Disclaimer: Yada yada, they're all mine even though they resemble two people we all know.
Sex, violence, bad language and what ever else I can toss into a story. If you have a pacifier stuck in your mouth, GO AWAY! If ya don't like how my characters speak or act, GO AWAY!
Songs sung by these artists used without permission: Smoky Robinson, Percy Sledge, Shania Twain, Rascal Flats.
Kat rolled her eyes and shot a glance at a laughing Carol, she didn't know what she was going to do to her two friends but guaranteed, it would be painful. She watched as Jack and Lashawna skipped down the hallway and came to sliding stops when Waylon and Hudson came through the stairwell door. They looked both ways before coming to the conclusion that they were caught and to just suffer the consequences. Dropping their heads, they shuffled back to Kat and ducked into her office. "Hudson, what were they wearing on their heads?" Waylon asked as they walked towards Kat's office.
"Do you really want to know?" She mumbled and then rolled her eyes when Waylon nodded her head. "You'll just have to wait and see for yourself."
Lashawna grabbed the pacifier out of Jack's hand and gave her a baby bottle nipple instead, she grinned and nodded her head at her daring her to do it. Jack wiggled her brows, licked the back of the nipple and stuck it to her forehead. "Is it in the middle?" She asked in a whisper and then shut up when she heard foot falls outside the door. They sunk down in the chairs thinking it was Kat coming to ream their asses for wasting hospital supplies, they grinned when they saw that it was Hudson and Waylon instead.
"Only you two would run around with diapers on your heads," Waylon said and then leaned in closer to Jack. "You really need to visit Hudson more, maybe she can help you." She dropped down on the edge of Kat's desk and rolled her eyes at Lashawna. "You too, I can't believe some of the stuff you two do and get away with it."
Hudson leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest and a raised eyebrow. "How is it that no one misses you down in the ER?"
"Easy, they told me to stay the Hell away from them because they didn't wanna end up getting in trouble..."
"They found out that Jack's name was put on all kinds of surgical requests and lab tests, one of them was for a exploratory brain surgery procedure for the hospital administrator." Lashawna finished her sentence for her and looked over to see Kat standing in the doorway rolling her eyes.
"What they don't know is that I did write that one up," Jack grinned. "I thought it was necessary with all the shit he's believing. And for putting DeGado in your place, he doesn't belong in a hospital after what we saw him doing!"
"Well he does but as an extreme trauma patient instead!" Lashawna said. "He threw some old lady out of the ER when she came in with sores on her feet, I ain't no doctor but it looked like it was complications from diabetes." She saw Jack nodding her head and then pulled the lady's paperwork from her pocket. "He threw her paperwork away but I saved it." She handed it to Waylon with a huge grin. "Did I do good?"
Waylon looked at the triage report, saw the nurse's initials and waved to Tara who just stepped into the office. "Can you get this lady back in here and have her treated, she has gangrene in three of her toes and it looks like they may have to be removed. And send a note to the hospital board after you have her make a statement, maybe they'll investigate that asshole DeGado?" She handed the report to Tara and then looked to Lashawna. "Ya did good, keep your eyes open and if he does anything like that again let Kat or Tara know. Maybe they'll be able to get the patient out of his way and treated." She then looked to Kat and took a deep breath before broaching her next question. "What do you know about Carol, the reason I'm asking is because I was going over the reports and saw that she studied in India?" Carol stepped into the office and blushed, she knew that it would come up sooner or later and she didn't want anyone thinking the wrong idea. She saw how embarrassed Waylon was and waved a hand at her.
"It's OK, I'll tell you what ever you want to know starting with why I was in India. I was over there with my parents, my dad was the American Diplomat for India and it just seemed normal for me to start my medical education over there. I was only seventeen at the time and I didn't want to be on a strange campus over here while my parents were in a foreign country." She shrugged her shoulders and waited for Waylon or anyone of them to ask further questions, she didn't want them thinking she had anything to hide.
Jack grinned at her and then at every one else. "A child prodigy like me!"
"Haaa! You're no child prodigy, child yes, genius no!" Waylon kicked her in her foot and turned her attention back to Carol.
Waylon nodded her head and then asked her another question. "Do you know why someone would quit right in the middle of an internship and transfer to Brazil?" She knew the answer but wanted to see what Carol said.
"Most likely it's because they either couldn't hack it or they got in trouble, who are you talking about, I may know the real reason?"
"One of them is DeGado, the other one doesn't work here anymore, he's deceased." She noticed the pale shade come over Carol's face and knew that she had an idea of who the deceased person was.
"You're talking about Daren Remsburg aren't you, did anyone ever find out how he ended up in the garbage dump?" She looked around at the shaking heads and sighed. "I knew him from Gross Anatomy class; he was one of the guys that tossed his cookies when the first cadaver was exposed. DeGado is a fucking bastard, I never went to school with him but he has this complex that he's some kind of Medical and Surgical genius. Every time you walked away, he had some smartass comment to make about women doctors." She stepped further into the room and looked into green eyes. "I may be wrong but I think he's the one behind all the stuff that's happening to you, Jack and the organs coming up missing. When I was checking the computer a few minutes ago, I noticed a John Doe in the morgue files, there's no police report or anything else saying where the body came from."
Jack looked to Lashawna, got up from her chair, pulled the nipple from her forehead and stuck it on Waylon's before she ran from the office. "I hate going down there!" Lashawna yelled but followed her anyway.
"Why are they going down to the morgue?" Waylon asked Tara.
"That missing patient is Jack's; if the John Doe is him then she'll be able to identify the body."
"Ohh Hell!" Hudson took off after them knowing that they would get into some kind of trouble all on their own." Waylon stomped her foot and threw her hands in the air.
"If she gets in trouble..." She dropped down into one of the chairs and ran her fingers through her hair.
Tara snickered and dropped down into the other chair. "You'll wait until you get home and bang her brains out." She pulled the forgotten nipple off Waylon's forehead and handed it to her. "You're so wrapped up in her ya didn't even pay attention to that thing."
"What can I say...," She rolled the nipple around in her hand and then noticed that she had three eager listeners. "What?" She blushed and sunk down into the chair further. "I'm so screwed."
*************
By the time Hudson caught up with her two friends, they were already pulling storage drawers open, she stood back and watched Lashawna try and identify bodies with her eyes closed. Walking closer, she tapped her on the shoulder, jumped back when she screamed like a banshee and jumped three foot up into the air. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" She asked and clamped a hand over her racing heart.
"Me, that scream you always give out takes years off my life and adds more grey to what I already have! How can you tell who you're looking at with your eyes closed?"
"I can't but I can't look at no dead things either," She pointed to Jack who was yanking the sheets off the bodies and throwing them on the floor. "Now that sick bitch, it don't bother her, next thing she'll be putting them in the cafeteria!"
"Only the women!" Jack yelled, yanked another sheet off a body and yelled. "DAMN TINY DICKS!" They all spun around when they heard a loud bellow come from the doorway.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING TO MY BODIES?" The corner limped in and grabbed Jack by her lab coat and dragged her away from the corpse. "I told you before to stay away from my bodies now get out or I'll call security!"
"Wait...I'm looking...for John Doe!" Jack stuttered out just before she fell into Hudson and Lashawna.
"John Doe, I don't have any John Does down here." He looked around at the mess and then saw a gurney against the wall. "Now who put that over there, I told them before to put them in the walk in! Damn lazy ass people," He pulled the sheet from the feet, looked at the toe tag and then removed the whole sheet. "Here's you John Doe, don't know where he came from since I don't have any reports with him." He scratched his head, pulled his glasses off and used the sheet to clean them. "This ain't right," He waved them over and pointed down at the body. "He looks a little thin to me," He pushed down on the abdomen and touched the man's spinal column. "Why the Hell does he have sutures near his ears?"
"Ohh Hell Hudson, that's my missing patient, now what do we do?" She turned when she heard a loud thump to find both Hudson and Lashawna passed out behind her.
**************
Jack did her little dance steps down the hallway behind the sheet covered gurney she was pushing, at the top of her lungs; she sang one of her sick songs. "Gots me two stiff women's fer me bed...who cares if they's a little dead! She pushed the gurney into the elevator and hit the button to the Troll cave. "Gets no dates 'cuz I'ms a toad...So I scraps them up offs the road!" She pushed the gurney out into the hallway and stopped to avoid hitting two older people. "Hey, I know you!" She pulled hands out from under the sheet and waved at them. "Got me two this time, gonna have me one of them threesomes!" She laughed hysterically when they ran off in the opposite direction. "Love my job!" Leaving the gurney near the door to the nurse's lounge, she went to search for her friends. "Ohh is someone gonna owe me big time for this, my back aches from hauling them up off the floor." She rubbed her lower back and stopped in the doorway to Kat's office. "Hey Squirt; I got something out in the hallway for ya." She waved a hand at her, turned and went screaming down the hallway. "MINE...DON'T TOUCH...MY DEAD BODIES!" She flung herself on top of the big lump under the sheet and growled at the nurse. "What is it with you, are you the gurney police or something?"
"Me, what's with you and pushing dead bodies all over the hospital?" The nurse tried to move the sheet aside from the top of the gurney and screamed bloody murder when a hand came out from under it grabbed her wrist. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she hit the floor with a thump.
"Jack, what in the Hell are you doing on top of that gurney?" Waylon asked and then noticed the unconscious nurse on the floor. "Are you collecting dates for tonight or something?"
"Yep, got me one cold fish and a HOTTY so far!! She crawled off the gurney and pulled the sheet off Hudson and Lashawna. "You get Lashawna and I get the hotty!" She latched onto Hudson's hand and yelped when she bit her. "Hey, I coulda left you two laying on the floor in the morgue. Big dummies passed out as soon as they looked at a dead guy."
Lashawna slid off Hudson and smacked Jack in her stomach. "Dead...he looked like he was liposuctioned ta death!" Hudson sat up, rubbed the back of her head, and felt a good size knot there. She looked to her lover and shrugged her shoulders.
"She's right, the guy looked all hollow, the ME had his hand on his stomach and it went allllll the way down." She shivered and leaned into Waylon's body when she wrapped her arms around her. "I'm not going down there no more."
"The big bad ass that kicks the shit outta cops passes out at the sight of a dead body." Hudson's head jerked up at the familiar voice and smiled brightly.
