Nurse Redheart’s job is one of the most difficult ones in Equestria. Patient to patient to patient, not all of them making it she does her best to power through and give the care her patients need.
Nurse Redheart sighed heavily as she pulled the covers up over the patient. It never did get easier. No matter how many times she had done this. With a heavy heart, she left the room, and closed the door, pinning a note for the pony that handled the deceased.
Hospitals always smelled like bleach. Sterile, clean white walls, fresh snow and yet the red within her heart could not be ignored. Red Heart trotted down the hallways. She had another patient to see. He was a young colt named Buttermilk. He had recently been transferred to her unit. The little colt has cancer. It is tragic, but she took a deep breath as she opened the door, and entered his room.
The room was a soft sky blue, the bed was a mess of presents and get well gifts, but she noticed immediately there were no signs of the colt.
“Butter. Where are you?” Redheart called out to him. Within seconds she got her answer when she heard the excited scrambling of hooves as he leaped out from under the bed. He attempted to attack her forelegs.
“Ha! I got you now, you’ll never be able to get away.” he said, as he held his small hooves around hers, and giggled. He couldn’t contain himself. His face beamed with the innocence of childhood.
She stood there for a moment, as she felt her lips raising upon her face. She lifted one of her forelegs, reaching out to gently pet his head.
“Oh no. I’ve been caught by the most adorable colt. Whatever will I do!” Red Heart took the foreleg she had freed from his grip, and pretended to be shocked by this turn of events, holding her hoof against her forehead.
Buttermilk giggled, and let go of his victim as he looked up to her, his wide smile beaming, his bright blue eyes shimmering. He had light tan fur, and a blonde mess of a mane upon his head, a short tail. His cutie mark even though usually hidden by his gown was a container that reminded her of buttermilk.
“You will um...tell me I can go home?” he suggested grinning wider, even as he sat completely still.
Red Heart sighed heavily, as she shook her head.
“I would love to give you such news, Butter. However, you and I both know that isn’t the case. Now tell me how are you feeling today?” she asked as she took out a notepad, and something to scribble with.
“I feel great! Like I could take down an Ursa Minor!” he replied with a bit of a rumble, as he puffed up his chest, and put his weight more on his front forelegs, trying to look fierce, as he then felt his whole weight shifting forward, and he fell right onto his muzzle. “Ouch.”
“Let’s start with walking before we run, okay?” said Redheart as she gently helped him up, and gestured for him to find space to sit on his bed.
Buttermilk grumbled and muttered, but slowly made his way back to the bed and sat up for Red Heart as she came over to start his check up.
Redheart took out her thermometer, and before she could ask him the little colt had his mouth wide open for her to take his temperature. Once it was placed into his mouth, he closed his muzzle, and they both waited for the tool to do its job. Red Heart then took out the thermometer, and hummed to herself as she scribbled down notes on her notepad to give to the doctor.
“Alright, now I am going to take your blood pressure,” she stated as she reached for the cuff to put it around his small forearm. She noticed him pouting, but he didn’t fight her. They had danced this dance before, and she usually knew how to get him to see it her way. Besides, she had remembered to bring his favorite thing.
The cuff once placed onto his front foreleg squeezed around his forearm, as they both waited as it compressed against his fur. Redheart glanced over to see what it said, and jotted it down, as she removed the cuff from the colt.
“You’re doing so good,” said Redheart, as she then got a small little light, and went to check his ears for any guck or dirt that might be causing him trouble. She had to make sure he was healthy, but really her main job was being here for him. He was so young, much too innocent and full of energy to be stuck in a hospital, where the highlight of his day was when Red Heart took her break to read Daring Do books to him. He was quite the energetic colt . Always wanting to play, so full of spirit, and yet he was plagued by something out of his control. There was no cure for what Buttermilk had, and he’d be lucky if the treatments would be enough…
“Redheart.” whimpered Buttermilk as he tugged on her foreleg. “Are we done with the boring parts now?” he asked, pouting as he frowned.
“Yes, we’re just about done. Now I want you to take a deep breath in, and then a deep breath out. You think you can do that for me?” she asked him.
“That’s kid stuff.” he retorted, as he took a deep breath in. Holding it. He had to keep the breath in, until she told him to let it out. Slowly, he exhaled, letting the breath out. They did this three or four times until Red Heart was satisfied, and put the strange medal thing she wore around her neck, back into a drawer by the doctor’s desk that was in the room. Buttermilk wasn’t supposed to touch it or mess with any of the doctor’s tools, but sometimes he got curious, but everything was always locked. Out of reach.
