What Doesn't Kill Her (Cape Charade #2)(5)

“I like you except when you stick me with needles.” Rae’s voice got closer. She was the stool scraper. “Know what? I climbed the ladder all the way to the top, just like my mommy.”

In a normal voice, Dr. Brundage said to Kellen, “This is going to hurt a little,” and plunged a hypodermic needle about the size of a Craftsman screwdriver into her hip. In a return to that cajoling kid-talk voice, Dr. Brundage asked Rae, “Who’s your mommy?”

“She is!”

Kellen didn’t have to look to know Rae was pointing at the examining table.

Dr. Brundage’s voice changed to sharply inquisitive. “This is your mommy?”

“It’s a long story,” Kellen said. “Not interesting at all.”

“I beg to differ!” Kellen suspected Dr. Brundage always said what she thought.

Out in the corridor, they heard a scuffle: shouting and swearing. “What’s going on out there?” Dr. Brundage asked.

“Roderick Blake has arrived,” Kellen said.

“My mommy saved that man’s life,” Rae confided.

“Did she? Sounds like he didn’t appreciate it,” Dr. Brundage said.

Impatient voices murmured around Roderick’s wildly abusive language.

“We love getting those kinds of guys into Emergency.” Dr. Brundage looked closely at Kellen. “How’s your pain on a level from one to ten?”

“About eight. Seven. Six...” Kellen’s voice slurred as her grip on reality slipped. “What did you give me?”

“The good stuff.” Dr. Brundage yelled, “Brenda, I need you! We’ve got some irrigation and sewing to do in here.”

The sound of Roderick’s yelling faded, followed by an indistinct swell of indignation from the hospital staff as those who could hurried away.

In her cajole-a-kid voice, Dr. Brundage said, “Honey, we’re going to fix your mommy now, so you need to go find your daddy.”

“I want to stay! My mommy is ThunderBoomer.”

“ThunderBoomer?” Kellen and Dr. Brundage said at the same time.

“What happened to Warrior Woman?” Kellen asked.

“No, you can’t be Warrior Woman, because I’m LightningBlast.”

“ThunderBoomer sounds like I have a flatulence problem,” Kellen complained.

Dr. Brundage snorted and laughed—and snorted. Then she sobered and with a grim intensity, said, “Rae, your mommy’s going to spout a lot of blood.”

“Oo. No. Gross.” Without hesitation, Rae abandoned ThunderBoomer. The stool scraped away. From the door, her piping voice admonished, “Mommy, you be good and don’t cry too much.”

“More likely I’ll dance.” Kellen wasn’t sure the words came out right, she was slurring so much.

“Brenda’s my nurse,” Dr. Brundage said. “Once she gets in here, we’ll have you cleaned up in no time. This is going to hurt a little. I’m removing the tile.”

She wasn’t finished speaking before she’d done it.

Bright pain spots on a black humming background. How was it possible to hurt so much coming out when it hurt so much being in there?

“You going to toss your cookies?” Dr. Brundage asked.

Kellen folded her lips tightly over her nausea and shook her head.

“That’s official doctor talk,” Dr. Brundage informed her. “This is more official doctor talk. I’m going to irrigate the wound now. With saline. It’s going to sting.”

In the hallway outside the room, Kellen heard a woman say, “Hi, honey, how are you? Have you fallen out of a tree and scared your daddy again?”

“Hi, Nurse Brenda. No way, I haven’t fallen out, and Daddy doesn’t know about the walnut tree, so it’s okay.”

“The walnut tree?” Brenda asked.

“I made a tree house.”

Kellen squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them wide. A tree house? Rae had made a tree house? The kid was seven. How could she make a tree house?

“How did you make a tree house?” Brenda must be channeling Kellen.

“I got the boards from the, um, place where Daddy’s new shed is getting built.”

“You stole the boards?” Brenda sounded surprised and maybe a little admiring.

“No! Stealing is against the law. I took boards from the scrap pile.” In a confidential tone, Rae said, “That’s another way of saying the garbage dump.”

“Daddy doesn’t know you confiscated those boards, does he?” Brenda asked.

“No way.” Rae sounded absolutely unrepentant. “You know what? My mommy’s in there bleeding.”

“Is she?” Brenda sounded interested and a little skeptical. “Who’s your mommy?”

“My mommy is a superhero. She’s secretly ThunderBoomer. See, she got shot in the head by a bad man.”

Kellen felt Dr. Brundage brush the bangs off her forehead.

Dr. Brundage made a “hmm” sound as she revealed the round red scar. She didn’t call Brenda in, either, but started irrigating.

“Mommy was in comma.”

“A comma?” Brenda sounded as if she was torn between amusement and a vast captivated interest.

“She couldn’t wake up,” Rae explained.