Rated: T for violence and language
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters I made and this plotline
Summary: One man collapses in a diner from an incision made 20 years ago. Soon people all over Haven begin suffering increasing pain from injuries that are years, even decades, old. Can Nathan and Audrey stop this particular trouble before people die from old injuries?
George Ellison loved pie. He ate at least one slice a day, despite his doctor's constant admonitions, and four to five times a week he ate at Maura's Diner. In George Ellison's opinion, Maura's Diner was the only place that served decent pie in all of Haven, which is why, on July 3rd, he was seated at the Diner, eating a piece of raspberry pie.
Maura's Diner was relatively full on July 3rd, the ladies from the annual Bingo game at the church had stopped by for coffee, a few townsfolk were sitting and eating their lunch at various tables, George Ellison included, and the occasional tourist would stop in every once in a while. Maura herself was at home with a severe case of stomach flu, so her son Matthew was taking orders and waiting tables.
The bell above the door rang as the door was pushed open, but George did not look up. The pie he was enjoying was delicious and the newspaper article in front of him was engrossing, and George didn't much care who was coming into the Diner.
Matthew didn't much care either, but the ten dollars an hour he was being paid encouraged him to smile at the people walking in and point them to an open table, the open table right next to George. Matthew took the newcomers' orders and ran them back to the kitchen, a small room in the back equipped with only one stove, one oven, and a freezer. Maura was saving to get it expanded, but money was tight and the Diner was barely turning enough profit to keep itself running.
The two people sitting at the table next to George were not locals, anyone in the town could tell just from looking at them. Haven was a small enough town that people knew their neighbors and their neighbors' neighbors. The older of the two, a woman in her late twenties, had dark hair falling halfway down her back and a black jacket over a bright red T-shirt on proclaiming that Buffy had staked Edward. The younger, a blonde, wore a floral print dress which was much more subdued than her older companion's outfit. They made a unique pair, but none of the other patrons paid any attention to them. That is until George fell to the ground screaming.
The first twinge in George's stomach was easily ignored, passed off as a small bit of indigestion or simply his stomach growling for more pie. The second was more pronounced, causing George to wince. The third sent him rolling to the floor. His entire right side had erupted in fire, starting near his hip and spreading outwards. He had never felt anything so painful in his considerably long life.
Within seconds the older of the two newcomers was on the ground too, stripping off her jacket and placing it under George's head. She was muttering words that George assumed were supposed to be soothing, but through the haze he could not make them out.
The other costumers in Maura's Diner were frozen, either by the sheer surprise of a man they knew collapsing or by the noise of pure pain he was making. The woman on the ground next to George had to throw a box of napkins at Matthew to tear his attention away from the man screaming.
"Call an ambulance now!" She ordered as calmly as she could. "Tell them to hurry."
Matthew nodded and looked around dazed for a few moments before his eyes finally rested on a phone. Relieved to have something to do, a purpose to distract him from the commotion, he dialed 911 as quickly as possible.
The woman remained at George's side, switching from the soothing talk she'd been giving him to more direct questions.
"Sir, I need you to tell me where it hurts," she said loudly, but calmly; trying to break through the screaming. "Sir please, tell me where the pain is coming from."
The question broke through the haze of pain, just barely, and George pointed to his side. The woman's face swam in front of him, the edges of his vision tinged with a dark red that was quickly becoming blacker.
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"Sir, I need you to step off of that railing!" Audrey Parker yelled out of the second story bay window she was standing next to. "Just come down and we can talk about it!"
"So you can probe my brain?" James McKinley yelled back, "You and your government masters! That's why you came to Haven, isn't it? You're part of some scientific experiment, looking for aliens!"
Audrey sighed, it was only the first call of the day and she was already being accused of being part of a secret government experiment. This was not looking like a good day. McKinley was hanging over a balcony railing and threatening to jump for reasons unknown to everyone.
"I promise if you come down, I won't probe your brain," she called, "In fact, I'll give you a free pass from all federal brain probing in the future."
McKinley seemed to consider this and took a step back from the railing, giving Nathan a chance to grab him and pull him back into the house.
"Government pigs! Trying to kill us all, well I know about your plans. You won't get my brain!" The ranting continued the entire walk back to the car and as Audrey and Nathan shoved the man into the back seat.
"Dibs on not riding in the car back with him," Audrey offered weakly, dreading the trek back to the police station, although the guy should probably be taken straight to the Freddie.
"Sorry, rookie gets the crappy jobs," Nathan shot back as he locked the car and reached for his radio.
"Rookie? I'm sorry but I think I have just as much experience as you."
"Okay, then new girl gets the crappy jobs. You like the weirdness here, so you get to drive him back to the station."
Audrey punched her partner in the shoulder, not that it had any effect, and pulled open the driver's side door. "Fine, but you owe me for this Nathan." She put the key in the ignition and was just about to start the car when Nathan stopped her.
"Wait," he called, then handed her the radio, "Listen to this."
She held the radio to her ear. "…Ambulance dispatched to Maura's Diner. Guy on the line says George Ellison's on the ground screaming his lungs out. Sounds like it's pretty bad over there," the voice on the other side of the radio said.
"So does this mean we're taking a detour?" Audrey asked tiredly.
"Afraid so," Nathan answered, taking a look back at the man still ranting about government conspiracies.
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"Is this where it hurts?" The woman lightly touched the center of the fiery pain shooting through his body, sending knives outwards through his bloodstream and causing a new onslaught of screaming. The woman quickly drew her hand away. "Alright, I guess that's where it's coming from."
"What do you think it is?" One of the men behind George had apparently been startled from his shock.
"I don't know," the woman answered curtly, "Appendicitis is my best guess, seeing as the pain is right in the area of the appendix, although this pain seems extreme for appendicitis."
"Are you like a doctor or something?" The man asked.
Her response was cut off as George's sobbing began to subside. "Shit," she spat, grabbing his hand and squeezing.
"What's his name?" She asked the man who had suddenly become so talkative.
"G-George," he managed to stutter out. "What's wrong, he stopped screaming, isn't that a good thing."
"No, it is not," she answered as she lifted up George's closing eyelids and peered at his retinas. "He's going into shock and that is most definitely not good. George, I need you to stay with me. George! You need to stay awake!"
"You," she pointed at Matthew, "Did you call the paramedics? Are they coming?"
"Y-yes," stammered Matthew, "But I don't know how long it'll take for them to get here."
In response, the faint whirling of an ambulance siren sounded through the distance, growing quickly louder.
As most of the patrons' eyes, including the woman caring for George, were drawn quickly to the window in the hopes that help would arrive at the diner as quickly as possible, Matthew glanced at George in time to see him mouth the words "Not appendix"
A/N- Should I finish? I have most of the story planned out, just not written down. Reviews are love :)