A/N And here is yet another chapter. I still own nothing but my car. Hope you guys enjoy. Feel free to leave a review.
Chapter Nineteen
Nancy's POV
After Frank and Joe left, I flipped through the channels on the television for a while. There really wasn't anything good on, but I settled for a generic movie that I found on one of the stations. I sat back and watched that for a couple hours before it ended.
I looked around the room wishing there was something I could do with my time. This whole hospital stay has been torture so far just from the sheer boredom of it all. I haven't even gotten out of the bed except to go to the bathroom and bathe. Even those things were with an escort in the form of a nurse.
What I really wanted to do was to go over those spreadsheets again. My gut feeling was telling me there was something to be found in them and I wanted to find it.
Since I couldn't look over the spreadsheets tonight, I began thinking of anything I might be able to do with my time. I looked over to the phone beside my bed and wondered if there was anyone I could call at this time of night.
I knew I could probably call Bess or George. Even though they were probably busy, it might be nice to talk to them a little. I wondered if they even knew I was stuck in this hospital. I decided that they would have probably found out from my dad.
I decided to pick up the phone and call Bess. She had said she would try to come up here if she had the time after all. George was off on a vacation, so I didn't want to bother her. I dialed Bess's number and waited for the line to be picked up.
"Hello?" Bess's voice spoke.
"Hey Bess," I greeted.
"Nan, it's great to hear from you," Bess said happily. "I heard you were in the hospital. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine other than being extremely bored," I told her.
"What happened?" Bess asked seriously.
"A car ran Frank and I off the road," I replied. "I think we must be getting too close to something big."
"I would tell you that you should probably just put the mystery down, but I know you wouldn't listen to me," Bess said.
I laughed. "You would be right on that account."
"So how are things with Frank?" Bess asked.
"They're good," I responded.
"How good might they be," Bess prodded.
"Okay, what do you want to know?" I asked knowing that Bess would love details.
"I just want to know if you guys still have that crazy attraction to each other," she said.
I pondered how to answer that question for a moment. "It was actually weird at first," I finally said.
"Weird how?" Bess asked.
"Well, it's been a while since we've seen each other. I think we were almost dancing around each other because we didn't know how to act around each other," I tried to explain.
"And now you're cool with each other?" she asked.
I almost groaned because Bess can be way too perceptive when it comes to relationships.
"We've worked a few things out," I hedged.
I heard Bess squeal on the other end of the line and held the phone away from my ear.
"I can't believe it!" she exclaimed. "I've been waiting for ages for you two to get together."
I became confused by her comment. "But you and George always told me that Ned and I were good together."
"Well, it's true that you and Ned were good together," Bess confirmed. "However, there's something else between you and Frank. I would almost characterize it as another dynamic that just isn't present in most relationships."
"Another dynamic?" I asked with doubt lacing my tone.
"Yeah, there's something different about the two of you," Bess spoke. "I'm not even sure how to describe it really. You two have such unbelievable chemistry with each other that we just sat back and waited until you would get together. We always knew it would happen one day."
"So you just expected Ned and I to break up?" I asked irritably.
"As much as I knew you loved each other, it just wasn't the same," Bess said. "Why else would you and Frank always end up passionately kissing each other during cases you worked together even when you were dating other people?"
"I...," I began not knowing what to say to that.
"It's fine Nan," Bess told me. "Like I said earlier, I'm really happy for you. I think you and Frank are perfect for each other."
"Thanks Bess," I said with a sigh. "It's nice to hear that from you."
"Do you need me to come up and help with anything?" Bess asked.
"No, I'm fine really," I told her. "I'm pretty sure everyone is working as hard as they can on the case without me."
"Well, make sure you call me if you need anything at all," Bess replied.
"Will do," I promised.
I yawned loudly over the phone.
"Nan, I'm going to let you go so you can get some rest," Bess told me.
"Okay," I said. "It was good talking to you tonight."
"Same here," Bess responded. "Get some rest Nan and take care of yourself."
"Okay," I said.
We both said our goodbyes before I hung up the phone. I was really tired even though I've probably already spent more than enough time sleeping during my stay here. I laid back and closed my eyes trying to get comfortable.
I think hospital beds would be a lot more comfortable if they weren't adjustable in so many places. I adjusted the bed numerous times during the next hour or so trying to get a decent sleeping position. After a few minutes, I just gave up and turned the lights out.
