Blood rushed towards Lydia’s face and she smiled down at me. “I love you too.”
Someone else in the room cleared their throat. My bear went on high alert and I searched for the intruder that had ruined our moment. I let out a low growl in warning.
A small brunette wearing a lab coat stood at the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said a little flustered. Lydia stood up from the bed and smiled. “Oh no, it’s fine. Shane, this is Dr. Evans. She has been taking care of you since you arrived.”
Dr. Evans walked toward me and offered her hand. I could sense easily that she was human. I took her hand and she gave me a genuine smile.
“It’s nice to see you finally awake, Shane,” Dr. Evans said. “You’ve been out for several hours now.”
“It’s nice to be awake again,” I said. “Have you figured out what’s going on with me?”
Dr. Evans dropped her hand and looked at the chart that she was holding in her arms.
“We’ve run some tests, but we haven’t figured out yet what caused you to pass out like you did and have seizures. I want to keep you here for a few days while we run some more tests to figure out what happened.”
I looked over to Lydia’s face. She immediately understood my concern. “They’ve just taken your blood so far,” Lydia told me.
“That’s right,” Dr. Evans said. “I think it was an allergic reaction to something you ate, but what concerns me are the seizures.”
“Have I had any more since I arrived?”
“No, but you were on the brink of one late last night. Our monitors were able to catch it before it happened and we were able to stop it. Because of that, I do want to keep watch over you in case you have one while we run some more tests on your blood.”
I nodded. Being on the police force, I had developed good judgment of character. I always seemed to be able to spot who was being truthful and who was not. It was as if they had a smell come off them when they were trying to lie. Dr. Evans seemed completely genuine. From the way she spoke, it seemed that she was truly concerned about me and that she wanted to pinpoint the reason for the seizures. She might be someone that I could trust.
“Thanks for looking out for me, Dr. Evans,” I said.
“It’s my pleasure. I just came in because the machines alerted us that you were finally awake. I just want to check in on some vital signs.”
Lydia squeezed my hand again and walked back to her chair. Dr. Evans walked up and used her stethoscope to check my heart rate and blood pressure. When she was finished, she grabbed her chart and scribbled down some notes.
“Everything seems right on track here. I’m going to order some more tests on your blood, and once I have the results, I’ll let you know. Hopefully this all was just an allergic reaction and nothing more serious. In the meantime, try and get some rest.”
“Thanks, Dr. Evans,” Lydia said.
“You’re welcome, Mrs. McAbbot.” She walked out of the hospital room. Lydia walked back up to the bed and sat down.
I moved my body over so that Lydia could lay down and I could wrap my arms around her.
“I kind of like the ring of Mrs. McAbbot,” I said as I nuzzled Lydia’s neck. She laughed.
“I kind of like it too.”
Chapter 13
Lydia
I opened my eyes and realized that I was still wrapped in Shane’s arms in the tiny hospital bed. I leaned back and heard Shane sigh behind me.
“We must have fallen asleep,” he said gruffly.
I pulled up my wrist to check the time. My watch said 6:00 pm.
“Yeah, apparently, we did. We needed it though, after the late night we had.”
I sat slowly up from the bed and turned to look at Shane. I had never been more scared than when Shane had collapsed in front of me. By the time the ambulance arrived, he was completely unresponsive no matter how hard I had hit and shook him. Tears were streaming down my face as the EMTs lifted him up on the gurney and placed him inside. I immediately hopped in after and bit back the scream in my throat once his seizure started.
I did not calm down until Dr. Evans assured me that Shane would truly be fine. Deep down, I knew that I probably should not have trusted Dr. Evans, but something about her seemed truthful. She wasn’t malicious toward Shane in any way and acted as though she cared for his well-being. Going into this undercover job, I was extremely nervous that no one would actually help Shane once he was sick, however, Dr. Evans exceeded my expectations. I trusted her, and hoped that my trust would not end up misplaced.
“As much as I hate to see you leave, I need you to go walk around a little bit and see what you can find,” Shane said, pulling me from my thoughts. A small knot of nerves formed in my stomach. How would I be able to find anything?
“What do you want me to do? Just wander around the hospital?”
Shane rubbed my back slowly. “Basically yes. See if you can find any other family members of patients that you can talk to.”
I nodded as I moved my legs over and pushed myself up off the small hospital bed. I looked back at Shane and tried to hide the concern from my face. A part of me did not want to leave Shane here alone. While I did trust Dr. Evans, I was not sure about the rest of the staff at the hospital.
“Are you sure it’s safe to leave you here alone?”
Shane smiled and nodded. “I can handle my own if something happens. Just be on alert for anything suspicious. If you start to feel unsafe, come back here or go directly to your brother.”
I nodded and felt the pit in my stomach ease. At least the rest of the Portland PD was close by in case anything happened. I just hoped that I would be able stop anything bad from happening to Shane.
