Treading through the dried Meadows, and clearing between the woods that ran in arch on both sides of the Meadows. The dried grass trodden under the hooves of horses, coated and splattered with the blood of soldiers with hundreds of arrows pierced into the abandoned ground which looked like as if once it had been a battlefield. She came across a figure, a woman dressed in a green garb clutching a blue cloak to her chest crying, as tears trailed down her face in anguish and she lifted her head towards the sky and let out a blood curdling scream from her raw throat. The woman tucked her chin against her breast, and then sensing another presence looked straight up at Ava with tear stained face.

She had seen her before.

Beep...

Beep...

Ava's body raised and slammed itself down on the hospital bed, sending tremor of jolts and fits through her entire body. The doctors and nurses rushed to her side, grabbing the girl's arms and legs as her body continued jerking.

"What's happening to her?"

The female doctor, noticed her erratic heartbeat on the monitor and her shooting pulse line before grabbing an injection from the nurse's tray and shot it in the girl's arm. Perhaps, she broke through unconsciousness, perhaps she was in dream because the last thing she saw was a concerned face of her doctor and her red lips before slipping back into the darkness.

Ava was slipping in and out of her consciousness, listening to the distant voices of doctors and nurses around her and through her hazy vision she read the name plate of the female doctor.

'Katerina.'

The next time Ava woke up, she had fully regained her consciousness. The doctors and nurses surrounded her, running tests on her and checking on her vitals, asking her few questions before clearing her and shifted her out of the ICU room. David and her father were sitting on the chairs of the hospital room with dark circles under their eyes from being awake all night and Alex stood quietly next to Annabeth beside Mason. Ava sat on the hospital bed as a male nurse checked on her drip attached to her hand, and a female doctor walked in through the door with a charming smile on her ruby lips.

"Glad to see you awake, Ava." The doctor spoke and pulled out a light from her coat's pocket bending down to her patient's level and brought it near to Ava's eyes.

"How are you feeling?" The doctor asked flashing light in her both eyes and then pulled back pursing her perfect mouth painted in Russian red.

"Tired." Ava replied. The doctor's short, silk black hair were pulled back in a loose ponytail and her front hair cut in side flick softened her sharp cut of her face. Deep dark brown eyes with flecks of red in her irises were accentuated by the long curls of eyelashes, which even without any mascara made Ava envious of the woman's beauty and her eyes landed on the doctor's breast to see her name plate.

"It happens. You've been out for eleven hours. The drugs will take some time to wear off." The doctor answered and slipped on the stethoscope in her ears, and pressed diaphragm on the girl's chest to listen to her heartbeat.

"Can you inhale deeply?" Ava nodded and took a deep inhale before releasing her breath, repeating it twice as her traitorous eyes landed on the red mouth of the doctor, and she cursed herself as the doctor removed ear tips of the stethoscope from her ears and looked back at the girl with a lopsided smile on her red lips.

"Your heartbeat is a bit faster, but there's nothing to be worried about." Ava wanted the ground to open to swallow her because of her embarrassment, but she could feel her eyes wandering black to the doctor's face.

"What happened to you?" Mason finally asked his daughter with worrying lines on his forehead for last eleven hours.

"I slipped from the stairs when attending the phone call and fell unconscious." The girl answered which only confused her father for some reason. She remembered going to the back courtyard of the house while on her phone with Alex and slipped from the stairs.

"What?" David was staring back at her in shock.

"But the doctors said there's no internal injury."

"Would you rather have her had internal injuries?" David opened his mouth but shut it under the intense glare from the doctor.

"She fell into shock from the fear of falling from stairs, more like a panic attack but there's no other issue and you should be thankful that she didn't fall into comma."

"You've scared us, Ava." Mason spoke rubbing his tired face with both hands and the girl cringed at the thought of putting his father through it. It's then, Chris walked into the room with his hands full of food bags and his tired eyes widened in surprise when he saw the girl sitting awake in the bed.

