Week 380 – Fifth nurse found alive but severely wounded

Fifth nurse found alive but severely wounded.

Nurse Calico Jennings caught the headline of the paper lying open on the desk as she quickly hurried onto the ward where she worked.

A shiver raced through her as she thought of what those poor women had gone through. At least this one had survived, but even if she managed to recover from her injuries there would be scars left behind.

Deep scars.

She knew.

She’d had her own brush with near death thanks to a crazy ex boyfriend who couldn’t take no for an answer, and she knew how lucky she was to have survived the ordeal.

Unfortunately four, maybe five if this one didn’t pull through, nurses hadn’t been so lucky.

“Oh, Cali, so glad you’re here,” her friend Nora said as she hurried down the hall.

Shoving aside bad memories before they could threaten to take over and push her back into the dark place she’d been trapped in after her ordeal. It was coming up on the one year anniversary of the day she should have died and this serial killer who was targeting nurses was making it worse.

“Let me guess,” she said pasting on a smile and letting it sink in and become real. “Mr Grump-pants is being a big old pain in the butt today.”

“When is he not?” Nora groaned. “You have better luck with him than the rest of us, can you go and check his vitals? Try to get him to eat? Maybe give him a personality transplant while you’re at it?”

Calico laughed and it felt nice to brush aside the darkness and bathe herself in light. Without searching for little pockets of light she wouldn’t have survived.

“I’ll go see if I can work a little magic,” she assured her friend then headed down the hall to Garret’s room. She got that he’d been shot and almost died, but he hadn’t, and he should be more grateful for that. She’d made it her mission to try to get him to see that life was beautiful, that there was joy everywhere if you looked hard enough, but he made it hard.

Practically impossible.

“Morning, Garret,” she said brightly.

Dark eyes cracked with rage as she turned towards her from his spot on the bed. “Didn’t you read this?” he snarled as he tossed the paper at her. “Another nurse, just like you, is fighting for her life. How can you come in here with a smile on your face? Don’t you care about anyone other than yourself?”