Freedom! Well, sort of. [Open]

Will yawned and tried to focus on the article in the rugby magazine he was reading. He was sure he'd read the same article more than once since he arrived in the Patient Lounge, but never mind. He was feeling tired as usual, but aside from that he was happy as! The doctors and nurses had finally let him get out of his bed and be around other people!

The wheelchair the nurses had put him in was comfortable enough, and they'd covered his legs with a blanket to keep him warm. He was sitting by the window and could see people walking around outside out of the corner of his eye as he continued reading the magazine. Soon he put down the magazine and started people watching properly. People walking into the hospital, people walking out of the hospital, and some of them were sitting around on benches outside. He kind of envied them being out there enjoying the sunshine while he was stuck inside watching them.

One particular person walking towards the hospital caught his eye, and from that distance the person looked like his flatmate! He sat up a little straighter and watched as the person got closer to the entrance of the hospital, and soon realised it wasn't his flatmate. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed and slumped back down in his chair. Bugger.

Meilan entered the patient lounge calmly, looking around quite distracted. She had just had lunch, enjoying the little time left of her break with a small tour through the hospital. She had no particular rush in going to the offices to start the next turn of activities she was supposed to do for the day, especially – when in comparison – the free time she had was so awfully short. Being it that way, she couldn’t go out of the hospital and come back in time. So why not enjoy the beautiful places the hospital had?

It was when she noticed how little she knew or remembered how the patient lounge looked like.

She always passed through the place in a fast pace, focused on her job. Always. The offices, the documents, the schedule, everything came up first in her mind. It almost felt as if the patients were second to those. Of course everything she worked with was related to them, but that didn’t mean she had them in mind. In fact, when she thought about it, wasn’t she ignoring those patients since her very first day at the Axis Memorial?

Upon realizing that, she stopped, frowned, sat down on a chair and started studying the patients that were there. The staff life was so rushed that, if not careful, they would forget they were dealing with other human beings. That bothered Meilan a lot. It wasn’t easy to put into words, but she was sure that, if she asked any other doctor or nurse, they would understand perfectly what she meant and how she felt.

It was when a patient caught her attention. He was on a wheelchair and for a brief moment it looked like he had found someone he knew coming from outside, just for a second later come back to his original position, quite disappointed.

Sometimes, the patients need more attention and caring than medication and hospital walls guarding them.

Meilan stood up and walked toward the young man, smiling kindly as she approached him. “Hello. Are you looking for someone out there? Or do you want to go outside?”

“Hello. Are you looking for someone out there? Or do you want to go outside”

Will looked away from the window, and saw a doctor standing in front of him. She seemed pretty nice and friendly, and he stuffed his magazine down the side of his wheelchair. Going outside sounded really good, and it was a nice day!

"I thought I saw my flatmate out there, but when they got closer to the hospital I saw they weren't my flatmate. I haven't talked to him face to face since the day before the accident because every time he visits I'm asleep and he either can't wake me or just doesn't try. We write notes and communicate that way but it's not the same as talking to each other." Will said. "And yes please, I'd love to go outside!"

Today was the first day Will had been anywhere in the hospital other than his room, and going outside sounded awesome to him. Fresh air and sun!

"By the way," he said. "My name's Will. What's yours?"

Meilan listened to the young man and nodded to what he said. Her smile widened a bit when he accepted her invitation. “I’m Chen Meilan, you can call me just Meilan. I’m a doctor here. I started working not long ago.” With that being said, she held the wheelchair and started walking to the yard.

When they reached the yard’s entrance, she stopped, letting both of them admire the view for a moment. “I never got the chance to walk around this part of the hospital… it’s really beautiful, isn’t it?”

She started walking down the path. When she thought about it, they probably were of close age. And yet he got involved in an accident… “So you have a flatmate, but you don’t get to see him that often. Does he arrive late at night? The notes system certainly helps a lot in this case.”

"You're new to the hospital, Meilan? Do you like working here?" Will said as Meilan pushed him through the hospital to get to the yard outside. He was quite surprised at how good the day had turned out so far. First he'd been taken down to the Patient Lounge instead of staying in bed, and now he'd met Meilan and she was taking him outside!

Finally they reached the yard, and it looked amazing! The gardens were really tidy and the flowers were in bloom, and it was sunny as! "Wow! It really is beautiful out here."

He listened to Meilan's questions about his flatmate as she pushed him around the courtyard. "Yeah, the notes system is useful. He works during the day so he turns up for the night visiting hours and I'm usually asleep by then. I hope he doesn't think I'm avoiding him. I don't have any family here so he's all I've got, really."

He sat there quietly for a few moments thinking about what he could say next, and yawned again. He was starting to feel sleepy, but he didn't want to return to his room just yet. Should he mention about his flatmate trying to figure out what caused his accident? Meilan might be able to shed some light on whatever they've figured out so far since his flatmate's either had no luck or been afraid to tell him what he's found.

"We've been trying to figure out how and why the accident happened, and he's been asking me exactly what happened from my perspective in his notes. I'm sure he's chucking whatever I tell him into Google to try to figure it out, but from what he told me nothing's been coming up for him." Will tried to twist around in the chair to look at Meilan, but the action made his ribs hurt and he had to turn back yawning a couple more times. The sleepy feeling was getting stronger now, but he tried to ignore it. "So I was wondering. Would you or one of the other Doctors be able to look at those notes later on? One of you might be able to figure it out or tell me it's n-nothing."

Meilan nodded and listened to what William said. It was a shame her lunch time was so short, she didn't have much time left. And so she noticed the other yawning, but before she could suggest to take him back in, William started talking suddenly.

"Please, don't move" She said, patting his shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll take a look at the notes and talk to the doctors. If a doctor or a nurse shows up in your room, talk to them about this too, ok?" Meilan could see his worry, but right now the best she could do was take him back and take a look at the said notes. "I'm going to take you to your room, so you can show me your notes."

Meilan took a turn with the chair and took him back to the lounge. "Where are you staying?"

"Um, I'm staying in the Adult Ward." Will stifled another yawn. He knew he needed to stay awake so he could find those notes for Meilan when they got back to his room so he tried to think about something other than sleeping.

He hadn't realised at first that he'd sounded worried or stressed when he mentioned the notes to Meilan, but he had to admit that deep down he was worried about a number of things. The possibility of losing his job while he was in hospital, whether he and his flatmate could keep their flat while he was in here and not working, and if his parents would order him to return home when he's well. It also didn't help that he seemed to worry more every time someone told him to rest and not worry. His boss, his parents and his flatmate had all told him not to worry about anything but resting and getting better, but Will couldn't help but worry when he was alone with his thoughts.

He looked around and noticed they were almost at the Adult Ward now. He hoped the nurses hadn't shifted his journal from the drawer in his bedside table since that was where he kept all of the notes. He felt his eyes starting to close, and blinked himself awake again. He decided he'd better tell Meilan where the journal is just in case he does nod off before he gets to his room.

"I keep the notes in my journal which is in my bedside table's drawer unless someone's moved it."

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[[Gah, sorry for taking so long and the post being made of fail. D:]]