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0.23% The Royal Mark / Chapter 1: Dr. Elsa Morgan
The Royal Mark The Royal Mark original

The Royal Mark

Author: Shiroi_Nami

© WebNovel

Chapter 1: Dr. Elsa Morgan

Volume 1 - Novus Mundus

Elsa found herself running through a dense and eerie forest, her heart pounding in her chest like the relentless beat of distant thunder. Her breathing was rapid and shallow. Her reddish brown hair, tangled and wild, brushed against her pale face as she darted through the forest. She was desperate to escape the man in black leather armor running after her.

She ran as fast as she could, her fear motivating her forward, pushing her body to its limits. Her eyes searched around frantically, trying to catch any sign of the man who was pursuing her.

"I can't do this anymore," she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. At this rate, she might faint if she kept on running. She heard footsteps and a primal instinct urged her to run again, faster, to escape that haunted place.

With each breath, she tasted the dampness of fear in the air. Her muscles ached from the effort, yet she dared not to slow down.

Despite her fatigue, she pressed on, her feet stumbling over roots and rocks. She felt as if she were trapped in a nightmare, her mind begging for an escape that was nowhere to be found.

She had seen this before. It was the same forest that she kept seeing over and over again. "Oh God, I am dreaming, this is just a dream, please wake up. Wake your f*cking self up!" Elsa cursed, before pinching her arm. "Aw! I felt that!" Elsa added.

A twig snapped nearby, and her heart skipped a beat. She knew she had to summon her courage once more, so she rose from the forest floor and continued her harrowing escape.

Elsa hid behind a big tree, panting so hard she could already feel herself slowly losing consciousness. She bent her knees and rested her elbows on them, covering her face with both hands as she stifled a cry.

"This is just a dream," Elsa whispered while trying to convince herself but it felt so real, everything was so vivid. 'Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! F*ck!' She screamed inwardly. Elsa could no longer hold her tears, the frustration that she was feeling was just too much.

Elsa held her breath when she heard incoming footsteps, directly toward her spot.

"Where are you, princess?" The man in the black leather armor exclaimed.

Elsa dared to peek and saw the man looking in the opposite direction from where she was. She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and covered her face with both hands again. She is so tired. Dizziness gripped her mind while panting heavily.

The footsteps drew nearer and stopped right behind her. She held her breath.

This is it, he caught her. There is no escaping from the man in the black leather armor anymore. Elsa felt her whole body tremble before a hand landed on her shoulder shaking her.

"Dr. Morgan! Dr. Morgan! Please wake up, we have an incoming RTC (Road Traffic Collision) —a car and a truck. A family of three is on their way here– a 12-year-old boy, his father, and his pregnant mom," One of the nurses informed Elsa.

Elsa jolted awake, disoriented as her eyes struggled to adjust to the blinding light. Upon realizing where she was, she was delighted to see the familiar white walls, people wearing blue and white, anxiously running left and right, and the smell of disinfectant all over the place.

Dr. Elsa Morgan immediately stood up and walked with the nurse toward the emergency room. She is a third-year resident in a big city hospital, specializing in trauma medicine.

Dr. Morgan is renowned not only among the hospital staff but also among the patients and was nicknamed "The Phoenix Doctor" due to her exceptional skill in saving patients in the emergency room that has a very low chance of survival. She was accelerated multiple times which allowed her to reach her third-year residency at the young age of twenty-five. She was truly a child prodigy and a genius in other people's eyes.

Her striking bright red hair sets her apart in the hospital's sea of white lab gowns and blue scrubs. Her distinctive appearance makes her stand out from the crowd, people often find themselves captivated by her vivid amber-colored eyes.

As Elsa tied her hair into a ponytail, she asked the nurse, "Have you informed the fellow and attending on-call tonight?"

The nurse began to stutter in response, "We did send them a message, doctor, but either their phone is turned off or there is no signal," the nurse replied with hesitation.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, Elsa instructed, "We don't have any choice then. Call the other attendings and fellows and see who is available," as she continued walking. However, the nurse hesitated, causing Elsa to glance back at her.

