Between the lines • a between us sequel (Ellie Williams x female oc)

𝟏𝟎 • 𝖽𝖾𝖻𝗍𝗌

❥ 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 - if you guys haven't yet, please go back and re-read chapter 8 (bc i basically had to rewrite the whole fckn thing) otherwise the timing of events in this chapter won't make any sense (sorry btw)

Abby

Saturday morning.

"Unresponsive female, mid twenties. Stab wound to the left shoulder, knife still intact-"

I'm bombarded with information as soon as I arrived at the hospital, nurse on my hip, and holding up her gloved hands to minimize the risk of smearing the sticky, thick substance throughout the hospital.

We turned down the hall, and entered the small room, and seeing just how much blood there was on the patients clothes, I knew I had to act fast.

"How long has she been bleeding?"
I asked, lathering the soap up my forearms and over my hands, letting the scolding hot water rinse it clean.

"I'm not sure."

"Okay then guess."

"Less than an hour, maybe."

I shove my hands into the gloves, and stretched them around my fingers, turning to the table where the patient lied.

I almost didn't recognize her, freckles and blood splatter almost indistinguishable from one another.

For the first time in my years as a doctor, I froze, never imagining I'd ever see anyone I actually knew in this sort of condition.

"Doctor?"

The ringing in my ears started to magnify, heart rate a little higher, which is now entering in dangerous territory.

"Doctor?"

I looked up, eyes of the nurse only visible under the coverage of her mask.

"Her name is Ellie Williams, find her, and get me a blood type."
The nurse nodded, immediately rushing out the door, and I turn to the other remaining nurse in the room, her waiting on my next breath carefully.

"Start the IV. The knife is coming out now."

As I start cutting away at the clothes, blood still wet and sticking to the metal, I was working as fast as I could, but as carefully as I've ever been.
She can't die, not with me on the other end making the decision.

Skyler would never forgive me.

————

I was heavy, limp. Sleep crept its way in sometime after the surgery, and I only knew that when I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

"Hey-" A voice says, still a little quiet to not startle me.

I mumbled something, mind more awake than my body, and blinking a few times to focus in on who the voice was coming from.

I see her, the nurse who had helped with the surgery, short brown hair fraying her forehead, bent over the chair I had fallen asleep in.

"Mel-" I say, sitting up and rubbing the sleep away, "what are you still doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She chuckles before looking over, nodding her head in the direction of the limp body on the bed, "She's stable now. You can go home."

I followed her eyes in the direction- heavy breathing muffled by an oxygen mask, and tubes cascading along the beds metal frame.
Doesn't look very stable in hindsight.

My hand came up to rub the palm across my face and mouth, only to look down and see dried blood from where it had managed to seep through.

She took a seat next to me in the empty chair, holding the underside of her belly for support, drawing a long breath on the way down.