Would you tell us that you're okay~ (Henry)

[LACEY LOPEZ]

Lacey slid her white hospital shoes on with a grimace. Those shoes were going to be the death of her. They were so ugly, she wished that she could throw them in a fire at her next bonfire outing. They squeaked against the clean hospital floor as she glided through the hallways, holding her clipboard that told her everything that she was supposed to do today for her Trainee Nurse job. She was bumped up to a higher age of patients since she did such a good job helping with the children. She was gonna miss all the kids, though. She promised them all that she'd come back and visit. Lacey reached the adult ward of leukemia patients and stopped at the front desk to chat idly with the nurse at the front counter.

When the nurse at the counter told Lacey to go ahead and do her rounds, Lacey resisted the urge to roll her eyes and suck her teeth as she pushed off the counter and head to the circular set-up of rooms. The first room was a twenty year old named Henry Owens with stage 3 leukemia. She sucked in a deep breath and braced herself. If she was going to be a nurse, she had to learn how to deal with this sort of thing. Knocking on the slightly ajar door, she pushed it open and was faced with Henry straight on. He was struggling to sit up as Lacey greeted him. "Hey, Henry. I'm Lacey and I'm just gonna check up on your vitals to make sure everything's okay." She gave him a smile and headed over to the beeping stand that held several tubes that were connected to Henry's body.

Lacey checked off all the correct things on her clipboard. Henry seemed to be just fine, but the retching sounds that were coming from the bed told her otherwise. She was reaching for a wash basin to hold under him, but she was a little too late as a little bit of vomit dropped on his sheets. Lacey held the basin in his lap as Henry vomited into the container. She looked down at the tiled floor as she placed the basin in the bathroom for later clean up. Lacey grabbed another one and a clean sheet. She stripped the soiled sheet from the bed and gently placed the clean one over him. Lacey grabbed a washcloth, damp with warm water and swiped it over Henry's mouth and chin with his approval first, admiring his high cheekbones. She gave him a half-smile. "All right?" She asked before placing the fresh wash basin in his lap just in case it happened again.

[HENRY OWENS]

Here Henry was again. Same ward, same ugly hospital gown, same uncomfortable hospital bed. The only thing that had changed was the actual hospital he was in. He'd been hoping he'd have time to do things in Vegas after moving from Bullhead. But apparently his doctors weren't having that. They'd transferred all his information and appointments. And unluckily enough for him, of of those appointments happened to also be one of his first days in Vegas.

He'd hardly had time to unpack most of his things before he'd had to pack a separate smaller bag for the hospital and drive up to Days of Grace. It sounded like a soap opera. And Henry wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. This was mostly because the only feeling he could really focus on at the moment was the churning of his stomach clashing with the medicine they'd given him.

He'd attempted to just turn over on his side and sleep off the nausea, but his stomach wasn't allowing that. Settling for watching the mid-day garbage on the slightly audible television on the wall across from him, he made to swallow down the feeling of gagging on his own lunch from earlier. He was not going to throw up.

It was a routine thing for Henry to refuse the feeling of vomiting. He absolutely couldn't stand it, and so he'd sit on the hospital bed swallowing, while make small retching sounds at his stomachs protest.

The nurse that came in to check on him looked about his age. He figured she must be in training. Henry wasn't quite sure how he felt about another college-age student checking his vitals, but she seemed like she knew what she was doing. Plus it was better than the old, wrinkly lady who was always prodding him with different medical instruments. Swallowing the urge to gag again, he nodded to the girl, looking away from her as she went about checking everything and back up to the television. He felt his throat tightening up a moment later, not able to swallow back what he was sure was the first of the vomit.

Throwing a hand up to his mouth instinctively he felt his stomach lurch and up came the puke. Luckily Lacey was quick to grab a wash-basin and he finished throwing up into it. Bringing his hand up to his mouth shakily he wiped slightly, embarrassed, face already turning a noticeably pink color as the nurse took the sheets he'd ruined and replaced them. Taking the new wash-basin he was given thankfully, he swallowed again, disgusted by the taste in his mouth.

"Sorry." He mumbled weakly as his stomach lurched again. He didn't throw-up, though, thankfully, and he gripped the sides of the basin tightly as he recovered slightly. Nodding quietly, his eyes went up to the girl tiredly, "No matter how many times I take this shit, it always does that to me." He sighed out with a roll of his eyes, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal.

[LACEY LOPEZ]

Lacey fixed the sheets on Henry's bed as she tried to even her breathing. She'd never really tended to a patient while he vomited. "Don't apologize, sweetie." Lacey told him, not very confident in her words as she usually was. "Do you want some water? Let me- Lemme get you some water." Lacey covered up her quickly, leaving her clipboard on the bed as she rushed out of the patient's room and to the chilly refrigerator kept at the end of the hallway. She grabbed the largest water bottle she could find and a bucket of ice.

