Happy Endings (Chicago Fire FanFic)

Chapter Eighteen

"Hey, Kelly." Dr Charles greeted him.

Kelly paused from pacing up and down anxiously outside Amber's room to look at the Doctor. "Hi." He mumbled.

"Dr Manning called me." He explained. "I just wanted to ask you what happened? Amber isn't saying much?"

"I don't know," Kelly told him helplessly. "I woke up and she was thrashing around screaming at him to get off her and when I tried to wake her up she just freaked out." He couldn't avoid the sinking feeling in his stomach that he hadn't handled this properly.

"You know..." Dr Charles said slowly. "People who suffer some kind of trauma... The impacts of that don't just disappear overnight because the event itself is over... It's nothing you did Kelly, it's just one of those things."

"Yeah well, it doesn't feel like it." Kelly sighed.

"I'm going to go in and have a chat with her, see if Natalie is done with those stitches." Dr Charles told him. "Why don't you go and get a coffee or some fresh air or something? I can come and find you when we're done."

****

"Okay, that's the stitches all done," Natalie said softly, pulling her gloves off and tossing them into the bin.

Amber didn't move or acknowledge that she'd spoken, still sitting on the edge of the bed staring at the wall as she had been since Kelly had brought her in. Natalie was struggling to reconcile the woman in front of her with the feisty neurosurgeon she'd clashed with on more than one occasion. The head wound wasn't bad by any means, it had only needed a couple of stitches, but what was bothering her more was the vacant expression on the woman's face.

"I've asked Dr Charles to come down and have a chat with you," Natalie explained, waving Dr Charles in. "I think Kelly's just gone to get a coffee, it'll give you two some space to talk."

"Hi Amber," Dr Charles greeted her, pulling up a chair and taking a seat opposite her. 

Natalie walked towards him and lowered her voice, although she doubted that Amber was listening to a word they were saying anyway. "She hasn't said a word since she's been here, Kelly said she hasn't said anything since it happened."

"Thanks, Natalie." Dr Charles nodded, waiting for her to leave the room. He turned his attention back to Amber. "So I heard you've been having nightmares?"

She blinked, looking at him as though she'd only just noticed he was there. "Where's Kelly?"

"He's just gone to get some air, he's worried about you." He answered. "We all are."

Amber drew in a shaky breath, blinking rapidly as her eyes began to fill with tears. "I want...." She choked, struggling with the words. She didn't want to admit this in front of someone she was going to have to work with. "I want to take something... I just don't want to have to think about it... feel any of it."

Dr Charles sat up a little straighter in his chair. He'd spoken to Will Halstead about Amber's addiction when she'd been admitted previously and knew exactly what she was referring to. "That's an understandable reaction," He said slowly, searching for the right words to come next. "Can you tell me what it is that's made you feel like that?"

"I haven't been sleeping." She mumbled.

"And how long has this been going on?"