MEDIC! colt seavers

prologue

prologue
1196 words
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september 21st 2023
melissa groves
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"Lissa! New patient for you," Quinn shouted for me.

"Thanks Q," I turned around, smiling at her.

As I walked into Room 204, I was greeted by a sleeping blond man in a full spinal brace.

Jeez, I thought. I was still quite new to my job, this only being my first year working at this hospital. I graduated nursing school about two years ago, and living in LA, I was used to seeing excessive injuries. However, the full spinal brace was a first.

I looked at the man's clipboard, a stuntman I see. A stuntman who got in a really bad accident. I grimaced, continuing to look over his notes.

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PATIENT INFORMATION
NAME: Seavers, Colt
OCCUPATION: stuntman
DIAGNOSIS/INJURY: spinal fracture
DURATION OF STAY: 12 weeks
ONGOING TREATMENT: spinal brace + bedrest; needs assistance
detailed descriptions below.
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Dammit Q, I sighed in realization of her handing off the patient with extensive caretaking needs to me. The recovery ward definitely wasn't my favorite ward to work in. One of my favorite things about being a nurse was getting to not only help people, but make a difference in so many peoples' lives; this obviously made taking care of only one patient for 3 months a little less exciting.

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| time skip |
september 23rd 2023
colt seavers
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I woke up to a bright light shining in my eyes.

Did I just die?

That thought made me quickly start freaking out, wondering what the hell happened to me. Suddenly, a small woman in scrubs entered my room. Soon noticing my freakout, her eyes went wide as she rushed to my side.

"Hey, hey, calm down please," she said softly, grabbing my arm gently to hold me still, "I need to ask you a few questions if that's okay." I nodded.

"Do you know your name?"

"Colt Seavers."

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"I was doing a stunt for a movie where I was falling, and something went wrong. I don't really remember anything after that aside from short, blurry memories of being taken away on a stretcher and seeing my..." I paused, "friend." It stung me to say it, but Jody and I never really agreed to a label.

She acknowledged my response and thought for a moment, "Do you remember your friend's name?"

"Jody Moreno."

"I believe she might've visited you earlier. If you'd like, the hospital can call her and let her know you're awake?"

"No, if she comes back, tell her I've been moved to a different hospital and uh.. you don't know which one," I blurted out. Jody couldn't see me like this. I was sitting in a hospital bed with a full spinal brace, probably looking absolutely ridiculous. She wouldn't think highly of me anymore if she saw the state I was in, completely incapable of my job, and probably not even capable of getting out of bed by myself.

The woman who I assumed was a nurse noticed me deep in thought and only responded when I looked at her again.

"If you don't want visitors, we can accommodate that," she nodded.

"Thank you."

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| time skip |
october 7th 2023
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"Can I come in?" Melissa, my favorite nurse, asked through the door as she knocked against it. We both knew she didn't need to knock since I couldn't get up to open the door or deny her from coming in, but I always found it kind of her to ask anyway.

"Come in," I responded.

"Hi, Colt," she smiled sweetly at me, food tray in hand. My accident had left me pretty useless, not even being able to feed myself. Melissa understood how awkward I felt about my codependency and was always doing her best to distract me from it. When I first found out just how much assistance I needed, she was so gentle about it. She even offered to open up about herself so she wasn't a complete stranger to me.

Every meal, Melissa would let me ask her a personal question and then answer it while she helped me eat. Through this, I got to learn more about her. She didn't have any close family aside from her sister, and most of her friends were people she knew through work. After having bad experiences in hospital visits, she realized how important it was to her to not only help people as a nurse, but also help them on their own terms. If someone didn't feel safe, she would do whatever she could to make them feel more comfortable, even if it was unnecessary from a medical standpoint.

"What's today's question?" she asked me, pulling up a chair and setting up the food tray.

"Is there anywhere you want to travel or move to?"

"Good question," she grinned. "When I was a teenager, I wanted to come to LA to meet famous people," she chuckled, "I moved here when I started college. Fun fact, I had a massive crush on Tom Ryder and actually saw him through the window of a car once."

I stopped eating for a second; she looked at me confused.

"You know I was a stunt double for Tom Ryder right?" I laughed a little. She rose her eyebrows.

"Really? That's so cool!"

"Yeah.." I said, going back to eating. She didn't know how much of an ass Tom was, but it seemed pointless to tell her that.

"Anyway, now that I live in LA, I don't find celebrity sight-seeing that interesting anymore. I don't really find any part of LA interesting anymore. I feel trapped honestly," her smile softened, "I haven't lived here long, but I don't feel like this is my forever home. I also don't really know where that forever home may be. I'm from Montana, and while it is a beautiful place, it doesn't feel quite right either. Teenage me thought this was the dream, and she never really considered the possibility that it wasn't."

She went silent for a bit and looked deep in thought as she finished feeding me my meal.

"Sorry for a bit of a depressing conversation today," she said worriedly.

"It's all good. I work on movie sets, believe me I hear much worse," I reassured her.

"I know technically I'm opening up for your sake, but it's really nice getting to know you, Colt. Your life sounds so exciting."

"It was. It was."

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a/n
as you can assume by the title alone, there will be medical aspects in this book, so just letting you know that there will definitely be inaccuracies. im a very inexperienced writer and writing this is for enjoyment and to improve writing skills. because of this, i dont intend to focus heavily on researching the medical field and making everything 100% accurate. however, if you are more knowledgeable and want to leave a correction in the comments, im happy to listen and make edits :)
edit: updated a small bit of dialogue that originally didnt match the plot and the dates to match the time frame of the movie
remember to vote and/or comment! it lets me know you more chapters <3
- kimsi