“I’m on my way, but tell me what happened?” I whisper. This is the worst part of Andre and Ryan’s job. I never know what is going to happen.
“We got called into a domestic violence situation. The lady who called asked for the operator's bread recipe, so we knew it would be a bad situation. So, Andre and I rolled up cautiously. Crap, Asha, we didn’t even make it to the door when the guy fired. The only bright spot was that his vest took the brunt of the bullet, but the bullet had fragmented before hitting him, so it wasn't the full force of the bullet. Fuck Ash, I didn’t even have time to tell him to duck,” he starts to ramble on about different police things, but I tune him out.
“Ryan, I am leaving my house and unless you want to pay for my distracted driving ticket, then you need to hang up and I will meet you at the hospital,” I snapped. I am so tired of people and how they handle situations.
The drive to the hospital was long, but short if that makes sense. The trip only takes me about fifteen minutes, but in my head, the ride was an hour. I was so worried about the state of my brother that I missed at least two red lights and drove through. Lucky for me there were no other cars on the road. Unlucky for me each red light had a traffic camera and I will be getting a few tickets in the mail.
I pull into the emergency and see Ryan flagging me down, pointing to a spot beside his cruiser.
“Thank you for getting here so quickly. I can’t go in, but they said a family member could.” He hands me a mask and gloves before taping me on the shoulder and points me in the direction of the entrance.
As I walk through the automatic doors, a nurse stops me and asks, “Have you had a cough or shortness of breath? Have you been outside the country in the last two weeks? Have you had a fever?” I shake my head and respond with “No.” She steps out of the way and tells me to head to the admittance desk.
I walk slowly to the desk, afraid to ask, afraid to find out, just plain scared. I stand in front and look down. To my left is a pump bottle of hand sanitizer and a box of masks, to my right is a wall of machines not in use.
“May I help you?” the tiny little nurse asks, and I stare at her. I see her move her mouth, but I don’t hear a single word. I am starting to panic now.
“Okay, Miss, close your eyes and take a deep breath and count to ten,” a husky male voice says behind me.
I close my eyes and inhale, then exhale and count before I open my eyes and smile at the nurse.
“My name is Asha Anderson, my brother Constable Andre Anderson was brought in from a gunshot wound,” I state and tap the desk.
“I got her Petra, Ms. Anderson, my name is Dr. Josephson. I am the doctor treating your brother’s wounds.” I turn around and have to raise my head to look up at the extremely tall doctor.
“You are just a little bit, aren’t you?” he mumbles before he shakes his head and continues to stare.
“Is my brother going to be okay?” I ask but can’t seem to take my eyes off of the gorgeous blue eyes that are staring down at me. The only hair he has on his head is a neatly trimmed beard. His head has no hair and it makes me wonder if he has hair elsewhere.
“Yeah,” his voice croaks, and he clears his throat. “Yes he is, I was able to get the fragment out, without surgery. The nurses are flushing the wound, and then we can let him go.”
“Oh, thank heavens. His partner made it sound so much worse.” I giggle.
“Yeah, when they brought him in, the paramedics were laughing at the entire situation. The guy was arrested and dragged into the cruiser before your brother got light-headed and passed out. The reason he passed out is that the guy had shit himself on the way to the cruiser and the smell made your brother woozy.” I burst out laughing.
“Yeah, he never could handle body fluids, that’s hilarious.” I smile wide at the doctor, who smiles at me.
“You really do have an amazing smile,” he whispers as he brings his hand up to touch my face.
I take a step back as my eyes widen, “Um, Doc? On any other day and time, I’d climb you like a monkey, but now is not the best time to touch anyone else.”
He shakes his head, seemingly trying to come out of some sort of trance. “I’m sorry, you’re right.” He steps around me and leaves.
I hope I didn’t offend him, I mean, in any other time and place, I would have crumbled at his feet, but today with everything that is going on, I don’t want to risk a ticket for not social distancing.
“Miss, your brother is through that curtain. He is sleeping.” The nurse points to a curtain to my right and I walkthrough.
I stop and stare at my brother’s body lying in bed, mouth open and slightly snoring. This has been a recurrence with us, something happening to my brother and me showing up to make sure that things are okay, and then driving him home.
I go over to the little sink in the room and fill a plastic cup with warm water, then tiptoe to my sleeping brother and crouch down, placing as many fingers into the cup as I can get and try not to giggle as he moves and slowly wakes up.
“Damn, I have to take a piss,” he grumbles as he tries to sit up.
“Really, broder, you passed out from someone’s body functions.” I fall onto the floor and laugh before quickly jumping up and shivering.
“Come on, sis, you know how gross that shit is.” He moans, and I burst out laughing.
“You always did have a weak stomach, but I figured being a constable, it would have gotten at least a little better.” This has always amused me.
I feel in my pocket for the small piece of chocolate that I usually have on me and let it melt in my hand, more specifically on my fingers before I tell my brother that I need to use the bathroom before we go.
I turn the water on to mimic hand washing and throw the now fully melted piece of chocolate in the garbage before leaving the room.
“Alright, brother mine, let’s get you home to the wife,” I state as I smack the hand with chocolate on his face, just as the doctor walks in.
“Is that feces on your face?” The doctor's eyes go wide as he stares at my brother, who has just wiped his cheek and looked at his hand.
“Oh!” He gags. “My.” He gags again. “Asha, you didn’t.” I bend at the waist and laugh my ass off.
He gags and runs into the bathroom, dropping to the ground in front of the toilet, and I watch as his whole-body retches, and he curses at me.
The cute doctor from before pokes his head into the curtain and watches the situation. As Andre stands from the toilet, he quickly turns and points at me. I smile and wave before saying, “It’s just chocolate.”
His face morphs into anger as he stalks out of the bathroom. The doctor chuckles as he hands my brother the papers and steps out of the way.
“Awe, Doc. You were supposed to protect me from harm,” I mumble before dropping to my knees and crawling out of the room. I see the running shoes of the hot doctor and crawl behind his legs, slowly standing up and hiding behind him.
“Hey doc.” Andre leans against the door frame like he wasn’t trying to strangle his sister like Homer Simpson.
“Well, you bounce back really quickly,” Dr. Tall, hot and sexy states and I may have swayed into his back and smelled him.
Andre blushes, then spins, heading into the bathroom to wash off his face, just as I fall into the doctor like a lovesick puppy.