Author's Note: Sinus infections…God's way of telling you to slow down…and write fan fiction! I'm back to my longer chapters now that I have some time to write. I'm absolutely loving writing this story and I'm so thrilled by the reviews! A huge thanks to everyone who's read this story, sticking with this story and reviewing this story. You guys rock and make this little girl very happy! Enjoy!
Free Fall
Chapter Eight: Then There Were Two
Kenzie woke up to the steady beeping of what she thought was her alarm clock. Funny, she didn't remember coming home last night from Peter's Aunt's. She blindly flailed her arm at the general direction of the beeping and when it connected, more alarms went off. Kenzie went to sit up but a sharp stinging in her left hand caused her to lay still.
"What did you do?"
Kenzie turned wild eyes to the nurse that just rushed into the room and silenced all the beeping. "Doris?"
"Yeah, sweetie?"
She looked around the room and finally realized where she was. "How…why…"
Doris just chuckled slightly, before switching on the heart monitor again. "When I told you to make sure you had a support group, I didn't think you'd get it together that fast. Good looking boys too."
"Doris!"
The older woman shrugged. "They brought you in here about six hours ago with a 106 temperature."
"Six hours? They're not still here are they?"
Doris took Kenzie's pulse. "The one with the curly hair stayed. We tried to get him to go home, but he won't budge."
Kenzie looked around the room. She was hooked up to an IV, most likely an anti-biotic. She was also hooked up to a heart monitor, hence all the beeping and alarms when she smacked it. "Where is he now?"
"Last time I saw him," Doris laughed, "he was sound asleep in the waiting room."
"Well, can't he come in?"
Doris laid a hand on Kenzie's shoulder. "What's the matter?"
Kenzie felt like she was speaking another language. "Nothing's the matter, I just want him to see that I'm fine so he can go home."
Doris took the tissue box off of the night stand and passed it to Kenzie. "Then you better stop crying if you want him to think you're fine."
Kenzie reached up to her face and was shocked when her fingertips came away wet. She hadn't even realized she had been crying. Lying back against the pillows, she pulled a tissue out of the box and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Doris sat down on the side of the bed. "Kenzie, have you rested at all since you've started your treatment?"
"I've, uh, you know…"
"Not stopped at all."
"I've got my internship, Doris."
"And that's not going to help you if you don't rest now. Did you know Captain Stacey called here, asking to talk to your attending doctor to see how you were faring. I'd hate to give him this report. Now, are you going to tell me what's going on?"
Kenzie stared down, twisting the tissue in her hands. "When I was sleeping-"
"When you were unconscious, you mean."
"I kept having dreams of my Mom. I was telling stories about her at dinner and I guess that's what started it all."
"Ah yes," Doris smiled wistfully, "Fiona Marshall. One of my toughest patients. That's why I practically ignored you when you first came in for radiation. You reminded me so much of your mother. All mouth and determination."
Kenzie felt the tears slip down her face this time and just let them fall. "I miss her, Doris."
Doris pulled her into a fierce hug and let her cry. "I know, sweetie. I miss her too."
Harry tried to roll over but found his way blocked. Opening his eyes, he was faced with garish colored plastic chairs and once again was reminded of where he was and why. He looked at his watch and found it was 1:00 am and still no one had come to tell him anything. Deciding he might have to go demand answers, he got up and wiped his eyes, trying to clear the blurriness. No sooner had he stood up than the nurse that took Kenzie from him emerged from the restricted door.
"Are you Harry?"
He nodded.
She smiled. "Kenzie told me she thought you would be the one waiting. I'm Doris Quiah and I'm in charge of overseeing her treatment here. You're just lucky I happened to be covering a friend's shift."
"Is she going to be alright?"
"For now. We see this sometimes with cancer patients. The radiation and chemo leaves their bodies susceptible to any virus or infection that's out there. That's why we heavily suggest they limit their time in public and rest at home."
He should have realized that. Taking her to the gardens yesterday was not a good idea: lots of people and lots of pollen. "I took her out yesterday."
"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. She just picked up an infection and needed a little help. It's actually encouraging that her body was running that high of a fever because it means her body was fighting. That's always a good sign."
He hadn't thought of it that way. "Can I see her?"
"As long as you don't stay for long."
Harry followed the nurse back through long corridors before coming to a door. Doris motioned for him to go in. Cautiously, he stepped into the darkened room and saw Kenzie, looking frail and washed out in the hospital bed. She smiled and waved feebly.
"Doris said you've waited all this time."
Harry shrugged. "I slept some."
A slow smile spread across her face. Her eyes were red, as if she had been crying. "No you didn't."
