Never a Good Day... 5/6
May. 12th, 2009 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cj2017Remember way back at the start, when I mentioned that this fic took a left turn and headed straight out of canon…?
Never a Good Day… 5/6
Rating: Hard PG-13: copious amounts of bad language, discussion of adult themes, violence and broken bones.
Word Count: This part 3,100.
Disclaimer: Don’t own them. Wish I did.
Sarah hadn’t been exaggerating; anesthetics really did make her incredibly sick. Derek sat by her bedside, feeling slightly useless, as a nurse held her on her side and wiped her face clean, and Anna injected a clear drug into her IV port.
“This should help, Sarah. Just give it a few minutes to kick in.”
She had been out of recovery for little over an hour. Her arm, successfully pinned, was now immobilized in a sling. The orthopedic surgeon had been satisfied that there would be no permanent disability, nor any complications to hinder a full recovery. As soon as he had left her alone with Derek, she had attempted to sit up and make a break for it, until she realized that she couldn’t reach the IV in her foot, and Derek had refused to help her on the basis that her plan was blatantly stupid. A few choice words had been exchanged, but he knew that it was the drugs talking, and had let her vent her frustration and then get tearful, and he knew that that was down to the drugs as well. She had fallen back to sleep and woken up vomiting, which had made the medics fuss around her and thwarted any further schemes she might have been hatching for a quick getaway. For now, the anti-emetic seemed to have finally settled her, but she barely had the strength to keep her head up, let alone sneak out of a hospital and endure an eight hour journey home.
Anna slipped an oxygen mask back onto her as she slept. “She’ll probably be out for a few hours now. Any problems and one of the nurses will page me. You should get some sleep too.”
Derek nodded but knew that he would do nothing of the sort. Not while they were alone here, not while Sarah was tethered to a bed and wouldn’t have been able to aim straight if she had actually been capable of holding a weapon. The doctor naturally assumed that he was in agreement and switched out the main light as she left.
In her sleep, Sarah muttered, sensing something had changed, and he laid a hand on her arm, stilling her restless movement. There was a gun under her pillow and a second one tucked just below the bed’s mattress, both within easy reach of the chair that faced the door at a strategic angle.
He knew that they weren’t safe, but he was loath to involve the machine for anything other than a ride home because that meant involving John, and Sarah had been adamant that he was to avoid that at all cost. To the untrained eye, he was maintaining a vigil, which suited him just fine; he was close enough to reassure her or close enough to draw a weapon. It was the perfect cover. He finished the cup of coffee that the nurse with the shy smile had brought him, keeping one eye on Sarah and one on the door.
~ ~ ~
Waking up was easier this time around. The room didn’t spin when she opened her eyes and her stomach no longer felt as if it were on a mission to turn itself inside out. They had given her morphine; she recognized the cotton-soft blurring to the pain’s edge, there – in her arm, her ribs and lots of places in between – but bearable. She lifted her right arm, ignoring a slight tug from the IV in the crook of her elbow, and pulled the oxygen mask down around her neck. The movement alerted Derek and he broke the rules by perching on her bed.
“You look like shit.” Her voice was hoarse, no moisture in her mouth.
He smiled. “Yeah, well, some of us haven’t had the chance to sleep yet.”
“What time is it?”
“Quarter to six, in the evening. Here, they said to hold off on a drink for now.”
She accepted the ice chips gratefully, running the rapidly melting slivers over her tongue. He laughed at her look of utter pleasure and gave her a second spoonful.
“Are they coming?”
He sighed. She was nothing if not consistent. “They set off about an hour ago. Figured it might be easier to smuggle you out during the night shift. They should be here just after midnight. And, before you ask, John is under strict instructions to stay in the truck.”
Her face relaxed visibly and she sank back into the pillows, closing her eyes. “So, you got crutches, huh?” It was difficult to keep the amusement from her voice, and she really didn’t try very hard.
“Yes, carrying you up that hill really fucked my ankle up.”
She arched an eyebrow at him, then met his eyes, her expression suddenly serious. “Thanks, Derek. I think I owe you… again.”
