The Night Shift

Chapter 1

"I'm on my way, okay...bye."

I sprinted from my apartment towards my elevator. I completely forgot about the time. I'm not used to the night shift, I typically do mornings because I have scheduled classes at night. 

But, this night is different...

Anise, my co worker I'm closest to at work had an emergency. She begged me to take her shifts for the week.

I was going to text her and say no because of the schedule conflict, but conveniently all of my classes were cancelled for the week. I guess everything happens for a reason, now I can help her out and the extra cash isn't bad either.

I realized that I forgot my scrubs in my apartment and groaned loudly. I did a U-turn and went back inside. 

Since I'm short on time, I decided to get ready at home instead.

I put on my long sleeve undershirt and threw on my burgundy scrubs over it. I pinned my badge on the pocket of my top, my curls were messy and I didn't like leaving my hair out for work so I gelled down my dark brown hair into a low bun with a part in the middle.

I bolted out of my apartment once again and took the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. 

This residency program has stressed me out to the point of no return. I'm hoping my sanity remains intact until its over. 

My team was assigned to specific specialty floors, we were assigned to the Emergency Room, but today I was working on the dialysis and blood storage floor. 

Typically on this floor we do rounds to check on patients that aren't responding to the Dialysis -  and those who have severe kidney diseases would need approval by a physician on a case by case basis for a blood transfusion. We would then get approval and prove our case to the head doctor of our clinical team for that floor.

I sighed in relief, don't get me wrong I love working in the emergency room, it keeps me on my toes. Anise's floor is way slower paced than my floor and I could really use that right now with how hectic the E.R is.

I arrived just on time to start my shift. Dr. Johnson was running late as he normally does from what Anise tells me. She also gave me some juicy gossip about him sleeping with one of the pre-medical students and cheating on his wife. 

That's besides the point though and definitely none of my business, but who can resist juicy tea?

"Dr. Wright?"

"Yes?" I reply to the nurse. 

"A patient is coming from the emergency room for a blood transfusion. It's one of our usual patients Amelia Asher, she's super pale and cold and breathing heavy. She's anemic and she usually only requests Dr. Anise Asher when she comes in."

My eyes widen at their last name. "Are they related?"

"We don't know, we're honestly too afraid to ask because she might get in trouble, but Dr. Asher told us if she comes in to bring her to you."

"She never informed me of that." 

"Well, all of the nurses and doctors downstairs agreed to it, a medical escort is bringing her up now in a stretcher. She also has a severe migraine, just a heads up."

I sighed loudly. "Okay copy that." 

Typically in the medical world it's considered a bad practice to treat your family members, in fear of bias and complications that may mess with a doctors judgement. I guess because she's a frequent patient it just seems fitting because Anise may know more than other professionals about her condition. This is all alleged and once again another situation that isn't my business. I push my thoughts away and walk to the room I would be seeing her in.

I hear a knock on the door and tell them to come in. 

The escort pushed her stretcher in, she adjusted her position and left in a hurry. 

The first thing I noticed she had gloves on, aside from her face her body was fully covered in clothing. Her hair was full straight and red, her eyes were ice gray, and skin deathly pale. Her heavy breaths got louder as she glared at me. 

I tried to not make her notice she was making me uncomfortable but, I'm not really good at hiding emotions like some doctors here.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Carmen Wright, you must be Amelia. I'm not too fond of my last name so Dr. Carmen is fine." I say and stick out my hand to shake her hand.

Amelia just stared at my hand with no reaction to shake my hand back. I laughed awkwardly and put my hand in my pocket.

"So Amelia what's going on, what are your symptoms?"

"I need a transfusion." She said with an annoyed voice.

"We definitely wanna make sure that you don't have to constantly come back for blood transfusions, so before we do that I'm going to expedite some tests for your iron levels and also get some blood to do some test to make sure everything is okay as far as your kidney and liver, okay?"

"I don't need that! What I need a bloodb-, a blood transfusion. Honor my wishes." She demanded as her breathing became heavier.

Taken aback by the rejection of her plan of care, I tried to explain it to Amelia better.

"With all due respect Ms. Amelia, I wouldn't be honoring your wishes if I didn't do my due diligence as a doctor. Let me at least check your heart rate, you look like you're going to pass out any minute and I don't want to get someone to restrain you, I'm not that type of doctor."

I inch closer to Amelia and she pushes her self further back to avoid me. Amelia's red hair was pasted down on her forehead, sweating heavily with ragged breathing. Me being nervous and her making this difficult, I decide to call security to be a witness just incase things went haywire.

 I turned towards the door by the phone and dialed security.

"Hi Dr. Carmen here, I need two people to come upstairs to room 333 to help with a patient, thank you."

I turned around to face Amelia and realized she was no longer on the stretcher but standing up.

"Amelia, I'm going to ask you to sit down please. I don't want you to injure yourself while we wait on help to arrive."

Amelia ignored me and her heavy breathing turned into growling. Her ice grey eyes turned golden, red veins appeared on her face, before I could react Amelia was in front of me. I gasped and tried to turn to run, but it was too late.

I felt a hot searing pain in my neck, and everything got fuzzy as she pinned me to the floor. 

Trying to fight my way to the door to save myself, everything went dark...

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