Kimberly was walking through the hallway of the hospital, heading for the director's office when she heard someone call her name.
“Dr. Wright, Dr. Wright !” Kimberly turned around and saw a nurse running towards her.
“I’m so sorry to bother you.” The nurse said, panting heavily making Kimberly wonder how long she had been running.
“Hold on, take a deep breath and tell me what’s wrong.” Kimberly said to the nurse, who nodded and did as she was told before speaking up once more.
“I only wanted to give you the medical report of the patient in room 406, you asked me to prepare.”
“Oh that, thanks.” Kimberly replied when the nurse was done with her explanation. The nurse handed her the medical report before Kimberly resumed on her way to the director’s office.
She arrived her destination, which was the director’s office, but stood at the door staring blankly at the name tag on the door. She internally hoped her request be granted.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and reached for the door knob, when she heard a muffled 'come in'.
“Dr. Wright, what brings you here?” Dr. Cullen, the hospital's director asked as he was surprised by her presence in his office.
“I’m sorry I came to your office unannounced. Your secretary wasn’t at her desk, hope I’m not a bother.” Kimberly quietly asked.
“You know you’re never a bother to me. Have a seat.” Dr. Cullen said, gesturing for Kimberly to sit down on one of the chairs across his desk .
She gave a polite smile and did as she was told.
Kimberly knew Dr. Cullen gave her such special attention because she was one of the best neurosurgeon they heard, even though she was young.
She felt terrible for what she was about to ask as she saw the way Dr. Cullen looked interested in what she wanted to say.
Kimberly knew Dr. Cullen thought she was here because she had suggestions to give regarding the hospital like she always did. But, that isn’t the case, because today she came for personal reasons.
Saving lives was her priority as a doctor, but being with her fiancé was also important to her, considering the fact that she rarely gets to spend time with him due to his nature of work. This was her only chance to be close to him this year.
“Dr. Wright, are you okay?” Dr. Cullen said bringing Kimberly back to reality.
She didn’t even know she had been lost in her thoughts.
“Um.. I’m sorry, I- I was wondering if can get a leave of absence for a period of two weeks?” she nervously asked, her palms already sweaty.
The reason Kimberly was this nervous asking was because, Dr. Cullen can be friendly sometimes but was a very strict and dedicated doctor especially when it comes to work and he expected the same with the other doctors.
She hoped he wasn’t already disappointed with her because of her request as he was dead silent. The only thing she could hear in the room was the pounding of her heart beat.
God! she hated the way he was staring intensely at her, like she was some kind of puzzle he wanted to solve. It made her feel so small.
“Is everything alright at home? Because I know you. You’ve never asked for this sort of favor before.” He suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
This brought a wave of relief to Kimberly who thought he wasn’t going to say a word to her.
“Yeah, everything is fine.” she replied with a nervous chuckle.
“So, why then would you want a leave of absence? You know you can talk to me.”
Kimberly could see the concern in his blue eyes as he was honestly worried about her.
Should she open up and tell him the reason why she needed the leave of absence?
That would be so embarrassing. Just the thought of telling him made blush rise to her cheeks.
“If you’re stressed out from working for almost a year without one, then..”
“No, no. That’s not it. I know I requested for it to be that way and I don’t regret it, it’s just… My fiancé is returning tomorrow and we barely have time for each other due to the nature of our jobs.” She said letting out a heavy sigh before she continued to speak.
“He’s in the Navy and spends almost the year round at sea but only gets to spend two weeks at home… This year unfortunately didn’t correspond with the time I usually get my leave, so I was wondering if you could excuse me just this once.. please?” She pleaded in a small voice.
“Hmmn..” Dr. Cullen sighed while Kimberly waited, eager to know his reply.
“It’s alright, you have my permission. You’ll receive you letter of leave in the morning.”
“Thank you so much sir.” She said with so much excitement as she stood from her seat and walked towards Dr. Cullen, giving him a hug to his surprise.
Her action made him chuckle as he returned the hug.
“But don’t get too excited, Dr. Wright cos you might get a call when there’s an emergency that requires your presence.” He said to Kimberly after the hug.
“That won’t be a problem. Thank you once again.” She said as she exited his office.
