Our room was a medium size, with two beds, two bedside tables, two closets, and a bathroom. The bathroom was a decent size. Everything was simple and modern, right down to the curtains hanging over the large window.
Two cell phones lay on our beds, one for each of us. Several numbers were programmed into the phones, including Scott's, Nico's, and thirteen other names we didn't know.
"Could it be the others?" Enzo asked, referring to the others who were here, the ones like us.
"Probably. But who's number thirteen?" I looked through the names on the smartphone. "Alex. Edgar. Ying."
"What kind of name is Edgar?" Enzo snickered.
"I'm sure, when he meets you, he'll be thinking the same thing about the name Enzo." I countered, joking.
Enzo glared at me, then laughed, nodding his head.
"What if the extra name is the doctor?" Enzo suggested.
"Maybe," I thought. "Which one of these names do you believe would belong to the doctor?"
A sinister grin crept onto his face. "Want to place a bet?"
I laughed out loud. "What exactly are we betting?"
He scoffed. "It's only a joke. Let's see..." He scrolled through the names again. "Piper. The doctor is definitely Piper."
"Do we even know the gender of the doctor?" I asked.
Enzo shook his head. "Nope. What about you? Who do you think the doctor is?"
As much as I was irked by this whole situation, I played along. I went back though the list and decided to go with the first name to pop up. "Alex. Could be either a man or a woman. Boom."
Enzo got up from his bed and walked over to mine, where I sat cross-legged, and stuck out a hand. "Do we have a friendly little wager, then?"
"We have to bet something."
He thought. "I can't think of anything. What about this: whoever wins gets to choose the winnings as we go throughout today and tomorrow and when we ship out to wherever we're shipping out. Sound good?"
I took his hand. "Deal. If one of us is to get kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Africa... Well, Enzo, it was nice knowing you."
It was nice to joke around with Enzo for a bit, considering the hell that we were going through on the inside, considering the confusion and pain and hopelessness we both felt.
We went through the clothes that were pre-stocked in our size in our separate closets when Enzo spoke again.
"These clothes are terribly ace," Enzo mumbled to himself while pulling out a pair of jeans to examine them.
"If by terribly ace you mean extremely tight in a terrible way, then I agree." I myself had grabbed a pair of jeans from my closet and went to the bathroom to try them on. A full length mirror stood in the corner of the bedroom, so I walked out to get a better look.
"These things are about a size too small," I commented.
Enzo's voice went up an octave to mimic a preppy American girl's voice. "Your bum looks fabulous, dear!"
I turned around to stare at him, causing him to laugh. When I didn't laugh with him, he stopped.
He still smiled. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine. I actually enjoy the humor," I told him as I went to sit on my bed again. Enzo stopped what he was doing and sat on the floor by his bed, his back against it so that he was facing me.
"What are we supposed to do for the rest of the day?"
I grabbed our schedule from my bedside table. "Let's see... Ah. Would you look at that? Nothing."
"Nothing?" he asked, reaching for his. His schedule was sitting on his bedside table as well. When he tried a couple times and still couldn't reach it, he gave up, looking at me and waiting for me to elaborate.
"It literally says acquaint. Then tomorrow at six in the morning we have to be on the training floor. Which is the tenth floor. That lasts till noon, which is lunch, then back to training until three. And then from 3:10pm to seven, it says Tech Floor."
"So, for today. We can do whatever?"
"I suppose."
*****************
We ended up doing just that. Even at 4pm, we saw no one on our floor. The place was deserted and quiet. We stopped in several places in the hallway, remaining still for seconds on end, to see if we could hear someone. Anyone. When no noise came, we ventured to the elevator.
We didn't know where we were going, which we didn't find out until the elevator doors were shutting. Enzo pressed a random floor number.
"Looks like we're going to thirteen," he said.
I was nervous every time Enzo hit a random button on the elevator. On the thirteenth floor, the elevators opened to a busy office area with hundreds of little cubicles. People scurried about in their clean, pressed suits, carrying stacks of papers and pointing things out to each other.
Target A was last seen here-
The last we saw, the Moroccans captured Target B-
We need to send some into Wagga Wagga-
Will someone please for the love of Jesus-
Get Scott on the phone! The Swiss want to talk!
Before anyone could see us, we darted back onto the elevator. Enzo frantically pressed the button that would take us to the seventh floor.
The seventh floor, thankfully, let us out into the hospital part of the building. And, thankfully, we were let out into a waiting room instead of being thrust into the thick of something we weren't supposed to be in.
A woman sat in a room behind a glass window. I didn't want to walk through the double doors to go back without asking first, so I approached her.
"Can I help you?" she asked us, somewhat blandly.
I didn't know where to start. "Uh, we were taking a tour."
The woman, probably in her thirties, stared at me. Her forehead crinkled, as if she were contemplating whether or not to call security.
