James purposely arrived ten minutes later than Flora to work. He wasn't actually feeling good, his skin a little yellow and sweat on his face. He wiped away the sweat and the shade from inside the buildings turned his skin back to a human flesh tone.
"Hello James. Your late." Jill sat at the front desk. She had a dark lip stick color on that matched her black hair and dark grey eye shadow. "Hey, Mr. Hoss is gonna get you." James turned to her. His bangs swung to the left and stuck to his face. There were dark circles under his eyes from the some how not enough sleep he had received. The inside of the building had taken away the yellow tone in his skin but still left it pale. Concern etched across Jill's face for once as she looked at James.
"Hey, are you okay?" She said in a softer tone. She leaned in closer to James to look at his condition.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jill nodded but inside knew that wasn't the right answer. She handed James a file for a patient. "Exam room two."
James held the red folder in is hands. He still had his burlap sack over his shoulder. He ignored all of the things wrong with him and put the folder under his oxster. He looked in his burlap sack for his pager, a small black rectangle that only beeped when he was in trouble. He reached his left hand to the bottom of the sack and felt the familiar smooth surface. He felt a cylinder next to it and pulled it out.
His pills. He popped the lid off and took his daily dosage in the morning and continued on to the examination room. He walked in to a young kid facing the other way. She was talking to her mother, some thing about a toy. Neither of them had noticed James open the door and stand there by the door. James coughed.
"Mhmm. Hi, I'm Dr. Mathews. I'll be helping you today." The mother held out her hand to shake James's but James didn't offer his hand after the introduction.
"My name is Holly and this is Rebecca." She withdraws her hand.
"What seems to be wrong with Rebecca here." James said in a monotone voice. He lazily put his sack down and sat on the stool, leaning his back against the wall.
"Well, she seems to have a congested nose and sometime a light headache." Holly said. Rebecca breathed hard through her nose, which produced a nasty snort. Holly gave her a tissue to blow her nose in.
"That's it?" James asked. He looked at Holly like she was an idiot. He raised his eyebrow and Holly raised both of hers.
"Yeah, well? Aren't you some doctor? Treat her."
"Yeah, I am a doctor, doesn't mean I have to treat her." Holly gave him this I'll-sue-you-if-you-don't look "She's got a cold."
Rebecca smiled. She probably had no idea why she was there but seemed to get a smile out of it. James smirked at her and she received a bad smile full of sarcasm. Holly rolled her eyes and took her daughter out.
James sat there. He didn't even get up to put the file in the bin right outside the door. He wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet. He got up against the great temptation just to sit there and put the file in the bin. He walked over to the nurses desk to get another file for a patient.
"Hey Xavier, what do you have for me?" The male nurse turned around with a red folder. He had short cropped black hair that spiked up in the front. He had dark skin like normal Mexicans would have. No one at the hospital judged him since he was the first Mexican to work at the hospital and was pretty good at it.
"Exam room one, uno." He also spoke spanish which James thought was pretty awesome. He took the folder in his hand and walked to Exam One which was next door to Exam Two. He walked in and sat down on the stool and looked at the folder, not even looking at his patient.
"Your a weird doctor." He looked up to see a girl, about twelve or so.
"Your a weird patient. Where are your parents." James grumbled. He wiped his for head with his sleeve, soaking his sleeve with sweat.
"They are at work. They didn't have time to take me to the doctors and I heard about the free clinic." She said. She had a calm voice as if she was in control of the situation.
"How did you get past the nurses? You have to be at least sixteen to get into an examination room."
"I told the nurses that my parents were getting a snack."
James half smiled at the girl. She had dark brown hair, like a mahogany color with redder brown streaks. She had hazel eyes with hints of green. Freckles dotted her cheeks like specks of sand on a seashell. She had an oval face, her chin a little bit of a point. James sat there and observed the new, strange girl. He looked at her ragged clothes. She had a a white tank top on underneath a black half-shirt. The half-shirt ended right under her breasts, at the tip of her hair. It ended in strips of fabric with three wooden beads hanging on the fabric. The shirt had some white designs on it, like a paw print with claws, possibly a cats print. She had skinny jeans on, light that went darker at the seams. Her brown leather hoodie with grey sweatshirt sleeves looked a little thick. The girl wasn't even sweating a little. James noticed it and sat straight up.
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Kyla. I'm Kyla Jones." She answered calmly. He noticed that her voice was calm, like a soft tone so she probably had a sore throat too.
"What's the problem." He still was listing possible sicknesses in his brain while looked at her for other symptoms. She was nervous being in the room. She was playing with her fingers and occasionally tapping her feet together, the zippers on her combat boots jingling.
"My throat. It hurts really bad, especially when I swallow. Its kinda like its dry mixed with just a sore throat. I don't know what it is."
"How long has it hurt?"
"Started two days ago." This girl was good. She knew what she was talking about and James didn't really believe her to be that good for being just a kid.
