Shae's eyes cracked open as a cool, wet cloth pressed lightly against her face. Her vision blurry, her heading swimming as she lay on a bed. Though she was having a hard time focusing, she noticed she wasn't in her cell. A man's face floated in through her vision, but she couldn't see clearly enough to recognize who it could possibly be.
The lighting was brighter, and there was a large window on the wall to her left. Everything hurt, grumbling in her half asleep state, she tried to roll on to her side, away from the sunlight streaming in. Hands softly held her still until she resigned to simply shutting her eyes.
The two gentle hands worked quickly, cleaning the dried blood away from her face. The airy whispering of voices floated through the room. Another hand reached out and held her forehead to keep her still while a fourth lightly pressed her shoulders in to the mattress.
A soft accented voice spoke its rich brogue into her ear "You going to have to hold still for this love."
The skin near the outer corner of her left brow twitched with a prick, which was followed with the sensation of pulling. Again and again these feelings repeated themselves, not really painful, more of an annoyance. Cracking her eyes open once again, she tried to jerk away head away as her eyes focused on a needle coming towards her face. The hands held her firmly in place.
The voice came back "Just close your eyes dear. It'll be over with shortly." She took the advice, closing her eyes and trying not to flinch too hard when ever she felt the prick of the needle.
He was right, it was over shortly. One of the hands gripped her left arm, a sharp prick then a coldness drifted down the crook of her elbow. And with that the hands left her. The was the soft thump of a door shutting, following by the metallic clank of a lock sliding into place. She suddenly felt horribly alone, and she was right. It didn't last long, as she felt the heavy fog of sleep drift back to her.
The shining rays of sunlight illuminated the room, eyes cracking open only slightly as she tried to sit up. She had only managed to get halfway there before the pain became too much. Her body ached all over. Just breathing flamed the red coals that had settled in her chest.
Laying back down she glanced at her hands. Her left hand had the fingers taped individually and then been taped together to provide stability. Her stomach clenched as she remembered watching her fingers break. She choked back the gag at the memory, and took in the scabby knuckles of her right.
She finally reached up and touched her face. It was hot and tender, the lightest touch causing pain. It didn't even feel like it belonged to her. The swelling had to be bad, judging from what she felt with her fingers. But this time her eyes could open almost fully, so her eyes couldn't have been as bad as before.
The scraping of the lock disengaging drew her hazy attention to the door, which slowly swung open. A woman's head popped in, face bright with false cheer "Oh good, you're awake today!"
The woman then pushed a small cart into the room, leaving the door opened. Shae studied her, feeling as though she had met her before.
A big, plastic smile stretch tight against teeth so perfectly straight she could clearly not have been born with them. The ultra white teeth clashed against her tanned olive skin. Thick lashes surrounded her large coffee-brown eyes. A long, straight nose, with only the slightest hint of a nasal hump sat above a large mouth encircled with thin lips covered in a shiny shade of deep peach. Her black hair loosely curled just above her shoulders.
"I am so glad you woke up today. We can get some solid food in you, and so you will be feeling just fine in a jiff." This woman's high-pitched, and the fake enthusiasm was making Shae's head pound in sync with every word. 'Was the woman highly medicated or was this her natural state?' Shae thought.
"Oh, I am Dr Vallis. But you can just call me Daphne, everybody does or Dr. Daphne or D or pretty much anything really. You're not allergic to anything are you? I brought you a big dose of Naproxen, and just a bit of Demerol, once I get your IV set up, OK."
This woman, Daphne pulled a little packet off the top of the cart, ripping it open as she walked closer to the bed. Placing the two large oval pills in Shae's good hand, the woman reached over the side of the bed and raised the back up so Shae could sit up comfortably. Walking over to the cart once more, she pulled a small bottle of water from beneath. She watch as Shae swallowed the pills down, and then went to work prepping her left arm for an IV.
"I am only going to give you a little bit, OK. I am not supposed to be giving you anything for the pain. But Mr Bane isn't here for the day, so I think it'll be OK. It won't help so much with the pain, but it should help you sleep better. I cracked my ribs once, so I know how badly it hurts. But those fingers, those fingers just looked so bad. The fractures were actually stable once they were put back in place so for now, they just need to stay immobilized. " The woman continued on but she was talking so fast that Shae couldn't focus on what she was saying so she just zoned her out.
Shae looked towards the large window, noticing it was a fairly nice day out for October. The wind was tossing a rainbow of leaves around the grassy field behind the small parking lot. Only a few cars were parked in it. At the edge of the small field was a thick wrought iron fence topped with razor wire. Setting just beyond was the bay, clear of fog this morning so you could just make out the land on the other side. The slight jab of the needle entering her skin brought her back from the view outside the window.
"... and that's why I don't like striped shirts. OK are you ready to try to eat something? I brought the standard breakfast, but I also grabbed a pudding if you don't like the main meal." She said as she pulled the covered tray off a lower shelf of the cart.
She spun the small table around until one half was over Shae's legs , placed the tray down, and whisked the covering off like she was a magician. The steam rose from the small plate of pale scrambled eggs, two sausage links, a slice of wheat toast and a small cup of diced peaches. Looking at the food, Shae's stomach responded with a loud growl at the prospect of something fresh and hot.
Daphne left Shae to eat with the notion to just press the buzzer that hung from the side of the bed if she needed anything.
