The work of the day at the hospital had been hectic. Johanna ran from one patient to another. Every doctor on the floor, she was stationed at wanted her help. She decided to relax on her brief lunch break in the cafeteria. She drank soda alongside her meal, when a friendly face stood in front of her, "May I join you?" he asked in a friendly manner. She looked up from her food and saw that it was Dominic. "Whoa! Hello, handsome,” she thought lustfully at the sight of him. He was exceptionally handsome. "Have your seat,” she said as she pointed to the chair opposite her.
"Thank you. So, how have you been?" Dominic began. "Well, we are still living life as it comes, just like before,” Johanna replied before continuing her meal, enjoying the garden salad and grilled cheese sandwich she was having.
"How is Brandon coming along? Is he getting any better?" Brandon asked for courtesy's sake.
At that point, Johanna stopped eating her meal and fastened her gaze on him, "That's what baffles me the most. The doctor had clearly stated that it would take quite a long time for his injuries to heal, but his recovery rate is out of this world. He is healing up fast,” she responded.
"Really?" Dominic asked. He was interested already.
"There was this day he had a cut on his cheek while shaving, I helped him clean the blood and in no time at all, we couldn't find the place that bled anymore,” she continued.
Dominic couldn't find the right reason for this and simply said, "It could be all the drugs he was taking that caused his antibodies to be acting really fast. And for the cut, it might have been a minor one.”
"That's true. I have been wanting to ask, how is your mom?"
"She is good. Having a swell time in the countryside,” he said as he relaxed his back on the chair.
"Katarina came home yesterday," Johanna said, and this caught Dominic’s attention. He grimaced as he responded "Really? What does she want?"
"What do you mean what does she want. She is still my sister,” Johanna responded.
"Don't get me wrong. I’m sorry. I didn't mean any harm. Hopefully, she’s cool,” he said.
He had met Kat a few months ago, before she disappeared and almost dated her, but as luck would have it, he noticed she was more of a foe than a friend and decided to pass up the offer. Despite the fact that he had told Johanna almost everything about himself, he didn’t tell her about this particular situation because he felt there wasn't really anything to talk about. Which grown man talks about his crushes?
"Hey, you look stunning and very handsome today. What's the occasion?" Johanna asked, placing both of her hands on the table.
"Is it that obvious?" he asked, embarrassed. "Sure it is,” she replied. The word handsome seemed special after Johanna had said it, over his long years of being in love with Johanna; she had rarely used that word to describe him.
"So, are you going to tell me what the special occasion is?" she persisted.
"Okay, fine. I want to ask Theresa out on a date. I want to see how things will go with her.” There was something that had caught his attention about her, so he decided to take the chance to get to know her better.
"Whoa!" Johanna shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention in the cafe. She was happy for him, it was about time for Dominic to move on from the far away dream he was chasing. He should give time to someone who is available. She was married, and she would never waver in her marriage, no matter how bad things turned out to be, let alone now that her marriage was at its best.
"I hope things go well for both of you,” she said.
"Thanks. So…” he wanted to continue when Johanna checked her time and cut in "Oh! It's time to get back to the grind.” She didn't feel like going back to work, but she had to. She missed her husband who she had only left some few hours ago, it was the first time she was missing him. She wondered what he did without her. He was something amazing, something she wouldn't have imagined him to be in her wildest dreams. "Good luck with Theresa,” she wished as she got up to leave, smiling.
She walked down the hallway towards the elevator; she was going to the third floor to check up on a patient that was admitted in the morning with a gunshot wound. He refused to be treated and stated that he didn't want any trouble and just want to get treated, which confirmed the suspicion of the doctors that he was up to no good. He asked to be taken to a secluded ward out of the sight of other patients. As an expedient, the hospital had alerted the police station, and an officer was sent to bring the patient in for questioning after getting treatment. It was part of the health profession oath not to turn away any patient who needed treatment, regardless of who they were.
She was the nurse that was placed in charge of the patient. Johanna got to the room and knocked on the door before she turned the knob to enter. The man turned and turned on the bed, groaning in pain. He had been shot in his shoulder and he had pieces of broken glass in his skin, which the doctor in charge successfully removed and stitched. The doctor was surprised when he saw the kind of bullet that had entered into the man's body, though he had been treated to the point that he would heal. The bullet was one the hospital as a whole had never seen before. The doctor following years of treating patients with bullet wounds in the army told the nurses and other resident doctors that the bullet was usually found in silencer used by certain units in the army.
