Mistaken Moments

It had been a long afternoon and evening. Ella looked at her watch that was pinned to her uniform, it was 1145. She would be done work in 15 mins. She was suppose to work a morning shift but where she overslept and Sarah didn’t call in sick for her she wanted to make up the time that she had missed. Sarah came from a rich family and didn’t have to worry about money. Ella had to pay her way through college with student loans and odd jobs. She was still paying off her student loans.

She had lost three patients today, all under the age of 20, which always made you day pretty crappy. It was bad enough to lose a patient who lived their live but the ones who barely experienced anything or lived, it was always hard. She was feeling pretty shitty.

She was just finishing up charting when a young man came through the doors of the ED supporting another young man. They were both covered in blood. Ella jumped and ran over, “Can I get some help out here please. Where are you hurt?”

“I am not hurt, it is my friend. We were jumped and he was stabbed. I don’t know how many times. Can you please help him.” The young man cried.

There was a whole team around them now. They had gotten the badly injured young man on the stretcher. He was not saying much for being stabbed so many times. That was never a good sign. When they were kicking and screaming was always a sign you wanted to see.

“Please help him.” He pleaded grabbing onto Ella’s hand. She could see the panic in his eyes.

“He is in good hands. Come with me, I will get you some clean clothes.” Ella motioned the young man towards the quiet room that was located off the ED. She left him for a moment and went and checked on his friend. She could see that they had started to do CPR, and were using the paddles on him. She sighed and went and got the other young man a set of scrubs. She returned to the quiet room. “Here you go. You can get cleaned up and changed.” She said smiling softly at him. “My name is Ella.’’

The young man took the scrubs from her. “I am Jason.’ He said softly. “Is he going to be ok? He is my boyfriend. I think that is why we got jumped. Can you go see how he is doing?”

Ella smiled softly. “I will.”

She headed down the hall back to the trauma room, meeting Dr. Harris in the hallway. “He didn’t make it.” He said to Ella hold his head down. “I will go tell the friend, you get out of here. You look dead on your feet.”

Ella nodded her head; she could feel her eyes starting to burn. She started to walk down the hall towards the staff locker room, when she heard the god awful cries of the young man who was just told that his boyfriend, the one he loved was gone.

She needed out of there, she couldn’t take it anymore. She took a shower, as she was covered in blood. The hazards of working in the ED. She put on the oversized gym pants and shirt Josh had giving her that morning. She looked down at her watch again, it was 115 now. She gathered up her things and set out for the parking lot to her car. It had started to rain. One of the things she despised about the spring in Vancouver, all the effing rain. At least it is warm she thought unlocking her door and getting into her car. She put the key the ignition, turning it. It just clicked
.
“Really!!!! REALLY!!!!” she screamed pounding her hands on the steering wheel. She tried the key again, to get the same response. “FUCK MY LIFE.” She screamed as the tears started to fall again.
She dug through her purse, finding her cell phone. She dialed Sarah’s cell number; it rang and went to voice mail. “UGH.” She hung it up and dialed the number again. It rang, back to voice mail. “You are going to answer your phone. I don’t care what you are doing.” Ella snapped at the phone, dialing the number again, letting it ring and then finally someone answered it. “FINALLY, why haven’t you been answering your fucking phone!” Ella yelled before she heard the voice on the other end.

“Well it isn’t my phone, and I was debating on answering it or not, but when you kept calling I thought I might be important. So I answered it.”

Ella sighed. “Where is Sarah?” she said frustrated as hell.

“Ummm……well ya know, she is kinda busy I think.” The voice said chuckling a little.

“Well can you get her for me, whoever you are!”

“SARAH”

Ella flinched holding the phone away from her ear.

“I am sorry but she said she was busy. Can I take a message?”

“No there is not message. Who is this?”

“This is Tanya.”

Ella rolled her eyes, and mouthed Tanya. Who the hell was Tanya? “Is there anyone else there I can talk to that is not busy.”

“Um yea just a sec, Josh some chick wants to talk to you.”

“Hullo.”

“Hi Josh, this is Ella. I am in the parking lot at the Vancouver General and my car won’t start, I have had a super long fucking day and I just want to go bed.” She said holding back the tears. “Can you.,,,,,,”

“I will be right there.” He said cutting her off. “Give me ten minutes.” He could hear the frustration in her voice. Then he heard her sigh, a sigh of relief.

“Thank you.”

“You owe me.” He chuckled.

He drove there as quickly as he could. He could tell she was really upset and tired and frustrated. His stomach felt uneasy, was it butterflies he was feeling. “WT F Josh you don’t get butterflies over a girl.” He said aloud to himself. He pulled into the parking lot thinking he didn’t even know the color of car she was driving. Then he noticed a girl leaning against a little black car, as he got closer he could tell it was her. She was soaked. He pulled up leaned across the seat and opened the door for her. “Hey.” He said smiling at her as she climbed into the car.

“Thank you.” Ella said climbing into the car
.
“No problem.” Josh said looking at her. He could see that her eyes were puffy, her nose red. She had been crying. “You okay?” he asked leaning forward to see her face.
She pushed the hair back from her face, and looked in his direction. Their eyes meant, “not really.” She gasped her eyes filling with tears. She couldn’t help it.

“Awww sweetheart don’t cry.” Josh said softly pulling her into his arms, and holding her. He felt her melt into him, her sobs over took her body. “shhhhhh.” He soothed, patting her soft hair. “You wanna talk about it?” he said moving back a little and cupping the side of her face and lifting her face up so she was looking at him. She looked at him, with those beautiful grey eyes
.
She shook her head no. “Just work stuff, and am overtired and I am being a baby.” She sniffed. “I am sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Lets get you home and out of those wet clothes.” Josh put the car in gear and pulled, he drove back to his place, he noticed as soon as he pulled out of the parking lot, Ella had closed her eyes.

He pulled into the underground parking, “Ella, come on sweetheart.”

She opened her eyes and followed him up to his condo. Once inside they went into his room quietly. He shared this condo with his other band mates. Josh went to his closet, when he came back out, Ella was removing her wet clothing, and his eyes ran over the contours of the back of her body. “Here is something you can sleep in.” he handed it to her and turned his head. Damn why do I have to be such a gentle man. He said to himself.

“Thank you, Josh.” Ella said climbing under the sheets of his bed, yawning.

Josh started to leave the room.

“Where are you going?” she asked softly, Josh stopped and turned to look at her. She pulled the sheets back and patted the mattress. “I don’t want to be alone.”

He crossed the room, kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed beside Ella. She instantly cuddled up against his body; he warped his arms around inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. He heard a soft sigh, and then her breathing slowed, she was asleep.