First Meeting (Sister Smith)

[Will Wright]

Will finished putting the new covers on the bed. The person who had been occupying the bed had been released about an hour ago and since she was on her break she decided to do a less stressful job to keep her hands busy. Everything had calmed down a lot since the battle. Most of the casualties had come, stayed and been released within the few weeks. Only the comatose patients really remained.
"Will, I thought you were supposed to be on your break." Will grimaced and stopped what she was doing to turn around slowly and look at Nurse Gornray.
"I am..." Will answered her slowly and reluctantly.
"Then why, in God's name, are you busy cleaning the beds. You're not supposed to do anything except sitting on your butt in the Staff Room or somewhere else other than the Hospital Wing or Forest! The definition of break."
"I know, I know bu-"
"Then why aren't you doing it!?" Judy Gornray snapped, "I swear to God if you don't get out of here right now I will throw you out and ban you for a week or at least until you have a proper break." her eyes were hard and cold.
"You can't ban me-"
"Oh no? Who runs this Hospital Wing?"
Will sighed and gave up before throwing the last pillow on the bed and turning tail up and out of the ward. She ran her hand through her hair as she walked and gave a long groan and sigh. She didn't want to rest. She didn't like the feeling of helplessness it gave her. All the Carers were like that.
So instead she went to the inventory listings to make sure they were stalked up on things, she knew this would be one of the last places Nurse Gornray would think to check. She had only been caught twice before. As she checked through the supply cupboard and ran through the list she heard someone come up behind her. She froze and closed her eyes before slowly turning around expecting to find the monster matron.
Instead she found the face of their new ward sister.
"Sister Smith! You scared me," she let out her breath just to take another one, "How are you? It's a pleasure to meet you."

[Sister Angel Smith]

This all felt scarily seamless.
The ward hadn’t changed much since Angel had last been in here, eight years ago. Some of the equipment had changed, but the light still streamed through the wide windows in exactly the same way; the beds were still arranged in the same linear order; the light patter of Carer shoes on the hard floor still played in the same rhythm.
Nurse Gornray – or, Judy – still reigned supreme over the ward, the buzzing queen bee flitting from bed to bed as if from flower to flower, and ruling over her hive of workers with a soft but firm hand. This meant that everything was still organised in exactly the same way, so Angel’s return into the swing of things had been with a smooth, in-time step.
The system they had devised together for patient files had been followed by her successor, Zack Holland, and Angel had just spent the morning pouring over the student medical histories, trying to memorise another set of facts and put them to faces and names. As usual, at this point after the battle, the flow of casualties and work had stemmed… but no one knew what to do. Leaving the ward still felt wrong to the Carers, who were floating about the ward determinedly trying to find something to do, all with that same feeling of urgency, a rush of ‘we should be doing something!’ that left them looking slightly lost.
Feeling those emotive emissions had rubbed off on Angel, who was now trying to find everything to do with an almost dogged approach – but it was helping, now. By finding petty things to tell the Carers to do, she was giving them something to feel useful about.
They were all still hanging about the ward, even now – and doing really strange things just to try and be useful. She’d found Rhys Conner - a technology student - turning his hand to attempting to fix the broken coffee machine, Roisin O’Keafe trying to work out if they could make a deal with the Square Coffee Shop to get better coffee, and Olivia Skye – yet again – obsessively cleaning the place. She never seemed to leave the ward, but Angel was no longer feeling as concerned about her as she had been. Judy had forced her to leave the ward for a while, and though she’d come back with swollen red eyes and heartbreak rushing out of her in a way that made Angel’s loss of love come rushing back and made her want to give the poor girl a hug, she’d seemed better since – the light violet circlets under her eyes had disappeared, and she had put on a little weight, losing the almost gaunt look she’d had when Angel arrived.
A male Carer – Mike Crossley – stepped through the door, making her look up from her files and smile at him – before double taking as her eye caught the clock. Was it really that time? She’d been sitting here for hours.
Which would explain the fact that her foot was currently completely numb.
Angel sighed and stretched out her leg, flinching as the blood came back to her toes with a painful rush, before putting the files back in order and standing up, limping her way over to the filing cabinet.
But of course, once that was done, what else was there to do?
If there was one thing Angel hated, it was doing nothing. So even though she had already checked the supply inventory today, she found herself walking over to the supply cupboard, just to check that she’d counted right.
But apparently, someone else had had the same idea. Will Wright was standing in the cupboard pouring over the lists Angel had made earlier – even though she was supposed to be on her break.
Angel opened her mouth to say something, but the new Head Carer – well, “new”: -honestly, Angel, she’s been doing this for two years! – wheeled around to face her, before her face visibly relaxed and a wave of relief pulsed out to her.
“Sister Smith! You scared me. How are you? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Angel smiled, nodding. “It’s lovely to meet you too, Will. And I’m sorry for scaring you, but shouldn’t you be on your break?”

