Nurse Or Nanny?

Chapter Six

My head is pounding.  There is something over my face.  The lights are too bright.  I am very thirsty.  I start to open my eyes and see someone sitting next to the bed.  It's Kirsten, she see's my eyes opening, "Hey Lo, hey, hey slow down. Let me get the nurse." I shake my head and let her.  I know the drill, they are going to come in and take my vitals, ask me how my head is, do I need more pain medication and they'll page the doctor.  I can already tell I am going to be a horrible patient as I take off the oxygen mask.
"Hey girl, how are you feeling?" A very high energy nurse comes in and asks me, I assume it must be the start of her shift. 
"I'm Molly and I'm your nurse this afternoon. Do you know how you ended up in here?"
"I was in a car accident."  I didn't want to go into details, I just wanted to talk to officer Hale.
"That is correct, and do you remember what happened?" she asks as she manually checking my pulse.  It's something we do just in case the monitors aren't reading it right. 
"Sort of, I think I was run off the road and I made my way to a house looking for help."
"That is also correct, so it seems you haven't suffered too major a concussion, but I'll let the doctor discuss those things with you. There is a police officer who is here to see you and would like to come and talk. Do you think that will be alright? Do you feel up to it? I can send them away if you'd like and tell them to come back another time."  She says this all so quickly, and I know what she is thinking.  Police officers always come in to quickly to talk to patients, and nine times out of ten we send them away and tell them to come back when we are not so groggy and stronger.  But I need to know what happened. I need to talk to officer Hale.
"No, that's alright. If I could just get some water before she comes in that would be great."
"Yes of course, I'll be right back." A couple minutes later officer Hale walks in,
"Hey Laura, how are you feeling, here, the nurse sent me in with this." She hands me a cup of water and it tastes like heaven. 
"Thanks" I shakily take the cup and down it quickly. "So, what happened, did you find him?"
I can see the look in her eyes, they didn't "No Laura, when we got to the scene the only vehicle there was  yours, we taped the scene off and forensics came in and confirmed there was another car involved in the accident, they have taken photos of the tire treads but it will probably give us a match to a generic model. Honestly I'm not going to get your hopes up, we are probably at a dead end on finding this guy at the moment." 
"So you're telling me an attempt was made on my life and you guys have no leads.  I am the only person to have ever seen this person and they just get away, they get another chance to get to me?" I am being a little short with Hale, I know she has done everything she can to help me but come on. They have to have at least one lead on this guy.  How does, what I assume to me a hit man just be off everyone's radar.
"I'm sorry Laura but that is exactly what I am saying.  And because of that we believe the only way to keep you safe is to put you in the witness protection program, and you'd have to leave as soon as you are  physically able." I am at a loss for words, witness protection.  I am going to have to leave my life, my family, my friends. For how long?
"For how long?" 
"Probably a year, maybe less, maybe longer. Depends if this guy tries to actively find you again." she says and doesn't break eye contact with me. She is being honest and not beating around the bush.  It's something we are taught in school, don't sugar coat anything, give it to the patient plain as day, and then let them process.
"Where will I go, will I have time to say goodbye?"
"I can't tell you where you will be going, I don't even know and no, you can't.  You will tell them what when you crashed you were talking on the phone with someone about a job opportunity and got too excited and missed a deer in the road and that's how you crashed your car. Luckily for you, if  you want to call your injuries luck, you have a reason for family to come and visit you. So, in your own way you can say goodbye, in the sense you at least get to see them before you go. Your mom and brother are here and obviously Kirsten, you'll have a few minutes, then they will have to go. Kirsten will know  only because you told her about everything on the night it happened, and she'll be the only person in your life who will know. You can say the job opportunity is in Manitoba and hopefully whoever is following you will hear and head over there and we may be able to track him.  You will not be going there." I try to process all of this.  I have never been away from my family for more than a week, and I've never been away from Kirsten for more than a couple days, how am I going to be away for a whole year and never be able to speak to them? I don't know if I can do this.
"This is the best thing you can do to keep your friends and family safe Lauren.  You have to do this, you don't have a choice.  Well you could choose not too but then you are putting yourself in the line of fire for another attempt on your life." She's becoming more serious and I know she's looking for an answer. "Okay, when do we leave."
"Tomorrow we will start making arraignments and you'll be out of this hospital within twenty-four hours."

I look at officer Hale and Kirsten.  Kirsten has tears in her eyes, I know she is scared for me, she'll be the only one who knows what's going on.  To keep my family safe they won't know the truth.