A plain white van pulled into the hospital parking lot. The woman
behind the wheel slid the car into a slot near Stegman's vandalized Jag and
got out. "I'll be right back," Caroline called as she headed for the
hospital door, shaking her head as she passed Stegman's car.
She glanced around as she reached the entrance to the hospital to see if Michael and the girls might have decided to wait outside but there was no sign of them. 'I hope they didn't have to try to find another way home,' She thought as she stepped towards the sliding doors, stopping in puzzlement when they didn't budge at her approach.
"Tell me Jesse didn't decide to close down the hospital so he could go to supper," Caroline shook her head as he approached the door and tried to peer through the glass. After some of the harebrained ideas of Jesse's that his aunt had mentioned.... No, there he was frantically trying to prevent one of the doctors from running around the lobby screaming hysterically. She shook her head not sure she wanted to know what that was about as she rapped on the door.
Dr. James turned from his attempts to stop Brenda from screaming something he didn't quite understand about Dr. Stegman and Mona Klingerman when he heard the rapping. His brow furrowed as he tried to place the woman who was knocking and looking rather impatient. He knew he had seen her before but...
"Dr. James!" Caroline called as she waved for him to come over to the door.
"Yes?" Jesse said as he approached still trying to figure out who the woman was.
Caroline shook her head. He was really so clueless that it was almost funny. "I'm Ms. Stevens." Still no clue. "I catered the breakfast on Employee Relations you were at this morning. I'm from your aunt's school!" She let out a soft sigh as she finally saw comprehension on his face. "I'm here to pick up Professor Jensen and some of the students.
Have you seen them?"
A student. That rung a vague bell and Dr. James glanced around the lobby trying to recall. He shook his head as he finally remembered the girl running in. She had been trying to tell him something but what was it? Brenda had came in ranting about her sudden realization that Steg was an ass just then and what the girl had said had slipped his mind. He was sure it was nothing important, though.
"Dr. James!" Caroline called, snapping him back to the situation at hand. "Have you seen them?" Honestly, why in the world was it taking so long for him to answer a simple yes or no question.
"I vaguely recall a girl from the school," Jesse said as he looked around once more but saw no sign of the girl in "Now what was her name? I think it started with an S maybe?"
"Susan." Caroline shook her head. "Open the door and let me in.
I'll find them myself!"
"Open the...." Jesse frowned as he finally noticed that the doors hadn't budged the entire time they had been standing there talking. Odd.
Those doors usually opened for no reason whatsoever. "I suppose I need to file a maintance order with Johnny."
"I hope you have another way for your employees to leave if you're going to do that." Caroline shook her head once again as she glanced around. There had to be another way into the hospital. Maybe the ER?
"Wait a minute. I can fix this." Jesse fumbled around in his jacket pocket. Now where did he put that wand?
Caroline turned, not really paying attention to what Jesse was doing, as she heard approaching footsteps. She tensed for a second at the sight of the two men before placing them as a couple of the paramedics that she had seen around town.
"Hey," Danny called as he headed towards the front door. "What's going on? We've got an amputation and the ER doors are locked tight!"
Before Caroline could even process this new information she suddenly realized what Jesse was doing. Her eyes widened as she saw the wand in his hand. "Get down!" she cried as she drug Ollie and Danny safely away from the door just as they heard a dull thud. Caroline risked stealing a peek to see what in the world had happened just in time to catch a bright red beam shooting over Otto's head before bouncing off a wall and shooting towards the ER. Nurse Von Trier had just stepped out of the ER to report the problem with the doors when the beam shot towards her, causing her to faint.
"I hope your insurance covers that." Caroline shook her head as they heard continued crashing noises as the beam bounced it's way through the hospital. As she listened, what the two paramedics had said about the ER doors started to sink in. One set of doors being jammed could be put down to Jesse cutting building maintence again or Johnny B. Goode amusing himself avoiding work for the umpteenth day in a row. Two sets of doors though and especially the heavily trafficked ER doors.... She turned and headed back towards the van.... "Blinky!"
"Yes, Missus?" A small creature with big ears and eyes and clad in a miniature caterer's outfit slipped out of the van and hurried over to her.
"Blinky, there's something odd going on in the hospital. Could you see if you could get in and...." As she talked to her little elven assistant, Caroline was digging under the seat for her purse and cell phone.
"Right away, Missus." the elf disappeared with a pop as Caroline headed for the doors once more.
"Here, you can use this glue." Caroline pressed a small bottle into Danny's hands as she pulled out the cell phone and started to dial frowning a moment later as all she got was static. "You probably don't want to bring an amputation here with Dr. James on the loose with a wand anyway. Poor Professor Flakey was never a well man after...."
