“Well, any doctor will see what I see, so not to worry. He can get all the professionals on his side that he wants. It’s still a miracle the blood loss alone didn’t kill you.”
“And yet I was laying up in the ceiling shaft, bleeding to death, while my oxygen supply depleted,” she said. “Even in the air venting system, I couldn’t avoid the bullets. Thank heavens I was rescued when I was.”
“That just means you were thinking on your own,” he said. “Surviving is not something you should be penalized for. This whole thing is ridiculous.”
“I’m glad you think so.” And she did feel marginally better. “If you could show him that much, maybe he would at least start considering other options.”
“I will,” he said. “But now I want you to take some medicine and get some sleep,” he said. “No more visitors.”
“Except I need to see the guy who is helping me when he comes,” she said, motioning toward the drawing. “I couldn’t confirm or deny anything when he was here earlier. I was so tired that I couldn’t do much.”
“No,” the doctor said. “It’ll just add to your stress. You need to heal first and foremost.”
“I need to get out of here,” she said. “Can I walk on this leg?”
“No, and it needs to be elevated almost all the time, or you’ll be in a real mess.”
“I could get home and put it up,” she said hopefully.
“Nope, not happening,” he said. “At least not for a while.”
“And what’s not for a while?”
“At least a few days. You are still more fragile than you realize. You saw it for yourself with the colonel’s visit.”
“Fine,” she said, giving in. “It’s just not what I want to hear.”
“Of course not,” he said with a gentle smile. “That’s why I’m the doctor, and you’re not.”
“I don’t like that those guards are posted out there,” she said. “Are they protecting me or just keeping me here?”
He looked at her, surprised, then thought about it and shrugged.
“And that’s only one of the questions that keep rattling around in my head and making me sick,” she muttered.
“Well, you’ve been injured enough without getting sick and stressed out more,” he said.
She winced. “I’m really sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” the nurse said. “Being sick isn’t something any of us want. Our bodily functions take over, and, for whatever reason, that needed to get out of you.”
She nodded quietly. “I’m gonna need a new gown too.”
“We can take care of that too,” she said, and she quickly reached into the cupboard in the corner. The orderlies grabbed up the dirty bedding, made up the bed with fresh linens. Once only the two female nurses were with Ally, they exchanged her soiled hospital gown for a clean one. The other nurse helping Ally to stay upright helped her back onto the bed, and they hooked her leg back up so it was suspended. “Here, just rest,” she said.
And, with that, Ally lay down, and, moments later, she collapsed back onto the bed. “Now I’m exhausted,” she said.
“And, if nothing else,” one of the nurses said, “that should tell you just what kind of shape you’re really in right now.”
“Meaning, it’s shitty,” Ally said bitterly. “I can’t go anywhere, and I’m a sitting duck while I’m here.”
“You’re where you need to be,” the other nurse said. “So just relax, and let us do what we need to do.” Then gathering up their things, the two nurses left.
Ally pulled the blanket under her chin, willing the pain meds to hurry up and kick in. She didn’t know what her stomach was up to, but she figured it was stress from the colonel. As she lay here, her mind kept going back to the bodies and to Axel. Did he understand that the brass had been here to question her? She’d so hoped to avoid having to deal with them. But, like any huge corporation, there were always bosses. And, in this case, those bosses were pretty scary. Curled up in a ball, at least on one side, as best she could with her leg suspended, she closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her.
*
Axel had to get back to the hospital and go over the diagram he had left with her. She hadn’t talked about it very long or with any detail when he’d been there before. It seemed like, with the combination of the painkillers and her other medications, she was either too sleepy or in too much pain to have much comfort or clarity for a detailed discussion. He quickly sent her a text, asking her if she was up for a visit. When there was no answer, he called her. He didn’t even stop to think until he heard her sleepy voice. “Oh, God,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. Go back to sleep.”
“No,” she said, yawning. “It’s okay.”
But he could immediately tell from her voice that something was up. “What happened?” His voice was sharper than he intended.
“Colonel someone or other showed up,” she said. “He came with two MPs to ask questions. There was absolutely no doubt from his attitude and his questions that he believes I had something to do with it.”
Axel winced at that. “Wish I’d have been there. I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” he said.
“Well, we knew it was coming. The doctor ended up throwing him out. If all that wasn’t embarrassing enough, once he left, I upchucked the contents of my stomach all over myself,” she said. “It took a team of nurses and orderlies to come in and to put me and my bed to rights. The doctor also said I’m not getting out of here anytime soon. He said my leg needs to heal longer and that clearly my stamina is lacking, or I wouldn’t have spiked a fever and puked my guts out over a few questions.”
“That son of a bitch. He grilled you hard, didn’t he? He must have if your body rebelled that way. Remind me to shake that doctor’s hand for putting a stop to it.”
“Wait though. I’m not done. The doctor said something else,” she said. “I asked him to tell the colonel what the doc told me, but I don’t know how that works. Then, as it was, the colonel came back looking for the doc. At that point, my doctor said that my injuries clearly happened an hour apart. And he doesn’t see that I could have had anything to do with the killings on the sub because I wasn’t capable of the kind of movement throughout the sub that your body chart would have demanded. I guess, after that first humdinger of a shot to my leg, the shock kicked in, so I could climb into the HVAC system. Then those last two shots were probably the gunman shooting up the HVAC vents overhead for good measure or just out of sheer anger or madness.”
“Yes, that’s good to know,” he said. “Actually that’s damn good. How did the colonel take the news?”
“Well, it’s something,” she said. “And the colonel didn’t like it at all. He was pissed. Said something about an independent review of the medical file. His own medical team, I presume. Now my doctor did say it wouldn’t matter who he talked to, the evidence was clear. Now if push came to shove, would he say that in the middle of a trial? I don’t know.”