This chapter is for everyone who enjoyed the last chapter. Thank you for putting a huge smile on my face ☺️.

Please don't forget to comment on this chapter, I assure there's lots to read. 🥺

"Would you like some water ma'am?" Nadia asked her patient who just had a ceaseran section and had finally woken up after a day. The previous day, CMD and his team had been called for a woman with a bad case of preeclampsia and pregnancy diabetes. 

"Yes please, thank you." Nadia helped her lean up and take a few sips of the cool water. She had passed the mandatory post surgery protocol and could now eat liquid food. 

"Thank you for helping me yesterday, and this morning as well." Nadia smiled and smoothed the woman's covers over. She helped her get more comfortable and while they adjusted the bed, her husband, a beaming man came in. 

"The baby is so beautiful Jaan, she looks just like you." He pulled on the pink balloons he was holding and walked closer to his wife. Nadia watched them for a while, happiness in her chest before excusing herself. It was one of the reasons she did what she did, the love that patients shared with their families while recovering, it gave her the kick to keep going. 

As she shut the door behind her, she bumped into Folake who was shutting the door of another room on the VIP floor. She smiled happily at the woman she now considered her friend. 

"Our shift is over, thank God. All I want to do now is sleep for at least twelve hours unhindered, but I have an outreach I promised I would go." Nadia stopped walking and faced Folake who was the very picture of tiredness, with droopy eyelids and smudged eyeliner. Nadia herself was not any better as they'd done a surgery, then post operative care fell on them as well leaving them listlessly tired. 

"In Niger state?" She asked with her heart beating in excitement, she would scream in happiness if Folake was going to the same outreach. 

"The Mercy Medicaid?" Folake asked, just as cautiously excited as Nadia, then when Nadia nodded, they held each other and jumped in excitement on the hallway. 

They jointly looked around for anyone looking at them like they were crazy. They walked briskly to their small office and while they packed their things, they planned to meet up on an expressway way off the nation's capital. 

Once the elevator brought them to the lobby, they went to the main reception cubicle to clock out for the day and signify that their reports had been written and submitted. Just as Folake opened the door, Nadia groaned, a low sound that made Folake turn and shut the door back. 

"What happened?" She shook her head, the distressful expression still on her face. 

"You better talk!" She shouted with a whisper. Nadia chuckled and told her of her first day at Diezemane Abuja and the subsequent visits to the reception, and the female receptionist's attitude to her. 

"That one? Don't give yourself headache, she's fighting for her boyfriend, Dr Shu'aib." Nadia suddenly felt relief, and then laughter bubbled out of her tired self, she took the lead this time opening the door and walked into the room with her head on high. She finally realized the woman didn't hate her for no reason. 

They logged out for the day and left to their different parts of town to rest.

\*\*\*

---

\*\*\* 
Nadia jogged down the stairs, her overflowing tote bag hitting her hip as she tried to push the stethoscope into the bag. It refused to budge so she hissed in annoyance, she hadn't slept enough and a whole ten hours of dealing with people patiently was ahead of her. 

"Calm down." Her aunt who saw her worrying, took the bag from her and re-arranged the entire thing on the hallway and put it on the hallway table. Nadia lowered her back and sighed, once she didn't have enough sleep, irritation set in and it was not good for her. 

"Thank you ma." Her aunt waved her hands like it was nothing and pulled her to the kitchen to give her a blue food warmer that when Nadia took it, she gasped. 

"This is too much food, I'm just the only one eating." She looked up to her aunt's face and saw her eyes twinkling with something between mischief and amusement. 

"I know, but the best way to make friends, to Sarah is books, to me however, is food. Share your food with your colleagues and you'll get to know more about them at lunch than at the operating table." Nadia went to her aunt and hugged her, her aunt was hugger, she said that a hug a day made the therapist farther. 

"This means so much to me, may Allah bless you heartily for treating me so well." Her aunt adjusted the silk undercap that peeked from under Nadia's black accordion hijab. 

"I'll be back before ten, In Sha Allah, I don't know how long we'll be there for but we should leave by six and be back anytime after that. I'll call you when I'm about to leave." She looked at her pocket watch and gasped in fear, Folake would be waiting at their designated stop by now and she was still in the city. 

Thankfully, UmmulKhair had taken her car to be washed and fueled the previous day while she slept her tiredness away. She carefully placed the warmer on the backseat floor and put the bag beside it, in it had her supplies for the day and she didn't want any to fall out. 

Twenty minutes later, she flashed her headlamps in Folake's direction and slowed to a stop, watching as the other woman ran to the car and got in, trying to get out from the early morning unnecessary cold. 

"Hi! Good Morning!" Nadia eyed her friend and looked out the mirror before joining the expressway again, she turned to Folake and looked her up and down. 

"Good Morning, you're so chirpy today, where's all this energy coming from?" Folake laughed and took off her cardigan, folding it to place on the backseat console. 

"Since when I heard my crush is going to be at the outreach, I'm positively excited and charged for action today." Nadia spared her a glance of disbelief as she joined a major highway that led to a small town in Niger state that had a crumbling general hospital from the pictures sent by the outreach organization. 

