Love and the White Wolf - Book 2

7. New Year's Surprise

Both dogs were pawing at me to go out. I looked at my phone. It was 6:40 am. Groaning I got up and started dressing.

"I would get up but I have a broken leg," groaned James. "But now that you're up can you give me a bottle of water, please?"

I took two bottles out. I tossed his on the bed. He reached out for it and I heard a muffled thank you. I drank my whole bottle in one long drink. Then I burped. I heard a burp from the bedroom and giggled.

"Come on dogs, let's take care of business." I said sleepily.

It was cold and blowing snow out. Because of the previous warm weather there was a lot of ice on the ground so I didn't walk with the dogs. I didn't bring gloves so I pulled my hands inside my sleeves trying to keep warm. Finally the dogs found a place to poop and I pulled out the bag to pick it up. On the way back I slipped and fell flat on my back hitting my head. I didn't black out but everything went gray and my ears were ringing.

"Oh no, not again," I thought. "Shit, shit, shit."

I tried to get up but I couldn't move without my back hurting. Even though I was yelling for help my voice was drowned out by the wind. Goldy and Rowdy lay on either side of me. I yelled some more but no one was there, including the sentry who should have been on duty. Then I heard a yell and I started yelling back. A face appeared over me. It was the missing sentry. He was new and seemed unsure what to do.

"Call the medical centre and tell them I've slipped on the ice, I've hit my head but I didn't black out, and my back is hurting," I said as calmly as I could. "My name is Gail Barnes."

It seemed to take forever but was only a couple of minutes. The medics came with a backboard and gurney. They assessed me, asking me my name, my husband's name, my age and today's date. Then wanted to know if my back still hurt, yes. Did I have any cramping, no. Was my head still ringing, yes.

I told the sentry to take the dogs to my husband. When he asked who he was the medics looked at him like he was crazy. Calmly I told him to go inside and ask Friday to direct him to James Barnes. He said he didn't have his access card yet. The second medic said he would do it. So they wheeled the gurney inside and waited for the other medic to return.

"Newbie sentry," said the medic while we were waiting. "No access card, no idea who Sarge is, geez. Sorry Mrs. B, this has been happening more and more."

The other medic returned saying James was hopping mad and getting dressed to give the sentry a piece of his mind. I didn't want that because in my mind you don't put a raw untrained rookie in such a position. I wanted James to complain to the right person. When the medics started to move the gurney I told them to stop as I wanted to talk to James. He wheeled down a couple of minutes later and promised not to kill the sentry. Then Bruce came up on VGI asking where I was to which the medics answered that we were finally on the way.

By the time we got up there Bruce was almost mad enough to turn completely into his alter ego. For some time he had maintained a good balance between the Hulk and Bruce Banner. Today seemed to be tipping the balance to the Hulk. For starters, he was short of nurses, not just those who were off for the day but short staffed by two. Nadine Henry went home for the holidays, the ultrasound technician was off sick but was coming up to make sure the baby was okay, and the lab was running six hours behind. For patients he had me, two enlisted men who had thought it would be fun to jump off the building into a snowdrift which turned out to contain a stone planter, one appendectomy patient, and one patient who was vomiting blood. There was him and one other doctor on duty. When he did see me he smiled gamely and tried to calm down.

"I'm sorry to be adding to your troubles, Bruce," I said. "I slipped on the ice and fell flat on my back. I grayed out for a bit, my ears were ringing but are better now. My back still hurts. It hurts when I breathe."