Shifters of Grrr 1 (85 page)

It was much easier to concentrate on the endless lists of body parts, tissues and bones, than attempting to untangle her undoubtedly screwed up sense of self-worth, so she once again ignored Charles' nasty comments and went back to her notes. In a few minutes he was already snoring and the even, rhythmical sound only made her eyelids droop.

She glanced at the clock. It was 2 am already and she was nowhere nearly done. Perhaps she could just close her eyes for a little bit. Only a few minutes till she got her concentration back.

***

Simone rushed into the hospital room, the swinging door almost knocking her down on her way in, and picked up a set of disposable gloves and booties from the dispenser on the wall. Sticking them and her clip board between her knees, she squeezed some hand sanitizer into her palm and started rubbing her hands vigorously, the sharp smell of alcohol almost making her faint. She noticed there were already about six pairs of feet under the curtain, which surrounded the patient's bed and separated it from the other two empty beds in the bland hospital room. She'd overslept and she had no idea how. She clearly remembered setting her alarm morning right after dinner, in case she forgot before she went to bed late at night. She couldn’t have possibly slept through the noise. She’d set it to a death metal radio station that never failed to jolt her out of bed.
 

This was not a good start to her practical exam. Her last chance. The professor was notoriously not too fond of slackers, and she knew he was not too fond of her to begin with, so she had definitely not done herself a favor.
 

The faint murmur of the others came through the curtain as she approached and all hopes of slipping in unnoticed faded away when everyone turned to stare at her with ice-cold gazes, the murmur seizing completely.
 

"I... I'm sorry to interrupt," Simone managed to mumble and she started tugging at her white coat, which was a bit too tight around her curvaceous figure, the awkwardness around her only growing more palpable.
 

"Well, Miss Lawrence, we were losing hope on having you join us in the exam today," the professor said monotonously, "I'm afraid we've just concluded our discussion here and we couldn't quite benefit from your doubtlessly valuable insights."
 

Simone's face turned crimson and she cringed inwardly as she heard the stifled giggles of the other students. No matter how hard she tried, she always seemed to be the object of ridicule, never quite being good enough, never managing to shine.
 

"Perhaps, if you decide to stick around after all," the professor continued, "you'd like to try your hand at reading the X-rays for the final diagnosis? Who would like to fill Ms. Lawrence in?"
 

Simone couldn't stand the smug tone of a tall, blond classmate who recited the patient's information in a high-pitched voice, so obviously superficially enthusiastic, she wondered if she was the only one about to gag. Failing to concentrate on the girl's endless display of well-mastered terminology and over-the-top medical jargon, Simone finally stole a glance at the patient.
 

The mountain of a man lay battered and heavily bandaged, his left leg propped up and wrapped in a thick cast. From the IV drip that connected to the crease of his arm, Simone could tell he was somewhat sedated, yet she inevitably experienced the familiar pang of guilt and embarrassment that the patient could hear their matter-of-fact chatter as if his pain and suffering was only there to facilitate the practical exam and he was nothing more than a subject in a scientific discussion. As her eyes traveled from the broken leg up to the exposed, massive chest of the man, and landed on his face, she took in a sharp breath and completely lost track of what her classmate was droning on about.
 

He was staring at her. Not just casually looking at her and moving on to another object in the room, but intensely scrutinizing her, his unusually dark, sparkling eyes fixed on her, unblinking and much too lucid for the strong sedatives he'd been given. She looked away, but still felt those eyes examining her as if she was the object of interest and not the other way around. She felt her heartbeat quicken and her face flush with uninvited warmth and once again wished she could be invisible. Was her bra showing? Or perhaps her hair looked funny? She hadn't had much time to get ready this morning and maybe her makeup looked clownish, rather than discreet.

To hide her embarrassment, Simone looked down at the clip chart and started reading. Brett Growley, 32. Victim of an avalanche. Severe instances of frostbite and several broken and fractured bones as per the initial consultation. She instantly pictured the horror of being buried in snow, with nowhere to move and nothing to do but await death. She felt a strong surge of compassion that only reinforced her belief that this was the right job for her. She was meant to help people. She was meant to be a doctor.
 

"Dr. Stein?" a nurse called out, her head poking in through the swinging door to the room. "The X-rays came back."
 

While the professor switched on the light on the wall screen and clipped the images, so that the light behind them brought life to the blur of black and white, Simone tensed up. It was her turn. It was now or never. She couldn't afford to make a mistake now or she had to kiss goodbye her entire career as a doctor.
 

"So, Miss Lawrence, would you care to begin?" the professor said lazily, already bored with the routine of dealing with graduates. "Tell us what you see."
 

Simone and the other five students lined up in front of the images and squinted at the screen, all of them looking lost in deep thought, but rather exhaling in relief that they weren't in Simone's place. What showed in the image was a complete mess. She took a deep breath, once again cursing the fact that she'd overslept, and finally voiced what everyone seemed to be thinking, but no one had the guts (or obligation) to say.

"I don't think this is the right image. There must have been a mistake at the lab," Simone almost whispered, her voice shaking.
 

"What? What do you mean? Let’s speed this up, I don't have all day. Tell me what you see and make a diagnosis." The professor didn't bother to look up from his tablet. Mentally, he was already somewhere else. Then he murmured under his nose, "God, the lengths these kids would go to..."

"I...," Simone started, but her voice caught in her now completely dry throat, "I don't think this is a human bone."

