Little Boxes All The Same [Laiso]

[dr. aiden james conrad]

Aiden had seen way too many kids lately. It was as though Hawthorne had gone a little more violent lately. That major attack had been something. So many students had been torture, many died.. It was horrible and after that, it was as though every violent student was competing with each other to see who could do better.

A few of the students had even come in a few times.. Students like Hope and Juliet. Aiden had gotten to know them while they were there and he hated seeing them come back again and again with various injuries. It was horrible but it was his job. He had just wanted to help people, not see them getting hurt so often. It just wasn't right! Something had to be done about it. The people running that school needed to do something and fast! Surely the parents would have something to say! ...But then with what he had seen, some of the parents weren't exactly reliable nor would they care. It was sad but what could one doctor do? He tried to be nice to make, make sure they were comfortable and happy while they had to stay at the hospital. He talked to them, he was there but there wasn't much else he could do and he knew it.

He moved to the nurses station. talking to the nurses there as he got out a few charts and checked a few things, asking them to help get a few things done. Aiden had a way of asking that actually had the nurses smiling and happy to do it. Some of the doctors seemed to just tell them to or worse, demand it to be done quickly but Aiden was never like that, not even on a busy day and if he were in a rush and came across like that, he would apologize almost immediately.

Aiden was tired but a coffee would fix that in second. That was his next stop. It came with the job, the long late hours, the constant flow of patients to see to. He had a lot of work to do but he did it and he did it well.

After getting the paper work out of the way, Aiden found himself in the staff room, making his way straight to the coffee, not realizing if anyone else was in the room. He poured himself a cup, added the milk and the sugar before turning around to see that he had company. "Hello," he said politely with a smile, moving to the couch to sit down.

[laiso jade skelton]

Laiso had been gone half the day and was only now stepping into work. She wasn't irresponsible, she'd requested permission beforehand to arrive late. She had an interview for an endocrinology fellowship she was hoping to work on in the future. She loved her job at North Haven but she also knew that her chances to help people were limited as a nurse. If she could find a specialist area she would be more use to patients, she just had to wait for the call. For now, while she watched the doctors reassure and assist patients with their impeccable people skills that could only come from years of working with people she was already seated behind her workstation ready to diffuse and rearrange nursing schedules and look over treatments. Her hair was curled and sitting just past her shoulders and she was already changed into her scrubs.

When her breaks came up she was still at her workstation reviewing patient files, only stopping when the janitor Marvell came over to say hello and to ask how the interview went. Because she was so dedicated to her work she reluctantly admitted to herself that she'd barely left time for social interaction, especially not with anyone under fifty years of age. Wound up but still withholding that gentle smile that graced her features she had to leave her workstation to track down some Percocet that had gone missing. It was nothing new, drug addicts trying to score a fix. It was stressful to have to interview the doctors of every patient on that floor with a history of drug abuse but she handled it as she always did, proudly. Most doctors were on call, so Laiso expected that the staff room would be empty.

This turned out to not be the case. She gave a graceful nod as he acknowledged her, taking a seat but too shy to get up and make some coffee for herself. "Good afternoon Dr Conrad" she addressed politely, sat timid as a mouse.

[dr. aiden james conrad]

It came easily to him, dealing with patients. Aiden had the good luck of getting most of the Hawthorne student, all with their own complicated individual problems. Things like addictions, disorders etc. It tended to complicated things, for example trying to keep a patient awake because he had a concussion and hoping the narcolepsy doesn't get in the way. There were a lot more factors to juggle and fit together.

He sipped his coffee, immediately feeling a bit better as he sat down. Clearly it was just a psychological effect but Aiden wasn't about to over-analyze it. It was just a cup of coffee not a cup of magic. He smiled when she said good afternoon. He had been working all night and in his mind it was still early in the morning but clearly he was wrong. Aiden hadn't exactly looked out of a window lately.

