Chapter Six:
Skyler woke to the sound of a cart being rolled into the room. A nurse, different than the one she had the day before, was pushing in a tray with a platter on it.
"Good morning", her deep voice let out gently.
Skyler groaned. She wanted to roll over and continue sleeping but instead she just stared sleepily at her.
The nurse laughed, "I'm not really too much of a morning person either, but I thought you would be hungry."
Skyler's stomach grumbled unwittingly in response and the nurse brought the tray up to her. On it was grayish oatmeal with sugar, a fruit cup, and a glass of water. She hadn't realized how hungry she was.
"Thank you."
The lady nodded and made her way out of the room, pausing in the doorway,
"Let me know if you need anything else," she said before closing the door behind her.
Skyler devoured the bland hospital food within minutes and gingerly got up from the bed to place the tray back on the cart.
She tested her muscles carefully, rolling out her neck and arms. She was tense and sore but she was alive.
She made her way to her purse which was now on the counter. A cop had to have gotten it from the bar and dropped it off while she was sleeping. It's strap was broken but the contents inside still looked okay.
She tied the broken parts of the strap together and fished inside for her cell phone, turning it on. It flashed up to her that she had six missed calls. All of them from the Cracked Egg… Charlotte was probably freaking out because she had a shift yesterday and she didn't show. Shit. She should have had someone call her.
Skyler groaned, looking at the time. It was ten and she had another shift scheduled that day at one. Although she knew she couldn't actually work a shift she had to at least let Charlotte know she was okay. If what the Commissioner said was true, then she would have seen the photo by now.
She called the Cracked Egg and the line kept ringing so she turned on the hospital television while she waited, figuring they must be busy. Tara Hanks was on her usual set up for "Good Morning Gotham" and behind her, plastered on a screen was the picture.
Fuck.
She shut off the tv, annoyed, and realized that the phone was still ringing with no answer. She ended the call and tried again. Still no answer. She gnawed on her lip. Charlotte never let the phone ring for this long. Something felt wrong.
She really just wanted to curl up in the bed and sleep the day away but she knew she had to let Charlotte know that she was okay and she had to get home.
She pulled out the flats she had stashed in her purse and slipped them onto her feet. Then she looked around the room and realized she had no idea what had happened to her dress and she couldn't really going walking through Gotham with her ass hanging out of a hospital gown.
She clicked the "call nurse" button on the side of the bed and got to work shoving the paperwork Gordon and the nurse left for her on the chair into her purse.
The breakfast nurse came back in. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah everything's fine. I just have to get going. Do you know what happened to my dress?" Skyler asked.
The nurse paused, "GCPD took the dress for evidence but I can get you some scrubs."
"Scrubs will work just fine, thank you."
A few minutes later she was dressed in a pair of purple scrubs and her hair was thrown up in a messy bun. When she exited the restroom, a cop and her nurse were waiting for her in her room. Her heart rate instinctively sped up.
"Is everything okay?"
The cop held his hand out for her and smiled.
"I'm James Cordova. Commissioner Gordon sent me to escort you to your apartment."
Her eyebrows shot up. It was a nice gesture… but it was also a little odd.
"I wasn't aware I needed an escort. Is something wrong?"
He looked uneasy, "You'll see why he sent me on our way out."
Cameras flashed from every angle and microphones were shoved in her face as reporters screamed over each other, trying to get their questions heard.
"How do you know the Batman?"... "Over here! Yes, here! What do you have to say to the people of Gotham?"... "How did you-" … "What do you think-"
The questions meshed together and Skyler tried to cover her face as officer Cordova parted the crowd in front of her. She couldn't breathe until she was safe in the back of his police car.
Officer Cordova looked over at her from the front seat, through the metal mesh bars separating them. She had never been in a cop car before… Then again a lot of things had happened to her lately that she could safely say had never happened before.
"Alright. Which way to your apartment?"
Charlotte. She needed to see Charlotte.
"Actually, would you mind if we made a stop first?"