Hey! This is the second chapter I've posted most recently (one yesterday, one today... at least I think... days are blurring together X)
It's not as long, with a change of scene, which is always... nice?
Leave a comment if you can, and thanks for reading. I hope you're all doing well. :)
"You're sure you're okay?"
The voice pulled Chloe back from the thoughtless daze she'd been in, staring out the window of the cop car at the sluggish LA traffic.
She turned, focusing, snapping back to the now with a pang of dread and sorrow that left her feeling hollow inside. Her hands lay tightly twined in her bloodied lap, the knuckles pale.
"I'm fine, Trevor," she said, managing the smallest of smiles as she caught the cop's eye in the rearview mirror. "I really appreciate the lift."
The man's mouth curled in a hesitant smile. "Sure thing, Decker. You promise you'll let the docs check you out?"
Chloe tried to catch her sigh before it fell, and failed.
She got it. She was covered in blood. That was a hard thing to look past. She'd done her best to explain the situation when he pulled up, rushed out of the car, and tried to call for an ambulance on the spot. She'd tried her best not to flash him to prove she was fine. Her color, her responsiveness, and insistence had finally convinced him to let her sit in the back while he did his best impersonation of the guy from Baby Driver to get her to Cedars-Sinai.
"I promise," she finally said, turning to stare back out the window as they took the right onto Gracie Allen.
The flashing lights caught her eye first, then the mass of squad cars and ambulances. Ambulances outside of an emergency ward were normal.
But maybe not that many?
"What the hell?" she murmured, as Trevor guided the vehicle through the knot of cars. More lined the street on the opposite side, and she recognized Sarah, from her precinct, standing outside the entrance smoking.
The woman's eyes were wide. She looked seriously spooked.
"Yeah, heard it over the radio. Multiple homicide in the cafeteria. Sure you don't want to go to a different hospital?"
The dread was drowning.
Her heart hammered against her chest as she groped for the door handle.
Of course there wasn't one.
"I need to get out," she said, her voice rising. "Please open the door. I need to find Trixie."
Trevor parked and turned back to her. "Trixie?"
"Dan should have her. I need to make sure she's okay." Chloe slapped at the door. "Come on!"
The cop frowned, but climbed out and came around to open her door.
"She a friend of yours?" he asked, helping her to her feet.
Chloe stared at him, feeling a sudden urge to throw up.
"Beatrice, Trevor! My daughter!? I bring her to the precinct all the time!"
Trevor's frown deepened, and his eyes grew guarded.
"Maybe I should call someone," he said, looking towards the emergency ward doors. "They could help."
"You bought her that stuffed martian on her sixth birthday, Trevor!" she yelled, stabbing at him with a finger. "She loved that toy! Don't tell me you don't remember that!"
The man's expression shifted to pity. "Honey, I think something's really wrong. I'm going to walk you in."
"No!" she cried, shoving him back, away from her.
Shoving what his words suggested away.
"Why is this happening?!" she yelled, knowing that made her seem even more mad, but she couldn't help it.
Why didn't he remember Trixie?!
She broke into a run, pushed through the doors, and shoved her way past a line of people waiting at security.
The guard's eyes bulged at the sight of her bloodied gown, and he caught her as she tried to run through the metal detector.
"Whoa, lady - Jesus!" he snapped, holding her as she tried to push him away. Twisting, he yelled over his shoulder at the glass-lined check-in stations, "Yo! Need a stretcher out here!"
"No, I'm FINE!" she growled, struggling to free herself. "Let me go! I have to find my daughter!"
A man in nurses' scrubs pushed through the doors to the right of check-in a moment later, wheeling a thin stretcher with black straps dangling.
Chloe shook her head, seeing where this might go, and tried to drop out of the security guard's hold around her chest.
Coming through emergency had been a mistake! Dammit!
"I'm not hurt!" she cried, as the ploy failed, and the guard lifted her bodily and planted her on the stretcher.
"Secure her - she's going nuts!" the man yelled, trying to hold her still.
"Buddy!" the nurse yelled back, grasping the guards arm. "You're making this worse! Calm down and back up!"
"Do you need help?" came Trevor's voice, as the cop pushed his way through the line. "Chloe, you okay?"
Crap! She didn't have time for this!
The guard relaxed his hold, and Chloe took her chance, before anyone else could get involved.
She shoved the nurse back while apologizing under her breath, grabbed his badge, and rolled to her feet before launching herself at the doors and slapping the card against the reader.
They opened just as the group of three men rushed her - ducking, she scampered out of their reach then straightened to run down the corridor, past rooms with the wounded and sick, past nurses who jerked back in shock, past signs she really should have been reading to figure out how to get to her old room.
She had no idea where that was? And what the hell was she doing?! Making a scene and pushing to get committed!?
"Dammit!" she yelled, taking a left and running past an open area filled with computers and nurses and doctors, all of whom were watching her with stunned expressions.
"Ma'am! Stop!" someone cried. A thunder of footfalls followed - clearly she'd attracted a crowd, which was just perfect! How the hell was she supposed to get out of this?!
A sign finally caught her eye - Second Tower, with small icons for restrooms and food.
Cafeteria
She needed to find Dan - if Sarah was over there, maybe Ella too, they'd know where he was!
Chloe twisted, her bare feet sliding on the linoleum, and took the corridor, scanning the badge on the run to open the double doors. She pushed past a stretcher carrying an old woman, almost knocking the attendant over, and ran for the elevator as the doors started to slide shut.
She hopped inside, startling a man carrying flowers whose eyes were rimmed red.
Finally she stopped, checking the line of buttons with a quick nod.
And then she tried very hard to act normal.
This involved making no big deal out of the fact that she was breathing heavily, wearing a gown open in the back, saturated in dried blood from the waist down.
"Hi," she said, in between hard breaths, with a forced smile back at the man.
Eyes wide, he shuffled closer to the back of the elevator.
The music was awful.
Why didn't anyone remember Trixie?
A chime filled the space as they reached the next floor, and she gave the man another hopefully reassuring smile as the doors slowly opened.
To reveal the nurse whose badge she'd stolen, a large attendant who looked ready for anything, and Trevor, who stepped forward with hands raised, wearing the same pitying expression he'd given her before.
Chloe's shoulders slumped.
Perfect.