Guts Over Fear

Chptr 3

Meanwhile, she was in sitting up in her hospital bed, re-living the same memory Damon had been only moments before. She remembered it as if it was yesterday, the frustration of living with a man that didn't want to acknowledge her existence at all, the heart- break at the smell of stale perfume and sex emanating from his bedroom when all she wanted was for him to allow her to find love, and the betrayal that set in the minute her parents told her they had arranged a marriage for her.

"But Mom, I don't love this man. I've never even met him."

"Of course you have." Responded her mother, completely ignoring her daughter's first statement as she flicked through her wardrobe to find a decent dress for the engagement party, "He was your father's apprentice. He came to the house all the time, although he stopped once you turned six or seven. He had his own company to run at that stage. This will tie those two companies together."

The nurse entering her room broke her from her daydreams. Her stern face and impeccable uniform hinting that this was one that she shouldn't mess with. Scanning her clipboard before placing it back in the holder at the bottom of the bed she sneered.

"I've been given instructions to sedate you. You're a flight risk."

Scanning her once more, Dalia noticed something in her front pocket, looking closer it appeared to be a full syringe. She had watched enough medical dramas to know that that is not procedure. Looking around the room as the nurse started approaching her she noticed the blinds pulled and the door had been locked. She looked back at the nurse and noticed that she wasn't just stern looking, she was emotionless. She was after her and whatever was in that syringe was not a sedative.

Ripping the cords and IV from her arms, the alarm started to wail. She jumped up out of the bed and kicked the syringe from the woman's hand. The nurse went in for a right hook to Dalia's jaw only for Dalia to block it before it landed. She kicked her leg up into the woman's face and sent her flying backwards into the wall.

Damon, walking back up to the room after going down to get coffee to calm himself down, found himself running towards the sound of the alarm with the rest of the doctors and nurses. The sight that greeted him would have been amusing for a kid's cartoon, in real life however, it wasn't good. The doctors and nurses who had responded to the alarm initially weren't able to get into the room. The sounds coming from the room alerted him that Dalia was very much alive, but in pain and a great deal of it.

Ignoring the pain once again, Dalia collected the "nurse" off of the floor and held her up against the wall. Punching her again, breaking her nose, the woman screamed in pain.

"Who sent you?"

The woman just stared at her.

"Okay, you want to play the silent game? That's fine."

She kept the woman pinned against the wall as she bent down to pick the syringe up off the floor. She held the tip of the syringe against the woman's neck. The fear that entered her eyes confirmed Dalia's suspicions; it wasn't a sedative. The green liquid that was inside the barrel was something else entirely.

"Let's try again."

Damon pushed the frantic doctors and nurses who had been knocking on the door out of the way when he heard the frantic screams, cries, and pleading coming from the room. He charged at the door and broke it off it's hinges.

The loud slam distracted Dalia momentarily, enough for the nurse to knock the syringe away from her neck and jump away from Dalia's hold. Dalia snapped back to attention when she felt the nurse shift from beneath her hand. Sending another kick to her stomach, she stood over the writhing nurse and flipped her onto her stomach. Taking hold if her arm she bent it back, keeping her bare foot by her shoulder socket and applying pressure.

"Who sent you?"

"I can't tell you. He'll kill me."

Dalia, not happy with that answer bent the woman's arm back further and twisted until she heard a pop, deathly silence, and then the nurse's scream of pain.  While the nurse was on the floor cradling her dislocated arm, Dalia walked to the syringe, picked it up, and once again held it at her neck.

"You're going to die anyway."

Damon watched as she brawled with the nurse. He was going to stop her, was going to intervene because he believed it was the PTSD, but once the nurse responded to Dalia's questions he knew she was no nurse and so he stayed in the doorway trying to keep the numerous shouting and screaming nurses and doctors from getting into the room. He watched as she turned towards the crowd.

"Who is my doctor?" She screamed.

Hesitantly, the man Damon had been talking to moments before stepped forward, "Me."

"Did you authorize her or any other nurse to keep me sedated?"

"No. I didn't."

She nodded her head in response, "and does this look like a sedative?"

"Uhm, no. None that I know of anyway."

She looked back at the nurse and Damon watched as she once again placed it at the nurses neck.

"Who was it?"

Damon watched as she once again became angry at the screams of pain being the only reply. She jabbed the syringe into the woman's neck.

"You give me a name or this is being emptied into your bloodstream."

He watched again as the nurse leaned up to Dalia's face and whisper something in her ear.
Damon watched the expression on Dalia's face change in seconds from concentration to shock and, then, anger. "If I ever see you again, I won't be as forgiving. Get out of here, and never come back. Run and hope that he doesn't catch up with you."

The "nurse" nodded like a bobblehead and scrambled to get out of the room and awat from the fierce young woman that had dislocated her shoulder.

Dalia took hold of her husband's hand and pulled him out of the hospital room whilst shoving a crowd of shocked and terrified people away, and ran towards the elevator. He managed to grab the rucksack she had brought into the house with her on his way. They started running, Dalia with a purpose and Damon because he had only just got her back. He would have followed this woman to the end of the earth in hopes he wouldn't mess up his second chance.

Once the two of them managed to reach the safety of the elevator, Dalia started rooting through her rucksack. She pulled out her clothes, camo khakis, a black vest, and black boots. She quickly stripped down and got herself dressed, making sure she didn't hit any of her bandages. Damon couldn't help but laugh.

"What? Are you in the military?" He chuckled.

Dalia just looked up at him with an eyebrow raised.

"No. You're messing with me. The Dalia I know wouldn't even kill a spider. You picked them up and put them outside."

"The Dalia you knew is dead. She died the minute..." She trailed off, shaking off the memory, "Doesn't matter. She's gone." She snapped pulling her SIG out of her bag, checking it was on safety and ensuring it was loaded.

Damon eyed the gun and nodded, "Yeah, looks like it. What did she say by the way? Who sent her after you?"

Dalia looked up reloading her gun, her eyes dark, "A dead man."