By the time everything was said and done, I was so mentally exhausted that I couldn't think. It took hours to get things settled. We convinced Adam to go to the ER; he was thankfully just fine, no major damage beyond the bruise that was blossoming on his neck. Someone had informed his supervisor of what happened. They set up a meeting to decide how to proceed. I had a few suspects in mind regarding who had called that one in.
Our own manager, Lisa, was called in to help us debrief. It was an exhausting process where we discussed what happened, going in circles with no real answers or resolution. I wasn't in the mood to rehash the events of the night, but that was protocol. In the end, it was decided that while we all could have done things differently, been better overall, the end result wasn't something we could have foreseen or avoided.
"It's been a stressful few weeks for you," Lisa told me later, in private. She called me to her office before I left for the morning. "You should take a few days off, give yourself a break from this place."
The idea of spending a week at home with nothing to do sounded terrible. "I can't take off like that. You know we are already short-staffed."
She frowned. If anyone knew how true that was, it would be her. "Maybe a change of scenery would be good, then. How would you like to work in the ER this week?" I had crossed trained to the ER months before, but we were chronically short-staffed so there hadn't been much opportunity to work down there. "I'm sure the ER manager would be happy to work something out. They've got a few cross-trained nurses down there." She looked at me expectantly, giving me the distinct feeling that this wasn't so much an offer as a command.
It wasn't such a bad idea. The fast pace of the ER would help keep my mind off things. So, I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Lisa looked pleased, nodding. "Great. I'll set it up. I think it'll be good for you, let the dust settled. Sometimes it's nice to have a different patient every few hours." She raised her eyebrows for a moment, letting me know that she had heard things. "It's very easy to get attached when you're taking care of the same patient's every day," she said. "But Robin, you have to be more careful." She wasn't mad about it; it was a simple statement of a fact. Yet, the warning was still there, and she was absolutely right.
I went home, feeling like death itself. All I wanted to do was crash in my bed, but once I got there it was a struggle to sleep. My mind kept playing the events of the night, over and over. I was worried about Guy; something was very wrong with him. It was like he wasn't here anymore, leaving an empty body. Nothing about him made sense.
Finally, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. When I woke up, my body was stiff, and my mouth was dry. I'd been dead to the world for over 12 hours. "Good morning, Rumpelstiltskin," Jackie joked when I emerged from my room. The sun was rising, and Jackie was making pancakes.
"I feel like I got hit by a truck," I mumbled, pouring a cup of coffee.
Jackie handed me a plate piled with pancakes and bacon. "You look like, too," she grinned. "You should probably check your phone. I heard it go off at least a dozen times."
That was never a good thing. I darted back to my room to find my phone, which was still in the pocket of my scrub pants that I left piled on the floor. The battery was dead. I plugged it in, deciding to deal with that after I ate.
Jackie was settled in at the table, going to town on her breakfast. "So, Lisa said you're gonna spend a few shifts downstairs," she said.
I nodded. "Yeah, it sounded like a good idea at the time." Now that I was adequately rested, I wasn't thrilled with the arrangement.
"Maybe it'll be good for you," Jackie said. "You know things have been… weird, lately. After yesterday, I wouldn't mind a break, either."
Shrugging, I started eating, not really sure what else to say. My mind was still in turmoil, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. From the bedroom, my phone rang. I ignored it, focusing on my food.
Jackie's eyes were burning a hole through my head. I looked up at her expectantly, eyebrows raise. "Oh, don't give me that look," she huffed. "You know exactly what I'm thinking." I kept looking at her, waiting. "How on earth are we going to solve the mystery of the black knight if he's under lock and key on the floor?"
The way she said it made it sound like a Nancy Drew novel. I only hoped this thing would have a happy ending, tied up in a tidy bow at the end of the book. At the moment, that was hard to imagine. "We're not going to do anything," I said firmly. "Except go to work, do our jobs, and come home. Getting involved is what started this mess in the first place."
We both knew it was the best course of action, but my heart wasn't in the declaration. The truth was impossible to ignore, just like my feelings. We needed to find a way to get to him. "I wonder who is on the floor tonight," Jackie said, ignoring my glare. "Did Bridget say if she was back tonight?"
I couldn't remember, but Jackie seemed to think she was. "I'll be busy in the ER," I said, shutting down whatever wild plan she was working on. I got up and put my plate in the sink. "I'm getting in the shower. Stop scheming." She just crossed her arms and rolled her eyes dramatically.