"You have a crush? Are you not all for being wicked to men?" She couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice as she maneuvered the steering wheel. 

"Be wicked to men, yes but who said I can't look to my fill. He could be handsome but stupid, which is why I only have crushes and not boyfriends, no time for that unnecessary drama." Nadia eyed her playfully and shook her head, the logic was well thought out and in the face of narcissists and wicked wolves masquerading as men, she would rather adopt that principle. 

"Did you see that lady that we did the ceaseran for yesterday, see how her husband was with her? If I don't have such a kind partner, I don't want. Shey I heard he's a pilot and she owns a cafe." Nadia nodded, reminded of how the man sat with his wife till she woke up and took care of her personally. It was a worthy and beautiful love to watch. 

"I pray that we get the best things, because, we deserve it." Folake nodded silently and looked out the window. Nadia had never broached the pain that Folake masked with a brilliant smile and a smart mouth, she had never asked her but she saw flashes of it in her eyes, in the way she stopped and stared with tears swimming in her eyes. 

Nadia turned on the radio of her car and a male voice began to read the day's papers. The sights passed very quickly and soon they were driving into Niger state. 

A few bumps here and there, a light traffic, some waiting for a herd of cattle to pass, they reached the town where the medical outreach was holding. 

Nadia parked in a secluded corner where she could see her car and got out of the car with Folake who had fallen asleep and woken from the sound of the cattle mooing. 

"This place smells so fresh, everyone is so unhurried, this is my type of place." Nadia nodded and hefted her tote bag to her shoulder, looked at her hijab from her car's window and walked with Folake to the registration point. 

They were quickly handed plastic cards and lanyards, their access cards to injections and drips store. They were attached to a doctor and sent to their consulting room. 

Nadia looked around nodding, the outside collapsible hospital building and quick handover meant they didn't have to fight the actual hospital's nurses for space. She said so to Folake who nodded happily as well, in medicine, time and proper arrangement was everything. 

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*×

"All these drugs are free? Ya Rabb! Thank you so much doctor, thank you aunty nurse." The young woman with a coughing child profusely thanked Nadia and the Doctor on duty. The doctor, a tall, lanky man in his thirties, widened his lips into a befuddled smile, showing his pearly whites. 

Nadia ushered the woman out and called for another patient to come in, she marked it off the clipboard list she was holding, patient number one fifty four had just left. 

"I would have complained of my tiredness, but it would mean all my toiling was for nothing." Nadia laughed at Folake's words and went in with the next patient, the mother of a baby Nadia adjudged to be three years old. 

When she came out about fifteen minutes later, she took the baby in her gloved hands to the main hospital to get a drip and some injections, his mother followed beside her very tiredly. 

Just as Nadia stepped into the harsh sunlight, her eyes shut of their own Accord and she nearly fell stepping off the steep stairs of the collapsible hospital building. 

"Watch your step." Nadia's eyes popped open as fast as they could, she drew her head back and for a second couldn't say anything over the loud beating of her heart and the ringing in her head. 

She knew that voice, she had ears it laughing, heard it groggy with sleep, surely she would know it now that it was inciting care. 

She raised her eyes and lowered them almost immediately, the sun rays had nearly blinded her. He was smiling when she finally was able to look at him a few seconds later. 

"How are you doing?" She shifted the baby in her arms, looking back to see the baby's mother greet someone effusively. 

"I'm fine sir, how is your health?" He raised his hands and shrugged. 

"Like my mother says, I'm old now, lifting each of this limbs everyday is a blessing, Alhamdulilah." Nadia laughed lowly, trying not to wake the baby sleeping in her arms.

She let the mirth in her spill into her voice before saying, "If you're old then, I'm a hundred years." They both laughed at the joke and when they finally stopped, he discreetly pointed at the baby and asked where she was going. 

"The baby needs a saline Intravenous solution and some injections, just for a few hours, to sooth his pain." Alhaji looked the baby over and nodded his head, dipping his hands into his white pharmacist coat pockets.

The baby's mother appeared, looking a lot more better than she was when she first arrived. She greeted Alhaji and he greeted her back, his eyes fixated on her eyes. 

"Follow her to see where they admit your baby and go to the optometry tent. Tell them, infact-" He took out a writing tab from his pocket, with a pen attached to it and wrote on it for a few seconds before handing it to the baby's mother. 

"Don't do as though you haven't heard me, because I know you'll treat my words as air, if you still want to have your sight in five years time, go and get tested and get drugs to treat your onset glaucoma. Okay? The drugs are free." The baby's mother had looked as though she would really treat his words as air but fear gripped her at his warning and she repeatedly assured him that she would do as he said. 

"May Allah grant you and the baby shifa." He nodded at Nadia again and left them standing there, reeling from the weight of his words. 

Twenty minutes later, when Nadia came out of the infant ward of the general hospital, tired, she walked back to the makeshift hospital, the route she took, wound through the medicine dispensary tent and her eyes on their own accord found him, he was smiling at a much older woman before explaining further what looked like the drug use. 

