The Last Case

Chapter 11| Hospital Revelations

"She should be able to hear you now," Nancy heard a faint woman's voice say, in the background.

The blurry image of Nick's face became more and more clear with each blink of Nancy's eyes. "You're alright, you're okay," he was saying.

Nancy forced a faint smile as she tried to focus on Nick, and on his expression. "What happened?"

"You fell and hit your head on the steps of the post office, but you're alright now. You've been pretty steady for a while."

"A while?" Nancy started to sit up. The sudden movement triggered a throbbing pain in her head. "How long have I been in here?"

"I've been here for a couple of hours, ever since they called me in here." He looked down and smirked. "I guess I was the last number you dialled, so the hospital people were lucky enough to reach me. I'm glad I could be here for you."

Nancy desperately wanted to ask more questions, but the pain in her head was starting to get unbearable. "I'm glad you could be here too, Nick, I really am, but I think my headache is getting worse." She rubbed her temples.

Nick hopped up from the chair beside Nancy's hospital cot. "I'll grab you the nurse," he said.

"Thank you." Nancy closed her eyes.

"If there's anything else you need, anything at all, just let me know. I'll be right here," Nick said as he headed out the door.

Nancy nodded and drifted off into a deep sleep.

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She woke up to the sounds of beeping medical machines and the rattling noise of what must have been a nurse pushing a metal trolley down the hall, right past her door. How anyone could sleep in hospitals was beyond Nancy.

Her head was feeling much better and she rolled over to see that the digital clock by the door, which flashed 11:45PM in bright red digits. Unable to fall asleep again, Nancy decided to get up and check her phone messages. She was especially interested in asking Connie about why she had sent her a blank recording of her supposed interview with Rich, the guy that they stumbled into, knocked out at the library a couple of days ago.

However after stretching and checking the tabletop where all of her belongings were laid out, she realized that her phone was gone. A wave of panic struck her and she headed out of her room to see if perhaps a nurse stored it in a safe place somewhere.

The hospital hallway was lit up in a row of dim light. Nancy walked to the end and turned around the corner to come across a reception desk. An older woman wearing red, cat eye reading glasses was writing something into a big binder in front of her. Upon seeing Nancy, she closed it and smiled. "Can't sleep, sweetie?" she asked.

"Actually, I'm wondering whether I could take a look at some of my belongings or rather, just my cell phone. Is there a safe place where the nurses store our belongings?"

The woman shrugged. "It wasn't by your chair or something?"

"No," said Nancy. "I've already checked there. If it's not too much trouble, could you maybe ask around? I'm in room 308."

The woman opened up her big binder and adjusted her reading glasses. "Room 308...Nurse Paige," she muttered before getting up and hurrying down the hallway from where Nancy had previously come.

Unable to resist the urge to snoop, Nancy walked over to the other side of the desk and took a peak at the open binder that lay spread out over the counter. It was open to a page on hospital rooms with their corresponding shift nurses and patient names. After flicking through a couple of pages, out of curiosity or habit, she came across a familiar name under the label of room 211.