Page 19 of A Sudden Response

“Take another step towards my partner and I will be,” Eric promised as he smoothly stepped in front of Joe, who muttered an exasperated, “Really?” since she rarely took threats from patients seriously, which really pissed him off most of the time. Kind of like now.

The man hesitated before shifting nervously. Not that Eric could blame him. He’d hate having no fucking say in his life, never mind being the last one to find out a major life decisionhad been made for him without his input. Not that he didn’t understand the reasoning behind it.

As the person who usually had the misfortune of being the bearer of the Section 12, he knew the reasoning behind not telling the patient the bad news until the last minute. Some patients didn’t take it well, he sure as hell wouldn’t, and they went through several predictable stages, denial, acceptance, outrage, and violence. Then again, a large percentage of the patients accepted their fate without taking it out on the messenger. He knew that it wasn’t always easy to tell how a person would react to a Section 12, and for shit pay, he’d probably pass the buck off onto someone else too. Then again, he wasn’t a pussy and didn’t believe in bullshitting people.

“Oh, thank God, you’re here!” a man announced a little too dramatically for Eric’s comfort.

With a bad feeling, Eric turned around to see the newcomer and had to bite back a curse when the guy pressed his hand against his chest. He was at least four inches shorter than Joe and was basically skin and bone. Eric quickly glanced back at the guy who could easily pass as a linebacker for the Raiders and then back to the guy who was being paid to keep him in line.

Right...

“Are they here for me, Donny?” the linebacker demanded.

The twig named Donny noticeably swallowed and stepped back as he tried to wave it off. “No, they’re not here for you, John.” The linebacker glared at Donny for another moment before nodding firmly and returning to his game.

“What’s going on today?” Joe asked.

Donny bit his lip nervously. “We’re having problems getting one of our patients to take his medication tonight,” he admitted.

Eric shared a look with Joe as he ran a frustrated hand through his short hair. “Has the patient attacked anyone? Threatened to hurt himself or been requested by his doctor to beremoved from the property?” Eric asked with a frustrated sigh, telling himself that they really weren’t being held over for this bullshit.

Donny sighed dramatically. “We’re hoping your presence will scare him into taking his pills.”

“You called 911 to scare a resident?” Joe choked out in disbelief.

“The pills are important,” Donny said, frowning as though this should be obvious. “If he doesn’t take his pills, he becomes violent and then we have to call you. So, we’re just saving you the trouble now.”

Eric felt like pointing out that they didn’t have to call 911 if a patient became violent because it was his job to keep the patient under control, not theirs.

“Where is he now?” Joe asked on a resigned sigh.

Donny gestured lazily towards the stairs that led to the second floor. “Oh, he’s asleep.”

“You called 911 for a patient who’s sleeping? A patient that posed absolutely no threat to anyone at the moment because he refused to take his pills?” Eric snapped.

Donny shifted nervously as he took a step away from them as though they were crazy.

“Sir, do you realize that when you call 911 for a nonemergency that you’re taking away resources that might be needed elsewhere?” Joe asked in that polite tone that let him know just fucking pissed she really was. Eric wouldn’t have bothered with the niceties. He would have just called the guy a fucking moron and accepted the write-up.

“It’s an emergency,” Donny muttered pathetically.

“Actually, we’re not sure whether he took his pills or not,” a woman said as she joined them.

Joe and Eric looked past Donny to find a middle-aged woman walking towards them carrying a thick black binder and several prescription bottles.

Donny huffed at the woman. “I know that he didn’t take his pills tonight.”

The woman held up the binder. “Tom marked the sheet that he gave him the pills tonight.”

“No, he didn’t because he left five hours before the pills were due, so he obviously messed up,” Donny snapped at the woman, whose face turned bright red.

“The pill count doesn’t add up either,” she mumbled quietly.

Donny rolled his eyes. “You’re new here. You still don’t know how this works.”

She looked like she was about to cry, and really, if they didn’t get the hell out of here soon so that he could go home, then he’d probably cry, too. “Do you mind if I take a look?” Eric asked, gesturing to the binder in her arms.

She nodded as she handed him the binder with her thumb bookmarking a section. “That’s for Adam. He’s supposed to take three pills, three times a day, but when I counted the pills, there were twenty too many in each bottle. I don’t think he’s been taking them.”

---