equivoke (equivoke) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2017-09-18 10:16:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #september 2017, jane, jane x nicole |
Who: Nicole Thornton and OPEN Jane Randolph
When: Sunday, September 3. 7 AM
Where: Mercy Hospital, parking lot
Status: Complete
Warning: Mentions of domestic violence
Nicole stripped the cardboard sleeve off her to-go cup and tossed it into the nearby trashcan. Heat leached through the paper cup into her palms. She considered pressing the cup to her temple, but that seemed like a scalding accident about to happen and, besides, the cold morning air was proving beneficial.
According to her watch, she should've been off her shift an hour ago. If Margaret Rogan hadn't come in with a punctured lung, that might've been the case. Vivid images of the patient's injuries danced behind Nicole's closed eyes. She was no stranger to domestic violence—work enough ER shifts and you learn to spot the women who walked into doors—but what she'd seen in the early hours of that Sunday morning was unparalleled.
Peter Rogan hadn't been content using his fists. He'd broken furniture on his wife's back, thrown things at her—to say nothing of the stab wounds. She was lucky to be alive.
The latest prognosis put Margaret out of immediate danger. Heavily sedated, it would be a while yet before she could report her husband's treatment in all the relevant detail and get him thrown in prison. Which Nicole very much hoped was where he would remain for the rest of his miserable life.
She tempered the fury boiling in her chest with a scalding sip of coffee. The liquid burned her throat. Within seconds, she could feel its heat radiating through her skin, under her thin blue scrubs. The white coat she wore over them provided poor insulation against the early morning breeze, but the chill was a welcome relief. The view over the near-empty hospital parking lot helped distract her, particularly when a scrawny cat slithered out from behind a car and stopped to consider her.
Nicole narrowed her eyes. Was it—no. Couldn't be.
The cat perked its head up as if in recognition but took off before Nicole could get a better look. A beat later, the click of footfalls reached Nicole. She straightened on the bench and glanced up toward whoever had decided that a hospital visit at dawn was just the thing to do on a Sunday.