"Episode 56 - Good people ."  

I did as I was instructed. After washing up just like she did, I pulled on the green scrubs, caps and gloves. The door was closed, she was covered with a green sheet with a square piece of gap revealing her bright red bullet wound.

Why the hell didn't I get shot? I wondered self-loathingly. She turned on the overhead light, switched places with me to get a better access to the area. Elena was out cold, her matted hair flared out around her head in tendrils.

"Are you ready?" She asked, finally looking at me straight in the eyes. She was holding up a scalpel, similar to the one I had in my bag. Gulping I nodded. She was connected to the heart monitor and her BP was borderline low. "Okay, here we go." The lady sighed into her mask, used a cloth with dripping red liquid on it to wipe the area first.

I wanted to tell her to be gentle then I realised that Elena was not awake. I felt a crack in my chest. The ice starting to break. If she never woke up, if I never got to see her smile, there was no point of me living anymore. A hand gripped my throat and tightened its fists. I doubled over in pain.

"Are you okay?" The woman asked, probably wondering about physical injury and hoped I'd just die on the spot, form such wound. I could hear the fear in her voice but I couldn't have her doubt herself while she was operating on my girl. No way.

"If she dies, don't worry. Nothing will happen to you or anyone. I won't be alive very much longer to do anything anyway." The words that left my mouth revealed a type of insanity that I'd never experienced before. The emotions I felt towards her, were greater than what normal people described as love. No, I wasn't in love with her. It was much deeper and darker than that.

She was my beginning and end. If there was no her, there was no me. To say that we were in love would be an insult to the connection we had. People can love and break up and love again but I couldn't do that with her. Somewhere, deep down, I believed that she couldn't do that with me either.

It was an obsession that surpassed normality of social standards and I was fine with that.

"Okay, lets, do this." I extended my hand for whatever she was going to hand me. I saw her eyes soften a little before nodding. She handed me, what looked like, forceps with a bended top forming an 'L' shape.

"I need you pull when I cut into her." She explained before she pushed the sharp blade into her soft skin.

There was another crack in my chest that sliced down to the bottom of my stomach.

It made a noise when she pulled her flesh apart then directed mine to a spot before lodging the bent angle inside. "Pull." I did, gently. My eyes adverting to her face, making sure she was still sleeping. Then she picked up some straight forceps before carefully guiding it inside her. With a lot of tugging and manoeuvring, she finally pulled the damn bullet out. Looking at the 9mm made my blood boil but I had to stay calm for her.

"Okay, you can let go now." I did. There weren't a lot of blood anymore. Did she bleed it all out? I wondered, horrified beyond my nightmares. "I don't think the bullet hit anything vital. I just need to sew up the nick in her bowel and the wound. I think she will be okay."

"But she's lost so much blood." I emphasised while she picked up a curved needle and long, transparent fibre. "We don't have human blood. I can give her some saline and fake blood which will boost the regeneration of her red blood cells." She started to stick with absolute steady hands and pristine concentration.

Once she was done, she cut the thread and cleaned the area around her wound. When she was done, she sighed with a great relief before covering up her wound. "The stiches are dissolvable so you won't need to see anyone." She sounded almost normal by then, no sign of any fear.

My eyes went to her covered feet the sheet had absorbed some blood from her cuts there. "Do you have some cotton and antiseptic liquid or something?" I asked.

"Hold on." She probably thought it was for me but I wanted until she handed me a bottle and cottons. Moving, I lifted the sheets over her ankles and finally saw the res slashes and dots under her feet. The lady looked too, gasping at the sight of her. Wetting the cotton, I started to clean it with as much care as possible.

"What happened to her?" She finally asked.

"She was kidnapped." She gasped, placing a hand in front of her mouth. "She was shot when I was trying to get her out."

"Oh!" She sounded defeated.

"I'm sorry I scared you." The lady deserved my apology. After all, she saved my life. Elena was my life and saving her meant saving me.

"I'll get the saline and the plasma." She quickly existed the room. I kept cleaning until she returned. When the dirt and blood was gone, I put antiseptic cream on it before bandaging it with white gauze.

The plasma looked deep yellow but somehow transparent and the saline solution hung on either side of the table. When I was done, I decided to take the scrubs off.

"Does she have clothes?" The woman asked in a soft voice.

"No. We just ran." I shrugged, sitting on the revolving stool. Taking her hand in mine, I waited for her to awaken.

"Okay. You can go. We'll be gone before you open." I told her, without lifting my eyes off Elena. When the door closed, I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and typed Nathan Ross's number.

"Who is this?" The spectacle behind him was louder than his voice.

"It's me." I didn't hear his voice for a long time until I heard a car door shut and all the noise vanished.

"SHIT. What have you done?" He accused, exasperated.

"Handed Jude over to you on a silver platter." I spoke like a robot, without any emotions.

"I never asked you to blow shit up." He cursed.

"He took her." I don't know why I needed to explain my action.

"I gathered."

"So, where are you now." He asked. "I have your I.D.s that I'm not supposed to know exists. Also, Jake's already out of the city, I made sure of that. I'll give you a number, you can call him."

"Why are you helping me?" He didn't have to now. He could easily take me in, reveal Elena's true identity and crack the notorious Catalan case.

"I don't know. Sometimes, law isn't enough to take monsters off the streets." He sighed. "Also, I have a nine-year-old daughter." He was an empath. "Anyways, where are you."

"Still in New Jersey, out on some farm or something, Hang on." I found a leaflet in one of the drawers on the desk, took a picture of the address and sent it to him.

"I'm trusting you." I warned. "They shot Elena, she can't move so don't make me blow she up again."

"Is she okay?" I remembered his ring. He understood.

"For now." I cut the call and waited as silence and its demons surrounded me. The heart monitor beeping in a steady rhythm. Within those beeps, I heard soft whispers, a one-sided conversation. That's when I realised that the lady hadn't left yet.

Kissing the back of her hand, I left the room with predatorial silence. She was speaking to someone on the phone, whispering about 'something came up'. I didn't want to spook her or hurt her, so I purposefully knocked my feet against the desk.

She, almost, jumped out of her skin when she turned. "I'll call you right back. It's one of the cats." Cutting the call, she stood there. I could almost hear her heart beating out of her chest. "I wasn't calling the police." She looked terrified.

"It's fine. If you did, can you please make sure they do nothing to her. It wasn't her fault. None of it." I honestly didn't care about the police, I just wanted Elena to be okay.

"No, it really wasted them. I just needed to tell my husband that I had to stay back to check on something." She was rambling, twisting the blank phone in her hands.

"Even if it was. Can you please, make sure she's okay. Please." I begged. I vowed to never beg the day I was caught stealing food but for Elena, I'd do that with pride. "Wait." I went out, picked up the other back from the car and locked the doors. "Here." I handed her a couple of bundles of $100 bills when I came inside. "It's all real. You can use the counterfeit pen to check."

"You don't have to." She settled down but denied the money whole heartedly.

"Keep it. Think of it as a donation to the clinic." I shrugged.

Suddenly, I heard an engine growl and her eyes widen. All my senses jumped back in action, ready to defend. 

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We have 4 more chapters till it's over.  I hope you're enjoying this.