Page 56 of See You Soon
Suddenly, a woman screaming erupts the entire building. Everyone including the staff around us stops in their tracks and I know where it's coming from. Violet's room. She's awake.
"I've gotta go. Goodnight Kane." I rush out my words before starting to quickly jog towards Violet's room. Kane looks wary but accepts my farewell, turns, and walks away from where we were standing.
I was already close to Violet's room, my sneakers squeaking as I stopped mid-run and it didn't take me long before I'm facing the glass doors. She's thrashing and I hadn't noticed it before but she was restrained to the hospital bed.
Lori mentioned that before but I hadn't seen it with my own eyes yet. My heart is racing, unsure of what to do or say. I'm sure being restrained to the bed is only making her more anxious and scared. We only restrain patients when they're a danger to others or themselves.
Doctor Diaz also rushes next to me. He's by my side and we're both looking at Violet through the glass doors to her room. He whispers into my ear, still looking at Violet.
"Go to her, I'll be outside ready with a sedative but if you can talk to her, comfort her, let her know that we're here to help and that she's in a safe place, that would be better." Doctor Diaz encourages, with a needle in his hand, ready to administer. His tired eyes look at me and await my response.
"Of course. I'll do what I can doctor."
Violet is still screaming and crying. I walk into the room slowly, heading towards a night lamp in her room in the corner. I turn it on giving the room some light. Her IV and vitals monitor are on the right side of her and I'm now on her left, still in the corner across from her. Her beaten face is swollen with fear. I want to cry when all the dark thoughts of what she must have gone through creep into me but I control my emotions and face. We are trained to refrain from showing our concern as it doesn't do the patient any good.
Her long hair is a beautiful shade of brown and red. It's tangled and tussled, around her shoulder. She looks underweight and she has markings around her arms as well.
Every time she thrashes, she's stressing out her vein that has the IV connected to it. She's about to rip it out and I cringe internally.
"Violet, it's okay,you're okay.You're safe. You're in a military hospital in Iraq. You can trust me." I plead with my hands, walking closer to her, anxiety fueling my veins and I feel helpless but I try my best to console her. I’m sure she knows where she is but I’m hoping it would help to remind her that she’s safe.
She stops screaming when she hears my voice and her vision locks into mine. Tears fall down on each side of her cheeks and I grab tissues from the nightstand that's on her left.
"I'm a nurse. My name is Ari Alvarez." I tread my steps slowly, grabbing the Kleenex tissues out of the box and leaving my hand out for her to take it on her free will. I wanted to make sure she knew that every decision from now on, is of her free will, nobody will ever force her to do anything she's not comfortable with.
Violet is hesitant at first but takes the Kleenex and plays with it in her hands. I watch her silently and frozen. She then puts it to her face, dabbing the tissues to her cheek carefully against her bruising. She still has broken blood vessels surrounding her hazel-green eyes. Probably resulting from her broken nose.
"You're safe. I'm just going to make sure your IV is still on your wrist okay? Is that alright with you?" I smile at her.
Again, she's studying me. She hesitates, looking at her surroundings. She stops looking at me and looks around the room instead. She looks towards the hallway through the glass doors then returns back to me and nods.
I walk over to her right wrist to ensure the IV hasn't been taken out when she woke up screaming. If that were to happen, blood would be spilling out of her wrist everywhere and I would have to re-insert her IV in a different vein which I wanted to avoid poking her again if I could. Inserting IVs was very routine at this point but I didn't want to poke her if it was unnecessary. I silently prayed that it was still connected.
As I reach over to her, Violet flinches and moves away from me on her bed. I stop in my tracks and give her a minute before I would continue. I freeze in my tracks with my hands by my chest. I stop before I can get a close look and touch her wrist. Internally, I brace myself for her to spit on me or thrash again but she doesn't move. Her breathing heightens and she’s studying me again.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure your IV didn't get pulled out." She's looking at me and I can't tell what's going through her head. She's so scared and frightened.
"Cause that would really suck." I joke, light-heartedly. I let out a soft laugh before I shut my mouth closed, my teeth clicking together.
I look down at the floor before looking back at her. She's stony-faced but then her lips move into a very, very small smile.
"Can I?" I motion towards her wrist that's strapped down to the handles of the bed. Violet nods again.
I walk closer and her whole body relaxes. She gets closer to me, shifting her body to my side, allowing me to treat her. I grab her wrist softly and to my dismay, the IV is still intact. Thank God. My blood pressure can drop now. I want to hug her, I want to help her in more ways than I can, medically wise. I want to tell her everything will be okay but how do you say that to someone who has been through hell?
"Yay, it's still going strong." I cheerfully say as I retreat back into the corner, across from her. Her heart rate was elevated and now it starts to hit an even pace. I let out a sigh of relief knowing I wouldn't need the sedative medication that Doctor Diaz had prepared. At least not yet.
"Is there anything you need? Water? Snacks?" Violet eyes dry up and she's no longer crying and in tachycardia. Violet shakes her head and rests back on the pillow.
After minutes of silence, she grabs the remote to the television that was on her nightstand and turns it on. I just stand there in the corner, watching her, ready to step in if she needs anything.
Sometimes, after something traumatic has happened, all someone needs is just someone there. Their presence alone can make it all the better. So that's what I was trying to do for Violet. I truly didn’t want to pressure her into talking if she wasn't ready.
I stood there watching her flip through the channels until she lands on a comedy show, Parks and Recreation. She keeps it there, dropping the remote to her side. Amy Poehler was seriously the best. I turned my head facing the TV, this was one of my favorite episodes.
"I love Parks and Recreation. It's my favorite comedy show." I say, grabbing a chair and sliding it out of the corner. Comedy shows are my safe haven nowadays. Every day has been full of stress and darkness these past few months and the only thing that keeps a constant smile on my face was my favorite TV show.
I sit down next to Violet on her left. Making sure to keep some distance between her and me, unsure of how she's going to react. Still, she's quiet and I’m understanding. If I had gone through half of what she went through, I'd probably lose the ability to ever talk again. We're watching Leslie Knope in silence when suddenly, Violet speaks.
