Chapter 12
We checked in at the front desk of the Good Samaritan Hospital. My eyes crossed while I filled out at least a dozen forms. Once I was done with those, the receptionist asked us to have a seat in the waiting area. I hated hospitals. They had a certain odor — antiseptic mixed with 'get well soon' flowers and pain. Thankfully, I hadn't had to visit very many.
We settled in our seats near one of the TVs and waited. Magazines from last season, coated with germs and who knew what else were splayed across the table in front of us. The poster on the far wall had a picture of four spunky, smiling teens with the words, 'Get tested for HIV – Make healthy choices!' underneath. I just shook my head. Monroe bought me a bottle of water from one of the vending machines and I drank it down quickly. God, I'd been so parched and the cold water was like heaven on my throat.
"Thanks, I needed that."
"I can get you another one," he offered.
"No, thanks. One is good."
My phone rang, and I jerked it from my pocket, changing the ringer to vibrate. Nick's name was on the display. I shook my head again and put the phone away. It seemed his idea of a 'long talk' was going to start tonight. It would just have to wait.
Monroe sniffed the air as a man came in holding a blood-soaked bandage over his stomach. I gave Monroe a sideways glance as he had a short woge and then retracted.
"Sorry, it's instinctual," he muttered quietly. "Doesn't mean anything."
Oh, I'm sure it didn't. I held his hand and ignored my thoughts for a while. I needed distractions desperately.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
The emergency room took as long as expected. Nick kept calling until I finally had to put the phone on silent.
"Him again?" Monroe asked, watching me shove my phone back in my pocket.
"Yeah."
Monroe's phone went off just then, and he pulled it out, glancing at the display. "Oh man, guess it's my turn."
"Just silence it," I said. "We'll call him back once we're out of the ER."
Monroe shook his head while he pressed a few buttons. "He sure doesn't wanna waste any time."
"The detective wants answers," I merely replied.
More time passed and Monroe was getting fidgety. "You know, whoever the numbskull is that thinks these chairs are worth waiting in, like, needs to sit in one for a few hours and rethink his decision." He rubbed his lower back as he leaned forward. I moved my hand to his back, massaging out the tight knots that had formed.
It was going to be a long night. Fortunately, John Cusack kept us company. We watched Say Anything while in the waiting room. As Cusack stood beside his blue Chevy Malibu and held up the boom box outside Ione Skye's window, playing Peter Gabriel's 'Your Eyes,' I couldn't help but smile.
"That's probably the cheesiest, most romantic thing ever," I commented.
Monroe eyed me and chuckled lightly. "Ya think so?"
"Hey, I enjoy someone who can profess the way they feel with a song. Too bad she ignores him, though." I pointed at Ione Skye, lying in bed as the camera did another close-up of Cusack never giving up. Peter Gabriel's words fit so well with Monroe. I began humming along as the song played.
"I see the light and the heat,
In your eyes.
Oh, I want to be that complete,
In your eyes.
I want to touch the light,
The heat I see in your eyes…"
The red in Monroe's eyes was a heat I thoroughly enjoyed.
"Davenport," one of the nurses called loudly, interrupting my thoughts.
"Thank goodness," I said under my breath, and we both walked to the open door the nurse was standing beside.
"He can't come in with you," said a very attractive, raven-haired nurse as she kept Monroe back with her clipboard, holding it firmly against his chest.
"Why not?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"No visitors in the exam room," she quickly replied. I wasn't in the mood to argue.
I turned to Monroe, looking up at him. "Will you wait for me?"
"Yeah, I suppose I don't have much of a choice, do I?" He gave the nurse a displeased look as he trudged back to the waiting room chairs.
The nurse walked me back to an exam area and pulled the curtain taut. "Can you tell me what happened?" she asked with as much empathy as a brick wall while she cleaned my forehead.
"I banged my head into a low shelf," I replied. Yeah, that was as lame of an excuse as I could come up with. Nurse Wretched just nodded like she could care less.
She did some preliminary tests — blood pressure and temperature. She didn't have much of a bed-side manner and her cold hands went up my back with an equally cold stethoscope. I jerked upright from the chill. Angling my head, I faced Nurse Wretched, whose blue eyes were as icy as her hands.
"The doctor will see you soon," she said flatly as she walked out.
Great, another wait. Their definition of 'soon' was sometime between now and never.
With one hand I pulled out my phone and accessed my Kindle. While I still loved the feel of a book in my hands, I had to admit this Kindle had come in handy lately. I thumbed through book titles. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest seemed appropriate. Waiting this long was going to make me cuckoo. As I read about Salem, Oregon's Nurse Ratched, Portland's Nurse Wretched paced the halls, finding more victims to torture.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Three chapters into the book, the doctor came in, asking more questions about my injury. Fortunately the cut wasn't deep enough to need stitches and a simple gauze bandage would suffice. Since I was knocked out, he ordered a CT scan and an MRI. Nurse Wretched returned and did some blood work. No wonder hospital bills were so high. The Band-Aid alone had to cost a hundred bucks.
After I'd been thoroughly poked and prodded, the doctor advised me that the scans looked fine, and I was free to go. He recommended I get some rest and told me to take an over the counter pain reliever. Oh, Mr. Monroe was going to get a talking to. Two hours to be told the same thing I'd wanted to do all along. I held my head in frustration. The frustration faded. Monroe just cared about me. I had to admit it was nice to be cared about.
