Owen didn't know what to think of her.
She was scrawny, brown eyes dulling into a greyish colour most of the time, and she was always super quiet. But when she did speak, she had the most intelligent sentences come out of her mouth. She wasn't a shark, in fact he swore she never stole a single surgery, or stop one from being taken from her. Yet she spent multiple hours in the ER, doing god knows what.
It was his ER, she logged more than anyone else, and he had no idea how.
He was covering the night shift and she was still there. Bags were under her eyes. She looked more tired than any other third-year resident.
Owen sat down at the emergency counter and signed himself into the ER shift schedule. Scrolling through a series of names, he came across hers and apparently, she had maxed out hours last week. That girl was still there.
"(Y/L/N)" he spoke from his counter, getting her attention. "Go home."
She looked at him, as if she had forgotten what he had said. Then she snapped out of it. "I said I would cover Dr. Harrison's shift today."
"Go home, we don't need you toady. One of those days." he said as a code for a slow day.
"But—"
"Just go home and get some sleep." she nodded and Owen watched her leave.
The next shift, she looked just as exhausted as ever. He made a mental note to check her hours and whether they would change or not. A few days later, her hours dramatically changed from higher hours to lower hours, and he decided that there was something wrong. However, he kept silent, and once her hours hit the maximum, they dropped back down again.
It was hard to approach her, but he did. "Dr. (Y/L/N)."
"Dr. Hunt."
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
She shrugged. "Ok."
"I've noticed your hours have been shifting after you've reached the maximum. Care to explain why?"
Her tan cheeks turned into a rose blush "I—it was—Dr. Hunt I—"
Owen realized he was feeling extremely bad for the young resident and he told her not to let it happen again, otherwise he would have to report it.
She quickly scampered away and he tried his best to forget it. There was something about her that he felt drawn to, and he didn't know what it was. She just reminded him of something.
Another shift while he worked on a patient, he noticed her dazing out into space. Just as he was to yell at her for daydreaming, he saw her eyelids snap shut and she collapsed against the wall. He looked around; no one seemed to notice. Owen quickly started to run to see if she was ok but once he was a few feets distance, her eyes snapped open, and her grey ones met his.
Next thing he knew, she had walked away.
He was too shocked to say anything.
Owen kept a close eye on her the next week, and it kept on happening. Derek told him it happened a lot, and she insisted it was nothing. However she still looked terrible. Almost like she was dying. In fact, he constantly had to yell at other residents to start following her example of excellent performance when they were bullying her as if they were in middle school.
It all seemed to go downhill when she passed out in the middle of a surgery.
They checked for a pulse and it was still there, but when they shook her, she didn't wake up. The nurses quickly found a gurney and Owen left the other surgeons so he could treat her. He quickly found out that she definitely wasn't getting enough calories in her system and they gave her some IV fluids.
