Magnetic Forces of Love and Conspiracy
Written by BansheeGirl
A/N: Oh. My. Goodness. I'm updating! I'm really updating! Who would have honestly thought such a thing possible? I hope you guys appreciate this – miracles aren't easy to conjure, you know! As always, please review when you're done reading! Thanks!
Disclaimer: See chapter 1 or 2!
Magnetic Forces of Love and Conspiracy
Chapter 9: A Warning Sign
"Robert… what… what's going on?" Sam stammered, his face paling as he took in the sight of the unconscious woman in Robert's arms. "Wh-Who is this?"
Robert held a grim expression. Behind him Andrew displayed a similar air, and neither answered Sam's question. Instead, Robert awkwardly shifted the woman in his arms.
"Sam, can you please just let us in?" Andrew prompted in a drained voice. Sam noticed he had a rather nasty gash across his right shoulder.
Sam suddenly looked surprisedly at the pair before him, as if he had only just realised they were standing out on the Lodge's cold front doorstep. He quickly stood aside so they could enter. Shutting the door behind him, he looked around to see Mary, Ian, Olivia and Cate emerge into the entrance hall. The same looks of bewilderment mixed with unease transformed on their faces, and the room remained silent for a few tense moments.
"What… where did you find her? What's happened to her?" Olivia finally implored in a worried tone. She hurried over and began to examine the unconscious woman as Robert continued to cradle her. Olivia gently turned the woman's head from side to side, and went on to pull open her eyelids. Letting them close, Olivia looked up to Robert.
"Bring her upstairs. I've got my things up there and I'll give her a proper check-over," she said determinedly, and turned on her heel to lead the way up the staircase to the group's side.
Robert immediately followed, closely tailed by Andrew. Without question Sam, Mary, Ian and Cate made their way up the stairs as well. As Robert laid the woman on a single bed in a spare bedroom, the Lodging House residents looked to the Pokémon researchers with searching expressions while Olivia quickly ducked out of sight to fetch her medical kit.
"What is this, Robert? Andrew?" Mary uttered in a quiet voice.
Robert ran a hand through his ruffled hair. "There was… a helicopter wreck. East of town. Must have crashed, geez… no earlier than noon today," he said, looking to Andrew, who nodded in confirmation.
Olivia silently re-entered the room carrying a large carry-case, flicked it open and swiftly began a medical examination of the unconscious woman.
The group of people watched Olivia for a few moments, before the Lodge residents again turned to Robert and Andrew.
"The helicopter was a mess. It was no easy task getting her out of it, let me tell you now," Robert said, his eyes momentarily flickering towards Andrew's injured shoulder. "There was no one else in the craft. Just her, in the rear cabin."
This statement appeared to trouble Robert, and as the others considered it they too seemed perturbed by such an occurrence. What was this woman doing flying in a helicopter all alone in the mountains, much less in the rear cabin at the time of impact?
"Has she lapsed into consciousness at any time?" Olivia asked, peering into the each of the woman's deep blue eyes with a thin, silver torch.
Robert turned to the dark-haired girl. "Yeah… She was mumbling… You know, asking us what was happening… That was back when we were strapping her onto my sled to bring her here. She seemed pretty disoriented, though."
Olivia nodded in understanding. She had more knowledge and experience than most nurses of her age normally would, but that came with living in such a small and isolated village. With only one doctor and one other nurse, the Fieldsville medical team were often required to take on great responsibility, and make swift, resourceful and often life-or-death judgements. Luckily this didn't appear to be one of those life-or-death situations.
"She's not seriously hurt," Olivia announced, and the group of people standing around the room let out sighs of relief. Robert and Andrew particularly seemed to gain some colour. "She's just concussed. She needs to sleep. It's just lucky you two found her when you did; she was at most risk of dying of hyperthermia than anything else." As Olivia said this she pulled the bedcovers out from underneath the woman and pulled them over her inanimate form.
Everyone stood around the bed awkwardly for some time, before Mary suddenly clapped her hands together, making each person jump slightly.
"Good, good. Now let's all give the poor girl some space," she said, motioning for everyone to leave the room. She herself left to fetch some warm water and a sponge to give the sleeping stranger a wash-over. When Mary returned, only Olivia and Andrew remained in the room with the woman. Olivia was tending to the wound on Andrew's shoulder.
