A Heart Healed

She quickly changed into her uniform, tossing her clothing into her bag and the whole thing into a locker they had available for the doctors before passing by the nurses once again who seemed to be looking at her between their whispering. It was only once she left the changing room that her brother’s words came back to her. There were people in the world who would be talking about her, but she never expected them to be this open about it.

Perhaps she was just being naïve about it. After all, some people didn’t care. Naomi was still in the room and all they had done was reduce the volume at most. She had hoped that people had better things to do with their time, especially the staff there who had known and worked with her for years now.

She looked back at the changing room door before just deciding to let it go for now. She had work to do.

********

Marc

“What else do we have to do today, Lawrence?”

Marc let out a deep sigh as he waited for his assistant’s response through the intercom. There was something off today, he could just feel it. Something in his gut was telling him that the string of good luck he had been having lately is about to go to total sh*t, and he didn’t know why.

Maybe he was just being paranoid. Yeah, that was it. This was because of the short message from Naomi this morning saying she was being called into her director’s office.

All of her messages over the past week since he dropped her off at the hospital on Sunday had been like this, but his mind was just wanting to believe that the cause for this was that she was busy instead of something being wrong. He was beginning to worry about her health on the other hand.

The days he saw her seemed to be the only times she got any true sleep and she started eating less as well lately, claiming that she had eaten before he came over or she had dinner before she left the hospital. He knew the symptoms of stress very well, and there was definitely something wrong with Naomi.

“Mr. Hewitt,” Lawrence’s voice came through on the intercom.

Marc pressed the button. “I’m listening.”

“All you have for this afternoon is a video call to your mother that you wanted me to remind you about.” Oh, right, he had forgotten that he had wanted to check on his mother and Ezra in France. His brother was due back next week so that they could begin his official sessions with the physical therapist.

“I’ll do it from home,” he said to Lawrence. “I’m leaving early so hold all my calls.”

“Will do, sir. And if Mr. Salinger asks?”

Oh, right, he forgot about that. “Tell him I’m going to a meeting.”

With that, he grabbed his cellphone and called one of the company drivers as he headed downstairs. His mind was probably not in the best state to be driving, but he had to go and check on her somehow. His stomach wouldn’t settle down until he did.

**********

When he reached the hospital, he told the driver to wait for him nearby while he went inside before heading to the reception area. As he entered the hospital, everything looked about the same as the last time he had been inside the building, but there was something about the atmosphere that had definitely shifted.

It felt as if he was being watched like a threat as he passed through the lobby. There were a number of people gathered around the reception desks, sure, but it was as if the people behind them had their eyes on him.

He had no time for that though. Where was Naomi?

Marc walked down towards the waiting room he had found the first time he had come to this place. Maybe there was a nurse he could ask around there. He knew that she was still on shift, so she had to be somewhere. He walked down the whitewashed hallways, swerving around people passing by in wheelchairs who were likely heading to a hospital bed somewhere upstairs.

As he reached the end of the hallway, he cursed internally that he hadn’t asked Naomi for a tour of the place. If it wasn’t for the fact that she wasn’t answering her phone, he’d have had an easier time finding her.

“Sir?” one of the people pushing an empty wheelchair asked. “Are you lost?”

“I’m looking for Dr. Bennett.” He figured he may as well try his luck. There was a chance that this man had no idea who she was, but there was also a chance that he did.

He seemed to pause for a second before something clicked in his head. “Oh! I saw her a few minutes ago when I was taking someone to x-rays. She was in the waiting room right next to the nurses’ station. Didn’t look very happy though, pretty much kicked everyone out of the room.”

Marc’s frown deepened. So, there was something wrong after all. This wasn’t something he wanted to be right about by any means. “Any chance you could show me a shortcut there?” The porter hesitated for a moment before giving him a simple nod.

“All right, but only because I’m kind of concerned about her. She’s been having a hard week and now I heard from one of the nurses that she just came from the director’s office. Follow me.” The man parked the wheelchair against the wall and signaled for Marc to follow him through one of the service doors that led through a part of the hospital he’s definitely never seen before. It was the opposite of everything that existed outside of it.

That wasn’t the thing he wanted to focus on though. What was going on with Naomi? She’d been having a hard week? What happened that she was called into the director’s office? Why didn’t she tell him anything?

The two men exited their labyrinth through another service door, entering the pretty part of the hospital once again. There were a group of nurses walking up and down the hallways along with some other doctors he had only seen in passing during Ezra’s stay here. He must be in one of the wards.

“In there,” his helpful guide said, pointing out a closed door next to a desk full of patient files. “I have to get back to work so good luck.”

With that, he was on his own again. He approached the door and opened it, entering the room as quietly as he could before he saw her sitting in a chair in the corner next to a soda machine, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her doctor’s coat. The sight felt like cold water had been splashed over him.

It made him angry and bitter that someone or something would cause this. He approached her slowly, trying not to make it worse. As Marc checked back at the door, he could feel the stares of people through the glass panel on the door, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about that now.

First, he needed to calm her down and find out what happened. All thoughts of finding the people responsible for making her cry can be dealt with later.

“Naomi?” he tried as gently as he could. “What’s wrong?’