Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  Chapter 9

  Joe bit back a yawn as she watched Donny cautiously approach the small sleeping figure curled up on one of the two twin beds in the small and rather depressing room. Her eyes darted to the other twin bed and noted that it was stripped. No roommate in her opinion was a good thing since they usually got in the way. She really hated it when they tried to "help."

  "He's engaged," Eric whispered in her ear as they waited for Donny to grow a pair of balls and wake the guy up. He was adding way too much drama to the situation and was bound to agitate the patient.

  "So?" she whispered softly, keeping her eyes on the patient.

  She could practically feel Eric roll his eyes behind her. "So, I don't think his fiancé would appreciate you going out for a steak dinner with him," he explained softly near her ear.

  Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "He's not buying me a steak dinner tonight."

  "Good."

  "You are."

  His answer was an amused snort. "Good luck with that, sweetheart."

  "Keep it up and I'll be adding an appetizer and a dessert to my list of demands," she whispered softly back.

  He was quiet for a moment. She assumed that he was probably wondering when this guy was going to get around to talking to the patient instead of standing there shifting nervously near the bed.

  "Are you planning to put out?" he whispered, his warm breath teasing her ear and neck, sending goose bumps racing along her skin.

  It was a little unnerving that she almost shouted, god yes. Her reactions to him were seriously starting to creep her out a bit. This was Eric, her best friend, the guy she'd grown up with and most likely the guy she'd fight with over the last tapioca pudding in fifty years at whatever nursing home was stupid enough to accept both of them.

  She needed a real vacation, some rest and she definitely needed to start dating again. That was the only explanation for her reactions to him. It had been way too long since the last time she'd been with a man. Was it May or June of last year that she ended things with that cop from Northville? A year and a half without sex was obviously making her crazy.

  Okay, so in all fairness she'd been aware of Eric that way for far longer than a year and a half. What heterosexual woman in her right mind wouldn't be? He was devastatingly handsome in that bad boy way that she really liked. He was also smart, funny and great to be around. If he wasn't her best friend she would-

  There was no use finishing that train of thought. The fact was he was her best friend and nothing more. Not that she wanted things to change. She didn't. She loved that they were comfortable with each other and could tell each other everything. He was her rock and if he was anything more than her best friend she'd be lost. He was the guy she bitched to, not about.

  "Only if you let me get ice cream with my dessert," she countered back softly, forcing her mind to jump back into the rhythm of their relationship and stay there.

  Eric let out a disappointed sigh. "Damn, if only you weren't a little gold digger."

  "If only," she mumbled distractedly as she watched Donny finally grow a pair and approach the patient. Of course his willingness to get it over with might have something to do with Tyler standing next to him looking pissed. No doubt he was.

  "Adam, you need to wake up and take your pills," Donny said nervously.

  "No," Adam said firmly as he rolled over to glare at Donny.

  One look at the man that instilled fear in everyone in the house left her a little confused. He was small, smaller than her and thin. Granted she knew that didn't always mean the person was weak, but seriously this guy had a man the size of a football player quaking in his drawers.

  Did he have a history with weapons? Fire? Mutilation? It really would have been nice if they'd given them a little heads up, but then again the patient wasn't technically their patient yet and that meant they had no legal rights to his medical records. Apparently they were just here to scare the hell out of him into taking his pills and hope he didn't flip out in the process.

  This plan sucked.

  "Adam-"

  "I SAID GO AWAY!" Adam bellowed as he jumped to his feet on his bed and swung at Donny, who thankfully stumbled back in surprise seconds earlier.

  "Oh my god!" Donny cried as he ran from the room, leaving the three of them to deal with him.

  Great. Just great.

  "Relax," Tyler said in a soothing tone.

  Adam looked like he was about to say something when his eyes landed on them. He gestured at them wildly as he shifted from foot to foot on his bed. "I'm not going with you!" he screeched.

  Without a word they both stepped forward and broke off to flank the officer. Joe moved to Tyler's right, keeping her hands loose by her sides and visible and without looking she knew Eric was doing the same.

  They learned long ago that approaching a combative patient with your palms up was a bad idea. Most people probably thought the gesture was placating, but in reality it usually put people on the defensive pretty quickly. In a stressful situation like this one it could be taken as a defensive stance and the last thing any of them wanted at the moment was to make this guy feel like he needed to protect himself.

  "Adam?" she said, keeping her tone friendly. "My name's Joe. Do you know why we were called tonight?"

  Adam's eyes darted cautiously over the two men. "You're here to take me back to the hospital. I'm not going! I haven't done anything wrong!" he said, shifting again.

  She shook her head. "No, we weren't called to transport you."

  "You're lying!"

