Self image (The nursery nurse, Carly)

Chapter 9: Better?

The past few days Carly had been feeling all around better. She had been eating okay for the first time in months.
Infact she was a healthy weight now as well. Abliet she was a bit chubby but chubby is better than being malnourished.

Her little sister, Rose had brought Carly an old my little pony blanket. It was fluffy, soft and smelt like home. While Carly didn't really like my little pony her younger sister did. She used to force Carly to watch it with her causing Carly to know the name and back story of almost every character no matter the creature. She even knew some of the book and comic characters because her sister used to make her read them to her while falling asleep.

The blanket had the characters, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow dash on with hearts, rainbows and stars on a pale background.

A nurse Carly had never seem before walked in. She looked too young to be a nurse so maybe she was a student? She certainly was pretty in Carly's eyes. Sure she had some acne on her chin and eyebrow but in Carly's opinion it added to her features. The girl was tall, about 6'1 maybe, which was surprising to Carly since she had never seen a girl over 5'10 and that was her aunt while she was wearing high heels.

"Hello, Carly right?" The girl spoke softly, she had an Irish sounding accent. As she spoke, Carly found herself studying the girls face a bit more. She had dark freckles painted over her nose and cheeks, her dark hazle nut eyes contrasted with her bleached hair.

"Y-Yeah..." Carly stuttered, causing the nursing student to laugh.

"My name is Marie. You can call me Mar, pronounced like the first part of my name, if you want!" Marie smiled softly, two dimples appearing either side on her cheeks.

Carly blushed lightly

"On your file it says you're..17? That's a year younger then me!" Marie smiles. Carly assumes that she is Marie's first patient she's talked to.

"So you're 18?" Carly smiled, brushing some of her hair out of her eyes.

"Yep!" Marie winces slightly when she sees Carly's scared arms. She walks over and gently grabs her arm, following her gaze Carly realises what she's doing. Marie gently runs her fingers over the scars, Carly believes she is trying to be comforting, and she was. Her soft touch over the scars felt welcoming and loveful, something Carly hadn't experienced in a long, long time.

"Sorry..." Carly speaks quietly, "they're a bit of an eye sore."

"What!? They are not! They show how strong you've been and that the dark time in your life didn't stop you!" Marie tries to comfort her but all Carly could think about was how it almost did. She was hours away from death, maybe even minutes. If Marjorie and Char hadn't of found the note so soon she would have been dead.

Carly was going to correct her on this but she didn't want to seem like an attention seeker looking for some sort of validation.

"Yeah... I suppose." Carly whispered, she did not sound convinced at all but the nurse in training couldn't do anything to help that.

"So..." Marie began, "Viv told me to make sure you eat since she's off enrolling her son in a nursery."

"Which nursery?" Carly asked, she hoped it wasn't either of the Knight nurseries.

"The one that had that big scandal with a woman named 'Autumn' smashing up that rich guys car." Marie didn't know the reason nor would she likely ever know.

"Hang on, Autumn did what!?" Carly obviously hadn't been told what had happened yet, she thought Reece would have at least told her if Autumn had smashed up their dad's car.

"You know her?" Marie tilted her head to the side.

"Kinda," Carly frowned not really wanting to explain how she is working at the nursey Vivian's son is now going to.

"Do you like her?" Marie asked, intrigued.

"Yeah she's nice! Most of the time." Carly shrugs.

"Cool! So, Carly your mum said she wants to get you therapy, how do you feel about that?" Marie asks, trying to be gentle as possible.

"No." Carly answer quickly

"Why not?" The nurse was taken aback by the quick response.

"I.. don't like talking to strangers." Carly said, quieter then before.

"Well.. if I give you my number you can talk to me? Although, I may get told off. I'm sure they'll give me another chance it's fine!" Marie gets a piece of paper out her pocket along with a pen and starts to write her number down.

She hands Carly the note, their hands graze, Carly blushes lightly.

"I need to go! Your visiting times about to start and I'm pretty sure your mum and sisters are already waiting!" Marie smiles

"They are? That's nice of them!" Carly replies, smiling happily. She loved it when her mum and sisters visited. She was sad her dad hadn't yet visited but he was probably just not ready to see his little girl in a hospital bed and to be honest, Carly couldnt blame the guy.

"Yep, text my number if you ever want to talk. I need to go now, have a nice time with your family!" Marie smiled walking towards the door.

Carly and Marie exchanged goodbyes. Carly was happier now. She had met someone other than Vivian who would look out for her.

At least 5 minutes later it was her visiting time and almost immediately her sisters rushed through the door and began talking about various different things. It took multiple attempts from Carly's mother to hush them.

"Hey girls." Carly giggled softly as she sees how her sisters completely ignore their mums instructions at first.

"Hi big sis!" The younger one shouted, causing the older one to cover her ears from the suddenness of it.

"How was your guys' day?" Carly spoke, softly trying to engage with them more. Both of them reply positively which prompts the younger one to ask for a hug since by her words 'I want big sissy to feel good as well.' Which made Carly smile brightly.

As the younger one got onto the bed and lay on Carly's belly she asks a question.

"Why are you so squishy?"