Jay waited patiently and after the third ring the phone is answered. He recognizes the voice of his wife's coworker and friend as she greeted him, "Chicago Medical, this is Ivy speaking, how-"
"Ivy, it's Jay," he interrupted, "Halstead," he fills in just in case she didn't recognize his name right away, "Is Erin around? I tried calling her and she didn't answer."
"She's stitching up a patient."
Jay nods and sighs, "Okay," he runs his hand through his hair and blows out, "if you would like, I can pass along a message to her for you."
Ivy tosses the magazine she'd been flipping through to the side in order to grab a pen and a sticky note, awaiting whatever message he wanted her to pass along. She tests out the pen, scribbling onto the piece of paper but no ink transferred to the page. She tosses it into the trash below the desk and grabbed for another pen, testing it out and smiling in approval when it worked.
"I'm ready," she taps the pen against her bottom lip and waits patiently for the message.
"Tell her I'm going to have to miss dinner tonight," he sighs in disappointment as Ivy jots down the message, "and tell her to call me back. If I don't answer, tell her to call Justin's number."
"Is there anything else?" Ivy sets the pen down.
"No, just," he sighs, dragging his hand down his face, "just have her call me back. It's not important. I just really want," he hesitates before correcting himself, "need to hear her voice."
"You got it Jay," Ivy smiled before the two of them parted ways and hung up the phones.
Halstead tucked his cell in his pocket. His tired eyes struggled to stay awake. They'd been toying with the idea that Ash had someone on the inside, possibly a cop, alerting him of their movements. It could ruin careers. It had ruined careers in the past so they needed to be sure about this.
"Do you truly believe Ash has an insider in the field?"
Jay shrugged, "Nothing concrete," he tucks his hands in his pockets, "it's just another angle that deserves to be investigated. Voight is keeping information inhouse for a reason. When Erin was a little girl, you didn't want a sketch artist in the precinct to sketch him just in case-"
"Yeah but that was out of protection. I had no proof to back up a hunch."
He turned around to stare at the body of Joel, stabbed four times with a four carved into his forehead. Jay pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. They were too late. Ash killed Joel and disposed of him at the location they had almost caught him at, the location where they believed someone tipped him off to aid in his escape. Shit. Jay bites down on his fist, angry, and kicks a trashcan over, "Damn it!"
No one dares to tell him to calm down because they're all just as worked up as him. He felt a hand on his shoulder, belonging to Al and he shrugs it off, not wanting or feeling like being bothered. He hadn't heard from Erin. Joel had been killed. And he was about to work himself into a frenzy if they didn't catch some type of break.
"…maybe we're going about this wrong," Al states the obvious. It's so clear they're doing something wrong if they haven't caught Ash yet, "maybe instead of focusing on who Ash is and catching him, we should focus on who he's working with and catching him."
"Or her," Justin adds, earning the raised brows of everyone in the room; he simply shrugs, "what, gender equality and all of that good stuff. It could be a she is all I'm saying."
Excusing himself from the conversation as they explore the possibility that maybe Ash is working with someone -him or her- it didn't matter, as long as they found out who and caught them. Jay answers his phone on the second ring, already having a feeling on who it was calling him, "Erin."
"Hey," she greeted and he could hear the hustle and bustle of the emergency room in the background, "Ivy said you can't make dinner tonight."
He scratches behind his head, swaying on his feet as he's forced to cancel on her again, "Yeah, I hate that I have to do this again but," he pauses, swallowing roughly, "Joel turned up."
And based on how he says that, Erin can assume he meant dead, Joel had turned up dead. They were too late and who knows what Ash was doing. He could be on the prowl for his next victim or he could be taking a break. It was no telling with him which made him all the more unpredictable and it's his unpredictability that made him dangerous. Jay notices that Erin hadn't said a word. All he could hear were the deep breaths escaping her mouth.
"Breathe," he whispers into the phone, "inhale, two, three, four, exhale, two, three, four," she abides by his instruction, breathing in and holding it before breathing out. The last thing she needed to do at work was freak out and panic in the middle of the hospital lobby where patients and staff could see her. She still had hours left of her shift. She needs to get her head straight.
She lowers her voice because the last thing she wants is for someone to overhear, "Something has to give," she pinches the bridge of her nose and squeezes her eyes shut, "the missing person report you sent out on him the other day got you guys nowhere. More needs to happen."
