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Sophie cherished those rare moments of quiet in the early morning, a tranquil pause between the chaos of leaving the emergency room and crashing into her bed. With a Redbull clenched in her hand, she strolled leisurely through the park, the cool morning air soothing her nerves. The world around her was still waking up, even as her day was winding down.
She was nearly where her car parked when suddenly, a sharp object pressed into her back. Her breath hitched as a voice from behind commanded, "Don’t move. Gimme your bag and phone, and you won’t get hurt."
Sophie listened, her hands trembling as she slowly loosened her bag and extended it toward the attacker. A surge of panic flooded her chest. "Here you go, here you go," she whispered, her voice trembling. Sophie felt stupid, how is panicking now while she can handle everything that came into the ED.
The man suddenly appears in front of her, knife still in her hand. She doesn’t remember what happened next as she sees a fist and her world goes black.
Sophie doesn’t know how long she’s out when she finally wakes on the ground, her head pounding and vibrating with pain. She murmurs a curse under her breath, then slowly pushes herself up from the pavement. She lets out a long sigh, leaning her head back for a moment, trying to steady herself. Dizziness washes over her, and her vision blurs slightly. An intense pain radiates around her nose, sharp and unforgiving. She doesn’t want to go back to ED, she wants to go home in the bed she shared with Robby but she knows she needs to go back to the ED.
Without hesitation, Sophie begins to make her way back toward the emergency room, bypassing the waiting area and heading straight for the ambulance bay. It’s Dana who spots her first, putting out her cigarette as she notices Sophie approaching. Sophie looked exhausted; her nose was now swollen, colorful and bleeding, and her eyes shadowed with fatigue.
“What the fuck?” Dana yells, sprinting toward her. “What the hell happened?”
Sophie’s voice trembles as she responds, “Robbed. I think my nose is broken. I’m pretty sure it’s broken.” She exhales a shaky breath. “Dana, I am not feeling too hot.”
“Yup. Okay. Let’s get you inside,” Dana says firmly, offering her arm to help. Before they can move further, they run into Princess, who is leaving a patient’s room with Abbot, who has not left the hospital after his night shift.
Abbot raises an eyebrow at the sight of Sophie and Dana. There is a clear look of worry on his face seeing Sophie. “What’s open?” he asks. He doesn’t need to know what happened now; he just wants to get his charge nurse fixed up and into one piece. “Princess, you should go find Robby.” Princess nods, before walking away to find Robby.
“I don’t need a room,” Sophie insists softly. “I don’t want to take a room away from any patients.”
“You are a patient, Sophie,” Abbot replies firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument. Sophie doesn’t argue back.
“C9 is open,” Dana says, quickly following Abbot and guiding Sophie in that direction.
It’s only five minutes later when Robby walks into the room, the door shutting quietly behind him. He pauses, eyes fixed on Sophie, who is lying in the bed with her eyes closed, while Abbot carefully examines her. Her name slips from Robby lips softly. “Sophie…”
“I’m okay,” she murmurs, still with her eyes closed. Robby isn’t sure if she is telling herself or telling him.
Abbot nods. “I’m going to order some X-rays to see where the break is and whether I need to realign it. I’ll also get you some pain meds. I’ll be right back, okay?”
Sophie gives a small, hesitant nod. “Thanks, Jack.”
“Be right back, sunshine. Don’t give Robby too much trouble,” Abbot replies smoothly before heading out of the room with Dana, leaving Sophie and Robby alone.
Robby takes a seat on the edge of the bed, gently reaching out to her cheek as she slowly opens her eyes to watch him. “What happened?”
“Robbed,” Sophie responds softly. “He took my bag, my cellphone. He has the keys to our apartment.” She has only been officially living in their now shared apartment for a few weeks now.
“I can get it relocked today.” Robby offers quickly, his voice steady with concern. That was an easy issue to fix, the money was not an issue.
Sophie gives him a shaky smile before it drops. “He had a knife. I didn’t hear him come up. I felt…” She stops talking, losing herself for a moment in the memory.
He leans down, pressing a small kiss to the top of her head before the right cheek. “I’m sorry, Sophie.”
“You don’t have any reason to be sorry.” Sophie tells him.