[Will Wright]

Will's smile slipt from it's place and her lips formed a thin line and her eyes became kind of hostile, "I suppose but I'm not taking it. I don't like to sit around and be..well useless and seeing as Nurse Gornray doesn't usually check the supply cabinet I decided to avoid her here. Please don't tell me to take the break..I'd end up doing the-I'd end up getting restless." her voice was ice at the beginning but melted halfway through it.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I just..I don't like being told to take breaks....at all." she gave a half hearted laugh at the end and shook her head. Surely Sister Smith would understand where Will was coming from, afterall she had been the Head of Carers for three years and had become one of the Legendary Four who were all here.

[Sister Angel Smith]

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”
Well, no, maybe she shouldn’t have. It wasn’t the words, as such, but all Angel knew was that if she had spoken to Nurse Gor- Judy, like that when she was Head of the Carers, she would have been forcibly removed from the ward.
Well, maybe that was a little harsh on Jude, but she definitely would not have been pleased in the slightest. She didn’t take what she felt was sassing.
Maybe as the new nurse, though, that was to be expected. It was always like that with new staff anywhere – just look at all the tortured new teachers everywhere. Of course people would speak like that; she was new and hadn’t really been accepted as staff yet. Maybe Angel should be a bit more authoritative like she’d been swearing to do for the past ten years, and say something...
But then, maybe Will was just stressed after the battle and recent events; Angel shouldn’t blame her for being a little snappy. After all, she’d been under a lot of strain, and she was only seventeen after all.
No, she couldn’t blame her for that.
“I just..I don't like being told to take breaks....at all,” Will added, with a light laugh.
Angel smiled, half-turning to take the inventory list she had filled out earlier that day. “Well, no, neither did I when I was a Carer.”
And nor had she when she’d left Orchid. In the battlefield, there were no breaks, and in quieter times, they were all left in a sense of heightened awareness that left them unable to rest properly away from it. Of course, out there, the action was far more intense than frequent than at Orchid Hill, and on the rare occasions that you weren’t in perpetual fear of attack, you stayed alert anyway, and you kept healing. The breaks you got were when you slept, and when you ate. End of.
“But in the end, Nurse Gornray is in charge, and she’s looking out for your welfare; you should listen to her.”

[Will Wright]

“But in the end, Nurse Gornray is in charge, and she’s looking out for your welfare; you should listen to her.”
Should and do...a majority of the time but when she tells me to take breaks I blank her altogether...which isn't a very good thing but it's one of the reason I stopped trying to tell the rest to take breaks. Though I suppose they're both right, I mean look what happened a while back.. Will sighed.
"I've got nothing better to do anyway," she checked another box on the list. She was about to go on before deciding it would be better if she actually started talking to Sister Smith properly, "So what does it feel like to be back at Orchid after a few years? Anything changed much...besides the forest being charred."
She got up from of the ground and leant against the desk while facing her new supervisor.Will was very glad to have someone more to her own age, acting as her surperior, Nurse Gornray was great and all but after a while it made Will feel kinda..well old to be around here and even though she could communicate with the Matron fairly well she bet she could communicate with the new Ward Sister better. Also, she wasn't as scary.

[Sister Angel Smith]

“I’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”
Angel frowned at that, but decided that it was best not to check it. Will and Nurse Gornray had been working in harmony for a while now, so that couldn’t have been a bitter comment.
So she took it at face value and listened to the rest of Will’s speech with a pleasant expression on her face.
“Well, in some ways it’s exactly the same – ignoring the forest of course,” she added, with a smile. “But in others, it’s the complete opposite. The whole levelling system we put in place when I was Head has gone, which is a bit of a disappointment because it worked very well, but as far as I know it’s being brought back to use again.”
Or at least, she hoped so, especially as far as the Warriors were concerned. The lack of a rank system there was horrifying; but according to some of the other teachers, Madeleine Baudelaire had been appealing to reinstate the system there for some time now, thank goodness. Angel couldn’t imagine how someone had thought it would be a good idea to abolish it.
“The school itself hasn’t changed a bit though - except for better computer systems! It’s like being sixteen again, it’s great, I don’t feel so old,” Angel commented, with a laugh. “And most of the teachers haven’t changed either, so I think there’s some secret anti-ageing magic going on here. Oh, may I?” she said, gesturing to take the checklist chart in Will’s hands from her, noticing that the stockpile of bandages was depleted from when she'd checked earlier.

