Smoke and Glory

•13•

I sit in Nola's car curled up against the window. I'm looking out the window as we drive around in near awkward silence and soon we down a road if which I instantly recognise as my fiancée lives in one of these houses. "Hey can we pull over quickly I need to talk to hope" I say and Nola stops the car as I climb out. I open the blue door and walk into the orientally decorated living room, "hope" I yell and she comes running down the stairs, "Lucy!" She says as she kisses me, her warm cherry chapsticked lips brush against mine as we kiss once more. "Are you okay" she says as she takes my hands excitedly almost. "Yes I'm fine or at least I will be" I say being blatant, with my eyes fixtanted on her deep brown eyes, I don't want to tell her about the experience in the hospital, about talking to doctor Natasha and about the panic attacks and the night spent crying into Nola's shoulder. "Well that's great... if only I'd known it sooner" she says a suddenly icey tone falling over her voice, and I just look at her confused, what is she talking about. "What?" I ask her confused and muddled about what's going on, and what she just said, "do you want to know how I found out you were in the hospital? Not from the police, not from the hospital, not from your friends, not from your family but from the newspaper." She yells at me angrily as she shoves the newspaper Into my stomach, I grip onto it for 2 reasons, 1 to stop the pain and the other to hold the paper itself and she just storms off leaving me confused and worried and upset. I look at the newspaper and read the front page,
'Chief medical examiner doctor Lucy snow collapses under pressure'
It says as I continue to skim read through the rest of the article,
'Doctor Snow was found collapsed in her office and was rushed to the New York hospital at 10:42 Sunday night'
It says and I check the date of which is was published, 11:59 on tuesday, by the time she had read it it would have been Wednesday morning. "Listen hope yet me explain!" I yell up the stairs to her, "I'm sorry Lucy but can you just go, just get out" she yells and I slightly dazed and upset walk out the door and back over to Nola's car, and as I open the door I find myself crying and Nola looks up at me worried, "what happened?" She asks as she grabs my hand as I slide into the passenger seat, "she told me to get out." I say between snifs and tears, "it's okay, everything will be okay, everyone emotions are just spiked and high give her time to cool down, give yourself time to cool down and we'll be fine" she say as I nods while she squeezes my hand reassuringly and I just stare into her deep green eyes that look almost as if they are sparkling. And then she reaches into the back of her car and passes me a brown fluffy blanket and a snuggle up in it, once again leaning against the window with tears still on my face, this time instead of awkward silence the radio is playing some jazzy song and I turn it up to muffle out the sounds of me crying. And I stare at myself in the window and I begin to wonder just for a second what could be going through the mind of someone when they commit a crime like the ones I've seen recently and just within my career in general. But soon we pull up outside my house and I smile at a familiar sight and as Nola cuts the car engine and we climb out, "alright I'm going to call some officers and get them stationed here tonight with me so you won't be alone in the house and we will have protection outside, I'll join you in around 10 minutes." She says as she walks slightly down the road and slips out her phone and begins the call. I open the door and see the familiar sight of my hallway as I put down my bags and I walk the door that leads into the rest of my house, but as I touch the handle I get a unsettling sense of fear. So I reach into my bag and bring out my gun still continuing to the open the door but what's inside is worse then I could ever possibly imagine. "Nola!" I yell as I run into my ransacked living room, everything I own is spread across the floor, each draw is opened and the documents inside are piling up in mountains on the floor, each cupboard is open and the contents inside are randomly placed and moved around. "What the hell happened in here" Nola asks as she runs in holding her gun, "I don't know I think someone was in my house" I say trying to process the information myself as we look around at the mess on the floor. "Have you checked your other rooms?" She asks as I shake my head, "I was waiting for you" I say giving a simple and blatant answer summoning up the main reason I'm in fear and shock. "Okay well lets check" she says as we both lift up our guns and begin checking around every other room in my house, each and every room is like the living room my stuff just thrown all around them and when we enter my bedroom I quickly look under the bed at the safe I keep there. I input my code 1883 and I breath a sigh of relief to know that everything is still in there, my 2 guns, my medical licence, my doctoret, a pack of 4 rare beautifully carved surgical knives that were a gift from Sam for my birthday, my passport, my medical examiner pass, my wallet, cheque book, ammunition and my sliver necklace that was a gift from my dad before he died. "Okay all the important things are still there but the rest of my stuff" I say as we look around at every item of clothing I own is just covering the room and the bed, "Okay grab them and anything else you'll need, I'm gonna report this and get a couple of officers to check it out and reorganise your stuff meanwhile I want you to stay at my house" she says and I nod my head as I grab a bag that is laying on the bed and I empty out the safe placing all the items inside of it, being particularly careful with my medical licence and the silver necklace as they are probably the most important to me. I then shove in some clothes that are on the bed and on the floor and I grab some other stuff from around different rooms and load my 2 bags into the back of Nola's car, meanwhile the flashing blue and red lights hint strongly at the arrival of the police cars.