Wistful Smile or Wishful Thinking

Chapter 1: Reawakening

Chapter 1: Reawakening

1:20 AM, Friday morning.

Jenna was snoring peacefully. The week's amount of work had taken it's toll on her body. It didn't help that outpatients kept coming in for blood draws. That previous day, Thursday, was the day the urologist came to the hospital. It made matters even more challenging when an OB patient suddenly started gushing blood after delivery, and the nurses were frantic. A resident at the nursing home had been brought to the emergency room on a code blue, and the ER physician and nurses were rattling off orders one after the other. The laboratory department had been bombarded so hard the staff felt they had been at a zoo, with all the animals going amok.

Katy Perry's “Unconditionally” reverberated through the quiet night, piercing through the dream bubble, and hurling Jenna back from dreamland to reality.

“Hello, good morning.”

“Hi Jenna, this is Nick. I need some chest pain protocol labs in the ER please.”

“Thanks, Nick.” Jenna said as she pushed the blanket off her body. These early morning calls were starting to get to her she wanted to request Christina to implement the third shift so that she can cover that shift and not take calls anymore. Rubbing her tired eyes, she pushed herself out of bed and headed to the wall to get her scrubs.

Ten minutes later, she drove up to the hospital. Clocking in, she then headed to the lab and placed the hematology machine on automode. Retrieving the papers that printed off, she snatched the warding tray and headed for the emergency room. When she arrived, she located the electrocardiogram machine and headed to the drawn curtains where the patient was.

“Good morning-”

“Oh hi, Jenna, I didn't expect to see you here.”

Curtis. And Devon, and Tyler, and Conrad and Cassandra.

Jenna blinked. Many things danced on her mind she forgot she was working. Gathering her wits, she looked at the paper she had with her.

“Can you tell me your name, sir?”

Curtis scoffed as he clutched his chest. “As if you never even knew me!”

“This is a standard procedure, sir.”

“Okay, okay. Curtis Kyle Johannson. Date of birth November 22, 1981. Male. What else do you need to know?”

Jenna said. “Okay Curtis, I'm Jenna, and I'm going to draw some labs and do an EKG.” She then nonchalantly faced to and turned the EKG machine on as she typed in some information.

“Do you, by chance, have a pacemaker?”

“No, uh uh...is that relevant?”

But Jenna didn't answer. She got the leads out of the handle and got her sticky electrodes ready as she faced her patient.

“Okay, Curtis, I need to put these electrodes on your chest, so I need you to raise your shirt up.”

Curtis smirked. “Oh wow, Jenna. You didn't have the chance to touch my chest before. So this is gonna be your chance, huh?”

“Stop it, Curtis,” Cassandra chided him as the other guys began laughing.

Jenna was already red with anger and embarrassment, but she still continued what she was doing.

“I'd like to let it slide sir, but I could report you for harassment.” Jenna said.

“Oh really? When you tried doing this to me way back in highschool, I didn't even think of reporting you for sexual harassment. How different is that?” Curtis asked, mockingly.

“Because my friend, you are the patient now, and your life hangs on a balance. She has the needle, you know,” Cassandra said as she reprimanded Curtis.

Looking up to Jenna, Cassandra smiled. “I'm so sorry, Jenna. You know how this idiot tends to take things to where you don't want it to go.”

Jenna smiled. Sure, she and Cassandra hadn't been that close in high school, but she felt the genuine sincerity in her voice. Jenna suddenly wished that Cassandra had been her bestfriend and not Amanda.

&&&

After the blood draw, Jenna immediately returned to the lab to process the samples. The tests took their time to finish, and when Jenna finally released the chemistry results, the bacteriology machine suddenly beeped.

“Man, and at this hour?” Jenna fumed as she got the bottles out of the machine. Calling the nurse of the positive blood culture results which she said will be processed, she went to the Microbiology Department and began processing her blood cultures.

Ten minutes later, she went to the ER to talk to Dr. Park.

“Ah yes, Jenna, you do need to come back at 5 to do the troponin.”

Crestfallen because she wanted to sleep so badly, Jenna nodded as she listened to the doctor. 

“Okay, thanks doctor."

She then turned to the nurse on duty. "But Nick, can I take one of the rooms by the hall? I need to get a shut eye.”

Nick raised he eyebrows. “I don't see why that's a problem. But yeah, be my guest.”

Jenna hurriedly went to the room by the end of the hall. She knew it was her day off, but she didn't want to waste three hours of her time waiting when she could use her time sleeping.

&&&

Turning the lights on the room, Jenna woke Curtis up.

“I'm sorry to disturb you, Curtis. I just needed some more blood work.”

Curtis squinted his eyes as he covered them with his hands.

“It's so early for you to disturb me, Jenna. I don't like it.”

“Sorry, Dr. Park's orders. We just want to make sure everything's fine with you so that he can give you some meds for your chest pain.” The medical technologist said as she put on some gloves after sanitizing and prepared her things.

Curtis examined Jenna. The girl who used to be so slutty and so feisty had suddenly grown too sullen and unhappy. Even when she still had those (in)famous voluptuous curves, Jenna made no effort to show them at all. The smile that used to be plastered on her face was replaced by a thin line, albeit Jenna still had that full curvy lips.

Extending his arms for her to examine, Curtis kept on looking at Jenna. The latter suddenly felt a sense of acute awareness that she's been observed, and she felt uncomfortable.

“Did you ever had a boyfriend, Jenna?”

“I'm sorry, I don't answer personal questions.”

“Oh, come on. It's not like I'm a stranger to you. We've been classmates in high school...”

“But right now, you are my patient, and I am still working. So no, I am not obliged to answer personal questions.” Jenna said, adding. “Here's a stick.”

Inserting the tube to the adaptor, Jeena heaved a sigh of relief as she watched the blood flow along the walls of the tube. When the vacuum had been used up, she pulled the tube and slowly inverted it in a figure of eight. Labeling the tube with patient's name, the tech then placed it in her tray after discarding the sharps. She took off her gloves and rinsed her hand with the sanitizer.

“Okay, thank you so much sir. Have a good mornight.”

“Okay. Thank you Jenna. See you around.”