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Chapter One - Julia

The first thing I did when I woke up was to groan

It wasn’t the best way to start off the day, but it energizedin bed, which wasn’t an option for me

People used to wake up at the crack of dawn, or “as the rooster crows,” as the old saying went Not ed, to be honest Except that now I had been beckoned back to the land of the living by the squawk of an alarm clock, instead of the primordial call of a bird, which had been intended for just such a purpose

Soht

About sos, anyway

Once I hit the shower, icy water cascaded down ontolike wakefulness The previous night’s skeleton shift had been brutal, and they were onlyme at any time

As a doctor in the ER during a pandeof the past, then, at the very least, estion than a hard and fast rule

The actual fact of the matter was that we’d all been put on call, without it actually beingon It was just the nature of the beast ere trying to slay

I knehat I had signed up for, though, when I had beco up after such long shifts, just to get ready to likely be called in for another one, any more bearable

Stepping out of the cold shower and into ed down the stairs and out the door, doing et in the full ten o off and call me back to the hospital at any moment

I was doing pretty well during the first leg of rand total of three hours’ worth of sleep