One of Those Days

By Nahla

Part 1

Nahla awoke with the feeling that it was just going to be one of those days. You know the kind where you wish you had never crawled out of bed. It all began the minute the alarm had gone off.

After speaking with Madeline, Nahla had been allowed to switch from the graveyard shirt in DRV to normal day hours. However, due to circumstances beyond her control, she had not received a break in between shifts. Her only consolation was that she had been let off early in order to get a few precious hours of sleep before starting the new day shift.

Stumbling out of bed, Nahla began the new day with a bang, literally. Nearly blind to due lack of sleep, she cut the corner too close coming around the edge of the bed, majorly stubbed her little toe. Hopping around on one foot and cursing like a drunken sailor, Nahla proceeded to lose her balance, teetering heads first towards the dresser. Unable to catch herself in time, the edge of the dresser caught Nahla between her right eye and temple.

Groaning in pain, tears quickly filled her eyes. Never having had a high tolerance for pain, the throbbing of her foot combined with her temple just about proved too much. Taking a few moments to get her bearings, Nahla proceeded to make her way into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, she realized she would be sporting a new black eye for the next few days, which probably meant she was gonna get a lot of ribbing for her lack of coordination.

As some sort of small blessing, the rest of the morning routine didn't provide anymore mishaps. Limping into Section, Nahla tried her best to hurry as not to be late into work. With most of her concentration focused elsewhere, Nahla failed to pay attention to where she was going. Cutting the corner a little too closely (you'd think she wouldn't learned her lesson that morning), Nahla nearly took out the figure coming around from the other side.

Two hands reached out to steady Nahla before she fell. "So sorry about that, I really should have been watching where I was going," Nahla stated, having not yet looked up to see who she ran into."

"It's ok."

Nahla's head snapped up in half-surprise, half-shock. Of all people, why did she have to nearly knock down Michael! The man was a legend, admired by half the population of Section and adored by most, if not all, of the female operatives.

"Everything alright?" Michael inquired after Nahla stayed silent for a few moments.

"Huh? Oh, yes … fine." Nahla replied, trying to collect her thoughts. Knowing she had to get out of there before she embarrassed herself any further, Nahla made her excuses and turned to leave. Misjudging the distance between herself and the wall's corner, she then managed to catch her shoulder on it, causing her to stumble back a few steps.

Refusing to turn around and find out if Michael had been witness to her clumsiness, Nahla lifted her chin, threw her shoulder back, and with as much dignity as she could muster, proceeded to limp her way down the corridor.

Arriving in DRV, Nahla took a seat at her terminal, swearing not to move a muscle all day if not absolutely necessary. The day went by quickly, and thanking God for small favors, without further incidents. With only one errand that needed taking care of, Nahla was ready to go home and soak in a nice hot bubble bath. Her stubbed toe was still causing a slight limp, and a dull headache had been her friend for most of the afternoon.

Having spoken with Brenna earlier that day about borrowing a CD (not to mention having to explain the limp and black eye), Nahla made her way up to Section's standby quarters. After speaking with Bren for a few minutes, Nahla proceeded back down the staircase to head home.

"Hey Nahla, is Bren in?" Xavier asked as he came up the staircase, having just returned from a mission. "Oh, and by the way, nice shiner!" Whistling in response to seeing it up close.

"Oh let's not go there" Nahla groaned, then continued, " you mean you don't keep tabs on her every second of the day?" Nahla asked with a feigned look of shock on her face.

"Ha ha, very funny," Xavier grinned and replied, " I know as much as I need to know."

"Don't you mean as much as she lets you know?" Nahla threw back, enjoying the banter.

Xavier laughed and shrugged, "If that is what she prefers to believe, who am I to change her mind?"

"Men," Nahla thought, proceeding back down the staircase.

As she neared the bottom of the staircase, calamity struck again. For reasons unknown, maybe someone was just having a giant laugh at her expense, Nahla lost her footing and crashed to the bottom of the stairs.

