-8 hours after incident-
Lucinda Grey had not had a great week. It didn't help that on top of her car having transmission issues, her cat dying of cancer, and discovering she was allergic to peanuts, that she got to work to help with car crash victims. After dealing with the chaos of that, she eventually took her break and collapsed into the nearest chair. She put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples. She just started to relax when a loud noise startled her into looking up. A flash of movement, too quick for her tired mind, revealed two blurs that violently erupted out of a patient's room. When her eyes adjusted and her brain caught up, Luci saw a large man held up against the wall of the hallway by a patient who was growling in the man's face and pressing his forearm against the enemy's broad chest.
She got up, recognizing the patient to be one of the car crash victims that she helped earlier. The man should have been rendered useless with how much medication that was still in his system. He'd barely had time to be out of surgery.
She slowly approached, not wanting to make things worse by a startling interference. The patient, Riker, she recalled, was speaking in a low-though slightly slurred-very menacing tone to the man he had pinned to the wall.
"...and you let him know that if anything happens to them, if they so much as breathe different, I'm coming for him. This is your only warning. Go!"
Riker pushed the man away, making him stumble with wide eyes as he scrambled away from the imposing shorter man. It was almost comical, since the thug was much larger than the patient, yet terrified of the man.
Lucinda breathed a sigh of relief. Well, that was until she saw the bright crimson dripping on the floor.
"Where are they?"
Her eyes drew back up to the patient's face, his determined scowl bringing her back to the moment. Oh how adrenaline could do wonders for the body.
"W-who?"
Her incredulous response made Riker growl and start determinedly toward her, but he stumbled and had to catch himself on the wall. His hand slid down the standard beige paint of the halls, leaving a bloody stain as his legs started to give out.
"You-I-wait a second."
Luci spluttered and tried to draw in a breath as she moved closer to the irate man capable of violence.
"What's going on here?"
The new voice scared her and she jumped and turned to see a man approaching, holding a gun and tensed as if ready for her to attack.
"Bonnano."
Luci wanted to cringe at the gravel-low voice that ripped it's way out of Riker's throat. It sounded completely different from what she heard earlier when he threatened the man. And wasn't that something? She didn't often have such aggressive acts of violence in her halls, though when they did happen it was conveniently when she wasn't around. Oh well, there is a first for everything when employed in the medical field. Inhaling deeply, she stared between the patient she found herself right next to and the stranger, Bonnano, that showed up with a gun.
"You know each other?"
"Unfortunately. I'm not even going to ask what you did this time."
He addressed Riker in a sarcastic tone and grinned when he said this, making her feel a little concerned. However, there was a knowing tightness in his voice like he knew something like this was going to happen-a worry that came from being pulled into something you couldn't handle.
A rough chuckle was followed by a painful cough that sounded wrong to her ears. Luci looked over at her patient and saw the red that originated on the left side of Riker's hospital gown. She reached for the cloth to look at the wound, bravely swatting away the still questionable patient's hands that tried to weakly stop her. As if modesty mattered in a hospital.
"I'm a nurse, let me look at it."
Bonnano snorted as if he heard a good joke, though concern furrowed his brow as he approached them. Luci didn't care because her words worked as Riker quit fighting if for the moment.
The nurse uncovered the wound, hissing in time with the man as she got a look at the torn stitches.
"Mind telling me what's got you being attacked by people in my hospital? Not that I need to know, but that was more than a 'you slept with my wife' grudge, and well..."
Of course it was time to start rambling. She blamed her nerves and the long hours she had been awake. She wasn't equipped for something like this! She handled medical emergencies, not crimes in the making! Maybe she couldn't handle this like she thought.
"It wont be a problem," Bonnano said as he knelt next to her and she brought out her pager to notify any available Doctor of the situation. Somehow she felt he was lying.
"Good. You a fed?" She tried to be nonchalant-tried to wrap her mind around these strange events that sucked her into without her permission.
"You could say that."
A badge flashed and she felt a small rush of relief.
"Good. Lord knows we need some authority in this place."
Another chuckle came from Riker, and she was dismayed to see a trickle of blood start to flow down the corner of the man's mouth. His eyes however, they were fierce and blazing and electric but also worried and sad and just...tired. She felt this chill run through her, one that wasn't caused by fear or arousal or anything that would entice such a strong physical emotion. No it wasn't the fact that this man did indeed frighten her a little, nor the fact he was indeed physically appealing-though that did mean little to her asexual being-no it was not these things. It was not the cold air of the hospital, the adrenaline of a possible crime, the feeling of constant danger, the thought of an elaborate plot of these men to seize her off and never return...
No.
Lucinda Gray shivered because when she looked into this man's eyes, she saw the pure and desperate need he had to protect something greater than himself...and she knew it would destroy him.
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ok ok sorry for the wait. Someone reviewed or followed or favorited this or whatever and it made me get my butt into gear. So literally, reviews help a ton. And sorry about the Oc but I found her necessary.