"Beep. Beep. Beep" The beeping of the EKG machine from the otherside of the curtain continued as Ray Allen laid there on the hospital bed. She was in an emergency room laying on her back with a C-collar on unable to move as she waited to find out if her back was damaged. All she could do was look around the room with her eyes unable to move as she steadily tried to think of anything to keep her from panicking.
The scene kept playing in her mind over and over like a broken record. If she wasn't so small in stature and her platoon sergeant hadn't forced her to go to the range instead of staying at the bay in the motor pool none of this would have happened. Yet here she was just the same. Had her gloves not slipped off the charging handles of the grenade launcher when she went to pull back she wouldn't have fallen backwards off the stone block the Mark 19 was bolted to. When she fell she immediately locked her feet around the weapon. In doing so she didn't fall to the ground but hit her back just mere inches away from her spine on the block, the force of her hit causing her to bounce back up like a rubber ball.
Now thanks to that accident she was laying in the ER waiting to find out if she was broken. Ray Allen had only been at this field training for three days and had already landed herself in the hospital. The worse part was the stubborn jackass who was attending to her there. His name was Eaves. At least that's what his last name was, she was at a military hospital after all.
Eaves was there pulling her out of the back of the van on the stretcher when she arrived. They looked at each other with annoyance and disgust when he first pulled her out of the van. All Ray knew was she had no idea what was going to happen to her now.
"Well great! I'm going to be stuck with this jackass all night!" Ray thought to herself. Looking around as she's carried in on the stretcher most of what she saw was a bunch of men and the ceiling. This was probably the worse time to be surrounded by a bunch of men. Ray looked a bit worse for wear. Her hands were covered in dirt and grime from working on vehicles and getting camp set up for her two week field training.
Looking around Ray realized her tough demeanor was beginning to crack when the doctors told her she wasn't allowed to move and to completely rely on the hospital staff to move her. This put her in constant contact with Eaves. It was a tough pill to swallow when they had to cut her pants off of her. Even worse when Eaves opened his fat mouth to the doctor.
"Here Sir there's a faster way to do that" Eaves reached over Ray and before she knew what was happening all she could hear was the loud sound of fabric being torn. Eaves had grabbed her pant leg and ripped it open in front of five other men. The entire medical team that was tending to her were all males. Ray was stunned as she began to turn red from the tips of her ears down her neck. Covered from head to toe in dirt she was a mess and being stripped by men in a not so sexy manner as well.
"I'm about to lose my mind!" Ray said when it was just her and Eaves left in her corner of the room. The curtain had been pulled closed as Eaves was placing the EKG stickers on her. Ray didn't notice the subtle changes in his expression as he had to keep peaking under her shirt to make sure he was placing them in the correct positions.
"Well if it helps you can always just look into my green eyes." Eaves nonchalantly replied as he continued to hook the wires to the sticky pads on her chest. Ray didn't notice that Eaves was not only trying to help lighten the mood but also flirt with her. His opinion of her changed shortly after her arrival when he made a rather harsh comment and she snapped back at him with a snarky comment of her own.
Most of Ray's company were men so she had to be able to stand her ground as well as be able to dish out comments as well. Ray was considered one of the guys and was by no means a pushover. She was small in stature, only 5'1" in height, half white, half Philipino she didn't pose a threat to anyone. Pale, fair skin with black as night straight hair, her brown almond shaped eyes and round face didn't particularly stand out. Ray was petite and not exactly a stunning beauty. She had more of the "girl next door vibe". Most of her buddies in her company viewed her as a sister or just one of the guys. There were a couple of exceptions though.
"What are your green eyes going to do for me?" Ray snapped at Eaves before looking up directly at his face as he stared at her pointedly making eye contact.
"Oh... they are green." Ray said quickly noticing his eye color for the first time. Green happened to be her favorite color and his eyes at that moment happened to be a jade green. Eaves eyes were some of the prettiest she had ever seen and it caught her off guard for a few moments. Quickly she averted her gaze but not before Eaves noticed her slip up and flashed a smug smirk.
Time moved both fast and slow for Ray. She was taken to get a CT scan by Eaves and as she went she was accompanied by a chaplain who called her mom for her and soon her parents as well as her aunt were at the hospital too. They stayed with her for quite a while, unimpressed by Eaves. Ray's mother asked Eaves about her condition and took his calm tone and slight smile to be brushing off Ray's condition as no big deal. The truth was. he didn't know much about it, just that he was supposed to tend to her almost as if he was a servant to a degree.
Eaves was riled up by Ray on more than one occasion but never hesitated to get her back whenever they were alone together. Ray continued to crack jokes and annoy Eaves throughout the evening. At one point he had to ask her questions to help fill out her paperwork and she commented that he was probably older than her. Already knowing how old she was from having to write her birthday down he asked how old she thought he was. Looking up at him and noticing the few silver hairs she commented that he was probably twenty four or twenty five earning her an irritated look from him and an annoyed response of his real age... nineteen. Ray herself was only twenty.
When he was taking her to CT she handed him her phone since she had to have everything out of her pockets. "Here's my phone, I better not find your number in it" Ray quipped at him flashing a grin. Eaves couldn't get it out of his head that she had backbone. She said that to him right in front of the chaplain. When she first arrived he thought she was just some stupid National Guard soldier trying to get out of duty. Eaves was an active duty medic that worked at the hospital, he was sick of National Guard soldiers always pulling some lame excuse to get out of drill. But her quick winces of pain whenever he had to help move her never went unnoticed.
Now here he was handing her a cup of water while her family sat outside the room only a few feet away. Tom a retired colonel in the Airforce was talking to her about her paperwork at the time. Eaves handed her the cup she had asked for and turned to walk away when he heard her smart mouth.