Characteristic of Johanna, she put on a big smile and a friendly way of communication, which she had fondly termed “The Happy Show” among other nurses that commended her for it. As she entered the room, where the man seemed to be in no mood to joke around. "How are you doing?" She asked the man, placing her hands on his forehead to check if he had a fever. He grumbled and ached in pain as he held his left shoulder tight. "You have to rest well. Do you mind trying to have a bit of something?" "No, I don't,” he replied, taking a moment to think about it.
"Good thinking. Eating well will make you get better sooner,” she said. "What name do you go by? I feel uncomfortable not knowing your name,” she continued.
"You can call me Henry,” he answered almost immediately.
"Good, Henry. I'm Johanna your nurse and I will make sure you are comfortable during your stay here, okay? I will be back in a jiffy. Let me grab you something to eat,” she said and then left the room.
While she left, Johanna noticed a tattoo on his arm. She hurried to the front desk to catch her breath. She remembered that she had seen a similar tattoo with another patient. She held her head to remember the doctor that handled the case, "Yes, it was Dr. Tisdale. Bryon Tisdale,” she thought to herself. Bryon wasn't the nicest of men, not to talk about being a doctor. Johanna had only enjoyed working at the hospital because he was on a different floor from hers. He always had issues with married women, no wonder he remained single throughout his life.
Johanna remembered he treated that case about two months ago, "The files shouldn't be long gone. It should still be in his office,” she thought. The flashback of the tattoo crossed her mind again; it was a swirl with a snake trying to eat its own tail. Then she saw Theresa, who was hopping happily towards her; it was evident that Dominic had asked her out. "Have you seen Dr. Bryon?" she asked her, being on his team. "He just stepped out for a meeting and will be back in an hour,” Theresa answered. "Ok, thanks," Johanna said, knowing that was her chance to get what she wanted.
Johanna was surprised at how far she planned to go just to get information and satisfy her curiosity. Her love for the sick was really pushing her far beyond her boundary. She knew he was bad and big trouble, but she believed in a second chance. “If Brandon could become an angel then who can't?” she asked herself.
The elevator would allow people to see her come to the floor, so she decided to take the staircase that was almost never used. She climbed the stairs to the 9th floor from the 3rd floor in such haste. She held onto the railing of the stairs when she finally got there, tried to catch her breath. She opened the door and darted out of the way of a few Nurses that knew her until she reached his office. She hurriedly turned the knob, but it was locked. "Damn," she thought. She paced a bit in front of the door before she remembered she could pick locks. She calls it a Latino Charm. She took out her pins from her hair, inserted it into the keyhole and fiddled until she heard a click. She looked sideways to ensure that no one was coming. "I still have the touch,” she thought. She entered the large office, not knowing, which direction to start from. She hurriedly decided to start from the drawer beside his shelf of books. It seemed as though he would have kept it there. She ran through the drawer, but couldn't find it.
The phone rang off the hook and Brandon hurriedly answered the phone to avoid waking up the sleeping ones. "Hello?" he answered quietly. The voice of the person on the other end was raspy but was that of a female. "Hello, is this Brandon Baxter?" Brandon didn't answer. He tried to recollect if her voice rang any bell in his memories, but it didn't. He was sure he didn't know the person. Finally, he answered, "Yes, this is me. How may I help you?” he asked as he walked out of the room when he noticed that Challis began to turn around on the bed. Challis was always sensitive to sound, though she took a long time when she slept.
The lady with the raspy voice continued, "This is Dr. Patricia Dinardo. I am assigned to Driftwood Hospital to do an evaluation on you. Your physiological assessments per say. Could you please come see me this week?" Brandon mused before replying "I am free today after 5 pm if you are. Where do I meet you?” he asked.
“I have availability today for 5:30 pm, come to the hospital, level 5, room 5B,” she responded. “I’ll see you then,” he responded and hung up the phone. Brandon remembered that Dominic had told him that a psychiatrist would call him in a few weeks to do a full assessment and assess his memory. He hoped she could help him remember his past before he was “Second.”
"Geez! Who’s going to watch Challis and Ginger?" he asked himself when he got back to the entrance of the room. The duo was fast asleep, and Ginger gave a bit of a snore. He knew Martino and Nicola wouldn’t be home until 8 pm, as they were attending a birthday party.