"Hey Bill, what brings you here, there's nothing wrong is there?"
"Nope, just came by to tell you that your construction crew is in lock-up. They got caught stealing building materials from someone else's work site, so that means that the police may want to take a look at your place. You know to see if there's any stolen material over there."
"Just fucking great, just what I need on top of everything." She dropped her face down against her lover's neck and grumbled obscene things that she wanted to do to the construction crew. Bill took one look at the two women and knew that things had changed for them, he smiled at the other women and waved goodbye. He had to get back down to the ER before the others ended up tossed in jail for just being there. He couldn't wait to tell Hudson's other dads that she had finally found her other half.
*************
Hudson unlocked the door to her building and let Waylon proceed before her; she stepped inside the lower half and sighed. After two months of so-called construction, there wasn't a single change from when she bought the place. She was hoping that they started on the top floor so they wouldn't track dirt all over the place. She took her lover's hand and led her to the steps that went up where her living quarters would be, flipping on the lights; she looked around and cussed under her breath. "Those mother fuckers, they didn't do anything!" She walked around and saw that not even a single windowpane had been replaced. Cold air blew in from where the panes had duct tape over them. She released Waylon's hand, dropped down onto a rusted paint can and dropped her face into her hands. I gave them five thousand dollars to replace all the windows and doors so that the weather wouldn't further damage the walls and floors." She looked up with rage-filled eyes and growled. "Those fuckers ripped me off and there's no way in Hell I'll get my money back." Waylon stepped behind her and wrapped her arms her chest.
"Maybe Bill can press charges against them and get the money out of the sale of their construction company. There's probably other people out there that they've ripped off." She nuzzled her neck and placed a soft kiss against her chilled skin. "In the meantime, I don't have anything to do, so I'll start doing some work around here." She felt large hands cover hers and a gentle nod of her dark head.
"I'll give you my check book and you can get the stuff you need," She leaned her head back and placed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Maybe get the others to help carry stuff up the stairs and paint and I'm sure my dads will help you to."
"What kind of floors do you want up here?"
Hudson looked around and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I was thinking hardwood at first. What do you think I should do?"
"Ohh maybe a mixture, nice thick carpeting where the bedrooms gonna be, tile in the bathroom and kitchen and a light colored hardwood everywhere else." She gave her a small nudge and took her hand. "Come on let's go home, I'm cold and starving." Hand in hand, they left the building and walked out to the Viper; Hudson checked her pocket and heard the jingle of keys. She looked into smiling green eyes and rolled hers.
"Guess you're driving ya little pickpocket, not like I have a choice unless we wrestle on the sidewalk."
**********
The next morning, Waylon dropped Hudson off at the hospital with plans to start getting materials for her building. Before they parted, she left a panting Hudson standing on the sidewalk. Now, after catching her breath and wandering into the ER nurses lounge, she stopped and starred at Jack and Lashawna. "What in Gods name are you two doing with syringes?" She flinched when they hit the end of the dangerous instruments that sat on the tabletop and followed their flight to the ceiling. "Ohh Gods, what are you guys gonna do when they start to fall?" She looked at the ceiling panels and stayed clear of the danger zone.
"Ohh we're prepared!" Jack pulled out a bedpan and dropped it on her head. "See, when they fall they'll just bounce right off us."
"Took a couple stabs before we decided ta wear helmets," Lashawna dropped one over her head and grinned. "Wanna play, the one who can stick the most gets a free lunch," She looked to Jack with narrowed eyes. "And not the cafeteria either cheapskate, real food from a real restaurant."
Jack snickered. "Can ya tell she's winning?"
Hudson crossed her arms over her chest and gave them a lopsided grin. "I'll buy ya both lunch if you go over and help Waylon, she's working on my building and needs help carrying stuff upstairs." She held up a finger when they started to get up. "After your shifts, I don't wanna see you two get fired."
"No problem," Lashawna said. "It's our day off...we didn't have anything better ta do then come in and play." She gave Hudson a huge grin as she dragged Jack out the door. "Ohh it might help if we know where your building is, I mean we've been by there before but..."
"You don't wanna go busting in on that old lady next door again huh?"
"Hell NO!" Jack yelled. "She hit me with that big stick she hides behind her door, that thing hurts like a bitch!" Hudson shook her head and went to the stairwell to run up to her floor, it was the day that she held group counseling and knew that her nuts would be waiting. Since taking over the nut ward floor, she had changed much of how things were to be done. She let the nuts wander around the floor most of the day and had the activity room opened up instead of having it just used on certain days. She knew if she had to sit in a small room all day and stare at the walls, she would go nuts. If given things to do to keep the mind from becoming stagnant, it not only kept the nuts out of trouble but seemed to help with their recoveries. She knew it was unorthodox the way she treated but it worked and that is all that mattered. She stopped off at her office, grabbed her old guitar and headed to the large activity room. Using the old wives tale of music calming the beast, she found if she played and sang to the patients, it helped them. As soon as the patients who were wandering the halls saw her with her guitar, they ran for the room screaming. A wide grin came to her face, she could remember when she had first taken over how the patients were so quiet and over medicated. Now, they showed some life to them and it wasn't violent.
*****************
Waylon looked around at all the building materials that she, Jack and Lashawna had carried and dragged up the steps to Hudson's apartment. She still had more materials to purchase but would wait until she had the windows replaced and the leaky roof fixed, looking over to the far wall, she snorted at her exhausted friends. "Wimps, we didn't carry that much stuff."
"Ohh so carrying a three hundred pound sliding glass door isn't much?" Lashawna said with a roll of her eyes. "What's next, steel girders or maybe a grand piano?"
"Worse, my lunch." She grinned at the moans and groans coming from them and walked towards the door. "Come on, I'll even treat you guys to lunch and then we'll head over to the nut ward to let Hudson know what we got done."
"She better hide, that's for sure," Jack mumbled. "She never said that we were gonna be slaves." She looked down at her blister-covered hands and raised them up to show Lashawna. "Look at my precious surgeons hands!"
"Who are you tryin ta impress, your right hand has always had blisters and calluses. Ya sick pervert."
"And it looks just like yours so who else is a pervert?" Waylon smacked them both and pushed them towards the stairs.
"You're both sick now let's go before I start seeing which one of you has more meat on their bones."
******************
Hudson sat on one of the long tables in the community room playing her guitar and singing a song that had her patients jumping around the room and singing along. She got them wound up at first to burn off some of the un-used energy that they built up over the day and then calmed them with a slower more relaxing type of music. She was at the end of the energy burning songs and could see that some of the men and women were slowing down.
When everything is goin' wrong
Don't worry, it won't last for long
Yeah, it's all gonna come around
Don't' go let it get you down
You gotta keep on holding on
It's about as bad as it can be
Seems everybody's buggin' me
Like nothing wants to go my way-
Yeah, it just ain't my day
Nothins' comin' easily
Oh- I'm going up up up
Oh yeah, yeah yeah
She hit the last chord and gave out a yell that was repeated by her weary patients. Taking a sip of water from the bottle at her side, she started picking out chords and saw smiles on all the faces before her. "OK, I know you guys know this one. Have a seat, dance around do what ever you like." She looked up from her guitar to see Waylon leaning against the door jam; she gave her a crooked grin and began to sing in a rich voice.
Everybody needs it
Everybody wants it
Everybody's searching for someone
Been down a thousand highways
I never thought would end
Baby I've been
She got up from the table and walked to the center of the room when Jack and Lashawna joined in with the chorus.
(Chorus)
Waiting all my life to find you
Always been one step behind you
Your love babe
I've been waiting all my life
I was tired of waiting
Every night was praying
Every day would be the day I found you
It grew so important, how long would it take
To know you were out there somewhere
Somewhere waiting, wondering just like me
(Second Chorus)
I've been waiting all my life to love you
All that time I was dreaming of you
Your love babe
I've been waiting all my life
And did I lose heart
Maybe I did, but I never lost my way
To where you are- I've been
Waiting all my life to find you
Always been one step behind
Your love babe
Your love I've been waiting
Your love I've been waiting all my life
All my life, all my life.
She was now standing in front of her lover when the last note died and the room was quiet. She lifted one hand and caressed a warm cheek with the backs of her fingers, in a low raspy whisper she said. "I've been waiting all my life for you." She felt her guitar taken from her hand by Lashawna and then clapping come from everyone in the room when Waylon pulled her head down for a searing kiss. She looked up minutes later to see that they were the only ones left in the community room. "Seems that we've been abandoned, what do you wanna do now?"
"Ohhh I'm sure that I can come up with something," Waylon took her by the hand and led her down the hallway towards her office. "For starters, we can have lunch and then we'll work off the calories at home." Hudson wrapped her arm around her shoulder and pulled her against her side.
"You brought me lunch?"
"Yep, we got all the stuff up in your apartment and then I treated my helpers to lunch, I couldn't let you eat that mystery food from the cafeteria now could I?" When they cleared the door to Hudson's office, Waylon pushed her up against the closed door and pulled her head down. "Why didn't you tell me you could play the guitar?"
"It never occurred to me," She brought their lips together in a gentle kiss and pulled back. "I have many talents you don't know about." The kiss they shared had them sinking to the floor to block the door, they groaned when someone on the other side pounded and then kicked the door hard enough to shake it in its frame. "Could only be one person that can do that." She helped Waylon to her feet and then yelled through the door. "GO AWAY TARA!"
"You don't have a degree in Gynecology so open up!" She gave her friends a toothy grin when the door opened. "I got an idea on how we could catch doctor organ donor." Hudson pulled Waylon over to her desk and grabbed up the tray of food sitting there.
"OK let's have it?" She said and then pulled Waylon down onto her lap. "And if this lands my ass in jail, I'll kick yours all the way home." Tara took a seat in the chair across from the desk and leaned forward.
"I think this might work, ya see, the people who come for the donor organs all carry those white coolers with a red cross on the sides. We have Jack and Lashawna watching for them and when one comes in, we grab 'em"
"And then what do we do with them after that?" Waylon said and popped a breaded shrimp into her lover's mouth. "Tie them up and torture them until they give us all their dirty little secrets?"