"Hey genius! I'm not supposed to sit up right? Ever heard of a straw? How am I supposed to drink this if I can't move?" Ray shot Eaves a gloating smile. She couldn't help but push his buttons and be a jerk to him. Partly because when this was all over she had to go back to the field and be around the guys. If she let this facade go she didn't have time to build it back up before being out with everyone else again, it was her defense mechanism. Plus joking with Eaves was helping her keep her sanity.
Eaves scowled as he snatched the cup away from her and stormed off to get a straw. Tom stood there trying his best not to laugh at Eaves as they exchanged a look before Eaves stormed off. Most of what Ray remembers from that night is all the bantering back and forth she did with Eaves. He gave her his phone number on a napkin that he had quickly shoved into her hand not long after the cup incident, her parents just a few short feet away on the otherside of the curtain as her aunt stood there next to her.
Not long after, Eaves had to slide a bed pan under her since she had to pee. Ray didn't want to look at him after that. What was worse was that one of her sergeants, two of her lieutenants, her unit chaplain and her warrant officer came to see her and were joking with her while her family sat outside listening to the conversation. Ray had accidentally dropped the napkin with Eaves' phone number on it while laughing when her sergeant said she saw a cute nurse outside and joked that she could see about arranging a sponge bath for her. Ray grinned telling them she knew who she was referring to just as Eaves walked past the curtain.
Upon hearing this comment Eaves backed up and peaked in from around the curtain making eye contact with Ray without anyone noticing. Her ears immediately reddened. Just at this moment her warrant officer noticed the napkin on the floor and handed it to her joking that she probably needed it to help with her crying. Wanting to prove she was no wuss Ray told them it wasn't from crying but actually the "cute nurse's" phone number.
"No way!" Chief Green said as he snatched the napkin back opening it up. "She got his number!" Ray and her chain of command standing there began laughing as one of the lieutenants grabbed the napkin and scowled.
"Where is this guy?! I need to go check him out!" Lieutenant Torres said puffing out his chest jokingly as Chief handed Ray back the napkin. After giving Ray their well wishes her chain left. Ray laid there grinning to herself as her aunt came over to warn her that they overheard everything and mom was fuming. Just then Eaves came over further reddening Ray's ears with the look he gave telling her that he too over heard everything as he removed the full bedpan out from underneath her.
Unknowingly to Ray and Eaves, her mother headed straight to Tom about this and was ready to blow a gasket. She reported this news to Tom complaining about Eaves and how unprofessional he was. Tom just looked at her calmly and told her that Ray could do worse. This left Ray's mother even more enraged and storming back to where her father was.
After a while the doctors brought Ray some pain meds that they injected into her IV. As the meds were kicking in, she was taken to get an MRI scan. Eaves again was the one to take her. Purposefully walking slowly to the MRI building with her, Eaves grinned at her as she commented on how pretty the stars were that night. Eaves nodded his head as he leaned down close to her face, so close she could feel his warm breath on her in the cool night air. Ray, who's pain meds had kicked in at this point closed her eyes and puckered her lips slightly, waiting for the kiss... that never came.
"Fucking tease!" Ray said flustered as she opened her eyes to the smirking Eaves above her.
"Am I?" Eaves asked her as he enjoyed her pouting face. He wheeled her into the MRI room. While helping them move her to the MRI bed he kept her focused on him so she wouldn't panic. Ray breathed in his calming scent mixed with the strong smell of the hospital's sanitizer. Eaves had to remove all of her bobby pins from her hair and was startled when one went whizzing by just a couple of centimeters away from his arm the closer they got to the machine. Eaves looked at her in shock.
"Oops, guess that wasn't all of them." Ray said smugly staring up at him as they finished getting her set up for the scan. Eaves looked at her with an amused look in his eye.
"I'll be back when they are done with your scan." Eaves gave her a small smile then quickly left the room back to the ER. Ray fell asleep during the scan but all she kept seeing was him. Ray wasn't quite sure how tall he was, all she could see was from the waist up on Eaves since she couldn't sit up and look at him properly. She thought he was cute.
As Ray slept she went over his features in her head. Eaves had chocolate brown hair with whisps of silver/grey hairs. He had roguish charm with a baby face. Thin but muscular Ray was attracted to him. Eaves had a long pointed nose that added to his features. His skin was pale but not as much as Ray's was.
Half an hour later as promised, Eaves was standing there when they pulled Ray out of the machine. The sudden light on her face caused her to stir and the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Eaves' smiling face.
"Oh great! Not the first thing I wanted to see when I wake up!" Ray commented quickly trying to shake away the blush that was creeping up her face as she looked away. This comment earned them a few looks of surprise as Eaves smirked at her ignoring the looks of confusion from the MRI staff.
"Told you I'd be back when you were done with your scan. Were you expecting someone else?" Eaves retorted with a sly grin. Ray just pouted and looked away.
"No, but I was hoping." Ray sulked, secretly happy that he was the one to come get her and not someone else. She had become accustomed to staring at those green eyes whenever she was moved and found them to be calming. Eaves grinned, he had learned to read her body language quite easily and could see that she was glad it was him that had come to return her to the ER.
"Oh well, you're stuck with me now." Eaves murmured to her while they moved her back to the gurnee. For Ray she didn't really remember much after that, just the feeling of loneliness when Eaves took her up to the ICU for the rest of the night and headed back to the ER. Ray's parents and aunt went home for the night taking her phone with them. Ray was stuck with a nurse that she referred to as "the redheaded freckle faced stepchild" who woke her up every hour to test her reflexes and such to make sure she was ok. It was a long restless night for her.