He still thought about what to do when the phone rang again. The caller's number looked familiar and he thought it was Johanna's, only to be disappointed at the Kat voice he heard.
"Hey, is my sister home?" Kat asked.
"No, she has a double shift at the hospital and won't be back until after midnight,” Brandon explained.
"Okay, can I come over to get my remaining stuff?" she asked
"Sure, but can you do me a favor? While you are here, can you stay with Challis and Ginger? I need to be at an appointment for a bit.”
"Um, I have some things to –" Kat tried to finish her sentence but was cut off.
"Please, don't tell me ‘No’. I won't take long,” he begged.
"Fine. I don’t have any plans anyway. I will look after them.”
Challis eventually woke up from her sleep. It was a very long one; she slept for about seven hours. But Ginger didn't wake up. She groggily came down the stairs and found her Dad with Kat in the living room, as they chatted away. "Hey, angel," Brandon said as he saw her walk down the stairs, rubbing her eye with the back of her palm. She hugged him and greeted her Aunt Kat. "Challis, Aunty Kat will be staying with you for a few hours. I have somewhere important to go. Okay?" he explained to Challis. "All right, Dad,” she responded. Brandon looked for his keys and left in a haste. It was almost 5 pm, and the traffic might turn out to be heavily jammed. When he left, Kat stared awkwardly at Challis, who did nothing but stare back. She was not the kind of person to stay and nurse a four-year-old. Challis was young and bright for her age. Challis came over with her hands behind her, she held a comb. "Can I play with your hair?" she asked politely after she sat down beside Kat. Kat wasn't sure how to respond and by default said, "Yes.” Challis sprung up happily from the sofa. She got out her brushes and ribbons from where she had kept them. "I love combing the hair of my dolls,” she said as she stood on the sofa ready to subject Kat to a one of a kind hair treatment. "Am I one of her dolls?" Kat thought to herself. "Well, the idea is cool. I love being brushed,” she thought when her little niece handled her hair on a level, not for starters.
Brandon got to the hospital and wanted to surprise his wife, but the appointment had to come first as he was almost late. He sat in the doctor’s office, and at about 5:30 pm she came out to greet him. "What a prompt one,” he thought as he checked his wristwatch.
"Do you care for some water or tea?" she asked as they settled to sit in her office. "No, I am okay. Thank you,” he replied.
"Okay. How may I help you with your recovery?" she continued as she leaned into her chief sized chair.
"I can't really remember all the things that happened in my past. Simply memory issues,” he said with all seriousness.
"I see, but don't you worry. The thoughts will come back on their own. Don't force it. Something would surely trigger them. You know, the memory of humans works in strange ways. It's only natural for someone who was in a terrible accident to lose part or all of their memory,” she said.
The session ended sooner than expected. Brandon thought she was helpful, but not as much as he was hoping. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear, but all she said made sense. He got out of the door and popped to the third level where Johanna worked, but she was nowhere to be found. He went over to meet Dominic, who was attending to an accident victim. He waited for him to be through and asked, "Where can I find Johanna?” Brandon asked. "She is attending to a patient in the last room in the hallway, to your left," Dominic said as he pointed in that direction. He headed over to see her before going back home. He stood at the door for about ten minutes without knocking or going on. He later walked into the room and stopped. He was awed at the man he saw in the hospital bed, it was the same man that tried to shoot him at the top of the roof.
"You! What hell are you doing here, where is my wife? Where is Johanna?" Brandon asked furiously.
The man looked up to look at the person who was ranting. His eyes widened as he recognized Brandon. Then he realized that the nurse who tended to him was his wife. He laughed and took pity on the nice nurse who didn't know the real person her husband was.
The man rose out of his bed. He was still in pain, but was determined to have a confrontation with Brandon. He tried, but he was in no shape to fight Brandon, who dodged the punches he threw weakly. He went back to his bedside and pressed the button to alert the nurses of an emergency. The nurses came quickly, walking down the hallway with loud footsteps that made it possible to decipher how far they were from the room. Henry tried implicating Brandon and jumped out the window, leaving Brandon alone in the room. Brandon also made a run for it before the nurses saw him.
Brandon got very worried. He looked around but couldn't find Johanna "Where could she be?" he thought to himself. He called her cellphone but it went straight to voicemail. He decided to go see if her car was in the parking garage.
