11

Jamie shifted uncomfortably in bed and opened her eyes. The fire had died down dramatically, and it was so dark in the room she could barely see. Kayla's deep breathing reminded her that she had someone else in the room. Gritting her teeth, she carefully sat up, putting her feet on the floor. Apparently she'd managed to move the wrong way while sleeping. Her injured leg throbbed with pain.

She managed to make it to the bathroom by holding onto furniture. Her leg was stiff and sore. Jamie managed to change out her pack and bandage without making too much noise. Kayla slept on, undisturbed. Jamie envied her that for a moment before slowly pulling on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She grabbed her crutch and hobbled out of the room as silently as she could.

The house was silent. She had no clue what time it was. Jamie paused at the head of the stairs, wondering if she should just go and knock on doors. She shook her head to herself. If no one was up, she'd torture herself with a climb up the steps.

She made her way to the living room. The fire that burned there was burning hot and bright, so obviously someone had kept up with it. Jamie thumped into the kitchen and smiled at Glen, who was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in front of him.

"Mornin'." He sounded wide awake. Jamie sank down gratefully in the chair across from him and glanced around. The clock over the stove gave the time as five-forty.

"It's early."

"Something wrong?" Glen asked, sipping his steaming coffee.

"Besides being gnawed on and talking to a ghost? I'm great." Jamie said with a sigh. "Did you not sleep?"

"A little bit. Enough anyway. How about you?"

"My leg woke me up." Jamie gingerly touched the bandage through the material of her jeans. "I'm glad you're up actually. I wanted to see if you'd run me to the clinic so I could get checked out."

Glen raised an eyebrow. "You sure that's a good idea? There's bound to be a billion questions...not everyone is gonna understand what happened to you..." But Jamie was shaking her head.

"It's all right. I know everybody there. I worked there for a couple of years." She smiled. "I'll need some pain meds at the very least. And probably some shots. I want to get it over with. The clinic opens at eight, but most of them get there by six or so. I might be able to sweet talk my way into an appointment."

"Right." Glen nodded. He looked up at the ceiling. "You want me to get Mark to take you?"

Jamie shook her head. "Let him sleep. If he's sleeping. I just wanna get this over with." She repeated. Like many in her profession, she made a far better nurse than patient.

"All right. Need help with your boots or coat?"Glen asked, rising from the table.

"I think I can handle it. If not, I'll holler." She accepted the boots that Glen held out to her, a pair almost identical to the ones that were ruined by the blood. Jamie managed to tug them on, along with her coat.

While she did that, Glen had gone outside to warm up the SUV. He also knocked off the six inches of snow that had coated it overnight. Snow was still falling, but it was tapering off. She made a mental note to check out the weather forecasts before they headed back.

Glen helped her into the passenger before he slid behind the wheel. It was slow going. Apparently people had been out in the night...they saw several abandoned cars along the way, all of them so far off the road it was impossible to believe they had parked that way on purpose. Glen was careful though. In forty minutes they were pulling into the clinic parking lot.

There were four other cars already there. All were empty except for one. A woman was sitting behind the wheel of an older sedan, talking on a cell phone, waving her hands in agitation. Jamie didn't have to hear to know what she was upset about. She'd worked here long enough. Apparently someone else wanted an earlier appointment and wasn't getting the attention she thought she deserved. She could recall several occasions when people would call and start screaming curses at her just because she refused to unlock the doors until the clinic opened.

Glen gave her a hand down from the truck and waited, watching closely as she got her crutch settled under her. The snow made for slippery footing as they walked toward the building. Jamie led him toward the main entrance. Through the glass double doors he could see a reception and waiting area. A woman was seated at the desk, head bent as she studied some papers.

Jamie knocked on the door. The woman barely glanced up, did a double take, and a bright smile appeared on her face immediately knocking ten years from what Glen estimated was her age. Jamie waved and waited while the woman flipped the locks and opened the door.

"Jamie! I thought that was you!" The woman pulled Jamie in for a hug. Glen watched, amused, as the crutch fell to the floor. "Hurry up and get in here before a crowd follows you." The woman guided them into the waiting room, grinning from ear to ear. "Please tell me you're coming back to work, we could use all the help we can get."

Jamie smiled and shook her head. "No such luck. I'm strictly here as a patient today. Oh...Glen, this is Cora." Glen nodded and handed Jamie her crutch.

"Damn. What happened?" Cora became concerned.

"Dog bit me. Is Phillips here?"

"Ha. No, that blowhard is out on vacation. He couldn't have planned it better." Cora huffed and went behind the desk. "It's just me and Irvine until eight. We both stayed the night here."

