Tegan Chronicles Sanctuary Style:
Step Through the Looking Glass 25
It had been three days and Helen had been giving Tegan the space she needed but when she didn't show up for dinner again she decided it was time to drag her out of bed, get her showered and in some clean clothes at the very least. She also wanted to listen to her lungs, check her wounds, and remove the sutures that had been in for just over six days now.
Helen knocked on the closed door and waited before announcing she was coming in. When she opened the door the bed was empty and completely made up. Her untouched dinner tray still sat on the night table where Kate had left it along with the single potassium pill she was supposed to take.
She checked the residents' bathroom on that floor but found it was empty except for the lingering humidity of a recent shower. Helen turned to see two faced guy coming down the hall. "Have you seen Tegan?"
"The redhead?"
"Yes."
"No, haven't seen her in days." He turned and his other face said, "She's a hot one, I'd remember her."
"Behave yourself." Helen gave him a disapproving look as she pulled out her radio. "Henry."
"Yeah boss?" His voice came out the speaker.
"Have you seen Dr. Kiser wandering the halls?"
"She's not in her room?"
"Would I be asking if she were?"
"Of course not, sorry. Give me a second." After a few seconds the radio clicked. "No, she's not on any of the cameras. But she hasn't left because the perimeter security hasn't been breached."
"Unless she managed to get out when Kate and Will left." She started toward the elevator as she decided to check her favorite place.
"Nope, just checked the footage, she hasn't been near the garage since dinner time."
"Keep an eye out for her, please."
"Sure thing."
"Thank you Henry." She pushed the button for the top floor.
"Found her." Henry's voice crackled in her hand as she stepped out of the elevator. "She went to the roof about twenty minutes ago. Oh hey, there you are."
She turned at smiled at the security camera as he spoke into the radio. "Heading there now, thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Helen stepped out onto the roof of the Sanctuary an immediately spotted Tegan sitting on her favorite spot, the very last merlon to the far left of the parapet. She was wearing her green BDUs, combat boots, and a long sleeve black t-shirt with 'bite me' printed in a white typewriter font on the chest, obviously Kate's choice. Helen was sure the t-shirt couldn't have been easy to put on with her shoulder hurting.
"I thought I might find you up here. This is my favorite spot in the entire Sanctuary."
Tegan continued to stare out at the skyline lit against the black sky.
"You know…" Helen stepped up as close as she could without stepping up on the parapet. "That's probably not the best place for an epileptic, especially a non-medicated one."
"I'm not epileptic." Tegan shifted pulling up one foot from where it dangled over the side and rested it on the opposite knee.
Helen noticed her boots weren't tied and while she wasn't wearing the sling she was still keeping her arm supported against her body. She nodded toward the metal tags hanging around her neck. "I guess that's why it's not on your dog tags."
"If I were epileptic I couldn't serve in the military and I certainly couldn't fly fighter jets."
"You're a pilot too?"
"I was a pilot." She watched a black van pull up to the Sanctuary gates below and Will reach out the window to input his code. "But now, now I'm nothing. In this world I don't exist."
"Really? Because I don't normally carry on conversations figments of my imagination."
Tegan turned her head and looked at Helen, really looked at her for the first time since the Nikola incident. "You know what I mean."
"I understand that you are dealing with a loss far greater than anyone can completely comprehend, but sitting around feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to make it any better." Helen wasn't one to mince words and she didn't care if her statement stung. It was what Tegan needed to hear, of that she was certain.
"I'm not feeling sorry for myself." Tegan looked over the edge of the turrets as a bitter cold breeze blew her bangs into her eyes.
"What are you going to do?"
Tegan sighed lightly. "I haven't thought that far ahead."
Helen let the silence between them expand.
A gust of wind blasted them in the face and Tegan started coughing. When her hacking subsided Helen spoke. "I think there's a storm brewing, we should go in."
Tegan looked up as the sky lit up as if on cue. She nodded as Helen stepped back. It took a minute for her to maneuver off the merlon using only one arm.
As Helen pulled the door closed behind them a crack of thunder split the sky and it started pouring.
Once they were in the elevator Helen took in the pale, thin form. She looked tired. Her eyes were blood shot from not sleeping. She coughed and her face grimaced in pain briefly before she slipped her mask back in place. Helen pressed the button for the infirmary level. "I want to check you over and get those sutures out."
Tegan nodded, she would be glad to wash her hair since the shower she'd taken earlier left her feeling only partially clean thanks to her still dirty hair.
"You didn't take your potassium tonight." Helen commented as they stepped out of the elevator.
"Don't need it."
"And you know this how?"
"Because I'm not sick." Tegan responded.
"I'd like to check you potassium levels and make that determination myself."
"Fine."
"Have a seat."
Tegan climbed on to the side of a stretcher while Helen pulled on her lab coat.
She looked at Tegan's back before listening to her lungs. The bruising was beginning to run down her back and fade some, but it was still tender to touch. When she was done Helen slipped the stethoscope back in her lab coat pocket. "The red mark on your chest is completely gone."
"Yeah, I know."
"I want to get chest films. I'm hearing some rales bilaterally which is indicative of –"
"Pneumonia," Tegan interrupted.
"Right." Helen nodded. She wasn't used to treating another medical doctor.
After taking x-rays of Tegan's lungs and running lab work Helen came back into the room with a suture removal kit. She held a thermometer in front of her mouth.
"What's that for?"
"It's a thermometer." Helen looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "I want to check your temperature."
"I know what it is." Tegan clarified. "Why?"
Helen slipped it into her mouth. "Because you have some fluid in your lower lobes and I want to see if you're running an elevated temp."
"I don't have a fever." Tegan talked around the thermometer as Helen parted her hair and started removing sutures.
"You're going to have a nice scar." Helen commented as she finished up. "It was a rather jagged cut."
Tegan removed the thermometer from her mouth. "Just another one to add to my collection."
Helen took the thermometer from between biomechanical fingers. "98.2"
"Told you. It's just from not breathing deep enough to keep them clear."
"It could easily turn into an infection. I want to keep an eye on it." She looked at Tegan's shoulder. "How's it feeling?"
"Not too bad." Tegan moved it gingerly. "I've got full range of motion."
"That's good. And the knee?"
"Perfectly fine."
"You need to eat."
"I will, tomorrow."
"No, now. We're going to the kitchen and finding something to eat right now. Your CO2 level is 15."
"It's been lower."
"Don't make me threaten you." Helen gave her a serious look of warning.
Tegan threw her hand in the air. "And my potassium level?"
"3.5 low side of normal."
"But still normal."
"Yes, but for how long?"
Tegan shrugged with her brow.