Another background tale from the Starforce Saga. This story takes place a few years before Burden of Solace and features a couple of the characters from that book. You might even recognize an unnamed redheaded medical student in the beginning. 😉 This story answers Cassie's question from Burden - "Who's Gina?" It also features one of my favorite characters: Ironhorse. More about him later.
BTW, this story took 2nd place in the 2019 Writerwerx Short Story Contest.
In Vulnerable
by
Richard L. Wright
Nate’s thoughts blurred as they wheeled him
through the emergency room entrance. Hands pressed against his chest, urging
him to lay back down on the moving gurney. Concern etched the face of the young
redheaded woman as she looked him over, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Nate
tried to look around, hoping to see his father.
Where is he?
Was he sent to a different hospital?
“Please, sir,” the redhead insisted. “You need to
keep calm.”
“How is he still conscious?” Nate heard another
voice whisper. “I can’t imagine the pain.”
The small entourage that surrounded him banged
through one set of hallway doors after another, finally arriving in a room. Two
nurses and the petite redhead efficiently transferred his prone form to an
examining table. He looked to his right and saw Gina lying on the next table.
She met his eyes for a scant second and then cringed, looking away before
someone pulled the curtain between them. Over the chaos of activity, he
couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like she was crying.
“I keep telling you, I’m fine. Where’s my father?
Jim Gorman - big guy, early 60’s. Is he OK?”
The redhead exchanged looks with a paramedic as
she prepared an IV line and tied a length of soft rubber tubing around his
upper right arm. The paramedic shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’ll try to find
out. But, right now you need to let us worry about you. Now, you’re going to
feel a little stick. Hold very still.”
She positioned the needle against Nate’s skin.
“Good luck with that,” the paramedic snorted.
Nate watched as the needle bent, crumpling into a
zig-zag.
“Dammit,” she muttered under her breath. She detached
the ruined needle and tossed it into a red plastic container attached to the
wall, then reached for another IV set from a bin. Before she could rip open the
plastic bag, the paramedic laid a hand on hers.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “I wasted seven on him.
None of them went in.”
