Day 8: Afternoon
Getting through an afternoon in the Glades required an adequate supply of water, a change of clothing, and a heck of a lot of antiperspirant. While most people in the city would be sipping at their 500ml bottles of water throughout the day, Russell would be chugging down a liter at regular intervals.
They were understaffed today so Russell was performing the duties for two people, lugging away sections of trees that had been felled by the crashed plane, testing the water alkalinity, capturing a stray dog that had wandered too close to the alligator pond, and transplanting some of the aquatic plant life from one area of the park to another. By the time he was relieved for lunch, he was saturated in sweat, heaving like an overworked mule, and dying of thirst. He'd been working for six hours with no break and was just getting to eat at three o'clock. Thankfully he'd had the foresight to pack himself some of those energy bars, much like the one he had left with Tom, or else he would have passed out hours ago.
"You sure can eat," Russell's coworker, Mona Gomez, whistled as she led the stray dog into Ranger Station 4, past Russell's feast, and into the back where the kennels were. When she reappeared, she caught Russell making short work of sandwich number three, which he seemed to be breathing in. "Hey, slow down," she laughed. "You have another half hour for your break."
"Yeah, I know, but I was thinking of cutting it short so I can leave a bit early today."
"Oh? You have somewhere you need to be?" She rolled her eyes when Russell ignored her for teasing him. "What? I can't ask? It's not like you're going home to Mariel."
"Nope. Signed the papers for that this morning. You're looking at a newly divorced man, Mona." Russell finished wolfing down his lunch and wiped his hands off on his jeans. He pulled his short sleeved ranger shirt back on over his t-shirt, but didn't bother to button it up.
"I thought that you usually change your shirt halfway through."
"Not today. I'm saving it for later."
"Saving it for who?"
Russell grinned as he picked up the keys to his truck and cleared off the table that he'd been eating at. The table that they usually used for dissecting animals when they were performing necropsies. "Get back to work, Mona." He was about to switch his cell phone back to manner mode and jam it into his back pocket when it began to ring.
"Your girlfriend's calling," Mona joked, trudging back outside to prep the air boat for another trip through the marshes.
On any regular day, Russell would have chosen to ignore a number that he wasn't familiar with. What with the telemarketers and wrong numbers, he had had enough of telling people where to go over the phone. But he had been checking his cell phone off and on since he'd started work that morning, hoping that he might get a phone call from Tom. He hoped that Tom had found the small snack that he'd left and had been able to eat it in private. Because he seriously doubted that Dr. Feld had any intention of putting Tom back on a regular diet any time soon. Whatever the doctor was trying to pull, Russell wasn't going to sit back and tolerate it.
"Hello?" He put the phone to his ear and listened, but all he could hear was faint breathing in the background. Great! He'd just been suckered into answering the phone to his first crank caller of the week. "Hello!" He repeated, opting to give the caller the benefit of the doubt. Strangely enough, he heard what sounded like an announcement in the background.
"Doctor Turner, please pick up line two. Doctor Turner, you have a call on line two."
Russell clutched the phone closer to his ear and listened harder. He could barely hear someone breathing softly but rapidly on the other end. "Tom?"
"Russell…hi. Are you busy?"
It sounded like Tom was having difficulty breathing or was upset because his speech sounded too low and impaired. "No, I'm on my break now. Is everything okay?" When Russell heard what sounded like sniffling on the other end, followed by a sharp intake of breath, he tensed up. "Tom…?"
"I just wanted to thank you for the granola bar and the juice…"
Although Russell hadn't known Tom for long, he could tell that something was off about this telephone conversation. "Tom, is something wrong?" He asked gently. There was a pause on the other end, and then a heavy sigh.
"Are you going to visit later?"
"Didn't you get my note?"
"I did but… it wasn't specific."
"You sound upset. Did something happen?"
"When you come, can you please get me a self discharge form from the front desk? I asked the staff here but… no one would give it to me."
There was definitely something wrong. "Tom, what happened? You're in no condition to leave the hospital on your own. You could get hurt…"
"If I stay here… I am going to get hurt."