I leaned down and kissed Shane passionately. His hands reached up and ran through my long hair. God, I loved how he made me feel.
I broke the kiss, knowing that if it continued, I would be in the hospital room with Shane a lot longer than we had planned.
***
I walked down the hospital corridor. I absolutely hated hospitals. The thick, sterile scent permeated my senses and I took a breath, in hoping to force the nauseous feeling to pass. I needed to find something on the hospital that would tie them to everything. But what the hell was I even supposed to be looking for? I wasn’t a cop so I certainly had never done any investigative work before. Truthfully, I had no idea where to even begin to look.
I walked up toward an empty waiting room and plopped down in the nearest chair in frustration. How was I supposed to do this? Without thinking, I pulled out my phone and texted Marco.
What should I even be looking for here?
Lydia, why the hell are you texting me now?
I rolled my eyes. Marco was always so overprotective sometimes. His phone number was not saved on my burner phone, so it wasn’t like there was some big neon sign over my head alerting everyone that I was undercover.
I just need some help. Tell me what to look for.
Fine. Look for anything out of the ordinary. If something seems off to you, tell your hubs about it.
I let out a small chuckle. Thinking of Shane as my husband was just too surreal. What surprised me the most, is that I kind of liked it. Being with him almost 24/7 for the last couple of weeks had made us very close. Not to mention that I completely fell for him. He had broken down any walls that I put up to make the outside world believe that I was strong. He was mine and always would be.
I put my phone back in my purse and set off to find something out of the ordinary.
Near the waiting room was a quiet hallway. I turned down the corridor, gently pushed open the double doors, and acted like I knew where I was headed so none of the staff would question me. Everything around me seemed eerily quiet, which sent chills up my spine.
I looked around and realized that this hallway was almost deserted compared to the corridor that Shane was in. There, everything was buzzing with nurses and doctors taking care of patients. In the hallway I was in, all the staff seemed to
be gone. What was even stranger, was that there were no family members around. In Shane’s hallway, you passed by at least two loved ones every way you turned. Here it was like a dead zone.
I walked up to a closed door and peeked in through the small window on the door. Inside was a patient that seemed to be sleeping. I looked back and forth to ensure I was the only one around and quietly slipped inside.
Inside was a woman who was slightly older than me. She had long blond hair that was almost white and pale skin. She seemed to be asleep so I walked up quietly to her bedside. At the foot of the woman’s bed was her chart. I grabbed it and started flipping through the pages.
Most of it was nonsense because I wasn’t a doctor, but a few words jumped out at me from the pages. “Medically induced coma” and “remain asleep while undergoing tests” sent my heart racing. I quickly put the chart down and noticed that the woman was hooked up to an IV drip. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of the IV bag knowing that I would never remember the name of the drug on the bag and then quickly slipped out of the room.
Chapter 14
Shane
I sighed in relief when Lydia left the hospital room. I didn’t want to see her panic while I tried to figure out what was in my IV drip. I didn’t want another reason for her to be concerned about me.
I moved my body over to the side and strained myself to look up at the IV bag. I spotted the word saline and let out a breath. Saline was a pretty normal IV drip. At least the hospital wasn’t pumping me up with some horrible drug.
I relaxed a little and wondered how I could figure out what was truly going on. Maybe I could sneak out late tonight and look into things? With how weak my body felt though, I wasn’t even sure I could stand, let alone sneak around the hospital.
Just as I was about to get up and test my legs, the door opened and a younger gentleman in a lab coat walked in.
“Hi Shane, I’m Dr. Tyson.”
I looked at his face, confused.
“Isn’t my doctor Dr. Evans?”
Dr. Tyson smiled and nodded. “Yes, but Dr. Evans is a bit busy with some other patients right now, so she had me come in here to get some more information for your tests.”
I studied Dr. Tyson’s face. He was thin with a nasal tone to his voice, and for some reason, he seemed to put off a strange vibe. My bear shifted uneasily underneath my skin. I sat up in the bed and wished that I had some sort of weapon to defend myself.
“Sure, what information do you need?
Dr. Tyson walked over to the chair Lydia was sitting in earlier and sat down. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and opened up his manila folder and looked up at me.
“I just have some routine questions for you to answer.” Dr. Tyson looked back down at his folder.
“What type of shifter are you?”
I growled lightly. I tightened my jaw to keep my cool and to control my bear. Why did he need to know about what kind of shifter I am?
“I’m a grizzly bear.”
“And have you always been a grizzly bear? Or were you turned?”
Turned? I had never heard of anyone being turned into a shifter before. As far as I knew, we were all born that way. I could feel my bear just underneath the surface of my skin. Ready to come out in case I needed to defend myself.
“I don’t think it’s possible to turn someone, doc, I’ve always been a shifter.”