Johanna was almost caught in the doctor’s office but escaped, as Theresa who entered; only thought the doctor intentionally didn't lock his office. She got the file she needed and checked it thoroughly. She saw the name, Raphael Bosca, who was part of an organization called Lyfe-2. It was run by an underground organization. No one knew of his or her mission. According to his file, there was something unusual about the blood sample that was taken from him. There were no red blood cells in them. There were a whole lot of white blood cells and synthetic blood cells. Johanna found that to be extremely odd. She rushed back to see Henry's chart and see if there were correlations. She got out of the elevator only to be faced with the policeman who questioned her about Henry.
"Good day, ma'am. We are from the Chicago Police Department. We need you to tell us everything you know of the criminal that was reported to be here and now escaped.” The police officer said after he pointed his badge to her. "Um, okay. I wanted to go get him something to eat, but then next thing you know, he’s gone,” she replied nervously. She sounded unconvincing, but the officer advised her to get off work early, as the case was a strange one. Henry was a wanted criminal and he is on the loose. Gleefully, she left work after keeping Raphael's file in her purse.
She drove off without seeing Brandon, who was trying to wave her down from the back of the fleet of cars. He only missed her by two minutes as she sped off. Brandon knew she would be stopping over at the grocery store. So he got into his car and headed there.
Johanna walked up and down the grocery store and yawned. She was really tired of her self-indulged activity of the day at the hospital, though she was still in her scrubs. She couldn't get the matter of the patient with the strange blood off her mind. Henry, who was declared as “wanted” also has the same blood. "How are these two related?" she wondered.
After she purchased her groceries, she noticed an unusual silence. The cars outside were scanty, probably parked by people who had something to do in the neighborhood. She was the only customer in the grocery store. “It was the end of the week, the store should be busier for a Thursday,” she thought to herself. She struggled with the trunk as she carried the bags but, managed to open it. She closed the trunk only to see Henry looking at her with a smile that meant no good. He had a gun in his hands and aimed it at her. She froze, "What do you want from me?" she asked. He a laughed loudly, "I just want to have a word with the woman that is oblivious to the fact that she got married to the wrong man,” he said. "How is Brandon involved in what you are doing now?" she asked, as she tensed up.
She was scared to the bone marrow, but she pulled herself together and sternly said, "Look, I don't know what your deal is, but you are going to put that gun down and let me go.” He smiled “Who the hell does this bitch think she is?” he muttered to himself. "Get in the driver's seat," he said, pushing her head with the gun and forcing her into the passenger’s seat. "Move!" he said as he pointed the cold mouth of the gun at her head. She started the car but didn't move. He yelled, "Woman, I said Drive!.” She didn't budge but instead took the cigarette warmer that was now heated up and aimed it at his hand. He yelped and dropped the gun. She picked it up, aiming it at his head but didn't shoot. She opened the door and ran into the grocery store.
As she bolted into the store, she looked over to the cashier's table and found nobody there. She ran towards the back of the store where the loading truck stopped to load groceries. She got to the door and met Henry standing. "What the…" she exclaimed. She pulled the trigger of the gun, but it was without bullets. He smiled and ran after her who was already running away. She slammed into Joey, who stared at her blank in the face as usual. "Run!" she shouted in his face, but it was too late as Henry met him on the spot and nailed a knife in his chest. He fell to the ground gurgling his own blood. Johanna shrieked as she turned back to look at the fallen man. The front door was locked when she got there; there was no other escape. She failed to come up with an escape plan. She grabbed a pole and hit the glass, but it was of no use. Henry cornered her and swayed his knife covered in Joey’s blood right at her face.
Suddenly, his hand stopped, the knife dropped to the ground and his eyes and mouth got filled with blood. He sputtered some blood on Johanna’s face before his body fell to the ground. She looked up to see who her savior was and it was Joey. He took his hands out of Henry's back. He had the same tattoo on his hand. Something isn't right. He lunged at her with such a force that when she got out of the way, he broke through the glass. She stepped out as he fell to the ground. She got to her car and saw Brandon. She ran into his arms, crying. "Oh my goodness, he tried to kill me! He killed Henry, and…” she cried, unable to finish her sentence. He hugged her tightly to calm her down, which had led to her trembling.
"Calm down and tell me what happened, Okay?" Brandon said. Brandon looked at the floor where Joey was but he was nowhere to be found. "Where could he have gone?” he said to Johanna.