"No more like we have one of Hudson's dads take his place, collect the organs and find out where they're supposed to take them. Since there's no paper work here at the hospital that means that it has to be...," Hudson swallowed quickly and thumped her desk with her hand.
"Donor doc has to tell them where to go and then we can follow and get who ever it is that's funding this little operation."
"Exactly! So do you think it'll work?" She looked between them and crossed her fingers.
"Not to mention, we can find out who all is involved in this." Waylon said, grabbed a pen and paper and flipped the PC on. "Now to figure out who the next possible victim is," she looked up to Tara with a cocked eyebrow. "Or has our little spy of an intern already found one?"
"Not that I know of, I think her and Kat are up to their elbows in dirty diapers. They had twins born this morning and then three other women were in the delivery rooms."
"OK, give me a minute here and I'll see what I can find." She opened her mouth for the shrimp dangling in front of her and bit Hudson's fingers just for the Hell of it. Tara rolled her eyes and then snickered when Waylon threw a shrimp in the air and Hudson caught it in her mouth. "I see three possible people here, one AB negative and two B negative blood types. She wrote down the names and all pertinent information and handed it to Tara. "See if these people are still where the computer says and if they are stick Jack and Lashawna on those floors to keep watch."
"Will do, pushy little squirt," she got up from the chair and looked over her shoulder. "No sex on the desk either you two." Waylon looked to her lover with raised eyebrows and then grinned until the sides of her nose crinkled.
"Would we do that?"
"What's the difference between my desk and the broom closet?" She answered in a sexy drawl when Waylon shrugged her shoulders. "We can lock my door and not be caught with 'my' pants around my ankles."
"I like your pants around your ankles," she licked the side of her lover's neck and growled. "Better yet, my pants around my ankles." Hudson lifted her up; set her on the desk in front of her and unfastened the buttons on her old cargo pants.
"I think I can make that happen," she pulled her head down for an open mouth kiss, slipped her lover's pants down over her hips, and then off completely. "Going native for me?"
"Only for you..." Her head fell back and her arms flexed when lips touched her inner thigh. "Always for you." She fell back on the desk when a warm wet tongue slipped between her nether lips to lick at her nectar, her back arched and lifted her up that her shoulders we touching the desk top. She grabbed Hudson's head and pulled face tighter to her and wrapped a leg around her shoulders, a deep guttural moan ripped through her when her clit was flicked and then sucked. She brought her free leg up and placed her foot on the desk; she flexed her leg and thrust her hips with the coming of her climax. Her breath caught in her chest, body went bowstring taut, colors burst behind her closed eyes and her hand covering her mouth muffled her yell. She dropped down onto the desk and jerked with each aftershock; "Love...you Dude." Her limbs fell lifelessly to her sides to dangle off the desk.
"We love you too." Jack and Lashawna said from the doorway and then ran when Hudson stood up.
"Son of a bitch." Hudson mumbled and then crawled across her desk to slam the door closed. "Sorry Squirt, I'll kill them in a minute." She looked down at Waylon and ran a hand down the side of her face. "Waylon?" She looked closer, saw a small smile on her lips, and closed her eyes in relief. "I am so glad you picked now to pass out, leaves me off the hook"
****************
"Is she coming?" Lashawna yelled and then turned to face her friend. "What in the Hell are you doing?"
"Huh?" Jack's voice echoed in the stairwell where they were hiding from Hudson. "What are you doing?" She pointed at Lashawna's hands covering her ears and her head ducked down between her shoulders.
"Me, why'd you have your eyes covered?"
"So she couldn't see me, think she's gonna kill us?"
"Ohh because we watched, probably." She jumped when a door above them opened, then slammed and heavy footsteps sounded off on the metal stairs. They moved back as far as they could in the dark corner and waited for the person to go past. They sighed with relief and then looked to each other. "Who was that?"
"Don't know I've never seen her before." Jack whispered and then crept forward on all fours. "Let's go follow her, maybe she's new and lost her way."
"Riiiiight, you just wanna follow her so ya can check her out."
"And what's wrong with that?" She snickered and crawled to the doorway.
"Nothing except that it firmly plants in my mind that you're a stalker."
********
Waylon kept smacking her lover in the shoulder on their way down the steps in the stairwell, she had woke up sprawled out on her desk with Hudson's lunch tray on her stomach. The worst part was that she hadn't left any food for her. "I can't believe you just left me laying there and didn't wake me up!"
"You looked so peaceful, plus that way I got to eat without you stealing all my shrimp." She grabbed her hand, pulled on it and had her over her shoulder in a spit second. "Now stop fighting me, I have plans for tonight." She used her foot and hit the bar to open the stairwell door.
"Plans, what plans?" Waylon asked from where she hung upside down over her lover's shoulder.
"It's a secret and I ain't telling no matter what you do."
"Wanna bet and if you don't put me down, I'm gonna throw up all down your back." When she was back on her feet, she had to grab onto Hudson until the room stopped spinning. "Wish I was bigger so I could toss you around." She jumped when Jack and Lashawna ran past them with Tara on their heels. "Now what did they do?"
"Who knows with those two," Hudson took Waylon's hand and twined their fingers together. "Let's go home before we get caught up in something that'll ruin my plans and piss me off." She jumped back out of Jack, Lashawna and Tara's way as they came running past again.
"How long do you think they can keep that up?"
"We won't be around here to find out." She took Waylon's hand and they ran for the side door that led to the parking garage.
**************
"Stop right there before I use this!" Tara yelled and waved a metal tray at a panting Jack and Lashawna. "Leave my nurses alone; I had to convince her that you two had escaped from upstairs and that you wouldn't bother her any more."
"We only wanted to find out her name, geez; I swear all the womens around here are prickly." Jack snickered and looked to a grinning Lashawna. "With the exception of two."
Tara put the tray down and stepped closer. "Woooo there, who's not prickly?"
"Dude and Squirt, we saw them...ya know, right on Dude's desk." Lashawna fanned herself. "Ain't no starch in Waylon no more, not with the suction and licking we saw!" She slapped hands with Jack.
"Damn!" Tara stomped a foot and walked away. "Knew they would do it on her desk." The other two women watched her disappear around a corner and headed off in the other direction. They had just cleared the corner when they saw the back of a dark head that wasn't familiar to them, they looked to each other and grinned before sneaking up behind the woman.
"Excuse me nurse...my friend needs some help." When the woman turned around, she saw Jack, screamed and fell over on the floor in a dead faint. Lashawna leaned over her and snorted.
"Ain't she the one who kept trying to take the gurneys from ya?"
"I think but her hairs a different color ain't it."
"Damn you two," Tara grabbed them by the backs of their pants and dragged them away from the unconscious nurse. "She had to dye it to get rid of the grey after the last time you scared the Hell outta her." She dragged them towards the elevator, pushed the button and told them to stay. She went back over to the nurse and put her in a wheel chair before rejoining her two trouble making friends. "I need you guys to stand guard duty for three patients upstairs, I had them all moved into rooms side by side. No one goes into the rooms except me and Kat got that?"
"We can't go in them?" Jack asked and flinched when two hands rose over her head. "Hey you said...never mind."
Lashawna planted her hands on her hips and raised a dark eyebrow. "What are we supposed ta do if someone wants in there?"
Jack jumped up and down and did a happy dance. "Knock 'em in the head and drop 'em down the laundry shoot!"
"I'm gonna knock you in the head and drop you down it, tell them that they have a contagious disease or something. Then page me and I'll come and investigate and deem if it's a legitimate reason, we want to find out whose killing patients and we're using these ones as bait." She shivered at the thought of what they were doing but hoped that they were able to get into the surgery suite and save them, get the operating staff and the person funding it all. She pulled a paper from her pocket and handed it to them. "They're in rooms 314 and 316, sit outside the door because I know you two won't stay away from each other and someone will sneak into one of them."
"OK boss," Jack gave her a sloppy salute. "No one goes in...how long we gotta stay here?"
"Until I find two nurses I can trust to take over." She took off at a jog towards the stairs and disappeared through the door.
"We better not get stuck here for eternity." Lashawna growled and pulled a chair from one of the rooms into the hallway. "Or I'm gonna kick your ass."
*************
Waylon squinted in the darkness of the bar and pulled on Hudson's hand. "Dude why are we here?" She yelled so that Hudson would hear her over the blaring music.
"Because I wanna show you off and dance with you," She led her over to the bar and ordered them two Cokes. "Wanna get a table or stay here at the bar?"
"Table, I hate hanging out at the bar, everyone thinks your there because you want picked up." She held onto her lover's hand for dear life and tried to crawl in her back pocket when a woman winked at her. "I really hate bars," She dropped down in a chair against the wall and looked around at all the people. "Did you hear me Dude, I hate bars!"
"It'll be OK baby, once they know you're with me, they'll back off." She leaned forward and nuzzled her neck.
Waylon tilted her head to the side to offer Hudson more of her neck. "Did I ever tell you that I can't dance worth a damn?"
"That's OK, 'cuz what I do isn't considered dancing." She licked her neck, nipped at her ear lobe and then stood up. "Come on Squirt time to break some hearts." She pulled her out onto the dance floor and pressed their bodies together; she looked down into green eyes and grinned. "Relax baby and just feel." She wrapped her arms around her waist and moved against her in a way that had Waylon's blood heating up instantly. She let the music's beat pound through her body and led her where it will, she felt Waylon press tighter against her and run her fingernails down the back of her neck. Everyone around them disappeared and the music became a primal beat that called to them, she slipped a thigh between her lover's legs and pressed against her in a slow grinding movement. When Waylon shivered, she dropped her head to lick at her neck and then slip her tongue inside her ear. "I want you right here." She whispered in her ear and moved against her in the same way they do in the privacy of their home. She ground against Waylon and brought her face around to capture her lips in a kiss that pushed her over the edge with a shudder and a deep moan. Seconds later she followed and moaned into the side of her lover's neck, they continued to move against each other until the song changed. Hudson whispered against her lover's sweat dampened skin; "I have to sit down before I fall down." They stumbled from the dance floor and back to their table. Hudson dropped into her chair and then pulled Waylon down onto her lap.
"I can't believe we did that out there in front of all those people." She snuggled into her lover's body and rested her head on her shoulder.
