Winner The Crystal Awards 2016, Best Multimedia Story (3d Place).
A spinster doctor rents her spare room to a brain-damaged patient who doesn't know he is a former undercover agent targeted for execution by a powerful criminal.
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By dusk, twenty-four hours had passed since the rescue raid was launched at the Averell compound.
After a supper that went uneaten, Jean received medication to help him sleep despite the pain in his leg and shoulder. He received nothing for a shattered heart.
He would be awakened very early in the morning to be prepped for surgery to repair his knee. "Mitchell's knee" he called it, in his own mind, though he would never say that aloud again. Before he retired for the night, he made sure to sign all necessary consent forms so that Doctor Goldberg could perform the surgery.
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When Hector passed the nurses' station around 8 o'clock the next morning, Nurse Erskine called out to him before he could knock on the door to room 2114.
"He's already been taken to surgery, Hector," she said. "No breakfast or lunch for him today. We'll let him try to eat something at dinner this evening, if he's up to it."
Hector placed on his metal cart the breakfast tray he was holding. He crossed the hall to speak to Nurse Erskine. "So, Doctor Oberon showed up!"
"Actually, no. Goldberg is doing the surgery."
"Goldberg!"
"What, you don't think he's competent, Orderly Velez? I'll tell the hospital administrator to fire Goldberg immediately—oh, wait. The administrator might still remember that Goldberg was one of his professors in medical school!"
"I didn't mean Goldberg can't do it," Hector said. "I meant I was surprised that Jean would let Goldberg touch that knee. He wanted Oberon. You know that."
Erskine dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned across the counter to be closer to Hector. "Oberon is nowhere to be found. She's taking personal leave, and she's not answering her phones."
Hector whistled two long notes indicating this was big news indeed. He, too, whispered when he said, "You sure it's personal leave? It's not sick leave?"
"Personal. Definitely. I talked to Madeleine in Payroll."
Hector took three seconds to process the impact of Erskine's statement. "When's she comin' back?"
Erskine reached under the counter and pulled out a neatly folded set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle® bed linens. "Found these by my locker in the nurses' lounge this morning. They were dropped off sometime between 3:30 yesterday afternoon and 7:15 this morning."
Hector touched the linens with something approaching reverence. "Jean's sheets!"
"Yeah," said Erskine. "She returned them with a note thanking me for lending them to her. Didn't mention him at all."
"Oh, no," said Hector.
"Oh, yeah," said Erskine. "So, we know a couple things: one, she doesn't want to talk to anyone right now. Otherwise, why sneak in and out in the middle of the night to drop something off?"
