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“There don’t appear to be any signs of trauma,” Ben said when he came back out from the exam room. “We’ll know for sure in about 24 hours.” Rowan hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. He let it out slowly, relieved that this was over.
He stood numbly as she was wheeled back toward her room. “Why do I get the feeling we just broke every rule in the book?”
“Management and Care of Victim protocols require us to care for the patient in accordance with her needs and in her best interest. That’s what we did.” Ben justified it. “We did what was best for Lauren.”
“God, I hope so.” Rowan rubbed his red eyes.
Lauren slept all day. Even Bahati couldn’t wake her up for dinner. He hadn’t mentioned his fears — or their earlier escapade — to her. He didn’t plan to. This was his worry to bear alone. Rowan paced all evening until he was ready to drop.
He watched the video clip over and over for hours on end. He couldn’t look away, and he couldn’t make sense of it. He felt helpless and afraid. It wasn’t something he was accustomed to. He had always been able to maintain his cool, even when everyone around him lost theirs. It was his military training that carried him through.
Serving in the Middle East had tested him to his limits.
On one reconnoiter, his unit went into a small town in Al Anbar province one cold morning. A chemical manufacturing facility had been found a few days before. Their unit was there to determine if it was still in use. As they rolled into town, the normal morning life in a rural farming community was all but silent. “Pierce.” His buddy had nudged him. “All the livestock is dead.” He gazed at the corpses of a fallen flock of sheep. The faint odor of wet hay lingered in the air — the tell-tale sign of phosgene gas. No one in the village had survived.
The feeling that washed through him then was the same one he had now. It was that gut-twisting fear of knowing something was wrong, but not knowing what.
* * *
“Rowan?”
He sat up with a start. He was not in Al Anbar anymore. He hadn’t had flashbacks in years. It frightened him.
“Rowan?”
Lauren reached out her good hand to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” He shook off the ghosts that haunted him. He rose to take her hand. Sitting on the edge of her bed, he brushed her hair away from her eyes and kissed her knuckles. “How are you?”
“I hit my head,” she said. “I think.”
He had to smile. That seemed to be all she could remember. “Yes,” he said. “You did.”
“What’s for dinner?” she asked.
He glanced at his watch. “It’s three a.m. I think you missed dinner.”
“I did?” She furrowed her brow. “I’ve been so sleepy. I can’t seem to stay awake.”
“It’s the pain medicine.” He wasn’t lying. “It’ll wear off when you’re not in so much pain.”
“I’m hungry,” she said.
That was encouraging and Rowan said as much. “Tell me what you want. I’ll go find it.”
“It’s three a.m.,” she said. “I’ll take whatever you can find.”
“There’s a coffee shop across the street, and a Taco Bell not too far away.” She wrinkled her nose at that.
“A bagel with cream cheese would be good if you could find one.” She remembered watching Jean-René eat one after they got home from Peru.
He rose, smiling. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said. Finally, something he could do.
* * *
He came back with a dozen donuts of every kind, and a bag full of bagels with cream cheese. He had two large coffees. One was spiked with cream and sugar to her taste. He slathered cream cheese on one of the bagels. Lauren made short work of a chocolate-frosted cake donut while he did.
He watched her eat. It gave him the first real glimmer of hope he’d felt in days. It was good to see her appetite had returned. He was amazed that she could each that much. In truth it was half a bagel and a donut. When she was done, she gazed at him dreamily as she leaned back on her pillow.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. Her eyelids grew heavy in the euphoria of the feast. “Thank you.”
“Can I get you anything else?” he asked.
“No.” She shifted in her bed to make herself more comfortable. Rowan was envious of having a bed. “Come here.” She lifted the blanket, making room for him.
He hesitated a moment, but she insisted. Wearily, he made himself comfortable in bed beside her. She curled up in the crook of his arm and lay her head on his shoulder, yawning. “Wonder if there’s anything on TV?”
“Let’s see,” he said. He kissed her head and found the remote beneath her pillow.
He groaned, finding that the only thing on at four in the morning was The Veritas Codex. It was the episode at Eastern State Penitentiary. No one had gotten hurt on that trip, though they’d all gotten the piss scared out of them by the shadow of a dark form that passed between Lauren and Rowan. It was captured on film passing through Jean-René. It frightened him so bad he dropped his camera.
They’d managed to salvage the footage right up until the black shadow consumed the shot and the camera fell. That episode earned them their first Emmy nomination for Best Reality Television Series. Unfortunately, it hadn’t won. Still, it was one of their favorite episodes.
“The Veritas Codex,” Lauren perked up. “I love this show.”
Rowan answered with a heavy snore.