Runaway
CHAPTER 2 - COMPLICATIONS
Broward General Medical Center… For a change, Katie was filling in the morning shift which starts at 7 am and ends at 3 pm. Tad had just finished his shift, and had stayed a little while longer at the ER saying goodbye to his bestfriend, rather, trying to get Grace’s attention. The resident-on-duty, Dr. Charles Murray, was missing in action, to Katie’s annoyance. That resident had never been so reliable since he started working at Broward; she had complained about it once and the said doctor only managed to change for a day, then came back to his old ways…
Old habits die hard… Katie shakes her head. She’s busy scribbling notes on a patient’s chart, her mind, which was momentarily blank, starts wandering that time she got stuck in the elevator with Jessica Sammler… She pauses, and after a while, finally feels as if somebody’s watching her. When she looks up, she finds that dazzling smile being directed at her way again…
Ignore her… Katie lets out a deep breath, and forces her eyes back down to what she’s writing. It isn’t easy; Jessie’s blue eyes are just so tempting to look at…
“Hi.” Jessie greets her, and as expected, Katie ignored her. When Katie didn’t pay her even a bit of attention, Jessie stares down at her, watching her. But later couldn’t stop herself from talking again.
“We got stuck in the elevator---“ Thinking that Katie might have forgotten her, she tried to remind Katie, but Jessie was interrupted just before she could finish her sentence.
“I remember you.” Katie replies without looking up. She pretends to be busy writing, when in fact, she’s done scribbling notes on the patients’ charts.
“Are you busy?” Jessie, despite noticing Katie’s lack of enthusiasm, isn’t about to give up.
“Yeah.” It was Katie’s short reply. Jessie silently wished that Katie would say something longer. She still wonders what happened, what changed Katie’s behavior towards her. And she wished Katie would let her know.
“Oh, uhm… I was hoping that we could talk, if you have time, when you’re free… You know, just hang out or something… I enjoyed our conversation.” Jessie says sincerely. Katie pauses again, letting the blonde’s beautiful words sink in… It almost made Katie smile, but remembering the fact about Jessie, she failed to do so…
“What are you doing here?” Katie finally looks up at Jessie, but upon meeting her blue eyes, looks away again. The crystal blue orbs make her feel so guilty for being a bitch, but she just can’t help it. It’s as if her mouth is doing it in automatic. She’s normally nice, but Jessie’s surname just keeps repeating in her head.
“I’m the resident-on-duty.” Jessie isn’t the type who takes crap from people, but despite Katie’s not so pleasant attitude towards her now, she just can’t seem to be mad at the dirty blonde for being this way.
“Where’s Dr. Murray?” This time, Katie made sure to keep her eyes on the patients’ charts. It’s safe to look there; no pangs of guilt, no attraction…
“Uhm… I’m not sure why I have to explain, but, he left already. This is my shift.” Jessie calms herself and tries her best not to get irritated.
The two fell in silence, this time, a not so good one. It was too awkward. The air is still filled with tension, but it wasn’t as pleasant as before.
“Dr. Sammler, we have a patient. She’s…” Grace trails off upon noticing the situation in front of her. Katie, looking a bit flushed in the cheeks, is obviously pretending to write something on a patient’s chart, while, Jessie, looking too straight to be gay, was staring down at her. Even by standing about five feet away from them, Grace could feel the charged atmosphere… She shifts her eyes back and forth Jessie and Katie, before speaking again… Someone has to notice her or their patient will die…
“Dr. Sammler, the patient---“
“I heard you.” Jessie says sharply, and finally tears her eyes away from Katie to attend to their patient. Grace rolls her eyes, and follows Jessie, but not without throwing a glare at Katie first.
