Right Through Me

N I N E

"This is what you get for being too nice, Lina," Leslie said, the girls laughing at Lina's situation. "You've just made your life even busier."

"Do you know how much he's paying me?" she said, a sly smile stretching across her face. "If I do this at night, I could easily collect some extra money to buy some equipment, maybe give you guys a bonus or something."

"You don't have to worry about us, Lina," Mia said. "You already pay us above minimum wage and that is plenty for Araville."

"Save it for the clinic, this place could use some help," Amanda commented. "Maybe get the leaks fixed, the bathroom too. Maybe some matching chairs for the lobby, magazines for the patients?"

Lina thought about it and nodded.

"Thank you for all you're doing for my son," Diane said, smiling happily towards her. "I'm glad he's got such a good doctor looking after him. I can rest assured."

"Señorita Lina!" a woman wailed, entering the clinic with two men carrying in a young boy. "Oh, please! Please! Please, help!" she cried. Lina was over there in an instant and examined the boy. He was shot, in the side.

"Leslie, Mia, ready the procedure room!" Lina called, guiding the group towards the room. "Amanda, ready an IV. Leslie, I need tweezers, sterile gloves and gauze, lots of gauze. Mia, ready the heart monitor and oxygen tank," Lina said, tying her hair up, rolling the sleeves of her doctors coat up and washing her hands from hands to elbows. She put on a mask as her magnified examination glasses. Leslie came in and put the sterile gloves on Lina, AmaTweenda had hooked the boy onto the IV and Mia had turned the heart rate monitor on and the oxygen tank.

"Amanda, escort the family out," Lina said, pulling the swivel stool up beside the boy's wound.

The family hesitantly left the room and Lina began dabbing the wound with gauze, clearing as much blood as she could. Leslie was beside Lina, ready to hand her anything she needed.

"Tweezers," Lina said, Leslie immediately handing them to her. "Keep cleaning the blood, I'm going to get this bullet out quickly. What's the status on his vitals?"

"Heart rate low, blood pressure low," Mia said. "He'll need a blood transfusion."

"Go get consent from the mother. Amanda, tell Diane to give the waiting patients drinks," Lina said, pushing the tweezers into the boys wound, slowly grabbing a hold on the bullet.

She pulled it out quickly and placed it in the sterile tray along with the tweezers. "Thread and needle, Leslie," she said.

Leslie was quick to hand her the tweezers holding the threaded needle and continued cleaning the blood. Mia entered, already holding a bag of blood. "Blood transfusion consented. Forms are being filled out right now," she said.

"Quickly, hook him up. I'm going to close his wound right now," Lina said, sewing the bullet hole shut. "Bandage that up for me, Leslie."

Leslie took her spot and quickly bandaged the wound while Mia began the transfusion. Lina removed the gloves and mask and pushed her glasses atop her head and checked the heart monitor. His heart was slow, his breathing slow, but he was going to live.

"Good work ladies, I'll go notify the family," she said, exiting the room.

The family, upon seeing Lina enter the waiting room, stood and approached her.

"Will my son be okay? Will he be okay?" the woman cried, holding her hands together.

"Yes, he will be okay," she said, watching as they all let out a deep breath. "I need to know what happened."

"The Japanese Gang," one of the men said, seeming to be the boy's father. "He stuck his nose in those gringos' business and got shot because of it."

"Papa," the younger boy said. "Please, Doctor Lina, it was because of me. They were after me. He got shot because of me."

"It's alright," she assured them. "I'm not the type to call the police. The South-Side Banshees should take care of the Japanese coming over here. You can go visit your son now."

Without hesitation, they headed to the back to visit the boy and Lina let out a deep breath. "How many more patients do we have, Diane?" Lina asked her, standing behind the check-in counter.

"About five more," she said.

"After those five, we're closing up," Lina said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"It's a bit early, isn't it?"

"I've had plenty of excitement for today, so have the girls. The last time someone came in here with a bullet wound, they died on the table," Lina explained, remembering as if it was just yesterday. "I like to give them breaks."

Diane nodded her head in understanding and continued filing.

* * * * *

"No, not tonight," Lina said through her phone, just barely getting up to her home.

"He needs a chiropractor," Ethan said, sounding exhausted himself. "There isn't any chiropractors available at this time."

"Does he think I'm available at this time?" she retorted back, shrugging her white coat off.

"He's really in a bad mood," Ethan said, sounding completely unfazed by the matter. "He can't focus when he's in a bad mood. It's his back or something."

Lina let out a deep sigh, rubbing her eyes tiredly and truly thinking this over. Did she really want to go to pop a giants back at nine o'clock at night?

"I'll be there in ten minutes."

She cursed herself for letting her nice side come out every time someone was in need but she kept reminding herself, the money. If she can save enough money she could fix up the clinic. Think of the clinic. She calmed down a bit and put her doctor coat back on, tying her short hair up and grabbing her purse before leaving.

* * * * *

"You called me all the way out here at nine o'clock at night!" Lina snapped, her knee pressing down on the middle of Donovan's back. "So stop whining about it hurting, it won't hurt afterward."

"I could call this abuse ya know," he grumbled angrily, tensing further.

"Donovan," she said sternly, catching him off guard. "If you don't relax I could easily injure your back. Relax."

That was the problem, he couldn't. She placed a hand on his back, feeling it rise and fall as he took deep, slow breaths. She removed her hand and rubbed the exhaustion from her eyes, falling back in the hospital chair and shutting her eyes for a moment.

"No sleeping on the job," his annoying voice called, causing her to look up at him.

"You were the one who just had to call me after one of the busiest days," she said, her eyes shutting once again. "You don't even have a fight, why did you call me all the way out here? Can't you see these bags? I'm exhausted," she said, pointing towards her dark blue bags under her eyes.

"You think you're the only one exhausted here?" he called, pointing to his own set of bags.

"How do you make time to run a biker club and be a Gladiator?" she asked, resting her head on her hand.

"The fights are only at night," he said blankly. "And they aren't every night so it really isn't difficult."

She hummed in response, her eye lids growing heavier and heavier until they shut. She tried to stay awake, to just rest her eyes for a moment, but it was only a matter of seconds before sleep completely consumed her.

Donovan, noticing that she had fallen asleep, sat up. He waved a hand over her face, no reaction. He snapped his fingers, nothing. He stared at her, he could see how exhausted she was. What was he doing? He was making an ass out of himself, he was only making up excuses to see her, but it was just getting out of hand now.

"Ethan, head home," he called, the said male opening the door to peak his head through. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ethan nodded and shut the door, leaving silently. Now, he'd have to figure out what to do with her.