"You're awake." He spoke with a half-tired smile that didn't reach his eyes and handed breakfast to Annabeth and Alex.

"Yeah. Where's Aaron?" Ava noticed the high collar of his shirt underneath cardigan, and a purplish bruise under his left eye which he had tried to hide under the thick layer of eye concealer.

"He's down with migraine so I took him home to sleep. He'll come to see you in the noon." Ava found herself nodding to him, as if almost convinced by his words but didn't fail to notice that there's edginess and strain in his voice and the girl wondered if everything was alright between the two.

"Have we met before?" Chris was staring at the doctor with a confused look on his face. The doctor looked him straight in his eye, her sharp gaze boring straight into him before the boy blinked, inhaling sharply.

"No, we haven't. Have we?" The doctor asked the male but Chris shook his head laughing nervously.

"No, I don't think if we ever had." Chris shook his head and then went out of the room excusing himself. There's a look of understanding passed between David and Mason, David followed Chris out of the room to the waiting hall.

"Chris?" David called out for the boy who stopped and turned to look back at the elder male.

"Yes, Sir?" He asked and David walked composedly towards Chris and stopped in front of him. Gathering his strength, he opened his mouth to apologize to the younger male.

"I'm sorry for..."

"Punching me?" Chris' tone was bitter, perhaps his haywire nerves were catching upto him in the morning.

"Yeah."

"Or, calling me a whore?" Chris scoffed and passed his hand through his hair wetting his mouth which made the elder male cringe in shame.

"Look...I know what I said is inappropriate but I know I was wrong and I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Chris shrugged. 

"What is this?" David noticed a red bruise under the boy's jaw and tugged the collar of his shirt lower revealing tendrils of red bruises around his neck.

"What he hell!" Chris shouted slamming his hand on the side of his neck to cover the bruises.

"Who gave them to you?" David asked petrified pointing at his neck.

"None of your business!" Chris barked and was ready to leave when David closed his hand around Chris' arm.

"Is it sexual assault?" He asked getting worried for the young boy, and Chris snapped his head towards David at his blunt question.

"NO!" Chris cried out in horror. "It's not! What made you think like that?" Chris yanked his arm free from David's hand and marched away from there. David returned to the room sat next to Annabeth who's going through magazine while Mason and Alex were sitting near Ava's hospital bed and talking to the girl.

"What happened to you?" The blonde girl asked taking in the man's worried face.

"Nothing to me but to Chris?"

"What to him?"

"There are bruises on his neck and he got defensive when I asked about them."

"Well, shit!" She slammed down the magazine and pulled out her phone to text the other male.

"What?"

"Things like these often happen to him. You shouldn't question the boy about it, least mention it before Aaron."

"Is he alright? Involved in drugs or something?" The man could not help but worry for the younger male. He wondered what was going on in his life that made him uncomfortable when he questioned him about his bruises.

"No, let's just drop the topic." Annabeth finally said. " It's too personal."

"Yeah."

"I'll go check on him." She got up from the chair and went outside the room looking for Chris.

_

During the lunch time, a short male nurse brought Ava her meal which was a bowl of plain chicken soup with no salt and flavor and Ava nearly gagged from the bland taste of the hot liquid in her mouth. Dr. Katerina walked inside the room and Ava looked up blushing in embarrassment when the doctor caught her muttering curses at the doctors.

"Feeling mad at the doctors?" The woman asked with a smile plastered on her face and she slipped her perfectly manicured hands inside her white coat's pocket.

"Sorry." Ava muttered sheepishly before having another spoon of her soup and made a gagging face.

"Let me taste it!" The doctor said walking towards her.

"What? No!" Ava jumped back in surprise when Katerina took spoon from the girl's hand and took a spoonful of soup blowing it on the surface of hot liquid before putting it inside the mouth and Ava couldn't do anything but gaped at the woman with open mouth.

