Sammie

Why does my head hurt?

As I regained consciousness, I flinched at the intense pounding reverberating in my skull. I felt like I had gone on an all-night bender and had forgotten to hydrate. The lights overhead burned my eyes even through the closed lids. I reached for the pillow behind me and placed it over my head to block out the light.

“Sammie! Are you awake?” Peeking out from under the pillow, I looked over to see my brother Benny sitting in the chair next to my hospital bed. As my head started to clear, I could feel the IV hooked up to my arm and a sensor hooked up on my finger. I could hear the beeping of the heart monitor.

“Did you get the license of the car that hit me?” I groaned. Slowly I started to remember the attack. I sat up and looked at the arm that the needle had gone into. A tiny pinpoint was all that was left. A wave of dizziness hit me and I fell back onto the bed.

“Careful, sis. You are still recovering.” Benny looked over to the doorway. “Dad and Pike are talking to the doctor.”

“Do they know what the drug in the needle was?”

“They think it was Midazolam with something else mixed in. A lot of the side effects you are experiencing seem to match.” Looking over to Benny, I sighed.

“Leave it to me to get caught up in something  like this. I should have been more careful.” Benny’s face darkened in anger.

“What do you mean? It’s not like you wanted something like this to happen. Put the blame on the people responsible.”

“What happened after I passed out?”

“Well, you remember that you called us?” I thought back to the attack, remembering that just before it I had tried to call my brother. “At first we thought you had accidently called us, but then we heard the attack through the speaker.” Benny pulled out his phone and pulled up an application. “Our GPS tracking app was on, so we used it to find you. Dad and Pike rushed after you while I settled the bill at Maddie’s and got the car in case we needed to get to the hospital quickly”

“So, it was Dad and Pike that got me here?”

“Actually…” As Benny hesitated, my father and Pike entered the room.

“Sammie, why didn’t you just wait from one of your brothers to take you home?” I looked up at my father’s twisted face. I could tell that he was scared and worried, but I couldn’t help but be frustrated.

“Why should I have to wait for someone to take me home?” I asked. “I’m a grown woman, not a child.”

“Dad didn’t mean it like that,” Pike interrupted. Rounding the bed, my brother grabbed my wrist, holding it and looking down at the one designer watch he owned. It seemed silly to me to take my pulse when there was already a machine hooked up to me. Still, Pike was the doctor, so I didn’t make too much of a fuss. Sighing I looked over to my father.

“I admit, they got the drop on me.” I shook my head. “I could tell those two were bad news at Maddie’s, but I made sure they didn’t follow me before I left.” It really sucked, but even I knew that a woman at night was never going to be as safe as a man no matter what self-defense or martial arts I knew. I leaned back. “I probably would have been fine if they hadn’t tried to drug me.”

“But they did,” his voice harsh with anger. “You got lucky that someone else was there to help.” I tried to keep my face relaxed, but I was startled. I had assumed that it was my family who had taken me to the hospital. I knew that I had a tracking app on my phone, and they were only a few blocks away. I had been able to knock the two men out. I thought back to the fight. My memories stopped soon after the injection, but I had a hazy memory of a person rushing over to me.

“Someone else was there?”

“Yeah, they took you to the hospital and stayed with you until we got here.” Benny said. “Dad and Pike had to talk to the police. You’ll probably get another commendation. There was a case open related to the kidnapping and murder of a woman and these two guys seem to be the perpetrators.”

“How unlucky for them. But who was the person who helped?” Suddenly memories started flooding back into my head. Getting up to use the restroom with a sheet over my head. Getting guided back to the bed by what I thought had been a nurse. Pulling him in for a… I blushed.

“Just a passerby. He left as soon as we got here.” Standing, Benny and Pike exchanged a look. “The police have his contact information.” I nodded. Dad tapped Benny on the shoulder. After he vacated the seat, my father sat down heavily, leaning back into the chair as if he was exhausted. My brothers said their goodbyes and left, pulling the door behind them.

From my father’s stoic expression, I knew that he was staying the night. The corner of my mouth twitched. Even though he had strong opinions of women in the security field, he was still a good man. It is one of the reasons why I stayed at Steele Security. I knew that it would take a while for him to unlearn the misogynistic behavior that was acceptable even ten years ago. It wasn’t that long ago that he refused to even hire me, but once he realized that I would do it anyway, he decided that it was better and safer for me to grow professionally where he could see me. We had butted heads a lot, but at the end of the day, he didn’t hold me back from anything I was qualified for. Even if the dad side of him hated the danger it would put me in.

“Hey, Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” I stared down at my hands. I could have stayed in the hospital by myself, but it was still good to have someone I trusted with me.

“You know, you are always going to be my little girl, even till you’re sixty.” Tossed him one of my pillows.

“That chair folds out to a bed, you should get some sleep.”

“I’m fine.”

“Don’t be stubborn. Your back will thank me in the morning.” We spent the net few minutes trying to open up the chair and still needed help from one of the night nurses to get it ready. After finding out my father was staying the night, the nurse went to get some sheets and blankets. It was a good thing the nurse was strong because the lever to open the chair was stuck.

We both settled in for the night and slept until morning. When the sun rose, my brother Pike came in to check on us before his shift. My father looked a bit haggard. It was obvious that the sleeping chair was not as comfortable as it looked.

“I’m going to head home and clean up, Sammie,” he murmured before giving me a quick peck on the forehead.

“She should be able to be discharged later today.” After my father left, Pike turned to me. “Benny said he’d pick you up later today. I asked my fiancé to pack up some of your clothes.”

“Thanks, I wasn’t looking forward to having to wear the dress from yesterday.”

“I hate to tell you this, but it got ripped.” I cursed under my breath. I didn’t have many dresses and the idea of having to buy a new one gave me a headache. Pike continued, “after you get out, you’ll have to go to the police station to give a statement.”

“They’re going to have to find me a desk with the number of times I’ve had to go there in the last few days.”

“You do seem to be having a string of bad luck.” There was some movement in the hallway before the door opened revealing the hospital breakfast cart. “I’ll let you eat. I need to get to the ER anyway.”

“Thank you, Pike.” I called after him. The orderly set a tray with some scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, toast, milk and a box of apple juice. I dug into my meal, wishing I had a cup of coffee, but I didn’t have the heart to send an orderly to get one. The doctor’s came in to let me know the results of the tests from last night and the side effects of the drugs I had been injected with. From what they said, I probably didn’t have anything to worry about, but they did suggest I come back in a few weeks for some common tests. They couldn’t be sure that the needle was sterilized.

Benny came just before lunch with a bag of clothes for me. I used the hospital shower to get dressed while the nurse brought my discharge paperwork. Once I had that, Benny escorted me to his care and took me to the police station for my statement. I could tell some of the officers remembered me, but the officer in charge of the case was already waiting for my statement. We were in and out pretty quickly.

Benny dropped me off at home and I decided to lay down and rest.