Just then the elf reappeared, causing Ollie and Danny to jump back in surprise at the sight.
"Missus, there's something bad, nasty-bad, in there, Missus!"
Blinky looked back at the hospital doors nervously as if the thing she had encountered might be right behind her. "Missus, the little misses and the professor...."
"Blinky, could you go back to the school and get some of the teachers?" Caroline glanced at the door once more with a frown. Blinky was one of the steadiest elves she knew and whatever was going on in there had scared her to death. That couldn't be good. As the elf vanished once more, she looked around the parking lot. There had to be something to get those doors open and... Her eyes fell on Stegman's car and she headed towards it with a determined look. That might work nicely if....
"Give me a hand!" She called to Ollie and Danny, as she fumbled around inside the car, finally getting it out of park. The two paramedics looked at each other for a moment before heading over and helping her push the car out of its space and towards the door. This wasn't the strangest thing they had ever seen although it was getting up there.
A minute later, Caroline squeezed through the shattered door and around Stegman's car to face Dr. James. "Professor Jensen and the girls,
where did you last see them?" She demanded.
Jesse looked from her to the now broken door with a distracted air.
Brenda had fled as soon as the car had stopped moving and was now running around screaming in the parking lot. That just couldn't be good for hospital business.
"Dr. James!" Caroline spoke louder, snapping him back to attention.
"Oh, I think the girl, Susan, did you say, said something about the basement but..." Now exactly what had that girl been trying to tell him?
He had a sneaking suspicion now that he should have listened.
Caroline shook her head as she headed for the stairs and started down only to come racing back a several minutes later.
"Were you aware you have a large energy field in your basement?"
She said as she glared at Jesse. "And part of the ceiling has collapsed?"
"It has? Really?" Jesse said before going into his usual cover-up mode when anything out of the ordinary happened at Kingdom Hospital. "Now,
I'm sure that the ceiling just looks like it's collapsed. I understand Johnny's doing some routine maintence and...."
Just then the ground beneath their feet trembled violently and a moment later Ollie appeared in the shattered door.
"Hey, the E from your emergency sign just fell off the building and hit our ambulance!"
"Dr. James," Caroline said with a stern look at him. "There is a large energy field in your basement, part of your basement ceiling has collapsed and I'm surprised the building is still level. And now your hospital seems to be shaking uncontrollably! I think it's time to order an evacuation!"
She glanced around as she reached the entrance to the hospital to see if Michael and the girls might have decided to wait outside but there was no sign of them. 'I hope they didn't have to try to find another way home,' She thought as she stepped towards the sliding doors, stopping in puzzlement when they didn't budge at her approach.
"Tell me Jesse didn't decide to close down the hospital so he could go to supper," Caroline shook her head as he approached the door and tried to peer through the glass. After some of the harebrained ideas of Jesse's that his aunt had mentioned.... No, there he was frantically trying to prevent one of the doctors from running around the lobby screaming hysterically. She shook her head not sure she wanted to know what that was about as she rapped on the door.
Dr. James turned from his attempts to stop Brenda from screaming something he didn't quite understand about Dr. Stegman and Mona Klingerman when he heard the rapping. His brow furrowed as he tried to place the woman who was knocking and looking rather impatient. He knew he had seen her before but...
"Dr. James!" Caroline called as she waved for him to come over to the door.
"Yes?" Jesse said as he approached still trying to figure out who the woman was.
Caroline shook her head. He was really so clueless that it was almost funny. "I'm Ms. Stevens." Still no clue. "I catered the breakfast on Employee Relations you were at this morning. I'm from your aunt's school!" She let out a soft sigh as she finally saw comprehension on his face. "I'm here to pick up Professor Jensen and some of the students.
Have you seen them?"
A student. That rung a vague bell and Dr. James glanced around the lobby trying to recall. He shook his head as he finally remembered the girl running in. She had been trying to tell him something but what was it? Brenda had came in ranting about her sudden realization that Steg was an ass just then and what the girl had said had slipped his mind. He was sure it was nothing important, though.
"Dr. James!" Caroline called, snapping him back to the situation at hand. "Have you seen them?" Honestly, why in the world was it taking so long for him to answer a simple yes or no question.
"I vaguely recall a girl from the school," Jesse said as he looked around once more but saw no sign of the girl in "Now what was her name? I think it started with an S maybe?"
"Susan." Caroline shook her head. "Open the door and let me in.
I'll find them myself!"
"Open the...." Jesse frowned as he finally noticed that the doors hadn't budged the entire time they had been standing there talking. Odd.
