I'll Never Let You Go

Chapter Ten

"Yes, I now feel that it was then on that evening of sweet dreams—that the very first dawn of human love burst upon the icy night of my spirit. Since that period I have never seen nor heard your name without a shiver half of delight half of anxiety."
- Edgar Allan Poe

Morticia was led to the medical room on the floor below the cell that she and Gomez shared. It was small, but much cozier than anywhere else she had been in the station. Yet, somehow she wasn't able to relax enough to appreciate it.

"Sit down, Mrs. Addams," the woman gestured to the exam table. Morticia obeyed as the woman put on a pair of disposable gloves. Morticia could now see that this woman was a nurse.

"I'm going to examine your injuries now," the nurse explained as she walked over to Morticia. Morticia tensed when she came near, but didn't move. The nurse gently took Morticia's head in her hands and examined her bruise. She placed a cold compress on the bruise to help with swelling. She went on to check the rest of her body as well. 

"Well," she said when she had finished the exam. "Thankfully your injuries are minimal. Are you in any pain?"

"My forehead," Morticia answered. "And my scalp, where my hair was pulled."

"That's what I expected," the nurse replied, nodding her head. "I'll make sure to have a soft pillow for your head in your new cell."

"New cell?" Morticia asked, looking confused.

"I thought of returning you to the same one, but I don't think that I want to move Mr. Addams back to the holding cell after how the other inmates reacted to him," the nurse explained. "And since most of the officers have left for the day, we'll need to hold you both overnight until we can address the charges against you."

Panic filled Morticia once again.

"Do you mean that Gomez and I will be separated again?" she asked, tearing up again.

"These are single-person cells," the nurse replied, as though this were obvious. "Besides, it's our policy to keep prisoners separate when they're moved out of the holding cell."

The room began to spin as Morticia took this all in. Her breathing became labored and her gentle tears turned to sobs. This was why she didn't want to leave in the first place. They couldn't be separated. Not after all they had gone through to find one another again.

"Please," she managed to get out through her panic. "We j-just found each other. He's b-been missing for more than a d-day. I can't l-lose-"

She couldn't get anything else out. The compress fell off her forehead as she continued to cry.

The nurse took all of this in. What this woman needed was to rest and recover. On top of her injuries, she was clearly sleep-deprived. Her missing husband had taken a toll on her health, even though he hadn't even been missing for 48 hours. She took a deep breath.

"Very well, Mrs. Addams," she gave in. "If that will help you to calm down and get some rest."

Morticia relaxed slightly but was still hysterical. All of this had been too much for her. She was normally very graceful and composed, but with all of this extra stress, she couldn't seem to calm down.

"I'm going to give you something to help you relax," the nurse continued, producing a syringe. "This will make you a little loopy until you fall asleep, but it should keep you calm."