Break

Chapter 2

Shayne is uncharacteristically nervous when he arrives at the hospital just before 9am the next morning. He silently thanks the COVID-safe hand sanitizer at the entrance for helping with his clammy, nervous hands, and the mask on his face for hiding his uncomfortable grimace as he moves through the check-in process. They scan his temperature – normal. They approve of his face mask, and his lack of any recent travel.

"Who are you visiting, and relation to them?" the receptionist asks, from behind the clear screen across their desk. It makes his heart sink.

"Visiting Courtney Miller, in the trauma ward, I'm her-" he winces, pausing for a second, "it's... I'm her best friend, I guess, which I know doesn't count, but she's been here for two weeks and her Dad said that someone said I could come visit today-"

"What's your name?" the woman clarifies, sympathetic.

"Shayne Topp," he answers, cautious eyes watching as she clicks through something on her computer.

"Okay, right, yes, I've got a note here on her file that Shayne Topp can visit. No worries. So, she's-" the receptionist continues, Shayne giving an audible sigh of relief as he is told where she is.

He takes the elevator up a few floors and wanders down a series of corridors following signs – at least COVID has seemed to improve the directional signage, given they're all printed on white paper with a COVID-safe logo in the bottom corner – for three minutes before he finds himself elbowing a green button to open a door emblazoned with the words "Trauma Ward".

"Good morning! Who are you here to see?" the nurse at the desk immediately opposite the entrance asks, and he can't see her smile behind her mask but her eyes are kind and her voice warm. Somehow, it makes him more nervous.

"Courtney Miller," he answers, his voice cracking, watching the nurse's face twist in realisation.

"Ah, yes, Kenn told us you'd be coming, Shayne! I'll take you to her room, come with me," she tells him, and they awkwardly walk at opposite sides of the corridor for distancing, but Shayne ambles along beside her as she leads him around two turns, talking carefully the whole way.

"I'm Emma, by the way, I've been on shift a lot when Kenn's been here with her," the nurse introduces herself, glancing to the side. He nods in acknowledgement, staying silent as she continues, "I'm sorry it's taken so long to get you here, but you should be fine to visit whenever you like now your name is in her file. Are you nervous to see her?"

"I- yeah. It's been two whole weeks, and I know she's not going to look well, and-" Shayne mumbles his response, shaking his head as he cuts himself off.

"Perfectly understandable," Emma tells him, with a nod, slowing to a stop as she stands in front of a closed door. "Would you like to go in by yourself, or if you like, I could come in first and explain what all the medical machines and stuff is, if that might help?"

"Yeah I- that would- yeah, can you?" Shayne replies, messily, letting his mind grip into one of his most basic understandings of himself – he likes to know what's going on, why things are what they are. It might help.

He still feels tears rush to his eyes when he follows Emma into the room, eyes running around the space, almost scared to directly look at Courtney still on her back in the hospital bed. It's almost easier to focus on the mess of machines to the side of her bed, hooked into a big wall-mounted control panel.

"So, the obvious one, just a standard full cast on her leg – given she hasn't been moving, that should only need to be on for a couple more weeks before they can make it a smaller cast, actually, the surgeons were really happy with that," Emma starts, moving closer to Courtney and first gesturing at the plain white cast on her left leg half-covered by a sheet, before she moves on to explaining the constant heart monitor, the IVs for medication and sustenance, and all the other tubes and wires near her head, the nurse-alert button resting beside one of her hands, and finally, the wires attached to her head, almost hidden by her hair.