"Hey, Cassie."
Cassie turned to see her friend Linda Evans, a fellow intern at the hospital, come into the staff room. She smiled, "Hi, Linda."
"You heading out?" Linda asked while approaching.
"Yeah. Dr. Castle gave me a few hours off." She answered while taking her jacket and purse from her locker. The interns had lockers where they could store their stuff while working, since they didn't have an office or a desk to keep it in.
"I wish I had Dr. Castle. He's actually nice…and cute."
"I hadn't noticed."
Dr. Castle was the youngest full-blown doctor at the hospital. He was tall and muscular, with dark brown hair and gray eyes. He was approaching his 31st birthday. He was a little old for Cassie who was 21. Cassie was never into guys that were more than five years older than her. Linda, however, didn't have a problem with it and she was even a few months younger than Cassie.
"Of course you haven't. He'd have to be a dying dog for you to even acknowledge he's there."
"That's not true. I have to acknowledge him in order to learn from him, don't I?"
"Yeah, sure, but I have to listen to Dr. Masters. He's such an evil prick. I think it's 'cause he's old. Old people tend to be meaner." Linda said. Complaining was Linda's forte.
Cassie laughed and said, "Old people don't tend to be meaner and Dr. Masters is not old and 'evil'."
"Yes he is."
She just shook her head as she slipped on her jacket. "He's only 74. He's not old."
Linda shrugged, "Whatever." Then suddenly her face lit up. "Oh! Did you see that new intern, Kyle?"
"Yeah, I talked to him earlier. He seemed nice."
"You talked to him? And you didn't tell me about it?" Linda exclaimed suddenly very close.
Cassie backed away slightly, "Uhh…yeah?"
"You got to talk to the hottest guy in the whole hospital; you have the nice, cute doctor teaching you; AND you get to go home!"
She shrugged slowly, "Umm…I guess so."
"Some people have all the luck." Linda said teasingly before turning back to gushing mode. "So what did you two talk about?"
Cassie placed her beeper in her purse and slung it over her shoulder. "Well, he came over to me, handed me a file, and asked me to give it to Dr. Castle. I said sure, he thanked me, and then he walked away."
Linda was staring at her as if in a daze.
She smiled and waved her hand in front of Linda's face, "Hello? Earth to Linda."
Linda smiled, "Kyle is so dreamy."
"Hmm." Cassie said, with lack of nothing else to say. Linda tended to go a bit over board where men were concerned. She herself hadn't really had much time for them. What with her internship and taking care of any sick animal she happened across, she had her hands full.
"'Hmm.'? That's all you've got to say is 'hmm'?"
"Well, to be honest I never really noticed he was good looking." She answered as she headed for the doors that lead outside.
Linda followed. "Didn't notice?" She scoffed, "I swear, girl, you're gonna die an old maid with 100 cats and dogs for company."
"I wouldn't mind." Cassie said with a grin.
Linda shook her head and threw her hands in the air in exasperation.
She laughed and said, "I'll see ya tomorrow, Linda."
Linda sighed, "Yeah. See ya."
Cassie continued to smile as she walked home. Linda was most definitely man crazy. Every month she found a new hottie to gush over. She didn't mind listening to her talk about the man, heck it was probably about the only way she even noticed there was a man around. Everyone was the same to her, something to take care of. It didn't matter if she was treating a man or a woman or an animal. Everybody needed healing.
Looking at her watch she picked up the pace. The dogs she was taking care of would need feed and let out soon. She currently had two German Shepard dogs at her apartment. She found them on the side of the street, chained to a light post. They were badly beaten and starved half to death.
Usually she fixed them up and gave them to the local animal shelter or put ads out in the paper herself, to make sure they went to good homes, but not this time. Somewhere in the two months she'd nursed the dogs back to heath they'd won her heart and she just couldn't bear to give them away.
Thinking about the wounded animals brought that new intern, Kyle, to mind. Don't ask why, but it did. She hadn't told Linda the whole story. Kyle was tall, blond, and flirty and one thing she'd left out was that Kyle had actually asked her out on a date. He most definitely wasn't her type so she'd blanched at the thought of going out with him.
She had thanked him for the offer, but turned him down. He'd taken it well and hadn't persisted like some obsessed creep. Which was why she had told Linda he seemed nice. Hopefully he'd take notice of Linda. Linda had a good figure, with dishwater blond hair, and hazel eyes. Maybe he would ask her out on a…
BANG! BANG!
She jumped at the loud, abrupt noise that resonated though the city block. She looked around nervously. Living in a bad part of town, she should've been used to gunshots by now, but the shots had always been a little ways off. These were close.
BANG!
Suddenly there was rapid gunfire…from a machine gun. She recognized it from the movies Linda picked out for their annual movie night. The first Saturday of every month, they'd go down to the local video store and each would rent a movie. After that they'd each get a little container of ice cream from the grocery store and to eat while watching the movies. Cassie always looked forward to it.
She shuddered at the irony of Linda's words earlier…lucky her.
She was about to start walking again, but a new noise stopped her. She turned to her right to look down the alley, however, the streetlamp was broken making it too dark to see anything. As the noise got louder she recognized it for what it was. Running footsteps!
As she turned to start walking away somebody came sprinting out of the alley and ran smack into her. The person landed on top of her with a soft 'oomph' noise. She landed flat on her back, slightly hitting her head on the concrete sidewalk. She cried out in pain and then, while grimacing, opened her eyes.