Russell's expression constricted upon hearing the fear in Tom's voice. He motioned for Mona to stop when she came back in and grabbed an armful of plants, about to go out again to start up the air boat. "It's that doctor again, isn't it? Listen, Tom, I'm leaving work now. I'll be over there in around thirty minutes… with the form that you asked for. Can you hang on until then?"
"I'll try. Thanks, Russ."
Then the line went dead. "Dammit!" Russell pocketed his phone and took his ranger jacket off again, tossing his sweaty t-shirt on top of it. Damn that mean-spirited doctor and his callous attitude. What had he done to Tom this time? It had to have been something genuinely upsetting for Tom to have made a phone call like that to someone he barely knew anything about.
"This is not the men's locker room, Varon," Mona said in mild disgust.
"Mona, can you cover for me for the rest of the afternoon? I have an emergency that just came up." Russell dug into his backpack that was sitting on a nearby chair, pulled out his deodorant and reapplied it. Then he changed into the grey t-shirt that he'd been saving for later on.
"Do you have any idea how many plants there are here?"
"I'll owe you big. Seriously, I need to go."
"You're going to owe me a double shift for this, Russell." Mona sighed and watched her coworker race out of the ranger station, jump into an Everglades National Park truck and kick up dirt as he peeled off down the trail.
When Russell reached the hospital, he strode right to the front desk and ran straight into Mariel, who was distractedly walking down the hall with her face in a chart.
"Oh! Sorry!" Mariel exclaimed, before realizing whose feet she had stepped on. "Russell, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?" She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear, straightened up, and stared at him in confusion.
"Yeah, but something came up. Could you do me a favor and get me a self discharge release form?"
A moment ago, Mariel had been lost in whatever information she'd been absorbing, but now her ex-husband had her full attention. Dropping the chart out of sight, she tried to figure out what he was up to. "For what patient? The self discharge of a patient form needs to be filled out first."
"What's that one for?"
"It's for the attending doctor to assess the mental capacity of the patient. Basically to decide whether or not the patient is capable of understanding his condition and making informed decisions, like deciding to leave the hospital against the physician's medical advice."
Russell not only distrusted Dr. Feld, but he was also beginning to hate him for the unjustified way he was treating Tom. If he had to rely on Dr. Feld to assess Tom's mental capacity, he might as well just leave the form at the front desk and not even bother. Whatever Dr. Feld's reasons, he seemed to be determined to keep Tom in the hospital and incapacitated for as long as possible. How far was he willing to go in order to confine Tom against his will? Russell did not want to find out.
"Can't you fill it out?"
Now Mariel was looking at him suspiciously. "That depends… You still haven't told me the patient's name. I hope you're not referring to a patient who has been sectioned."
Thankfully, Tom was not being detained against his will under the Mental Health Act, but Dr. Feld might resort to that if given the time to pull it off. "No. I want to get Tom Underlay out of here. This afternoon."
Mariel grabbed Russell by the arm and pulled him close while lowering her voice. "You didn't mention that you knew Tom Underlay."
"It kind of just happened recently." Russell also began to whisper, keeping an eye out for either Dr. Feld or the suspicious men who were shadowing Tom around the hospital. "Look, Mariel, something is really off about the way Tom is being treated here. Dr. Feld is trying to keep him sedated against his will and is performing all these unnecessary tests on him. I don't know if it's a conspiracy or a cover-up, but Tom wants out of here and I'm going to help him."
"You're right that something is going on with Underlay, but I don't know if it's something you want to get involved in. They're restricting which members of staff have access to his room and he's been assigned to Dr. Feld, exclusively. There are also strange men lurking around his room who are exempt from signing in or identifying themselves. Then there are the blood tests… For some bizarre reason, his blood samples are being sent to a private lab to be analyzed."
"That's exactly why I need to get him out of here. Will you help me?"