  "I promise you that we were not called to transport you tonight. We were actually called because the staff here isn't sure if you've been taking your pills."

  His eyes shifted to her quickly before shifting back to Tyler and Eric. "They're lying. I've been taking my pills."

  "Did you take them tonight?" Eric asked.

  "Yes!" Adam said without any hesitation.

  "No, you didn't, Adam," Donny scolded from the doorway, obviously feeling braver with the three of them separating him from Adam. "You refused your pills tonight."

  "Shut up!" Adam screamed, taking a threatening step towards Donny. Joe automatically shifted to the right to block the man. "I took my pills!"

  "No, you didn't take your pills, Adam, and if you don't take them they're going to-"

  "Stop," Joe said firmly, cutting off Donny's threat. She kept her eyes locked on Adam who now looked tensed and ready for an attack. "We're not going to do anything. We were simply asked to come here and see if you've taken your pills."

  Adam snorted. "They don't send the police or an ambulance over pills."

  "You're right. They shouldn't have called us over this," Eric said, no doubt giving Donny a pointed look.

  "Why don't we go downstairs and sit down and talk this through?" Tyler offered.

  Adam looked like he was considering it when Donny opened his mouth. "He's not allowed out of his room. He's on room restriction because of the pills," he pointed out.

  "I took my pills!" Adam screeched, leaping from the bed to attack Tyler. It took Joe a few seconds to react. She honestly hadn't seen this coming. She'd been prepared to take him to the ground, but for an attack on Donny who couldn't seem to shut the hell up.

  "Shit!" Eric snapped as he attempted to pull Adam away from Tyler, but the much smaller man wouldn't give up his hold. He swung, kicked, and bit Tyler while Eric struggled to pull him off.

  Joe moved low and grabbed Adam's legs, hugging them close, ignoring the brutal kicks to her ribs and stomach. "Get him down!" she yelled, squeezing Adam's legs together before she dropped her weight to help bring him down, but only managed to anchor his legs against her.

  "Oh my God, he's got a gun!" Donny screeched from the hallway.

  Her eyes shot to the doorway in time to see Donny running down the hall, shoving patients and staff out of his way while he made a mad dash to safety. The rest of their audience wasn't too far behind.

  "Someone call for b
ackup!" Tyler demanded above her. She turned her head and felt her eyes widen as she watched both Tyler and Eric struggle to pull Adam's hands away from Tyler's holstered gun.

  "Get out of here, Joe!" Eric yelled as he struggled to take Adam to the ground and away from the gun.

  Joe would have rolled her eyes at his over protectiveness if they weren't busy at the moment.

  "Let go!" Tyler groaned as he worked at tearing Adam's hands off his gun.

  Somehow over the loud grunts and panting she heard the snap of Tyler's gun holster giving.

  "Shit!"

  "Run, Joe!" Eric yelled again, sending her a pleading look as he fought to keep Adam's fingers away from the trigger as he started to pull the gun away from the holster.

  She couldn't run and leave him. At that moment she was more afraid of what would happen to Eric if she let go of Adam's legs and ran.

  "Get the fuck out of here, Joe!" Eric bellowed.

  Holding Adam's legs down was the only thing stopping him from kicking away and getting his hands on the gun sooner, but Joe knew it was only a matter of time before he managed to pull the trigger and shoot someone. He was out of control, acting feral, and the two large well trained men above her were having a hell of a time getting him under control. If they didn't do something soon he was going to get that gun clear and pull the trigger.

  "Please, Joe, let go!" Eric pleaded, breaking her heart.

  She knew he wanted her to run and save herself, but she couldn't do it. She wasn't on some bravery kick. No, she was absolutely terrified. She couldn't leave this room and leave him behind. Joe was scared out of her mind that if she left now she would never see him again and she couldn't risk that. She didn't know much, but she knew she couldn't live without Eric.

  Taking a deep breath, she did what she had to do. She let go and in the next second she shoved to her feet, hard. Adam hadn't been prepared for her sudden movement and Joe used his surprise to break his hold on the gun with her head and shoulders, slightly cringing when her head slammed into the butt of the gun, but she didn't stop until she broke Adam's hold.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  As Tyler stumbled back, Adam turned his anger on her. With a feral screech he pulled back his fist and slammed it into the side of her face, knocking her back onto the ground.

  Just as she prepared herself for another strike Adam released a cry of pain and was slammed down to the ground with his arms twisted behind his back. She absently wiped at the hot liquid dripping near her eye as she watched Eric place a knee in the middle of Adam's back, ignoring the smaller man's cry of pain he leaned in to whisper near his ear.

  "If you ever touch her again I will fucking kill you," he said in a cold lethal tone that sent chills down her back. "You so much as look at her and I will kill you."