Jay agrees. No one disagrees with that; it's just they're stuck, Ash leaves the body and because the location he dumps the body isn't the location he kills his victims, there's little evidence left behind.
"We're going to start looking into his accomplice."
That perks her up a little, "You got a lead on that?"
"No, and if I'm being honest, we're grasping at straws here, we don't even truly know if he has one but it makes the most sense if he does. He's getting older, he needs help."
"…wouldn't his accomplice be around the same age as him?" Erin questions.
"Maybe," he shrugs, "or maybe not. We don't know yet but we're going to reach out to our CIs and have them keep their eyes and ears open." They've been avoiding this, wanting to have as little amount of people involved in their investigation as possible, but desperate times call for desperate measures and since Ash doesn't have one specific location in Chicago he uses as a dumping ground, they figure if their CIs stay on the lookout, keep their eyes and ears open then maybe they'll see something or hear something through their own connections.
Erin truly doesn't know how she feels about any of this. And she excuses herself through a group of nurses that have just clocked out -lucky for them- and dips into the on-call room. She glances around to make sure it's empty before shutting the door behind her and taking a seat. She doesn't care that it's dark in the room, choosing not to turn on the light because the absolute, total darkness actually does something to calm her nerves, "What are you thinking Erin?"
"Honestly," she puts the phone on speaker and sits it beside her to rest her face in her hands, "I don't know. My thoughts are all over the place. Joel's dead. Ash is still free. He may have an accomplice. No one knows anything and at this rate, no one ever will."
"Hey," his voice nudges her gently, "you can't lose faith, the second you do-"
"I know Jay, I know," she runs her hands up her face and pulls at the strands of her hair. Her wedding band gets caught in a strand and she yanks, uncaring that it pulls the piece out of her head.
"I don't know when I'm going to be home."
"I know. I figured. And I'm not going to be home anytime soon either."
"I'm sorry about dinner."
"It's really okay Jay. It's not like you cancelled for no reason. Someone died."
Jay could hear Rixton calling his name and he holds up a finger to signal for him to hold on, "Are you going to be alright? Are you going to be able to finish the rest of your shift?"
"Yeah," she uses the back of her hand to wipe her eyes, "I'll be fine."
"Think happy thoughts and memories."
She scoffs, "Yeah, that's easier said than done."
"I have to go Er, they're calling for me. I love you. Call me later."
"I love-" and before she can finish, he hangs up. She stares down at the screen of her phone. Call ended. And before she can shove her phone into the pocket of her scrubs, it vibrates in her hand and she sees a text from him, a smiley face emoji with the words I love you so much typed out beside the emoji. She smiles and she pockets her phone more gently than she would have if she didn't get the text. Erin stands just as a doctor comes into the room, it's approaching the wee hours of the night and the staff is low, she's going to be on her feet for hours so she should have appreciated the reprieve during the short time she's had it.
Erin found herself not wanting to think about Joel. She can't afford the distraction right now and thinking about him wasn't going to bring him back. She barely knew him, she only met him maybe once and that was for like five minutes. She walked down the nearly empty halls, avoiding eye contact with patients because it was them that would make her think about him. She makes it back to the lobby and she eyes the gift shop, knowing in another two hours, Annie will be closing up and clocking out. She moves so slowly towards it, dragging her feet as if she was checked out mentally and as Annie serviced the line of people at her cash register, Erin browsed the selection of items offered in the store. She hears Annie, sociable Annie cracking jokes and putting smiles onto the faces of people worried about their loved ones and Erin couldn't help but to remember the first time Annie has done that for her, put a smile on her face that is.
Erin stood outside the new school; she was still getting used to being a middle schooler. It wasn't the first day of school, she's been attending for three months, but every time she was dropped outside the school building, it always felt like the first day. She takes a deep breath, nerves growing and she looks down at her hand. Scar is no longer hidden behind the glove she'd been wearing for over a year. She's paranoid; she thinks when people look at her, they're really looking at the scar. She rushes into the building, books wrapped in her arms and flushed against her chest. She goes to her assigned locker, opening it up and putting the books inside that she doesn't need for her first period class. She shuts the locker and twists the knob to ensure its locked.
She turns, rushing down the hall, hair held back and out of her face by a headband when she feels the dull pain. Her feet abruptly come to a stop and she shuts her eyes and inhales a deep breath to ease the pain. It'll pass. The pain always passes. She just needs to get over the initial sting. It takes a minute and when the pain passes, the weakness takes over and her book drops from her grip and slams against the floor. She wiggles her fingers, trying to get feeling back into her hand.
