Charlie woke up to her pager beeping and sat up in the dark. She reached over her bed sleepily and saw Grace's number from ICU. She was getting too old to work nonstop, that was something she could do in her twenties but at 35 she was starting to hit a mental wall.
Charlie tried to find her cell phone but it wasn't where she thought she left it. Her alarm clock read almost 5am as she got out of bed and went in search of her phone. She dressed in her Minnie Mouse print scrubs because she was going to the children's ward afterwards. As she walked down the stairs she noticed a light on in her kitchen and sighed at how tired she was when she went to bed. She only hoped she had locked her door.
Rounding the corner into the dining room she froze at the man sitting at the head of the table. Nestor sat there with her phone, hand on his gun resting the table. She heard her kitchen tap running and turned to see Miguel washing an orange before grabbing a paring knife. All she could think of was the Godfather and those fucking oranges.
"Sit." Miguel ordered without looking away from his fruit.
Charlie took the seat opposite from Nestor, giving the most distance from the man. The gun moved as she did, like a magnetic pull even though Nestor was occupied going through her phone. The fact it was unlocked told her he had been in her room and used her thumb print with she slept. The thought sent a shiver up her spine and she half wished she left him to die but she didn't want any more names added to her notebook.
"Do you know why you are still breathing?" Miguel asked as leant against her marble island.
"It's not out of the goodness of your heart." She spat.
"No." He chuckled. "You know a woman called Adelita."
Charlie froze at the woman's name. She hadn't heard from her in almost a year but before that Charlie would regularly get called to Santa Madre to treat the children Adelita rescued. A doctor had turned the woman away at a clinic Charlie volunteered at and Charlie had followed her out to find a bunch of children in need of medical attention. Like Charlie, Adelita wanted to help others so Charlie offered her medical expertise to the cause.
"Never heard of her." Charlie answered plainly.
She jumped as a gunshot rang out and hit the wall a foot to the side of her. She hadn't even seen Nestor move but the shell clattering across the table gave it away. She looked at Miguel alarmed but he just continued to peel his orange like Don Vito.
"Lie again and the next bullet goes in your arm." Nestor growled.
"Never heard of her." Charlie growled and tensed, waiting for the bullet to rip through her.
He slowly raised the gun, aiming at her left arm and she clenched her eyes closed. Silence followed and she dared a glance from her under her eyelashes. Her eyes flew open when she saw the men smiling at her.
"If you're not going to shoot me," she said standing up and her pager, "I have a patient I need to attend to."
"Sit, we need to talk." Miguel said gentler this time. "We know you know Adelita. She told us about her Doctor Charlie, we just never realised it was actually short for Charlotte. I have a proposition for you."
"I'm not going to like it but what?" She sighed.
"It's nothing you don't do now. The Los Olvidados are even greater in numbers now and they can hardly go to a hospital if they get injured or sick. I saw what you did for Nestor with just a bag of supplies. I want to give you a portable clinic to go to the communities we are helping."
"Why?" Charlie asked confused. "Isn't your MO put a bullet in their head? Not save the children."
"Things change. I'm trying to move away from the violence and start a new legacy." He said.
YOU ARE READING
Chance Encounters
Fanfiction[COMPLETED] Everyone has grand plans for their life and Charlie was no different. She didn't know how those plans derailed so fast her head still spins. That's a lie, it all came down to one moment, a chance encounter. After that, nothing was the sa...
