her eyes to the fullest extent possible. Who she was going to find to help her, she had no idea. Everyone seemed to be working on something important, people who weren’t just complaining. Roxy rounded a corner, leaving the trauma center and entering the main halls of the hospital. It was then she saw a brunette – one she vaguely recognized. Sometimes surgeons came down when there was a particular emergency that needed immediate surgical attention, but when things got to that point, everything happened so fast that it was hard to take stock of those around you. “Hey,” she said as she ran up to meet her. “Doctor, do you have a minute?”