The room was pushed into darkness and I just laid back and closed my eyes. I wasn't really comfortable in my current position, but I hoped that sleep would overtake me regardless of that particular fact.
Ten minutes later, I was still awake even though my eyes were closed. I heard the door to the room open softly and wondered who would be coming in at this time of night. I already had the schedule down to the minute for the nurses who came in during the daytime as well as during the night and this wasn't one of the typical nursing visits that I was becoming so accustomed to.
Whoever it was didn't speak as their steps took them closer to my bed. I debated on whether I should pretend to be asleep or not. For a moment I had almost decided to pretend to be asleep, but something in my gut told me that something about this visit just wasn't right.
I opened my eyes to see who was in the room and what they were doing. I saw Renata standing beside the bed near the IV I was still wearing holding a syringe up in the air and squirting some liquid out of it.
I couldn't help the gasp that escaped from my mouth because I knew that I shouldn't be receiving any drugs.
"What are you doing?" I asked trying to keep the fear out of my voice.
"Keeping your nose out of other people's business," she replied snidely before trying to insert the syringe into the IV line.
I jerked the line away from her reach. When that attempt was foiled, Renata just came after me with the syringe. I guess she was just going to stab me somewhere with it. Even though I was still in pain, I rolled out of the bed on the opposite side from where she stood. I managed to have enough common sense in this crisis to grab the call button and I was pressing it every few seconds.
Renata was coming for me again as I heard the light voice of a nurse ask if I needed anything.
"Help!" I yelled hoping that someone would hear me in here.
I kept scooting out of the way of Renata's reach, but soon my back was against the wall. I hadn't had enough recovery time to really gain my full strength back, so I was pretty sure that I would lose in a fight against her.
I saw the syringe come down at me, and I grabbed Renata's arm trying to hold it away. We were struggling for what seemed like forever, but was really less than minute before the door opened and two nurses, a male and female, came into the room.
They quickly saw the situation and hurried over to where we were struggling with the syringe. The male nurse grabbed Renata and pulled her away from me while the female took the syringe out of her hand.
"What's going on in here?" the female nurse asked.
"She was going to inject me with something," I told them still feeling frazzled from the whole ordeal.
"I was just trying to give her some pain medication and got attacked," Renata accused.
"I'm no longer being given medicine for pain," I stated.
The female nurse looked over my chart and confirmed that I was correct. "I'm afraid we're going to have to call the police, Renata."
Another nurse came into the room and escorted me away from the others. She led a short way down the hall into what appeared to be a staff room for the doctors and nurses.
"Do you need me to get you anything?" she asked in a gentle voice.
I shook my head without responding verbally. The nurse brought me a cup of water and put it in front of me regardless and I began sipping on it.
It didn't take long before I heard more shouting from Renata followed by several male voices in the hallway. I looked toward the door of the staff room shortly before it opened to reveal Officer Turner.
I would have groaned at seeing him again if I wasn't so emotionally and physically drained from the encounter with Renata. As it was, I just stared at him without speaking.
"Nancy, I'm so glad you're okay," Officer Turner said as he came and took a chair next to me. "One of my officers has arrested Renata and she is currently being taken down to the police station. The nurse kept the syringe she was going to use as evidence. It will be taken down to our lab for testing, but it looks like she was going to give you an overdose of morphine."
I held his gaze as I digested that information. Renata was going to kill me because I was investigating this case. That must mean that we're on the tip of the iceberg as far as cracking it wide open.
"Did she say anything at all to you, Nancy?" Officer Turner asked.
I shook my head, "Nothing really. She only said that this was to keep me from getting into other people's business."
"What did she mean by that?" he asked.
"I could only imagine that we're close to something big," I said.
"Have you guys found out anything else?" he prodded.
I didn't want to tell him about the spreadsheets we were looking through that Carlisle gave us. Even though I was speaking to a detective on the case, something wanted to keep that information to myself for the time being. It's not like any of us had found a connection in them yet.
"We haven't found anything new," I told him honestly. After all, that part was true unless Frank had found something since he left me this evening.
"Okay," Officer Turned said sighing.
Before he had a chance to stand up, the door flew open and Frank came rushing in.
"Nancy! Are you okay?" he exclaimed running over to me and cupping my face tenderly in his hands.
"I'm fine," I said as I looked into his worried eyes. "Officer Turner has taken care of the situation."
"I'll be seeing you around, Nancy," Officer Turner said from the door. "Take care of yourself."
