Page 59 of Life To My Flight

“Fuck me in the ass,” I groaned as I missed the lock twice, before finally sliding it all the way in.

I turned it quickly, and had just turned the front light on when my pager went off in the bottom of the bag.

My state pager.

The one that told me when I had a case.

I slapped my hand against my forehead.

Dropping my things down on the couch, I dried off my arm with the afghan laying over the back of the couch before I dug for my phone and called into work.

“Christus Health, this is Erma,” a voice answered cheerfully

“Hi, this is Rue Loden. I was just paged for a sexual assault. May I speak to the supervisor please?” I asked Erma.

Erma was one of the ER’s newest nurses, and hadn’t yet gotten that jadedness that most of the nurses got once they’d worked in the ER environment for a long time.

“Sure,” Erma said sadly. “I’ll get her now.”

It took less than two minutes before Mona was on the line. “This is Mona speaking.”

“Hi, Mona. This is Rue. I was paged,” I went straight to the point.

“Yes, dear. I have a case for you. I know you’re not on call, but...I need you. I don’t trust anybody else for this,” Mona said softly.

I stopped for a heartbeat, waiting for her to explain, but she never did. “Mona...what’s going on?”

“Just...get here. The sooner the better,” she replied quietly.

I blinked.

“I had a drink a little over thirty minutes ago. Only one though. I’ll need some coffee and some water. Maybe about thirty minutes for my head to be on straight again,” I explained.

“You got it. She only wants you,” Mona said before hanging up.

I blinked rapidly. She only wanted me?

***

“Tell me what’s going on,” I demanded.

Mona sat down at the table with me and handed me a cup of coffee that was so strong I’d probably see hair on my chest in the morning.

Then all my joking took a flying leap out a fifteen story window when I heard what she had to say next.

“Audrey was sexually assaulted on the way to her car today. She’s okay, physically, other than the obvious, and she only wants you,” Mona said softly.

I closed my eyes, trying in vain to shut out the infuriated scream that threatened to burst free of my lips.

“Rue, sweetheart. I know it’s rough. Believe me, I do. But you need to drink your coffee and get it together. Now,” Mona said authoritatively.

I opened my eyes, cleared my mind, and stood.

The coffee came with me as I walked into the hall. “Which room?”

They had two designated rooms that we normally used for these types of cases.

Collecting evidence on rape victims could take upwards to six hours, and they wanted the room to be private and as comfortable as could be.

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