"Squirt, look out on the dance floor and tell me that anyone noticed what we were doing?" Waylon looked out but all she could see were couples dancing so close together that they looked like Siamese twins joined at the groin. "You know I've never done that before on a dance floor." She admitted and then chuckled when Waylon leaned back and captured her in a blazing look.
"You could have fooled me and what brought this on anyway?"
"Just living out one of my fantasies," she brought them together in a kiss so sultry that Waylon almost fell off her lap. When they parted, she dropped her voice to an octave that sent tingles down Waylon's spine. "I have a couple more that I want to experience with you."
"You almost gave me a heart attack with this one; will I survive the others?"
"We'll just have to wait and see." She took a long drink of her Coke and then pulled Waylon back up on the dance floor, they danced but not like the first time. They knew if they did that again, one of them would have to be carried out of the place.
************
Nurses, interns and doctors charged down the hallway of the third floor to answer a code blue, stairwell and elevator doors opened to admit more hospital personal to lend a hand if needed. It was a common occurrence and anyone who was not involved in an emergency responded, with the flow of people, no one noticed a lone person in a white lab coat entering room 314. The patient that the code blue was called for was in the hospital for treatment of a broken hip sustained in a fall from a ladder. Other than that, the 43-year-old man was in good health with no other concerns. With the pain of having pins and screws in his hip joint, he was seldom aware of his surroundings due to a morphine pump. He paid no attention to the young doctor coming into his room to look at his chart, then inject his IV line with something, and then, a few minutes later, he flat lined.
With the commotion, the now unconscious patient covered from head to toe by a white sheet from room 314 was pushed out into the hall. No one ever paid attention to the deceased, making it easier to wheel them into the service elevator and up to one of the unused operating rooms. A surgical gloved hand hit the door button and then the floor to surgery. The person uncovered the patients head, striped out of the long blue lab coat that te medical examiner wore and then pushed the gurney out of the hallway on the surgical floor. Ignoring everyone in his path, he put his back to the OR room and walked backwards through them. "About time you got here, what did you did read him a bed time story?" DeGado growled and pulled the gurney under the bright surgical lights.
"His room was under guard, I had to distract the entire floor to get him up here." Corvell said and then flinched when DeGado gave him a force ten glare. "Don't worry, he was on a Morphine pump and I gave him 20 cc's in his IV shunt, it'll look like he over dosed himself." He let the nurse pull his shield over his eyes and then double gloved him; they weren't worried about germs since the patient never lived.
"You better hope that no one saw you," DeGado grabbed a scalpel from the tray and split the man's chest open. "Because if anyone did, you're history."
***********
Hudson rolled over and fell off the edge of the bed when the phone rang; she lifted her head from the floor and groaned in pain. Grabbing at the sore muscle in her thigh, she tried to ease the cramping and prayed that the phone stopped ringing. "Go away, its four o'clock in the morning." She rolled to her side, got to her knees and grabbed the phone. "WHAT!"
"Dude get over to the hospital," Tara panted over the phone. "One of the patients was taken from his room!"
"SHIT! Are you there now?" She got up, sat on the edge of the bed and felt Waylon roll against her.
"I just got here; Kat's trying to find out what happened."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes, get the security tapes." She hung up the phone and pulled her torn and tattered t-shirt over her head.
"Where you going?" Waylon's sleep roughened voice asked.
"One of the patients that was under guard is missing, Tara and Kat are at the hospital trying to find him."
"I'm going with you," She rolled from the bed and shook her leg trying to get her Levis off her one foot. "I can...help." She fell back on the bed and held her leg up to her lover.
Hudson pulled her Levis from her foot and dropped them to the floor. "What if someone sees you there and tells the administrator?"
"I'll bend over and tell them all ta kiss my ass." She held out a hand to be helped up and groaned from stiff and overworked muscles. "I think we're getting too old to play Twister." She moaned and grabbed at her lower back and slapped at a chuckling Hudson. "Shut up Dude, you're not moving any better." Dressed like two bums, they staggered through the side door off the parking lot and took the elevator up to the pediatrics wing. They knew that it would be safer for Waylon to wait there while Hudson went in search of Tara and Kat then to be wandering the hallways. "She went towards Kat's office and nodded at the nurse coming out of the room where all the babies were in cribs. "Feeding time at the troll cage?"
"I thought having my own kids was bad but when you have seventeen all crying at the same time and no help, it gets down right horrifying."
"Where is everyone?" Waylon asked and picked up a scrub shirt from a cart and pulled it on.
"The administrator called everyone into the cafeteria for a meeting, we had a morphine overdose by way of pump on three and a patient that escaped during the commotion. What are you doing here, I thought you were suspended?"
"Hudson came in on an emergency so I came in with her to see Kat."
The nurse gave her a huge smile and clasped her shoulder. "So the rumor mill is right, you two are living together." She winked and handed Waylon a baby bottle. "Grab anyone you want and I'll be right back with some more bottles." Waylon looked at the bottle and then into the glass encased room with the yelling babies.
"How did I get roped into feeding trolls?" She sighed and pushed through the door to the room. Picking up the first baby she came to, she walked over to one of the rocking chairs and sat down. "You know I'm supposed to be helping my lover look for a patient and here I am feeding you." She watched as the baby boy sucked on the bottle and stared up at her with dark blue eyes. "You have no idea how lucky you are little guy, not a worry in the world except when your next feeding comes." She leaned back, rocked in the chair and looked out at all the cribs.
****************
"I want to know how this happened and why no one has the slightest idea of why we can't find the missing patient!" The hospital administrator walked paced in front of all the personnel who were not treating critical patients to attend his mandatory emergency meeting. He looked out over the doctors and nurses, ran his hands down his sheet-wrinkled face, and pulled on his bathrobe. "Who was in charge of that floor?" He tripped over his slipper and caught himself by grabbing the edge of the table. "Come on people, all I have to do is get the log book." He saw a hesitant hand go up and then saw the older nurse that had been the charge nurse longer than he had been involved with medicine.
"We had a code blue; so everyone went to take care of that. After the crisis was over, the other nurses went back to their rounds and that's when we found that a patient was missing." Hudson came through the door and made her way over to where Tara and Kat were standing with their backs against the wall, she stopped beside them and whispered.
"What the Hell is this?"
"Someone called the dumb shit and he called all of us in here."
"Let me guess, no ones looking for the missing guy."
"Jack and Lashawna are, could get really scary." Hudson closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Ohh Hell, I better go find them and Squirts upstairs in the Troll cage." She snuck out of the cafeteria and headed up to the ER.
***************
"Will ya stop your bitchin and shut the Hell up already, damn whinny wimp ass." Lashawna whispered in a deep growling voice and slammed her cleaning cart in to the wall to scare the wandering hospital employees. "Ya'll pushin on my last black nerve!" She screamed and threw her arms in the hair. "I be callin the pound in e're an go hood on you sorry asses!" She slammed a hand down at Jack's head and yelped when her hand was bit.
"What the Hell are you talking about; the only hood you know is the one on your sweatshirt!" Jack grunted and fell further down into the cart when it hit another wall. "Will you stop already geez!" She threw paper towels at her. "Queen Lobotomy!"
"I'm tryin ta make it look like we're not looking for anything!" She peeked into a room and grinned at a patient. "Damn trash around here is so hazardous that it has a life of its own!" She ducked when a Coke can flew out and went over her head. "Did ya see that, you wouldn't happen to have a man in here ya don't know...would ya?" She looked under the bed and flinched when the old woman started screaming in Puerto Rican. "Take it easy grandma!" She took off running with her cart and ignored Jack's screams coming from inside. Hudson jumped back into the stairwell doorway to avoid being run over and waited for a screaming Lashawna and Jack to go past before running after them.
"For Gods sakes you two," Hudson yelled, ran past them and jumped in front of the cleaning cart. "What are you doing, I thought you two are supposed to be looking for...you know?" She looked around them, smiled at some orderlies and patients. "The patient, you know the missing one?"
"We are or at least I am," Lashawna smacked Jack on her head. "Jackass here ran her jaws in front of the administrator and he suspended her for a month and told her to get her sorry ass out of his hospital. Sooo..."
"You decided to hide her in your cleaning cart?"
"Hell no, that's where she ended up after the administrator pushed her out of his way."
"He was cutting on Waylon, so I stood up fer her." She stuck her tongue out at Lashawna. "Wasn't my fault her cart was behind me." Hudson leaned down, pulled Jack out of the cart, and shuddered at the state she was in.
"Go change and meet us down near the morgue." She grinned at the Lashawna's expression. "I figure that's where he ended up, ya know like the other one."
"Ohh great," Jack mumbled on her way to the locker room. "I better get a gurney for when you two pass out...again!"
************
Carol pulled the door closed part way and stood in the shadows, she could just about hear what DeGado was saying as he went past. She had been trying to follow him and the others around without being seen, she had a feeling that he was up to something.
"Next time don't cause such a huge distraction," DeGado growled and pushed Corvell up against the wall. "You screw up one more time and it'll be your last, do you hear me?"
"They'll forget about everything by tomorrow..." He gasped when DeGado grabbed him by his throat and squeezed. "I swear it..."
"You better hope that is what happens because if it doesn't." He left the last words un-said and backed away from Corvell when one of the surgeons stepped out of a room and came towards them. Carol waited until the coast was clear, stepped from the room and ran in the opposite direction. She went past the elevator and took the stairs up to the Troll cage, once there; she was able to breathe easier. She checked in Kat's office and then saw Waylon sitting in with the babies. "I think I have proof of who's causing all the problems." She said in a low voice and kneeled down beside the rocking chair. "I've been following DeGado and Corvell all morning."
"Are you insane, what if they are involved in this and they caught you sneaking around?"
"I wasn't thinking of that, I just want this entire mess over with so that the patients will be and feel safe here as well as the employees. I know you have to miss this place a little bit, other wise you wouldn't be here all the time?"
"Yeah I miss certain things, just be careful alright?" She looked towards the door when Kat and Tara came in. "Did Hudson find you guys?"
"Yeah and then she went to find the trouble makers," Kat looked around and saw that almost all of the babies were sound asleep. "You fed all these little bundles of...never mind what I think of them during feeding time."
"Your one nurse that was still up here, who is now at home having lunch in peace and quiet." She handed the baby she had in her arms to Carol, stretched her back and headed towards the door. "Guess I better go find Hudson before her and the two trouble maker's end up sharing a jail cell."
