Time's Sublimest Target
Chapter 7:
Dr. Kettlewell stared down at Cam lying on the hospital bed, her eyes closed in unconsciousness. The monitor connected to her showed her vitals were steady, her breathing normal. His slate gray eyes washed over the auburn haired woman's face and body, burning every centimeter of her firm into his memory.
There was greed in his eyes, a desire for possession so strong that he forgot where he was for a moment. His breath hitched at the sight of the bandaged wrapped around the woman's forearm. He glowered at the sight, his greed turning to animalistic anger.
It took all his willpower not to curse, his fist squeezed tightly at his side. Clenched inside his hand was a charm bracelet, the charms poking into his palm. Not enough to break the skin, but close. Taking in a calming breath, he set it down on the small table beside the bed.
He mumbled something while setting it down, his eyes straying back to her face. The click of the door opening drew his attention away, and he quickly schooled his expression. His heart thumped as he turned to face the interloper.
0
"Shit!" Arthur swore, taking a large gulp from a brown whiskey bottle. His leg throbbed and wouldn't stop. It felt like his leg was one fire and being sliced continuously at the same time. He bellowed out a few more curses before taking another few gulps of whiskey.
Once he drained the bottle he threw it across the room, where it shattered on impact. A few beads of sweat dripped down his forehead, his vision blurred from pain and alcohol. He grabbed for his phone and hit speed dial.
-...can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message...-
"Shit!" He hissed, not wanting to leave another message. He barely waited for the beep before shouting. "Tony, where the hell are you?! Something's wrong with my leg, that bitch hit it and now it hurts worse than it did. Fuck!" He cursed, having moved his leg slightly but enough that it sent a pulse of pain through him. "You never said it would be this painful, you damn bastard!"
He chucked the phone across the room, where it joined the broken whiskey bottle. His breath caught as he struggled to endure the pain from his leg, his eyes tearing up from both the pain and a fever.
"Shit. Something's wrong." He mumbled, sucking in a breath. His eyes shifted toward where he'd thrown his phone. He cursed once he saw the broken screen, and the liquid pooling around it. The whiskey bottle he'd thrown just moments before the phone had been empty, but the one before that hadn't. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit! Goddammit!"
A plethora of swears escaped his lips, even as the pain overwhelmed him. His vision blurred and darkness swallowed him.
0
Rossi paused, his dark brown eyes lingering over the man across the room. The man wore a white doctor's coat and carried himself like a doctor, but Rossi didn't recognize him. The doctor in charge of Cam was older, while the man before him seemed young enough to have just gotten out of medical school.
"...who are you?" Rossi asked, his eyes narrowing. His hand twitched, inches from his sidearm just in case.
"Dr. Kettlewell." The stranger answered, moving away from Cam's bedside and offering his hand to Rossi. His face plastered with an amiable smile. "I was just checking on the patients on this floor. I apologize for any intrusion, but I was told that one of my patients has been going around bugging other patients. Taking their things, switching their charts. Things like that."
Rossi's eyes widened slightly, unsure whether to believe the other man. He studied the stranger, not as on edge as he was when the man was standing right next to Cam, but still suspicious. "...is there anyone who can confirm that?"
"My name, or why I'm here?" Kettlewell paused, flashing the agent a look that mirrored his own. His eyes lingered briefly on Rossi's sidearm. "Any of the nurses on this floor can confirm either. Mr...?"
"SSA David Rossi." Rossi replied, showing his badge.
"Oh. FBI, huh?" Kettlewell's eyes widened, and he raised an eyebrow. "So why is the FBI here? Some sort of investiga- oh." He flashed an intrigued glance at the agent and then at Cam. His lips twitched, his slate gray eyes glancing over the auburn haired woman. "...So, is she a witness or an agent or...?"
"That's none of your business." Rossi cut off the young doctor mid-sentence, becoming more uncomfortable. Though it was difficult to tell if it was merely dislike for the doctor's unprofessional curiosity or something else. The stranger's manner seemed off, his curiosity not genuine. "And I'll need some proof you are who you say before you leave."
"What? I have a job to do..." Kettlewell replied, reaching out for the door handle only to be blocked by the agent.
"So do I. Now, if you show some ID and one of your co-workers can vouch for your reason to be poking around in rooms not belonging to your patients, then you can be on your way." Rossi eyed Kettlewell, partly expecting the man to refuse or make a fuss. He felt on edge and nearly expected the stranger to run off.
"All right." Kettlewell's lips twitched bemusedly and he handed over his hospital and drivers ID cards. An action that threw Rossi - he had been prepared for more fuss. He grimaced when Kettlewell flagged down one of the orderlies walking through the corridor.
"Yes? Dr. Kettlewell?" The orderly asked as he approached, pausing once he noticed Rossi. "Is this about Fritz? I swear I didn't know the kid was gonna bother anyone."
Kettlewell's lips twitched briefly into a smirk, his eyes gleefully taking in Rossi's surprise. He waited as the agent asked the orderly questions, confirming Dr. Kettlewell's reason for poking around.
"...all right. Thank you for your time." Rossi mumbled, dismissing the orderly. He grimaced, mulling over the ID cards in his hand a few more moments before handing them back to Kettlewell. The doctor then proceeded to leave, barely able to keep a smirk from his lips as he left.
