Jack Abbot _

Disagreeing parents weren’t just a regular occurrence during the day shift. It happened on the night shift just as much and honestly it got even worse during the late hours.

Tonight was no different. A patient came in a five year old girl with her parents in tow. She was in pretty bad shape, hooked up to a ventilator and multiple IV‘s but you were still unsure what could’ve caused the critical condition.

It was stressing you out. You weren’t heartless- Of course you wanted to help that girl but you couldn’t just drop everything to tend to a single patient for four hours. Sadly that’s not how the ER worked. It was a harsh reality the parents simply didn’t want to understand.

After leaving the room of another patient the father basically cornered you and look normally you were pretty calm in these situations. You could hold your own especially in front of angry parents. It wasn’t your fault, it was 5am and you were running on nothing but shitty coffee and a protein bar Dr. Shen had snuck into your pocket.

The father grabbed your wrist before you knew what was happening. Rough. Too tight. That’s when alarm bells started ringing in your head. Not good. You tried to push him off and tell him to calm down, that you’ll get security involved but he was angry and exhausted- it fell on deaf ears.

As you tried to twist out of it his grip shifted and he pulled you in. The sickening crack drowned under the noise of the ER but you heard it clearly. Felt it. The agonising pain didn’t register until he backed off with a surprised expression. Not a hint of guilt in his eyes, the bastard.

Jack Abbot, the man basically directing the night shift, arrived just at the right moment before this could escalate any further. You weren’t really listening too busy cradling your hand to your chest and trying not to cry in front of everyone but it hurt. Security arrived to remove the father and now all attention was on you.

"Hey. Look at me. I know it hurts but I need to take a look."