Categories > Celebrities > Panic! At The Disco > A Heart On The Mend
William Beckett was already evaluating patients in the ER when he saw Dr. Ashley wave Dr. Ross off and take the stairs to the doctor’s lounge on the 2nd floor. He couldn’t stop the annoyed sigh that followed and then slapped himself mentally, going back to writing on the chart he had in front of him.
It wasn’t like he had a crush on his tutor, it was more like an admiration thing (after all, she was 6 years older than him and he was smart enough to realize he didn’t stand a chance). Even if William had to admit she was pretty hot, he liked her for her brains and that particular something that was her personality, more than he did for her looks. Dr. Ashley was the only female surgeon in the hospital, job that made her suffer quite a few humiliations and bad comments from her co-workers, but she had overcome all of it and proved she was better than all of them. William had witnessed more than a few fights between her and Dr. Wentz, the chief surgeon. Most of them were because of working hours and amount of patients. Other fights were because Dr. Wentz didn’t let her do big surgeries, like laparoscopies, and had her confined to small procedures. This had caused quite a break in the staff, half of them supporting Faith while the other half thought Wentz had his reasons. Somehow Ryan was the one who fixed that issue and Wentz allowed Faith to perform laparoscopies as long as Ryan was operating with her. Faith didn’t like having a babysitter, but it was the only way and besides, Ryan wasn’t a bad person to spend a few hours operating with.
But there was one fight that still managed to make William smile every time he remembered it. The one that was because of him.
When he arrived to the hospital for his surgery internship, he was immediately assigned to Dr. Ashley (in fact, Wentz did it cause he thought it would bother Faith. Little he knew Faith loved teaching and really liked having a pupil), which meant he had to follow her day and night shifts, join her in the OR, go to the clinic with her and check on her admitted patients everyday on the 4th floor. Faith told him the simple rules she had and prevented him from falling into doing everyone’s job, cause he was bound to be taken as a pet by the other surgeons, so she made clear that he was, in a way, working for her and only her.
A few weeks later, William proved her words to be true, and even if he managed to dismiss the other doctors’ requests, Dr. Wentz wasn’t a person you’d easily shut down. So, after spending almost a week doing paperwork for Wentz, Faith had a chat with her boss. A chat William could hear through the glass door, as well of the rest of the floor.
“The boy is not your fucking puppy!”
“He’s an intern in this service, Ash! Therefore, I can ask things from him.”
“Like doing all the shit you’re too lazy to do?” Faith stated. “You assigned him to me, Wentz. That makes him MY intern.”
William perked up, blushing at the property title: He was hers.
“Your intern?” Wentz said in what he intended to be mocking tone.
“Yes, mine. So if you want someone to do paperwork for you, hire a secretary that actually has more brains than tits!”
Hanna Beth, Pete’s secretary, who was sitting on the desk right outside the office, looked at William as her eyes flooded up with tears. William didn’t know what to do or say and just watched her run from the office, probably heading for the bathroom. Faith left the office after that and William trotted behind her looking down, even if he was smiling.
And he was still smiling while he wrote on the chart and was startled by his ‘owner’. William chuckled at thinking that and Faith raised an eyebrow.
“Are you done here?” She asked.
“Um, I’m just one patient short.” He said pointing to a young man right in front of them.
“Great. Wrap it up while I go check on the peds.”
William nodded and watched her walk away to the pediatric room of the ER. He groaned and hit his head on the counter, feeling suddenly silly.
.~
Two appendectomies, lunch and a leg amputation later, Faith had sent William to buy them something to eat. There was nothing else for her to do in the ER at the moment, so she was sitting on the doctor’s lounge watching television, joined by Mikey. That’s when the reanimation room alarm went off. Faith and Mikey looked at each other and made way down stairs, crossing ways with William, who rushed to leave the sandwiches and sodas upstairs and then came running back down.
“Peds.” Mikey said peaking inside the room and seeing Dr. Adam Siska leave a kid on the gurney. The nurse inside closed the door after Mikey left, but Faith stayed inside.
The kid was around two years old. He was pale and bluish, his little limbs hanging limp at his sides as Dr. Siska tried to intubate him and the nurses pinched his little arms. Faith had a bad feeling about it.
“Who brought the kid?” One of the nurses asked.
“The dad. He’s waiting outside.” Someone answered and the nurse went out for half a minute. When she got back, the kid was still limp on the gurney.
“Dr. Ashley?” William said quietly, as if anything he’d say would interrupt the frantic attempts in saving the little kid’s life. “There’s a patient I need you to see outside.”
Faith nodded. “Okay.” She said before following William, eyeing the kid’s dad pacing outside the door in her way out.
She also saw a woman run inside and stop in front of the guy.