Lacey stood in front of the open door, still in shock. These were real people who had a very high chance of dying and Lacey had to make sure that they were okay. One mistake and boom, dead. It's happened several times before and Lacey didn't want to be that nurse. Nurses were kind and gentle and everything good. Something that Lacey wasn't 100 percent of the time. Her aunt Esmeralda was. God, Lacey wanted to be just like her. Lacey closed the door and rushed back to Henry's room. She set the items down and got a plastic cup from the bathroom. Lacey dumped some ice into the cup and poured the water over the ice. It was immediately cold at the touch. That should cool his throat down.

"Here you go." Lacey said, handing him the small cup. "Try to drink most of it. It'll help your throat." She fiddled with her long ponytail, extremely nervous. She couldn't help wanting to burst out in tears, looking at his pale skin. She ripped her eyes way and looked back down at the floor. "So, your papers say that you go to Winchester. I go there too." She grabbed her clipboard again, flipping through the pages. Lacey was only dealing with Henry and another man who was currently in surgery. Maybe she could stick around for a little.

[HENRY OWENS]

Leaning his head back lazily against the abundance of pillows another training staff member had piled onto the bed, he blinked after Lacey as she hurried off to retrieve water. He could tell she was new to the ward, the way she seemed so unnerved by the puking. He felt bad for her in a way. He couldn't imagine working in a place like this. He knew, from a patient's point of view, it wasn't exactly a walk in a park. The doctors and nurses, though, they carried all the responsibility, and that could be quite a scary thing.

He wanted to tell Lacey that it was okay. That this wasn't as bad as it looked, but he didn't think he had the strength to. It was all he could do to stay up on the bed, still clutching at the basin in case his stomach decided to get into a tizzy again.

He eyed Lacey coming back around the corner and into the room with a large bottle of watter in her hand, a bucket of ice in the other. Licking at dry lips, as she poured him a cup, he smiled warmly at her, "Thanks." He was able to croak out, lifting the cup up to his lips with only a little difficulty. He'd love just as much to slap his own hand for shaking the way it did as he poured the water back into his mouth, reveling in the way it slid soothingly down his throat, relieving some of the burning feeling that had been there before.

Lowering the cup from his mouth a moment as the nurse brought up his new school, his eyes lit up slightly. Something outside of here to think about. "I do, yeah." He nodded, taking another quick gulp of water, before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand again as a drop of water dripped from his lip. "I actually just enrolled a few weeks back." He informed her. "Oh yeah? Awesome. I was worried this treatment appointment would keep me from meeting other students longer, but here you are." He said, a grin appearing on his lips, although it struggled in his tired manner.

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[LACEY LOPEZ]

Lacey took a seat in one of the visitor's chairs, hoping that nobody would yank her from the room. She needed a breather and there wasn't anything else to do. Henry wouldn't mind. He looked like he needed some company. Lacey crossed her legs underneath her knee length scrubs. Urgh.

"Sweet!" Lacey exclaimed. "What classes are you taking? I might know some more people that you could meet!" Lacey knew a lot of people, whether they liked her or not, they knew who she was. She glanced up at Henry's face again, some color returning to it. Lacey heard the medicine drip periodically through his IV with a click, bringing her back. Lacey stuck her head out to make sure that nobody was passing by as she pulled her legs up and underneath her, sitting cross-legged in the large visitor's chair.

"I hope you don't mind if I chill here for a little." Lacey told Henry with a cautious expression. "Sooo." She began, "Where are you from?" She asked, playing with her ponytail again.

[HENRY OWENS]

Wiping a few beads of sweat from his forehead with the same shaky hand, Henry moved to prop himself up a little bit more, pulling the hospital gown up on his shoulder as it hung on him loosely. Glancing from the television to Lacey, he watched her adjust herself comfortably in the visitor's chair. It was kind of a relief to have someone to sit in here with him. If he watched one more re-run of As the World Turns, he might have to resort back to throwing up in the wash-basin by his bed.

"I'm taking, uhm," He started trying to remember back to the schedule he'd worked out a few days ago, "Theater, Fine Art, ...French? And English Language." He finally nodded, still excited for his first day of class. He'd had to prearrange a whole bunch of make-up days with his professors for the future appointments he had. He was just glad to have something outside of treatments to do. "Yeah?" He smiled as Lacey mentioned she might know some people to introduce to him, "Well, if they're as chill as you then that'd be great." He offered up truthfully.

Playing with the hospital bracelet that was hanging off his wrist, he shrugged over to his nurse,
"That's perfectly fine with me. I mean... Don't have much else to do aside from soap opera re-runs." He recounted, wrinkling his nose in the direction of the TV. Reaching to the tray beside his bed he picked the remote up and pressed the mute button, silencing the dramatic death scene occurring on whatever poorly written Soap was on right then.

"I'm from Bullhead. Arizona." He added, realizing his hometown wasn't very widely known. "Just moved here last Friday to the dorms at Winchester. Vegas is a big change." He said, although it hadn't been that much of a change yet, since all he'd really seen was the hospital set-ups. He was counting on a change here, though.