“Hey, Princess Mila, you think I could see what is wrong with you?” I try to not give away anything while Hailey talks to Mila, and I take in what I thought all along. I take her wrist in my hand lightly as she cries out.
“Look at me, Princess. Just … I know it hurts, but I promise you she will make it all okay.” Hailey tries to calm her down, but now the tears are falling down her face.
“Don’t cry, Hailey,” Mila says. “I won’t cry if you don’t cry.” I nod just as Gabe walks into the room.
“What is going on?” he says as he takes in Mila on the table. “Where did all this blood come from?” he asks, and Hailey looks at him confused, and then looks at the floor and sees that the blood is from her feet.
I’ve worked alongside some of the top doctors in the states, but working along Gabe is even better. He swings into motion. “We are going to have to pop the shoulder back into place.” He looks at me as I nod.
“I think her wrist is broken.” He nods at me.
“Your cousin is going to need stitches on her feet.” We work around it until Mila’s father comes in and treats Hailey like a second-class citizen.
“Okay, folks, I have to put her shoulder back in place.” Gabe looks over at the man who I found out is called Walker, when he showed up at Norma’s spewing shit, “It’s going to hurt, and she will cry, but there is nothing we can do about it.” I stand on the right of Gabe when Hailey starts asking Mila questions, so she doesn’t look at what he is doing. With one snap, it’s back into place.
“You can go now. She just needs her family, not a stranger.” Walker says to Hailey, who doesn’t look at him.
Gabe orders an X-ray, and I’m listening to him when Walker dismisses Hailey without a second thought. I walk Hailey out with her feet bleeding all over the floor, and her shoulders slumped.
“I guess your daughter gets all her manners from her mother,” I hiss right before she walks out of the room to the sound of Gabe whistling.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” I ask her as I pull gloves on and walk over to her, picking up her foot. “I need to clean this up, and then see if there is any more glass in there. I’m guessing not, but you can never be too sure. You will definitely need stitches.”
I clean up her feet when Ava walks in. “Gabe was calling for you; I’ll finish here,” she tells me as I take off my gloves and toss them in the trash.
Finding Gabe in the hallway, he looks at me. “You ever do X-rays before?” I almost roll my eyes at him.
“Yes, Dr. Walker.” I nod. Going into the examine room, I tell Mila we will be doing X-rays and lead her out to another room. The whole time I remain professional and don’t tell her father that he’s a fucking douchebag.
“You are a champ, Mila.” I smile at her as she nods and asks me about Hailey. “She needs stitches, but she is going to be just fine. How about we get you all better?” Finishing up with Mila, I walk back out to see Gabe talking to a woman and smiling. “X-rays should be done, Dr. Walker,” I tell him as the woman approaches me.
“You must be Crystal. I’m the third Dr. Walker.” She holds out her hand, and I now see the resemblance. This is Gabe’s mother.
“So nice to finally meet you.” I smile at her, holding out my hand.
“Word on the street is that you’ve hit the ground running.” She puts her hands in her pockets and smiles. “I hope we get to work together soon.”
“I do as well,” I tell her and then excuse myself to take a breather. Walking to the nurses’ desk, I pick up my water bottle, draining it.
“Crystal.” I hear my name being called. “Room four,” Gabe says, and I walk in with him. He looks at the X-rays and tells us what we already know. I help him cast Mila’s arm. By the time they leave, it’s almost four o’clock.
Mia and Emma have already punched out, and Olivia’s coming out with her lunch bag. “There’s the city girl.” She smiles at me. “I hope to see you in action more often. It was great seeing you just fly around and handle the trauma without a second thought.”
“Thanks,” I tell her as I walk to the nurses’ station. “Now the best part of the day. Chart follow-ups.”
Ava and Corrine are the next ones to leave. “Want to come have drinks with us?” Ava asks.
“Thanks for the invite, but I have about an hour of charts left, then I should go home and check on my cousin.” We say goodbye, and I return my attention to filling out the charts. What was supposed to take an hour takes much longer, and when I look up, I see it’s almost fucking six.