[Will Wright]

Will shrugged and handed over the list to the Ward Sister.
She smiled at something she had said though. Secret anti-ageing magic? Now there was a true idea. A very....intruiging idea. It would be awesome to have magic like that..never to age.. but she pushed the though out of her head.
But now that Angel had said that...Will started to wonder where'd she'd be a couple of years..even five or ten years from where she was now. What she was going to do. What job would she have?
Doctor?
Nurse?
Paramedic?
Vet?
Zooologist?
War Nurse?...Angel was a War Nurse.
"Sister Smith, I was just wondering..what was it like being out there healing people on the front line...what was it like to be a War Nurse? I don't mean to intrude, it's jsut I've been thinking about what I want to do after I leave here." Will smiled weakly. She didn't want to invade Angel's past but she did want perspective on the War Nurse side of things and she had done some research on it but not with many good results..so what was better than getting it first hand?

[Sister Angel Smith]

“Well, first of all - only first years are to call me Sister Smith, you can call me Angel; I think you’ve earned that right by now,” Angel interrupted, with a smile. “It’s really Angela, but I’ve never been called by that in my life. It’s Angel.”
“And secondly – are you thinking about being a field nurse, then? Well, out of the people your age, you definitely have the most experience of that.”
She was glad to hear that Will was considering it as a potential career after all of this, but it pained her to think on how much experience she had already had. No matter how much less harsh it was than the field plains outside of the area, it was still cruel, and she shouldn’t have had it, so young. But back then, Angel loved being Head of the Carers – she still did love that, and looked back on it with fond memories, but she didn’t see how wrong it was then, or even recognise that fact. It was only later in life that you realised just how sodding young you were, and just how much more you had to cope with than you ever should have.
But in the end, it made you a stronger person. Or at least, Angel hoped so. She was only 24, and she still had a long, long, long way to go.
“It’s… hard. It is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, Will,” Angel reflected. “And you need a lot of mental strength to be able to do your job, because you will be affected. No matter how strong you are, you will be affected. I had to take leave for a while because of the things I saw; my husb- ex-husband, a soldier, had nightmares for over two years after we left Andorra. You think these battles are bad, but no matter how many deaths and injuries you see here… the reality out there is just incomprehensible. People fight dirty, and almost every time, there’s nothing you can do.”
Angel knew that. She knew that so well by now. When the gods decided that someone’s time is up, all the healing and drugs and CPR and lifesaving techniques and crash carts could do nothing. Death was something that could never be fought off.
But in the end, seeing all of that? Angel could never say that she wished she hadn’t done it. Ever. Sure, there were times she hated her job. It wasn’t easy, and it hurt. It hurt with a raw, raw pain, and it was cruel. There were times when she had sobbed herself to sleep because there had been no time left in the events of the past week to shed a single tear or spare a single thought for the lives that had passed under her care. There were times when she just wanted to go home – but those times were short. She knew why she was there, and she knew why she was doing it – and she wanted to do it. Sometimes she hated it, but there was nothing else she could ever imagine doing. And ever after everything… she still couldn’t ever image wanting to change it.
“But… it’s also an incredibly rewarding job,” she said, finally bestowing a soft smile on Will in the middle of her ramble. “If you have the passion for the war and for people, even the small difference you can make to someone’s life is a huge difference. You can’t save everyone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try, and if you try hard enough - you can save some lives. And that makes all the horror worth it. I can’t imagine a job that doesn’t have that as part of it,” Angel added, looking around the small room of the Orchid Hill Hospital Wing. “That’s why I’m here. I almost went back to Andorra, but this is another way to serve the war and I think I brought everything to that place that I could have brought. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but you guys are still so young and you need help.
“This way, I can help you, and help my school and my cause. And come the next battle; I’ll be out there on that front line doing exactly the same thing I did in Andorra and in Orchid Hill those years ago. It doesn’t change.”
She broke off there, surprised that she’d been able to say all that without Will interrupting. The poor girl, having to listen to her rant! Mild heat rose to her cheeks for a second as she bent her head and scribbled a number in the box on the list with her practiced illegible handwriting, but at least she couldn’t feel boredom coming from her.
“I’m sorry,” Angel finished, with a gentle laugh. “I’m always terrible when it comes to rambling. But if you have the passion and the drive for it, it’s something to think about, definitely.”

