Anxiety - A Rhekker Story

Thoughts and Nightmares

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ANXIETY, NIGHTMARES, AND PANIC ATTACKS

(Dr. Rhodes P.O.V)

I'm walking to find Ava when my phone goes off and I sprint to the emergency room. When I get there, I notice that Ava is already there, "Dr. Bekker," I say when I see her.

"Dr. Rhodes," Ava says back with a little smile.

"Alright, she's bleeding out, page O.R and tell them that we need of O-negative blood ready, she needs to be taken to surgery and her tissue needs to be repaired," I say. Everyone nods and pull the rail's up on the patient's bed and pushes her out of the room into the direction of the O.R. I take a deep breath and look at Ava and she walks up to me and gives me a hug.

"It's okay to cry Connor, you've been under lots of stress. Here, follow me."

Ava places her hand in front of me and I grab it and she directs me to the doctor's lounge. She plonks me down on the couch and I begin to cry. Ava sits down next to me and then wraps her arms around me, "it's okay, Connor. It'll be okay."

I continue to cry in Ava's arms for a good half hour until I finally calm down and look up at her from my slump, "you don't have to be here you know?" I say to Ava drowsily.

"Yeah, I do. I told Maggie that we're taking a personal hour," Ava replies.

"You didn't have to do that Ava, I can take care of myself."

"Yes I did, Connor, you're about to fall asleep.

(Dr. Bekker's P.O.V)

I look down at Connor and see that he has fallen asleep. I check the time and sigh when I find out that we only have 20 minutes left of personal time. I stroke Connor's hair as he sleeps peacefully in our arms. Maggie walks in and sees Connor sleeping on the couch in my arms, "Hey Ava, Ally's out of surgery if you want to go check up on her. Is Connor okay?"

"Thanks, Maggs, I'll go check on Ally. Connor is really tired and he's really stressed out of the moment."

Maggie nods and looks down at Connor, "okay, if you want, I can give him another hour of personal time." I nod my head, quietly thank Maggie, and walk out of the room to the recovery ward to see Ally.

I knock on the door to Ally's room and wait for acceptance, "hey Ally, I heard the surgery was successful."

"Yeah, it was, I'm feeling better. Thank you, Dr. Bekker," Ally says, I nod at her and walk out. My phone goes off and I see that I've been paged. I run down to the E.D and see what Maggie wants.

"Hey, Connor's talking in his sleep, maybe a nightmare, Nat told me. You might want to go check on him," Maggie tells me. I don't even think once before I'm sprinting to the doctor's lounge. I push the door open and look at Connor who is sweating and crying.

"Connor, wake up it's a dream, you're okay. It's me, Ava." I say to him, trying to wake him up. He stirs in his sleep for a bit and cries some more.

Suddenly Connor shoots up, "leave me alone! Go away!"

I pull back and try to calm him down, "Connor, it's me, Ava. You're okay. I'm here." Connor looks up at me and pulls himself into my chest and cries. "Connor, you're okay, it's okay," I console as I hold him whilst he sobs.

"You're dead, Ava you're not here!" Connor exclaims.

"Connor. I'm not dead, I'm right here. Everything's fine."

Everything goes silent for about 10 seconds before Connor speaks up, "Avey? You're not dead?" He asks.

"Yeah, Connor, I'm okay! Nothing happened to me," I reply in concern.

"Avey?" Connor says after a while, "can you stay with me tonight?"

"Of course Connor. I'll stay with you as long as you need." I get up to leave but Connor stops me.

"Wait, can I tell you what happened." I sit back down and nod my head, so Connor starts, "well, I was watching the whole thing between Johnny and Ally up until the scrape, but when we had to take Ally to surgery, I was kinda scared that Johnny was gonna barge into the O.R and scoop you," Connor's eyes start watering again, "I was so scared that he was gonna kill you. I don't want to lose you," he whimpers.

"Hey, no man with a spoon will ever kill me. No one will take me away from you," I tell Connor and give him a kiss, then get up and do my work.