Broken Silence: First chapter (Closed for Fira)

Name: Gabriel
Age: 25
Eye color: Silver/blue
Hair color: Brown
Build: Sportive


While most people use the night to sleep, have sex or go out and some are paid to work during the night, Gabriel loves it to be outside on his bike. The silence of the night, the stars above his head, the empty roads. Often he spends hours biking around going to nowhere particular. During those hours his minds wonders off to everything and nothing. Thinking about his dreams, his hopes, or just murmuring songs he heard on the radio. No one around to pay attention to or to be embarrassed when he murders a song rather than be singing it. Sometimes a single car that passes him and disappears in the distance a moment later.

Being a student Gabriel hardly ever has to wake up early in the morning, most of his classes don’t start till later on the day, so it doesn’t really matter at what time he arrives home. His parents don’t care about it, if they are even home instead of being gone for work. Both his parents love to work and while that allows Gabriel to buy most things he wants, it also means there are weeks in which he doesn’t see his parents at all. It has always been like that, and most likely always will be like that.

It is a Saturday night and while most students are out drinking and partying, Gabriel is riding his bike. He does like an occasional drink, but he doubts he will ever understand how other people think and act. Especially girls are strange creatures, interesting of course but they never seem to notice him and his attempts to get them to notice him are poor at best. Perhaps it is also not helpful that he always seems to fall for the most pretty ones, the ones that can pick any guy they like. While thinking about girls, and about one named Rachel in particular, Gabriel suddenly hears the sound of a car. Before he can even wonder why he doesn’t see the lights of the car, the car hits him and his bike, sending him flying.

And then everything is as dark as the night

Name: Tina
Age: 23
Eyes: Green
Hair: Mid-back, chestnut shot with red highlights
Build: Fit, 36D

Tina settled another chart into its holder, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. Her shift had been a long one, and she sighed as she glanced at her watch. Fifteen more minutes and she would be headed out the door.

She turned to the next chart, checking for any last minute orders from the doctor before heading into the next cubicle to release another patient. Just as she started to pull the curtain aside, she heard a commotion coming in the doors from the ambulance bay. Her training kicking in, she immediately put the chart back and rushed to the side of the stretcher.

“What do you have for me, boys?” she asked quickly. Mike glanced up at her and grinned. “Car versus bicycle. 25 year old male, unconscious, unresponsive, BP 140 over 98, pulse 80 and regular, breaths 20, non-labored. Pupils PERL. Some swelling on the back of his head. Only obvious fracture is the right arm, just above the elbow. Never gained consciousness in the rig. We have an 18 gauge IV established, KVO with Ringers, high flow O2 via non-rebreather,” he paused to take a breath and winked at Tina. “Not that you couldn’t see all that already!”

She chuckled a bit at him. He was right, her eagle eye had already caught most of his assessment for herself. Sometimes having been a paramedic was a blessing in the ER. She began her own assessment, helping the medics transfer the patient to a gurney, moving IV lines, and mentally preparing herself for whatever orders the doctor would have. She ticked of in her head which meds he would most likely want, the tests he would want done, and was already at the phone on the wall when he came in, snapping his gloves on.

While Mike repeated his assessment, minus the flirty banter, Tina busied herself with calling radiology for portable films, then pulling out the items needed to draw blood. By the time the doctor was barking out his orders, Tina already had everything in motion. Blood was drawn and being sent for labs, x-ray was waiting outside the door to come in and do their job, the patient stripped of what little clothing the medics hadn’t already cut away.

By the time the excitement had settled down, 45 minutes had passed. Tina groaned at the late hour, but stayed with the patient. At one point he seemed to be coming around, muttering and trying to move his head. The hand attached to the arm that wasn’t broken shot out and gripped hers, holding it in a death grip. Unable to extricate herself from his hold, she had someone push a chair close to the wheeled bed to wait for transportation to take him to surgery. His elbow had been shattered in the accident and would require extensive reconstruction.