Rossi's eyes narrowed, having just barely caught the smirk. The next moment his attention was drawn towards Cam's hospital bed. It'd been brief but the auburn haired woman had started to show signs of waking up. He quick and quietly made his way to her bedside.
"...Cam. Cam?" Rossi gazed down at the young woman's face, his thoughts drifting back to years ago. When he'd first met her.
She'd been just a child, barely eleven, cowering in the back of a cabinet. Thin and malnourished, with bruises and scratches marring her exposed skin she had huddled in the shadow of the cabinet. Not a word nor sound had escaped her lips, but her eyes spoke volumes. And when he looked into them it'd nearly broke him.
No one, especially not a child, should have that sort of deadened look in their eyes.
Rossi sighed, sitting down next to the hospital bed. The fidgeting that had drawn his attention, making him think Cam was waking up, had subsided. All there was now was the peacefulness on the sleeping agent's face.
"Sleep well, kid." He mumbled, leaning forward in the chair. His lips parted in midst of saying something else but stopped, and remained that way a second or two as another memory struck him. The memory of an eleven year old girl waking up every time a stranger passed her hospital room.
Dark eyes narrowed slightly, he stood up and took out his cell phone. As he dialed a number his gaze shifted to the table beside the bed.
He barely noted Garcia greeting him over the phone and asking him what he needed. His attention was focused on the table - specifically at the object left on it. A simple charm bracelet.
-"...hello? Rossi?" Garcia repeated, her voice unsure from the lack of a response.-
"Sorry, I'm here. There's something I want you to check." Rossi replied, shifting the charm bracelet to view it better. It was the DIY kind, homemade and used what looked like an old chain from a different bracelet as a base. Various mismatched charms and beads had been threaded with the chain, some plastic, some metal.
The hodgepodge of material and shapes wasn't what caught his attention, but rather it was four specific square beads. The kind with letters etched into them, and used to spell words or names.
"...A, t, t, y..." Rossi muttered, reading out the letters etched onto the beads. His brow furrowed, and his phone was close enough to his mouth that the tech analyst overheard.
-"Wha..." Garcia drew in a breath, her eyes widening as she recognized the name spelled. Atty. The name of Cam's supposed brother. Hearing Rossi mumble it surprised Garcia - she hadn't mentioned what she'd found about Cam or her previous team to anyone aside from Morgan. "Sir, did Morgan tell you that name or did Cam...?"-
"...What?" Rossi asked, his attention back on the tech analyst.
-"Atty. Cam's brother's nickname." Garcia replied.-
"Cam's brother..." Rossi tensed, his widened eyes shifting from the charm bracelet to the sleeping agent then to the door. The door through which the stranger - Dr. Kettlewell - had left just a few minutes ago. He drew in a breath, his jaw pulled taut. 'That's why she didn't wake.'
-"Sir? What..."-
"Garcia, look up all you can on a Dr. Anthony Kettlewell. He works at this hospital." Rossi interrupted, while approaching the door and glancing through the small window. His eyes scanned the hall for any sign of Kettlewell or the orderly.
The former was no where to be seen, but the latter he noticed talking with one of the nurses.
Hanging up on Garcia, Rossi exited the room and approached the orderly.
"Hey. I have a few more questions." The senior agent called out to the orderly, whose eyes widened at his approach. It wasn't until he was close enough to hear what the nurse was saying, that Rossi realized why.
"...Fritz, you can't just take an uniform and go around pretending to work here." The nurse chastised the 'orderly', shaking her head in disapproval. "Go back to your room."
"..." The faux-orderly nodded and attempted to dart off, only to be stopped by Rossi. The agent grabbed his arm.
"I believe another talk is in order." Rossi glowered at the other man, who was a patient rather than an employee based on what the nurse had said. "Fritz, is it?"
"I...ah..." Fritz swallowed, wanting to slink away though not actually attempting it. The nurse who he'd been talking to widened her eyes and turned to Rossi.
"Let him go. Who are you? What do you want?" The nurse demanded, her chastising tone morphing into a protective one. She gaped when Rossi showed his FBI credentials. Her eyes widened. "What did Fritz do?"
"...I just need him to clarify what he just told me around ten minutes ago." Rossi replied, letting go of the man's arm. "About Dr. Kettlewell and how a patient of his was messing around in other patients rooms."
Fritz cringed beneath the agent's gaze, his demeanor now far different than it was when Rossi questioned him earlier.
"Kettlewell? Huh." The nurse scoffed, shaking her head. Her reaction piqued Rossi's interest, drawing his attention to her. He suddenly wondered if he'd been tricked by both men, though the ID Kettlewell had shown him did appear authentic. "What patients?"
Rossi tensed. "...he's not a doctor here...?"
"No, he is. He just has the bedside manner of a snake, which makes most people request a different doctor." The nurse replied, partly relieving Rossi who had started to wonder if his cold had somehow interfered with his brain. Or his profiler instincts.
"What does he do? If he's not good with patients, what part of the hospital does he work in?"
"He picks up shifts now and then in the ER, but he mostly works in the morgue."
"The morgue?" Rossi cocked an eyebrow, intrigued by the tidbit. He was about to ask another question when a sharp scream cut through the hall.