“Good thing I’m not running a tab.”
A quiet laugh. “So, how am I doing?”
“How do you feel?”
“Better than I did. The morphine’s quite nice.”
“I bet. I got Advil and an Ace bandage.”
“And crutches.” She was mumbling, the drugs pulling her back under.
“Your pressure’s better, you’ve had three units of blood so far, and your arm is all fixed. So go to sleep.”
“Mmm.”
He tucked her arm under the blanket, put her oxygen back on and checked his watch: 17.54. Opening up the information file that had been helpfully left in the bedside cabinet, he found a map of the hospital grounds, took out a pen and began to plan their escape route.
~ ~ ~
With a file clasped in her hand, Anna knocked lightly on Sarah’s door and pushed it open without giving herself the opportunity for second thoughts. Sarah was awake, deep in conversation with Derek, and they both looked up like guilty schoolchildren when she walked in.
“Hi Sarah. Do you remember me?”
“Yes.” Sarah hesitated, trying to pull her name from beneath a fog of medication. “Anna, right?”
“That’s right.” Anna decided not to waste time with a preamble. “Could I speak to you alone for a few minutes?”
Sarah and Derek exchanged a look, but Sarah finally nodded, her expression wary.
“I’ll be just outside.” Derek stood, patted the front of his jacket subconsciously, and reached for his crutches. It took him a minute to cross the room before he pulled the door shut behind him.
Anna waited uncomfortably, the challenge in Sarah’s eyes making her incredibly nervous. “Mind if I sit down?”
“No. Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. That was actually what I wanted to ask you.”
Sarah didn’t answer, either refusing to make it easy for her, or just not wanting to speak out of turn and give anything away, so Anna persevered. “When I examined you, in the trauma room… The injuries I found… A number of them can’t be explained by an MVA and I just… I wouldn’t be doing my job as your doctor if I didn’t ask what really happened to you out there.” She looked at Sarah, who was a little paler but not showing any other outward signs of stress. “Look, I only want to help. Sarah, some of what I found, ligature marks, bruising on your legs, your back… Do I need to run a rape kit?”
Sarah’s hand twitched once against the sheets, but she kept any show of emotion from her face. “I wasn’t raped.”
Her tone was absolutely certain, and Anna realized she had been holding her breath waiting for her to answer. “Can you tell me what did happen, then?”
“No. Not really.”
Anna had come too far to be deterred. “Sarah, I saw the scars. If someone’s hurting you, or you’re involved in something that you want to try and get out of, I may be able to help. But you have to be honest with me; you can trust me.”
“I think I probably can trust you…” Sarah sounded the words out carefully as if it was an unfamiliar concept “… but you can’t help us, and getting you involved will only put you in danger.”
It wasn’t the answer that Anna had expected and her hands suddenly felt clammy, her stomach knotting, because she knew somehow, that Sarah wasn’t lying or being needlessly dramatic.
“Derek didn’t hurt you, did he?” More of a statement than a question.
“No.”
“Someone hurt you both.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want me to contact the police?” She already knew the answer but considered it her responsibility to offer that option.
“No. No police.” Sarah’s heart rate hit one hundred on the monitor and an alarm began to sound. Anna hit the mute button quickly.
“Sorry.” Anna smiled awkwardly, but Sarah surprised her by shaking her head and laughing softly.
“Worse than a fucking lie detector.”
“I should let you get some rest.” She was never going to know the truth, she had quickly resigned herself to that fact, and she couldn’t go to the police without Sarah’s consent, but she would never have forgiven herself if she hadn’t at least asked, and Sarah seemed to appreciate her making the effort.
“Thank you… for everything.” For asking and offering, but knowing not to push.
Anna nodded and stood up, then remembered the file still gripped in her hand and pulled an x-ray from it. Somewhere, in all the chaos, the original radiographer’s report had been mislaid. When she had found it, tucked away in her notes, she had read then reread the text, squinting at the film and wondering how the hell anyone had noticed it. It probably wasn’t all that important, but she had decided that she would mention it to Sarah just in case it ended up causing her any problems at a later date.