Other students are rushing through the hallway, trying to make it to class before they're late. The crowd of pre-teens and teenagers makes it difficult to reach down and grab it without someone bumping into her or stepping on her hand. The last thing she needs is to reinjure her bad hand or injure her good one. She kicks her book over to the side, trying to get it out of the way before someone steps on it. And by the time it hits the wall and she bends over to pick it up, somebody already beats her to the punch. Her book is quickly lifted and held out for her to grab, "Um," she clears her throat, throwing her bad hand behind her back and taking her book with her good one, "thank you." Erin brings the book to rest against her chest, arm holding it up to ensure she didn't drop it again. She wouldn't get lucky twice.
"You're welcome," the kind girl replies; she looks familiar, they probably have a class together but because Erin keeps to herself, she doesn't know that for sure, "I'm Annie," she extends her hand. And Erin stares at it because to shake it means to bring her bad hand from behind her back.
Erin takes a deep breath, gathering as much bravery as she can before revealing her hand and clasping it around Annie's as they shake, "I'm Erin. It's nice to meet you."
"You look familiar. Are you in my first period class?"
"What's your first class?"
"…pre-algebra."
"With Mr. Reynolds?" Erin asks. And Annie nods. They're in the same class. That's where Erin has seen her before, they have math together.
"Want to walk to class together?"
Erin meets her eyes and shrugs, "You don't have to."
"Honestly I want to," Annie loops her arm through Erin's arm, "and besides, who's going to pick up your book if you drop it again?"
And that joke earned a smile. One in the past, and one in the present as the stretching of her lips brings Erin back to present day. She sees Annie still checking people out, the line growing longer since people are trying to buy flowers, cards and stuffed animals before the store closes. If she waits any longer for Annie, she would never be able to get back to work. She hangs onto the memory, the one that made her smile as she ventures out of the store. Her eyes scan her surroundings and besides the few people in the waiting room and Ivy checking patients in at the receptionist desk, it wasn't much going on. The ambulance bay was closed and quiet with no sirens heard in the distance and no paramedics rushing patients in on a gurney. Erin immediately wipes that acknowledgement from her mind because she doesn't want to jinx her night.
It's dark outside. The sun had gone down hours ago leaving nothing but freezing temperatures, snow flurries and wind chill. She's happy to be inside and not out. Erin hears Ivy wrap up checking in the last patient and directing him towards the waiting room to take a seat, informing him that dire emergencies are being serviced first and he'll be seen once life and death emergencies are handled. So, if a patient comes in on the ambulance, that patient on the ambulance will have to be seen before him. It isn't first come, first serve; it's triage. He gets it. Apparently, it's not his first time at the hospital. Since there are no red, orange or yellow tags, she can grab a patient with a green, not urgent tag. Erin leans against the counter of the receptionist desk, reaching over to grab a clipboard that one of the patients in the waiting room had filled out. A busted lip and a cut above the eye, apparently from a bar fight, Erin shuts her eyes and prays that he isn't drunk. She brings the clipboard to her chest, prepared to walk to the waiting room and call for the patient when Ivy reaches out a hand to stop her, "Hey, you okay? You look a bit off."
While Erin didn't know Ivy as long as she's known Annie, she still considers her a friend, a childhood friend because she met her in high school. Erin sits the clipboard down and leans close, whispering because she doesn't want other patients to hear, "They found Joel."
Ivy swallows nervously, "…by the look on your face, I'm going to assume that's a bad thing."
"They found his body," Erin clarifies. Ivy pinches the bridge of her nose and looks down; she doesn't know what to say. She never knows what to say in situations like this.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"…besides catch Ash?" Erin cracks and the two of them smile softly, "no, I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Ivy reaches to grab Erin's hand, uncaring that it was her injured one, Erin always appreciated that. She found it refreshing when people didn't make a big deal or fuss over the welted and raised scar going down the center and the back of her hand.
"I'm sure. As long as I keep working, I'll be fine." Erin reaches for the clipboard again.
And Ivy walks around the desk, "Alright, well you know where to find me if you need me," she holds eye contact with her longtime friend, "and I mean it, you know I'm a good ear to listen."