When she did she came face to face with the dirtiest, sweatiest, most unpleasant smelling man she'd ever met. A drop of something landed on her cheek, and then another landed on her lower lip. As a reflex she licked it off. Blood? The man was wounded! Anything else was a mystery in the darkness. The only other thing she could make out was that his mouth was open as he stared at her.
She had on her green scrubs from the hospital and her worn blue jeans jacket. Neither of which were very thick so she could feel his muscles coiled and ready to lift him up and keep running. However, he didn't, he just lied there, staring at her.
Dmitri glanced around the dumpster, but pulled back as a bullet went whizzing by his ear.
"Shit!" He hissed. It's never easy turning against people you've gown up and trained with. In all cases everybody gets upset, but the thing about Dmitri turning against his people was that they were all highly trained assassins.
He himself was one, but he was one against thousands.
He looked down at his gun and ejected the magazine. He had five measly bullets left in his 9mm. He was so screwed! There were seven people shooting at him, all of which he used to be friends with.
He had to make a break for it. He fired two shots and then ran further down the alley. He was trying to get to the turn so he could get ahead of them a little.
When they didn't return fire he quickly fired one more shot in their direction and then made for the corner. They retaliated that time with machine gun fire. Debris flew around him as he ran. For a second he thought he'd made it unscathed, but suddenly a bullet bit into his arm just before he reached the corner and cover.
The force of the impact caused him to stumble and hit his head on the garbage can he'd grabbed onto to keep his balance. His head and arm screamed in pain, but he was trained to ignore it. The blood running in his eyes was something he couldn't ignore, but he didn't really have a choice. He steadied himself and continued running.
He sprinted down the alley, turning corners and dodging garbage bags and cans, and for a second he thought he might've actually gotten away. However, as he glanced over his shoulder to see if they were catching up, he suddenly ran into something.
"Oomph!" He fell and landed on the thing he'd run into. He was about to get up and continue going, but when he opened his eyes, he froze. He'd run smack into a woman.
Because of his training he could make out every detail. She had strait dark hair that could be either brown or black; blue eyes; pale, creamy looking skin; and full lips.
She was beautiful…
He stared into her stunning eyes that were wide open in shock…or was it fear? Probably both.
He noticed her throat work in a swallow. Yep, she was scared. Who'd blame her? Some strange man covered in blood just tackled her to the ground. He was surprise he hadn't been maced or kneed in the crotch yet.
She opened her mouth to say something, but more gunfire sounded, making her jump and snapping him back to reality. He stood up and pulled her up with him. Latching onto her hand her yelled for her to run and started pulling her along behind him.
She scrambled after him, trying to keep up with his longer strides. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have gone with him, but since he was hurt and people were chasing him with guns, she didn't stop and make him explain.
There was always the possibility that he was the bad guy, but something about him…his demeanor made her think otherwise. A bad guy wouldn't bother with towing her along. Even wounded he was faster than her, but he slowed his pace so she wouldn't stumble and fall.
After they'd gone a couple of blocks he pulled her into an alley to stand behind a dumpster that was practically invisible in the darkness. She started to ask him what was going on and a billion other questions that were running though her mind, but he gave her a look that said you talk you die! So she ran her fingers across her lips as if she were zipping them. This, she noted, caused the corners of his mouth to lift in a small smile.
They stood there for maybe a minute before four men and two women went running by, few seconds later a black haired man stopped and looked down the alley. His gaze seemed to linger a moment too long on where they were hiding, but he didn't approach. He just continued after the rest of the people.
She heard the man beside her breath a sigh of relief before sliding down the wall to sit on the pavement. His breath came in strained gasps. She knelt down next to him and waited.
Finally, once he caught his breath he looked at her, "Sorry about running into you and dragging you into this." He said. "I didn't hurt you did I?"
She shook her head, "No, I'm fine. What exactly are those people trying to kill you for?"
"Nothing. I didn't do anything. They're in the wrong."
"That's not what I asked."
"Yes it is. It's not my fault if you don't like the answer." He shifted his arm and accidentally bumped it on the dumpster. "Ahh, SHIT!" He growled.
"Did they shoot you?" She asked suddenly jumping into her caring mode.
He looked at her but for some reason he couldn't really make out her face. He remembered blue eyes and dark brown or black hair, but the rest was a little hazy. That wasn't a good sign. He was losing too much blood. The fact that his heart had been pumping hard for the last couple of hours just made the predicament even worse.
"Mister? Did they shoot?" She asked again, this time forcefully to get his attention.
He blinked, "Yeah, in my arm."
"Did the bullet go all the way through?"
"Uhh…" The question brought him up short. How would she know about gunshot wounds?
"I'll take that as a no." She stood up and held her hand out to him. "Come on. I'll take you back to my place. I have a medical kit. I can patch it up."
He ignored her hand and stood up on his own. "Aren't you scared I might attack you or something?"
She smiled and shook her head. "No, I figure you've lost too much blood to do much damage even if you did try something, which I highly doubt you will."
He stared at her, taken aback once again. He looked at her back as she walked away.
At the opening to the alley she turned back to him. "Well, you coming?"
He took a breath and started after her.
All right. This story is my own creation. All characters are my own. Story is completely fictional. If anything actually has the same or similar name it is purely coincidental.
Well, enough of that. Lol. Yeah, so you are all probably wondering why the heck I'm putting this up when it is not even related to anything on here. The answer is, I love to write and I love getting feed back from the peanut gallery. (That being you people that read and review) So I just wanted to get it up ad see what you guys thought of it. Good? Bad? Mediocre? Details, people, details! Ha.
Also if you're reading my other story, Unlikely Hero, don't worry about me putting that one on hold. Unlikely Hero is my priority story. I want to get that one finished for sure.