She was just sitting there quietly. He noticed that he didn't have a drink in her hands. Sure, some people might prefer to just sit there but why ask anyway. "Would you like a drink?" he asked, already getting up to get her something. The woman was pregant she didn't need to be getting up and moving around more than she had to. The job was pretty demanding as it is.

[laiso jade skelton]

"I'd rather not, it's best to keep my caffeine levels balanced and I've already had two cups of instant coffee and about five cans of cola, so I think I've had my limit." Laiso knew that it was best not to have more than 200mg of caffeine a day and she already felt guilty that she had likely exceeded that today. Sure there were worse crimes to commit when pregnant, like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, but she believed that childcare starts when the babies are in the womb. If you couldn't look after them in there, where can you?

Peers of hers from when she attended school in California had already had their first baby by now but Laiso knew even at twenty-three she was somewhat of an early mother. The correlation between young mothers and miscarriage rates weren't good either, which made her incredibly fearful. That's without factoring in the fact that she carried three children. She couldn't bear to think about labour day, especially alone. She decided to think about brighter things, such as the kind doctor that had offered her a drink. He seemed respectable, her vision was usually so blurred as she passed time through work that she didn't often take the time to get to know any of the doctors.

She could feel a pit in her stomach opening up the way it always did when she was reminded that she was pregnant. She wanted to fall down that pit most days, let it swallow her up, she had no idea how she was going to climb out alone. Laiso just passed it off as mainly because she hadn't eaten for a while. After all there may well be an empty physical pit in her stomach. She couldn't remember the last thing she'd eaten that had actually filled her. That was bad, considering she was feeding... four mouths... the pit was there again. "Have you worked here long?" Laiso inquired meekly to the man.

[dr. aiden james conrad]

Aiden cringed a little. Yeah that was probably a little more caffeine than she shuld be having. "That's a lot of caffeine," he said stating obvious as he moved to get himself another packet of sugar from the counter. Aiden liked his coffee sweet not bitter.. was that weird? Probably a little but what did it matter. He knew what he liked.

"What about some water or tea or juice," he suggested. He might as well get something since he was already up and over there. "Or even a muffin," he said in case she was hungry. There was a whole basket there anyway so why not? He'd get one too if he felt like it but right now, Aiden just wanted to finish his coffee and get back to work. There wasn't much left onhis shift so he wanted to get as much done as posisble.

Aiden thought back on it when asked the question. "I'd say about three or four years," he said, yeah that sounded about right. "What do you think of the hospital so far?" he asked, knowing she was new.

[laiso jade skelton]

Laiso sighed as he told her what she already knew. "I know... I'm scared enough with this pregnancy without making things worse for myself." she looked down sadly. After this she was probably never ever going to drink caffeine again to punish herself. Normally she would've left food, before she was pregnant. Now she was feeding too many, she had to eat at every opportunity. She took a muffin from the basket and dropped back to her seat, only occasionally looking at the doctor from the corner of her eye. "Oh you know.. same as any hospital. As I'm 'only a nurse' I can't even feed a patient without a doctor's permission." plus the money wasn't that great either, which was why she worked part-time at an urgent care center when she wasn't at the hospital. Not that she could ever complain about money, she wasn't materialistic enough to put possession over helping people.

While his shift was almost over, Laiso still had a twelve-hour shift to manage so she was enjoying the muffin time she had. Odds are if the staff didn't flood in then she would be working a double shift. Tucking her hair behind her ears she took a bite out of her muffin. Her pregnancy made her seriously sensitive to smells and his coffee was trying it's way into her nausea. She shuffled to a different side of the couch to hopefully keep away the vile smell. Normally she could stand the smell of coffee but god, she felt like she was going to hurl and she had only munched on a muffin.

"I'm.... I'm feeling a little..." those were the only words she could throw out before her entire stomach content fell from her face as her head quickly drew forward.