She entered the collapsible building, still in deep thought, when she nearly fell into Folake's arms. Folake steadied her and smiled when their eyes met, "What are you thinking about?" She looked behind Nadia as though looking for who bullied her. 

"No, I was just deep in thought." Folake nodded and told her the doctor was looking for her. Nadia rolled her eyes while Folake laughed quietly. 

"Am I his child? Did I go missing, abeg, let him leave me o." Folake didn't say a word but pinched Nadia who was backing the hallway. 

"Nurse Nadia, why did you take so long? Did you get tired of seeing my face? Don't worry, I'll be good to you, I won't let you hate me." Nadia sighed and turned to him with her most professional smile, nodded and walked past him as though she didn't hear the last part of his statement. 

While they ate lunch, at around five pm, Nadia looked outside and saw a line of seated older people waiting for Alhaji's attention. The doctor she was attached to who had forced himself to seat with them to have lunch noticed her gaze and followed it. 

"You like him? That old cargo?" Nadia chuckled, a mocking sound that made Folake choke on the Chinese stir fry noodles she had opted for. 

"Did I say anything of the sort?" Nadia finally answered the nosy doctor, he laughed, so assuredly that Nadia wanted to slap that smirk of his face very violently. 

"You women like all this older men with money, you don't like to date us younger working people. You like everything ready made for you. Maybe he performed ritual to get his money, you don't know, but you're here sending gazes at him." Folake put down her fork and Nadia knew she was about to explode. 

"That man is a Pharmacist, Scientist, has written about sixty journals, sixteen with Harvard alone. He's on the board of the United States medical association, he has co-made six vaccines and two personally, what have you done?" She asked calmly, inspite of her visible anger. 

"Well, you women always want the fast way, fast ways always end in destruction and you're a beautiful woman Nadia, you don't need to be latching unto an old man." Nadia shook her head, took a sip of her glass bottles orange juice, swallowed delicately before gathering her thoughts together, in the end, she decided that he was not worth it. 

After eating, they returned to attending to patients, working hard to answer every single person that had turned up to the mobile clinic. 

At around seven pm, Nadia and Folake walked tiredly to the car park, when they reached the Kia Creta sport, Nadia looked around the tires like she usually did on days when she parked outside a safe place.

The back tires were okay so she got in and started the car. As she was about to shut the door, something brought her sight to the front driver side tire, it was sitting awkwardly on the grass the car at been parked on. Nadia's heart beat frantically in her chest as she jumped out of the car and ran to it. 

It was flat and from the looks of it, someone punctured it as a piece of it was sticking out awkwardly. Nadia couldn't control the burst of tears that followed right after, Folake jumped out as well and when she saw the damage, she began to cry as well.

They'd been on their feet all evening and had been looking forward to going home to rest, the long, arduous drive notwithstanding. 

"Who could have done this to us?" Folake wiped her tears but they came rushing down so quick, it was as though she didn't wipe them. Nadia didn't fare any better as the emotions of frustration and angry tears made her whole face rosy. 

"I feel like just sleeping in this car, in the morning, we can go home." Folake shook her head, looking around. She walked forward and ran to the gate, returning back a few minutes later while heaving. 

"Is there a vulcanizer around here?" Nadia asked, knowing what Folake had taken strides to ask. 

"No. But there's one about seven minutes away, the gate man said I could take a bike there and bring the vulcanizer on a bike as well. How about that?" Nadia nodded and took some cash from her purse, handed it to Folake who had gone to take some of her own as well. 

She left a few minutes later, leaving Nadia to wait in the car with safety instructions. A knock sounded on Nadia's window about a minute later, her head that was on the headrest moved quickly and she calmed herself when she saw him. 

She opened the door and watched as he stepped back before asking what was going on.

"Someone clearly sabotaged my tyre and I'm here left to wait for my friend who went to call a mechanic." He looked at the said tyre, his eyes narrowing with shock before calling for someone who turned out to be his driver. 

"Do you have a spare tyre?" He asked, Nadia nodded, her head whirling, he suddenly stretched out his hand for her car keys and she dropped them in his hand. 

"We'll change it for you and you can drive in our convoy." Nadia nodded numbly, her head feeling like it was buried in sand. 

He opened her car's boot himself and his driver took out the tyre. Together, the loosed the nuts and bolts that held the car's alignment together, carefully placing the spare tyre and locking it back. 

Alhaji dusted his hands and handed the car keys back to Nadia who just stood out of their way, watching. She didn't know what to feel or what to say. 

"I guess saving me now cancels out the debt you think you owe with me. We're even now." She said quietly but her voice carried over to him,  He threw his head back and laughed, shaking his head when he stopped. 

"No, this is a mere tyre change. You still have that phone number, we'll be even when you use it."

************
What do you guys think of the chapter? 

For those of you who read When Stars Collide, up there, there is a snippet for you.

We'll see next week by God's grace. Please don't forget to leave a comment and vote. Thank you 💞☺️

TheOmoope

P.S Thank you all soooo much for almost 5k reads. Omg, that just brightened my day.