Dreams I'll Never See (Intersex gxgxg)

Chapter 7

Both Lexie and the other girl were limp and lifeless. It was disconcerting because while they were each warm, breathing and had a slow pulse, they were completely unresponsive to anything else. We stripped the bed that they were on of all the blankets and pillows, then made a nest in the back seat of my Audi before I carried them to the car and Willow helped belt them in.

"Are you good?" I asked her.

"I'll be better when I see her eyes open," she admitted softly. "But I'm a lot better than I was a few hours ago! At least we have her with us now, and the other girl too."

"Agreed. Let's get them better." I did one final thing, putting a little tracking device under the front seat of the Explorer so we could find out where it went once somebody retrieved it, and then we got out on the road.

I hadn't looked at where we were before, just that we were so close to the dot on the display before we went into the motel. Now that we were back on the road, I learned that we were just outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a place I'd never been to before. On the north side of the little city, we found the clinic we needed, which was a simple outpatient clinic for testing and minor procedures. The good thing was, that meant there wouldn't be any patients overnight, and there would be plenty of empty beds for a pair of patients.

It would have been a quick trip if it were just Willow and I in the car, but with Lexie and the other girl in the back, we had to go slowly. They weren't able to support themselves, so we had to crawl around each corner to keep them stable. We had them leaning on the pillows in the middle of the back seat, and Willow watched them constantly, leaning back to grip their shoulders when needed.

"Jesse, who do you work for that is helping us so much?" Willow was looking at me out of the corner of her eye, trying to judge my reaction. "I mean, are you in the CIA or something?"

"No, not the CIA," I told her. I couldn't exactly give a full answer though since I didn't know!

She just blew a gust of air out, blowing her red hair about. "Okay, so not the CIA. But that doesn't really answer my question!"

"Willow, maybe someday I can answer that, but right now it doesn't matter, ok?" I didn't even know how to explain it anyway. "Let's get Lexie better, and the other girl too, and then we'll try to figure things out."

She sighed, but then nodded. "Okay, but don't think I'll let this go. And you know Lexie won't!"

I knew that very well, yeah.

It added time to the drive, but we got their safely. When we did, we pulled up to the discharge doors to see dim outdoor lights and a person with a pair of rolling beds waiting outside. I was thrilled that this doctor was on the ball because that was going to make this so much easier.

I got out of the car, walking around to meet the middle aged woman who was eying us nervously. "Hi, I believe you're waiting for us? We have two patients that need some help."

"Right, that is what I understood. I'm Doctor Kipel, let's get them on the bed and inside. I'm sure they'll be more comfortable there," she said in a nervous but kind voice. I'm sure this seemed sketchy, but at the same time she sounded professional, and while she was on edge, she was also prepared and seemed to know her business. That is what we needed.

"Perfect, I'm Jesse. My passenger is Willow, and she is a nurse, so she can help." I saw visible relief on her face at that.

"Excellent. The more help the better." She pushed the first bed closer to the car, and I opened the back door and unbuckled Lexie, gently lifting her out and putting her on the bed. The doctor raised the bars on the side of the bed and started wheeling her in. Willow watched her wistfully, but then took the other bed and rolled it over for the other girl. I lifted her out, then got her on there and Willow raised the bars on it and then wheeled her in. I moved the car to the nearest parking spot, and then jogged into the clinic.

Dr. Kipel had Lexie and the stranger side by side in a recovery bay. There was already an IV tube in Lexie, and she was putting a second into the unknown girl. I stood back and watched as Willow started writing down readings on a clipboard.

"You said this was heroin?" the doctor asked.

I nodded. "That's what we were told. I don't know how much though." I handed over a vial of what I had assumed was the drug from the bag that I'd collected in the bathroom. "This might have been what they were injected with, if you have any way to analyze that."

"No, I can't unless I get a lab involved, but they both have the symptoms of an opioid in their system, so that is what we'll treat it like." She seemed confident in what she was doing, and I was hoping this would be an easy process. I liked that she didn't ask why we didn't go to a hospital, she'd obviously been briefed. She got a pair of syringes with a clear liquid out and injected them one at a time into each of the IV feeds for the girls. "This isn't going to be easy though. I'll want to keep them both all day, and see how they react to the medication, then see if we need to adjust anything. The saline will get them hydrated, and the Naloxone will help for the opioids. Beyond that, it will depend on them, and how they react to it."

"Then all we do is wait?" Willow was listening in and didn't look happy to hear that.

Dr. Kipel sighed. "It may be difficult, but you should both get some sleep, at least for a few hours. You have about six hours before people start showing up for work here, because it is still a functioning clinic, and at that point rest will be hard to come by. I will move as many of my appointments as I can but having you and Willow awake to keep an eye on things could be crucial for those times when I'm not available." And now Willow was looking even less happy!

I nodded at the suggestion, as it made sense. We couldn't do anything, or at least I couldn't. I knew Willow would want to pitch in, being a nurse, and seeing Lexie in the condition that she was had, to be killing her.

"Willow, we're going to sleep. I know that is going to be hard, but we'll move a bed right next to her, okay?" I put my arm around her shoulder and felt her shuddering against me. "We're not going to leave, but we need to be at our best for her, so right now we should sleep while we wait."

She nodded against my shoulder, and I heard her sniffling. "I hate this so much. I'm happy we have her back, but I can't wait to look in her eyes and see her smile. Seeing her just lying there is driving me crazy!"

"I know, it's hard. Believe me, I know. Let's get a bed pushed right next to her, we'll put the rail down and you can hold her hand, ok?"

"Okay," she replied in a small voice. I could understand what she was going through, but at least we had her back. Hopefully, we'd got both girls before they'd got too many doses in them, and could help them with recovery, but until they were awake, we just didn't know. The uncertainty was the killer.

We executed our plan, commandeering the adjacent bay, and pulling the privacy screens around them We took another rolling bed, and pushed it up next to Lexie's bed and then lowered the rails so that Willow could lay on her side, her hand stretched out and cradling Lexie's. I went to go get another, but Willow called me back.

"Jesse, just hold me? Please?"

I just nodded, and crawled in next to her, wrapping my arms around her as I spooned her body. It was an odd feeling, being so close to someone else. I hadn't slept in the same bed with someone since I said goodbye to Lessa before my last deployment, and it took me a while to settle down. I was shocked, because Willow dropped right off. I guess the stress finally wore her out and having Lexie's hand in hers helped. It took me longer than it normally would, but I was finally able to let my mind go enough to fall into a fitful sleep.

I'd like to say I had a good sleep. I'd like to say I was rested when I woke up. But all I could do all night was dream about Lessa staring at me, asking me why I couldn't find her like I found her sister.