You guys are getting spoiled, LOL! I'm posting two chapters since Chapter 9 was kind of short.
Chapter 10
"Agent Doyle?"
He stopped. "Yeah?"
Dr. Carlson motioned him over to her. "I know you're not part of the Medical staff, and you probably have somewhere you need to be right now... but can you do me a quick favor?" she asked hesitantly. "Sorry."
"No problem," Doyle told her. "What do you need?"
"Out in the hallway, there's a tray on the table. Can you take it in to Audrey? It's her lunch and her medications. I'd do it myself, but I've got my hands full." She glanced at William McDonnell, the agent sitting in front of her on a stretcher. "Apparently, someone decided to use his body as a cushion for two bullets."
William smiled sheepishly. "Believe me, it wasn't by choice. Getting shot hurts. It's not something that I do voluntarily."
"Good," Dr. Carlson replied dryly. "Don't." She inspected the wounds. "It looks like this one here on your side is just a graze wound. I can fix that with a few sutures. It's this one on your arm that needs work. The bullet didn't hit any arteries in your arm, thank God, but it did nick a vein, and I'm having trouble getting the bleeding to stop. Once I get that under control, you get to take a tour of the OR while I remove the bullet and patch you up."
"Thrills." William winced as Dr. Carlson applied firmer pressure to the wound on his arm. "Ow!"
"Sorry. Hold that gauze in place and keep pressure on it while I go get a suture kit for your side." Dr. Carlson stepped away from the stretcher.
Doyle stepped aside. "I'll let you do your work; meanwhile, I'll go take that try to Audrey."
"I'm swamped right now. Thank you!" Dr. Carlson called over her shoulder, giving him an incredibly grateful glance. "I owe you one."
"No problem. You're welcome." Doyle strode away down the hallway, leaving Dr. Carlson to her work. He collected the tray from the table, and headed towards Audrey's room.
He slowed his pace as he reached the door to her room. Doug and Joe nodded to him, and held the door open to allow him to enter the room. Doyle knocked softly on the door before stepping inside. "Ms. Raines? Audrey? It's Agent Doyle." There was no answer. Not wanting to wake her if she was sleeping, Doyle fell silent as he slowly entered the room.
The first thing he noticed was that Audrey's bed was empty. He frowned slightly, but then relaxed as he glimpsed light spilling from under the bathroom door. "Audrey," he called quietly. "Dr. Carlson sent me with some food and your meds. I'm going to leave the tray next to your bed, all right?" He placed the tray on the table, and stepped away from the bed.
As he did, he caught a glimpse of the sink outside of the small bathroom, and stopped cold. Bright red blood was splattered across the white porcelain, staining it like crimson fire.
Moving quickly, Doyle hurried across the room and rapped sharply on the bathroom door. "Ms. Raines, are you all right?" There was no answer. Doyle knocked a second time, louder this time. "Audrey, it's Agent Doyle. I need you to open the door, okay?" Still no answer.
Doyle tested the doorknob. He breathed a sigh of relief to find it unlocked. Without a second thought, he pulled the door open and burst into the room. Audrey was sitting in a crumpled heap in the corner of the room, and Doyle hurried to her. "Ms. Raines? Audrey, can you hear me?"
She lifted her head and met his gaze. Doyle was startled by the wild, haunted look in Audrey's eyes. "It won't come off," she whispered hoarsely.
"What?" Doyle asked quietly. His mind raced frantically. "What's wrong?"
Audrey pointed to her right arm. "It won't come off," she whimpered plaintively. "I can't get it off."
Doyle glanced down, and his eyes widened. The inside of Audrey's forearm was raw and red. The skin had been scratched and clawed viciously, and bright red blood oozed freely from the wound. A number tattooed in dark blue ink, FD-98643, was barely visible through the mess. Suddenly, with horrifying clarity, Doyle understood. Audrey had gouged and scratched at the tattoo in hopes of removing it.
As he watched, Audrey began frantically clawing at the tattoo again, seemingly oblivious to the pain of the raw, bleeding wound and the deep scratches that she was inflicting. "I can't get it off," she whispered again. "It won't come off."
Doyle caught her left hand, firmly pulling it away from the bleeding wound. "No," he said firmly as she struggled to reach the tattoo again. "Audrey, look at me," he added in a gentler tone, waiting until she lifted her head. "That's not going to make the tattoo go away. All you're doing is hurting yourself. You need to stop." He grabbed a handful of paper towels and pressed them firmly against the bleeding gash. Audrey whimpered as the rough edges of the coarse paper scraped painfully against the raw wound. Doyle whispered an apology, but kept applying firm pressure.
Gently, carefully, he pulled Audrey to her feet and half-led and half-carried her over to the bed. "Audrey," he said quietly, waiting until she made eye contact. "I'll be right back. I need you to keep pressure on that wound. Keep holding those paper towels there until I get back. Can you do that?" Slowly, silently, Audrey nodded. "Okay. I'll be right back." Doyle straightened, and hurried towards the door.
"You look like you saw a ghost," Joe told him. "Everything okay in there?"
Doyle shook his head. "No, not really. Dr. Carlson's busy, but I need somebody in there. Where's Dr. Besson? Get him in here now."
His tone shocked the guards into obedience. They didn't ask questions, just hurried to obey. Doug rushed to find Dr. Besson, while Joe followed Doyle back into Audrey's room. Together they calmed Audrey and took turns applying fresh paper towels to the wound, sighing with relief as the bleeding began to slow.
"What's going on?" Dr. Besson hurried into the room, taking in the scene with one glance. His eyebrows arched as he spotted the small trash can in the corner of the room filled with crumpled, bloody paper towels. "What happened here?" Doyle quickly explained, and the doctor nodded grimly. "I see. All right, Audrey, let's see what we have here." His eyes widened as he saw the raw, bloody mess on the inside of Audrey's arm. "You certainly did a number on yourself, my dear. This is quite a mess. All right, let's go into one of the treatment rooms and fix this up."
"No," Audrey replied stubbornly, pressing back against the bed pillows.
Dr. Besson smiled. "Sorry, Audrey, but this one's non-negotiable. I need to patch that up." He boosted her to her feet as easily as if she was a giant doll, and half-led and half-carried her into a treatment room. "Can somebody go find Jack?" he added as an afterthought. "Just don't let Heller see him."
Joe smiled slightly. "Heller's sick with the stomach flu, so he's resting up at home. He's out of our hair for awhile. I'll go get Jack." He left the room, returning momentarily with Jack hot on his heels.
Jack went immediately to Audrey's side, hugging her tightly. His eyes darkened as he listened to Doyle's explanation of what happened. "What can we do?"
"Treat it," Dr. Besson replied, assembling a myriad of supplies on the bedside table. "I'll suture those cuts, and give her some antibiotic cream and a cold pack for the raw area. Then we can find Dr. Carlson and talk about what to do next." He gave Audrey's shoulder a reassuring pat. "Everything's going to be all right, Audrey. We're going to fix this up for you."
Jack cradled Audrey in his arms, holding her close against his chest and running his fingers through her hair to soothe her. He whispered reassurances and soothing words as the scratches on her arm were stitched and bandaged, and as an ice pack was applied to the chafed, raw area around the scratches.
At last, Dr. Besson straightened up. "There. All finished." He smiled sympathetically at Audrey. "I'm all finished. It shouldn't hurt anymore. You can relax now." He glanced at Jack. "You can take Audrey back to her room. I'll let Dr. Carlson know what happened, and I'll send her in to talk with you when she gets a chance."
Jack and Doyle thanked the doctor, and together they led Audrey back to her room to wait for Dr. Carlson.
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