Casusbelli: War meets Love

Chapter 1: Emergency

Thomas looked down at his fiancé as she laid there on the stretcher, bleeding out and losing her life by the second. He couldn't imagine what he would do if he lost Petra. She was his world.

"Sir, we're gonna need you to tell us what happened?" one of the doctors asked Thomas as they continued wheeling her towards the emergency ward. Thomas tried to keep up, not taking his eyes off Petra for a second.

"She fell off the roof," he answered, his voice shaky and his breathing unstable.

"Okay, sir, we'll take it from here," the doctor said but Thomas wasn't ready to let go anytime soon.

"You'll be fine... you'll be fine," he kept mumbling even though Petra was unconscious and couldn't hear him.

"Sir, we'll take it from here," the doctor repeated when he tried following them into the theater room.

Lewis, one of the male nurses, had to stop Thomas and try to calm him down. Thomas ran his hand through his auburn hair in dejection.

"Sir, calm down, she's in good hands. She'll be fine." Lewis leads the man out of the room and try to reassure him but it didn't look like it was working.

"Quit telling me to calm down!" Thomas snapped at Lewis.

Lewis sighed and went back to the nurses station, deciding to let the man pace around the waiting area in peace.

Two hours later, Loren, one of the other nurses in the ER, called out as she approached him. "Lewis,"

"Hey, what's up?"

"Did you hear what just happened?" Loren asked in a whisper like she was about to disclose classified information.

"What?" Lewis asked, eager to hear what she had to say. He looked at her to spill, but she was taking one hell of a time to start talking.

"They just brought in Cynthia Walker..." Loren said, her eyes growing wide slightly like she wasn't the one giving the news.

"Cynthia Walker... As in CEO Cynthia Walker?" He asked and she nodded. "What happened?"

"Apparently, she had a cardiac arrest at her fiftieth birthday party this evening."

"Whoa, really?"

"Yeah. Dr. Hernandez is with her now. They say it was really bad."

Cynthia Walker was the CEO of St. Gregory Hospital. There was no news that her health was not in good shape for a while now, but the cardiac arrest seemed to have surprised everyone.

The doctor who had been attending Petra's emergency service finally walked out of the ER, and Thomas, who had been standing for the past two hours, rushed over to him, demanding to know how Petra was doing.

The doctor sighed. "We've stitched her up, we managed to stop her from losing any more blood, but we're still checking for any internal bleeding."

Thomas heaved a sigh of relief. "That's good news."

"Yes, but... there's something else..."

"What?"

"She's in a coma," said the doctor. "Hopefully, she'll wake up soon and she'll be fine."

"When do you think she'll wake up?" Thomas asked, suddenly not feeling as relieved as he'd felt a minute ago.

"We can't say for sure. It could be days, weeks... months..."

"Can I see her?"

"Not yet. We'll let you know when you can." The doctor pats him on the shoulder before walking away.

Lewis, who had overheard them, decided to go into Petra's room to see how she was doing because he might not get the chance once they let Thomas in.

Lewis was only an intern at the ER and during the past three weeks he'd spent at St. Gregory, he'd never been so worried about a patient the way he was worried about Petra. For such a pretty thing, her injuries had been terrible, Lewis thought.

Two other nurses had been in the room when Lewis walked in. Petra now laid unconsciously on a bed with her bandaged head and an oxygen mask covering her nose and lips. Her honey long hair piled on top of her head in a loose bun. To Lewis, she still looked beautiful—even in a hospital gown.

The other nurses left as soon as they were done with what they'd been doing but Lewis stayed behind, staring at Petra. He was aware of how creepy it was and how he'd left his duty post but he was sure Loren would cover for him.

For some reason, he felt drawn to Petra from the moment he'd seen her bleeding out on that stretcher.

He had been lost in thought until the ECG started beeping very fast and he knew something was wrong.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEEPPP.

The fast beeping soon turned into one steady, long beep by the time he'd rushed out the door.

"Stat!"

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Three Months Later

"... So the cat just steps out of his apartment and walks to my door and takes a piss! Right in front of me!" Lewis rants, checking the IV drip. "I'm telling you, Petra, one day I'm gonna catnap that animal and turn it into a barbecue!"

Petra didn't respond and Lewis was wondering why he expected her to. He'd made a weird habit of talking to a patient who had been in a coma for the past three months but he couldn't help it most times. It felt like they were both lonely and there was the need to keep each other company.

Lewis had watched after Petra for the past three months. If he was being honest with himself, she was the best part of his internship. It was almost funny how he left his lonely apartment everyday, looking forward to ranting about his annoying neighbour and even more annoying cat with someone who could hear him or even respond.

Lewis sighed, now just staring at Petra. She had lost a lot of weight since she went into her coma and she was looking more pale. But Lewis had hope. Petra would wake up soon, he could feel it.

Lately, Lewis had noticed that it was only Petra's mom who visited. Her fiancé had stopped coming a long time ago, and although that was strange, Lewis was a little relieved because he never really liked Thomas. Or maybe it was just the fact that he was engaged to Petra that didn't sit well with Lewis.

It was only 8 AM and the ER was always quiet and a little deserted at that time of the day. Lewis would always head over to Petra's room to check on—and talk to—her before checking on other patients and going back to Petra.

That morning, after checking on other patients, he went back to Petra's room and found Miss Young, one of the janitors there. The woman was probably in her late forties or early fifties and she was very nice from what Lewis could tell.

But it was strange finding her there, simply staring at Petra. She had her mop with her so maybe she had come to clean but why was she staring at the unconscious patient?

Lewis felt he didn't have the right to judge since it was something he did quite a lot himself but finding someone else—especially a janitor—doing it was a little suspicious.

"Miss Young," Lewis called out, stepping into the room properly. He seemed to have startled the woman so he apologized, "Sorry. Good morning."

"Oh, Nurse Sanchez, it's you." Her voice was soft and her smile was warm and welcoming.

"Are you here to clean?"

"Yes, I am," replied the janitor before cleaning. "Something about the young lady just feels so familiar. I feel like I know her from somewhere."

Lewis was surprised to hear this. "Oh, really? Where?"

Miss Young chuckled. "I'm not sure, dear. She just feels familiar."

Lewis nodded before proceeding to check Petra's vitals like he hadn't done it a thousand times already.

"You've been spending a lot of time here. I'd think she was a relative of yours if I didn't know any better," Miss Young said as she mopped the tiled floor.

Lewis blushed, chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

He wasn't surprised someone had noticed the amount of time and the kind of attention he paid to Petra, but he didn't think it was so obvious for even a janitor to take note.

Lewis was about to leave when he noticed that Petra's fingers were moving. His eyes instantly grew wide with shock. That was a good sign.

"Her fingers moved!" he announced to the janitor in delight. He sounded happier than he thought he would.

"Really?" Miss Young looked surprised as well. Lewis dashed out the door to get a doctor.

By the time he'd returned with a doctor, Petra's eyes were moving. She slowly opened them but was blinded by the white lights. The voices in the room were muffled and she couldn't really process anything because it felt like her brain was booting up.

A minute later, she was still confused and she could hardly make out the faces of the two men hovering about her bed but she only wanted to know one thing.

"Thomas. Where's Thomas?"