Mariel glanced down the hall to make sure that they were still alone before studying the urgent look on Russell's face. "I can't make any promises. I'll talk to him and assess whether he's mentally competent… If he is, and I do fill out that form, you'd better be prepared to take full responsibility for it. If Dr. Feld asks me about it, I'm not going to let on that I know anything about any conspiracy or whatnot, or else it'll be my job on the line. I'm just going to say that you took him out of here against my medical advice."
"That's fine by me. Do whatever you have to do."
Russell followed Mariel down to Tom's room where it was completely dark. Despite it still being mid-afternoon, all the lights were off and there wasn't a nurse in sight. Mariel turned on the light, the yellowish glow illuminating Tom sleeping in the bed.
"Tom?" Russell neared the bed and placed a hand on Tom's shoulder, which caused the brunette to flinch. He was met with two dazed blue eyes for a second, before Tom's eyelids slid shut again. "Shit! That bastard sedated him again!"
"Keep your voice down," Mariel shushed him, beginning to check Tom's vital signs. She frowned when she noticed the fresh needle marks on Tom's arms, along with random bruising that seemed to be associated with someone holding him down. "Russell… I don't think I can do this."
"Why not? We can wake him and get him to answer your questions."
"That's not what I meant. I'm obligated to file a report if I suspect abusive conduct towards a patient. This more than qualifies."
"Russell," Tom murmured, struggling to respond to Russell's voice.
"I'm here, Tom." Russell took Tom's hand and held it reassuringly. "This is Mariel. She's going to help you, okay? She's going to file a report against that son-of-a-bitch Dr. Feld. He won't be able to come near you again." Or hurt you again, Russell angrily wanted to add.
"No… please… get me out of here. There's another man… a dangerous man…" Tom attempted to sit up, using all his willpower to fight against the freshly administered sedative that was dulling his mind and restricting his body.
Russell wrapped an arm around Tom's back and helped him to sit up. Tom felt cold and shivery against him, so he pulled him closer in an attempt to warm him up. "What dangerous man?"
"They're all involved. Dr. Feld… those men from the… transportation… department…" Tom gasped, running out of breath, and then began to cough. Mariel was immediately at his side, offering him a glass of water, and pulling out her stethoscope to check his breathing.
"Just relax and take a deep breath," Mariel said soothingly, trying to get Tom to calm down. Unlike Dr. Feld, Mariel's bedside manner was actually pleasant, and she only needed to slip the stethoscope through the back of the gown to listen to his lungs. "Everything sounds okay. When was the last time you drank anything?"
Tom shot Russell a panicked look, which Russell immediately interpreted as the brunette not knowing whether or not he could trust Mariel. "It's okay, Tom. Just answer the question."
"I drank the juice you left me."
"I gave you that juice this morning. What have you drunk since then?" Russell had dropped off that juice over seven hours ago. That couldn't be the only thing that Tom had drunk all day.
"Nothing."
That was when Mariel and Russell noticed that Tom was not drinking from the glass that he'd been given.
"You have to drink something," Russell said in frustration, unable to hide the concern in his voice. "Especially if that asshole took more blood samples from you without your consent."
"Dr. Feld put something… in the… water."
Russell snatched the glass out of Tom's hands, and slammed it down onto the bedside table. "Mariel, can you please fill out that form now? We don't know how many people are involved in this or what they want with Tom. If someone higher up is involved, reporting Dr. Feld could just put Tom in more danger. Look at what he's already done to him." Russell furiously gestured at the bruises covering Tom's arms, looking like he might not be able to restrain himself if Dr. Feld were to walk in the room now.
Although their marriage hadn't worked out, Russell and Mariel had no problem working together when it involved something they felt mutually strong about. In this case, finding evidence of patient abuse had been enough to sway Mariel's opinion to side with Russell. She held out her clipboard with the attached form and sat beside Tom to go over the details with him.
"Russell, do you have any clothing you can lend Tom? His sister-in-law brought his daughter in for a visit yesterday afternoon, but she didn't bring any of his personal items."
"His daughter?" Russell repeated in surprise.
"Kira," Tom said softly, smiling despite how horrible he felt.
Mariel smiled as well, remembering the little girl with the big grayish-green eyes and long brown hair. "She's a really cute, little girl. So polite."