“Oh, I meant to show you this.” She held the x-ray up to the light and pointed to the tiny mark. “It’s probably nothing. This is your chest x-ray, and there’s the strangest thing, looks like a tiny piece of metal somehow ended up in your breast.”
For a second there was just silence, then the alarm sounded again, shrill and piercing. Sarah’s face had lost what little color it had had, and Anna took a step closer, afraid that she was going to faint. Instead, Sarah reached for the x-ray, her hand trembling slightly, and the single word she managed to utter was laced with hatred.
“Metal?”
~ ~ ~
“Sir, could you possibly try and talk some sense into her?”
The doctor sounded incredibly flustered. Derek gave her a puzzled look, hurrying beyond her, back into Sarah’s room.
“What the hell? Sarah?”
She was half out of the bed, snarling at the tangle of leads and tubes from which – one-handed – she couldn’t get free.
“We have to go. Now.”
“Why? Sarah, stop.” One hand on her shoulder, he used his other to lift her chin up, making her pause and look at him. “What’s going on?”
When she finally answered, she whispered so quietly that he could barely hear her, “I think they’re tracking me.”
He stared at her, stunned, hoping that she was wrong, even as he began slowly to string the pieces together. That would explain how the men were able to intercept them so accurately on the road. How one of them had managed to make his own path down to the river, effortlessly end up in the right place and take her hostage. It meant that they would know she had moved away from the road, and that in all likelihood she wasn’t dead. Which had the potential to make things extremely complicated, and left him with only one question.
“How?” He followed her gaze to where it rested on the x-ray. He picked the film up. “Where is it?”
“My right breast.” Shame, humiliation and anger fought for dominance in her voice.
“Winston.”
She could only bring herself to nod in confirmation; she didn’t want to think about it. She just wanted it out of her.
“Can you remove it?” Derek was apparently thinking along the same lines, aiming his question at the doctor, who had followed him in, and not Sarah, who looked like she would pull it out with her bare hands if given the chance.
“No!” Having overheard their conversation, Anna was exasperated, having clearly decided that they were both as crazy as each other. “Look, it’s probably just from the crash. I wish I’d never said anything now. I don’t know what you think the problem is.”
There was no time for subterfuge, and Sarah opted for the CliffsNotes version of events. “Two men ran us off the road and forced us to crash, then they hunted us and caused all the injuries that you can’t explain. Another man like them put this in me, and it is very likely that someone is going to follow it here. I need you to take it out, and if you won’t, then find me a scalpel and I’ll do it myself.”
Anna was shaking her head, with incredulity and horror in equal parts. “I can’t just take it out! I wouldn’t even know how. And if all of what you’ve said is true, then I have to contact the police. The Sheriff here is a good man, he’ll be able to protect you while all this is sorted out.”
“No police.” Derek shifted slightly, opening his jacket and allowing Anna a glimpse of the gun tucked into his belt.
“Derek.” Sarah sounded the warning immediately. This wasn’t going to escalate into bloodshed, and she really wasn’t in the mood to take another doctor hostage. “Anna, please, there isn’t time for me to explain everything, but the police can’t protect us. Just give me something to cut with and Derek can probably get it out. All I’m asking you to do is look the other way.”
Anna glanced at Derek. He had crossed the room, away from her, where he would appear less of a threat, but his face was as set and serious as Sarah’s as they waited for her to answer. In the end, it wasn’t the gun that forced Anna’s hand, but the fact that Sarah was so desperately sure about everything that she was willing to let Derek carve into her.
“Okay, okay! I’ll do it. Shit. You have to understand, though, I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Fine.”
“Give me a few minutes. I need to get some equipment together. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
The door closed and Derek turned to Sarah. “Back in bed.”
“She might just call the police. We need to move.” Her throat felt tight, as if it were trying to hold back a scream. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“Yes, because you absolutely should’ve known what that fuck did to you while you were unconscious. Not your fault, Sarah.”
“They must know where we live.”
“Safe bet.”
“Oh God. John.”
