Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 49

((The story was supposed to end at Ch48, but the plans tells me to put this in book 1 instead of book 2 so it's here :))✨

The skies were grey, roads busy with people returning home. It was supposed to be peaceful day, and Aerie should be resting. But she could not- and for god's sake the worked really seemed to be ceaseless.

Even as an intern she couldn't bear the workload- patients were rolling in, one by one, yelling at the top of their lungs until they got a satisfying amount of medical care and decided not to fuss around any longer; and only to have something went wrong and yell even louder three seconds later- it was devastating.

There were saying that they were only getting scraps of medical care, and it wasn't enough. But after all, all of these had only proven to be them being harsh and demanding. Why would them ever expect to get a private nurse when all they were paying were like a hundred bucks for an entire week of hospital services?

Aerie guessed that it would somehow be worse when she will no longer be an intern. And by then she would be staying in surgery wards- for she had started to regret her decision of choosing to be a physician, but she knew that she would stand no chance being a doctor in the ward for children. That would be the thing that she could not stand most; they were unexceptionally hard to comfort.

It was suffering either way.

"Hey." The soft voice at the corner said. It sounded like a little boy- a child not any older then nine years old. He said patiently at the corner, and started at her into her eyes.

"Hiya-" Aerie replied, stopping in front of him. Interesting enough, she wasn't reluctant to do so, as he wasn't crying, or being demanding. He looked innocent. He looked- and knew that he needed the medical care. And that was all. "Where's your parents, honey?" She tried to ask as sweetly as possible. He looked scared, but she had no idea why. Maybe because of the illnesses that he might possibly have?

"I-" he replied, "I- I don't know." The voice was even softer than usual, and somehow he stared to tremble. Which was pretty unusual, Aerie thought.

"Don't worry." Aerie said, "look- I'm not going to hurt you. I only wanted to help you. Okay? If you got lost with parents, maybe you can give me your name and I'll help you to find them, sounds good?" 

He hesitated and started at her. He wanted to say something, but all he did was to pull the sleeves of his jacket even further to cover his entire palm, digging his hands into the cloth.

"If you're uncomfortable, then maybe I can start first, okay?" Aerie said, pulling her key card from her pocket and showing it to him, "my name is Aerie. And I work here in this hospital. Look- I've got white uniform. And if there's anywhere that hurts, please just tell me so I can help you, okay?" 

"My-" The boy looked away. "My name is Winter." He mumbled in a hurry, and stared away.

Aerie thought that he might just be shy to strangers. She hasn't thought a lot about him, and continued to talk.

"Nice name, Winter." Aerie replied, smiling as cheerily as possible. "What about your last name, Winter?" She tried to search for eye contact between the two of them. But he kept looking away, looking as if he was scared instead of shy. He blushed, a lot too, she must admit. "Is there anything that that bothered you, hm?" Aerie tried to ask him, yet he only stared at her as a response.

"Well-" she tried to say, "then why don't we go for a checkup?" He continued to stare at her, which he soon nodded and stood up, waiting to follow her and walk from the corner that he had been sitting in.

"What are we going to do then?" He asked, looking up to Aerie. He wasn't tall- about two heads shorter than her. By the looks of him he looked like a typical child. Though with his cautious look and careful steps suggested otherwise, and he seemed to be much older than that. "How old are you, Winter?" Aerie asked. "Did you come alone or where are the people who came with you?"