Chapter Four
18/04/2020 19:11 hours. Bethesda Hospital, Virginia.
Spencer felt foggy, the haze slowly dissipating from his consciousness. His eyes felt heavy as he tried to open them. The feeling had become all too familiar. He took in a deep breath through his nose. He felt the cool rush of oxygen from the silicone prongs nestled in his nostrils. Then came the distinct sterile scent that came with hospitals. There was a steady beeping breaking through the fog.
Spencer gently ran the tip of his tongue over his dry lips. His throat felt raw. He managed to pry his eyes open a small fraction. A typical white ceiling. He rolled his eyes to the left. There were two bags of medication hanging from a drip stand. Normal saline and acetaminophen. He watched the green line on the monitor jump in time with his heartbeat. The recollection of the accident instantly crashed over him like a tidal wave, and the beeping increased.
"Spencer?" Spencer averted his attention to his right, where David was seated in a hard plastic chair at his bedside.
"Dave?" rasped Spencer.
"Yeah, kiddo. I'm here." Spencer gave an ashamed sigh and smacked his lips.
"I'm sorry you had to find out like this."
"Why did you keep it from me? From the team? You know we can help and we've always got your back." Spencer blinked and swallowed hard, grimacing at the grating feeling in his throat.
"You've all gone above and beyond for me the past few years. I couldn't put that on you. I wanted to be able to do something for myself for once."
"When did this all start?" Realising the inevitable, Spencer took a deep breath, wincing with the pain in his ribs.
"The day I had that seizure and hit my head outside the library. I got a call. I lost my temper and threw my phone at the wall. That's what triggered the seizure."
"Do you know who it is?" Spencer nodded softly.
"It's Mel. She said that the bars and the team would not keep us apart." David frowned.
"But how? She's in prison." Spencer fired a dangerous glare at David, one that chilled the older man to the core.
"I don't know! But I know it's her!"
"How do you know that?" David had not intended to push Spencer so hard. He just did not want to acknowledge the possibility of Mel being out there again. Spencer's cheeks were flushed crimson with rage.
"What? You don't fucking believe me? Fine! Don't! But I know what I heard! It's Mel, and she's coming after me."
Spencer jerked himself up into a sitting position, only to fall back down to the bed with an agonised scream and clutching his ribs. His fingers brushed over a tube protruding from his chest. It was securely tied in place with sutures.
"What is that?" croaked Spencer.
"It's a chest drain. You broke two ribs. One punctured your lung. The tube is draining the blood away to help your lung inflate."
"Did I have surgery?" Spencer's features had rapidly switched from fury to sheer terror.
"Yeah, kiddo. They put the drain in and repaired the broken bones in your leg with plates and screws. You were very lucky not to have more injuries." Spencer let out a humourless laugh.
"Yeah. I sure feel lucky." Spencer glanced down at his casted leg. "Who else knows?"
"Penelope. I had her trace the calls and messages from your phone." A betrayed expression crossed Spencer's face.
"You took my phone?"
"I did. I told you I would find out one way or another and you weren't being forthcoming." Spencer snorted derisively.
"Wow. What happened to privacy?" Spencer rolled his eyes like a moody teenager.
"It went out the window when you started having nasty ass seizures every two minutes." Spencer opened his mouth to respond but the words were stuck in his throat. David had rendered him speechless. Spencer knew that David would call in the rest of the team. He just doubted that the team would locate his stalker in time.
19/04/2020 02:11 hours. Bethesda Hospital, Virginia.
Spencer had feigned being asleep when David snuck out in search of coffee. The genius knew that David would be away for a while as he tried to locate a working vending machine at the early hour. Spencer took a moment to gaze around the room in his semi-reclined position in the bed. Moonlight streaked into the room between the blinds at the window, casting an eerie white glow across his legs in streaks. The door quietly opened with a click. Spencer snapped his head up to see a nurse in blue scrubs entering the room. The darkness partially obscured her face, Spencer immediately recognised the green eyes as they glinted in the moonlight and attempted to shuffle up the bed to create distance between them.
