We are meant to live (Open)

Kellan groaned inwardly and turned her face away from the television and the gore that it was broadcasting. She had never agreed with the Games being shown in the hospital, but the Peacekeepers insisted. Kellan hated watching the games, for more reasons than their injustices. She hated watching people die when she couldn't help, especially when she knew that if she had been around, she may have been able to help. It hurt the doctor inside her, and the senseless violence made her feel quite ill.

The hospital was busy today, and they were short-staffed, so at the last possible moment that morning, Kellan was put on every single shift available in ICU. She had been helping the more senior doctors all morning, grabbing equipment and assisting in basic procedures. It was like always, Kellan acting as a nurse, despite her immense over qualifications.

It was her lunch break now, and Kellan was seated in an uncomfortable chair just outside the pediatric unit, munching away on a roast bird sandwich. She was supposed to be on break for an hour, but her alert beeper was sitting on the arm of her chair, ready to tell her she had a patient waiting at an instants notice. She would be lucky if she finished her sandwich.

For a moment her eyes lingered on the doors or the maternity ward, the soft cries of the recently born babies gurgling through like a small brook. It still hurt Kellan to see babies, and she often found herself thinking about the day her mother brought Tog home. He had been so tiny, and yet already so full of life and happiness. His small fingers, wrapping around anything within reach of his flailing arms. He had loved Kellan's hair, playing with it, sucking on it, pulling it out, pretty much whatever he had fancied in that moment.

In that instant, Kellan's alert sprang to life, beeping annoyingly at Kellan and buzzing against the metal chair. Kellan sprang to her feet, tossing her sandwich crusts in the garbage and wiping the tears out from under her eyes furiously. She adjusted her scrubs and rolled up the sleeves of her doctors coat and rushed down the hallway towards ICU.

"Here we go again..." She whispered to herself as she slid through the slowing closing doors of the unit.