"Well, I tried. How are you feeling?"
She seemed to think about for a moment. "Tired."
"Can you go home?"
She shook her head. "Doris said I need to stay for observation. I also have my radiation treatment tomorrow so I may as well stay."
"I can come pick you up tomorrow, if you want."
"I've caused you so many inconveniences. How can you even offer to spend more time with me?"
"I wouldn't say you've caused me any inconvenience. You're just very…exciting."
"There's the word for it."
"Anyway," Harry felt like a kid who just caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "I kind of like you."
She stretched out her hand and he quickly took it. The heat had faded from the skin and her fingers were now starting to feel cold. "I like you too, Harry."
"So, what time is your radiation over tomorrow?"
"You really are a glutton for punishment aren't you?"
"You know what they say, third time's a charm. Something has to go right for us."
Kenzie laughed. "The treatment usually ends around 2."
Harry nodded. That would give him time to get home, get some rest and stop by her apartment for a fresh pair of clothes. MJ had come to the hospital on her way home and dropped off Kenzie's purse, which Harry now had in his possession. He heard the nurse come back and stand at the door, his reminder that his time was up.
"Thank you, Harry. For everything you did for me."
He wanted to thank her for everything she had done for him but then he would have a lot of explaining to do and now was not the time. So instead, he leaned down and pressed his lips against her forehead. He hoped he hadn't overstepped his boundaries and judging from her smile, he hadn't.
"Get some rest."
She nodded. "You too."
Kenzie had to return to her hospital room after her radiation so Doris could look over her vitals one more time before releasing her back out into the public. Despite her solitude in radiation, Kenzie couldn't seem to shake this feeling of excitement.
"If you don't get that grin off your face, someone's going to think you're in love."
"What if I am, Doris?"
The older woman laughed. "If you don't know if you are or not, there's no one else to ask." Doris took Kenzie's pulse and counted silently before continuing her train of thought. "So, how did you meet him?"
"By chance. I needed some help with my studies so a friend recommended someone. He was probably the other guy with Harry last night at the hospital. Anyway, he invited me to go to a café and meet his girlfriend and discuss, uh, study times and Harry happened to have been there."
"How long have you know each other?"
"Three days."
"Three days, huh?" Doris wrote something down on the clipboard. "And already the poor boy had to bring you to the hospital and pick you up from your radiation treatment."
Kenzie scuffed her shoe on the linoleum. She had to wear the clothes from the previous night and they still felt damp from when the fever broke and she sweated. She felt like she had been on a week long camping trip with no shower and hated that Harry had to see her like this. "Doris, have you ever fallen in love in a short amount time?"
Doris wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Kenzie's arm. "Sure I have. With Mr. Denzel Washington every time he comes on the TV."
"I'm being serious," Kenzie laughed.
Doris regarded her with wise eyes. "Sweetheart, I met my husband on a Friday. By the next Friday we were engaged. Two months later, we were married."
"How long did it last?"
"Twenty years and counting. But let me tell you something, your mother lived her life by following her heart. From what I've come to know about you, you're just like her. Don't second guess yourself too much."
Kenzie mulled over that for a minute before asking her next question. "Doris, do you think I'm going to get better?"
"Of course you are. And don't think you're not going to get better."
Kenzie gave her a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am."
There was knock at the door and Kenzie looked up to see Harry standing there with a bag in one hand and flowers in the other.
"Well lookie here," Doris was saying, "a man who still believes in giving flowers."
"Aw, Doris," Kenzie said, "don't you get flowers?"
"Hon, for my last birthday I got a cordless drill." She winked at Kenzie. "You'll understand in time." Then she turned to Harry. "She's free to leave but she needs to leave in a wheelchair. We'll see what you're made of then."
"Well, he did bring me flowers, Doris."
The nurse turned at the doorway. "Is that all it takes to get you to cooperate?"
"It helps."
Doris hmphed and looked at Harry. "Mr. Flowers, make sure she gets her rest."
"I'm on it," Harry replied and Doris left. He held up the bag and passed it to her. "I actually took the liberty of picking up some of your clothes from your apartment. I hope you don't mind."
Kenzie breathed a sigh of relief. "Absolutely not. Thank you so much." She took the bag into the bathroom with her and found a complete set of clothes along with a toothbrush and hairbrush. She quickly changed into the pair of jeans and t-shirt he had brought for her and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She shoved her old clothes into the bag while she brushed her teeth and was back out in less than five minutes. Harry was already standing there with the wheelchair ready to go.