  Adam squeezed his eyes shut so he wasn't looking at her. She might have laughed if she wasn't truly frightened. She'd never seen Eric like this before and was a little worried about what he might do.

  "I got him," Tyler said, gesturing for Eric to move over. After a slight hesitation he moved off Adam, but held his arms back so he couldn't move. He looked over at her and frowned.

  "Joe?"

  "Huh?" she said in a daze. When had she closed her eyes? And when exactly had her head started to pound?

  "Gets a couple of head injuries and she passes out," she heard Eric mumble. "Such a girl."

  Chapter 10

  "I want him written up!" the social worker demanded, again.

  Eric ignored her as Bill tried to calm her down. He didn't give a rat's ass what they did to him. The only thing he cared about at the moment was behind those double gray doors, being examined.

  He rubbed a shaky hand over his face. She'd really scared the hell out of him tonight. Over the years they'd been in more fucked up situations than he could count, but none of them like tonights.

  When that little bastard went after Tyler's gun he swore his heart stopped. The only thing he could think of was getting Joe out of there before he pulled the trigger. Any other woman would have made a run for it, but had Joe?

  Oh hell no, not miss, "I'm one of the guys." She not only stayed, but she just had to risk her life. That damn gun could have easily gone off when she decided to use her body to knock Adam's hands away.

  He dropped his face into his hands. He did not want to think about how close he came to losing her. What in the hell had she been thinking? It had been sheer luck that the gun hadn't gone off when she slammed into Adam's hands.

  It was fucking selfish, that's what it was. She could have gotten herself killed and left him all alone. Did she even think about what her dying would do to him?

  No.

  It was so fucking important to her to be one of the guys that she never once stopped to think how it would affect him if something happened to her. If something happened to her he would-

  "The three of them attacked him! He was forced to defend himself," the social worker declared loudly, drawing the attention of everyone in the crowded waiting room.

  "Ma'am, you don't know the full story," Bill said, keeping his tone polite, but Eric knew the man was pissed. Not even an hour ago he'd been in the nurses' break room when Bill stormed into the room after seeing Joe and slammed the door shut. Then for good measure he kicked a few chairs across the room.

  After a rather loud shouting match between them and two nurses running away from the room in a panic they calmed down enough for him to tell Bill what went down. Hearing what happened only seemed to enrage the man more and set off another bout of chair kicking.

  Eric would have joined him if a doctor hadn't shown up at that moment to ask about Joe's closest relative, nearly taking twenty years off his life. After explaining that they needed permission to treat her because she was still unconscious he reluctantly explained that she didn't have any relatives.

  He certainly didn't count her mother since no one had seen or heard from her in almost fifteen years. When the doctor refused to explain what was wrong or what they needed to do, he of course lied and told him that he was Joe's medical proxy. Although technically it wasn't lying since they had filled out the paperwork, but they forgot to have it notarized.

  It took a few minutes of arguing and Bill flat out lying to back him up to convince the doctor, but finally he relented. They'd already ruled out a spinal injury as well as a skull fracture, but he was positive she had a concussion and they required permission to treat the deep gash along her temple. He quickly gave it and obediently followed a nurse to the waiting area to fill out her paperwork.

  The paperwork hadn't provided the distraction he needed. In less than five minutes he had it filled out and returned to the triage station. He'd hoped it would take longer so he didn't have to think about Joe being helpless and alone.

  "I know that three so called professionals took it upon themselves to gang up on a helpless man," she said with an indignant sniff. "Thanks to their brutal tactics that poor man is in there getting his broken arm fixed."

  Yeah, he broke the little bastard's arm. Did he care? Not one fucking bit. He knew without a doubt that if the little bastard had gotten his hand on the gun he would have shot them and everyone in that house. Throw in the fact that he'd attacked Joe when she was bleeding and down and would have probably killed her with his bare hands if Eric hadn't grabbed him then he would say the guy had got off pretty lucky.

  "If they'd done their jobs properly my client would not be-"

  "And if you had done your job," Eric snapped, sick of her bullshit, as he got to his feet, "then you would have known that facility was not providing him with proper care and that he needed a medical intervention. If you had done your fucking job we wouldn't be here right now and my partner and an officer would not be stuck in this hospital getting patched up."

  Tyler had suffered dozens of bites, scratches, and punches requiring god only knows how many stitches and shots. By the time backup had arrived he'd looked like he went ten rounds with a tiger
.

  "Eric," Bill said tightly, "I'll handle this."

  "How dare you?" the social worker hissed. "It's not my fault that my client was attacked. He has several neurological problems and you were well aware of that fact. You knew he has bipolar and schizophrenia! Knowing that you should have-"