The day went so awfully awkward and quiet. Katie tried to act her worst the whole time, while Jessie tried to be patient. Every time Katie snaps at her, she tries to think about that time they got stuck in the elevator, and that first time that she saw her… Always does the trick. But Jessie isn’t sure how long she could take this treatment from Katie. She thought they could be friends, at least…
Friends… Jessie shakes her head. She’s pretty sure, from the very outset, that it’s not what she wants… She doesn’t know Katie, she doesn’t know a lot of things about the nurse, but she’s ready to get to know her. And it feels like she does know her already. There’s just this really weird feeling whenever Katie’s near her…
On the other hand, while Julie spent almost the rest of the day making a career out of flirting with the new doctor, to Katie’s utter annoyance, as she’s aware that Julie is just using the blonde doctor to forget her recent break up, she found the two of them totally disgusting…
Why is she even flirting with her?... Katie sulks at her seat, discreetly throwing killer looks at Jessie and Julie’s direction. The blonde doctor doesn’t seem to mind having been hit on by Katie’s co-nurse. In fact, Jessie seems to be enjoying it too much…
Meanwhile, Grace sat not so far away, watching the entertainment unfolding in front of her, then shakes her head, and giggles. Katie seemed to have heard her, and throws her a glare, but Grace returns a playful grin…
After their shift, Katie went straight home, to her tenth floor apartment. After taking a quick shower, she stayed in her bedroom, jumping into her clothes. She’s planning to go out, ease her mind, clear her head… The beach sounds good. But before she could pick up her car keys, she heard footsteps, making her heart pound more than ever… Thinking an intruder had managed to break into her apartment, she tried to find something, a weapon, and found her old baseball bat. She holds on tight to it, lifting it up in the air, ready to strike any time… Beads of sweat dropped from her forehead. Katie walks slowly to her bedroom door, as the footsteps sounded nearer and nearer…
The door knob turned, and the door opened. Katie motioned for one strong hit, then screams echoed all over the room…
“Aaaahhhhh!” Screams of two different people echoed the room. Katie jumps back, and notices Grace ducking on the floor, with both hands covering her head…
“Holy shit, Katie, what the hell?!”
“What’s wrong with you?!” Katie screams, holding her chest and still holding the baseball bat in her hands…
“Are you trying to kill me?! Put that down!” Grace points to the baseball bat, and finally, Katie lets it fall down the floor…
“You scared the daylights out of me!” Katie was still screaming.
“You scared the shit out of me too, Singer! You could have killed me with that!” Grace points to the baseball bat again, which was now rolling back and forth on the floor.
“Why are you screaming?!”
“Why are you?!”
It took both of them a few minutes before being able to catch up with their breaths… Grace slumps on the bed…
“Were you really going to kill me?” Grace asks, but instead of answering, Katie throws her a question in return.
“Were you insane? You should have knocked.” Katie rolls her eyes, then walks to the mirror not so far away from her. Grace watched her.
“Where’s Tad?” Grace slightly blushes after asking, and Katie turns to face her with that playful smile on her face.
“So, you came here to ask me about Tad? You could have just called him, you know…” Katie winks at her. She still couldn’t believe how clueless or stupid both her friends are. They both like each other, yet no one was doing any move to let the other know.
“Actually, no…” Grace falls quiet. Katie shrugs, obviously not believing the brunette. Then Grace continues.
“Are you punishing Dr. Sammler because she’s your cheating ex-fiance’s sister?” The question caught Katie off-guard… She had never told anyone except Tad…
“How did you know?” Katie’s eyes remained glued on Grace. Grace rolls her eyes.
“I’m not stupid, Katie. Jessie is a Sammler. You hate her for no reason. I put two and two together, did some research, and fell to one conclusion. Then to confirm, I asked her if she knew Eli. She looked shocked at first, and asked me why I knew Eli, and told her I met him somewhere before. She admitted that, in fact, Eli is her older brother.”
“I can’t believe this. You told her about Eli? She doesn’t know anything about me and Eli.” Katie raises her voice.
“Relax, I didn’t tell her anything. And besides, if I did, so what? Isn’t she supposed to know everything that went on between Eli and you already?” Grace frowns at Katie, who she thought was acting really weird. Katie sighs.
“She and Eli severed their ties a long time ago. Jessie doesn’t know anything, and she doesn’t have to know. Clear?” Katie growls at Grace.
“Fine, but don’t give me that look. I’m not the enemy here.” Grace chastises Katie. Katie falls into silence, thinking for a while. Then she focuses her attention back to Grace.
“I’m not punishing Dr. Sammler.” Katie whispers.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What are you talking about?” Katie sounds irritated.
“Everytime she tries to talk to you, you either glower at her, or simply ignore her. That’s really rude.” Grace informs Katie of her observations.
“Why do you care about her so much? Do you like her? Are you and Julie in some kind of a competition here?” Katie raises her voice again, to Grace’s amusement. Katie sounds jealous alright. She almost grinned, if she didn’t notice that killer looks Katie was giving her. Knowing Katie, the dirty blonde would pick up that baseball bat again and hack her in the head the moment she grins.
“Just because I’m asking doesn’t mean I’m interested. Katie, you know you’re being unreasonable, not to mention, really unfair. You can’t treat her like that.” Grace says calmly.
