Mesmerized

quatro.

I hopped out of bed first thing Wednesday morning, beyond excited to get back to work; I even asked for a morning start because I was losing my mind at home and couldn't stand to wait until the evening to clock in. I'd spent most of my days off with Shiloh, things were different the second time around because we were both on the same page; no one had any unrealistic expectations of where our situation would lead, one of us-Shiloh most likely- would find someone that they wanted to be with and that would be the end of us.

It may have been seven in the morning, but the ER was as busy as it usually was at night, I waved to some of my coworkers before heading to clock in; I missed everything about the hospital on my week off, even the smell. Nurse Tyler was waiting for me, at the Nurses' station when I returned, with a smug smile on her face. I waved her off and jumped right into the chaos.

"You know Santos, that sexy firefighter came by the day after his accident. He was looking for you like a lost puppy." One of my coworkers, Sierra told me as we did our rounds in the ER. "Even passed along an edible arrangement but I took it." She shrugged.

I rolled my eyes at that, "You're ridiculous and he's in over his head." Shrugging, our conversation was paused when two little girls came through the doors of the Emergency Room on their own. Previous conversation forgotten, Sierra and I walked towards them and directed them to a bed.

Both girls seemed to be hurt, the younger of the two was clutching her arm to her chest while the other had a large, angry bruise on her face. "Hello girls, my name is Sierra and this is Ari. Can you tell us what happened?" Sierra asked while I subtly paged a doctor from the Pediatrics Department.

"My arm hurts." The younger girl said softly while the other girl stayed silent. I was sure that they wouldn't want to be separated so Sierra and I tried our best to carry out preliminary examinations on both of them while we waited for the doctor to arrive.

"Can you tell me your name sweetie? Or at least how you got here?" I asked the older girl as I carefully cleaned her face.

"Tiffany." She whimpered, "That's my sister Kendra, we got the bus." The little girl explained, eyes trained on her younger sister as she spoke.

I nodded and gave Sierra a concerned look, "Those are pretty names, is there anyone looking for you. Your mommy or daddy?"

The girls became agitated at the mention of a father and that told Sierra and I everything that we needed to know. Two doctors approached us, I excused myself to debrief them on what Sierra and I believed to be the problem and was instructed to call the police and Child Protective Services. I was on edge, even more so when the girls were taken up to X-Ray; they both had several healed fractures and bruises at various stages of healing. Tiffany and Kendra were definitely hurt but they seemed to be unsettlingly calm throughout the process of their examinations, almost like they'd been through that very process countless times before.

Police arrived within the hour and took everyone's statements before speaking to the girls, I was instructed to head back down to ER which I did. Certain parts of my job were harder than others; the usual blood and gore never affected me, but abuse victims no matter how young or old always took a toll on me mentally. It was unnerving to see just how many people were hurt by the ones who were supposed to love them the most. I tried my best to shake off my emotions, reminding myself that it was just a part of the job; an ugly part but a part of it nonetheless.

Another hour went by and traffic in the ER had slowed down tremendously, it was almost time for me to take my break and I was biding my time by filling out paperwork. Someone cleared their throat above me, asking for my attention so I looked; immediately regretting it. I crossed my arms and smirked at the person, nonverbally asking them what they wanted.