Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 40

Trying to maintain composure while walking back to the elevator was nigh impossible. Heading back to the elevator, we ended up breaking out in a run. As we waited for it on the third basement level, we started to redress out of the scrubs, finishing up inside the empty elevator.

The next trick was leaving the hospital. While the Emergency Room was luckily low on staff that day, we were still at risk of being stopped on the way out and questioned over my sudden recovery. Going out any other entrance though was out of the question when they were shut with security presence. Sneaking out of the ER was the only option.

"You're no longer Robyn Fenty," Eli said suddenly.

"I'm not?" I questioned.

"No, and you don't know who that is. Keep your hoodie off until we reach the car," he instructed, wrapping his own hoodie up and tucking it underneath his arm. "We were visiting my sister who is a patient here. We hid in her private bathroom so we could stay with her past visiting hours."

"Oh, right, of course," I nodded in understanding. "She is quite young and has a fear of hospitals so we kept her company until she fell asleep."

"But we ended up falling asleep in the chairs as well, which is why we're only leaving now. We were told the only way out at this hour is through the ER," he continued, taking my scrubs from me.

I had to chuckle while I wrapped my hoodie around the file and shoved it under my arm, "The nurses working the night shifts can be real tyrants."

"Is that so?" Eli mused as the elevator doors opened.

As we walked back towards the Emergency Room, Eli spotted a hamper and tossed our scrubs into it.

"Oh yeah, the nights when I was here after my appendectomy were brutal. There were too many lights and too many noises – I couldn't sleep. Thankfully-" I stopped mid-sentence. A memory I had long-forgotten returned to me after 11 years.

"Thankfully what?" Eli asked just as he swiped the keycard for the security doors leading to the Emergency Room.

The doors opened to the chaos of multiple critical patients having arrived from a car crash on the highway. This meant staff from other wards were called in to provide assistance to the already understaffed Emergency Room. Commotion to my right caught our attention. An elderly patient likely suffering from Alzheimer's was resisting an injection from a nurse and therefore an orderly had been called over to hold him down. As the serum was injected into his blood stream, the elderly patient settled and relaxed back down on the gurney. The orderly in turn relaxed too and stepped back, glancing over at me staring at him. Recognition washed over his face – his stone-cold expression warmed.

"He was there," I mumbled.

"Huh?" Eli stopped with a jerk. His head snapped around to follow the direction of my sight. "Shit!"

Eli immediately grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the triage, hastily making for the exit. His grip on me was so tight that it hurt, but when I tried to pull away, he only gripped my arm tighter. As soon as we stepped outside, he pulled me around to the side behind a planter where we would not be easily seen.

"Someone recognized you!?" Eli freaked out, trying his hardest to keep his voice down. "Who was that!?"

"Um, that was Brodie's dad," I responded, still completely at a loss. "I had completely forgotten that he works here."

"You forgot!?" Eli snapped. "How do you forget a detail like that!?"

I shrugged, "I barely ever saw the man! He used to, and I guess still works nights a lot because the pay is better. It was rare to see him during the day. I think the most I ever saw him was during the week I was here in recovery. He'd sneak me extra jell-o cups each night and make sure I was ok."