Filing that information away for later, Russell fished his car keys out of his pocket. "I have a spare pair of jeans in my truck, but that's about it." He hurried out to his truck to get them, wondering what he was going to do about the shirt.
By the time Russell got back to the room, Mariel had finished filling out the form and had moved onto the self discharge release form, which she got Tom to sign and date.
"All done," Mariel announced encouragingly, hoping to get Tom to relax a little. But it didn't seem like he would be able to do so until he was outside and as far away from the hospital as possible. He looked pretty awful, worse than he had two days ago, and was barely holding it together. She worried that he might pass out before they succeeded in getting him out of the hospital.
Russell placed the folded pair of jeans into Tom's lap and then pulled off the t-shirt he was wearing, dropping it on top of them. Mariel just about had a fit when she saw him do that.
"You're not really going to walk through the hospital like that, are you?! I'll never be able to live it down if someone sees you."
"I have another shirt. It's just a little damp." Russell pulled on the shirt that he'd been wearing earlier, catching Tom admiring his muscular physique before the brunette quickly dropped his gaze.
"Damp with what?" Mariel made a face and tried not to get too close to her ex-husband and his sweat-drenched t-shirt. "We'll give you a few minutes to get dressed, okay, Tom?"
"Thank you." Tom blinked back the sleep from his eyes and began to pull off the hospital gown as soon as he had the room to himself.
Outside in the hall, Mariel paced back and forth nervously, probably hoping that she had made the right decision. "Where are you going to take him, Russell? He doesn't have any relatives living in Homestead and his deceased wife's sister doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with him. She only brought Kira to visit but didn't come in herself. While I agree that it's best to get him out of this environment, I'm worried that he might have an accident if left alone."
"So I'll stay with him tonight. He lives at a fixed address, doesn't he? And he probably won't want to be alone after all that's happened anyway."
"What makes you so sure he's going to want you to stay with him?" Mariel asked skeptically. "Dr. Feld left him with some pretty understandable trust issues. And you still haven't told me where you know Tom from. I don't think that he runs in the same circles as you do."
"This is going to sound completely ridiculous, but I saw him in the ICU the other day and felt sorry for him. So, I visited him… and we hit it off… and…" Russell trailed off guiltily.
"Oh my God! I don't know what is more disgusting, Russell. The fact that you hit on a patient who just survived a plane crash, or the fact that you lied to me about being into men when I asked you all those years ago, after I found gay porn in the history folder on the computer."
"Who asked you to go through the history folder?! At least I never cheated on you," Russell shot back. "As soon as we got all the papers drawn up for our divorce, you brought up this mystery man that you've been seeing for – I'm sorry, how long have you been seeing him?"
"Just two weeks. It's not that much of an overlap. And at least he's not married."
"Neither is Tom."
Mariel groaned in exasperation. "You're right. He's recently widowed. His wife was killed in a plane crash. Last week," she enunciated very slowly and clearly, as if she were talking to a complete fool. "I don't think that he's ready to get into another relationship, or to suddenly decide that he's gay."
"That's not the feeling I was getting off of him yesterday. Of course it sucks that his wife died. It's horrible and I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through. But there's just something about him - something really positive. He wants to move on and live his life. And he wants to do that with me."
"You're out of your mind," Mariel said, sounding less amused now. "You know nothing about this guy. Absolutely nothing. And he knows nothing about you. But you're making it sound like you two have already exchanged vows."
"Stranger things have happened," Russell said flippantly.
"Be careful with rebound relationships, Russell. They never end well."
"I hope you're going to take your own advice," he snapped at her. Thinking that Tom had been given enough time to change, he placed his hand on the doorknob, and paused. "Look, we're divorced now. And we won't have to live together for much longer. So let's try to stop judging each other and just live our separate lives. Fighting is for married couples."
Mariel inclined her head in agreement. "I'll try if you'll try. Oh, and Russell?"
"What?"
"Be careful," she warned.
All reviews are returned with cyber hugs and lucky hybrids. :)