"But doctor, it's 2:30 a.m., and the others who are not on call are most likely asleep by now," the nurse stammered.

"I don't care! We have an RTC situation, so we need them. Call them right now!" Elsa shouted at the nurse, causing her to startle at the loud voice. The nurse hurriedly ran to the nurse station to follow Elsa's instructions.

Elsa then turned to the nurse who had received the emergency call from the paramedics and inquired about the patient's situation.

Typically, they would have a senior resident overseeing the situation, but tonight was an exception. As the highest-ranking resident in the room, Elsa assumed the responsibility of assigning tasks to everyone.

Everyone gathered outside the emergency room door, their anticipation growing as they awaited the incoming ambulance. Shortly thereafter, three ambulances arrived, and each patient was taken care of as per Elsa's instructions.

"Have you managed to reach the senior doctors?" Elsa inquired, directing her question to the nurse.

"No, Dr. Morgan. I still can't get through to them," the nurse responded.

One of the residents who overheard their conversation expressed, "What do we do now? The boy is losing a substantial amount of blood, and we've already administered a lot."

As tension rose, a nurse suddenly cried out, "CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE!" This urgent call prompted all available residents, including Elsa, to rush to the aid of the pregnant mother.

"Give 5 ml epi stat, charge to 120..." Elsa commanded the nurses swiftly, as she prepared to use the defibrillator paddle. "Move!" She shouted to the resident conducting chest compressions, making way for her to place the paddle on the mother's chest. "Clear!" she exclaimed.

Thankfully, the mother's heartbeat was restored promptly. But their relief was short-lived as another crisis arose.

"Doctor! The boy's blood pressure is rapidly dropping. What should we do? There's no fellow or attending available," the nurse inquired anxiously.

"Prepare for an emergency operation in trauma room one. I will operate on the boy," Elsa stated firmly.

The residents and the nurses panicked after hearing Elsa's plan. They are not allowed to perform such complicated operations without the presence of their seniors.

"Alright, who will assist me?" Elsa looked around at the people in the room but no one was moving or speaking. "And you call yourselves, doctors? Remember we are here to save lives! You all disappoint me!" Elsa yelled, completely angry.

A woman behind the crowd that formed in front of Elsa raised her hand and said, "I will assist you," she said as she squeezed into the crowd to go to Elsa.

Elsa smiled seeing her best friend from medical school. Dr. Nadel Sand always had her back and was always willing to ride her craziness.

"Count me in Dr. Morgan, I'll be your scrub nurse. It's time to teach these young ones that life is more important than money or title," the head nurse glowered at the doctors and nurses who are much younger than her. Dr. Morgan just made her remember her goal and it was to care for the people that are fighting for their lives.

"Well, you can't operate without an anesthesiologist." Elsa felt relieved as Dr. Jai Chaudhary stepped forward. "Time's ticking. Let's get to the ER, stat." These are just the people that she needs to be able to save the boy.

One more resident and two more nurses joined them and everyone acted fast while Elsa and Nadel quickly proceeded to the wash basin to prepare to scrub in.

"Thank you. You don't have to do this, you know?" Elsa uttered while washing her hands.

"And who will save your ass if I will not join you in your craziness?" Nadel jested and both women laughed, "I will support this insanity of yours since I know that this is the only chance for that boy to live. Since I am putting my license and future in your hands, you better freaking save that boy, understand?" Nadel said with a confident smile before scrubbing in.

Elsa took a minute to compose herself before she did the procedure. She would be lying if she said she wasn't one bit nervous. Her heart is pounding really hard, harder than what she felt when she was running in her dreams.

The life of this boy is in her hands. What she is about to do is very risky given that the patient is very young and has already lost a lot of blood. She might be able to successfully remove the piece of glass that is piercing the boy's stomach and successfully stop his bleeding but there's still no guarantee that the boy will live given the damage that had already been done by the collision.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Shiroi_Nami Shiroi_Nami

Welcome to my 2nd book!

