Life After You

The emergency room is overflowing with people who are waiting to be seen for whatever brought them there. Names are being called out by nurses in blue scrubs who are leading their patients to the treatment cubicles.
Announcements for doctors and nurses are frequently called over the PA system. Kelly sits quietly while she listens to a woman in her forties complain to the receptionist about her wait. The woman claims to be bleeding to death and has been sitting for hours without even being assessed or spoken to by anyone. She threatens to sue if she isn't seen within the next five minutes. Kelly feels sorry for the receptionist who is probably spoken to rudely every day.

"Dr Hunter" an older man in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck approaches her. Dr Giles offers his hand. They make small talk as they walk through to the recovery bay where patients are monitored. They stand outside the room.

"What happened here, Dr Giles?" Kelly asks. She can see Jeremy through the plastic window. He looks grey and lifeless with the various machines attached to him.

He tells her that one of Jeremy's friends had used their spare key to check on him and had found him barely alive. Kelly had never seen this coming. She knew he was upset, but she didn't think suicide was an option for him.

"What did he take?"

"He took an extremely large quantity of alcohol and mixed them with Xana, oxycontin, valiums and ambien. By all accounts he meant to take his own life and would have done if his friend hadn't found him" Dr Giles answers. He diverts his attention to his beeper.

"Excuse me"

Kelly watches him as the skinny doctor jogs down the corridor and through a set of double doors. She gently pushes the door open and goes to Jeremy's bedside.

Jeremy stirs at someone's presence beside him. He is groggy from his cocktail of pills and alcohol. His head feels like it's going to explode and his stomach cramps and gurgles.

"Hey" he mumbles.

"How are you feeling?" She asks, looking down at him.

"I'm okay"

"You don't look okay. So, are you going to tell me why you've been missing our appointments and why you are now lying in hospital?" Kelly's tone is sharp. She is ridiculously mad at him, but relieved that he was found in time.

"What made you do this, hmm?" Her voice softens when she notices that his eyes are sparkling with tears. They drip down his face and fall onto the surgical gown he had been changed into.

"I...uh...I..just..." He breaks down and sobs into his hands.

"It's alright." She says quietly, rubbing his back. "It's going to be alright"