[dr. aiden james conrad]

"Sorry, just habit I guess," he said, staring back down at his cup. Pointing out these sorts of things came naturally to him but Laiso was a nurse so she would know all of this anyway. There was really no point in saying it but like Aiden had told her, it was just habit to do that.

Aiden had back down, pouring the contents of the packet of sugar into his cup before carefully mixing it in. It seemed to go quiet again but then that was to be excepted. Laiso didn't seem like the chatty type and Aiden had always been more of an introvert than not.

He listend and looked up again when she spoke. He nodded in agreement before responding. "I can't imagine what that must be like but I'm sure it can get frustrating at times," he said. Some of the nurses he knew probably knew more about what to give some of the patients than the interns did. It was just how things worked.

He sat back sipping his coffee slowly. it went quiet again for a few more moments but then he heard Laiso speak and looked up only to see her really not looking too good. Aiden was about to say something she then it was too late.

He went and got her some water, holding the cup out to her. "Maybe you should get some fresh air," he suggested, not even bothered by what had just happened. He had been a doctor for a while now and Aiden had seen worse.

[laiso jade skelton]

Laiso knew that she had to fight the silence that stretched between them but it was natural for her to believe that doctors had better things to do than converse with people that weren't their patients. Maybe she believed that because she often found it true in her ventures as a nurse. At least this doctor didn't look down on her, though she wasn't too sure she was as impressed with him as everyone spoke of. After all, he was a big deal amongst the other nurses. Great at his job, attractive, unattached, kind, considerate, always willing to help. It was almost impossible to think that he might actually be human with all the talk. Besides, Laiso prided herself on not ogling anyone while on-the-job. In fact since her divorce she didn't ogle period.

She was about to apologize for her lack of control over her stomach acid but actually it wasn't his staff room, so it didn't really make sense to apologize as if she'd ruined a special room. The most preoccupied she'd seen the staff room was when it was filled with the chemistry between two members of staff hooking up. That was probably something most of the doctors (except those participating) were unaware of. The nurses, it was fair to say, gossiped far more than the doctors.

"Thank you Aiden" she nodded, inhaling strong breaths of air. She didn't think twice once they were out of the hospital, even just out of the door, using his first name. Why should she feel guilty for informality when they did completely different jobs? "I won't distract you from your work any longer." she told him with a small smile, her hand caressing her pregnant stomach. It always made her feel a little better to know that her babies were there.

[dr. aiden james conrad]

Aiden was friendly enough. He wasn't someone to talked a lot but he would have a conversation with a person, something a little more than just 'hello' and 'good bye' but he was still quiet, it was just his nature but that was okay. He didn't come across as the sort of person who'd rather avoid it so it was alright.

He was concerned about her working in her condition and he might have said something but she was a nurse she knew these things and it would have been silly to voice his concerns when she's probably heard it a hundred times before, it just seemed a tad redundant so he chose not to do it. Besides, continuing to work had to be a decision she made and surely she had considered everything so he said nothing.

“Anytime,” he told her with a smile once they were out of the hospital. She called him Aiden, but he didn't mind. It was his name so why would he? Besides, he gave his patients the choice between 'Dr. Conrad' and 'Aiden'. He wasn't like some of the doctors who took it too seriously and always insisted on being called doctor as though this was their prize for studying all those years. Aiden did it to help people not for the glory that came with the title. It was just the sort of person he was but still, he was by no means perfect. He might be all these nice things but still, he was busy with work, hardly had the time for a relationship, and when he did have a moment, he spent it reading. Some might even call him dull and boring if they didn't care to put in the time and effort to get to know him but Aiden didn't mind. He was who he was.

Aiden checked his watch when she said that and smile. “I should have left twenty minutes ago so you're hardly a distraction from work. Besides, I need to know that you're going to be alright, before I even consider going back in there,” he told her with a smile. She looked better now so he assumed she would be fine but there was no harm in asking. All he needed to do now was to make sure she was fine, go back in get his things and make his way home.