“Grace, don’t waste my time.”
“Forget about Eli.”
“This isn’t about Eli.” Katie says in exasperation. Why does everyone think this has something to do with Eli?
“I’m your friend, alright? So let’s drop all the pretensions.”
“Exactly, you’re my friend, so why won’t you believe me?” Katie looks Grace straight to the eye. Grace holds her gaze, and Katie continued. “Eli’s sister or not, I’ll never like Jessie. She’s selfish and insensitive. She renounced her parents. Don’t you realize how serious is that?” Katie glares at Grace in disbelief.
“And you’ve known her for how long? You know nothing about her, Katie.”
“Eli told me the kind of person that she was.”
“WAS, past tense… He probably doesn’t know his sister anymore. And you actually believed him? He’s a cheater, Katie. He cheated on you on your wedding day, remember?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he cheats on everything!” Katie is infuriated now. She isn’t sure why she’s defending Eli, the only person who broke her heart. She isn’t even sure what her real stand is. She just wants to win this argument with Grace.
Katie calms herself, then she lets out a deep breath…
“I don’t see any reason why Eli would lie to me about his sister. Grace, I don’t like Jessie, and please, don’t force me to. She couldn’t respect her parents and family, so how could she have respect for others?” Katie sighs.
DAYS LATER…
It was a weird day, for there were only a few patients being brought in, and more are being checked out. Jessie thinks she should be glad, for people are seemingly fighting disease and accidents today, but her spirit is feeling otherwise. It would have been so easy to be happy, only that sitting across a stoic Katie is making her feel sad and angry...
What did I do to you to make you hate me?... The thought brought a sting of pain in her heart. Working with Katie everyday is not making it easier. Whoever decked their schedules is not helping either. 'Coz Katie is always on duty when she's on duty. Whenever she feels so down, she her mind only has to wander back to that night she got stuck in the elevator, and she will be fine again... Jessie is pretty much aware of the power Katie has on her...
You really are something... Jessie shakes her head. She never really thought of taking relationships seriously before, not like she's with any kind of relationship with Katie now. They barely have one. They're not even friends. It has been weeks and the dirty blonde finds it so hard to pay any attention to her.
Well, Jessie did go out on dates, had a few girlfriends here and there, but she's more into her career, and ex-girlfriends never really understood it. Most of them wanted to take their relationship to the next level, but Jessie had never been ready... She never thought she would be ready... But crazy ideas never stopped invading her head since she first saw Katie, that night in December...
“You really are something...” Jessie didn't realize she had repeated the sentence loud enough for someone to hear this time.
“I am a lot of things...” Julie's playfully seductive voice came from Jessie's side. Jessie politely smiles at her, hiding her embarrassment.
“Oh... Uhm... Sorry...” Jessie picks up a medical journal resting on the table provided for her and pretends to read an article. She could have just gone back to her office and wait for someone to call her, but her feet just wouldn't let her go away... For some Katie's reasons, apparently... Julie watched her with interest, and moves closer, in an almost teasing way...
But remember, Julie is just doing this for fun, nothing serious or personal...
“Talking to yourself, Jessie? I can call you Jessie, right?” Julie grins at Jessie, and Jessie slightly blushes. She's aware that Julie is normally playful and teasing, and that she shouldn't take the nurse seriously. This would have been fun, if Jessie didn't feel so embarrassed...
Katie, who was busy filling out information at the emergency room logbook at the other side of the room, overhears Julie, and an eyebrow automatically shots up in the air. She throws a brief look at Julie and Jessie's direction, to find the doctor being mobbed by her crazy friend...
Pushing your luck, Julie?... Katie's face dangerously forms a frown. She focuses back on to her work, before her feet make a mind of its own and decides to cross the other side and pull Julie's hair for being stupidly flirty. Katie isn't sure why this scene is making her tick. It just ticks her, that's all.
“Yeah, Jessie would be fine.” Jessie smiles at Julie again. Then, she really focuses her attention on the medical journal this time. This isn't the perfect time and place to flirt… Then something slammed into her table that made her and Julie jump…
When she looked up, Katie was looking down at her, giving her that cold look again. Katie walked away, making Jessie realize that it was the emergency logbook that she has to sign, that Katie slammed down in front of her on the table… Katie had left the emergency room to get some coffee. The lack of patients is making her sleepy, when Julie and Jessie exchanged looks… The curiosity is killing her, and Jessie couldn’t keep it anymore, that finally, she asks…
“Is she mad at me?” Jessie frowns.