"Ok, I'm going to put a flat stick on your tongue. Its just going to flatten it so I can see your throat. And then I'm going to shine I flash light on it to see its color. Got it?" James was using a five year olds voice when he was describing something simple. He put on a pouting lip to make him look innocent but Kyla didn't even flinch.
James got out the stick and took it in his hand, scooting the stool closer to where Kyla was sitting quietly. She opened her mouth, preparing for the slick wooden stick to sit on her tongue. James put it on her tongue and shined a small blue flashlight down to her throat. Her throat was a healthy pink but had red dots all over it. Even though she didn't have puss running down the back of her throat, James knew she had Strep Throat.
"Looks like you have Strep Throat. I'll prescribe you some medicine. Can you take pills?" Kyla shook her head. "Okay, I'll give you the liquid then. Just take it for ten days, after twenty four hours of the first dose, your not contagious. Enjoy." He said and walked out, leaving a prescription note for Kyla to get her medicine. Even though she had broken the hospital age rules, she was still a patient.
"James!" James turned around. His twenty-eight year old colleague, Penelope, was trailing behind him. She was wearing a pink shirt with some jeans and her lab coat over it. She wanted to practice in diagnosing. She was an expert in that but got stuck with him. They didn't really get along but did some times.
"Where, in the world, have you been." She said with dramatic pauses. Her blonde hair slid on her shoulders and her eyes were wide with anger. He looked at her. She had two different colored eyes, one was brown, the other blueish-greenish. She had something that started with an H, she got it from her mom. But James couldn't remember the name at the second.
"Here. Although I want to go to Africa. Africa seems like fun." Penelope looked at James with disbelief. She scoffed.
"You just can be easy to work with." James points quickly to his eye.
"Heterochromia." He says.
"What? Yes I know I have Heterochromia. I'm not an idiot." She turns around and stomps off. James stood there a the corner of his mouth lifted up in a small smile. "Oh, James?"
James looks up with a Hmmm? curling in his throat. "Hoss wants you." Penelope replies. James sighs and starts walking to Mr. Hoss's office, which was down the right hallway at the end, right after the locker rooms and business room.
James knocked twice on his boss's door and walked in. Mr. Hoss's dark skin nearly blended in with his black suit. Jill was leaning over his desk, her legs intertwined in a sexy pose. They both looked up quickly, clearly u expecting James to walk in during that. Jill removed the tip of her finger from her mouth and walked out. She sneered at James before she reached the door and went back to her station.
"You wanted to see me."
"Yes, yes I did." Hoss leaned forward in his chair. "We have someone waiting for you. Its Horatio. He's here." He whispered to james. James almost didn't catch the sentence. He nodded slowly and walked out, heading back to the clinic's nurse section. He looked at the big circle of exam rooms around him. The nurses desk was a circular desk with five computers on the I side with five chairs. There were also some extra equipment, for the libby in case some waiters needed attention, such as epi-pens, bags and tubes, and insulin with syringes. James always thought that was crazy but those were the most needed. He went over to one of the nurses and asked for the file for Horatio.
"Exam room ten." The nurse responded. James went to ten and opened the door. A young, buff man sat on his stool. He had sagging blue jeans on with patches of plaid shirts sewn into it to add "swag". He wore a white tank top with thick straps. It was dirty, now a light tan color that contrasted with his black skin. A red bandana was tied around his bald head. The only thing that worried jams was the black leather jacket he wore over his arms with a few drops of blood on his hand.
"James! My man! Thought is would never see you again. Yo, how yo been? Hah?" Horatio laughed. His thick go-tee raised and lowered, following Horatios lips like it was on puppet strings and his lips were the puppet master.
"I'm not your man any more Horatio. If you haven't noticed, I backed out of your gang a year ago and I ain't going back." James stood there, slipping on a pair of white, plastic gloves that stuck to his hand because they were so small.
"Come on man. Don't yo rememba? Sunny?"
"I'm not Sunny anymore." He growled back. Horatio had a cheery, almost threatening tone is his voice but James was just our hostility.
"Sure look the same as Sunny, only our gang symbol ain't on yo skin no more."
"I got it lasered out after the accident."
"Oh, Sunny, how many times do I have to ask you that that wasnt and accident. That man purposely came in to try to kill us, just you got in the way at the wrong time."
James slammed his hands down on the table. A few boxes fell over from the impact. "That man made it past your guards, leaving them unharmed but when I was talking to you and got startled, he just decided to stab me? Do you know how messed up that sounds."
Horatio nodded. "Yo, but I need yo help now."
James sighed, pinching his nose with his index finger and thumb. "What have you gotten yourself into now, Horatio?"
Horatio slid the leather jacket off. More blood rushed down to his finger tips as he winced in pain. He was obviously in serious pain and wasn't faking for drugs as usual. The jacket was covering up a hole in his arm, a deep red, a little deep.
"Oh my god." James muttered as he stared at the hole.
The bullet hole.