To my existing readers, thank you for waiting for the edited version. I am sorry to make you wait, I just needed to polish some scenes.

To my new readers, I hope you will enjoy my story. You can alos read my 1st book called "CEO's Contract Obsession".

Enjoy!

***NEW BOOK ALERT***

3rd book is out: My Two Billionaire Husbands: A Plan for Revenge

next chapter

Chapter 2: Suspended

Elsa took a deep breath while her hands were up before entering the trauma room. This boy's life depends on whether she can keep her head straight. Her mind has to be still. Clear. There is no room for mistakes.

"Suction," Elsa started checking the area where the glass had cut the boy's body. Nadel had already cleaned most of the area so she could see the organs clearly.

"Hemostat… gauze… cautery…" Elsa clipped and sealed the blood vessels that could quicken the loss of blood. Elsa was sweating as she slowly pulled out the piece of glass from the boy's stomach.

Everyone focused on their task for removing that glass is just the beginning. Dr. Chaudhary closely monitored the child's vitals while Nadel and the other resident made sure that Elsa's line of sight was clear.

"Suture."After three hours of harrowing work, Dr. Morgan was able to take out the glass and stitch up the boy's intestines. The boy's vitals stabilized and everyone could breathe again.

"What the hell were you thinking?! Are you all out of your mind?!" The attending doctor Dr. Wyatt barged in screaming. Everybody turned to look at him—everyone but Elsa, who was too busy with her work to pay attention to him.

"We are almost done, Dr. Wyatt. I just need to tie some ends and I'm done. I can hear that you are angry. We are almost done. I will face your wrath in a bit," Elsa said sarcastically, still without sparing a glance at the mad doctor until he left the room.

Dr. Wyatt is angry about what she has done, but Elsa is furious. If anybody needs to be reprimanded, it should be him and the other absent doctors.

"There, done, cut," Elsa uttered after tying the last knot of the suture.

Everybody involved in the operation started congratulating each other. Everyone was happy except for Elsa who was faking a smile, not wanting to worry others.

"I'll go with you," Nadel said as she followed Elsa out of the operating room. "I'm also a resident who disobeyed protocol. If they want to punish you, they should punish me too."

She hooked her arm with Elsa's, knowing her support was exactly what Elsa needed right now.

"Stay here. I led this operation, and I'll take responsibility for everyone," Elsa replied. You can save me later when I have nothing left to eat because I was fired." Nadel grinned at the joke, and Elsa squared her shoulders to meet her superior's wrath.

"Dr. Wyatt…" Elsa called the doctor who was checking a patient's file.

"Go home, Dr. Morgan," Dr. Wyatt said dismissively without looking at her.

Elsa's brow furrowed as she struggled to comprehend what she had just heard. "I beg your pardon, doctor?"

"I said go home," he tersely replied.

"You're not angry with me anymore?" Elsa's voice was barely above a whisper. Surely he wasn't letting her off that easily. There had to be more behind his words.

Dr. Wyatt paused from what he was reading and squinted at Elsa, making her bite her lip and take a step back.

"I'm telling you to go home because you're suspended for a month, Dr. Morgan," Dr. Wyatt finally clarified. He then left the room, leaving Elsa flabbergasted and rooted to the spot.

After a few moments of shock, Elsa managed to catch up with Dr. Wyatt. "One month? That's too harsh! It's your fault we had to proceed with the operation without you! Luckily, the mother stabilized, or we would have had another patient needing surgery. Where did you disappear to anyway?" Elsa's frustration boiled over.

She had never disobeyed her superiors before, but she believed her actions tonight were justified. It wasn't fair to suspend her for an entire month.

"Do you want me to add insubordination to your list? Your case has already been emailed to the department director. Once they review it, they'll get in touch. So, go home; your ID access has been suspended as well, so don't even try sneaking in," Dr. Wyatt warned sternly.

Elsa gritted her teeth and stopped following Dr. Wyatt. She knew that there was no use in arguing with the lazy bum doctor. She walked angrily to the locker room near the ER to get her things after the tiring hours of operating on the boy.