“I was going to ask you the same thing… Since you came into this hospital, I rarely see Katie smile. And, she’s apparently rude towards you… What’s up?” Julie asks curiously.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked.” Jessie sighs in defeat… It wouldn’t be easy cracking into Katie Singer’s shell.
Pause… Jessie didn’t realize Julie staring at her.
“You know what? You look like someone…” Julie ponders for a while.
“Who, Evan Rachel Wood?” Jessie jokes. Julie giggles. Things are easier at the ER with Julie and Grace, and sometimes Tad, when they are around. Katie never spoke to her, not one word… Except at times when they really have to say something to each other, at times of real emergencies…
“Hmm… Not what I had in mind, but since you mentioned it, yeah I noticed now that you do look like her… But I was referring to someone else.” Julie looks as if she had solved the hardest problem in the world. “I’ve been thinking about it for days, and I can’t believe it I actually didn’t realize it soon.” Julie grins.
“Really? Who do I look like?”
“Katie’s fiancé.” Julie says casually. Jessie almost dropped the medical journal in her hands, and her head snaps at Julie’s direction. Julie barely noticed the dread in Jessie’s eyes.
“Katie’s getting married?” Jessie could feel her stomach making a 360 degree spin over and over again.
“Oops, wrong term… Ex-fiance, I mean.” Julie smiles.
“You mean, she’s not getting married?” Jessie’s nauseating feeling slightly subsided.
“It was supposed to be last year, but then the wedding didn’t happen.” Julie shrugs. Jessie focuses her eyes on Julie, with so much curiosity.
“What happened?” Jessie tried not to sound too interested.
“She boycott her own wedding.” Julie sounded unbelieving. The nurse did believe at one point that Katie and Eli were meant for each other.
“Why?” Jessie was confused, but relieved…
“The guy cheated on her on her wedding day.”
“He’s stupid…” Jessie shakes her head.
“He almost destroyed Katie. Katie was devastated for months. She loved him, you know. I just couldn’t seem to figure out why someone would do that to her, but then that guy was never my favorite person anyway. I warned Katie, I’ve always had these bad vibes about Eli, but she never listened to me.”
“ELI?” Jessie’s voice almost broke. There are a lot of Eli’s in America, right?
“Yeah… If I don’t know any better, I would actually think that scheming son of a bitch is your brother.” Julie laughs.
Pause…
“Unfortunately, that scheming son of a bitch IS my older brother…” Jessie stares in space, sitting in awe… Julie blushes in embarrassment…
“Oh, I’m… I thought you’re an only daughter?” Julie could clearly remember when Jessie told her that. They were having coffee that morning at Starbucks… She wasn’t hearing things, right?
“Yeah… And he’s an only son…”
HOURS LATER… Katie finds Grace and Hanna, another nurse on duty, arguing. Julie was nowhere to be found, so was Jessie… She had a strong urge to ask Grace where the two had gone, for she has really bad suspicions where they are, but decided against it…
Grace would go on accusing me of things if I do so… Katie then ignored the urge, and proceeded to mediate between Grace and Hanna’s argument instead…
“Come on guys, break it up, you’re adults.” Katie jokes.
“Grace thinks I’m in love with John Martin.” Hanna rolls her eyes. Grace laughs.
“Hanna, you’re blushing.”
“I am not in love with him. I just like him, that’s all.” Hanna says defensively. Katie, meanwhile, only finds this childish argument amusing.
“You are, I can see the love dancing in your eyes.” Grace couldn’t stop laughing. Katie rolls her eyes.
“Gosh, Grace, how original. Can you think of anything crazier?”
“Love at first sight doesn’t exist.” Hanna says firmly.
“I think it does.” Katie unconsciously involves herself in the debate currently going on. Grace and Hanna turn to look at her with baffled look on their faces.
“How could you say that?” Hanna asks.
“I don’t have to justify the things that I believe in.” Katie says incredulously.
“How can you believe on something you haven’t experienced? Or have you?” Grace narrows her eyes on her. The love-at-first-sight-thing was just a joke to piss of Hanna.
“Forget it.”
“Tell me, Katie, how could you fall in love with someone you’ve only seen once? I don’t think there’s any feeling there. If there is, it would be mere physical attraction.” Hanna says.
“True, but falling in love is not just getting to know someone and feel the love. I can’t explain it, it extends beyond words.” Katie replies. Grace eyes her in interest.
“I still don’t get it.” Grace crosses her arms.