"It's not that bad." The doctor spoke taking another spoon of the chicken soup.

"What it's not! I mean it is not Not bad." The girl snatched the spoon back from the doctor's hold and took sip of her own to prove her point.

"There's no salt, no pepper, no texture, no flavor. It tastes like chicken has taken bath in the hot water." A peal of laughter broke from the doctor's mouth who was shaking with the small tremor of laughter which made Ava's heart skip a beat. It didn't escape the woman's peripheral version that the girl was sulking shooting daggers at the soup bowl.

"Okay, okay let me get you something bearable to eat."

"What! No..." But the doctor didn't hear the protest of the girl and disappeared from the room. Ava groaned with crossed arms, and stared at the paintings on the walls as if they were the most interesting thing to spend the time while waiting and then back at her chicken soup till the doctor returned with a hot steamy bowl of tomato soup on a tray and switched it with the other one.

"Here you go, try it!" The doctor clasped her hands and sat on the edge of the girl's hospital bed.

"What!" Ava stared back at the doctor wide-eyed. "You didn't have to do it!"

"I did do it so, now you have to eat it." The doctor pushed the tray towards the girl and pulled the bowl of chicken soup towards her.

"You are eating this?" Ava raised her eyebrow at the doctor who was unbelievably enjoying the chicken soup.

"Isn't it tasteless for you?"

"I'm allergic to spices or chillies." The doctor spoke between the sips of her soup. "So, this saltless and pepper less is soothing for me."

"Oh, right. Not everyone is into spices." The doctor hummed and Ava peered up at the woman again putting the spoon back into the bowl.

"You're off duty?"

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't you be having your lunch with your colleagues? I mean you're off duty..." Ava trailed off shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm new here so I feel a bit out of the place among them. I prefer eating with my patients than with the other doctors." Ava's shoulders sagged in disappointment and she stopped midway of taking her soup when the doctor said 'patients'. Of course, she's a doctor and she's doing it for her to recover faster. It purely done out if her sense of profession and Ava wondered why it had disappointed her that much.

"Don't get me wrong I normally skip my meals at the hospital but I thought with you, I could take time for myself." Katerina spoke as if she had read the mind of the girl and Ava felt embarrassed in the presence of her doctor.

"You should take care of yourself, doctor." Ava snorted least ashamed about it.

"How will you take care of me if you don't take care of yourself?" Katerina's brown eyes widened, a rosy blush dusted her cheek but she hung her head and busied herself in finishing her soup.

Ava was trying to push back her loose hair that were irritating her face, and Katerina put away the spoon in the empty bowl and went behind the girl gathering her hair in her hands.

"I'll braid them for you." Ava swore her heart stopped beating for a minute before she recovered from the shock that the doctor was parting her hair and started knotting them in an intricate braid.

"T-Thanks..." Ava stuttered as her face heated up and in the moment she wanted to die right then and there. Why was it getting awkward for her to be around the other woman?

"Better?" Dr. Katerina asked resting hands on the girls' shoulder, and even through the barrier of cloth on her skin, Ava could feel goosebumps raising on her arms and shoulders where the woman's cold palms had touched.

"Yeah." Ava coughed to dissipate the sudden tension in the room and forced a smile, trying her best not to blush.

"Are you new here? Doesn't look like a local face."

"I have moved in with my Dad's boyfriend." 

"And your mother?"

"She passed away when I was young. What about you?" Ava questioned the doctor to learn about the other woman.

"What about me?" The tone was almost cold and Ava felt uncomfortable under her piercing gaze.

"Your family?"

"My parents passed away when I was young."

"I'm sorry." But then words were out of Ava's mouth before she could stop them "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"The person I loved died in an accident." The doctor's expressions almost became nostalgic and Ava felt guilty for making her remember the pain.

"I'll be going. My duty is starting." Katerina looked at her wrist watch and took the empty bowl and tray from Ava moving out of the room.