"Harry, I really don't-" but shouting from the hallway cut her off. Both her and Harry went to the door and peaked out to see what the commotion was. Kenzie felt a strange tingling along the base of her neck, almost like a biological danger alarm. It felt strange and she laid a hand over the back of her neck hoping to stop the vibrating. She couldn't make out the words but something was definitely going wrong out in the waiting room.
She and Harry crept down the hallway, telling curious patients to go into invalids rooms and lock the doors. As they neared the doors that separated the rooms from the ER the tingling got worse. Kenzie peered through the side of the glass and saw what the trouble was. A kid, apparently strung out on drugs or lack thereof, was waving a gun around trying to influence the nurses at the station to hand over pills.
"He's going to hurt someone," Harry whispered, pulling out his cell phone and dialing 911. Kenzie agreed but it would take the police a while to get here and then get in the ER. He could take a hostage or kill someone before the police even showed up. Something had to be done now.
Kenzie ducked into a supply closet and grabbed a large bottle of some pain reliever, a surgical mask and hat. It wasn't the best disguise but it would have to work. She sure hoped the small amount of practice she had paid off. She climbed up the wall and settled herself on the ceiling, trying to become accustomed to the view. She crawled along the ceiling back out into the hallway. Harry was still on the phone but when he spotted her, shock turned him mute. Apparently, it was only temporary.
"What are you doing?"
"Stopping him before someone gets hurt."
He looked wildly around him. "The cops are on their way."
"Shh…just move forward a bit so the doors open."
"No."
"Fine," Kenzie crawled right up to the door and waved a hand in front it. The doors remained closed. She looked back down at Harry who had a resigned look on his face.
"Look, I wanted to take you out to lunch. Don't get yourself killed." And he scooted forward enough for the doors to open. She nodded before crawling through them. Thankfully, no one in the ER stared up at the ceiling once they saw her. The gunman watched the door but when he didn't see anyone, he continued to shout his slurred threats at the nurses. Kenzie unscrewed the cap on the oversized pill bottle, amazed at the sticking ability of her feet. Once the cap was off, she hurled it at the gunman. It hit him square in the face, sending a shower of white pills all over the room.
Letting go of the ceiling, she dropped right in front of him and webbed the gun, yanking it out of his hand and sticking it to the wall. Then, feeling extremely grateful to Empire State University for making self-defense a required course for any criminologist, she executed a roundhouse that would have made Mr. Chou very proud. The criminal was out cold by the time she stood up.
A little kid came up to her with wide eyes. "Thank you, Spiderman."
"That's not Spiderman!" another kid called out. "That's Spiderwoman."
Kenzie tried not to laugh but instead, turned back to the sliding glass doors. She ran through them and tugged Harry to his feet. "We can get out the back." They ran through the maze of white hallways until a door marked emergency exit came into view. Kenzie barreled through it, ignoring the sirens that were set off. She and Harry stumbled out into the alleyway and she pulled off the mask and hat and tossed them into the dumpster. Only then did she start laughing.
Harry was still trying to process everything that happened. He had gone from picking up a very sick young woman from the hospital to watching her turn into a full blown hero while he stood by and watched. Well, he did call the police but she did all work. And that didn't necessarily sit well with him. He was struggling for words in the back alley behind the hospital when Kenzie burst out laughing.
"Did you see that?" she asked.
Of course he had. He watched the whole thing. He was about to say "I was there, wasn't I?" when she started talking again.
"That was unbelievable! It was so awesome! No wonder Spiderman does this all the time."
Her laughter and enthusiasm was infectious and he soon found himself laughing with her. "That was pretty cool."
You're so weak.
Harry choked on his laugh and it turned into a cough. He hadn't heard his father's voice in over two days, almost three. He was beginning to hope that he had finally beat back his father's restless spirit but apparently he was merely lying in wait.
You stood by and watched this skinny, dying girl save you, Harry.
He could hear the disappointment dripping from every word. He looked over at Kenzie who was still laughing and jumping around like a four year old on Christmas morning.
You've become nothing more than a damsel in distress. I've never been so ashamed.
Harry couldn't take it anymore. He was certain this would be the time he would lose his mind. But his mind stubbornly stayed logical and how could it not? Kenzie was standing in front of him, eyes bright from laughing so hard she had actually started to cry, a large smile lightening up her face. He could practically feel his father retreating from the situation in the presence of this bright soul.
"Harry, what's-"
He cut her off by slamming his mouth down on hers. He could feel the momentary shock that went through her but that was all it lasted before she settled herself in his embrace. He clung to her desperately, as if she were his lifeline. In that moment, he realized she was exactly that.
