CHAPTER TWO – WE LIE TO DOCTORS
AHSOKA
Of the five guys taken to the medcenter, three of them have wives or girlfriends.
Therefore, when we decide which one of us will stay with each man, three decisions are easy: I'm staying with Lux, Hero with Hutch, and Steela with Rex.
"Are you guys sure?" She asked, obviously terrified for Saw and Tandin.
"Of course," Mina says. "I'll tell the doctors Tandin is my husband. He's in good hands. And Sierra loves Saw too."
"It's fine, really," I chirp in a fake cheery voice. "Like Hero said, all the guys have hard heads!"
No one laughs. The public transport puffs up to its stop in front of the medcenter and we swarm to the front, waiting for the door to open.
"Did the officer say who was driving?" Hero asks Steela.
Steela shakes her head. "No, but if it was Saw I'm going to kill him."
Fair enough. If Saw wasn't enough of a road menace already, this should get the idea through that thick skull of his. "Enough about that. Does anyone know where the emergency room is?"
Sierra points. There, above a doorway in giant red letters, are the words EMERGENCY.
"Why is it all the way in the back of the medcenter?" Hero laments.
"They have to have somewhere to park the ambulances." I double my speed toward the emergency entrance. "Okay guys, we're running this one without Hutch. As far as you can tell, are all the aliases in order?"
"Yes," Sierra answers. "The cop called Saw by his, so that's good. The real problem is making sure they aren't identified in the medcenter itself."
"And that's a taller order than it sounds like; if they even tell the doctors their real birthdays they can trace it back to their files, and then we're done for."
"I dug out the emergency aliases when we walked out the door and I hope to Unifar you read them on the bus," Hero tells everyone, matching my pace. "Remember, we're all family. And one more thing – they won't let girlfriends or sisters edit medical records. So if anybody isn't already married to their guy … um, I now pronounce you husband and wife?"
I watch as the implications of that sink in for Sierra.
"No," she says.
"You have to," Mina tells her.
Sierra cringes, but swallows her objections. Instead, she settles for a shudder and a "This is so wrong."
If I had any capacity for sympathy at the moment, I could hardly blame her. Masquerading as your brother's wife isn't fun, and I speak from experience on a few undercover missions with Rex. But at the moment, all my thoughts are directed at one person: Lux Bonteri, my lovable oaf of a husband who's in deep trouble if I find out he was the one driving the speeder.
Mina leads the charge into the ER and spears up to the triage desk, completely ignoring some guy who's trying to convince the nurse his cough is a symptom of some horrible disease.
"Can I help you?" another nurse asks, apparently judging five harried women to be a bigger problem than Cough Guy.
"Speeder accident. Five men. Our husbands. Where?"
The nurse nods recognition. "Come with me. May I ask which of you is married to which man, so I know who to discuss with?"
"We're all family. We're sisters, and the men are our husbands," I blurt out. "Please nurse, are they okay?"
The nurse looks down at her charts to verify the information and the permissions, and then says. "They came in unconscious, but they're all awake now and they're stable."
They're going to live. Thank all that is holy. "I'm Mr. Mancini's wife. How badly are they hurt?"
The nurse leads us to a line of patient cubicles. "Mr. Mancini is all right. He has some broken ribs from the impact, but in terms of serious injuries that seems to be it."
"What about Robert Barton?" Mina interjects, referring to Tandin.
"He has a few bumps and bruises, as well as whiplash, but no serious injuries. As for the others, Mr. Castleton has a broken collarbone and a concussion." She looks down at the pictures. "Tessa Castleton?"
Steela jockeys to the front. "That's me."
"All right. Next is Daxus Reed, who keeps muttering about the HoloNet connection."
(Three guesses about as to Daxus' identity).
"He has a minor concussion as well, and some nasty cuts from flying transparisteel, but that's nothing bacta won't fix."
Sierra pipes up. "What about my husband, Jaime Vashtor? I'm his wife, Cersei."
"Mr. Vashtor," the nurse sighs. "Well ma'am, it seems that he was the only one in the vehicle who wasn't wearing his seatbelt."
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Steela does it anyway, and Mina sighs. Of course Saw wasn't wearing his seatbelt.
"His injuries are the most extensive. He rung his bell pretty hard when it hit the window, and he has a broken arm from hitting the dashboard. He's conscious, but we've decided that we need to keep him here for the next day or two to monitor the head injury. That goes for a few of them."
"But they're all going to be fine?"
"At this point, we only need to keep them for observation."
I can't take the waiting anymore; for all I know there could be Stormtroopers hiding behind those curtains, waiting to arrest us. "Can we see them now?"
"Of course. Your husband is first up," she pulls back a curtain revealing Lux on the bed, a blanket pulled up to his chin.
"Honey!" I cry, racing into the room. "Honey, are you alright?"
"I could be worse," Lux admits. "Even though it hurts to take a deep breath, it definitely could be worse."
"Remember to take those deep breaths, Mr. Mancini. Otherwise we'll have to worry about pneumonia, and you'll have an even longer stay in this resort," the nurse says and shuts the curtain, bringing the rest of our crew with her. "Mrs. Castleton, your husband is next."
Once we're alone Lux looks up to me with fear shining in his eyes. "Where are the kids?"
"Katooni's babysitting. What happened?"
"We were hit by a laundry van – Ahsoka, does the Empire know who we are?" he whispers.
"No, luckily they found your aliases. You're Mr. Mancini, and I'm your wife Ella. Okay?"
"Okay,"
"Who was driving?"
"Me," he sighs. "The doctors say I broke my ribs hitting the steering wheel."
It wasn't Saw? Shocking. "You?"
"I looked away from the road to adjust the radio," he says miserably.
"Good," I lay him against the pillows and sit down on the edge of his bed, reaching up and combing my fingers through his hair. "Relax. You need your rest."