"Get the fuck away from me!" screamed Spencer. The nurse clamped a hand over his mouth and smirked. Spencer breathed heavily through his nose, eyes wide with horror.
"Soon, Spence." Spencer's heart rate soared, triggering a series of alarms. The nurse removed her hand and stepped back as a doctor and two other nurses hurried into the room.
"Get her away from me!" yelled Spencer, looking at the doctor and nurses with urgency.
"Dr Reid? There's no one else here," soothed the doctor. Spencer shook his head frantically as he watched his unwanted visitor slink away behind the commotion.
"She was right here! You're not fucking listening to me!"
"Dr Reid, please calm down."
"She's going to come back for me! Why won't you fucking listen?!" The nurses reached for Spencer's flailing arms. He gave a sharp tug, the chest drain catching against the side of the bed and tipping over the box filled with blood from his chest. A pool of crimson liquid spread across the floor beneath the feet of the nurse trying to hold his left arm still. Spencer's panic heightened further. He kicked out with his uninjured leg, nailing the doctor in the abdomen.
The doctor pressed his panic button, an alarm sounding across the wards. Within minutes, more staff had descended on the chaos, firmly holding the struggling man down to the bed. The doctor wasted no time in retrieving the padded limb holders from a nearby drawer, fastening them securely around Spencer's wrists and tying the straps to the bed frame. He quickly wrapped more restraints around Spencer's ankles and fastened them to the bottom of the bed. Spencer was howling, tears streaming from his eyes and into his hair. One nurse darted out of the room to retrieve a syringe of sedative. Spencer was struggling for breath, his lips slowly turning blue. His nasal cannula had long been lost in the struggle.
"We need to get a mask on him. He's hypoxic," directed the doctor. A male nurse grabbed the oxygen mask coiled around the pump on the wall and pressed it to Spencer's face, hooking the green elastic around his writhing head. He connected the tubing to the pump. Spencer pulled against the restraints. His eyes rolled as he struggled to maintain his consciousness. His mouth gaped behind the mask. His arms straightened and his head twisted to the side. His fingers contorted painfully into claws.
"Shit, he's going into a seizure," said the male nurse at Spencer's head. They could only watch as the convulsions took hold. The bed rattled beneath Spencer as the restraints pulled against the frame. Blood steadily ran from his nose and across his cheek.
"Where's the damned Ativan?" barked the doctor. A syringe was thrust into his hand by the returning nurse. The doctor uncapped the needle and jabbed it into Spencer's thigh. He plunged the clear medication home and watched as the seizing man's movements began to slow.
David returned as the staff began to withdraw, a disposable cup clutched in his hand. His blood ran cold at the sight of Spencer restrained to the bed. A thick line of blood was beginning to congeal to the young man's face. Spencer's eyes rolled behind heavy lids.
"What the hell happened here?" asked David incredulously.
"I'm sorry. I'm Dr Lincoln. Dr Reid became very distressed and believed that someone had been in here. He became combative and we were forced to restrain him. He had a tonic clonic seizure. We gave him a sedative to control the seizure." David pressed a palm to his forehead.
"Dr Reid is currently being stalked and we have to acknowledge the possibility that she may be able to get to him here. He's not delusional. If he says he saw someone, then he did. I suggest you get security to check the footage from inside this room. Right now." Dr Lincoln nodded and exited the room in search of security. David slumped into the chair with an exasperated sigh and gazed at Spencer's face. Spencer's disorientation was written into his exhausted features. His curls clung to the drying blood and tears on his face.
"Spence?" Spencer jerked and his eyes flew open at the nickname.
"Dave?"
"Yeah, bambino. I'm here." Spencer leaned in as close as he could within the confines of the restraints, his eyes locked on David. The expression on his face was wild and unnerving.
"She's here. She put her hand over my mouth and said "soon, Spence."" David nodded. He knew Spencer would not say it unless it was true. Mel was out of prison and Spencer was not safe anywhere.