Station Nine         

~ baby steps ~

Today is one of those normal busy days in the hospital. Ryeowook just got back from the dietary department from supervising the staffs and making sure that the right diet was given to his patients. Now he was planning to have his own lunch since it was already 2 in the afternoon. He picked his phone from his pocket to send a message to Kyuhyun.

Hey Kyu did you take your lunch already?

He didn’t expect an immediate response since he probably was attending to one of his patients so he put his phone back to his pocket. As he passed by a ward while he’s on his way to office, he heard a child crying. He peeped in the corner to see a young nurse trying to console a little girl before injecting the syringe.

“Hush baby, it’s okay. I promise it will not hurt...” she cooed while trying to embrace the girl. However, since the girl already saw her holding the syringe, refused the hug and cried louder instead.

“No no no...baby okay, i’ll put this away,” she dropped the syringe on the table and focused on comforting the girl.

“Mommyyy waahhhh mommyyyy,” she wailed.

“Oh my... what do I do,” the young nurse said to herself. “Baby, mommy’s coming in a few minutes. The doctor’s talking with her...”

As the situation didn’t improve Ryeowook decided that he should interfere or perhaps help the newbie nurse. He assumed that she is new since he doesn’t recognize her.  He knocked lightly on the wooden table nearby to let his presence known.  “Umm excuse me miss, do you need some help?” he asked.

“I-I think so. If only she would stop crying...” she said her voice slightly cracking. Maybe she’s on the verge of crying in panic too.

Feeling pity on the nurse Ryeowook approached them and scrunched down so that he was on eye level with the kid. “Hi, why are you crying princess?” he gently pulled the girl closer to him and embraced him. The girl did not push him which he took as a good sign.

“I want... mommy...” she said between her tears.

He then carefully stood up while carrying the girl in his arms. “Shhh... mom will arrive soon so don’t cry okay?” He gently swayed the little girl in his arms until her sobs subsided. In few minutes she was leaning her head on the crook of Ryeowook’s neck.

“Can you take some blood while I’m holding her like this,” Ryeowook spoke at the nurse once the girl calmed down.

“U-um I think I can,” she said and immediately grabbing the equipments but as soon as she held the little arms of the kid to put the tourniquet the girl pulled her arms away.

“Baby we need to this. We promise it wouldn’t hurt,” Ryeowook whispered but the girl was now struggling out of his hold. He sighed and signalled the nurse to stop before turning away from her.

“It’s hard you know when we encounter kids like her,” he smiled trying to lighten up the down spirit of the nurse. “You must be new here; it’s my first time seeing you,”

“I just started three days ago,” she replied, her eyes constantly looking at the ground. “I’m sorry. I think I wasn’t good enough to handle them yet.”

“It’s okay. We all have our own shares of experiences like this,” Ryeowook said. “I remember when I first started my internship, I used to tiptoe and be anxious of everything while my head dietitian was watching my back. I was so afraid of doing any mistakes because I’m handling a real patient then unlike those case studies we had inside the four walls of the classroom.”

“How did you manage to be comfortable?” she asked, curiosity visible in her eyes.

“Oh that. It’s something you cannot explain but as time goes by you’ll let your experiences shape you,” he chuckled. “It right? We think when we perfect those exams and get a license we’re okay but no... it’s just the start of this crazy, tiring yet fulfilling service of being in the medical field.”

“You will only survive if you love what you’re doing,”

When Ryeowook thought that everything was okay the little girl suddenly burst another round of tears again. She clutched Ryeowook’s uniform tightly and began wailing for her mother.

“Shh baby mommy’s coming back...let’s wait for her okay?” he gently rocked the girl in his arms. “What taking them long?” he asked the nurse.

She shrugged. “The doctor explained some things to her mother while he instructed me to get some blood sample from her. They weren’t gone long when you came though.”

Should I be sacrificing my precious one hour break for this? Ryeowook didn’t dare voice out what was in his mind. He doesn’t have the heart to leave the poor young nurse alone with this crying kid so he decided that maybe he will skip his lunch today if it will not be solved within an hour.

“Hush princess...” he patted her back gently.

Where are you?

Kyuhyun texted him again after not having received any replies from his messages ten minutes ago. As soon as he fini