It was a quiet night in the ER, not what I was looking for. We treated a few broken bones, a couple of car accidents, a minor heart attack. Nothing too exciting. I was spending way too much time thinking about Guy. Finally, I admitted a new-onset seizure patient for testing and observation. I called up to the floor. "Can I speak to the nurse getting this new patient?"
"Oh, that's Bridget. Hold on." My heart skipped a beat while the other nurses covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Bridge, ER's on the phone!"
She picked up the other line. "Hello, Bridget speaking." She sounded exhausted
It was a weird relief hearing her voice. "Hey Bridget, it's Robin."
"Hey! Oh my gosh, I've been dying to talk to you about…" she trailed off, laughing a bit. "I guess you're calling for report, huh? I'm ready."
As I gave her a brief rundown of her new patient, my mind was spinning a plan. "Anyway, do you got any questions?"
She thought a second. "No, I think I'm good."
"Okay, I'll bring them on up, then." It wasn't something we normally did, bringing patients up ourselves, unless they were very unstable. But it was quiet enough down here and I needed a change of scenery.
There was a smile in her voice when she responded. "Alright, good." I wondered what was going on up there. I guess I was about to find out myself.
After I got up to the floor with the new patient and got them settled in, Bridget walked out to the hallway with me. She turned suddenly, pulling me into a quick hug, catching me off guard. "I'm glad you're alright after the other night," she said, loudly enough to be heard by anyone nearby. The hug was going on longer than I was comfortable with at this point. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "The guard is gone. I told him that the cafeteria was closing soon. You don't have much time." Then she let me go, moving on as if nothing happened.
I had no idea Bridget was so sneaky. She smiled and went back into her new patient's room, leaving me to sneak down the hall. Everyone was thoroughly preoccupied with their own tasks, so it seemed like they didn't notice when I slipped into Guy's unguarded room.
There he was. He looked peaceful, eyes closed with even breaths. I walked slowly over, afraid to disturb him, and sat down on the bed next to him. He didn't move at all. "Guy?" I whispered, grasping his hand gently. There was no response. I just needed to see his eyes, to know that he was okay.
He was so still, not moving at all aside from the subtle shift of his chest while breathing. I pulled his hand up, holding it close. It was warm, at least. Not corpse cold as I had almost expected. "Guy," I said again, a little louder, watching his face intently for any movement.
Those blue eyes snapped open startling fast, making me jump back a bit. Not far enough, not fast enough. The hand I had held close grabbed my neck as if a continuation of the ordeal with Adam. It was hard to make a sound, but I forced out a strangled cry, hoping it was enough.
The door burst open; the guard was back from the cafeteria. "What are you doing in here? Get away from him!" He didn't stop to take in the scene, moving faster than I would have thought possible. Suddenly, my neck was ripped from Guy's viselike grasp. A split second of grateful was followed by the feeling of flying as the guard threw me to the ground. There was a sickening crack – my head hitting the ground, or my ribs breaking from the pressure of the guard's knee on my chest? And then, only darkness.
Pain pulled me awake. I was lifted off the floor by some unseen force, gripped tightly but somehow carefully. The stuffy hospital scent was gone, replaced with something cleaner and more earthy. Maybe they got a new floor cleaner, I thought, taking a deep breath. It was too difficult to breathe in deeply while also being restrained by persons unknown. Twisting, I tried to pull away, making a mental note of the pain that pounded in my head with the sudden movement. The arms loosened enough for me to see who I was dealing with.
My heart jumped as soon as I saw those icy blue eyes. "Thank God!" Guy looked terrible, but at least his eyes weren't the vacant shells they had been the last I saw him. His stubble was rough against my palms as I couldn't stop myself from checking to make sure he was real. He was battered and bruised but seemed in one piece.
Other things slowly came into focus. Trees, leaves, birds chirping. We weren't in Kansas anymore. "Where are we?" I asked, wondering how on earth I had gotten outside. There was something different about the forest; it didn't look like any I had seen in our area. I couldn't put my finger on it, but things just felt… off. Guy was silent for a moment, thinking. That's when I realized what it was. The silence. It was heavy and oppressive, the most complete silence I had ever heard. No cars, trucks, trains, or people nearby. Just the rustle of leaves in the wind and the occasional bird calling out to the new day.