"We were brought here by Scott-"
She reached over and pressed a button, and the double doors automatically opened up. "Help yourselves," she said dully.
We walked through the small wards within the hospital. We saw signs indicating that the telemetry unit was on the floor below us, while surgery was on the floor above us.
"So," Enzo thought, "three floors are dedicated to the hospital. Six, seven, and eight."
"And the crazy, dysfunctional, whatever the heck the thirteenth floor was, is the thirteenth floor."
"Right. Twentieth floor is housing. Sixteenth floor is conference. How many floors are in the building?"
I remembered looking at the number of buttons on the elevator a few hours ago. "Forty-six."
Enzo silently whistled. It was a quiet sound, but it still made a baby in the room next to us cry.
We'd taken a break from exploring the ward and getting lost. I didn't know what unit we were on, or if this was a unit, but I knew as soon as I heard the crying that we were in the nursery.
We seemed to float to the room where the two babies, that Scott told us about, were in. The room was painted blue and had yellow stars on the ceiling, and rockers were placed here and there on the floor.
One baby was under a photo-therapy lamp. I noticed from the blue diaper that the baby was a boy. The other baby was in an open bassinet, screaming its head off. This one had a pink diaper.
No one was in the room with the babies, so I went into mother-mode.
I grabbed Enzo by the arm. "Help me," I told him.
I was amazed at how much I remembered about caring for infants, which caused me to think again about whether or not I had a child myself. The thought sent chills down my spine, so I focused on changing the crying girl's diaper.
"What do you need me to help you with?" Enzo asked loudly over the crying.
I looked at the boy under the photo-lamp. He was jaundiced, a sickly shade of yellow. The band that protected his eyes had shifted up to his forehead, exposing them. "See that white band on his head?" I asked, nodding to the infant. Enzo walked over to the baby, looking him over good, and nodded. "Pull it back down to where it's covering his little eyes."
"Why is he suntanning, anyways?"
I smiled. "He's jaundiced. The lights help get rid of bilirubin, which, in high levels, can jaundice a baby."
Enzo shook his head. When he gently tugged the elastic covering back down, the baby began to cry.
The look on Enzo's face nearly killed me. He was terrified. I held back a laugh.
The look on my face when the short young woman in scrubs walked in was probably the same. It never looked good when two strangers were fiddling around in a newborn nursery.
The young, jet-black haired woman's tan face went pale. I'd finished the diaper on the girl, who had stopped crying, but Enzo was still trying to get the band positioned correctly over the infants eyes. The woman realized what he was doing and relaxed a bit. We didn't look like hoodlums, but, again, we were two strangers in a nursery.
"I'm sorry," I told the girl. She looked about our age. Maybe a bit older. "We were taking a little tour and kind of ended up on this floor. We came here with Scott," I told her as I softly pushed Enzo out of the way. He was being too gentle with the baby, afraid he would hurt it. He talked while I finished what he was doing, then held the pacifier in the baby's mouth so it'd stop crying long enough for us to coherently plead our case.
"The baby was crying," Enzo said quietly, embarrassed.
"Which baby?" the woman asked. She had a Spanish accent.
Enzo pointed to the little girl, who was going to town sucking on the pacifier I'd stuck in her mouth.
"You know what you're doing?" she asked us. "Who are you two?"
"Yes," I lied. I hadn't known what I was doing since I woke up in the dentist chair. "And I'm El. This is Enzo. We arrived with Scott a few hours ago."
"You are the medical student," the girl stated, as if she were pointing out the obvious.
I nodded, humoring her. If that's what it took to keep us out of trouble, sure. I was the med-student.
"My name is Marie," she said, smiling a small smile. "I also came with Scott. Only a few weeks ago. He offered me a spot in here instead of being in the field, and I love babies. So... here I am." She walked over to a counter that ran the length of the wall, where formulas were kept. "The first day is the hardest. He brings you up and leaves you without anyone to talk to. You both came at the same time?"
Enzo and I looked at each other, then nodded.
"Hmm. Well, just know that you're safe here. Do you guys have anything to do today? Were you planning on something?"
"Not really," I admitted. "We were being nosey, honestly."
Marie laughed. "Would you like to help me? It's feeding time, and I still have to chart."
"Absolutely," I said without thinking. "Wait... You'd trust us?"
"Honey, no one gets in this building without a purpose and a reason. There aren't any criminals in here. I trust you." Her gaze went from me to Enzo. "Plus, look at this cutie. He couldn't hurt a blade of grass."
I couldn't help but smile. She was funny, which made me like her instantly. She seemed like a genuinely good natured person. My heart hurt when I remembered that one of these babies was hers, and she didn't even know it.
I took over preparing formulas after I sat Enzo down in a rocking chair with the healthy girl, who had started crying again. He looked incredibly uncomfortable.