Dr. Tyson looked up at me and gave me a condescending smile, and turned back to his notes.
“Can you describe what happens when you shift?”
Anger started to bubble up inside my chest. The only reason this so-called doctor needed any of this information was to gain more knowledge on shifters.
“Sorry, doc, but what does any of this have to do with why I’m here?”
Dr. Tyson looked back up at me with a fake smile.
“It has to do with everything, Mr. McAbbot. We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with, in order to have the best possible treatment plan.”
Treatment plan my ass, I thought. This doctor was just fishing for information.
“Isn’t this a shifter hospital? So, shouldn’t you know already what you’re dealing with?”
“Well, yes, we are, however, we always aim to learn more about our clientele so that we can better assist them in their healing process.”
“Well, this is starting to sound more like a survey about being a shifter, rather than information about me that could help Dr. Evans figure out what happened.”
The fake smile plastered on Dr. Tyson’s face faltered. I gave him a triumphant smile. While other patients might have been more than happy to give up that information, I was not going to be so easy.
Dr. Tyson closed his manila folder and placed his pen back in his pocket. “I am sorry you feel that way Mr. McAbbot. I will alert Dr. Evans about the information you provided, and maybe she can convince you to finish answering the rest of the questions. I will advise Dr. Evans to continue on with the tests she has scheduled and hopefully when you are feeling better, you might reconsider providing us with the answers to these questions.”
Dr. Tyson gave me another condescending smile and got up and quickly left the room.
It wasn’t until the door closed that I realized I could have just pissed off the wrong person at the hospital.
Chapter 15
Lydia
The more rooms I entered, the more worried I became. The last four patient rooms all had shifters in medically induced comas according to their charts. They each had the same IV bag hooked up to them, and it was becoming disconcerting that none of these patients seemed to have any family by their sides. If one of my loved ones had been placed in a coma, I would have been right there with them throughout the whole process.
I turned down another hallway and was surprised to hear voices coming from an open door to a patient’s room. With how empty this wing was, I decided that them spotting me would probably not be the best thing. I walked up to the door quietly and tried my best to listen in on the conversation.
“The results from the last several tests have been the same,” a younger male voice said.
“We need to issue more tests, because we should not be getting the same result each time. Continue the anesthetic to keep the patient under so that we can run a more rigorous test on his system,” a nasal voice said.
“Don’t we run the risk of heart failure?” the younger voice said.
“Of course, we do. I would like to see what it would take to get to that point.” The nasal voice said.
I felt all the blood drain from my face. The hospital was testing on shifters by placing them in comas and playing it off as something that they were forced to do in order to heal the patient. How had no one figured this out yet? Where were all the loved ones?
I slipped away from the door before the voices inside could notice that I was listening to them. I had to get back to Shane—and quickly—to let him know what I had overheard so we could form a plan.
I rushed down the corridor back toward Shane’s room. When I reached Shane’s door, I stopped short and looked over at the nurse’s station. It was completely deserted. What if Shane was on track to be one of the next patients moved to that wing? I had to find Shane’s file to make sure he wasn’t prepped to head there.
I walked up to the station quietly and leaned over the counter. There, in a pile, I noticed a file folder with Shane McAbbot written on the tab. I looked around to make sure no one would spot me and grabbed the file and rushed back over to Shane’s room.
I burst through the door, and Shane sat up quickly as I entered, smiling brightly. His smile turned to concern when he noticed the panicked look on my face.
“What happened?”
I quickly opened his medical folder and scanned it. I paced back and forth in the small hospital room as I tried to understand what all the papers in the folder said.
Shane reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me from pacing again.
“
Lydia, what is going on?”
I looked up with concern in my eyes, feeling them start to water. Shane gently tugged my arm and pulled me closer to the bed.
“Shh, baby, don’t cry. Tell me what happened.”
I took a shaky breath and sat down on the bed. “We have to get you out of here, Shane. There’s a whole wing of this hospital where shifters are placed in medically induced comas. It was so strange because none of their family members were there with them. They were all alone in those rooms and so vulnerable.”
“Did you see or hear anything else?”
“I overheard a couple of doctors speaking about keeping the shifters under for longer because they kept receiving the same test results. They wanted to conduct a more rigorous test on them to change the outcome. They even mentioned heart failure and one doctor said he would like to see what it took to get to that point.”
“What’s this file that you are holding?” Shane asked and pointed to the folder.
“It’s yours,” I sighed. “I had to make sure that they weren’t sending you to that wing, but none of these papers make any sense to me.”
Shane reached for the file. “Let me take a look.”
“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, Shane. It’s not like it is going to say ‘move him over to our secret program.’ It just said that several more tests were ordered.”
“Who were the tests ordered by?”
I looked back down at the folder, and looked back up confused. “I thought your doctor was Dr. Evans?”
Furever Always (Furever Series) Page 49