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| ROSES IN THE HOSPITAL by Ladymozzy PART 1 Amy reckoned she’d done things the right way round after all. Leaving school at sixteen clutching a handful of GCSEs and walking straight into a job at the hospital. Ok, she’d spent much of the past 10 years emptying bedpans but she’d got paid ok for it and she’d actually enjoyed it enough to go to college to be a proper nurse. She was one of the eldest on the course but that didn’t matter. She had a good set of friends who loved going out and tonight had been no exception. It was 3am and she was ready for her bed. The taxi pulled up outside her shared flat (shared with a junior Dr who seemed to be on nightshift permanently), gave the driver the fare and walked towards the door. She was just about to put the key in the lock when she heard shouting. She slowly walked back towards the road. There was a man laying on the floor and two others running away. Amy cautiously walked towards the man who was unconscious on the pavement. He was a fairly young man with wavy dark hair. She checked his breathing and then his pulse. There was nothing. Amy went into auto-pilot, After calling an ambulance, she started CPR. After one set of CPR, still nothing. She carried on then checked his pulse again. Over the sensation of her own heart pounding, she could make out a faint pulse. She carried on with the mouth to mouth until the man suddenly coughed and started to breathe on his own. Amy had tears in her eyes. The relief was immense. The man opened his eyes. Amy held his hand. “Hello, I’m Amy, what’s your name?” The man was barely audible, but Amy was able to read ‘James’ from his lips. She carried on talking to James. He didn’t talk back but he kept eye contact with her. Sirens began to wail in the distance but Amy was so busy keeping James conscious she was oblivious to everything else. Amy waited at the hospital until James went up to surgery. Ollie, her flatmate had been on duty and took her home. She hadn’t seen James since they arrived at the hospital and all she could see when she tried to sleep were his eyes flickering open. Ollie gave her a mild sedative and packaged her off to bed. By Monday, Amy was gaining some normality to her life again. She’d decided against going to see James again as he had his friends and family round him now. She got updates from Ollie so she knew he was doing well and there was no lasting damage. She got a standing ovation from her lecturer and her fellow classmates when she walked into her afternoon lecture. On Wednesday, the weekend’s events were becoming a hazy memory. She knew James had been discharged from hospital and was recovering at home. The police had caught the muggers who’d admitted to the attack. Life was beginning to get back to normal when on Thursday night there was a knock at the door. Amy pulled herself away from her books and answered the door. She reeled back from the shock; it was James. She was bowled over by just how good looking he was. It’s not something she’d noticed before. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you,” he said clutching a bunch of flowers. “Oh, erm, well, I didn’t expect to see you again,” she replied. “Well I just wanted to give you these,” James countered, handing over the flowers, “Although I don’t think there’s anything in the world that can repay what you did for me.” Amy blushed, she invited James in after realising the poor bloke was stood in the rain getting soaked. They went through to the front room. Amy gatherered up her books and put them to one side. They talked about what had happened. It was the first time Amy had gone through what had happened since telling the police that night. As she was telling James her version of events, she felt her voice start to quiver and tears started to roll down her cheeks. James immediately sat down beside her and gave her a hug. She buried her head in his strong shoulder. James stroked the back of her head as she sobbed. After Amy had calmed down a bit, she went to the bathroom to freshen up. She looked in the mirror at her puffy eyes and red face. James had just come out of hospital and he looked better than she did. Amy paused on that thought. James looked good, he looked better than good he looked divine. Amy realised that se was falling for him in a big way and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She’d saved his life, but he wasn’t her patient and even if he was, he’d left hospital now. What was she thinking? This must be some kind of reaction to seeing him again. “Are you ok in there?” It was James. Amy opened the door. James looked concerned. They wandered back through to the front room. “I’m sorry about that, I guess I’d not really spoken to anyone about what happened. I do feel a little lighter now though.” James smiled at her. “For a moment there you had me worried. I wasn’t sure whether to come over or not.” “I’m glad you did. It feels better to see you alive and well. I knew you’d been discharged but now at least I can register that you are really ok.” “Look, I don’t feel that I can ever say thank you enough to you. I’m actually in a band, and I noticed you’ve got all our albums in your CD collection. We’re playing a couple of gigs in London in a couple of months so if you and a friend want to come along, that would be great.” In a band? Damn, she knew he’d looked familiar. Her friend Helen had dragged her along to a gig once and she’d liked what she’d heard so she’d bought the albums. Helen had dragged her over to the bass players side of the crowd so she’d barely seen James at all. James laughed when he saw the look of realisation creep across Amy’s face. “I’m sorry, I’m really crap at remembering faces.” “Hell it doesn’t matter, I prefer it when young women talk to me without any preconceptions,” he replied. James got up to go. “I’ll get some tickets out to you. You take care and thank you.” part 2 >>> <<< Ladymozzy's stories |