Promises of Her

Chapter 8: Duty

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

    Lana shifted in her bed, feeling a sharp pain ripple through her lower abdomen. She let out a weak cry of agony and gripped her stomach in attempt to soothe the ache. "shu shu shu, don't move. You'll tear tha stitches..." a soft voice coed to the left of her.

Lana blinked her eyes trying to focus her furry vision, dropping her heavy head to the left in attempt to see who was with her. As the fog failed to lift from her eyes, she could only focus on the silhouette of the woman.  Her blonde curly hair was hanging loose so she wasn't a nun, they did have a few nurses on the grounds! who could it be?

"Yar okay, just take it easy" said the woman with a detectable Boston slur, then it hit her. Sister Jude. it was Jude. Suddenly Lana's mind flashed back to the first night of her recovery, Jude was there too, she bad brought her a thicker blanket, talked to her, held her hand. Lana inhaled deeply and relaxed back into her mattress feeling the warmth of Jude's hand grip onto her exposed upper arm.

"Can ya hear me Miss. Winters?" Jude called out tenderly. Lana opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out, her throat was extremely dry-she nodded her head in response. Jude reached over to a small table she had ordered to be put into Lana's room and grabbed a glass of water. She then carefully set the straw on Lana's lips and let the young woman do the rest of the work. She quickly gulped down almost the whole cup, Jude knew she'd be incredibly dehydrated.

For the past week Jude had been taking care of Lana, and she personally saw to it that only herself had been put in charge of the brunette during her recovery. Jude would change her dressings nightly ensuring no infection set in, perform bed baths with a warm cloth, made sure her iv was functioning and full, made sure she was kept warm and hydrated, and carefully shifted Lana every few hours so she didn't get bed sores- which was incredibly hard, as she was scared of tearing the stitches. It was a full time job and the only time she left the young woman's cell was to eat, bathe, and sleep. Jude had temporarily put Sister Mary Eunice in charge of Briarcliff for the duration of Lana's recovery. Regularly she'd never take up such a post, but she felt as though she owed it to Lana.

   It was almost midnight and Jude was getting noticeably fatigued, she could barely keep her heavy eyelids open. She stood up and checked Lana's iv one last time and re-tucked the blanket under the young woman's body.  Content with Lana's state she headed for the cell door. "h-h-hello..." Lana called out weakly, so much so Jude almost missed it.  Turning around Jude saw Lana beginning to stir, her eyes slowly opening.

Jude quickly rushed back to her side and sat down in her chair, watching as Lana opened her eyes fully and instantly looked over to Jude. "Sister?" she asked, her brow slightly knotting with confusion. "what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Checking on you.." Jude answered simply, as she dabbed Lana's moist brow with a cool damp cloth.

"I-I saw Tom with the-" Lana started, her eyes glazed over.

"Don't warry about that now, it's late, you should sleep" Jude said sitting back in the chair observing the woman, her colour slowly starting to return to her face.

Lana nodded her head in agreement, all she had been doing was sleeping but it was if it was never enough, she was eternally tired. Jude watched as Lana closed her eyes once again and waited a moment before rising from her chair.  In a brief moment Lana lifted her frail arm, reaching out her hand to grasp Jude's. Her grip was ailing, weak, "Thank-you" she whispered looking up into Jude's now warm, cinnamon coloured eyes-she was quite shocked by Jude's appearance.

It was late in the night therefor Jude had been, not in her usual habit but a black night robe, her blonde mane freed from its restrictive wimple, and she wore a look of tenderness in place of her usual menacing gaze. Jude offered a brief toothy smile and nodded her head in acknowledgement. She pulled her hand away from Lana's and headed for the door slipping out silently, as if she had never been there.

As Lana had begun to break free of the haze that loomed over her for the past week, all she could think about was Jude. She had just witnessed a whole different woman; caring, tender, gentle. Had she been taking care of her all this time? Nooo, surely she remembered a nurse wiping her brow...or had it indeed been Jude? it must have been.