Chapter 3: Brett

A face slowly materialized through the fog that clouded Brett's head. A woman. She was leaning over him and it seemed like she was saying something, but her voice came through muffled, as if she was speaking underwater. With a sudden jolt, he stood up, disoriented and incredibly thirsty, but he slowly reclined back into the hospital room bed, the memory of where he was and why he'd ended up there gradually returning. The woman had jumped back, scared at his sudden movement.
 

"Mr. Growley? Mr. Growley, can you hear me?"

Finally, her face became clear and he saw with disappointment that she was not the girl he'd seen before he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Maybe he'd simply dreamed her, his tired mind reacting to the stress of having to find a mate by the end of the week and the realization that he was bound to a hospital bed.
 

The lady who stood above him now, smiling politely, was a chubby, middle-aged woman in a nurse's outfit.
 

"May I have a sip of water, please?" he groaned, as even the slight movement had brought a series of echoing pains in his limbs.
 

"Oh, sure, sure. Now that's a good sign," she smiled at him as if he was a little boy who'd eaten his vegetables. She fussed with a plastic cup and a straw and positioned it, so he could sip without moving his head.
 

"Now, Mr. Growley, I need you to sign a few forms before we can get started with the surgery."

"What forms? What surgery?" he gasped, starting up again, but the nurse placed her palm on his shoulder, gently pressing him back down on his pillows.
 

"I can't really say. You'll have to speak to your doctor. He'll be right in to explain everything, but it's just that we couldn't find any emergency contact for you and we need you or a relative to provide some information for us first."

Brett already knew there would be no surgery. He'd have to get out of there as soon as the nurse left the room. Despite the pain and the bruising all over his body, he knew that he'd already half recovered. Shifter bodies were nothing like humans'. His bones and tissues rebuilt themselves almost overnight, but he couldn't let anyone see this. He'd sworn to protect the secret of his kind while inhabiting the human world, and he intended to keep his vow, even if he was still in pain and not completely healed to run properly.
 

As he shifted in the bed, reciting a string of fake information for the nurse's records, the memory came flashing back. The obnoxious professor, the students, the exam, the endless staring at his beeping monitors and at the sheets in their clip charts, the girl who was late. The girl. He hadn't dreamed her after all. She'd been real and he had felt what he'd only heard about while still living with his clan - the immediate attraction, the longing, the aching need to possess her. He'd never thought he'd experience it for himself, but there it was, a crystal-clear sensation that he'd found the one in the most unlikely of places and circumstances. Only, she was lost to him now. Who knows how long he'd been asleep.
 

The last thing he remembered was the X-ray images the students' had discussed and then the empty room with only the girl, his girl, still lingering in the wake of the others, sobbing quietly.
 

He had been that close to being discovered. She'd announced in front of everyone that the X-ray image didn't show a human leg and it was true. While still rolling under layers upon layers of thick snow, he'd tried to shift into his bear form to protect himself against the powerful avalanche, but he'd only managed to partly shift his left leg before the final blow had hit him and almost paralyzed him. Now he was still too weak to shift back completely into his human, but apparently no one had noticed while stitching him up and placing the cast on his leg. Except for the girl. Of course, no one had believed her or even listened to what she'd been trying to explain. The professor had simply announced that he was sick of her little tricks and that she was clearly not suitable for a doctor with all her ridiculous antics. Apparently they'd later decided that image only showed excessive damage that needed immediate surgical intervention.
 

"Thank you, Mr. Growley," the nurse chimed in, "Oh, perfect! Here's Dr. Stein. He'll talk to you all about the surgery. I'll be around if you need me. Just press the buzzer."

Brett wasn't listening to the doctor. In fact, he could barely contain himself from bursting out on him for treating the girl so unfairly, clearly causing her pain.

"Excuse me, doctor," he finally interrupted him, when the annoying banter stretched on, eating away at his patience, "what was the name of that student who failed the exam?"

"I'm sorry?" Dr. Stein asked, slowly and arrogantly. "Mr. Growley, let's concentrate on getting you better, shall we?"
 

I'll just need to find another way
, Brett thought and closed his eyes, mentally switching off from the doctor's monologue. It was of no concern to him. He wasn't staying another minute in this place anyway. Well, perhaps he was staying the exact number of minutes he needed to pay someone to give him the only information he needed.

Chapter 4: Simone

"Are you serious?" Charles raged on, "How can you be so fucking irresponsible? It's your future, it's not like waking up to watch your stupid TV shows. Something you might be doing from now on while waiting for the social security checks to clear. I still can't believe you overslept."

"It's not like that," Simone said apologetically, "You weren't there. He'd already decided he was going to fail me and it didn't help much that I got the most obscure case. I'm telling you, I've never seen anything like it!"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep. I don't see how it's always you that gets the most
obscure
cases. At least own up to your failures."

"Come
on
, Charlie," Simone said, already starting to get annoyed with him for not even hearing her out. It had been the same with her mother. Of course, she was in pain for failing again. Of course she couldn't even bear thinking what she would do with her future now that the last chance at a career in medicine had slipped away in the most unexpected way. But the unfairness of it all was what made her insides boil with anger and all she wanted was to bury her face in a pillow and scream until she had no strength or voice left.
 

"Well, at least now you can finally start working out," Charles said after a while, returning to his laptop as if the conversation was over and he'd granted her a dismissal.
 

Why was he being such a jerk? It wasn't like he didn't have any decent source of money. She knew close to nothing about his family and their financial situation, but he was making enough on his own to support them both while she was finishing her studies. Why was he treating her all of a sudden as if her meager doctor's salary would be their sole income in the future? And most of all, why was he never taking her side and instead insisted on always making her feel like a loser?