He walked out of the door before I even had the thought to respond to him. My focus was on the person in front of me who had somehow managed to steal my heart away.
"What happened?" Joe asked.
I looked up startled because I didn't even see Joe come into the room. I shook my head slightly before giving both of them the run-down on the events of the evening.
Joe whistled softly. "We must be on to something if she went after you."
"Well, the car accident could have been the beginning of this," I pointed out.
"I don't want you to be left alone any more," Frank said.
"I can take care of myself," I told him.
"Look," Frank began gazing into my eyes, "I know you can take care of yourself, but I can't have anything happen to you. Just the thought that something happened tonight was..."
"I understand but it's not like you can stay here twenty-four hours a day to watch over me," I tried to argue.
My argument stopped when I saw the doctor enter the room. Dr. Williams walked over to me and reached for my wrist to take my pulse. He seemed to do a quick examination of me before stepping back.
"The nurse called me in after what happened tonight," Dr. Williams explained. "I just wanted to make sure that you're doing fine and not experiencing any symptoms of shock or stress."
"I'm feel fine," I told him trying to keep the exasperation out of my voice. It seemed like I had already told a million people this tonight.
Dr. Williams smiled at me. "Considering what happened here tonight, I can understand if you might not want to remain in the hospital."
"You mean I'm free to go?" I asked unable to hide the excitement at the prospect of leaving.
He held up a hand to calm me down. "I will permit you to be released from the hospital, but only if you follow a few rules."
"What are the rules?" I asked.
"First, I want you to make sure you get plenty of rest and nourishment. I can tell that you're the type of young lady who will want to go out and be active; however, you need to give your body time to rest. I will prescribe you some pain medication that you can take in case you need it, but don't take it if it's not necessary. Second, since you won't be in the hospital for me to check on you daily, I would like you to come by my office at least every other day just to make sure you're still progressing."
"Am I allowed to drive?" I asked.
"I'd rather you not drive anywhere," Dr. Williams told me. "Get someone to bring you to the hospital to see me instead."
I sighed, "Okay, is there anything else?"
"No, that's all," he said smiling. Dr. Williams turned to Frank and Joe and said, "You boys make sure she does what she's supposed to now."
"Will do, doctor," Joe said with a little salute.
After signing a few forms and slowly changing back into normal clothes, I was free to go back to my temporary home. I put up a fuss when they brought the wheelchair around to take me out in. I thought it was stupid to be wheeled out when I can walk perfectly fine, but I didn't get my way this time. Frank seemed delighted that he got to wheel me out and I wanted to strangle Joe because he was taking pictures of me on his phone.
A short drive later and I had arrived back at the Cullen's home. I looked up at it feeling glad to be out of the hospital and surrounded by friends once again.
Frank helped me out of the car and guided me back in the house. When we entered the living room, I saw that everyone was still hanging around. When they saw us come in the door, all of them seemed to jump up and start talking at the same time.
Frank held up both hands to calm them down. "Okay guys, I'm going to take Nancy up to her room so she can get some sleep. Joe can tell you what happened if you all want to know. Just try not to bother Nancy until tomorrow."
I smiled at his thoughtfulness. "Guys, I'll just go ahead and say that I'm perfectly fine. I will have to agree with Frank on the sleeping part though. I'm pretty tired from everything that happened and my general lack of a good night's rest in the hospital."
"Good night's" were called out by all parties before I headed up the stairs with Frank following close behind me with his hand steadying me the entire way. He followed me into the bedroom and sat down while I went through and pulled out something comfortable to sleep in.
"Do you need any help with that?" Frank asked pointing toward my sleepwear.
"Are you offering?" I asked cheekily.
He became embarrassed at that comment, "I just thought I could go down and grab someone," he said with a little stutter.
I laughed, "I knew what you meant."
I watched the indignation on Frank's face and chuckled again before I walked into the bathroom to change clothes. While I was in the bathroom, I ended up taking a shower and brushing my teeth. It seemed like it had been so long since I felt really clean. Even though I would get a shower everyday at the hospital, it just isn't the same as having one where you're staying. I relished in the luxury of it all before finally coming out of the bathroom.
Frank was still sitting in the same chair as before waiting on me. He quickly got up and helped me over to the bed. It was kind of sweet when he tucked me in for the night.
Frank kissed my forehead before looking into my eyes and saying, "Sweet dreams."
"You too," I responded. "Good night, Frank."
"Good night."