***************
"Not you three again," The medical examiner growled and stood in front of the morgue tables. "Are you a bunch of freaks or something?"
"Nahh, we been called lots of things but never freaks." Jack bounced back and forth in front of him trying to get around him so that she could see the bodies.
"Will you stop it Jack!" He put a hand on her head and held her in place. "What are you three looking for now?" Hudson stepped up to Jack, grabbed the back of her pants and pulled her out of the way.
"We have another missing patient; he might be down here under John Doe." The old man pushed his goggles up on his baldhead and gave her a steady look.
"What is going on around this place, I've had way too many John Does come down here and they all have missing parts and no records, is this happening right here in the hospital?" Hudson looked to her friends, and saw them nod their heads.
"Yeah, we think that someone is harvesting organs from the patients, the one that's missing from his room had AB negative blood. But before him and the other one, a man died on the OR table. The chart was changed to say that he needed his kidney removed, it was the only one he had and now Dr. Porter is suspended and being investigated because someone signed her initials on the chart and surgery request."
He shook his head and went towards his office. "Dr. Porter wouldn't do something like that, she never makes mistakes." He waved to them and then dropped down into his desk chair. "You three never saw this and I don't know anything about it." He opened a program on his PC and leaned back in his chair so that they could see the screen. "By the way Lashawna, thanks for bringing my CD's back." He grinned and pointed to the video that was starting up. "This is set for when I leave here; I kept finding stuff missing and bodies not the way I left them." They watched a figure covered in surgical scrubs including cap and mask push in a gurney and place it against the wall, what caught their attention was that who ever it was wore the dark blue ME lab coat. "I'm the only one that wears that color lab coat, even my assistant's wear white. Who ever that is, does not work down here with us." He looked over at them and crossed his arms over his chest. "Any ideas who that is?"
"Not a one, I'm a head shrinker so I don't know all of the surgical staff. What about you Jack, you recognize that person?"
"No idea, to bad they had booties on. If we could see their shoes we could just look for someone that had the same kind." Lashawna tapped Hudson on her shoulder and pointed to the monitor.
"Do ya think they might put that lab coat in their locker?" The ME snapped his fingers at them.
"There ya go girls, check the lockers for that lab coat, now lets go check this John Doe that's hidden somewhere around here."
*********
Hudson lay on the couch with Waylon lying on top of her with her chin resting on her hands. They held eyes until Hudson gave up and blinked. "Haa you lose that means you have to make coffee in the morning."
"Only coffee, not breakfast?"
"I've tasted your cooking Dude, that stuff is worse than hospital food." She crawled up closer and pressed a kiss to her lips. "I'll teach you how to cook as soon as we get your apartment ready."
"Why that long, are ya afraid I might set your kitchen on fire?"
"Nah it's the thick black smoke from the burnt toast that gets me." Hudson smiled and wrapped her arms around her lover.
"I've been thinking, when my place is done would you consider moving in with me? You don't have to..."
"Are you nuts, if you asked me to move into a cave I would go in a heartbeat!" She gave her a steamy kiss and pulled back to wiggle her eyebrows. "Does this mean I get more say over the decorating?"
"If you say pink, I'll scream." Waylon snickered and shook her head.
"No, I was thinking more along the lines of a hot tub or Jacuzzi with those Japanese partitions to block it off from the rest of the area."
"Anything you want as long as it's not pink," She rested their foreheads together and took a deep breath. "What are we going to do if we find out whose harvesting organs, I thought it would be easy to use Tara's plan but that went out the window as well as guarding the patients."
"If we find the lab coat, we'll turn it over to the police and the hospital board along with the evidence that the Medical Examiner has. His records and the tape of that person should be enough for a full out investigation but what I want to know is how many people are involved in this and why?"
Hudson ran her hands down her lover's back and hugged her tighter. "You would think that the police would be involved already, I mean all the people that are disappearing and found dead in the morgue and no one is questioning this?"
"Maybe the hospital is paying the families off to keep it out of the press that would really put this hospital in deep shit. If it wasn't for the excitement, I'd go into private practice."
"If I wasn't so tired, I'd show you some excitement." Waylon got up off her and held out a hand.
"Come on Dude let's go to bed, I'm exhausted from feeding trolls and everything else we did early this morning." Once in their bedroom, they striped out of their clothes, dropped into bed and cuddled until they fell asleep a few minutes later.
*************
Tara sat at the table in the pediatric nurse's lounge with her head resting on her crossed arms, a light snore and then a grumble came from her as she slept. Jack and Lashawna sat across from her with straws in their mouths shooting spit wads at her head. They were waiting for Carol, Waylon and Hudson to get there so that they could start searching for the blue lab coat. And possibly the persons involved in the kidnapping of the patient from the day before. Dropping their straws, they looked up when Hudson came through the door with Bill and two other men that they didn't know. "She's gonna kill you two when she wakes up." She pointed to the two men and introduced them. "Guys, this is Detective Jim Isaacs and Detective Greg Melrose. They're going to give us a hand today with the search, you know make it more legal." She held out her hand and pulled a sleepy Waylon to her side. "Bill had us up at the crack of dawn so that we could relay everything that we know about what's going on around here."
"So the police are gonna take this over for us?" Jack asked and then stuck both straws in Tara's hair so that she had horns. "Makes me feel more at ease, I don't wanna end up on the ME's table missing my brain or something."
"Fat chance in that," Lashawna rolled her eyes. "Ya have ta have one before they can take it." She looked up at the two detectives and tilted her head to the side. "So if you guys get the assholes, then we can all go back to business as usual and Waylon can come back ta work?" Detective Isaac's nodded his head and took a seat at the table.
"That's what we're hoping, once we have enough evidence then we can haul them in for questioning." Kat came through the door with Carol and rolled her eyes when she saw the condition her wife was in.
"You two better take off now before I wake her up." She watched Jack and Lashawna run from the room and then shook her wife's shoulder until she woke up. "Time to hit the locker room."
"We already did that, that's why I was taking a nap." She looked over to see the two strange men and felt her face heat up. "Ohh Hell Kat, ya could have warned me!"
"And miss that dark red shade that you turn, no way!"
*******
The hospital personnel that were not busy were sent to the locker room to stand in front of their lockers and let them be searched. A few threw fits but when a search warrant for the premises was produced, the argument went out of them. One by one, the lockers were opened and searched for the infamous blue lab coat. After the lockers were closed and the employee was allowed to take what they needed, a red seal was placed over the doors seam to stop tampering. With each shift change, people were brought in until only a handful of lockers were left. Hudson wrote down the names and checked the schedule to see when the people would be there and if they were on a day off, she called them in for an emergency. "OK, I've got the last of them coming in." She looked at her list and grinned evilly. "Two of them just happen to be Corvell and DeGado."
"Can I make a suggestion here?" Carol asked and took the paper from Hudson. "Can we just haul Corvell in here and leave DeGado alone for the moment?" She saw everyone giving her strange looks, they knew that DeGado had caused her all kinds of problems and thought that she would like to see him removed from the hospital. "This is what I'm getting at, everyone else here that was searched thinks it was for weapons and illegal drugs. I have this feeling that Corvell is just a lackey and DeGado is behind all of this." She looked around and saw that she had everyone's attention. "If we can spook Corvell, maybe we can scare him into giving up DeGado and the others involved?" Detective Isaacs rubbed his beard stubbled jaw and gazed down at her with liquid brown eyes.
"Do you have reason to believe that Corvell will roll over on his friend?"
"Ohh he'll do it," Waylon said with a nod of her head. "The kids a chicken shit and you can see he's afraid of DeGado if you see them together." Everyone agreed to use the plan that Carol came up with, Hudson stayed with the detectives while the others went up to the troll cage to wait. Waylon had to be literally dragged and then carried by Bill when she found out that Hudson would be alone with just the detectives. It took Bill reminding her that Hudson could take on a battalion of jarheads and come out without a scratch on her.
Two nurses came into the locker room with Corvell, they looked to where a majority of the lockers had been sealed and then to where the detectives were standing with Hudson. "The detectives need you guys to open your lockers and then stand to the side while they're searched for illegal weapons and drugs." Corvell's eyes bulged; he looked to the nurses and shook his head.
"You have no right to do this; I'm not letting you search my personal property!"
"We do have the right and that locker is hospital property," Detective Melrose said and pulled out his handcuffs. "Since you are refusing, that means that you're the one with the illegal drugs, turn around and place your hands on your head." He walked towards him and stopped when Corvell raised his hands in front of him.
"I don't have any illegal drugs or anything else that's illegal!"
"Then you won't mind opening your locker like everyone else has?" Hudson nodded her head to where Isaacs was searching the nurse's lockers. "Everyone else has done it, why are you different?"
"I'm not...just do it so I can get back down to the ER." He opened his locker and took a step back. "This is ridiculous and I can't believe that the police have nothing better to do." He watched Melrose pull out a blue lab coat and then look to Hudson and Isaacs.
"Is this yours?"
"Of course it's mine, it's in my locker isn't it?" Corvell said, saw Hudson's eyes turn to a slate grey and her hands form into fists that clenched with knuckle popping tightness. "What, it's a simple lab coat, everyone wears one around here!" His body started to shudder and his knees weaken when Hudson stepped closer. After telling them that they were not to discuss what happened in there with anyone, Isaacs dismissed the nurses and leaving Corvell with a ferocious looking Hudson staring down at him. "I want to call my attorney right now!" He cowered against the wall and searched for his cell phone.
"What are you so worried about Corvell," Hudson stepped closer and had him looking for a place to run. "Why do you need an attorney over a blue lab coat?"
"Dr. Halgenberg I think this would be better done down at the station." Melrose said and grabbed Corvell's arm. "You are not being arrested but simply taken in for questioning." He nodded to Hudson and followed her into the hallway. "Is there a back way out of here so we don't cause any problems?" Hudson nodded and then took them to the stairwell and the back way to the parking garage. After seeing them out, she went to a hall phone and called upstairs to Kat's office.
"They got him and they're taking him down to the station for questioning." She hung up the phone and then ran to the stairwell door on the other side of the long hallway to wait for her friends.
