Unexpected

Broken and Bruised

I recognized the sound of a heart monitor right away. After watching so many cop shows and action movies over the course of my life, how could I mistake it? I didn't want to open my eyes, everything hurt too badly. I just wanted to slip back into sleep, but my curiosity at the strong scent of cleaning fluids masking the slight undercurrent of that indescribable, yet always recognizable smell of sickness made me force them to flutter open. I blinked several times in the light. It was far too bright in here. Once my eyes had adjusted to the brightness I looked around and my hunch was confirmed. I was slightly propped up in the twin bed of a white walled hospital room. The brilliant light of mid-afternoon filtered into the room through a window that was behind me and to my left.

Turning my head I gazed at the monitoring machines surrounding my bed. There was that obnoxiously beeping monitor and a couple other screens that were measuring things that I didn't understand. I did understand that I was in pain, however, and it was that aching pain after you scrape your knee that resides with you long after you're bandaged up, except this time the discomfort was magnified tenfold all over my body, and no wonder. Glancing down at myself I saw my arms lying at my sides over the powdery blue blanket covering me. From where my skin stuck out of my pale yellow hospital shift to my fingers, one of which had that weird plastic cover attached to a tube, my arms bore purple, red and brown bruises along with many scrapes and cuts. The pale cream and white bandages and gauze covering the worst of it made the coloring of my wounds look more severe. I looked like road kill! My right leg, which was sticking out of my blanket and was hanging from a contraption because my foot and lower calf was all wrapped up in a royal blue cast looked better, minus the cast. My jeans I'd been wearing during the fight must have protected them somewhat, even though I could see slashes, burns, and bruises marbling my flesh until it disappeared into the cast. I didn't even want to know what my side looked like, and anyways it would hurt too much to move to try to see the damage. If this was what the rest of my body looked like, how messed up was my face? I'd never thought I was stunningly beautiful, but I didn't want to be marred for life!

Flicking my eyes back to the monitors and IV's I looked for a specific button, well, two buttons actually. One was the morphine pump. I gave that a couple presses, hoping that it would cut down the pain to where I could think of other things. Then I found the button for service. Only a minute after pressing that button did I hear a couple soft knocks on the door before it opened and the kindly face of a middle aged black woman with a headful of tight black curls appeared.

"Ah! You're awake!" She smiled, entering the room, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm thirsty." I said, my voice sounded weak and raspy.

Smiling she turned and left the room, returning in a minute with a tall cup with a lid and a straw. I snatched it from her hands and drank mightily.

"Is there anything else you need, Penelope?" she asked taking the cup and putting in on the moveable table hinged to the bed

I furrowed my eye brows, "You know my name?"

"Of course, Miss Copper!" She chuckled lightly, her eyes moving from my face to the monitors around me, then back to me as she unhooked a clipboard from the foot of my bed. Apparently my expression was silly to her because she chuckled a little louder, "You seem surprised at that!"

"Yeah... I don't know. I guess I tho- I guess I thought that I was a Jane Doe or whatever."

She shook her head, "No, when you were checked in they gave us your name and we've accessed your medical records."

I visibly stiffened at that. What had they read? What did they know about my abilities? Was I going to be tested on?

"Just so that we could know such things like... if you were allergic to any medications, your blood type, that sort of thing. We didn't want to hurt you while trying to help you." She explained quickly, noticing that the beeping of my heart rate had quickened.