When the physician used his penlight and passed the light beam across the patient’s eyes, normal pupil dilation was observed. Her level of consciousness was also assessed by the physician, who gave her a score of fifteen, indicating that she was fully alert as she was able to carry out all of the directions without any confusion or delay.
When it appeared that the treatment seemed to be working smoothly and effectively, both the patient’s father and the man who had fallen in love with her were able to let out a sigh of relief.
All three of them are lit up with contented and cheerful smiles on their faces. The physician expressed his gratitude to the scientist by giving him a tight hug and a heartfelt “thank you.”
After a few minutes of celebrating and conversing, the physician asked the scientist to let the patient rest. Alicia insisted that she no longer needed a rest because she had never felt any better than she had in a long time. Still, her father and her lover were adamant that she should obtain rest until further instructions from the health experts.
Alicia even attempted to get up on her own to prove to them that she was no longer ill, causing both the physician and the scientist to freak out, worried that she might overwork herself as a result of her efforts.
The three of them were only in the room for a short period of time. It was fleeting, but the patient’s father and lover assured Alicia that they would be back once their work was over.
Before leaving the room to allow the patient to get the rest she needed, the physician obtained a blood sample from the patient and handed it over to the scientist for analysis.
When they left the room, coming from the euphoric emotion the director of the hospital had been experiencing, he sure was in a good mood to welcome each and every member of the hospital staff he encountered along the way with enthusiasm, expressing his gratitude for their devotion and hard work.
As soon as they were back in the director’s office, the scientist was about to leave after receiving a phone call from the lab asking him his whereabouts. The physician began unloading one of the self-contained medical refrigerator and freezer units to make room for the pharmaceuticals that the scientist had brought in with him. He then took out all the vials from the bag and transferred them to one of the vaccine storage that he had conveniently located near his desk.
The scientist reviewed the blood sample as soon as he got to the lab and immediately relayed the good news to the physician and the other researchers in his department. He presented the mouse as evidence and showed them the comparison of the blood samples he had taken from the patient before and after the administration of the drug.
Only a few scientists have congratulated and supported his actions, while the rest of them have disagreed with him and expressed their frustration with what he has done. However, the argument came to a conclusion and permitted his actions to let it go since the request had been witnessed and was made by the patient’s relative himself. He was then asked to share the formula for further evaluation.
[¬º-°]¬ [¬º-°]¬ [¬º-°]¬
When someone knocked on his door, the physician was blissfully staring at a photograph of himself and his daughter placed on top of his desk after hearing a piece of good news from the scientist. A male nurse entered the door whom the physician called over to check on his daughter in the VVIP room, which was located in the hospital basement, and instructed him to remove all of the unnecessary devices attached to her.
The nurse returned to the director’s office a few minutes later to directly report his accomplished interventions, as instructed to him by the director.
“What happened?” the physician asked after noticing a cut on the nurse’s lower lip.
The male nurse was taken aback and attempted to come up with an excuse. “I injured myself while putting away the IV pole,” the nurse explained. As soon as the nurse was granted permission to be excused, he quickly walked out of the room, suppressing the tension he felt when the physician noticed a bloodstain on the back of his uniform.
The male nurse hurriedly went into his resting cubicle and shut the door behind him. He grunts in pain as he moves in front of a mirror while taking off his uniform, revealing the scratches on his back. The wounds were engraved in the style of a baybayin script.
Flashback...
He was on his way to the VVIP room and found the patient fast asleep. He lowered the side rail as carefully as possible when the patient opened her eyes, still half asleep.
“Oh, I’m sorry for waking you up. I am Drei, your attending nurse for the day,” he introduced himself, but the patient merely stared at him blankly. Her eyes were still trying to adjust to the brightness of the room. “Alicia, right?” The woman leisurely nodded her head as a response, still dozing. The nurse found the situation a little funny and burst out a quick chuckle. “I’ll be removing all your contractions,” the nurse said in a soothing tone, one side of his lips raised as he tried to keep his amusement hidden.
He let out another chuckle when the patient glued her eyes on him. “Done,” he stated after he finished removing all the contractions attached to her. He then raised the side rail to prevent the patient from falling and walked over to the machines.
The clock struck at 5:30 pm, and it had been 45 minutes from when the patient received the medication that the researcher brought.
While the male nurse was occupied with shutting off the machines, the female patient started tweaking her body behind the male nurse’s back.
“It’s a miracle how you get to recover this quick. I mean, the doctors are having trouble with your treatment. But your father, I mean, the director, has done everything he possibly could to preserve you from death. You even had a cardiac arrest earlier, didn’t you know?” The nurse came to a halt when he heard a metallic sound vibrating. “It’s me who usually checks on you, and I knew that one day, you’d wake up,” he continued, giving a warm smile on his expression as he turned to face the patient when he was done with the equipment.
Alicia was still lying on the bed, one of her hands gripped on one of the side rails while her other hand grasped her head. She attempted to sit down, completely befuddled by what had just happened.
When the nurse saw her, he immediately approached her, assisting her to sit on the bed. He adjusted the pillows, resting them on her back for support, and smiled upon meeting the patient’s eyes.
He looked at her, admiring her eyes for the first time. For him, her eyes were as dreamy as a starry night. On his daily rounds to check on her, he only gets to see her beautiful face since she’s been comatose for almost a year.
The nurse chuckled timidly. “I guess my duty ends here. It was a pleasure serving you, Alicia,” he said as he glanced at her specular eyes for one more time before removing his hands from her arms.
Alicia clasped his uniform tighter to stop him from letting go of her arms.
The nurse was caught off guard when Alicia pulled his sleeves and drew him closer to her face. She leaned in closer to him with her eyes close and softly sniffed him. She scanned his face without changing the distance of their faces.
“W—we should not be doing this,” the nurse mumbled.
“Do what?” Alicia asked in a seductive tone, slowly extending her legs on the side of the bed, drawing the nurse into the space between her legs. She took his arms and wrapped them around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck.
The male nurse weakened when Alicia embraced him. He tried to turn his head to face the patient when he heard another sniffing sound but was prevented from doing so. “Stay still,” she whispered to his ears.
Alicia was staring ferociously out the window then kissed the nurse when the sun was about to set. The nurse gently gripped her shoulders and pushed himself away from her, knowing it wasn’t right. He stared at her specular eyes, but he couldn’t help himself as the female patient’s eyes darkened, giving a sultry gaze. He gave up and kissed her back, slowly pinning her down on the hospital bed.
While the nurse kissed her neck passionately, Alicia fixed her sight outside the window, admiring the orange vibe the sun was bringing to the sky. Her nails slowly crawled into the nurse’s skin which made him moan in pain, but she pulled him back and kissed him harder to divert his focus away from the pain.
When the sun fully hid below the horizon, she bit the nurse’s lip, making it bleed, and laughed like a villain upon watching his reaction. “Psycho,” he whispered under his breath and wiped the blood from his lips.
End of flashback...