Psychopathy

Epilogue- EMERGENCY

Michelle Collins, R.N., sat in the triage area, twirling her pen on her fingers as she did her charting. It had been a long day in the emergency room, and she was more than ready to clock out and go home. She already knew what she was going to do- uncork a bottle of her favorite red wine, run a hot bath, put on a Netflix documentary, and just forget about the stress of the ER. She was tired of impatient people with minimal injury or illness and people who just did not know how their own bodies worked.

That being said, there was something rewarding about being an ER nurse. She was constantly reminding herself of that when she hit a slump, when she was drowning in charting, or struggling with a combative patient. Knowing that she was there to help her patients through some of the toughest and scariest times of their lives, the thrill of a real emergency, and the wide variety of people she got to meet were all reasons that Michelle had chosen the ER and why she stayed. Not to mention that her children got to know that their mother was out there helping to save lives.

As she caught up on her charting, she looked out in the triage area. For the moment, it was fairly- nope. Michelle was not even going to think the Q-word. She knew what happened when she did. Her fingers immediately started itching, trying to find some wood she could knock. When she finally found some, or some fake wood anyway, she knocked on it, hoping it would be enough to appease the universe.

Michelle made her way to the registration desk, both to talk to the receptionist but also to scan the lobby. They hadn't had a new patient in an hour, and honestly, Michelle was about ready to ask if she could just go home early. But she reigned in the urge, knowing full well she needed her hours. So she ended up chatting with the receptionist, trying to waste the last thirty minutes of her shift.

That was when the woman ran into the ER.

For a second, Michelle was frozen. The woman was blonde and in her early twenties, but that's not what caught Michelle's attention. The woman's face was bruised, one of her eyes black and swollen, with blood running down her face from a very clearly broken nose. The woman came to an unbalanced stop, looking straight at Michelle and the receptionist.

"Please... help me..." the woman whimpered, before collapsing to the ground. Michelle's adrenaline and her ER nurse training immediately kicked in, and she practically jumped over the reception desk. She pointed at the receptionist and told her to get at least one more nurse and a trauma doctor. When the receptionist ran off, Michelle flipped the woman onto her back as gently as she could, before getting to work, assessing damage and taking vitals as quickly as she could.

The woman's facial injuries weren't the only ones. She seemed to have some sort of head injury, blood coating the back of her head and turning her light hair red. Both of her arms were broken, the right arm having a strange angle to it, almost as if both the ulna and the radius were broken. The left arm seemed to be broken somewhere along the humerus, though it would be hard to tell without a proper X-ray.

But what shocked Michelle the most was the fact that both of her legs were also broken. The right leg, based on the swelling, had a broken femur, and the left leg had a broken tibia. Michelle knew that much- it wasn't just a fracture. It was a compound fracture. The broken end of her bone had sliced through her skin and had even cut her pants. Michelle paused for just a moment, only one thought running through her head.

How the hell did you run in here? But Michelle knew the answer to that. There was only one thing that someone ran that hard for- their life. Whatever this woman had gone through, it was most likely nothing short of hell. Her chest was heaving, gasping for every breath, and Michelle could see a lot of swelling under the woman's breasts. Goddamn, had her ribs been broken, too? Who had done this to her? And why?