Hearing heard the commotion, Brenna and Xavier came running down the stairs. "Nahla, are you okay??"

From her undignified sprawl at the bottom of the stairs, Nahla refused to cry like a baby. "Oh yea, just peachy, can't you tell?!?" She replied, the ire clearly evident in her voice. "Not only have I stubbed my and limped around all day, given my self a black eye, and nearly mowed Michael down in the hallway … but I can now graciously add a sprained ankle to the list!"

Rising from the floor, Nahla quickly realized she wasn't going to be able to put much weight, if any, on the injured ankle.

"Hey Nahla, I really think you should go to Medical about that, make sure nothing's broken." Brenna said.

"Oh please no! I'll be fine, just need to go home and prop it up with ice!" Nahla said, hoping Brenna wouldn't force the issue. But with the other events of the day, luck just wasn't on her side.

"Nope, you're going and that's final." Bren ordered with a nod of her head. "Xavier, be a dear and carry her down to Med."

The threesome made their way to Medical where Xavier placed Nahla on a gurney to await a doctor.

Part 2

The day hadn't gone well for Dr. Alexander Jamison either. A critical mission in the Balkans had gone bad from the start, leaving him a mess to clean up when the injured arrived back at Section. Out of the seven on the team, 2 had been DOA. Out of the other five, two had required surgery and the other three would remain in medlab for the next few days.

Life in Section had been a shock upon his arrival, opening his eyes to a world he never dreamed existed. Ever since that fateful day last spring when he had been taken from the hospital to attend Madeline, he wondered what each new day would have in store.

Initially he didn't know if he would be able to survive life in Section. Although he was a doctor and had sworn to do his best to take care of the sick and injured, he often had a difficult time justifying Section's actions. But after the first week, he knew that even if he didn't agree with their methods, he would at least do his best to keep the men and women of Section alive and well.

Alerted by one of the technicians that there was an operative needing his attention, Dr. Jamison made his way up front to the examination area. Upon entering the area, he immediately recognized Brenna and Xavier, but couldn't yet see the patient sitting on the gurney.

"Hello Brenna, Hi Xavier, what brings you to my neck of the woods this afternoon?" he inquired.

"Hi Dr. Jamison, Nahla here has had a few … um.. difficulties today" Brenna replied, trying hard not to laugh out loud. She really did feel sorry for her friend, but at the same time couldn't help but find the whole situation amusing.

Brenna stepped back out of Dr. Jamison's way and allowed him his first view of Nahla.

It was her.

It was about midway through his shift when Madeline had brought in an unconscious recruit for initial evaluation. Not really seeing the woman laying on the gurney as anything more than a patient, he quickly checked her vitals and drew the blood necessary to run the routine tests required of all new recruits. Even though death was always a step away in Section, Madeline wanted her recruits in tip-top shape to begin with.

As he completed his evaluation, he took a good look the young woman and was taken aback at how attractive she was. From the information Madeline had given him, he couldn't ascertain how exactly she had been recruited, but for some reason, he got the impression that it had to have been a mistake.

The combination of medium length blonde hair and fair skin brought to his mind the image of angel, whom he feared was quickly going to lose her wings living in a place like Section. What further concerned him was that he even cared. Since coming into Section, he had done his best not to get close to anyone. It would make things too difficult in the event that they were killed or cancelled. But seeing her lying there on the gurney, something about her reached out to him.

"If you're finished Dr. Jamison, we have orders to move her to the white room," said two operatives from behind him.

"Of course, I'm through." He replied, watching as she was taken from the room.

In the weeks that followed, he often wondered how she was doing. Through the grapevine he had learned that she had survived "orientation", and had been placed down in DRV. However, due to conflicting schedules, and the fact that they were on opposite sides of Section from one another, he had yet to see her again. But the need was still there, wanting to check up on her to see how she was.

And here was his chance.