“…Is with the metal. I’ll call and give him a head’s up, but at the moment you seem to be the focus of their attention.” His cell phone was already in his hand and he hit the required code as John answered.
“ETA, John, we may be in trouble here.”
~ ~ ~
Outside Sarah’s room, Anna leaned with her back against the closed door and tried to steady her breathing. Derek hadn’t followed her out, which, she assumed, meant that he trusted her to keep her word. Whatever had happened to them, they were accustomed to living like this. To running and getting hurt and hiding. She almost believed them; she did believe that someone had caused Sarah’s injuries, the proof there was irrefutable, but she certainly didn’t believe in their fantastical theories about tracking implants, and she finally concluded that the only way to convince them they were wrong was to take out the piece of metal and prove that. Then perhaps they would listen to her advice and report the incident to the police. Feeling a little calmer, Anna quickly made her way to the Emergency Room, to find a minor surgery tray before Derek came to look for her.
~ ~ ~
“This is going to sting. Try and stay still for me.”
Sarah hissed as the local anesthetic was injected, but she didn’t move an inch.
“Good. Let me see the x-ray again.”
Anna studied it, then shook her head in frustration. With a sinking feeling, she realized that there was no sign of a recent wound, nothing to indicate that the piece really was shrapnel from the accident. She tried to palpate around the area in an effort to determine where she needed to cut. “I think I can feel something here.” She kept her finger over the tiny irregularity. “You sure about this?”
There was no hesitation. “Yes. I’m sure.”
Blood welled immediately in the wake of the scalpel and Anna swabbed it away, trying to keep her incision neat in the hope of leaving Sarah without another scar. Using a pair of forceps, she worked her way into the dense tissue, feeling around blindly and with increasing futility.
“Dammit. I can’t find…” A change of direction, and there was the tiniest sensation of metal catching metal. She felt Sarah tense slightly as she opened the forceps into an area that the anesthetic hadn’t covered. “Sorry, sorry. I think I’ve got it.” She pulled, feeling the object snare and tug, and hearing Sarah’s teeth grind against each other. “Jesus.”
Anna laid the piece of metal on Derek’s open palm. Even slick with blood, she could see the small wire embedded in the intricate design of the chip, and knew that they had been right, that it was man-made and that it had been inserted deliberately. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach, as everything she had been so completely sure of was thrown into doubt. Not knowing what else to do, she squeezed Sarah’s hand gently as Derek crushed the fragment beneath his foot.
“Just a couple of stitches, honey.” It was the same phrase she used in the Emergency Room, light, reassuring and completely inadequate. She knew that a couple of stitches weren’t going to be enough to repair the damage that had been done.
~ ~ ~
In an unmarked SUV, a man watched in disbelief as the small red dot that he had been monitoring on the GPS screen suddenly flickered then disappeared altogether.
“That fucking bitch.”
Behind the wheel, his colleague accelerated without comment.
~ ~ ~
Final part tomorrow!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-12 09:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 12:48 am (UTC):D
“I bet. I got Advil and an Ace bandage.”
:( Poor Derek
I need you to take it out, and if you won’t, then find me a scalpel and I’ll do it myself.”
Oh damn. And she really means it too. I love Sarah.
She knew that a couple of stitches weren’t going to be enough to repair the damage that had been done.
Understatement of the millennium. And nicely done ;)
Can't wait for the next part!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 07:45 pm (UTC)Oh she would totally do it. She chewed a hole in her own wrist, and popped her thumb out!
I was a bit nervous about the whole chip thing, but then I thought about where in the episode order I'd set the fic and the fact that radiographers miss nothing so figured what the hell and kinda liked how it came out. I loved To the Lighthouse but in all the action of defibbing herself into neutral, there was never any time for Sarah to actually react to what Winston had done to her.
It's on its way. Now lj is finally behaving itself again!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 02:00 pm (UTC)My favorite: "Derek had refused to help her on the basis that her plan was blatantly stupid."
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 07:49 pm (UTC)I made my own little alt.universe to play out in!
Heh. I could just imagine her doing that. Even utterly stoned out of her mind, she'd still be trying to escape, she'd just be very bad at it.