Seven: The Awakening

What's Mine Shall Be...

Iris stared at the broken lamp lying on the floor in disbelief. Full circle metaphor of the swift demise of her friendship with Kairi. She blinked back the tears from the realization that 30+ years was gone that quick over jealousy she didn’t even know she had.

Out of all the times they’ve talked about harnessing powers (including the last 24 hours) not once did they ever ask each other the hard question: What would happen between them if only one of them inherited powers?

Iris didn’t know how serious Kairi took their talks but she had always held out hope that magic and superpowers were real. She just never thought the existence of them would actually manifest. At least not in her lifetime but today proved her wrong.

“Kairi ran to someone she trusted. She came to me and I broke it.”

Each time she replayed what happen, she felt sick to her stomach. The best friend she has known all of her life, came over for help and Iris’s first notion was to take her to a lab to be studied. The thought made her feel like the worst friend ever.

She picked up her phone and thumbed to Kairi’s number and paused; she wanted to call her to apologize. She didn’t want to lose the one person who has done nothing but been supportive of her. Iris was about to hit ‘dial’ but hesitated.

“She told me to stay away from her so I doubt anything I’d say would make a difference.

Iris placed her phone back down, picked up the broom and mindlessly swept as she tried to find some reasoning for her reaction.

“Throwing everything away like we don’t have history is excessive. Besides, she’s the one who has powers why would she fear me?”

Frustrated, Iris threw the broom across the room. She took a deep breath, raised her hand forward trying to summon the broom to her hand as Kairi did earlier. After a few minutes of feeling like her brain was going to explode and the broom not even budging, she gave up.

In that moment she needed to talk to someone who would understand her without judgment. She never wanted to hurt Kairi but also couldn’t help feeling like this was another thing that she gets so easily.

There was only one person she knew for sure that would co-signed her feelings about Kairi gaining powers. Her fuck buddy and coworker at Silver Phoenix Medical, Dr. Noah Daniels.

When first hired at Silver Phoenix Medical 3 years ago, the first thing Iris noticed was the nurses attempts to be assigned as Dr. Noah’s personal nurse. As one of the top doctors at SPM, working along side him would be good for any nurse’s career and resume.

But Dr. Noah was solitaire. He didn’t mind the nurse rotation but he didn’t want to get close with anyone. But that changed one tour when he was dealing with a difficult patient.

This man lost his wife and unborn child in a car crash and he was the only survivor. Dr. Noah was trying to calm him down before his blood pressure spikes and they have another problem besides his injuries.

He was getting frustrated and was about to call a nurse in to sedate him, when Iris ran in and grabbed the man up and hugged him. Iris didn’t know what possessed her to do it but her empathy and warm embrace calmed the man down as she rocked him in her arms.

Afterwards, Dr. Noah asked Iris into his office to compliment the emotional aftercare she gave the patient. He was embarrassed that somewhere down the line, he lost sight of his bedside manner. Thanks to Iris, she reminded him in that moment the reason he became a doctor.

Til’ this day, Noah doesn’t know what came over him but he proceeds to offer Iris the opportunity to be his assigned personal nurse.

Iris was flattered. In NYC it was hard to get recognition because it was heavily competitive and the nursing field was overpopulated. And after her separation and pending divorce, Iris was vulnerable. She knew Noah wasn’t flirting with her when he offered her the position but it was the first time she felt seen and she fell into it hard.