Page 25 of Heal Me

"Patients are checked every morning." I nod again.

"Usually, interns do not do any important work, but everything will depend on you. I think at first you will help the nurses with the documentation. They will teach you what to do." "Okay," I pursed my lips.

"A little further along the corridor is the resident's room, where you can store some of your things, and if you work night shifts, you can get some sleep."

"I was told that at first I will work only on weekends. Do you work night shifts?

"I have to."

"Aren't you tired?" I raise my eyes and look at Danylo.

His look shows no emotion. His brown eyes seem quite dark in this lighting.

"Tell me, is there a person who works in a hospital and doesn’t get tired?" he smiles.

Or, more likely, he squeezes a smile out of himself. It's only eight o'clock in the morning, and Danylo looks like he's worked for over twenty hours.

"Was it a difficult night? Lily didn't come back to the room yesterday, and the girls texted that they were out all night, not the best way to spend time before work," I smile and approach Danylo.

He sat down on the windowsill. The colour of his face became almost white. I already regretted the words I had said.

"Tonight we lost a patient," Danylo says quietly, looking at the ground, "he was brought to the ambulance with a brain injury, we didn't have time to help him."

"I'm sorry," I touch his leg, "I didn't know."

I'm not used to seeing Danylo in such a state. This is a guy who constantly jokes, flirts with everyone and smiles with his straight white teeth.

And indeed. Why does he have such perfect teeth?

"It's okay, it's not your fault."

There is silence. None of us say a word. We sit on the windowsill in an empty corridor being silent.

"Maybe if I had reacted faster, if I had managed to make a diagnosis sooner than..." Danylo buries his face in his hands.

"Listen," I lift his head and make him look at me, "It's not your fault, you did everything that you could."

His eyes are already red, and so are his cheeks. Now he no longer seems like such a proud and narcissistic Prince Charming. And although his hair is not styled as usual, his shirt is a little wrinkled, but his medical coat is perfectly clean.

"The hardest thing in this job is to lose someone."

I bite my lip to keep myself from crying.

"Losing someone is the most difficult thing that can happen to anyone," I say quietly, and we are silent again.

Danylo gets up, runs his hand through his hair, he no longer looks at me. His mood changes again, and the cheerful Danylo that I used to see appears in front of me. Although now it seems to me that he is not at all who he pretends to be. I know well what it's like to wear masks.

"My shift ends in two hours, let's introduce you to the nurses, today you will help them."

I nodded and got up. We haven't talked more that day.

Chapter 12

Irush off my feet, I feel that if I don't stop running, I'll just fall down in the middle of the corridor.

And why should I do this work, and not the cleaner?

This is the third patient who has vomited today in the last two hours. I seem to like the internship less and less. Yesterday I spent the whole day digging through old documentation and sorting it into departments, and today I'm running with a mop in my hands. At most, when I am allowed to see patients, it’s to help them go to the toilet or bathroom.

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