*********
Dr. Corvell sat in a small room at a scared wooden table, his hands tabletop and his eyes fluttered around the room. He looked to the dirty mirror on one wall and then back to the door, he had lost track of how long he had been sitting there but wished that someone would come in and tell him something. He had no idea that a group of people were standing on the other side of the two-way mirror watching him. "Knock it off Jack, that's gross!" Kat said and smacked her in the side of her head. "Licking the damn glass like a moron, what's wrong with you?" They turned when Bill and Detective Isaacs came in and pointed to Hudson.
"Come on Dude let's see what your presence does to the yellow bellied asshole in there." She bent down and gave Waylon a quick kiss before following Bill and Isaacs from the room; they went down the hallway and stopped outside the door. "Just stand against the wall by him and give him that horrifying look you have." Bill clapped her on the shoulder and opened the door, he had changed into his suit and was posing as her lawyer incase Corvell questioned anything that was happening.
"When can I leave here?" Corvell said and then dropped back down into his chair when he saw Hudson come into the room. "Why are you here, I don't understand?"
"Ohh Dr. Halgenberg is here as a representative of the hospital." Melrose said and dropped into the chair across from him. "Since she was witness to your little display earlier, we thought it would be good for her to be here as well." He placed a small tape recorder on the table and flipped it on. "Now then, what can you tell me about the missing patients at the hospital?" He pinned Corvell in his chair with his eyes and grinned when he shook his head. "Ohh come on, we know all about it." He looked over to Hudson and saw her lean a ways from the wall and growl deep in her chest. The expression that came across Corvell's face was priceless and he knew if Hudson jumped, Corvell would piss himself. He was glad that the cold blue eyes of the intimidating woman were not on him and wished that they could use her in some other cases they had, the people would spill every little thing they had ever done wrong with just a glance at her.
"I don't know anything about that, I'm just..." He flinched when Hudson stepped away from the wall and looked down at him with a snarl on her angled features.
*************
"Holy shit Waylon, she's scarier than I thought!" Tara said and grabbed her wife's hand in a death grip. "I've never seen her look like that before and hope I never do again!"
"Hang around with us some more and you'll see it." Lashawna replied and then snickered when Jack grinned.
"She's a sexy bitch when she growls but Squirt already knows that!" She slapped hands with Lashawna and flinched when Waylon growled at her. "Ohhh boy, they both growl!"
Waylon watched her lover and felt chills run down her spine, she could feel Corvell's fear coming right through the mirror and knew that he was close to having a nervous breakdown. It was a wonder that her lover had never become a cop; she knew she would be excellent at interrogation without having to ask a single question. She watched her bare her teeth and lean in closer to Corvell and then busted up laughing at the growing puddle around his feet. "Ohh this is priceless; nancy-boy just pissed himself with one look from Hudson."
*********
"Jesus Christ," Isaacs groaned. "Let me go get a mop." He left the room and busted up laughing in the hallway, in all his years on the force, this was a first for him. "Gotta love that woman." He said to himself on the way to a cleaning closet. Tears rolled down Corvell's face to drip off his chin, he started to sob and shied away from Hudson.
"It wasn't my idea...DeGado made me help him!" He wailed and looked to Melrose and Bill. "He threatened to tell the administrator about my problem."
"What that you need diapers, now give us details and I want everything or I'll leave you here with Dr. Halgenberg."
"He had me change charts on certain patients and use other doctor's names on the surgery papers, after we harvested the organs, he had me take the bodies down to the morgue under John Doe." He looked to Melrose with pleading eyes. "I didn't want to but he threatened to tell the medical board that I cheated on my exams." Melrose looked up from the notes he was taking with wide eyes.
"You're working in a hospital after cheating on your exams! That means that you're not even qualified to take blood pressure in my book!" He looked over to a growling Hudson and felt the hair rise up on the back f his neck. "Go on Corvell, I want full details here."
"He won't tell me who it is but he sells the organs to someone, the courier waits for him out in the alley and takes it from there. He gets all the money from this person and then pays the nurses off to keep their mouths shut."
"Who are these nurses and when does he contact the courier for pick up?"
"The nurses don't work at the hospital; I think they're from one of the clinics on the South east side. He calls the courier right before we take the patient in for organ removal, I don't know who the courier is. Just that he waits at the side door to the alley."
Melrose leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "This is what we're gonna do Corvell, you are going to work with us to get to DeGado. He's the one we want along with who ever he's selling the organs to, you go back to the hospital...after you get cleaned up and act like none of this ever happened." He leaned forward and watched Hudson out of the corner of his eye. "If you screw up and run your mouth, Dr. Halgenberg will take care of you." He held back a grin when Corvell swallowed and looked to Hudson. "You are to call Dr. Halgenberg, Isaacs or me as soon as you two have another patient to murder, you stall DeGado until we get there, is that understood?"
"Yes sir, but what about my part in what has happened?"
"I'll talk to the DA and see what kind of deal he can come up with." He clicked off his tape recorder and nodded to Hudson to follow. He stopped outside the closed door and stuck his hand out to her. "You are one scary woman!"
"Ohh you should see me when I'm really pissed off." She chuckled and shook his hand. "Thanks for all your help today, I just wish that we could have come to you sooner but we didn't have any evidence or anything until now."
"What I can't figure is why none of the families came to us," He held up and hand and shook his head. "Never mind I know it's the damn insurance company and hospital lawyer."
***********
"Well what do you think Dude?" Waylon asked from where she stood near the new windows they had just put in.
"I think you're amazing that's what." She pulled her into her body and gave her a soft kiss. "What about the roof, will it hold?"
"Ohh now that's another thing, Jack and Lashawna are up there now spraying rubber coating on it. There were just a few spots where it was torn so we replaced it and with the coating it won't leak anymore."
"So when they're done, I'll be able to throw them off the roof and they'll bounce back up?" Waylon chuckled and nodded her head.
"Could become the next best thing to bungee jumping, what do ya say to going home and soaking in the tub. After all the excitement this morning and the work we did here, I'm tired and sore?"
"I'm all for it and so glad that this mess is almost over with, remind me to thank Carol in the morning. I would have never had thought of cornering Corvell."
"Sure you would have, if we had time to think it all through." She dropped her head on her lover's shoulder and hugged her tighter. "So how many men have you given heart attacks with that look you have?"
"Ohh a few; learned that look from Clint Eastwood."
***********
The next morning DeGado grabbed Corvell by his throat and shoved him up against the wall in an empty exam room; he looked over his shoulder for witnesses before turning his attention back. "What happened to you yesterday?"
"I came in and felt sick, so I went back home." He grunted when he was shoved against the wall harder and felt his air cut off.
"You know that we had a job to do yesterday and I had to call them and postpone it! I lost a lot of money because of you!"
"Soo...ooo...rry," he struggled to get out and gasped for air when DeGado let up. "Won't happen again." He rubbed his throat when he was released and coughed.
"It better not, now get up to room 223 and get the patient to OR number five and you better not get caught!" He whispered loudly and then turned for the door. As soon as he was gone, Corvell pulled his cell phone out and called the numbers he had. He hoped that he could stall until everyone got to the hospital; he knew that Hudson was just upstairs and that she would bring help with her. Closing his phone, he walked slowly towards the elevator and kept looking for DeGado. When this was over, he knew that he would be spending time in jail and could kiss his career as anything but a paperboy out the window. What scared him more than anything was having to tell his parents about everything that he had done. They had given up a lot to be able to send him to college and he had been nothing but a disappointment to them. Wiping tears from his eyes, he hit the button for the second floor and leaned against the wall.
************
Hudson and Waylon ran for the stairs after calling Tara and Kat, they knew that Jack would be downstairs helping Lashawna with her cleaning and had paged her with the code blue to the OR section. She held the door for Waylon and then jogged down the stairs after her. "I hope we get there in time!" Waylon panted and jumped the last few steps before pushing through the door to the OR floor, she stopped and looked around for their friends and the detectives before running down the hall to slip into a storage room. She stepped back out of Hudson's way and then peeked around her body to look down towards where the elevator was, when it opened, she ducked back in. "Is that Corvell coming this way?"
"I think so and where's everyone else?"
"I think we beat them down here," she whispered, saw Corvell look into the storage room, connect eyes with her and nod his head. She waited until he was in the OR room before she and Waylon snuck out and headed to where the breaker box was for that floor. She opened the door and waited until Waylon had slipped a mop handle through the handles to the OR room. Nodding her head, she flipped the breaker and ran back over to the door to help Waylon in case those inside tried to get out. At the sound of pounding feet, she looked down the hall and saw their friends as well as Bill and the detectives. "Here come the Calvary, pull the mop handle free and jump back." As soon as the door was unobstructed, a nurse burst through. Melrose grabbed her, handcuffed her and shoved her into the storage room guarded by a snarling Tara and Kat. The next one out was Corvell who raised his hands and stepped into the storage room, after another nurse came out, Waylon flipped the power back on and Hudson and Isaacs went into the OR to grab a screaming DeGado.
"You can't come in here, this is a sterile environment and you're putting my patient at risk!"
"Is that right," Hudson growled and walked towards him. "I don't think it really matters since he wouldn't have made it out of this room alive."
"You're insane now get out of my OR before I call the administrator and have you suspended!" He jumped when she tossed her cell phone at him.
"Go ahead and call, I'm sure he'd be real happy to have a talk with you." She looked over to Isaacs and then saw Waylon step into the room. "Dr. Porter would you be so kind as to take that cooler down to Jack and Lashawna, I know that the courier is probably wondering what's taking so long?"
"Sure no problem, I'll make sure that they know what to do with it."
"Now for you DeGado, you're finished here and anywhere else but prison." She had just turned to go out the door when she heard Isaacs yell, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and dropped to the floor. Kicking out one leg, she caught DeGado in his groin and kicked forward. He flew through the air and crashed into a tray of surgical instruments and the heart monitor. Isaacs stepped over to him, flipped him on his stomach and handcuffed him.
"I love it when I can add attempted assault and murder charges on top of a huge list of other things." He snapped DeGado up to his feet and shoved him towards the door. "Not only scary but dangerous as well, sure you don't wanna come work on the force with us?"
"With her arrest record, she can't even be a girl scout!" Bill said and laughed at the wide-eyed look on Isaacs face.