“What the fuck did you do to my son?!” The woman shouted, tears streaming down her face as she fisted the guy’s shirt. Security held her apart from the guy, but she kept repeating her question. The guy just looked at her as one of the guards held him against a wall.
Faith watched them curiously before going to the suture room, where William had a patient who cut her finger while cooking. She gave him a few simple instructions to sew the finger himself while she watched closely.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
It was the boy’s mother.
Faith felt her blood freeze at the scream, covering her belly instinctively, and her ears filled up with a buzz, or maybe it was cause the whole ER stopped cold at hearing the scream.
The little kid was dead.
.~
“The guy wasn’t even the dad.”
“… just taking care of the kid. Apparently he’s the mom’s boyfriend…”
“The kid was crying…”
“…he snapped his neck…”
“…shook him so hard…”
“…dead when he got here, numb from the neck down…”
Between the nurses and paramedics with their comments, Faith could pick up most of the little boy’s story. 2 years old, left by the mother in her boyfriend’s house while she was working, apparently he had a fit this guy couldn’t take and shook him so hard he snapped his little neck in his urge to shut him up. Then he didn’t know what to do and rushed to hospital.
Faith was back in the doctor’s lounge with William, who was staring at his coffee and hadn’t even touched his grilled cheese. Faith watched him rub his arm and knew what was wrong.
“It won’t go away, Beckett.”
William snapped up with a, “Huh?”
“The screaming. It will never leave your head, so don’t try.”
William bit his lip and looked down, saying nothing.
“It will never leave your head and when you get to hear it again, it will be exactly the same. Painful and shrilling and cold, it will freeze your bone marrow and it will stay with you for days.” Faith said sipping her cup. “You’ll never forget it and you’ll never get used to it.”
William looked at his tutor. “I don’t think I’d like to get used to it, to be honest. I’d have to be dead inside not to feel it…”
Faith tried to smile, but she could still feel the cold inside her veins. Cause that kid didn’t deserve to die, cause he didn’t have to die. He didn’t have a mortal and terminal disease, he didn’t do something incredibly stupid to end his life. It was another person’s mistake, another person’s stupidity, and the boy was killed anyways.
Faith clutched her stomach, feeling like she was carrying an ice block within her, wanting nothing more than to end the shift and go home.
Home, where Ryan could make her feel warm again.
.~
AN: I wanna let you all know, the story of the little boy written here is real. I watched happen in February this year while I was working in the ER. You can also read my blog on it at http://fadingcoast.livejournal.com/15269.html
It wasn’t like he had a crush on his tutor, it was more like an admiration thing (after all, she was 6 years older than him and he was smart enough to realize he didn’t stand a chance). Even if William had to admit she was pretty hot, he liked her for her brains and that particular something that was her personality, more than he did for her looks. Dr. Ashley was the only female surgeon in the hospital, job that made her suffer quite a few humiliations and bad comments from her co-workers, but she had overcome all of it and proved she was better than all of them. William had witnessed more than a few fights between her and Dr. Wentz, the chief surgeon. Most of them were because of working hours and amount of patients. Other fights were because Dr. Wentz didn’t let her do big surgeries, like laparoscopies, and had her confined to small procedures. This had caused quite a break in the staff, half of them supporting Faith while the other half thought Wentz had his reasons. Somehow Ryan was the one who fixed that issue and Wentz allowed Faith to perform laparoscopies as long as Ryan was operating with her. Faith didn’t like having a babysitter, but it was the only way and besides, Ryan wasn’t a bad person to spend a few hours operating with.
But there was one fight that still managed to make William smile every time he remembered it. The one that was because of him.
When he arrived to the hospital for his surgery internship, he was immediately assigned to Dr. Ashley (in fact, Wentz did it cause he thought it would bother Faith. Little he knew Faith loved teaching and really liked having a pupil), which meant he had to follow her day and night shifts, join her in the OR, go to the clinic with her and check on her admitted patients everyday on the 4th floor. Faith told him the simple rules she had and prevented him from falling into doing everyone’s job, cause he was bound to be taken as a pet by the other surgeons, so she made clear that he was, in a way, working for her and only her.
A few weeks later, William proved her words to be true, and even if he managed to dismiss the other doctors’ requests, Dr. Wentz wasn’t a person you’d easily shut down. So, after spending almost a week doing paperwork for Wentz, Faith had a chat with her boss. A chat William could hear through the glass door, as well of the rest of the floor.
“The boy is not your fucking puppy!”
“He’s an intern in this service, Ash! Therefore, I can ask things from him.”
“Like doing all the shit you’re too lazy to do?” Faith stated. “You assigned him to me, Wentz. That makes him MY intern.”