She had never felt so hungry for such bland food in her life. She cleared the plate, and then started on the small cup of chocolate pudding.
Her eyes shifted back to the peaceful scenery outside of the window as she laid her head back against the pillow. With her stomach full, and the medication easing her pain she drifted off in to a refreshingly peaceful slumber.
When she next awoke, the scene outside of her window had change to a darkened sky filled with stars. The IV was missing from her arm. She had slept soundly through it being removed.
She pressed the small red buzzer to call someone into help her. Shae needed to pee so badly and with how miserable she felt, she knew she wouldn't be able to make the ten steps to the bathroom by herself. Daphne appeared in the doorway, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she flipped on one of the lights.
"I really have to pee!" she blurted out.
"Would you like a bed pan or a catheter?" Daphne questioned.
"Ugh, neither, just help me to the bathroom, please." With a sigh, the Doctor helped Shae into sitting up all the way. The ache in her ribs started up once more. A huff wheezed out as she made it all the way to her feet. Daphne helped Shae steady herself, then wrap her arm around her back and helped guide her to the closet-sized restroom off to the side of the room's doorway.
Shae thanked Daphne and shut the door. It had hurt pretty badly to move across that small amount of space, but it was a lot better than a catheter would have been.
She sat down on the toilet and sighed in relief as the pressure left her abdomen. Standing, she let out a sharp squawk as she saw the bright red urine in the toilet bowl.
A sharp knock sounded on the door. "Is everything alright? Do you need any help?"
"No, no I am okay, my pee's really bloody and it surprised me, that's all." Shae responded back.
"Your one kidney is bruised. Your urine will be bright red from the blood for a few days then will taper off to a rust color for about a week or two depending on how well you heal."
"Oh okay, that's interesting. Thank you"
Shae washed her hands, and glanced up at her face. A small row of stitches stretched from the corner of her outer left brow into her hairline. The stitches looked relatively small in a nice neat line over the top a lump of a good-sized goose egg. Both of her cheekbones were swollen and bruised the shade of rotten plums but her eyes hadn't swelled this time. Her lip also had two tiny stitches on the bottom left corner, the skin bordering it a fiery shade of red.
Wetting a paper towel, she gently blotted at the dried blood that had remained on her face. There were drips along her hairline, bits dried around and in her nostrils and under her nose, and around her ears. She knew from experience, that she had to keep the stitches dry for the first 48 hours, so she left the bit dried blood around them.
Letting the hospital gown drift down off her shoulders, she looked over her body in the mirror. The right side of her stomach was completely black and blue. She ran her good hand lightly over her ribs, sucking in a sharp breath when she came to the cracked ones. Turning, she looked and saw the bruise continued its way around her back. There were small scraps and bruises all over as well, but they didn't compare to how sickening it was to look at the one taking up most of her core.
Her knees were bandaged, she probably had scraped them up when she had fallen on the concrete. She sighed at the sad state her body was in, noticing it looked like she had dropped a few pounds during her captivity as well. She was never one to fully appreciate the body she had, always thinking she needed to lose five or ten pounds for anyone to think she is pretty. Looking upon her slightly slimmer figure, she didn't like how the crest of her pelvic bone stood out so gauntly, or how her collarbones stuck out sharply above her chest.
Pulling the gown back up, she hobbled out. Daphne resumed her position at her side, making sure she made it back to the bed safely.
Daphne whispered as quietly as possible "He will be back in the morning, so you won't be able to have any pain medications after that, but you can have some more Naproxen now if you would like it, it should help you sleep."
Nodding, she quickly swallowed down the pills she was handed with a swig from the water bottle. She thanked Daphne as she left, thinking to herself that she preferred the woman when she was tired and not so excited. She watched the stars sparkle in the late night sky before falling back to sleep.
The next day when her body finally decided it had enough with all of the sleeping, she saw her window was blocked by the large man. He sat in the chair, watching her.
"Have you been enjoying the fine accommodations at the pharmaceutical research lab?" he asked in his deep, accented voice. Today he sounded almost jolly.
"Yes, it's been really nice." she did her best to look anywhere but at him. She chewed her lower lip nervously.
"And is Dr. Vallis doing a good job of taking care of you?" he purred.
"Ah, um yes. Yes she is. She did an excellent job on the stitches, and she braced my fingers well."
"Good, good. I have great news you will want to hear" he paused a second, letting it hang in the air. His eyes seemed to light from within "We got him. He thought hiding in the East End would keep us from finding him. But we have him now."
"Who?" she questioned, even though she was sure she knew who he was talking about.
"Why, Mr. Ambler of course. He is on his way here, right now," his forehead crinkled up. "Would you like to get to say goodbye to him this time child?"
Her mind raced, the fear causing her voice to tremble "If you have him now, why would you still need me?"
"Now that my dear, is all up to you." He stood, and left the room. Daphne rushed in at that point.
"You didn't tell him I gave you any pain meds, did you?" The fear clearly written across her face.
"No I didn't and I won't." Shae answered back.
"Good, because I brought you some more Naproxen. Quickly, before he comes back. Here." Daphne thrust the pills into Shae's open mouth and passed her the water to sip them down with.
"If you're hungry, I can bring a lunch tray in about twenty minutes."
"Thank sounds great, thank you. So much, I really mean it."
With that Daphne was out the door