The Day After (Dr. Zvarich)

The first morning with blessed, beautiful heat and electricity, the head of medicine made his way to the clinic. Grouchy, sullen children had already shoveled part of the path through the thick, glistening blanket of snow. How could such a lovely sight bring so much trouble? It could shut down entire cities, cut off families from civilization, and drive a handful of staff mad. Gabriel shook his head and set off down the treacherous sidewalk to the clinic.

Lucky were those who had been stuck there, as they'd had the backup generators to keep them warm. The children that had been rushed there before the snow had gotten bad were up and about. There had been a broken arm, a couple of head injuries, and one wee nipper who had been very ill with the flu. Now it was quiet. He'd sent the nurses and doc on staff back to their cottages to get some well-deserved rest, leaving him alone.

He’d been there a couple of weeks, but had never had the time to sit down and look through the patient files. Getting familiar with patients was important, and with such a small group of children, he felt he’d be able to become acquainted with them quickly. There were a few staff files as well, but nothing telling; a flu shot here, a broken finger there. He left them in the filing cabinet and took several resident files with him down the hallway.

In the small break room, there were the makings for tea, and he put on water to boil on the hotplate. There was a tin of holiday biscuits there as well, stale but sweet and buttery. He munched on them while he paged through the first file. Biard, Keziah. Reading along, his mind began to drift to the last couple of nights. He’d dealt with abused children before, but only on a relatively brief basis. They’d come into the ED a mess, bruised and battered, or in the worst cases, having died at the hands of someone who hadn’t known their own strength, or had only wanted them to shut up. Now it was going to be twenty-four-seven, all the bloody time. The decision to accept the position had come after much rumination, but it had been decided in the abstract. The storm had driven it home very quickly.

The tea-kettle whistled, and he finished his tea ritual. He gathered the files up and made his way back to his office, leaving the door open in case someone came in needing something, or just nosing around.

The first morning with magnificent, wonderful with warmth and electricity moving through Highgrove house like blood pumping through the body and reaching chilled veins and extremities. It was certainly a brighter morning for those who had slept the night before, and the children who groused about the work now put before them were among them. Save for one dark-haired resident of seclusion and the psychologists in apartment two. Though Nadiya had argued, unsuccessfully, that there were studies suggesting that a person could sleep for two and three hour intervals after a head trauma if the concussion was not severe. It was agreed, more ore less due to Gunner's complete dismissal of her counterpoint, that she would stay awake that night despite the sleep deprivation all staff and endured for the duration of the storm.

Nadiya could almost feel them forming, the half crescents of blue-and-black pigment settling under her eyes like snow on the boughs of a tree or the thin layer of dust on a mantle. She was not particularly vain, at least she did not believe herself to be, though like most women, there was a small collection of creams, lotions, serums and such in her bathroom cupboard, she did prefer to look her best at all times. Not so over done as to appear artificial, simply...complete, polished. Careful of the spot where the back of her head head met tile, Nadiya manipulated her curls into a some sort of style, it aspired to be a french braid but she stopped in the middle, securing it with a barette, taking inventory of her eyes, no irregular dilation, bright and alert. just as she knew, no concussion.

Gunner had a facility to run and restoring order after nearly three days of chaos was paramount, so she was not surprised to find the apartment, save a single occupant who was examining the murky brown stain of oxidized blood on the back of what had been a very lovely cornflower blue blouse. She curled in the collar of her shirt in and dressed in the outfit form the previous night. It would be the last time though,the outfit was destined for the trash after a hot shower. With a quick note to her 'fellow psychiatrist' Nadiya bundled up and braced for the cold. In the distance as she made her way to the little carriage house she shared with Ms. Larkin, Nadiya could see the forms of children shoveling show form the front drive, the redhead that had gone missing for a time was among them, shoveling with less verbal resistance then the others, but her body language was clear, she could think of many things she would have preferred to spend her time on.

A hot shower helped wash away some of her earlier exhaustion, but at this point her own body protested sleep as much as it has demanded it during the night. Nadiya decided on a dark coffee coloured cowl neck sweater with boots of the same colour and heavy jeans, she would not be seeing patients today, right now she was more interested in being comfortable than anything else. Her second trek into the snow ended, oddly enough, at the medical building, she stopped at the open office of Dr.Samdei, the hand of Gunner's favorite winter prank... "Good morning doctor, enjoying electricity once again?"