Chapter Text
Chapter 1
... beep.... beep... beep
Heavy breathing. Cold sweat. Fisted hands.
Where am I? Despite the trickling sweat, the continuous gust of cold air splashes into me.
beep... beep...
"One-hundred-fifty joules! Two hundred joules!"
Around my blackened vision, a hurdle of people keep pacing back and forth, metal tools that I can hear clacking, and a monitor that keeps beeping.
"Doc! The patient's heart—!"
beep...
～・* ★ .
Inside a four white walls, the smell of alcohol welcomed Qianqian's sense of smell. Followed by her sense of sight, an elder woman with furrowed brows registered to her mind.
"Oh, Good Lord! Qianqian! Qian!" A frantic call mixed with suprise, worry, happiness, and gaze of tenderness.
The nanny, shocked from what she witnessed, actually fainted. Qianqian, who is lying in her hospital bed freshly woke up from a 9-year coma hit the button above her head to call for nurses who can attend to her nanny Lan.
～・* ★ .
Due to her body being confined and not receiving proper nutrition and sunlight from the past years, her body grew fragile she can't even managed to walk properly. But despite the hardship it brings, her daily battle is not her physical body but her mind who keeps remembering fragments of memories she's not even sure if it happened.
One night, in their manor, she saw online that submerging ones body into hot or warm water can actually relax the muscle and nerves. Qianqian asked her Nanny Lan to fill the tub. To her surprise, her Nanny Lan even put some milk and flower petals that surely feel great to the skin.
It's only eight in the evening but the night is much darker than she remember what it used to be. The moon shines brighter too and its reflection can be seen to the water. Creating an illusion that she can touch it and play it with her palm. Such a dream is it, to have control over something so great.
A pang of memory harshly stab her mind. It was also warm that time. Oh, a bathtub. But what's more surprising is that a familiar man is in front of her. His fingers gently brushing the lost strands of her hair so she can see him clearly— or so he can stare at her clearly. Nothing is actually clear to her. Amidst the tub, steam of white fog hinder her to see the beautiful creature in front of her. Another memory emerge, they are once again in the water. Both in underwater. Him breathing life back to her lips and her, lifting a shiny object to his nape.
"Haa! Haa..." she seems drowning but no, she's still inside her tub sitting, the water barely touches her chin. A continuous cough keep trembling at her throat. She touched her temple due to the feeling of headache.
Maybe its her mind still floating above her head. Or maybe her desperation to know why a man keeps haunting her mind. She submerged herself again in the water, no longer the water barely touching her chin as it is already above her head.
～・* ★ .
A knock on a wooden door shifted Min's gaze from his daily round chart to the intern. Wanting to laugh but not wanting to scare the boy anymore, he contained it himself. Why is such a "nurse" trembling even from miles away? He's a nurse himself, he wouldn't hurt anyone. Well, maybe.
"N-Nurse Qi, a certain elderly couple named Mr. and Mrs. Yu would want to speak with you."
Ah. So that's what my mother has been chanting this morning.
Earlier that morning her mother actually gave a lecture on how nurses should be responsible and nice. Such as giving care to people especially those who needed it the most. He is puzzled but shrugged it anyway and continue to munch the breakfast his mom made herself.
"Let them come in. If other people have concerns with me, tell them I have a meeting unless it's really urgent. Thanks."
Min's surname is Qi. And Qi family is a family of doctors, nurses, specialist, and any health-related work. Their home is their hospital and their mission is to save people the way it once save their ancestors and hopefully, future descendants too.
The Yu couple entered with a familiar warmth on their faces. Although they don't regularly interact, his parents have deep connection to the Yu's and Min addresses them as Auntie and Uncle.
"Please be seated, Uncle and Aunt. How's your health?" They seated themselves into a comfortable couch and catch up a bit. When the tea that was served earlier gone cold, the couple once again spoke.
"Qi Min, we know how busy you are running this hospital in the city. You are a nurse yourself but eye bags are catching on you too! And I'm sorry for this but I would really like to ask you a favor," Mrs. Yu said, a sense of both guilt and pleading mixed together.
"You speak like a stranger, Auntie. Of course, I'll help as long as I can do it."
"Qianqian, my daughter has woken from her coma. Our only problem is suppose to be her fragile physical body due to the vegetative state she went through. However, words from her Nanny made us worry. Lan said Qianqian mind seems to be haunted by something and my Qianqian is harming herself just to remember it." A tear escaped on Mr. Yu's face. A daughter is surely the biggest weakness a father could have. Mrs. Yu held Min's hand in an almost pleading way,
"Please, Qi Min, take care of our daughter. We don't know what to do anymore if we lose her once again. We had several nurses back home but they all failed protecting Qianqian. Please... Please..."
～・* ★ .