“What I’m saying is, you don’t need to see the person everyday to fall in love with him or her. You don’t need to talk to each other every minute, and you don’t need to know everything. The person meant for you will steal your heart the first and the second, and the thousandth time you see him or her, and you won’t even know it… You’ll just fall, and before you realize it, it would be too late… You’re falling in love at first sight with your soulmate…” Katie smiles, losing herself in a trance, her mind wandering back to December… But she breaks her own reverie and focuses back in the real world…
Grace was looking at her in astonishment, while Hanna was smiling at her in disbelief…
“I’ve never seen that sensitive side of you before…” Hanna jokes.
“I didn’t even realize you actually have a sensitive side. Love at first sight and soulmates? That’s really far-fetched, Singer, you’re making me laugh.” Grace isn’t joking.
“I didn’t ask you to believe what I believe in.” Katie smiles.
Just then, Jessie walks towards them, handing the logbook back to Katie. The three fell in silence. Grace and Hanna dispersed, leaving Katie with Jessie.
“Fill in the---“
“I know what to do. Thanks.” Katie rudely interrupts Jessie from finishing her sentence, and almost walks away, but Jessie grabs her by the hand. The contact sent some sort of white hot fire all through every vein in her body… Katie pulled her hand back.
“Tell me the truth, Katie, why do you hate me?” Jessie asks seriously. Katie was astounded by the question.
“I don’t hate you…”
“You do.”
“Look, if you don’t want to believe me, then don’t ask questions.” Katie said irritatedly.
“Just cut the crap, alright?” Jessie looks and sounds annoyed. Katie never imagined Jessie like this… She looked so gentle… “Just say it to my face, straight to the point. We were getting along fine until you found out who I was.”
“I don’t have to listen to this.” Katie snarls at Jessie and walks away again. Jessie grabs her by the arm this time, holding her tights. It hurt a bit, but Katie didn’t complain. Her green eyes met Jessie’s fierce ones…
“Tell me you hate me because I’m Eli’s sister.”
“You know about Eli?” Katie was suddenly scared, and worried…
“I never intended for my brother to hurt you.”
“Don’t talk about something you know nothing about…” For a moment, Katie felt sympathetic towards Jessie, she saw the grief in the blonde’s eyes. But she ignored the feeling later.
“All I know is I had nothing to do with it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to say the words to let me know. I’m not stupid.”
“What’s your problem?” Katie is really starting to get impatient.
“You. You are the problem.”
“I can’t believe I’m listening to this non-sense.”
“You know what doesn’t make sense? You, punishing me for my brother’s idiocy.” Jessie is really angry.
“Leave Eli out of this.” Katie was getting mad as well.
“You left him on your wedding day, and now you’re defending him?” Jessie replies with mock incredulity.
“I am not defending anyone!” Katie yells indignantly. How could Jessie accuse her of that?
“That’s bullshit.”
“Don’t curse.” Katie warns Jessie.
“BULL… SHIT…” Jessie emphasized syllable even more, touching a nerve…
“Drop the trash talk!” Katie screams. Grace, who was positioned herself as far as she could from the screaming Jessie and Katie, almost dropped the IV kits she was moving… She shakes her head…
“If my brother hurt you, don’t inflict your pain on me.” Jessie could feel her jaw tightening.
“I didn’t do anything wrong to you.”
“But you loathe me. Admit it, Katie, you detest every single minute that we had to work together. You can’t bear the sight of me, and you abhor having to deal with me every damn day you had to perform your duty. You despise everything about me, all because I’m Eli’s sister…” Both Jessie and Katie fell into an eerie silence for a while…
“Why are you wasting your time on this?” Katie asks…
“What?”
“So what if you said is true? So what if I hate you? Why would you care? Why would it bother you? Why would you waste your time trying to find out why? I’m just Katie Singer…”
Jessie looks at her in the eyes…
“You know what? Some things are better left unsaid…”
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t say that. When I walk away, everything will be the same. We’ll be working together and you’ll be acting like I don’t exist. We’re never gonna be on speaking terms, we’re never gonna be friends, and never gonna have anything much more. So why say sorry? It’s a waste of time.” Jessie turns around and made steps away. But stops after a few. She speaks again, without turning to look at Katie.
“That night in December, when I first saw you, when I felt everyone in the world was against me and I wanted to die… You saved my life… But now, I wished you didn’t…”
Jessie resumed walking, and stayed as far away from Katie for the rest of the day… Katie didn’t realize that tears actually made it’s way down her cheek, from her eyes… Hastily, she wiped it, before someone could see…