Unloved (Eric x OC Divergent)

Part IV: The Fracture

I have diligently prepped all the emergency rooms in the infirmary, restocking and cleaning everything so we're ready to go when the initiates start their training. Feeling quite accomplished I decide to walk towards the nurses station to treat myself to a mug of coffee. Enjoying the quiet before the storm has always been my favourite part of being a nurse, it's all about learning the timing and knowing when you should put your feet up and savour the moment.

I hadn't even finished my thought, before I realised I jinxed myself.
One of the curtains around an emergency bed is closed, indicating someone is in there, I look around to see who admitted this patient, but there's nobody on the floor at the moment. I decide to check the nurses station, only to find one of our cleaning ladies emptying the trash, she smiles at me and I hurriedly smile back. "I guess there's only one way to find out who's in there" I think to myself while grabbing some gloves and walking towards the occupied bed.
When I pull back the curtain I'm met with the ice cold glare of grey eyes I had just looked into a few hours ago, he's holding a towel with what seems like a bag of frozen vegetables on his hand, a look of disgust is creeping up to his face when he realizes who is going to have to take care of him again. Me.

"Remind me I need to hire more nurses" he scoffs, looking away as if I was beneath him. "Isn't there someone else who can help me out?" I snarl and can't help but stab him where I suppose it hurts: "Like you thought I would help you out earlier?" I look at him fully aware of the anger in my eyes. I haven't even gotten the time to forget about his actions of just a few hours ago and now I'm already in for round two? I let out a deep sigh.
It works. He balls his fists and clenches his jaw, it looks like I kicked him in the gut, yet again.
"If you want that hand fixed, I'm your best bet" I say and don't even wait for his answer before I walk out to gather supplies to take care of his hand.

When I return he's already perched on the bed, the towel still wrapped around his hand, which is resting on his chest. I sort out the stuff I brought in and arrange it on his bedside table, not saying a word. Then I turn to him and reach out for his hand, taking off the towel and the bag of not-so-frozen vegetables to inspect whatever damage is on his hand, he winces when I softly touch his bloody and bruised knuckles, looking for fractures. I doesn't take me long to find the problem, there's a fracture just behind one of his knuckles, it looks like an impact fracture and I raise my eyebrows while trying to figure out what he did this time.

He seems to have noticed the inquery on my face and mutters "The wall" while looking straight over me, avoiding my glance. It's just then that I realize that I know what this is, I heard him do this, I heard his fist hit the wall when I escaped his office this morning. "Jesus Eric, what is wrong with you" I spit the words out while gathering gauze to clean his hand.
He stays silent until I poor water over his knuckles, I know it hurts and I could have warned him, but for reasons unknown to me, I didn't. "Fuck that hurts" he hisses, pulling his hand back.
I pull his hand carefully back to me and start cleaning his knuckles, trying not to react to his wincing and cursing. When I'm done cleaning his knuckles I put some healing salve on his wounds and adjust a cast to fit his giant hand, I can see he's in pain, but he's silently suffering through it. I announce that I'm done and walk away, throwing away the gauze and my gloves before gesturing towards the curtain for Eric to leave.

He seems annoyed at my resolve to get him out of my infirmary sooner rather than later, but then gets up and walks towards me at a brisk pace. Before walking out through the curtain he grabs my arm and I tense up immediately, vividly remembering the events that unraveled him a few hours ago in his office. He brings his face up to mine again, I can feel his breath against my cheek as he whispers "Thanks Florence", his eyes lock on mine and he seems genuine about his words. "It's ok Eric, just please, be kinder to yourself" I reply, hoping he will take some of my words by heart.

He smiles before he walks out, leaving me in a state of sheer surprise at the semi-normal conversation we just had.

Maybe this time he'll listen. I find myself genuinely hoping he will.
Wait...Do I care about Eric?