"You've always been," Erin gives her a small smile and nods her head affirmatively, "I mean it Ivy, you've always listened to my problems and never complained, you've helped me a lot since I was younger and I'll never forget that."
Ivy blows her a kiss just as the phone rang. She rolls her eyes, pulling a chuckle out of Erin because she hates answering the phone, it's her least favorite part of the job. She goes to answer it, and Erin watches her, silently listening as she chipperly instructs the caller that she's unable to confirm or deny the status of a patient due to HIPAA. Erin moves closer to the desk, holding the clipboard securely to her chest as the memory of her first-time meeting Ivy plays through her mind.
It's her first day of high school. Justin had already graduated and was currently in the police academy. She had to face this alone. Not completely alone because Annie is walking with her to school, but if she were to be honest, she'd rather have her brother here. It's something about high school that has her nerves through the roof. It's different than middle school, it's the exact opposite of elementary. She was a freshman and she was nervous as hell because of it.
A bunch of new faces, new names, new courses, new layout of the school, new everything. It was a lot to keep up with and to make matters worse, she didn't have one class with Annie. Their schedules were opposites, Erin started with math and Annie started with English, Erin's last class of the day was English and Annie's last class of the day was math. Two different levels of math because Erin seemed to be pretty decent with numbers and had tested into an advanced level math course whereas Annie was in the standard one for her grade level.
By the time lunch rolled around, Erin had read the text on her phone from Annie. They had different lunch times as well. High school sucks. Being here made her appreciate middle school more. She wishes she could go back, or maybe get home-schooled. She's not that lucky. She brought her lunch, a packed lunch made for her by her dad. It was a tradition that her mother started, making a nice packed lunch for the first day of school, the only year it didn't happen was the year her mother died. Everyone too hurt and upset to remember. Erin finds a seat in the cafeteria, feeling even more alone when she takes a seat at the empty table while all the other ones fill around her, friends and classmates finding each other, eating together and laughing.
She unpacks her lunch, hoping that if she eats quickly, she can leave the cafeteria and maybe go hang out by the bleachers until it's time to go back to class. She practically inhales one half of her turkey sandwich, jaw filled and mouth so stuffed that it makes it difficult to chew.
"If you keep eating like that, you're going to choke." She hears an unfamiliar voice that matches the face of someone she has never met. Erin takes time to chew as the girl approaches, silently asking to sit with her and when Erin nods apprehensively, the girl takes a seat, "Sorry if I'm invading your space but there's not many other seats left and the ones that are left are nearly filled with people that know each other. It'd be awkward."
Erin nods because she fully agrees. She grabs a napkin that her dad put in her lunch bag and dabs the corners of her mouth, "I'm Erin, freshman."
"Oh shit, sorry I'm rude," the girl laughs and blushes, "I'm Ivy, junior. It's nice meeting you."
"You too."
Ivy eats in silence. Erin does too. Awkward silence between the two of them as they try to figure out what to even talk about, a freshman and a junior, what do they even have in common?
"What happened there?" Ivy nods towards Erin's hand that's holding the other half of her sandwich. She's decided to fill the silence with asking questions, getting to know the girl.
"Here," Erin looks from her hand to Ivy and then back again.
"Yeah," Ivy answers, observing the look on Erin's face and suddenly feeling as if she's overstepping, "you don't have to answer that, sorry if it's personal, I'm just trying to make this lunch as little awkward as possible," she chuckles nervously.
"No," Erin shakes her head, "no," she sits her sandwich back down, suddenly losing her appetite, "it's okay," it's not okay but she's not going to tell a stranger that, "it's actually on both sides," she flips her hand over and opens it to reveal her palm, "I got hurt when I was younger," she doesn't give details, she never gives details; the people that know are limited and she likes to keep it that way, "there's some permanent damage but" Erin shrugs because she's already said too much, "yeah, it's healed but the scar is permanent."
She moves her hand to her lap to hide it, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the damn scar on her hand when Ivy surprises her by smiling and reaching her hand across the table, gesturing for Erin to reveal her hand and when Erin does, Ivy takes another look and for some reason, she doesn't tease her, doesn't look at it as if it's disgusting, she simply smiles and says, "that looks cool as shit. And you know what they say about scars, right?"
She shakes her head because she doesn't, she honestly doesn't know what's said about scars.
"It's said that scars are a warrior's beauty marks," Ivy gives her a kind smile and then goes back to silently eating her lunch, leaving Erin staring down at her hand with much to ponder.