"How'd it go?" Nadel asked. "Is everything okay?" she added after seeing her best friend silently pack up.

"No. He got me suspended for a month. But I'm going to make an appeal." Elsa stated.

"And where are you going?" Nadel worriedly asked.

"I'm heading to my hometown for now. It will take a while for the director to call me—two to three days perhaps. Plus it's the weekends so it will add up, and it all depends on their decision," Elsa explained before bidding her farewell to Nadel and heading home.

It has been three years since Elsa returned to her hometown in Santa Fe. She has been so busy with her residency that she had no time to go home. Thankfully, she has a dad who is also a doctor and understands her situation very well and visits her from time to time.

"Up-up!" Elsa taps the car seat, commanding her four dogs to hop in the SUV as she puts her luggage in the back.

Elsa turned on the music player and sang her heart out, releasing all her stress and frustration with her situation as she drove along the woody forest road going to her hometown while her dogs sat and stayed still in the passenger seat.

Nile, her gray male dog suddenly started barking at the window. "What is it, boy? Do you want fresh air? Hold on, let me roll it down a bit." Elsa pressed the car window button until half of it was open.

But Nile did not stop barking and started scratching the window too. "What's wrong? Do you want to potty?" Soon all her four dogs were doing the same. Elsa started to worry and panic for it was the first time that her dogs had done that, "Alright, alright! Hold on, I will park the car when I find a good spot. Just hold on."

She couldn't find a spot where her dogs could safely do their business so she drove faster. Out of the blue, her right wrist started aching the moment her dogs stopped scratching and started howling. "Oh my God! What's wrong with all of you?"

The pain in Elsa's wrist started to intensify, just like how it felt in one of her dreams. It was as if something was being carved on her skin.

While her eyes were focused on the road as she tried to find a spot for her dogs she noticed a light from her peripheral vision. She followed the source of the bright light and her eyes went wide open seeing her right wrist glowing where the pain was coming from.

"HOLY CRAP!!!" Elsa yelped while staring at her glowing wrist.

*THUD*

"SHOOT!!!" Elsa exclaimed when she heard a loud sound, felt something big hit the car, and saw something furry in the corner of her eyes like some kind of animal. She quickly turned the steering wheel to the right side of the road before stopping and checking on her dogs.

"Are you guys alright?" She frantically inspected each of her dogs for injuries. After seeing that all her dogs were okay, she climbed out of the SUV to check what kind of animal she hit.

What she saw drained the blood out of her face. She stood there frozen, the hairs on her skin standing on their ends. It wasn't a deer at all, but a human--a man sprawled out and drenched in blood, naked, facing the ground.

Nile went straight to the wounded man, barking and holding a defensive stance. Ciel, Gaia, and Nuri, her other three dogs, stood beside her and barked as well.

She felt her knees become weak, and her body was trembling, completely shocked by what happened. She cannot believe that she just hit a man and is possibly dead right now.

But wait… She's a doctor!

She came to her senses and quickly ran to the wounded man. She furrowed her eyebrows as she approached him, 'What the hell is a naked man doing on the road?!' Elsa thought.

She hastily checked for any broken bones and released a sigh of relief when she found none. He had some deep wounds, but they were not caused by the car accident. It seems he was stabbed multiple times by something long and sharp.

"Mmm…" The man whined and moved a little.

"Oh thank God you're alive!" Elsa exclaimed as she took her phone from her pocket to call for help, but her phone had no reception, not even a single bar.

"Damnit! Why now?!" She was so frustrated, that she didn't even realize she cursed out loud. The man moved once again. "D-Do not move. I am a doctor, stay here," Elsa blurted before running back to her car.

She remembered her dad asked her to buy some supplies before going home so she opened the back of her SUV and took her medical kit, a portable stretcher, a neck brace, and some blankets with trembling hands and legs.


***NEW BOOK ALERT***

3rd book is out: My Two Billionaire Husbands: A Plan for Revenge

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