“Good job. You were so good today,” said Redheart as she leaned over once more, and petted his blonde messy mane with her forehoof. She scooted some of his gifts to the side, and sat down beside him on the bed. She looked into his baby blue eyes as she nuzzled against him affectionately.
“Hey, stop that, you’ll give me cooties!” he flailed trying to fight his way free of the mare. He chuckled as he felt her other foreleg tickling at his belly, he lost it, as he laid down on the bed, and began laughing hysterically.
“Hahahaha. Please stop!” he flailed wildly.
Redheart let go of him, when he asked her to stop. She sighed heavily as she stood up from the bed. Looking over to him, she lingered in the doorway.
“I have to go now, I have much to do, and other patients to see. I’ll be back on my break to read you more Daring Do,” said Redheart as she saw him shifting in his bed, finding a spot to lay amongst all the stuff.How many ponies had just dropped gifts off?She never saw them, but Buttermilk had a lot of ponies rooting for him, hoping against all the odds he would be able to go home. With that, Redheart turned to close the door behind her.
“This job is going to kill me.” she muttered aloud, as she trotted down the long white hallways. Hospitals. They were a place no pony wanted to be, and yet she had chosen this as her career. She put herself in this position because she wanted to help others. Wanted to give back to the ponies all across Equestria. Often, she lingered in her own thoughts. She reflected on her patients.
As she walked through the hallway, her thoughts drifted back to the first patient she saw today. Seeing ponies like that was always a bitter taste in her mouth, and left a heavy feeling within her heart, which is why she enjoyed seeing patients like Buttermilk. Even though he was sick, he never let that get to him.
Making her way to her office, she sat down to leave notes for the doctor that would be checking on each of the patients. She took care of one hall, she had at least six patients. Scratch that, five. She had five patients to care for, and to provide the best experience she could.
“Nurse Redheart,” stated a male voice looking over to her from the door she had forgotten to close.
“Oh hey there Doctor Horse, how are you today?” asked Redheart, shuffling through her notes, and keeping her eyes on her paperwork.
“I’m doing fairly well, what about you? You seem...distracted. Perhaps there is something you’d like to talk about? You know we are always here to help.”
“No, I’m fine. We lost Stone Cold today.” stated Redheart, as she sighed heavily, closing her eyes, and slumping in her chair.
Doctor Horse walked over to her, putting a hoof to her shoulder.
“It is unfortunate to hear, but at least they passed peacefully. We must not focus on the ones we couldn’t save, but the ones that are still here. They need us to remain steady, to be their strength in these challenging times. You are a great nurse, Redheart. Do not think for one moment it was your fault.” explained Doctor Horse, as he adjusted his glasses on his face, trying to hide the slight shed of a teardrop.
“I know.” said Redheart. It wasn’t like she didn’t appreciate his sympathy, but she didn’t need him to tell her what she already knew. She had been doing this job longer then he had. She gave her notes on Buttermilk to him.
“You might want to check in on Buttermilk. His health is overall fine for his condition, but I believe he could use a bit of company.”
“If I had the time I would gladly spend it with him, he’s a sweet little colt—but I don’t. You know that. I’m sure he knows it too. Now I must be going. Do try to remember why we do this Nurse Redheart. It isn’t to save them all, as much as we might wish for, it’s to save the ones we can.”
Nurse Redheart knew that. She had plenty of experience in the field. Plenty of time she spent with patients. She had seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. She thought of Buttermilk as she wrote her notes down for the day. Documenting her records, and passing on the information the Doctor would need for the next day.
Her shift was just about half over. It would be lunch time soon enough. She wasn’t hungry, even as she felt her stomach rumble and disagree with that notion. She stood up from her chair after finishing the paperwork, and using her hoof to clock out for lunch. She didn’t go to the cafeteria, she instead headed towards Buttermilk’s room.
She just couldn’t get the colt off her mind.
She had to see him again, had to read to him more stories about the adventurous Daring Do, and provide him some sort of solace, knowing in her heart that he might not make it. That he could end up like the patient she had covered up this morning, and she would do all she could to give this colt an experience that wasn’t suffering.