It wasn’t until they delivered him to the OR that she was finally able to remove her hand from his, and when she got back to the ER, she was shocked to see that her shift had ended more than 2 hours before. Gathering her things and bidding a quick good night to the rest of the staff, she stumbled wearily out to her car. She would call later to see how the patient had faired in his surgery.

In the distance Gabriel hears some sounds, but they are too far away to be recognizable. It seems an eternity later before he finally is able to open his eyes a bit and weakly smiles when he sees a woman in white standing there. For a moment he wonders if she is an angel as his hand slowly reaches for her, the other one doesn't respond for some reason. Then everything becomes a blur again...

Hours later he finally wakes up again, although his mind is still rather foggy, not to mention the headache that is killing him. He notices his right arm is encased in a long arm cast, but doesn't feel too painful. He remembers the car, but of course never saw the licenseplate. Part of him hopes the driver stopped and helped him, another part just doesn't care right now.

Looking around in the room he notices he has a room all to himself. Mostly likely his parents money was good for some decent medical care although Gabriel doubted they had heard about his crash. They are out of the state and there is not much that will get them distracted from their jobs. But he has a tv and feels fine enough to hope he will leave the hospital soon. He looks around and finds the remote and turns the tv on.

Quickly he surfs the channels but it seems it is still in the middle of the night as the only thing on tv are women in very few if any clothes. Gabriel never minds looking that at home, but here in the hospital it does feel rather awkward. So instead of watching a bit of tv, he turns the thing off again and tries to get some more sleep.

He doesn't get much sleep and wakes up early in the morning. The headache is mostly gone, now it is his arm that feels painful. Some painkillers would be great...

She slept fitfully through the day, finally waking completely in the early afternoon. The man they had brought in at the end of her shift weighed heavily on her mind. Swinging her feet to the floor, she rubbed her eyes and stood, making her way half blond to the bathroom. She would splash some water on her face and then call the hospital back.

She tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang on the other end, her finger twirling absently in the cord on the phone. “Casey! Hi, it’s Tina. I was wondering if you could give me an update on that guy they brought in this morning,” she said when the phone was answered. She listened intently for several minutes, her unseen nods punctuated with a brief “uh huh” every now and then. “Okay, thanks for the update. I’ll see you in a few hours. Yes, I have to be in tonight. Okay, see you then!”

She hung up the phone, staring off into space, her thoughts on the man that had held on to her so tightly. At least he had come through the surgery okay. They were keeping him pretty doped up for the time being though. His elbow was a mess when they cut into him in the OR, and they had to practically rebuild the whole thing. Glancing at the clock, she realized she still had some time to kill before she had to be at work, so she decided to relax in a bubble bath for a while.

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Her quiet steps carried her into the room, unchallenged; her uniform allowing her into any part of the hospital without question. She wanted to check up on him herself, but didn’t want to disturb any of the other nurses as they made their final med rounds before shift change. She still had another hour before she had to be down in the emergency room, and she pulled a chair up to the bed, watching the even rise and fall of his chest as he floated in his drugged sleep.

During the day Gabriel wakes up a few times and every time finds his room empty. In the hallway he notices a doctor or nurse walking past his door, apparently very busy. Most likely it is a good thing he hasn't seen anyone yet, that should mean he is not going to die. Right?

The moments he is awake aren't very long as he falls asleep before he is able to feel bored. He remembers dreaming, but not what he dreams and just hopes he can go home soon. Not that he is sure how is going to cook, get dressed, any everything else he needs to do during the days. With one arm things might become rather hard.

When he wakes up again, mostly because his stomach starts to complain about the lack of food, he notices someone sitting next to him. "Hi..." He speaks, the first time he says a word that day.

He turns his head a bit towards her and finds himself looking straight at her chest. A rather nice view but then he manages to lift his head a bit more and look at her face.