Those doors usually opened for no reason whatsoever. "I suppose I need to file a maintance order with Johnny."
"I hope you have another way for your employees to leave if you're going to do that." Caroline shook her head once again as she glanced around. There had to be another way into the hospital. Maybe the ER?
"Wait a minute. I can fix this." Jesse fumbled around in his jacket pocket. Now where did he put that wand?
Caroline turned, not really paying attention to what Jesse was doing, as she heard approaching footsteps. She tensed for a second at the sight of the two men before placing them as a couple of the paramedics that she had seen around town.
"Hey," Danny called as he headed towards the front door. "What's going on? We've got an amputation and the ER doors are locked tight!"
Before Caroline could even process this new information she suddenly realized what Jesse was doing. Her eyes widened as she saw the wand in his hand. "Get down!" she cried as she drug Ollie and Danny safely away from the door just as they heard a dull thud. Caroline risked stealing a peek to see what in the world had happened just in time to catch a bright red beam shooting over Otto's head before bouncing off a wall and shooting towards the ER. Nurse Von Trier had just stepped out of the ER to report the problem with the doors when the beam shot towards her, causing her to faint.
"I hope your insurance covers that." Caroline shook her head as they heard continued crashing noises as the beam bounced it's way through the hospital. As she listened, what the two paramedics had said about the ER doors started to sink in. One set of doors being jammed could be put down to Jesse cutting building maintence again or Johnny B. Goode amusing himself avoiding work for the umpteenth day in a row. Two sets of doors though and especially the heavily trafficked ER doors.... She turned and headed back towards the van.... "Blinky!"
"Yes, Missus?" A small creature with big ears and eyes and clad in a miniature caterer's outfit slipped out of the van and hurried over to her.
"Blinky, there's something odd going on in the hospital. Could you see if you could get in and...." As she talked to her little elven assistant, Caroline was digging under the seat for her purse and cell phone.
"Right away, Missus." the elf disappeared with a pop as Caroline headed for the doors once more.
"Here, you can use this glue." Caroline pressed a small bottle into Danny's hands as she pulled out the cell phone and started to dial frowning a moment later as all she got was static. "You probably don't want to bring an amputation here with Dr. James on the loose with a wand anyway. Poor Professor Flakey was never a well man after...."
Just then the elf reappeared, causing Ollie and Danny to jump back in surprise at the sight.
"Missus, there's something bad, nasty-bad, in there, Missus!"
Blinky looked back at the hospital doors nervously as if the thing she had encountered might be right behind her. "Missus, the little misses and the professor...."
"Blinky, could you go back to the school and get some of the teachers?" Caroline glanced at the door once more with a frown. Blinky was one of the steadiest elves she knew and whatever was going on in there had scared her to death. That couldn't be good. As the elf vanished once more, she looked around the parking lot. There had to be something to get those doors open and... Her eyes fell on Stegman's car and she headed towards it with a determined look. That might work nicely if....
"Give me a hand!" She called to Ollie and Danny, as she fumbled around inside the car, finally getting it out of park. The two paramedics looked at each other for a moment before heading over and helping her push the car out of its space and towards the door. This wasn't the strangest thing they had ever seen although it was getting up there.
A minute later, Caroline squeezed through the shattered door and around Stegman's car to face Dr. James. "Professor Jensen and the girls,
where did you last see them?" She demanded.
Jesse looked from her to the now broken door with a distracted air.
Brenda had fled as soon as the car had stopped moving and was now running around screaming in the parking lot. That just couldn't be good for hospital business.
"Dr. James!" Caroline spoke louder, snapping him back to attention.
"Oh, I think the girl, Susan, did you say, said something about the basement but..." Now exactly what had that girl been trying to tell him?
He had a sneaking suspicion now that he should have listened.
Caroline shook her head as she headed for the stairs and started down only to come racing back a several minutes later.
"Were you aware you have a large energy field in your basement?"
She said as she glared at Jesse. "And part of the ceiling has collapsed?"
"It has? Really?" Jesse said before going into his usual cover-up mode when anything out of the ordinary happened at Kingdom Hospital. "Now,
I'm sure that the ceiling just looks like it's collapsed. I understand Johnny's doing some routine maintence and...."
Just then the ground beneath their feet trembled violently and a moment later Ollie appeared in the shattered door.
"Hey, the E from your emergency sign just fell off the building and hit our ambulance!"
"Dr. James," Caroline said with a stern look at him. "There is a large energy field in your basement, part of your basement ceiling has collapsed and I'm surprised the building is still level. And now your hospital seems to be shaking uncontrollably! I think it's time to order an evacuation!"