What The Water Brings In

8

The nurses' station where Dr. Green drew his own blood magically had a nurse behind the counter now. I didn't even want to begin to guess where they were when I needed the help earlier.

Don't get bitter, Sang, I chastised myself. The hospital isn't fully staffed, remember?

I was relived to find a sign affixed to the wall past the first set of double doors after walking by Jackie's room. The arrow for the staff lounge pointed in the direction I was already headed. My spirits lifted with the small victory in that I wasn't already lost.

The joy immediately turned to shock when Dr. Green's phone started vibrating. My arms jerked without my permission; I must have been subconsciously afraid the phone was going to electrocute me. Since I was grasping the case lightly with only my fingertips, the phone flung out of my hand and into the air due to my sudden movements.

Dread filled me. I had broken enough of my own phones and cracked Gabriel's screen recently. Destroying Dr. Green's phone was not an option! Victor's black credit card hated me enough as it was. The iPhone jumped and danced in the air as I tried to catch it repeatedly, just managing to slap it back into the air with my fingers several times in a row. The ringtone was a guitar riff playing the Mission Impossible theme song, which added an interesting soundtrack to my impromptu juggling act with the ringing phone. Each swipe I took urged it up and forward, and my feet were doing the tango to try and keep pace with it. I fell to my knees in a final lunge and braced myself from face planting onto the sterile tile floor with one hand. The other finally caught the airborne phone. I loud exhale of relief escaped me as I flipped it over several times to make sure it was okay; thank goodness there was no damage.

The screen did show that the incoming call had connected; the phone on the other end belonged to someone named Kudo Renji. My fingers must have swiped across the glass screen the right way as I was scrambling to catch it, answering the call.

What was I supposed to do with a live phone call that wasn't intended for me? Ending the call would have been rude. What if it was important? I didn't know how much further the staff lounge was from my spot kneeling on the floor. Running without saying anything to deliver the phone as quietly as I could to Dr. Green so he could answer it instead didn't seem feasible.

With a gulp, I lifted the phone to my ear. "This is Dr. Sean Green's phone. Sang speaking," I said into as I pushed myself up to stand. I looked at my knees for damage, but found they were okay. The calluses that developed from years of kneeling on hardwood floors protected the joints from scraping upon impact. If anything, I would have slight bruises just over my kneecaps.

"Eh?" the voice on the phone answered. "Sing? You want me to sing, Sean-chan?"

"No. My name is Sang," I said, being sure to enunciate a little more clearly. This Kudo person held an accent that made it obvious English was not his first language. I hoped I didn't insult him with my efforts to slow my speaking pace to make my words clearer for him.

"Ah. Gomen, gomen," he said. I recognized the informal word for 'sorry' in Japanese. Kudo had to be from Japan. "Are you the bird that Sean talks about all the time?"

I had no idea as to what he was talking about. I didn't know any pet birds, and I was pretty sure the guys didn't have any. Dr. Sean never talked to me about a bird. The only pet among us was Max, Kota's dog. Unless Mr. Blackbourne had birds at his home. I had never been there to find out. However, Mr. Blackbourne didn't strike me as a caged bird type.

"I'm trying to find Dr. Green now to return his phone to him. If you could hold on for a minute..." I deflected as I continued down the hall in my search for the staff lounge.