Paramedics showed up. They took my blood pressure, my pulse and my body temperature and declared that I needed to go to the hospital. I ignored their requests and Xavier’s protests. Instead, I followed, wrapped in a blanket, Alejandro and Lucas to Dr. Baker’s office.
The room wasn’t very big, maybe 6 foot by 7 foot. Bookshelves dominated the furniture, but there was a desk covered in papers and books and a couple of chairs. The chairs were obviously not used very often as they were piled with books.
Lucas and Alejandro began to systematically search through the room. I stood in the door and watched them. Alejandro was working on the desk. Lucas was working through a bookshelf, taking out books and shaking them to see if anything fell out. I decided to be somewhat useful and did the same thing to the stacks of books in the chairs.
“Cain,” Alejandro snapped at me.
“What?” I turned and looked at him.
“Any of these papers important?” He pointed to the top of the desk.
“Beats me,” I moved over to them.
Most were just pieces of research. The few that remained were personal correspondence and a few were grant proposals. All of it was unimportant in my opinion. I stacked them all up.
“You really need to go to the hospital,” Xavier came in.
“I will, but I want to know why he ran and jumped into the lake.” I told him, moving another stack of papers. I stopped and stared at the top of the desk. There was a baggy on it.
“What is this?” I pointed.
“Best guess, meth,” Xavier said coming over to me.
“He ran because he was afraid we’d search his office?” I frowned.
“Meth addicts tend to be paranoid,” Lucas informed me. He pulled out a cell phone and made a phone call. Whoever he was talking to was instructed to perform a drug test. He hung up.
“Might be why he had the energy to bolt a second time,” Xavier offered, “if he was getting high when you came in, he wouldn’t have been affected much by the cold water.”
“Must be nice,” my hair was still crunchy to the touch, despite being inside.
“Ok, you figured out why he ran, off to the hospital.” Xavier grabbed my arm.
I followed Xavier out. We ran into the paramedics in the hall. They insisted on putting me on a gurney and strapping me down.
The ride to the hospital included inserting an IV and packing me with heat packs. They also wrapped another blanket around me and tucked it in under me. I felt snug as a bug in a rug and completely unable to move anything but my head and my lungs.
At the hospital, they took me straight into a room and began performing more tests. A doctor moved in and out, muttering under his breath. I was used to this; I often made doctors mutter at me.
Xavier came into the room. He undid the straps that held me and handed me a set of flannel pajamas. Since I hadn’t packed them, I gave him a look.
“They aren’t mine,” he assured me, “I bought them on the way here. I also have socks and house-shoes for you. Despite not feeling like you were hypothermic, you are. They are going to want to keep you overnight.”
“Uh, no. I can get warm at the hotel.”
“Hypothermia isn’t just about being very cold. Cell death happens, organ damage happens, brain damage happens.”
“I’ve never had hypothermia.” I admitted.
“This is only a mild case, putting you under a heating lamp probably helped a great deal.”
“And here I thought those were just for lizards. Are you going to leave the room so I can change?” I asked him.
“No,” he stood and turned his back on me. I shrugged, slipped from the bed and got dressed. Everything fit.
“Ok, done.” I told him climbing back into the bed.
“Good, if you refuse to stay, which is your choice, you’ll have to follow my orders when we get back to the hotel. Hot foods for dinner and I’ll need to check on you every couple of hours.”
“Check on me how?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, glucose levels, the whole nine yards.”
I considered my options. I could stay here and be bothered by doctors and nurses all night and if I was really lucky, I’d be out by noon the next day. Or I could go back to the hotel and deal with Xavier bugging me all night. They seemed equally disastrous.
“Ok, get me a doctor and I’ll sign for my release.” I told Xavier.
Xavier got up and left the room. I took stock of the stuff around me. Xavier had left a bag on the chair. I got up and snooped through it. I found my guns and shoulder holster as well as a coat and real shoes. I took all of it out of the bag and put it on. The coat caught on my IV. I frowned and unhooked it. I also yanked off the rest of the wires. The monitor for my heart rate flat-lined.
Nurses rushed into the room. A doctor ran in behind them. They all stared at me, mouths hard set, eyes narrowed.
“I’d like to go now,” I informed one of them as I pulled off the sticky pads still attached to my chest.
“I highly recommend…”
“I have a doctor in my unit and I’m not in any real danger at this point. So, instead of taking up valuable bed space, I’ll just go back to my hotel room and sit under some heated blankets and drink plenty of hot liquids.” I interrupted the doctor.
In the doorway, I could see Xavier giggling. He put a hand over his mouth to keep sound from escaping. If I had a phobia, it was of hospitals.
There was another commotion. Xavier jetted from the doorway into the hall. Several people followed. I joined them.
Dr. Baker was going into a full rage. I had never seen a meth-head explode before. He was gibbering and throwing things.
A cop in a uniform Tasered him. It didn’t seem to have much effect. Another cop tackled him, they fell to the floor. Dr. Baker was all flailing limbs. Some connected weakly with the cop who had tackled him. Xavier got into the fray. He had a hypodermic needle in his hand.
He jabbed the hypodermic into Dr. Baker. It wasn’t immediately effective. Dr. Baker caught hold of Xavier and jerked him over. Xavier fell onto the ground, his face slamming into the floor.
I moved in. Baker was still fighting with the other cop. Xavier wasn’t moving, but his chest was rising and falling, so I ignored him. I grabbed hold of Baker and brought my knee into his head. His nose exploded, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor with a solid thud.
“Matching wounds,” Xavier said as he rolled over. Blood gushed from his nose.
A nurse tended to Xavier. Orderlies, security officers and police officers got Baker up and back into bed. They strapped him down.
“I got strapped down and he didn’t?” I asked a nurse walking past me. She ignored me. I considered bitching about the injustice and stupidity of that and decided it was a battle I didn’t need to win.
“Ok, let’s go.” Xavier looked at me. The nurse had shoved cotton up his nose. I followed him out the door.
Lucas was in the parking lot waiting for us. We got into the SUV. Lucas looked at Xavier for a moment.
“Do you have a tampon up your nose?” Lucas asked after another moment.
“No, cotton, Baker broke my nose. Just drive.” Xavier huffed at him.
Chapter 28