Nurse Wretched returned with two Dixie cups; one filled with water, the other with two Tylenol inside. I swallowed the pills and finished the water. Well, there went another hundred bucks.
I walked out and found Monroe sitting on the edge of his chair with his leg restlessly jiggling up and down.
He jumped up once he saw me. "So are you all right?" His voice sounded just as anxious as he looked.
"I'm terminal. I only have a month to live," I replied woefully which I received a scowl for. "The wise doctor thinks I need rest and Tylenol." I forced a smile. "I can't wait to see the bill for that diagnosis."
"Hey man, I couldn't take any chances." Monroe let out a breath as he spoke. He really thought something was horribly wrong from the look in his soulful brown eyes.
"Can we please go now?"
Monroe nodded. "Yes, absolutely." Thank goodness, because my body was begging to lie down. Monroe held me for a moment before we left. "I'm glad you're okay. You really know how to worry a guy."
"I can scratch Daemonfeuers off my bucket list now," I whispered in his ear. Hopefully I'd never have to see another one again.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
I'd started packing an overnight bag to take to Monroe's that held the bare essentials from a toothbrush to flirty night attire and all the feminine needs a gal must have to make herself feel cute the next morning. I kept it fully stocked complete with a change of clothes at all times, so I didn't have to think when I went over to Monroe's. I'd considered making a second one to keep in the car, but even my organized brain said that was overdoing it. If I'd had one tonight we would've saved time driving to my house. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.
I directed Monroe where it was located and he went inside and grabbed the bag for me.
We drove along in silence while the movie reel in my mind replayed over and over again. Helpless, so incredibly helpless. Stupid Portland. This wouldn't have happened in Louisville. I hadn't been a dainty girl growing up, and I could usually hold my ground. Even in my early teens I'd always stuck up for the underdog and wouldn't tolerate someone getting bullied or worse, so I'd let the recklessness deal with it. Back then I didn't hesitate to take matters into my own hands, or fists as the case may be. For the most part I'd kept it all low-key. Luckily I'd dodged getting caught, and even when confronted, I could talk my way out of it.
I'd been a model student; I'd mostly avoided big fights in school, focusing on the ones after hours, and a majority of those ended amicably. Chloe had a first aid kit with my name on it for the ones that didn't. I had more friends than enemies because of it, and even some of those enemies had turned out to become allies and friends in adulthood. I'd earned more respect than hatred for standing up to them.
But once I'd settled in with Jack, it was harder to explain my bumps and bruises. I'd tell him I had a bike riding accident or an indoor rock climbing snafu when I'd come home all banged up. Jack must have thought I was the biggest klutz to ever walk the planet, but he didn't question my tall tales. I'd tried using my words instead of my fists, but my recklessness just didn't want to comply. Somehow I'd managed to find ways to threaten Wesen without getting hurt too badly. I was a career woman after all, so I couldn't risk jail time. But the recklessness would take me over, and it would always win.
The Jägerbars, who had thrown me in their trunk, and Heath the Klaustreich, who had met with a lamp slammed against his head after trying to rape me, had been the nastiest of the bunch I'd dealt with on my own. But that was the little leagues compared to Wesen like the Lowen and the Reapers. I'd gotten lucky. Those could've ended up being fatal.
But tonight with the Daemonfeuer I was helpless, vulnerable, tied up, and unable to defend myself. It burned me up inside right down to my core — even hotter than the flames from Miss Fireball's mouth. If Monroe hadn't found us when he did… Well, fatality had been a pretty imminent conclusion. I owed Monroe my life in so many ways, and then I'd freaked out because he was… licking me. But that was… Oh, I didn't understand it to define it. I did trust him. I trusted him with every fiber of my being. I just didn't want to tempt the Blutbad into any more instinctual reactions. I wouldn't survive that kind of Wesen attack.
And what about my own reactions? Sure, I could pass by a squirrel or a rabbit and go about my day and not react to a woge. But these encounters were different. Never before had I needed to keep a straight face while large, menacing Wesen had a woge that close. In Louisville if I was fighting, then the Wesen knew what I could see. That was usually the point. Crap, I was no better at this than Nick and that WTF face of his Monroe liked to joke about. At least the Daemonfeuers had died tonight. Thank goodness there wouldn't be more Wesen in Portland knowing about me. God, it sounded so horrible to say it like that.
"You all right?" Monroe asked and the movie reel stopped short.
I furrowed my brow. "Yeah, just thinking."
I took out my phone and turned the ringer back on. Four missed calls from Nick, and Monroe had called me three times while I was being held captive. I cleared out the history. I pulled up Nick's number and hovered over the call button. No, I'd just call him later. The long talk could just wait. I threw my phone back in my shoulder bag.
Monroe rested his hand on my thigh, and I laced my fingers with his. We held hands the reminder of the way to his house. God, I loved him. The Leo Love Bug resurfaced as I glanced over at my hero. Disney princesses would've traipsed around singing a song about this kind of rescue tonight. Instead, I hummed 'Dragon Days' by Alicia Keys along the way.
"Feelin' strong for you.
You're my knight in shining armor.
See your face in a silver moon.
Oh, all over the lagoon.
And it feels like,
Dragon days,
And the fire's hot…"
A/N: So, there's a little more back history on Renée. She's realizing Louisville was a bit easier than Portland. But what has she dealt with not on her own? Hmm... Could be a story there later. (hint, hint)
I found this Alicia Keys song while looking for a good song about dragons. It's one of my new favs. Check it out on YouTube. You know the drill. (: