Up in Arms

“Yes, we do, but let me start from the beginning to hopefully answer all of your questions. Your family can rest assured, our medical director and his staff of specialty trained physicians will work closely with your father’s treating physician to work up a comprehensive treatment plan to accelerate your father’s recovery. Our center is state of the art with the most current technologies and equipment available today. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but we are well equipped enough to handle anything thrown our way.” Natalie moved them through the front lobby, entering a quick key code into a security pad, without asking for credentials from either of them. Laurie couldn’t believe how easy it all turned out to be. Once inside the center, she stood, momentarily shocked at truly being behind the scenes. Most of her competition tried to get in on a regular basis and were always locked out, but she did it on the first try!

The first room they entered was a large work-out style room. Several patients were receiving their physical therapy, all in different stages of care. Medical personnel stood close by, instructing or supporting the patients in whatever task they were assigned to perform. Laurie quickly scanned the room, looking over the faces of those in treatment, but found no one looking to be active military.

“As you can see, here we have the work out rooms. These are standard traditional rooms, equipped for every stage of the recovery. Your father can have time here to himself, but we have found when other patients are in the room, it helps build a sense of unity. It’s very sweet how encouraging all the patients become with one another. Now, if you will follow me, these halls lead to a series of exam rooms and the secure entrance you asked about earlier. These elevator doors to the left come from a private underground parking garage entrance. There’s security placed in different check points along the way, blocking anyone from coming down the garage who isn’t pre-authorized to do so. Now through these doors we have the official exam rooms. Most medical care is done right here in these rooms. Hi, Dr. McBride, they’re in exam room six, sir.” Natalie stopped and turned her friendly, fake smile to an older man who looked lost in the hall. Laurie prayed her own fake smile looked as natural as the ugly little Natalie’s did.

“Thank you, have they been here long?” Dr. McBride asked.

“No, sir, just a few minutes.”

Dr. McBride gave a nod of dismissal to them all, and ducked into the exam room Natalie pointed to. Turning back to Laurie, Natalie continued on with what had to be a pre-memorized, boring as hell, speech. “If your father’s physician wants to monitor care, our medical staff will work closely with that person much like Dr. McBride there, making sure everyone’s comfortable with all treatment plans provided.”

The tour continued at a quick pace. Laurie desperately needed to slow it down. They were moving too quickly and she needed more time to search. Slowly, she began to walk several feet behind Natalie and dug the knuckles of her first two fingers into Josh’s shoulder. She pushed him forward, whispering with a hiss for him to be useful and ask engaging questions while she searched the hospital. Laurie stayed several feet behind the two, hoping she looked thoughtful. No one in the place looked to be active military or a blond, perfect Kensington. All the pictures of Reed Kensington her research department sent included a tall, extremely good looking, and always fashionable man. His hair and clothing were never in the same style, but always in the current style of the time. Reed also always had a different man on his arm in every picture, many being reasonably well known male models. Reed shied away from the camera while his partners always posed, drawing all the attention to them, making it hard to really study his features too closely.

As the tour continued, Laurie’s attitude took a nose dive. Natalie couldn’t be more boring and Laurie grew increasingly frustrated. Maybe they were too early or too late, or maybe Harry didn’t have any idea what the hell he talked about! Reality crashed in. Perhaps it wasn’t her mad skills that got her into the facility; maybe the reason they were able to walk right in was because they had no high profile patients in stay right now. Instantly, Laurie began to formulate plans on how she could get Harry back for this wasted afternoon trip.

Watching Natalie walk, Laurie thought maybe she could do a story on the ugly clothes marketing people wore. Then Natalie looked down at her clipboard. Laurie’s eyes darted down too. The sheet on the clipboard was titled Daily Census Counts, with a list of names appearing underneath. It looked to be a list of every patient in the facility today. With a sliding step forward, Laurie stayed behind Natalie, getting enough of a glimpse to see she was right. Laurie slowly began asking questions, trying hard to work the clipboard out of Natalie’s greedy little hands. It took about ten minutes, but Natalie finally put the damn clipboard down to help Laurie find a contact lens she pretended to lose. It was all it took. Laurie quickly swiped the top page and folded it, dropping into her skirt pocket. Feigning more eye problems, Laurie quickly escaped to the restroom with her purse in hand to read over the report.

The center received four new patients today. Two females, two males, one being twenty three, the other fifty seven. Trevor West was the twenty three year old. Pulling her iPhone out, Laurie sent a quick message to her research team back in the office asking for bio information on Trevor West ASAP! And within seconds, photos of Trevor West appeared on her phone. His bio followed shortly after. Trevor West, a Sergeant in the Marine’s Special Forces and, bingo! Just like that, Laurie had her guy! Excitement built deep within her, and she took a minute to calm herself. She must think. Her heart began a slow steady pound as her eyes darted back to the census report, seeing his appointment scheduled for thirty minutes earlier. He was still somewhere in this building!