"You know, I don't think I've ever done this before," he told me as I handed him the bottle of food.
"It's easy. Just hold her up a bit and stick the bottle in her mouth." He did as I instructed, and the girl began drinking instantly.
I turned off the lights on the smaller boy and uncovered his eyes.
"Hey there, mister," I cooed as I brought the baby out and sat in a rocker beside Enzo. He had more problems getting latched on to the bottle's nipple, but, eventually, he got it.
After a few minutes, I noticed Enzo holding back a smile.
"See, you like it," I whispered.
"I'll admit, these are cute little buggers."
A few more minutes passed as we continued in silence.
Enzo and I heard hard soled shoes walking down the hallway, coming towards the room we were in. Enzo and I both stiffened, but remained in the chairs with our babies. Marie's voice replayed in my head.
No one gets in this building without a purpose and a reason. There aren't any criminals in here.
The attractive guy who peeked his head in the door could have been whatever he wanted. I certainly wouldn't have minded.
"Marie," his deep, American accented voice called quietly from the hallway before he even reached the door. When he did, his bright blue eyes fixed onto mine.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice more hard. "What are you doing with the babies?"
My eyes got wider. What the hell does it look like we're doing, handsome? I wanted to say.
"We're fattening these little chaps up," Enzo told the guy.
The stranger stared at us. He had thick, lovely brown hair that I could tell he pushed back with his hands on a regular basis. His hair wasn't long in the slightest, which made me believe he ran his hands through it as a habit or from stress and frustration.
He stared for two seconds, deciding whether he wanted to believe us or kill us. Either way, he had the babies' best interest in mind, which was why I didn't consider counter-killing him.
"Names." he demanded.
Enzo pointed to me, then to himself. "El. Enzo. And you would be...?"
The guy looked at us for a second before disclosing his precious, holy name. "Alex."
Enzo smiled so big that I almost felt it. "And, Alex, are you a doctor?"
Alex's thick, brown eyebrows knit together in confusion, giving us the answer. "No."
"Shit," I mumbled, then mentally scolded myself for cursing in front of the infants. They wouldn't remember anything until they were at least three, so I really had nothing to worry about.
Enzo laughed. "Sorry, El. I hope you like African pirates."
Alex continued to stare at us, listening in confusion to Enzo's words.
As Alex stared at Enzo, I stared at Alex.
He was definitely older than me. He was tall with a muscular build. His jaw was strong and wide, and I could see his teeth were a pearly white when he talked. The white t-shit shirt he had on was drenched in sweat, the black tactical pants he wore were tucked into his black combat boots. My eyes went to his slim waist where a belt of shiny bullets hung.
Alex cleared his throat, making me look back up to his face. The grin he wore told me he'd noticed that I was looking at the bullets that hung from his waist. Only he thought I was straight up staring at his crotch.
I averted my eyes, embarrassed.
Thankfully, I heard Marie's voice down the hall. "What have you done this time?" she asked, the tone of her voice telling me she was joking.
Alex let his gaze linger on me. "Oh, you know. The usual. I think I might have an injured groin."
I set my jaw and met his gaze.
Marie appeared beside him, peeking in the doorway to look at us. We still held the babies, still rocked them while they ate. Thankfully, they were finishing up.
While Alex showed Marie the wound on his abdomen where a knife grazed him, I showed Enzo how to burp a baby.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Alex glance at us a few times, which annoyed me.
"You can hold them against your shoulder with a cloth, but I prefer to sit them up and pat their backs. You have to make sure to support their heads..."
After my baby burped, I put the eye cover back on his head and stuck him back under the photo therapy lights.
Enzo was having trouble burping his baby, so I knelt down in front of him and guided one of his hands to where it needed to be to support the baby's head and let him pat the baby's back with his other hand.
When the room fell silent, I looked behind me, praying Marie and Alex had moved on. They hadn't, however, and were intently watching us.
Marie smiled at me. "Do you mind helping him when you're finished?" she asked, pointing at a smiling Alex.
"Um, sure. Why not."
Marie then looked above my head, to Enzo. "And you can help me. I hope you didn't think you were getting a lounge day today," she joked, then retreated back down the hall. "Just come find me when you're finished, honey!" she hollered at Enzo.
I stared at Enzo hard, trying to convey the message that I didn't want to go tend to this weird guy's injuries without him.
Enzo's baby finally let out a ferocious belch, and he laid her back in her bassinet. As I helped him swaddle her in warm blankets, Enzo inconspicuously leaned in close to me. "It'll be okay. What can they do to us?"
A lot, I thought.
I let out a sigh, making Enzo laugh. "Can I come visit you and your pirate friends in Africa?" he asked as we turned around to walk out of the room. Alex still stood leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, staring at us. Staring at me.
I opened my mouth, not caring that Alex heard me. "You know, being kidnapped by pirates doesn't seem so bad right now."