"Thanks Bill, I was hoping to be able to scare the piss outta grown men and get paid for it." She said and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Guess I'll have to settle for scaring the crazies upstairs and get downstairs to check on Waylon and the others."
************
"I knew I didn't have to worry about you two being down here alone." Waylon said when she saw the courier bound, gagged and sitting in the snow surrounded by her friends and Hudson's dads.
"We gots the information we need from DeGado?" Jack asked and rubbed her hands together.
"Where did you learn to speak English and yeah it's right here?"
"Ohh from reading comic books and Lashawna teached me some."
"Just wonderful, I get blamed for everything." Lashawna took the paper from Waylon, looked at it and then into smiling green eyes. "Isn't this like one of those fancy ass private clinics?"
"Yep and founded by none other than some asshole Senator, you know to bring class into the city or some bullshit. I heard that you can only go there if you're a diplomat, government official or have a couple million to toss around."
"Or have a medical problem that can't be solved by normal channels such as being on the bottom of an organ donor waiting list." Carol said from Behind Waylon, she held out a wallet and flipped it open to show a secret service badge. "Sorry for leading everyone on," she held up a hand when Waylon's mouth dropped open. "I did go to medical school and finished my internship if you're worried; I was recruited for the SS while I was still in India. I took this case when my dad heard a rumor about the clinic; we just needed to find out who was running the show." She waved to a couple of Secret service men at the end of the alley and then placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Are you two ready to go bust some assholes?" When huge grins broke out on their faces, she turned and held a hand out to Waylon. "Thank you for everything you've done and I'll take care of getting you cleared of this mess myself." She led Jack and Lashawna to her dark sedan, climbed in and disappeared into the night.
"Well I'll be damned," Waylon whispered and shot the men a wide grin. "She's really good at her job, I had no idea." She waved a hand at them and held the door open. "Come on in I'm buying supper, I'll meet you guys up in the nut ward."
"You didn't and neither did I until she came and talked to me." Bill said from where he stood in the doorway. "She's in the wrong profession; she should be acting in movies or something." He held out a hand to her and nodded his head to the stairs. "I heard you're buying supper and Hudson's waiting upstairs for ya."
****************
Hudson sat on the edge of her desk rubbing her thigh; it hurt like a bitch now that the adrenaline rush had worn off. "You better not say a word to Waylon about what happened." She mumbled on her way around her desk to sit down.
"And what might that be, Dude?" Waylon asked from where she stood in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. Hudson dropped into her chair and cussed.
"Damn, I can't get away with nothing." She held out her hand and waited for Waylon to come over to her. "After you left, DeGado thought it would be a good idea to try and stab me with a scalpel." She placed her fingers over her lover's lips and continued. "I kicked him in the groin and across the room and pulled a muscle in my leg. Now tell me what happened downstairs and where are the others?"
"Bill and your other dads are waiting for all the pizza I ordered, Jack and Lashawna are with Carol the secret service agent and I have no idea where Tara and Kat are." Blue eyes went wide with the mention of Carol's name and secret service.
"Did you say that she's...?"
"Yep and Bill knew all about it. It seems that she's been working this case for a while." She told her all that Carol had said and about Jack and Lashawna going with her to bust the big shot in charge of the donor operation over at the private clinic. One thing that she was happy about was that all charges against her would be cleared and she could come back to work. They sat snuggled against each other, waited for everyone to show up and hoped that Jack, Lashawna and Carol were safe.
**********
"Just walk in there with the cooler like you're delivering pizza or Chinese." Carol told Jack and then waved to the secret service agents that were standing on either side of the clinic. "Lashawna you go with her and act like you're her partner, when they open the cooler, run like Hell."
"They ain't gonna shoot at us or anything are they?" Lashawna fixed the Velcro vest she was wearing under her coat.
"I don't think they'll have any guns in the clinic, the vest are incase they try and stab you like DeGado tried with Hudson." She grinned when their eyes grew wide. "Ohh come on, you're not gonna tell me that you two are chickens?"
"Nope," Jack pushed out her chest, hefted the cooler in her hand and strutted towards the clinic doors. "Ain't no chicken, I can be scary like Hudson."
"More like scared shitless of Hudson." Lashawna said close to her ear after she caught up with her. "We better not get shot, stabbed, kicked, bitten or anything else or I'm gonna scream bloody murder and go...hide somewhere and let them have you!" They pushed the doors open, walked up to the marble toped reception desk and waited for the nurse to acknowledge them. She flitted around behind the desk with the phone on her shoulder as if no one was there waiting on her. "Hey you, we're in a hurry here and the parts are spoiling!" Jack flinched at the yell and elbowed her.
"We have the stuff and need to get it to the boss?" Finally, the nurse turned around and pointed to the long hallway.
"He's in his office; he's not in a good mood because you're late."
"Ya hear that Queen L, the boss is pissed!" She said loud enough that the man inside the surveillance van jumped and smacked his head. She tapped the microphone hidden inside her vest and snickered when it made a funny noise. "We's gots pieces and parts, just fer starts. Livers and gizzards, just fer yer lizard. Ands a big guy named Bubba gonna yell hubba hubba!"
"Will you knock it off already, you're gonna get us killed just because your singing sucks!" She looked behind them when they heard a muffled voice and saw that the Secret service had the nurse in handcuffs and was pushing her out the front door. "Will ya take a look at this place, why do they need all that marble on the walls and stuff? I feel like I'm in a museum or something?"
"That's our tax dollars at work," Jack growled. "The only marble I got is the ones I play with on the living room floor." The came to a solid wooden door with fancy gold trim work and a gold sign that read Dr. L.E. Barnes. "Who the Hell is he, I've never heard of him?" She pushed open the door and followed Jack in, what they saw inside the office made their eyes roll. All the gold to decorate the place must have been stolen from Fort Knox; thick beige carpet covered the floor to set off the mahogany desk with gold inlays on the legs and edge of the desktop. "Hey mister we got your parts!" Jack yelled and dropped the cooler in the center of the desk.
"You are not the courier, where is he?" The well-dressed man asked and pulled the cooler closer to him.
"Ohh he got sick, food poisoning or something. Corvell said that DeGado said that we're supposed ta pick up an envelope." She held her hand out and grinned when he pulled a thick envelope from the center desk drawer and put it in her hand. "Look Lashawna, we won the LOTTERY!" They ran from the office, jumped to the side and watched the secret service grab the doctor.
"What are you doing, you can't come in here and arrest me!" He screamed from where he was smashed against his desktop. "I'll have your badges before the night is out!"
"Go ahead and try," Carol said from the doorway. "And to warn you, you'll be sharing a jail cell with the guys they pick up on skid row. Don't be surprised when they knock your ass out and leave you naked." She yanked on his Italian made suit jacket and grinned when he begged to be released. "Yeah right, like we're going to release an accomplice to numerous charges and murder. Get this sack of shit out of here and make sure that the congressman has a rough ride to the precinct." Jack handed her the envelope and went back in for the cooler.
"Ya guys hungry, the hamburgers are still hot?"
**************
Three days later, Waylon waited for Hudson to come down from her office, she smiled over at Tara and gave her a short wave. "You know you'll pay for this right?" She pulled on her lab coat. "She hates pink and this is the grossest pink I have ever seen!"
"I don't even think she'll notice, I swear she's spent more time down here with us than she has upstairs. And it's all because of a certain Squirt of an ER doctor," she walked up to stand beside her and look down at her smirking face. "So what are you guys doing tonight?"
"Well, since we have all the walls painted, we thought about putting the carpet where our bedroom is going to be. They delivered it today...at least that's what Jack and Lashawna told me."
"I can tell you're excited about moving in, you've been grinning like an idiot for days." She watched as Hudson wrapped her arms around her lover from behind and kissed her neck.
"That's not it at all; it's what I do to her that has her grinning." She looked down at the pink lab coat and groaned. "That is the ugliest damn color, Tara you have horrible taste in clothes."
"Hey how do you know I did that, it could have been Waylon or Jack!"
"Or the fact that you have pink hands and splatters on you shoes." Hudson said and then walked Waylon towards the door to the garage. Are the trouble makers over at our place?"
"Yeah, they were putting the kitchen cabinets in when I talked to them. Who knew they could do construction."
*****************
"Uuhhmm...Lashawna...could you lift the cabinet up so I can get my fingers out?"
"How did they get under there to begin with?" She lifted the cabinet and snickered at her friend. "Hurts don't it, now ya know how my foot feels after you dropped the stove on it." Lashawna looked to where Hudson's dads were just finishing with putting the queen size bed together and finishing up with the tile on the bathroom floor. "Didn't she drop the stove on my foot?"
"Ohh, no way are we getting in the middle again!" One of the men said and joined in the laughter from his friends.
"See that, not even the dads will help you." Jack shook her hand and grabbed the drill and cabinet screws from the counter top. "Let's get this screwed down and help get the place cleaned up a bit.
"What time are Hudson and Waylon coming back?"
"I hope not until we're outta here, they have no idea what all got done here in the last two days." An hour later, they had the cabinet secured to the studs in the wall and were carrying the last of the garbage bags from the loft. After looking the place over as they all worked, they decided to forgo the walls and just use Japanese screens to block off areas. Waylon and Hudson had not seen all of this because they kept it all hidden downstairs, in the last two days, the men, Lashawna and Jack had worked to get the place as finished as they could so that Waylon and Hudson could move in. Now with their work for the moment done, they locked the door behind them and snuck out through the alleyway entrance. "OK guys, let's go eat and then we'll run ya'll home." They all headed to Lashawna's huge station wagon and piled in with moans and groans, they had never been so sore or tired in years.
***********
"Maybe they called it a day," Hudson said as she unlocked the front door to her building and let Waylon go before her. "You said Jack called early this morning?"
"Yeah around five or so, I was surprised that they were up that early and working." She stopped and looked up to see a light on the landing. "They put a new light up there, its brass."
"And looks like an antique, wonder where they stole it from?" She took her lover's hand and walked beside her up the stairs. "How come I don't smell any paint but I smell silicone or something?"
"No idea, the other day there wasn't anything to caulk." She used her key, unlocked the door and stepped in. "Ohh my Gods Hudson, look what they did." She stepped out of the way and looked around the place; the living room floors were hardwood, white tile in the bathroom, pale blue and grey in the kitchen and thick grey carpeting in the bedroom. Her eyes went to the bed sitting in the center of the far wall and saw a dozen of red roses sitting in the center; she walked over and picked up the card beside them. "Dude you won't believe this." She held the card out to her and picked up the roses.
