Carmen sighed, leaning back onto the nicely fluffed pillow. Trying hard to curb the anxiety building up in her. She closed her eyes for a moment holding Shane’s hand close to her heart when she heard a voice boomed into the room.

“Good afternoon, dearie!”

“Hey, Jan” Shane greeted the nurse in-charge, a plump elderly lady.

Nurse Jan took one look at Carmen and frowned. She placed her hand protectively onto Carmen’s forehead and wiped the beads of perspiration off.

“Crying again? You poor dear. But don’cha worry, your good little girlfriend here will take good care of you.” Nurse Jan said, throwing a big smile at Shane.

Shane cleared her throat embarrassed, and looked away to the floor. Nurse Jan gave out an amused laugh before she went through her usual routine of taking Carmen’s pulse and temperature, chatting with the girls as she went about her duties.

As she handed the three offensive pink pills to Carmen, Nurse Jan smiled.

“Well, the good news is, you have only 5 dosages left before your holiday.”

Shane grinned widely at that. She knew that with every two weeks of *****, her Carmen could take a week rest without the pills. That meant that Carmen could go home in 2 days time, away from this depressing institution.

She gave Carmen a squeeze on the hand and handed her the glass of water she prepared. Carmen smiled weakly as she turned back and stared at the pills blankly. With another reassuring squeeze of Shane’s hand, she quickly downed the pills and accepted the water from Shane. Gulping it down all the way, eyes closed to block out all the fear.

“That’s a good girl now.” Nurse Jan hollered smilingly. “What time is your dear momma coming? She promised me the Jalapeno dish recipe.”

Shane shot an aghast look at Nurse Jan. Both Carmen and Nurse Jan were oblivious as Carmen glanced at the clock. “In about an hour’s”

“Good, just give me a ring when she gets here.” With that, Nurse Jan patted Carmen on shoulder and headed out of the room.

Carmen laid her head back onto the pillow as Shane instinctively pushed the button to restore the bed to it’s original position. She stroked her girlfriend’s arm as the drugs started to make Carmen tired.