Page 5 of Wolf

I see I wasn’t Doc anymore now I was Alexis. With Abel still present I didn’t say anything back to him. Abel hated when Wolf and I bickered back and forth. He had a scowl on his face so I knew Abel would be bothered if we carried on. I grabbed the needle, tubes, alcohol pad, tourniquet, a bag for the tubes of blood, and a band aid. After I laid everything on the table, I went to the sink to wash my hands. Then I put on a pair of gloves. Since he wanted to complain about my eye rolling, the tourniquet would be extra tight around his arm.

“Does this thing need to be so tight?” he asked.

“Oh, is it? My bad.” I snickered.

I loosened the torniquet then prepared the needle and tube. Then I used the alcohol pad to clean the area. This was typically the job of a phlebotomist, but I wanted to limit the number of people around Wolf. There was a note in his account that he was my VIP patient. I was a little rusty, so it was hard to find his vein at first. Once I tapped his arm a few times the vein became prominent, and we were good to go. With the tubes filled I put a band-aid on him then cleaned the area.

“I’m going to run these down to the lab. We should have them back within the hour. I will be back in a few,” I said as I left the room. The lab was on the second floor, so I headed toward the elevator. As I stepped on the elevator my phone dinged. I looked down, and it was a message from Joy.

Joy:

I’m here.

Me:

I had to run to the lab. Meet me at Wolf’s room. The room number is 333.

Joy:

Got it

I stepped off the elevator and walked to the far end of the hallway where the lab was located. There was a window for drop offs.

“Hey, Dr. Jackson.”

“Lily, good to see you. Can you process this stat for my VIP patient?”

“I’ll make sure you have the results within the hour.”

“Thank you.”

With that taken care of, I headed back up to Wolf’s room. As I approached the room I heard Joy’s voice. She laid question after question into Abel. That was Joy. She needed to know what he had gotten himself into. As our big cousin, she took a protective role over us. I opened the door to save my brother. Abel did not appreciate anyone questioning him.

“Hey,” I greeted Joy. “I see you found the room okay.”

“I did. I just got here but I tried to get Abel to tell me what’s going on.”

“Joy, thanks for bringing Alexis’s stuff, but I’m a grown ass man. I don’t answer to anyone,” Abel expressed.

Even as children these two were always bickering. I often found myself being a buffer and some things never changed.

“Okay, guys, cool it. Joy, come take a walk with me. You can leave my bags there.”

Joy rolled her eyes at Abel.

“I see that eye rolling shit runs in the family huh,” Wolf asserted.

“It sure does,” I said as I winked at him.

Joy and I exited the room. I led her to a quiet area on the other side of the floor. Once we reached the desolate area, I pointed to a set of chairs. She took a seat, and I did the same.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Abel’s mean ass was so tight lipped.”

“I only know what I overheard. Abel got into it with the First Street Crew. I assume Wolf got shot because they couldn’t find Abel. Wolf’s memory is a little fuzzy, so he doesn’t have all the details.”

Joy looked at me with shock.

“Well damn, no wonder Abel didn’t want to say shit. So you have to stay with Wolf because Able has to go away huh?” she asked.

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