"Ah. Is he busy?"

"Not yet. Doing paperwork and chugging coffee most likely. We didn't open yesterday, so everybody had to go to the ER. He showed up last night and got the generator going, and called to see if I'd come in. And I did." Cora smiled. "You go on back. I'll buzz him. He's in his office."

"Thanks." Jamie got her crutch settled and turned to Glen. "You can wait out here. I won't be too long." He looked as if he wanted to argue and thought better of it. It was a good thing. Jamie did not need anybody to hold her hand while she sat on an exam table.

Glen took a seat. Jamie pushed through a swinging door and limped down a brightly lit hallway. She gave the office a knock before opening the door. She was surprised to see there were two people in the room already.

"Jamie." Chris greeted her warmly, grinning at her. Jamie smiled back and let the door close behind her.

"Hey Chris. I didn't know you were already with somebody..." Jamie paused when Chris started shaking his head before she could finish.

"She's not a patient. Oh, you might remember her. This is Emma Jones. She did some temp work here off and on a few years back."

"Oh...right." Now that she had a name, the woman's face was familiar. She had spoken to Emma on several occasions as she helped switch the files from paper to computer. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"Nope. Just trying to wake up." Chris gestured to several coffee cups scattered on his desk. "Our power got knocked out. It was either freeze or come here."

"Good thing you're here. Good for me anyway." Jamie gestured to her leg.

"Come on...we can go next door to the exam room." Chris took her arm and helped lead her back out of the office. He got Jamie settled on the exam table before turning to wash his hands. "So what happened?"

"Well...I was out wandering in the woods and a dog bit me." It was the simplest and least strange sounding explanation.

"Uh oh. Can you get the pants off?" He winked at her as he pulled on a pair of gloves. "So I can examine you, that is."

Jamie laughed and carefully slid from the table. Chris dutifully turned his back as she took her jeans off. She grabbed a towel from the rack next to the exam table to cover her lap, mostly out of habit. Once she had gotten back on the table, Chris turned and bent down to pull the bandage off her leg.

"Yikes. Really nailed you." He muttered more to himself that to her.

"Yeah. Tore my favorite pair of jeans too." Jamie grumbled, wincing as he exposed the wound. He ran his fingers lightly around, checking for obvious signs of infection.

"It looks all right, all things considered. You pack it yourself?"

"The last couple of times. I had some help though."

"Peroxide?"

"It was all they had."

"We can put a few stitches in it. Right here, right here..." He was pointed. Jamie craned her neck to see. "And you don't need to pack it anymore. Regular bandaging until it scabs over. How's the pain?"

"It only hurts when I move it. The rest of the time its sore."

"What do you want to take for it?"

"Wow...are you asking my professional opinion?" Jamie said with a laugh.

Chris raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Surely you haven't forgotten the job."

"Of course not." Jamie smiled. "I'll take something strong so I can sleep at night without waking up every five minutes. And some ibuprofen for swelling."

"Good girl." Chris gave her leg a pat. "You sure you don't want your job back? I'll personally rehire you right now."

"You'll have to ask me again when I'm not dealing with a chewed up leg." Jamie said.

Twenty minutes later, Chris had her stitched, bandaged and taped. They went back into his office after Jamie got dressed so he could write out her prescriptions. Emma was toying with a laptop, looking tired and bored.

"So how did you get suckered into coming back?" Jamie asked as Chris scribbled away on his prescription pad.

"I wasn't suckered. I too am without power." Emma said with a smirk.

"Are they ever going to get it fixed?" Jamie asked. She snapped her fingers. "You live in that big house by the town line, right?"

"Yup." Emma laughed. She was used to people recognizing her house before they recognized her. Eric had it built to be talked about.

"My brother..." Jamie's voice caught for a moment. "Uh...anyway...he helped build it."

Emma smiled and let it pass without comment. She got the feeling it was a sore subject. Chris finished and held Jamie's prescriptions. She took them and put them in her pocket.

"Thanks for seeing me. And if you were serious about the job, I might be back. In a few weeks. Got to get some things straightened out first." Jamie had not wanted to admit it, but she did miss nursing. It had been all she had wanted to do with her life. Maybe after she put the past behind her, dealt with what was going on, and took a break she'd be ready to get back to it. She hoped.

"I'm serious. I'll be pissed if I walk over to the hospital and see you working there instead." Chris informed her. He draped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. Jamie smiled warmly at him. Unlike some of the other doctors she'd worked with, Chris was one of the decent ones who didn't believe he was better than anybody else. It was a welcome change from the egos she'd gotten used to.

