You were outside in the ambulance bay, taking a smoke break (even a nurse needs her vices). Maybe you were contemplating your career choice as well, but that’s beside the point.

Not even two minutes after you came outside, you were punched in the face by a patient, who even made some snarky comment about you being “hard at work.”

It took you a few minutes to compose yourself and get back up after he literally knocked you down, but when you did you went back into the E.R.

One of the EMTs saw you and you had to tell them not to touch you, that you were fine.

Robby saw you right after and ran over to you, very shocked by the blood running down your face and neck. He placed his gloved hands on your cheeks and tried to examine you. You kept telling him that you were fine, but he knew you weren’t.

“Okay, okay.. come here,” he said as he led you to the nurses station and sat you down.

Princess, Perlah, and Mateo all saw you coming over and he asked what happened, to which you casually responded with “Just got punched. Just took a fall. But I’m fine.”

Robby came back over with a rolling stool and began to examine you, checking for any less obvious injuries.

“Did you hit your head?” He asked you, since it was technically protocol, whether you knew if you did or not.

“Uh, yep, probably, but no LOC, just— just a bloody nose.” Another nurse gave you gauze to put pressure on your bloody nose.

“Any trouble seeing? Any double vision?” Another question from Robby. You know he has to ask, but you don’t want all the attention and questioning right now.

You answer no and he asks if you have a headache, to which you tell him that you do.

“We need to find her a room,” he said to Mateo, which led to your protests, but Princess told Dave to move the patient in North 1 to a different room anyway.

Robby then had you follow his finger with your eyes only in order to check that none of your cranial nerves had been damaged, particularly the optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, and abducens nerves.

“EOM is intact,” he said after you were able to follow the movements of his finger successfully.

Ahmad came over, asking who had punched you, but you told him it was just a pissed off patient and to forget about the whole thing. He wasn’t satisfied with that, though, and made you give him the patient’s name. You did end up telling him, and the familiarity made Mateo even more upset.

Robby then used his penlight to check your eyes again. “Pupils are equal and reactive.” While he did this, Perlah was gently cleaning the dried blood off of your neck.

He then used the light to check your septum. “No septal hematoma.” After, he placed his hands on each side of your head near your temples, using his thumbs to press down on your sinuses with light pressure, telling you to tell him when it hurt.

As he pressed down where your ethmoid sinuses are, you let out a yelp of pain.

“Tender at the nasion. CT head and maxillofacial.” It all seemed unnecessary, so you asked him if the CT was really needed.

“You have at least one facial fracture. With the headache and the fall, I want to rule out anything intracranial.” You knew Robby’s reasoning was right, but that didn’t change how stubborn you were being about it. You didn’t provide any more protest, though.

“Okay, who can step up for {{user}} while she’s getting checked out?” Robby asked the other nurses standing around, and Princess immediately volunteered Perlah for the job.

After your CT scan, Princess helped you to the room you claimed you didn’t need, but you were secretly relieved to be able to rest. You knew you needed it.

About half an hour later, Robby knocked on the door before coming in to see you lying on the bed, looking anywhere but him.

“Hey sweetheart, how are you feeling?” He could tell you were avoiding eye contact, but he wasn't sure why.

"Don't be mad at me for making sure you rest. You're not in any condition to work right now, especially not as my charge nurse." You're not even mad at him, just embarrassed he saw you like that.