The Hospital

[rainbowmods]

The hospital is sterile and sprawling, its hallways and patient rooms painted a glaring white. The floor is made of something hard and shining, and the lights are that peculiar kind of flourescent that makes everyone look ill.

The first floor consists of the lobby (painted a sickly green), an emergency room, and several surgery suites, all stocked with cutting-edge, even futuristic, technology and supplies. There is a cafeteria, though the buffet line is empty; the only consumables seem to be stocked in a line of vending machines along one wall. There are no stairs, only elevators, to the upper floors, which all consist of patient rooms: made beds, glazed windows, dying flowers, and the hard plastic orange chairs that are a constant in hospitals.

The whole building smells like antiseptic and death.


((Please mark your healthcare professionals as such, and enjoy!))

Comments

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"Numb," Ivy said, and then sputtered a little indignantly. "So are my lips! Gross." But it was better than hurting, she had to admit.

"Anyway, no. Mom is Aaron's stepmom, but she's my mom and nobody else's. It doesn't count as sharing. I hope your husband can adopt your kids soon. It sucks not having a real dad. Even if you have to share him when you get him."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"Time to get those burns cleaned, then." Brenda stood and stripped off her gloves, then mixed up water and hexochlorophene in a basin and brought it and cotton over to set down by Ivy. New gloves, then time to tend her hands. "And it does suck, yeah." She sat again, dipped cotton in the solution, and wiped it along Ivy's hand just hard enough to dislodge anything that might be embedded in the burns. She was numb; she should be fine. "Dawn's already okay with sharing her dad--they mostly already call him 'Dad', and he is in the important ways--and I think she'd be even more okay with him adopting them. It was her idea that I adopt her."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"That feels weird," Ivy said, and it did, all pressure but no pain or any real feeling. "Like at the dentist. Dawn sounds smart." She thought about it for a moment and then asked, "Is she thirteen? Does she like boys? Would she like my brother?"

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"It's the same thing as at the dentist, just without a shot." At the question, Brenda laughed. "Dawn's sixteen now. She does like boys, but I don't know enough about your brother to know if she'd like him. Probably, though. He sounds like a good kid. Just a little young for her." More cotton, other side of her hand. "Now, I do have a thirteen-year-old niece, and she also likes boys. Girls too. Where are you from, Ivy?"

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"New York City." Now that her hands didn't hurt, Ivy could watch what Brenda was doing. Cleaning, it looked like. "Does your niece want a boyfriend? I don't," she added, "boys are gross, but Aaron's not gross. He'd be a really good boyfriend."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"That would be a little long-distance. We live in Hartford, Connecticut." Brenda finished up her right hand and moved on to her left. "Since neither of them can drive, and I bet Aaron isn't allowed to take the train on his own, it's too far for it to work easily." Of course, there was always the Internet.

Then again, there was also always the possibility that they were from competing timestreams and didn't exist in the same realities.

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"That sucks," Ivy said, and pouted. "But Aaron's a good guy, he'll find one, right? Or a boyfriend if he wants one of those later."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"I'm sure he will," Brenda reassured her, smiling. "Don't worry. Good people usually end up finding good people, even if it takes some work."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"Like Mom!" Ivy said, perking up. "And Aaron's mom. Okay, that's good. Did you find a good person?"

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"I found an excellent person," Brenda said. "It just took a little effort. I bet it's not going to take you as much work. How's your face? Still numb?"

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"Yeah," Ivy said. "I can still feel my tongue though. I hate that about the dentist when you can't feel your tongue. Or worse you can't feel half your tongue."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

Brenda laughed. "Half the time, I end up finding out I bit my tongue and didn't even know it. Have you ever done that? Close your eyes," she added once she had another bit of cotton ready and could start cleaning Ivy's face.

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

Ivy closed her eyes obediently. "Yeah, all the time. It's kinda fun to spit blood and freak out my brother but it always hurts so much when you get feeling back."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"Mhm. Ivy, you're not going to have eyebrows for a while. And I hope you're okay with having bangs while your hair grows back in." Not to mention her scalp being uncomfortable while her burns healed...

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

She made a face at the idea. "Ugh, I look awful in bangs. I guess this is why people don't play with fireworks."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

Brenda laughed. "One of a few reasons," she agreed. "I think the burns and potential for eye damage rank above the hair loss for most people, though."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"That's why I should've worn eye goggles," Ivy said, seriously. "My teacher's really strict about practicing safe science."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"As they should be," Brenda said, just as seriously. "Next time you mess around with anything flammable or potentially explosive, protect your eyes first. If I knew where to find one, I'd have an ophthalmologist come lecture you."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"My mom's gonna," Ivy said. "And my dad-- he's an architect so he's on construction sites a lot. And my brother 'cause he feels responsible for me sometimes-- weird, huh? Oh, and my teacher. And probably Kiki."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"Not so weird." Brenda swabbed around Ivy's mouth and kept talking so that she wouldn't get a mouthful of disinfectant. "My older sister still won't stop lecturing me if she thinks I've made bad decisions, but it's because she thinks she's still responsible. Sam and Dawn are both convinced they're responsible for Karen and Zach no matter what we tell them--Sam especially." Since all she had left was Ivy's chin, she felt it was safe to ask, "Who's Kiki?"

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[bookblather]

"Kiki's my science friend," Ivy said, proudly. "We always do our science projects together. Sometimes we blow stuff up but that's not on purpose." Not really, anyway. "But why should Aaron feel responsible for me? We've only been siblings since I was five, it's not like I've always been there."

Re: Nurse Practitioner: Brenda (Young) Meyers

[brenda_young]

"You're still his little sister," Brenda said. "He must have really taken to his older brother role. And he must love you, to care so much about you. Besides that, he just doesn't want you to get hurt, probably."