William perked up, blushing at the property title: He was hers.
“Your intern?” Wentz said in what he intended to be mocking tone.
“Yes, mine. So if you want someone to do paperwork for you, hire a secretary that actually has more brains than tits!”
Hanna Beth, Pete’s secretary, who was sitting on the desk right outside the office, looked at William as her eyes flooded up with tears. William didn’t know what to do or say and just watched her run from the office, probably heading for the bathroom. Faith left the office after that and William trotted behind her looking down, even if he was smiling.
And he was still smiling while he wrote on the chart and was startled by his ‘owner’. William chuckled at thinking that and Faith raised an eyebrow.
“Are you done here?” She asked.
“Um, I’m just one patient short.” He said pointing to a young man right in front of them.
“Great. Wrap it up while I go check on the peds.”
William nodded and watched her walk away to the pediatric room of the ER. He groaned and hit his head on the counter, feeling suddenly silly.
.~
Two appendectomies, lunch and a leg amputation later, Faith had sent William to buy them something to eat. There was nothing else for her to do in the ER at the moment, so she was sitting on the doctor’s lounge watching television, joined by Mikey. That’s when the reanimation room alarm went off. Faith and Mikey looked at each other and made way down stairs, crossing ways with William, who rushed to leave the sandwiches and sodas upstairs and then came running back down.
“Peds.” Mikey said peaking inside the room and seeing Dr. Adam Siska leave a kid on the gurney. The nurse inside closed the door after Mikey left, but Faith stayed inside.
The kid was around two years old. He was pale and bluish, his little limbs hanging limp at his sides as Dr. Siska tried to intubate him and the nurses pinched his little arms. Faith had a bad feeling about it.
“Who brought the kid?” One of the nurses asked.
“The dad. He’s waiting outside.” Someone answered and the nurse went out for half a minute. When she got back, the kid was still limp on the gurney.
“Dr. Ashley?” William said quietly, as if anything he’d say would interrupt the frantic attempts in saving the little kid’s life. “There’s a patient I need you to see outside.”
Faith nodded. “Okay.” She said before following William, eyeing the kid’s dad pacing outside the door in her way out.
She also saw a woman run inside and stop in front of the guy.
“What the fuck did you do to my son?!” The woman shouted, tears streaming down her face as she fisted the guy’s shirt. Security held her apart from the guy, but she kept repeating her question. The guy just looked at her as one of the guards held him against a wall.
Faith watched them curiously before going to the suture room, where William had a patient who cut her finger while cooking. She gave him a few simple instructions to sew the finger himself while she watched closely.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
It was the boy’s mother.
Faith felt her blood freeze at the scream, covering her belly instinctively, and her ears filled up with a buzz, or maybe it was cause the whole ER stopped cold at hearing the scream.
The little kid was dead.
.~
“The guy wasn’t even the dad.”
“… just taking care of the kid. Apparently he’s the mom’s boyfriend…”
“The kid was crying…”
“…he snapped his neck…”
“…shook him so hard…”
“…dead when he got here, numb from the neck down…”
Between the nurses and paramedics with their comments, Faith could pick up most of the little boy’s story. 2 years old, left by the mother in her boyfriend’s house while she was working, apparently he had a fit this guy couldn’t take and shook him so hard he snapped his little neck in his urge to shut him up. Then he didn’t know what to do and rushed to hospital.
Faith was back in the doctor’s lounge with William, who was staring at his coffee and hadn’t even touched his grilled cheese. Faith watched him rub his arm and knew what was wrong.
“It won’t go away, Beckett.”
William snapped up with a, “Huh?”
“The screaming. It will never leave your head, so don’t try.”
William bit his lip and looked down, saying nothing.
“It will never leave your head and when you get to hear it again, it will be exactly the same. Painful and shrilling and cold, it will freeze your bone marrow and it will stay with you for days.” Faith said sipping her cup. “You’ll never forget it and you’ll never get used to it.”
William looked at his tutor. “I don’t think I’d like to get used to it, to be honest. I’d have to be dead inside not to feel it…”
Faith tried to smile, but she could still feel the cold inside her veins. Cause that kid didn’t deserve to die, cause he didn’t have to die. He didn’t have a mortal and terminal disease, he didn’t do something incredibly stupid to end his life. It was another person’s mistake, another person’s stupidity, and the boy was killed anyways.
Faith clutched her stomach, feeling like she was carrying an ice block within her, wanting nothing more than to end the shift and go home.
Home, where Ryan could make her feel warm again.
.~
AN: I wanna let you all know, the story of the little boy written here is real. I watched happen in February this year while I was working in the ER. You can also read my blog on it at http://fadingcoast.livejournal.com/15269.html
Sign up to rate and review this story