We hope you like the place; we worked our asses off the last couple of days so that you can start your life together in a new place. Everything works, even the bathroom, if you can believe it. Anyway, there's food in the refrigerator and the stove is all set up for your first meal.
At the bottom, everyone had signed his or her name. "I just can't believe those guys," Hudson said and wiped tears from her eyes. "So you didn't know about all of this?" Waylon wrapped her arms around her and kissed her temple.
"Nope, I sure didn't. You know of all the stuff that I bought or ordered for the place but some of this stuff I don't remember getting."
"That's because my dads are a thrifty bunch and brought in some of the stuff." She pointed to the antique chandelier in the kitchen and a brass floor lap in the living room. "Did you get this bed and linens for us?"
"Nope, I thought you did." She looked at the iron bed and grinned. "Are they giving us a hint here, ya know that a regular frame couldn't hold up?"
"We could take it that way, what do ya say to trying out that Jacuzzi hidden over behind the dragon screen?" Waylon rolled them over on the bed and looked down into her lover's angled features.
"What else do you want to do in the Jacuzzi?"
"I'm sure I can come up with something, may take a few minutes 'cuz I've never been in one before."
************
Lashawna handed Jack a Coke and dropped down onto the couch beside her. "How much ya wanna bet that they're in the Jacuzzi and not relaxing?"
"Do I look stupid, of course they ain't relaxing. Probably got those jet things spraying water all over the place." She handed Lashawna a pop tart and grabbed the bag of cheese puffs from the coffee table. "So ya think they'll find the little camera I hid near the Jacuzzi?"
"Ooohh you didn't...," She saw a crooked grin come across Jack's face and then her eyes twinkle. "Ohh yes you did, that's OK cuz I hid a tape recorder, gotta have some more scary noises for Halloween."
**********
Hudson fell forward and rested her face against her lover's shoulder, it hadn't taken them long to figure out how to adjust the jets for other than relaxing needs. For the last hour, they had experimented and splashed more water on the floor than thought possible. "Baby we should get out, I feel like a big raisin." Hudson mumbled against wet skin and lifted her head to press her cheek against Waylon's. "The only problem is I feel like Gumby."
"We can just kinda flop out on the floor and crawl to bed, wouldn't be the first time." She pushed long dark hair over her lover's shoulder and pulled her head closer so that she was closer to her ear. "I'm hungry, so you get in bed and I'll see what kinda food they left for us." Hudson crawled over the edge of the Jacuzzi and landed on all fours, Waylon looked down and moaned from the site before her. "Ohh give me strength." She mumbled and climbed from the Jacuzzi. "You're not helping me here," She smacked her on her ass and walked dripping water to the bathroom for a towel. She was still amazed at all the stuff that had been left for them; she would have to remember to thank their friends when she saw them.
"Can we call in dead tomorrow, I don't think I'll be able to walk let alone function mentally?"
"That would look good now wouldn't it," Waylon remarked. "I'm back to work for a few days and I call in dead...oohh you won't believe what we have in the refrigerator." She pulled out a bowl of strawberries, Champagne and a bowl of chocolate. "I wonder whose idea this was?" She carried the stuff to the bed and handed Hudson the bottle to open, she pulled the lid off the chocolate and found a note written in whipped cream across the top.
Have Fun
T & K
"So they helped out with this to, all our friends have managed to throw this all together for us behind our backs." She lay down beside Hudson and rolled to her side. "Before I met you, I would go home every night and either soak in the tub or drop into bed with some research paper to read. It was the same thing every single night and I didn't know anything else." She looked down at her lover's strong fingers and ran a fingertip across them. "That all changed when I stepped into the ER one day and saw a bunch of..." She looked up and saw Hudson nod her head. "Bums singing to a group of elderly people, I was so mad that you had the audacity to come near me let alone touch me that I didn't know what to do except..."
"Try to have my head shrunk?" She chuckled at the light blush that worked its way up her lover's neck.
"Yeah and play Dr. Kerry Weaver to the hilt. In a few days, I realized that what you see is not how it is. Your dads are the most caring and giving men I know but I never saw that, because I never gave them a chance before." She brought her lover's hand up to her cheek and leaned into it. "I want to make a difference, I want to give back what you and they gave me. Can I have an office downstairs to treat people that can't afford to see a doctor or go to the hospital?"
"You can have anything you want baby, in fact I have something for you that will fit the grand opening." She pulled a brown paper bag from under the bed and handed it to her. "Bill gave it to me the other day, Jose made it for you." Waylon opened the bag and pulled out a brass plate with her name engraved across the front. She looked up with tear-filled eyes and fell into Hudson's arms.
"I love you Hudson." She sobbed into her chest and hugged her tightly.
"I love you too and you gave meaning to my life and taught me just as much as I taught you...if not more." With the food forgotten, she rocked Waylon in her arms until they drifted off to sleep.
*************
Two months later, the gang was standing out front of Waylon and Hudson's building. The entire brick building had been painted white, new wooden doors replaced the old ones and a sign hung over the doors. Waylon stood beside her lover looking up at it and wiped tears from her eyes. "I never dreamed that this would become real." She let the words play over in her mind and leaned against Hudson. "H&W Free Clinic has a nice ring to it."
"I'd have a better one if ya would open the doors already," Jack yelled and waved the bottle of Champagne. "This stuff sucks but it really sucks when it gets warm!" Hudson held a hand up and dangled the keys in front of Waylon's eyes.
"Go ahead Squirt and let them in before they cause a street riot."
"They could be our first patients, Jack could get shock therapy and Lashawna a full body cast." She cast a grin over her shoulder and then stepped up to unlock the doors to the clinic. Pushing them wide, she stepped back and let all of their friends go inside. She still couldn't believe what miracles had been made inside. The floors were a soft white tile with the walls in a calming shade of tan, they had picked out comfortable chairs in earth tones and the dads had made end tables and the counter by hand for the waiting area. The furniture for their offices had been picked up at second hand stores and refinished. Kat had sewn the curtains for the windows and the exam rooms, Tara had used some connections and gotten them used exam tables, and other things they needed to run the clinic. She would never tell Waylon that she had wheeled and dealed with the hospital administrator for the stuff in the tombs. Jack and Lashawna provided the PC system for record keeping and ran the phone lines so that the PC had internet capabilities. The biggest thing that brought it all together was Hudson's determination to give something back. She stepped into the center of the room and raised her hands above her head.
"All right guys, this couldn't have happened at all without your help. I want to thank you all for making it possible and letting you know that because of our hard work, we'll make a difference." She turned to Waylon and held out her hand. "And to make this an even bigger celebration," she dropped to one knee, brought her lover's hands up in front of her and looked into her shimmering green eyes. "This all means nothing without you, marry me Waylon." She held out a diamond ring and waited.
"You're not kidding are you?"
She shook her head. "Nope, I would never kid about this." She sighed with relief and let the breath go that she had been holding when Waylon nodded her head and held out her hand. "Don't scare me like that, you had me worried." She whispered and then fell over backwards from Waylon jumping on her.
"You never have to worry about how I feel about you, I'll always love you." They came together in a kiss and felt the air vibrate with the yells of their friends, long minutes later, they were hauled to their feet and handed glasses of Champagne. Bill held his glass in the air and waited for quiet.
"To Waylon, the new addition to the bum family." Yells followed his toast and many more toasts followed, people came in off the street to join in the celebration and the biggest surprise of all was when Carol showed up. She stepped in front of Hudson and Waylon and handed them an envelope.
"That is from a few people who wanted to thank you for all that you did with the donor case." She turned and waved to an older man and woman standing in the doorway. "My parents wanted to come and thank you personally." Waylon looked at the front of the envelope, saw the secret service seal and opened it. She fell against Hudson and handed the envelope to her.
"Carol, this check is for forty thousand dollars...we can't..."
"Nonsense," Carols' father said and closed her fingers over the envelope. "That money can go to better use here than sitting in the evidence room."
"I don't understand?" Hudson whispered and looked into his kind brown eyes.
"That's the money that DeGado would have received if you hadn't foiled his plans that day." Carol gave them a smile and looked over her shoulder when she heard a thump; on the floor were Jack and Lashawna in shock. "Everyone that was involved is looking at years in prison and I don't mean a country club type place either."
"I made sure of that," her father said and gave them a wicked grin. "It's nice to still have some pull after retirement, so if you need anything you let Carol know and we'll help you in anyway we can."
"Thank you sir," Waylon held out her hand. "If you need a doctor you come and see me any time day or night."
"You can count on it," Carol's mother said and clasped Waylon's shoulder. "Now let's get this party started up again, we have a shit load of food out in the car." Waylon looked to Carol and saw her shrugging her shoulders.
"You'll find out that we're just like everyone else." Her father gave them a wide grin and followed his wife out the door.
"Well baby, we couldn't ask for anything better then the friends we have." Hudson whispered in her ear and pulled her into a tight hug. "Good thing we don't have to work tomorrow because I think this is gonna go on for quite a while."
"Maybe, but I have something to show you before anyone notices us missing." She pulled out of the hug, took Hudson's hand and pulled her to her office.
*************
"Hey,where's Dude and Waylon?" Kat asked and then rolled her eyes. "Never mind, I think I know where they are." She pointed to the small sign hanging on Hudson's office door. "Therapy in session...hardly."
"Like we haven't done that before," Tara said and then pulled her wife towards Waylon's office. "Let's see if the intercom's still on, we can give 'em a cheering section." She waved to Jack and Lashawna and in seconds they were crowded around the little intercom box listening.
Waylon's voice came over the speaker and scared them. "You sick perverts get outta my office!"
"Hey how'd she know we were in here?" Lashawna asked and then saw the security camera move near the door. "They're peeping on us!"
"Like we haven't done that before." Jack whispered and slapped hands with Lashawna. "Just wait until they get their wedding present from us, I got the video tape all done."
Hudson and Waylon yelled over the intercom. "We heard that Jack and you two are dead women! Remember, the ME likes fresh meat on Fridays!"
The End
The Blues
By Larisa
Hecate3366@frontiernet.net
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