Out of the Black - Lee Doty [134]
The nurse had heard her scream as she'd entered the room, so she was surprised to find a beatific smile frozen on the unconscious woman's face. Though the paths of tears were fresh on her face, she looked like she was dreaming of Caribbean romance.
Her preliminary scan came up clean. She seemed to be sleeping... deep REM.
"Officer?" She looked at the holographic nametag at the bottom of the woman's badge, "Officer Woods?" She shook the fallen officer gently, then slightly less so.
"Yeah. Ok, but just one more, 'kay?" Woods slurred out sleepily. The sentence terminated in the puckering of imaginary kisses. In mid-pucker, the officer's eyes flutteredopen. Pucker frozen on her face, her eyes shifted about, finally settling on the floor nurse's confused face. The pucker dissolved into a self-conscious smile. "Hi." She said.
"Hi." The nurse gave the quick nod most reserve to ease the pressure of awkward meetings.
"So, now that my nap's out of the way... back on the job, eh?" the officer wiped at her tear-streaked face. "Whoo! Sure was tired!"
"Uh... what's happening here?"
"You tell me, I just woke up." The officer sat up and looked around.
"Less than five minutes ago you were screaming like your foot was stuck in a blender."
"You sure that was me? I really feel much better now." She stood up in one graceful move that looked like it was cut from the middle of a Russian ballet.
"Whoa!" the nurse fell out of her crouch and onto her posterior.
"Oh, sorry!" The officer said, offering her a hand up.
"You know these folks?" The nurse asked, regaining her feet.
"Well, that sweet guy over there with the sucking chest wound is my fiancé." She giggled like a junior invited to senior prom. She seemed to realize this was less than appropriate and cleared her throat before continuing. "The muttering guy over there stabbed him just now... Boy, I'm so going to bust him for that... stabbing is a serious offense." She said, elbowing the confused nurse conspiratorially.
"Uh..." the nurse waited uncertainly for the punch line, not sure if she'd just heard it. "That wasn't funny."
"Yep. Sure wasn't funny before I got my nap. I was screaming like my foot was stuck in a blender." Her smile was dazzling.
"Are you sure you're ok?" the nurse said, looking down at her scanner again.
The doctor and trauma nurse stumbled away from the bed where they were working on the John Doe. "You see that?!" the doctor shouted.
The trauma nurse nodded. They took another step back amid a shocked intake of breath. The floor nurse followed their stares back to the bed.
"What?" Alex said, sitting up in the bed, prodding the closing wound in his chest with a finger.
Minutes passed and eventually the door to the semiprivate opened and the doctor and two nurses sauntered into the hall.
"Nope, those were not the droids we were looking for." The floor nurse said as the door swung closed behind them.
The doctor concurred, "Yep, not those droids at all- it was about time for us to move along." His head moved through a slow, thoughtful shake.
The trauma nurse was less sure. "Yeah... but what's a droid?"
"Well, obviously not those!" the doctor gave the short laugh that often accompanies blatantly obvious assertions.
"Why were we looking for droids?" The floor nurse wondered.
"What are droids?!" the trauma nurse demanded, shaking her head harder.
"I'm hungry." The doctor said, rubbing his neck. They all shuffled toward the break room.
"So, what's a droid?" Rae said into Alex's ear.
"Uhhg! Chest wound!"
"Oh." Rae disengaged the bear hug, feeling a bit self-conscious. "Sorry."
Alex sat back on the bed, concentrating. He swayed a bit, so Rae sat down next to him. She put an arm around his shoulders to steady him."
"That your work, too?" Rae nodded toward Ping,