"Something wrong?" JC questioned, looking up from a game he was playing with Melanie. "Yeah, there's an incoming trauma that I have to go admit." She replied, placing the pager back into her pocket, and slinging her stethoscope back around her neck. JC sighed and looked back at Melanie, who was tossing something back and forth with Chris. "Do you mind if I come along? This kind of stuff has always interested me." He said giving her a sweet smile.
"You can if you feel like running across the hospital with me." Melissa laughed, playing with her drawstring of her scrubs. "Oh, I think I can do that." JC smiled, walking out of the room with her. Just the Melissa's pager went off again. "Ugh, come on." She laughed, taking off running down the hall, with JC close behind.
"What do we got Skylar?" Melissa questioned, as she picked up the chart. "6 year old girl involved in a tragic house fire. The paramedics wanted to send her across town to the burn unit, but they wouldn't take her because her family doesn't have insurance." Skylar replied. Melissa sighed and shook her head. "Damn hospital." She muttered, jotting something down on the chart, "When will she be here?"
"Estimated time, around 5 minutes." Skylar said, looking up at the clock. Melissa nodded her head, still writing vigorously on the chart. JC watched her every move intently; the way the muscles in her jaw clenched, the way she kept looking frantically at the clock, as if she were racing against time, and the way her eyes showed extreme passion for each of the patients there. He was broken from his thoughts by Melissa tugging on his arm, "Come on, we gotta go." she said, running down the hall, holding onto her stethoscope with one hand to keep from bouncing around, and holding onto the patient's chart with the other hand.
"Where should we put her?" One of the paramedics called out to Melissa. She walked up to them, slipped and ID bracelet onto the girl's tiny wrist, "Umm, room 122." The paramedics nodded and wheeled the gurney down the hall to her assigned room.
"How do you do it?" JC asked, looking at Melissa. "How do I do what?" she replied, looking up from the chart. "How do you do this everyday? Seeing all these kids so sick." He said. "Well, it was really hard at first, I had to do some major adjusting. But I just keep in mind that I'm here to help them." JC was about to say something else, but he was interrupted by a small girl down the hall, calling out for Melissa.
"Mele?" the small girl choked out. Melissa turned around and approached the girl, scooping her up into her arms, "What's wrong Jess?"
"I can't sleep, I'm having those dreams again." She sniffled, laying her head on Melissa's shoulder. Melissa sighed and wished she could make all of Jess's nightmares go away. She had been having reoccuring nightmares of the accident she was involved in, and she was always scared to sleep. Suddenly Melissa got an idea.
"JC, could you do me a huge favor?" Melissa asked, looking over at him. "Anything. You name it." He smiled. "Ok, follow me." She said, carrying Jessica back down the hall to her room, and laying her in her bed carefully. "Will you sing her a little something to help her get back to sleep?" JC didn't answer her verbally, instead he sat down on the edge of Jessica's bed, and started singing softly to her while running his fingers through her hair slowly. Melissa watched in utter amazement as Jessica's tiny eye lids fluttered closed, drifting to sleep quickly. "Wow..." Melissa muttered under her breath. JC smiled at the small, sleeping girl and stood up.
Melissa was still staring wide-eyed at JC. "What?" he asked, softly laughing. She shook her head and blushed slightly, realizing she was staring at him. "Oh... um...nothing. It's just, it always takes us hours to get her to go to sleep, even if we give her medication, it's like she always fights it."
"Hey JC? Are you about ready to go?" Lance asked, poking his head into Jessica's room. "We're leaving already? Man we just got here!" JC said, walking over to where Lance was standing. "Actually we've been here for about three hours." Lance laughed. "Whoa..." JC muttered. "Yeah, and we still have soundcheck to do for the show tonight."
"Hey Melissa?" JC said, turning his head back towards her, who was adjusting Jessica's TV monitor. "Yeah JC?" She said looking up. "How would you like to come to see our show tonight?" "Wow, um... I'd love to." She smiled. "Great, Lance, do you have a pass on you?" JC said, turning to him. "Actually, yeah I do." Lance replied, pulling it out of his pocket, and handing it to JC. "Ok, here take this. If any of the guards give you trouble, just tell them who you are, I'll be sure to let them know you're coming, so they shouldn't give you any problems." JC stated, handing her the pass. "Wow, thanks you guys." She smiled, taking the pass from JC.
"You guys! Come on, we gotta get to soundcheck!" Justin said. "Ok, we're coming Justin. So I guess I'll see you tonight then." JC said, smiling at Melissa. "I'll be there." she said smiling back. "Great, see ya then." JC said, before following the rest of the group down the hallway.
Melissa sighed and smiled to herself. She was instantly intrigued by JC, and deep down inside, she was extremely excited about getting to see him again. Only God knew what was in store for her later that night.
Three