[Will Wright]

Her full name was pretty but so was her shortened version.
Will's small smile stayed where it was until Angel spoke about what she would see out there and about her ex-husband's nightmares. As she heard Angel talk about what being a Field Nurse was like Will's feelings became mixed and her smile faltered.
She didn't know if she would be cut out for a Field Nurse. She'd only been out there once or twice during the battle's of Orchid and she had lost her boyfriend out there and ever since she didn't go back out. She had stayed to work on the injuries that came to the Hospital Wing. And they were bad enough. Look what had happened there.
She'd gone mental and hurt herself. Not all if it had been based on her feelings for Jack. The pain and injuries she had seen her friends and the other students came in with was..well it was just imprinted in her memory. She had barely coped with it. Was she worth having the status or title of Field Nurse?
And although it was a rewarding experience after..would she be able to keep going on? Even if she lost some of them..would she be able to harden herself to keep focussed on the ones that she could save..that she would save? Would she be able to do it?
Angel had. God, Angel had been through both sides..Orchid and outside and Will was sure she would have the mental scars to prove it. She herself had said that it would affect anybody doing it. It had affected her ex-husband. But Angel had kept going and saved the lives of many both in and out of Orchid. And she loved to help people. Like all the Carers. It was all there. And she wanted to help. Of course, they all did. Angel was well known in Orchid. All the Heads from those years were. They were legends and Will was willing to bet she was even very well known in Andorra too.
Angel, Will had the feeling, wasn't one of these people you easily forgot and not for bad reasons but for the good reasons and Will looked up to her. She wanted to learn the ropes from her because for all she knew she needed them. She didn't know how to go about doing things anymore. She wanted to have a better system for leading her group. Angel was her role-model.
“I’m sorry,” Angel finished, with a gentle laugh. “I’m always terrible when it comes to rambling. But if you have the passion and the drive for it, it’s something to think about, definitely.”
Will looked up at her smiling faced and realized her face had become that fo deep thinking as she smiled back at her, "Don't worry about it. I ramble all the time too. Thanks for the advice, I'm just trying to figure out what to do and the research I've done hasn't been working out so well." Will sighed deeply inside. She still didn't know what to do, "Angel..what exactly did you do with the group when you were Head? Like..how did you teach them?"

[Sister Angel Smith]

Angel felt a pang of worry in her chest, and realised that she had probably said too much to Will, judging from the doubt, worry, and deep thought mixed like muddy paints on an artist’s palette that was reaching her.
But, in the end, if it made her think, then that could only be a good thing. Field medicine was not a job that anyone should go into without knowing what you were stepping into. The Carers of Orchid Hill were some of the most qualified for the profession, but Angel wouldn’t be fulfilling her job or keeping her conscience if she wasn’t honest. It was hard. In fact, it was something close to hell. But that didn’t mean some of these students couldn’t do it. You didn’t need to be something special – after all, Angel could do it. But you needed drive and a certainty that that was where you wanted to work. Strength was a good, but that was also something you built along the way – in battle conscience terms. You coped with that, but even those who were best at switching off their hearts on the field struggled with civilian strength. Angel wasn’t one of those people, and she’d fallen apart at things that, in comparison to what she had seen in Andorra, were not all that bad.
So strength, you built. But out there, you got your scars, and Will needed to know that.
…though, maybe she shouldn’t have put that across in the way that she had just done. Will’s emotions at the minute certainly weren’t positive – then again, after what Angel had just said, how could they be?
But Will put a smile on her face, not knowing that that wouldn’t mask her mind to Angel. "Don't worry about it. I ramble all the time too. Thanks for the advice, I'm just trying to figure out what to do and the research I've done hasn't been working out so well."
And again, that smile didn’t hide the sigh of resignation in Will’s head from her. Poor girl.
“Angel… what exactly did you do with the group when you were Head? Like… how did you teach them?”
Angel bit her lip, there. Wow, okay, there was a question. An answer to that would have to encompass three years of hard work and tears, sweat and endless rewards. It was… it was hard to answer.
“Well, what do you mean?” she asked smoothly. “In what way?”

[Will Wright]

“Well, what do you mean?” Angel answered back with a question. “In what way?”
In what way? Good question and one which I could answer with many of my own ones. But which one do I want to ask about? Hmm..
Will frowned. She really didn't know where to start.
"Ok, well, I don't exactly know,but I guess I will go for....how did you teach them, excatly? Like, training them to use the equipment and did you do it in year groups or in sort of..ranking I suppose?" she pondered at her choice of wording there.
She needed sleep, her english was a bit shotty as of late. She wanted rest and after what happened with Cass and Cardo - she needed it. But she also had to be there for her group and makes sure everything could run as smootly as possible and everything was up to scratch and what not.
Now a question for herself came to the front of her mind.
If you need rest so much then why did you ignore Nurse Gornray's orders and not take your break?
Will just shoved it out of the way. She was begginning to get irritated with herself and all the uncertainty she had of late. She jsut couldn't get rid of it. Maybe she needed a break, not jsut from the hospital wing but the whole school itself.
Maybe what I need is to visit my family again. Go back to Germany. See Grandpa and Victoria and Adam.....and *insert sigh here* Evan.
Somewhere amidst all her thoughts she came back to the present and gave a small smile to show Angel she was ready to listen or to hear.