Kimberly’s breath hitched at the sight of her father.“Can you explain to me, what is going on here?” Mr. Wright asked with a raised eyebrow, staring directly at his daughter who was a nervous wreck.Wasn’t he supposed to be asleep? Kimberly’s subconscious asked, still finding it difficult to answer her dad’s question. She opened her mouth to say something but no words could come out.'You can do this, Kim. Just tell him the truth. Besides, he knows about their kind, so it should be easy.' She encouraged herself, finally picking up the courage to speak.“Dad, um. I-I, um. This is Roy, my m-mate.”'Way to go, Kim. That was quite courageous.' She mentally face palmed.Mr. Wright couldn’t believe what he just heard. He could feel his heart shattering into a million pieces from Kimberly’s r
“Roy?!” Kimberly gasped as she stared in shock at her mate. Her mind was playing tricks on her, she concluded, shutting her eyes once again.'This is another hallucination, Kim. Don’t get your hopes up' she internally said to herself, getting herself prepared for another round of disappointment.She opened her eyes once more, and to her greatest surprise, Roy was still there, just inches away from her.“Kimberly” he called, oh so gently, bringing tears to her eyes.‘Could this be real?’ she wondered, slowly stretching out her arm, in attempt to touch him.She flinched away when her fingers lightly touched his arm, not wanting to believe that this is real.It took her a few seconds to actually believe that it was indeed real, and the minute she accepted it, she engulfed him in a tight hug, with uncontrollable tears rol
“That was so unprofessional of you, Dr Wright!” Dr Cullen angrily yelled.“I’m sorry.” Kimberly nervously apologized.“Sorry? You’re sorry? We almost lost a patient because of your negligence!”Kimberly was aware of the fact that she made a terrible mistake back there in the operating room. If they hadn’t struggled to get her full attention back on the surgery, she would have lost her patient, which has never happened before.“I know I made a mistake and I’m sorry, but I still saved the patient’s life. That’s what matters.” She tried to defend herself as she was already in tears because she hated being yelled at.“Are you even listening to yourself?.. I never expected such from you.” Dr Cullen said, his voice heavy with disappointment causing Kimberly to feel even worse.
Kimberly watched as the body of the man she once called the love of her life and fiancé was being lowered six feet under the ground, along with his two friends. Her tears flowed freely down her cheeks, as she realized that he was truly gone, he has left her forever. She would never see those lovely blue eyes or his beautiful smile ever again. She would miss seeing him looking all handsome in his white uniform.An arm went around her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. She turned to see who the arm belonged to, it was Tony, Ian’s dad. He gave her a sad smile before handing over to her the flag which was previously on Ian’s coffin.Kimberly stared at it for a minute, tracing her fingers on the fabric before breaking down in tears. Why aren’t these people blaming her for what happened? Why did they believe the story that some wild animals killed their son and his friends? She doesn’t deserve
Kimberly’s eyes fluttered open but a bright light caused her to shut them back.“What’s that?” She wondered, trying to open her eyes again.She repeated the process three times before her eyes adjusted to the bright light. She glanced at her surrounding, trying to figure out where she was.Where the hell I’m I? This isn’t my bedroom, neither is it Roy’s or Hugh’s.Her heartbeat quickens at the thought of those two names, as the memories of the war came flooding back making it difficult for her to breathe. The sound of something beeping and her dad rushing to her side, pressing a button with a worried look was the last thing she heard and saw before going unconscious again. Kimberly woke up again, this time, to the sound of the beeping beside her. She realized she was still in the same place.
Kimberly let out an ear piercing scream as her whole body went numb. She couldn’t believe what just happened. It didn’t happen, did it? She mentally asked, as she stared blankly at the spot where Roy and Hugh both were, a while ago. There was nothing there, just a fallen tree.Roy, her missing piece, her soulmate is gone. Nothing or no one could convince her otherwise, because she felt a sharp pain in her chest when he fell off the cliff. Hugh killed him right before her eyes.Her knees went weak and she fell to the ground, crying into her hands. ‘This pain is too much' she cried, rubbing her chest. This is far worse than when she lost Ian. This was death itself, she concluded, as she let out another scream, not caring about her surrounding.Alan, Elijah and some of the other pack members ran to the river below the cliff, after giving orders to the pack doctors and the rest of both pack members,