"We're in Sherwood Forest," Guy said, looking down at the leaf in his hand.
I was sure I misheard. "Excuse me? What did you say?"
He finally looked at me, his own confused expression no doubt mirroring my own. "We are in Sherwood Forest, in the year of our lord 1193." He grimaced, waiting for my reaction.
"And how do you know this?" I had so many questions, but that seemed like at least an easy one to answer, I hoped.
There was a rustling in the leaves; footsteps, coming quickly towards us. Guy looked around in alarm, his expression relaxing when he spotted the source of the disturbance. "That's how I know," he said, motioning behind me.
"What are you doing, Gis? I told to run." The man scowled before he noticed that Guy wasn't alone. "And who is this, exactly?" His expression seemed utterly confused.
I stood up quickly, realizing how it might look to a stranger for me to be curled up basically in Guy's lap. My face felt warm at the thought. "My name is Robin," I said, reaching down to help Guy up, too. I felt dizzy with the sudden change of position. Guy grunted as he stood, obviously feeling his own injuries, both new and old, it appeared.
The stranger scoffed. "Robin? That's not a girl's name!" He laughed, expecting Guy to join in. His smile dropped when he saw the scowl that Guy was shooting his way. "Well, never mind all that. You are still too close to camp, Gisbourne. It's not safe." He glanced behind him as if to demonstrate the dangers lurking in the woods.
"I'm not sure why you even care so much, Allan." Guy's voice was coarse and weary. He sounded utterly defeated.
His words seemed to irritate the other man, Allan, even more. "I'm beginning to ask myself the same question," he grumbled crossing his arms. "So, you're not going to even explain about the girl, then?"
Guy looked at me before answering. "She's the reason I'm still alive," he said. I guess it was true, in a way, since I found him initially.
"What, she's some kind of healer? Like Djaq?" Allan came closer, looking at me skeptically.
The intensity of his stare made me uncomfortable. Something about him made me think he was smarter than he let on; I didn't like it. But Guy seemed to put a measure of trust in this stranger. "Yeah, something like that," Guy said cryptically.
Allan walked in a circle, examining me like I was a cow up for auction. "She seems a bit weird, doesn't she?" he said. "Though I can't quite put my finger on it. What is she wearing? They look like nightclothes!" I looked down at my navy-blue scrubs; he had a point. They were almost as comfortable pajamas. It was one of the perks of the job. He shook his head in apparent disgust.
That was the final straw. "I can hear you, you know, I'm not deaf." I whirled on the rude man, putting him on full blast. "Are all of your friends as rude as this one?" I asked Guy, not taking my eye off the offender.
"We are not friends," both men said simultaneously.
With a roll of my eyes, I turned back to Guy. "Could have fooled me. He's almost as frustrating as you are. Almost." It was a futile attempt to make him smile. There was worry etched in his expression, a tightness around his mouth. A sudden feeling made me step closer. "What is it?" I asked quietly. He had felt it too, the shift, the pull. I raised my hand to reach out to him but stopped, afraid to even move.
It was closing in, the crushing feeling, making it difficult to breathe. Guy's eyes widened in alarm before he finally reached out, grabbing my arms. "Robin, please…" The desperation in his voice was heartbreaking. But I couldn't respond, couldn't move. Those frantic blue eyes were the last thing I saw before everything went black again.
"Robin! Robin, are you okay?" The lights were blindingly bright when I opened my eyes again. As the world came back into focus, I saw Bridget's concerned face looking down at me. Next to me was the guard, sprawled out on the ground and struggling to get up. "Oh, thank God," Bridget said, moving back as I sat up. She helped me stand, though I felt a little wobbly. As soon as I was on my feet, I dashed over to the trash can and threw up.
Someone else was there at my side, holding my hair while I was shoulders deep in the trash can. "Oh, hun. You're gonna have to go get checked out downstairs." Jackie. I wondered vaguely who called her. Every bone in my body hurt. My head was spinning.
"Yeah," I said, though it hurt to even talk. I looked over at Guy suddenly, remembering everything. I had just been talking to him, minutes before, in the forest. But we were both here, now. He just stared at the wall, blankly. Maybe he wasn't really there, after all. Jackie pushed me into a wheelchair that appeared behind me and rolled me away.