Page 2 of Cross That Line

"Yes," she agreed. "You're in some pain, aren't you, Jack?"

"As if any of you care. I'm leaving." He lunged toward the door.

Rick caught his arm, and Jack reacted instantly, driving his shoulder into Rick's chest and knocking him back against the wall.

Anna hit the staff-assistance button.

"Jack, look at me," she said, drawing Jack's attention away from Anna and Rick. "You know me. I want to help you. Are the headaches back?"

He wavered, then shook his head in confusion. "I can't…I don't…trust…" He winced again with pain as two security officers appeared in the doorway. The sight of them sent him into a frenzy. He shoved her out of his way. She stumbled, hitting the wall with her hand as she tried to stay on her feet.

The security guards grabbed Jack and dragged him back to the table while Rick barked at Anna to get midazolam.

"We don't know what he's taken," she interjected.

"We don't have a choice," Rick snapped. Jack wrestled with the two security guards as if they were the enemy he had once been trained to kill. Fortunately, the guards managed to hold him down long enough for Rick to jam a needle into his arm. Within minutes, Jack's battle eased, and they lowered him onto the exam table.

She moved closer. "It's going to be okay, Jack. We're going to fix this."

"Need someone I can…trust." His eyelids fluttered closed.

Anna clipped an oxygen sensor to his finger while Rick wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm, and they checked his vitals.

"Get him on the cardiac monitor," Rick told Anna. "Start an IV and check his glucose. I want a blood count, metabolic panel, tox screen, everything…you know the drill."

"We should get a head CT, too," she put in. "He appeared to be having a great deal of pain."

"Agreed. After the labs, get him up to the fourth floor," Rick said.

"Do you want him restrained?" Anna asked.

"Until we know what we're dealing with, yes," Rick replied.

Even though she knew his answer was correct, she hated to think of Jack Barrone waking up in restraints. Being unable to move could trigger him. But after experiencing how combative he'd been with all of them, she couldn't suggest an alternative that wouldn't risk someone else's life. She followed Rick out of the room, knowing they still had a department filled with patients who needed immediate care, and that had to be her focus.

The next two hours disappeared in a blur of stitches, X-rays, medication orders, and a veteran with abdominal pain who had waited three days longer than he should have before seeking help.

As she finished up with her last patient before her shift ended at eleven, her thoughts returned to Jack Barrone. She wanted to talk to him again when he was calm. She had to find out what was going on, how things had gone so far downhill since she'd last seen him. Glancing at her watch, she realized it had been two hours since he'd been sedated. He should be more awake by now, and maybe some of his tests had come back.

"Heading home?" one of the nurses asked as she signed out on the computer. "Lucky you. I just started."

"Hopefully, things quiet down." She paused abruptly as a fire alarm shrieked through the ER, strobe lights flashing along the corridor walls. "Or maybe not."

"Damn!" The nurse jumped to her feet as an announcement followed.

"Attention, please. A fire alarm has been activated. Staff, initiate fire-response procedures and await further instructions."

The alarms and announcements sent patients and visitors out of the exam rooms, and she joined the other doctors and nurses in trying to convince those needing treatment to remain where they were. Hopefully, it was just a false alarm, but as another fifteen minutes passed, she started to grow more concerned that there might actually be a fire somewhere in the building.

Finally, the alarms stopped, and the all clear sounded.

She was tempted to grab her bag out of her locker and get out before anything else happened to delay her, but she really wanted to check on Jack before she did so. It was strange how he was Jack in her mind. She usually referred to her patients by Mr. or Ms. or whatever military title they might be using. But when Jack had come to see her, he'd told her flat out he didn't want to be called by his rank or his surname; he just wanted to be Jack. She'd had the feeling at the time he'd been trying to figure out who he was without the trappings of his military career.

Now, she wanted to figure out who he was, too.

She got on the now-moving elevator and made her way up to the fourth floor. When she stepped into the lobby, she could see patients in the hallway shuffling back to their rooms or being taken in wheelchairs, and there was the faint smell of smoke in the air, which made her think there really had been a fire somewhere, and maybe that somewhere was here.

As she reached the nurses' station, a nurse came hurrying back.