Erin blinks out of the memory, a small smile on her lips as she recalled the start of her and Ivy's friendship. Like she had gotten Annie a job at the hospital, she had gotten Ivy one too. Ivy was a few years older than her but that didn't stop her from befriending her when she needed a friend the most. Ivy had spent nights over her house as a kid and she always proved to be a good ear to listen when Erin broke down about her mother's death and when Erin needed to vent about her dad and his obsession with Ash's case. Erin gets back to work and soon enough, she's ripping the gloves off her hands and tossing them into the waste bin before walking over to Ivy, leaning her arms against the high receptionist desk, "105-A can be prepared for discharge."
"Got it," Ivy salutes. Erin prepares to go to the waiting room to assist the next patient when Ivy adds, "oh and Jay called again, says he probably won't be home until the late morning."
She frowns upon hearing that. He's cancelled on her every day for the past week. And now he won't be home until the late morning, last time he wasn't home until ten in the morning, how late will he be this time? She withdraws her cell and turns the volume on, noticing two missed calls from him. She'll call him back on her break when she actually has time to talk; she tucks her cell back into the pocket of her nursing scrubs and heads into the waiting room to collect the next patient that needs to be assessed either for stitches or to see a doctor. Maybe she'll see if Vanessa, the newly assigned officer her dad replaced Sean with is interested in dinner, it'll give Erin the opportunity to get to know her more, and snoop a bit on any information she may know about the case that hadn't been passed along to her. Maybe the reasoning behind the late hours her family and Intelligence has been pulling? Besides Erin knows majority of the officers and detectives in District 21, Vanessa is new and she doesn't know her that well. She barely knows her at all considering the first time they met was when she was assigned to watch and protect Voight's kid.
Vanessa sits in the waiting room, flipping through one of the pamphlets stacked up on the table, that specific pamphlet discusses the different degrees of burns, first through third. Vanessa finds herself always sitting there, babysitting her as she rushes in and out of the room to check patient after patient. Erin had thought her sole responsibility would be sitting in front of her home, but apparently if that were the case, it changed. Like Sean, she was to follow her. Erin popped into the waiting room and approached the woman, smiling cautiously as she stood in front of her, "Hey, do you have any plans for dinner? Jay cancelled on me and I figured if you were going to follow me to get food, you might as well enjoy it with me."
Vanessa is obviously caught off guard. She shuts the magazine she's been flipping through, "Um, I don't know," she looks down at her watch, "it's getting pretty late. What will be open?"
"It's Chicago," Erin reminds, rolling her eyes in good humor, "what wouldn't be open?" And besides it's not that late. Maybe it's too late for dinner but Erin is working overnight so dinner times change when she's working such an irregular shift.
"Yeah," Vanessa smiles, shoulders loosening up, "I guess you're right," she pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and sits up straight, "okay, I'm down."
"Cool," Erin nods eagerly, rubbing her hands together, "I have a few more things I have to do but, in a few minutes, you can pull the car around and I'll meet you in the front of the hospital."
Erin backs out of the waiting room when a gurney rushes in. Based on the shouting of the paramedics, the incoming patient went into cardiac arrest. She's running to the gurney, alongside an ER doctor and she follows his orders, pushing the gurney, hooking the patient up to machines, checking and shouting vitals and doing as she's told as the patient is assessed. Another nurse stays behind to talk with the patient's wife, requesting background information on his allergies, medications, past health conditions and anything else they need to know to care for him. Erin draws blood. Erin hooks him up to oxygen. She stands by and continues to do what's requested of her by the doctor as he asks the patient questions about his pain.
It takes an hour to stabilize the patient and Erin feels horrible for holding Vanessa up. She sees her in the waiting room, waiting patiently, "Sorry, there was an emergency," she's nearly out of breath and she flops in the empty seat next to Vanessa to collect it, "I'm starving. Want to bring the car around while I head to my locker and grab my coat and purse?" Vanessa nods and rises to her feet.
She watches her guard walk away, giving her a head start before standing and walking over to Ivy, who is now joined by Annie, "Sorry to interrupt," she excuses herself and sets the clipboard behind the receptionist desk, "I'm heading to dinner with Vanessa. Want anything?"
"I'll pass, I just clocked out, I'm about to head home," Annie shrugs her shoulders and zips up her coat. Lucky her. The giftshop is closed so Annie serves no further purpose right now.