Bending down beside the bed, Mary wet her sponge and began to wipe grime, sweat and blood from the woman's pale face. Mary looked down at the tattered business outfit that the girl was wearing, and was again at a loss for who this woman was and why she was here.
"Olivia," Mary said, when the young nurse had finished with Andrew's shoulder, "do you have an old nightdress that we can slip her into?"
Olivia looked concernedly at the scarlet-haired woman, and then to Mary. "Yes, of course. I'll need to dress all of her cuts and abrasions, first. Then I'll get something for her."
Mary watched Olivia as she began to tend to a small gash across the woman's forehead, before continuing to sponge down the girl's body. She sighed. Something told Mary that this was only the beginning of a very big ordeal.
Downstairs, Sam, Ian, Cate, Robert and Andrew stood in the entrance hall talking nervously.
"Something's not right here, and we all know it," Cate stated. "Why…?" she began, yet did not know how to finish her question. The problem was that there were too many, and none of them could even start to be answered until the woman upstairs came around.
Andrew looked to his research partner with a sudden pained look on his face. "The equipment… We have to go get it. If we leave it out for the storm, we'll never see any of it again," he said.
Sam, Ian and Cate each frowned in confusion, not understanding what Andrew was talking about.
Robert too dawned a stressed expression. Seeing the others' faces, he explained. "We had to leave some of our equipment back at the helicopter wreckage so that we could fit the girl on my sled. Some of it is quite valuable…" He looked to Andrew, and they both sighed with the knowledge that after all they had already been through that evening, they had to go back into the snow to retrieve their belongings.
"We better get going," Robert said. "I'm glad we could get her to you on time. Thank Olivia for us, will you? Perhaps we'll be around in the morning to see how everyone's doing."
"Wait," Sam said suddenly, as Ian and Cate walked toward the front door to see Robert and Andrew off. The four turned to see Sam pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, eyes closed and obviously deep in thought.
"What is it, Sam?"
Sam's eyes fluttered open. "Cate spoke true before. Something is just… not right. We need to find out what that is."
It was now Robert, Andrew, and again Cate and Ian's turn to look confused.
"Why was this woman alone in that helicopter? Were there footprints leading away from the wreckage? Any evidence of others who might've been in the helicopter?" Sam questioned, looking at the Pokémon researchers.
"Not that we saw… But then again… we didn't really look for footprints, or anything. Once we found the girl it was… well, it was just a mad scramble to get her outta there," Andrew replied.
"Then you've got to have a good look around when you go back for your equipment. With this blizzard coming in, it may be the only chance we have of finding any clues as to what happened to our mystery woman. Because there's a possibility that even she won't be able to tell us anything when she wakes up.
"Get some other men to head out with you. Like Joey Whelan," Sam said, referring to the village mechanic, "He might be able to see whether the crash was caused by a mechanical problem, you know? And Ted Drake – he's a computer genius. He might be able to check whether there was a malfunction in the electronics."
Both Robert and Andrew nodded, catching onto Sam's plan immediately. "Yes," Robert agreed, "Yes, that's a good idea. It won't take long to round up a few people. But we really have to move now."
Andrew opened the front door; the pair stepped into the chill outside.
"We'll call back in here once we return," yelled Robert as they retreated towards their parked sleds. Sam closed the door when he could no longer see Robert and Andrew along the snowy street. With the cold shut out, he looked to Ian and Cate, who remained in the entrance hall.
"Perhaps we should get back to cooking dinner," Ian finally said. It was only then brought back to Sam's attention that they had all been preparing dinner before the evening's commotion. Cate quickly nodded, and she and the elderly man turned to head back into the kitchen.
For the first time in his life, Sam willingly joined in with the evening meal's preparation. Indeed, he was relieved to do something that would keep his mind occupied on something other than the disturbing implications of the night's events, and what sort of news Robert and Andrew would bring with them when they returned.
And that's the end of that little chappie! Gee… I honestly didn't know if I'd ever get back to writing this fic. Even now, I'm surprised I had the motivation to write the ninth chapter. I don't know… It's not that I've got writer's block or anything, it's just… Well, you know. Sometimes you just lose passion for these things. I'm not sure if I'll continue after this, I guess I'll just wait and see if anyone's still interested in the story.
So… till next time. Maybe!
BansheeGirl.