Chapter 8 - Time of Calm

Nurse Julie

I sit in the chair next to Beatrice's bed. Every now and again she reaches down toward her leg with the knife, and every time as subtle as I possibly can, I take her hand away from her leg and hold it in mine, stroking the back of her scraped hand as she whimpers in pain.

I don't know what they are going to do once they do get the results back.

I mean obviously they will take her to surgery, but before that.

The common medicine that we use to knock people out for surgery is a serum; the only way it is effective in divergents; and especially genetically pure divergents is if they are calm.

And by the looks of her now... Yeah, that serum isn't going to work.

There is other ways to knock a person out, but they will be hard for Tris, and, well, hard for us to do to her if so. Any of the things could most likely result in loosing the small trust we have finally built with her over the past couple hours.

Outside of Chicago there is other kinds of medication that will knock out divergents, genetically pure people, and just about everyone.

But Chicago hasn't made many allies with the other cities, so those medications are not available to us.

It really is a shame. It would be easier on so many people if we had the advanced medication; especially since the divergents in the population dramatically increased since the war and the fence being opened.

Tris lets out a loud whine, followed by a groan as her face clenches in pain and she shifts on the bed, clearly uncomfortable.

I just wish there was more we could do.

We don't have as strong of pain killers for this type of injury either.

She continues to move around on the bed, heavily breathing as I see sweat beads form near her scalp and trickle down her face. She begins to shake yet again and her hand goes stiff in my hand.

"Honey, it's okay. Shh, you're okay Tris. Calm down. " I continue to stroke the back of her hand.

All of a sudden she lets out a screech and then a cry of pain as she grips my hand and pushes herself forcefully back down to laying in the bed. She trembles and cries, the whimpers never stopping as I can tell that pain begins to take over her body.

A quick knock raps on the door before Dr. Scott comes in with some more medical things.

"Please, no. Please, no. Please no." Tris audibly mumbles.

"Has she been mumbling?" Dr. Scott asks.

"A little, but this is the first time I can actually make out what she's saying."

She nods and goes through the rack of things when the door slams open. A few of our newer nurses come rushing in, followed by even more nurses. They all start talking at once. I cannot make out what they're saying, but Dr. Scott can't get them to leave. They just can't hear her. Each one of the nurses has a scared look on their face, and whatever they're trying to tell her must be very urgent or important.

All of a sudden most of the nurses turn toward Tris and they rush over to her.

She completely flips out; screaming, shaking, crying; she basically goes into a terrible panic attack.

I almost yell but then quickly bite my tongue and lower my voice. I rushingly say, "Get away from her. She could--"

But it's too late.

A nurse gasps.

They all fall silent,

Even Tris.

Even Tris is unsure of what she should do.

But then she finally takes a deep breath as the knife hits the ground with a clink.

She doesn't scream.

She doesn't make a sound.

She just breaths heavily, and I think it may almost be in relief, or maybe fear.

Dr. Scott pushes her was through the nurses and the second she sees Tris her face pales.

"EVERYONE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" She yells which makes Tris jump.

Dr. Scott runs out into the hallway, and then returns with two of our much more experienced nurses.

"Okay. I need you to hold her head, you get this arm and side of her and Julie you hold onto that arm and that side of her. Keep her as still as you can I have to spray her. She needs surgery immediately, no matter what the results of the blood work say anymore." She digs through the medical cart.

The spray.

I feel my heart drop.

The spray is a natural spray, made of pepper spray, along with other herbs and medicines. It is very effective for knocking people out, divergents, and genetically pure divergents; keeping them under for at least six hours. But the process of getting the spray isn't easy in the patient.

They take this bottle and spray what seems like gallons of the stuff on the person's face; it burns tremendously on the person and it is eventually inhaled because of how long it is constantly sprayed by the machine bottle. It makes their eyes water, they usually seem to almost choke on the mist and it all continues until the whole bottle is used or the person is knocked out.

Dr. Scott finds the medium sized bottle and rushes back to Tris.

"Ready?" She asks us and we all reply.

She presses the button on the bottle and it begins to spray. It takes Tris a minute to react, but she does.

Dr. Scott had left the door open when she ran out to get the nurses, and that wasn't too good of a move.

Tris lets out a blood curling scream that makes my ears numb and shatters my heart. She pulls on all of us holding her down, and no matter how bad I want to let her defend herself, I remind myself that she needs to be knocked out for this surgery. She needs to go through this so they can help her without hurting her further.

She gasps after recovering from her scream.

I hate this part. I just have to look away.

I hear her begin to cough and struggle to breathe from the spray.

I pray that she will pass out before the bottle is empty.

That she can finally get some sleep and relax, even though she won't be conscious.

But sure enough, the bottle empties and she is still coughing and gasping for air.

I turn back around and look at the other people in the room, and they all have the same reaction as me.

I just wish there was an easier way for people like her; more advanced medicines.

After a few quieter coughs and gasps Tris is somewhat breathing again and she opens her eyes wider than I've ever seen them since she arrived.

She stares at the ceiling, clearly only focused on her breathing, which is good. She isn't freaking out or shaking right now.

She blinks a few times, each blink getting longer and her opening her eyes slower each time until finally they stay closed.

For the first time she looks somewhat peaceful.

Somewhat calm.

Somewhat okay.

"Let's wheel her down to the surgical wing. Get her on oxygen now and the IV serum medication to keep her asleep. I'll meet you down there." She says to the three of us.

I pray that she gets to stay out for a good period of time.

She needs this time of calm.

Even though it will be the complete opposite when she wakes up.

A/N

Hi humans!

So this chapter is pretty deep and somewhat hard to read. I promise I have a plot going through this sadness so just hang on friends!

This chapter (despite the rough, hard to read parts) has to be one of my favorites so far. I like throwing new point of views into a chapter to kind of build up a new character and see how they become. Nurse Julie will actually end up (if my plan for this goes on track and doesn't get interfered by, well, myself) being a pretty big part in this. Not as big as one of the main characters, but she's gonna be sticking around for a while!

1.98k reads! <4 <4

Anyways...

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