CODE RED; the memory protocol.

2

Everything made my skin crawl, the image of the girl's neck wouldn't leave my head, the shimmer of the gold chain_the same color of the one I always wore before I lost it a few weeks back but got another one in a heart beat.

Now I instantly hate the gold color jewelry.

****

The OR was right, sterile, alive! The sound of the monitor was steady at first, the rhythmic beep that kept time with my heartbeat.

"Pressure's dropping!" The scrub nurse said suddenly. "ICP's climbing fast."

"Increase mannitol, twenty grams." I ordered. My hands moved on instinct_retract, adjust, clamp, suction. The patient's brain tissue pulses faintly under the light, every beat of the monitor tightening the knot in my stomach.

My mind shouldn't have been anywhere else, but it was. Back on the couch, back on the news, back on the word that kept echoing through my head like static.

Code red.

The beeping sped up. "We're loosing him!" The resident on my service yelled.

"No we are not." I said sharply. I leaned in, heart racing, and made a precise incision near the bleed. The nurse suctioned. The monitor steadied. The room exhaled.

I exhaled.

"Are you stable enough to close him up?" I looked up at the resident who looked like he was crashing out a second ago. "Of course doctor."

I pulled off my gloves, sweat dripping down my temples. "He'll make it."

As I turned to leave, the scrub nurse called after me "Dr. O, Dr. Cross paged you. Said it's urgent."

My pulse quickened, though I couldn't really say why. "Thanks I'll find him."

The corridors were quieter than usual_that strange, heavy silence that only hospitals at evenings could hold. When I found him in the consulting room, he was leaning against the counter, sleeves rolled up, bags under his eyes, looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"You paged me.." I said once we got into my office.
He looked at me, a flicker of relief and tiredness in his eyes. "Yeah...I..I just wanted to check on you."

"You sounded strange on the phone earlier."  I said, removing my scrub cap and running a hand through my bob length loc twists. "Is everything okay?"

He hesitated, then nodded. "Yes baby, just tired, long shift. What about you?"

I sighed. "I can't stop thinking about what happened last night. When I came into the lab after your call, my machine was on. And someone had accessed a session."

His brows furrowed. "A session?"

"Yes" I met his gaze, I started to feel even more worried now that I was speaking about it. "And it was logged under my name which is crazy coz I keep there locked at all times and I don't understand who would do that or how that came about in the first place and it just scares me that..."

"Hey hey hey.." he cut me off, placing his both hands on both my shoulders, moving closer "Isabelle calm down, maybe it's a glitch, you've been under pressure. You probably left it running."

"A glitch? I'm about to launch this, I'm sure it had no glitches." I whispered back.

He wrapped me into a warm hug, rubbing my hair. "You're overthinking it baby, I'm sure it was nothing since you keep here locked at all times."

"Maybe." I was getting comfortable in his arms. He knew how to calm me, I love him so much, his voice was so reassuring, and his hug? The best in the world, of course after my mother's.

But I knew I didn't believe it. I knew I didn't keep it running, and I haven't noticed any glitch at all. It was a big unsettling feeling but I was in the arms of the man I love so much. Pulling away from the hug reluctantly, I notice faint red marks on his wrists, the small smudge of something dark underneath his cuff. Something inside me recoiled.

I wanted to ask him what it was. I wanted to believe him when he said he was fine with those tired sexy eyes of his.

But a part of me knew he looked like he was hiding something.