"Feels nice," Lux mumbles and closes his eyes.
SIERRA
"Mr. Vashtor, your wife is here."
Saw looks up at the doorway and stares at me with a look that says what?
"Hi, Jaime," I say, trying to give him the information he'll need to keep up his end of the façade. "It's me, Cersei. Your wife."
Saw's eyes widen and he lays a heavy finger on his pain pump.
It wasn't even my idea, I think sourly as he drifts off into drug-induced la-la land.
"Guess he's not feeling too talkative," I tell the nurse. "Do you have any forms I need to fill out?"
The nurse hands me a chart and I fill it with lies. Well, mostly lies.
Name: Jaime Vashtor.
Birthdate: The date of Onderon's independence on the real year Saw was born.
And for the medical stuff – allergies, surgeries, medical conditions – I tell the truth.
"All right," she says. "We're going to take Jaime here upstairs to his room so we can clear this cubicle out for the next person. If you'll just follow me?"
…
"Why are you pretending to be my wife?" Saw asks when his pain medication wears off.
"They won't let a sister edit your medical records," I explain. "Calm down, it's not like we actually have to get married."
Saw harrumphs and flops back in bed. "When do I get to go home?"
"Not for a while," Just then, his fluids bag runs out and a force-awful alarm pings through the air. "The nurse will be coming. Remember, I'm your wife."
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbles as a nurse comes down the hall. I can only see the back of her head but I know she's Pantoran, wearing maroon scrubs that set off her blue skin. She turns around to walk into the room, and that's when I see her face and her name badge all at once.
JENN
Oh dear sweet Unifar, how many Jenns are there in this galaxy? More than one, right?
Then I see the nurse's face and my hopes and dreams die.
It's Jenn, the former president of Phi Kappa Lambda.
I don't know whether to praise the Force or sink to my knees in defeat, but I'm going with the latter. When Jenn's sorority declared war on us she glued Saw's shoes to his feet and almost called the cops through some underhanded moves with a landline phone. I just have to pray she doesn't remember us.
My hopes are dashed when Jenn gives a look to Saw, then to me, and says "I remember you guys."
"Hi, Jenn." I gulp.
"I would ask how you're doing, but I think I already know the answer. I'm just going to fix your drips here," she walks over to Saw's IV, leans in close to both of us, and whispers. "What are you guys doing here? You don't like Imperials, that much is for sure. So what are you doing in an Imperial hospital?"
"I got creamed by a laundry van," Saw growls.
"Then why didn't you pick a private hospital? Because according to your chart, you were checked in by your … wife."
Her eyes lift from the chart to me. I try to swallow the bile from my stomach.
"You two are brother and sister."
"No we're not." I say in my most convincing voice. "Do we look like brother and sister?"
Unfortunately, Jenn is not the gullible type. "Like hell you're not! You said it straight out at the sorority house. And I don't care if someone's adopted or you two are half-siblings, it's against the law in every system to marry your sibling! You're not married!" She grabs the chart. "This is fraud. I'm calling security."
"Jenn, wait!" I jump up and block her way to the phone to page security, kicking Saw's door shut on the way. "Don't call security, please! If you do, both of us are dead."
Jenn stops, raising one pink eyebrow. "And what's one reason for me to not call security?"
"We're on the run from the Empire," I say slowly. "We're just trying to survive, and they want us dead. We weren't going to stay here, but then he had his accident and now we're stuck."
"Roll up your sleeves," Saw orders.
"What?"
"Roll up your sleeves," he repeats, lifting his free wrist and pushing his hospital bracelet further up his arms. "I don't like it either, but it's the best proof we've got."
I swallow hard, pushing the sleeves of my sweater up past my elbows. I roll my arms over to show the insides to Jenn. Same as Saw's, the feathery scars have faded over time but they're still there.
"They're called Lichtenberg figures," Saw says. "And she has track marks, too. You're a nurse. You know what causes these marks, and lightning doesn't strike people's wrists."
Jenn nods.
"Please, don't send us back there." I swallow hard. "Both of us almost died, and if we go back I guarantee you they won't make that mistake again."
Jenn looks at my arms, then Saw's, then at the phone.
"My name is in no way connected to this," she says. "If you get caught, then I didn't have anything to do with you. You don't know who I am, you've never seen me before, and you never told me anything."
"I can live with that." Hopefully that never has to happen.
"And if you don't," she says before I can get my hopes up. "If you don't get caught, then I want to see something come out of this, if you get what I mean."
Yes Jenn, to my chagrin I get what you mean, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and weasel out of it. "You have a job. Why would you want to risk your neck working for us?"
"I am a Pantoran working in an Imperial hospital," she snorts. "I'm not paying off those student loans anytime soon. And working with you nerfherders for a while is preferable to having debt collectors yakking off my ear until I die."
Well, I don't have a rebuttal for that. Our crew ran a scam on an unscrupulous Imperial debt collector, and that job made me want to pay cash for everything I ever buy. As much as I dislike Jenn, no one deserves that.
But you don't survive long in the con game by being a pushover.
"That decision isn't up to me. We'll have to conference with my sisters."
"Fine," she shrugs, "Let's talk to them. This is going to be great."
For those who don't remember, Jenn is the Pantoran leader of Phi Kappa Lambda, the sorority caught in a money laundering operation in the last story. When the rebels take down their lender, Abitha Frey, Phi Kappa Lambda strikes up an alliance with a fraternity to get revenge.
Also, if anyone spots the Game of Thrones reference you get an internet cookie.
Thank you to julyza (Oh dear. I hope you and the other driver weren't injured.) MusicKeeper, starwarshobbitfics, TrinityWrites, TessaFred, RoseRavenclaw, and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!
Until next time,
LS