Erin turns to Ivy, quirking a brow and waiting for her answer, "Um," her attention is drawn to her phone as her fingers fly across the screen, texting, "it depends. What are you guys getting?"
"…probably something simple and easy, maybe subs or something," Erin shrugs because that's the one thing she didn't discuss with Vanessa, "I sent Vanessa to bring the car around. I need to go grab my coat and wallet. I don't want to keep her waiting too long. If you want something, just text me your order," Ivy salutes again and resumes texting on her phone as Erin rushes down the hallway, pressing the down elevator button to wait. She taps her foot and checks her watch, realizing that at least ten minutes had passed and if she wanted to have enough time to sit and eat, she needed to leave soon. She gets to her locker, grabbing her coat and purse and shuts the locker door behind her as she walks out, choosing to take the stairs this time because the elevator is either always crowded or takes forever. It was cold outside; she didn't want Vanessa waiting too long.
She stands in the lobby of the hospital, staring out the window to wait for the sight of Vanessa's car. She has her hands tucked in the pockets of her coat and taps her foot impatiently as her stomach continues to growl. Ivy walks up to her side. Annie had already left but Ivy wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour, "I decided to just get something to eat at the cafeteria."
"Alright, it's your funeral," Erin jokes and her longtime friend elbows her in the side.
"Shouldn't you be leaving? Your lunch break is going to fly by if you don't get a move on it."
"I'm waiting for Vanessa; I don't see her car."
"How do you expect to see her car from right here? All you'll see are ambulances."
Erin looks at Ivy. She makes a good point; it was just cold outside and she didn't want to be out there for long. She pulls her hood over her head and whispers, "Wish me luck. If I don't text you in ten minutes, assume I froze to death," Ivy laughs at her dramatic friend as she runs out of the automatic doors of the emergency room. Erin shivers the second the cold seeped into her bones, her jaw shivering as she swivels around in search of the familiar unmarked cop car. She spots the car, parked to the side and she squints to read the license plate. Bingo. She realizes Vanessa couldn't pull closer because this lot is reserved for ambulances.
She would run to the car but there's ice on the ground and she doesn't want to risk slipping and falling on her ass. Instead, she walks carefully, envisioning herself warming up with the heat she knows Vanessa has blasting in the car. She sees her. She looks uncomfortable, probably because of the cold Erin thinks, and she looks exhausted which is understandable considering it's late and Erin has a few hours left of shift which means Vanessa has a few hours left of her shift. She doesn't know if Vanessa has a family, if she's married, has kids, but Erin kind of feels bad for keeping her away from the people that she loves. If only to get her back to her family, Erin hoped her dad was close to catching Ash. She shivers, either because of the cold or because she's thinking about him.
Erin looks over her shoulder to see another ambulance pulling into the bay, jumping out once the ambulance is parked and still running, the paramedic throws open the doors and assists his partner in pulling out the gurney. She hears their words, gunshot victim, it's never a night without a plethora of gunshot victims being wheeled into the emergency room. She looks back at Vanessa, kind of wishing she could bring the car at least a little closer, Erin would vouch for her if someone tried to write her a ticket. The tip of her nose grows cold and freezing and her lips start to dry from the dropping temperature. As she grows closer to the car, not taking her eyes off of Vanessa, she finds the speed of her steps slowing down. Now that Erin is getting closer to the car, she can see Vanessa better. She looks asleep. She's sitting in the driver's seat, eyes closed but head tilted slightly to the side. She cautiously approaches the car and when she gets to the driver's side, she knocks on the window, "Vanessa," she calls out, hoping she's asleep. But Erin knew deep down that wasn't the case. It wouldn't make sense. Why would Vanessa fall asleep right here, right now?
She knocks against the window again, this time much harder, "Vanessa!" No answer. Erin's heart races faster, palpitating and tempted to beat out of her chest, "No," she reaches down to grab the handle of the door and surprisingly finds it unlocked, opening with one pull and jaw dropping the second Vanessa's body tilts forward. Vanessa sat, strapped in her seat belt, the front of her white coat stained in blood. Erin covered her mouth to suppress a scream as she reached her hand inside to check for a pulse. She feels one; it's weak but it's there.
Erin backs away slowly before turning and taking off towards the hospital doors, screaming for help, for a gurney, for assistance before that weak pulse completely disappeared.