She turned down his offer to aid her down the hallway. Jamie had already managed it once, going back would be easy. Sure enough, without her leg stinging from being packed, it was easier to bend her knee. Glen was still sitting in the waiting room, idly flipping through a magazine. Cora was at her desk, talking into her phone. When he spotted her, he rose to his feet and smiled.

"You all right?"

"Better. Got to get these filled." She pulled her prescriptions from her pocket and waved them. Glen took them and shrugged.

"I can run them over to the hospital pharmacy if that'll work."

"Sure." Jamie smiled.

"Sit tight, I'll be back in a few." Glen turned and wandered off. Jamie went toward the television that was in the corner of the room meant to keep waiting patients occupied. It was currently turned off. She pressed the power button and nothing happened.

"The television won't run with the genny going." Cora spoke from behind her. Jamie shook her head and limped back toward the desk.

"That's great. Where can I see the news?"

"Ha. You won't be able to see much in here. There's a radio though." Cora turned around and fiddled with a battery powered portable cd player behind her. She turned the volume up a little as a reporter droned on and one about the many accidents the snow had caused. It only took a few minutes for the weather report. The official snowfall measurement was twenty-two inches. And there was even more coming. This time the meteorologist assured his listeners that the next system to move through the area would only drop another inch or two on top of what they already had. After that they would have clearer weather until Christmas. The news picked up once more.

"I guess I have to unlock our doors now." Cora said, dialing the volume back down and looking at the clock. Jamie nodded, wondering if the news would say anything about the power outage. Cora's voice as she greeted people who were waiting to come inside was soothing, low. Jamie moved around the reception desk and took one of the chairs for herself, wanting to stay out of everyone's way.

Glen had been gone for fifteen minutes. Jamie thought that even though it was early still, he wouldn't be back too soon. The hospital stayed busy. Especially when the weather was bad. She made herself useful, helping Cora pull up files from her computer and checking people in.

Once everyone had been taken care of, Jamie propped her chin in her hand and tapped her foot idly. She hated waiting.

"Jamie."

Jamie turned to look at Cora, who was leaning on the desk and speaking to one of the patients. She glanced around, but there was no one else there that she knew. She frowned and shook her head, just as her name was repeated.

That time she had been looking up. No one had been looking her way. Cora finished up with her instructions and excused herself to lead a patient back to the exam rooms.

"Jamie..."That time, the voice was decidedly male. And coming from behind her. Jamie turned, expecting to see Chris. Instead, her eyes fell on the softly muttering radio. As if that were a cue, whispering voices issued from the speakers, none of them clear enough to understand. She reached out a shaking hand and turned the volume up. It didn't help. The whispers could be heard around the sounds of the reporter, but they didn't get any clearer.

She jumped as a hand fell on her shoulder. Glen was looking at the radio, a frown on his face. He reached out and turned it off with a resolute snap, dropping the waiting room back into silence.

"What was that?" Aware of the people sitting ten feet from them, Jamie whispered it. Glen shook his head and gestured toward the door. Jamie rose to her feet and followed him, waving a goodbye to Cora when she reappeared before they stepped outside.

Glen led the way to the SUV. Jamie climbed in and looked at him expectantly. He sighed and glanced at her before speaking. "Was it just the whispering, or did you actually hear anything clear in that?"

"My name. What the hell was it?"

"Voices of the dead." Glen said, starting the engine. Warm air washed through the enclosed vehicle. "You might have noticed...we don't have TVs or radios in the house. Because for some reason they constitute a doorway to some spirits. I don't know how the hell they figured out where you were, never seen it happen before."

"I was wondering about the TV thing." Jamie said with a slight smirk. "It was a guy's voice, that said my name. But not John's. I didn't recognize him."

"It could have been anybody." Glen said, shifting the SUV into gear. "There are spirits everywhere. They could have heard your name. It could have been someone who died at the clinic eight years ago. It could have been some random floater." He shrugged. "I wish I could explain it better."

"You're doing fine. So I take it I'm supposed to stay away from electronics from now on?"

"It would probably be for the best." Glen said with another sigh. "If some bad spirit is after you, he'll get to you any way he can. We gotta make it as difficult as possible."

"Understood."

"Good. So no more listening to the weather." Glen chided her. Jamie smiled.

"Duly noted. Good thing I don't have a lap top. I'd really freak out if dead people started messaging me."

"They could probably do it." Glen said, unable to keep from smiling at the thought. He was worried though. Something had tried to communicate to Jamie at the clinic, and from what little he'd heard, it wasn't necessarily a doting family member wanting to say goodbye. He was forced to drive slowly due to the road conditions, and fought against the urge to hurry up and get Jamie back to the house as soon as he could.