chapter 1
Everything was a rush from the moment they stepped onto the rescue planes. Van clutched desperately at Taissa’s side and curled her face into her chest when the paramedics attempted to look at her scars. Shauna stared off numb and not entirely there while Jackie wrapped her arm around her waist to keep her steady. Lottie carried their kid and handed him over to Jackie once they sat down before taking her seat next to Natalie. The resume team desperately tried to pry information out of the team, but they only gave the bare minimum some refusing to even tell them their names.
Upon arriving at the hospital, the group was split apart; some went easy, and some were a little reluctant. After some convincing, they let themselves be led to separate rooms like Van and Tai. Others put up a bit more of a fight, namely Jackie and Shauna.
The pair clung to each other, and the baby boy was sandwiched in between them like their life depended on it. For a while, it had. No amount of coaching from the doctors was going to split them. The security guards began trying to pull them apart. One particular guard grabbed Shauna by her shoulders who quickly responded by sinking her teeth straight into the flesh of his arm. Warm, copper-tasting blood flows into her mouth and coats her teeth with crimson red. The guard stumbles back, clutching his arm and crying out in pain.
Shauna lunges at him while Jackie attempts to quiet the cries coming from the fragile little body cradled in her arms. Something small and stinging gets pressed into Shauna's arm as a flurry of officials attempts to pull Shauna off of the now cowering man beneath her. Her head begins to spin, and a wave of lightheadedness washes over her until she hits the ground, and the world goes dark.
Van batted off hands and death stared at anyone who came near her as doctors made vain attempts to look at the inside of her cheek to assess the damage done by the wolf attack. She wanted Tai. No, she needed Tai. Her chest constricted and her head rushed at the feeling of all the air being sucked out of her. She could hear the beeping of the heart rate monitor she was hooked up to at some point rapidly increasing and a sea of doctors and nurses flowed into the room. One of her arms flew up to clutch at her chest as a wave of pain and nausea took over. After many failed attempts to get Van to breathe, they instead placed a sedative into the IV drip hanging out of her arm and laid her down on the bed.
The first thing Shauna noticed when she woke up was the sterile smell and harsh lighting of the hospital room she had been placed in. Her head pounded, and her heart ached to be near to her two loves. She attempted to sit up but found that her hands and feet had been bound to the bed by leather straps. Shauna struggled and screamed until a nurse appeared in the doorway. She stopped and stared at her as she came over to adjust some machine connected to Shauna.
“Will you please let me out of these restraints?” Shauna pleaded, shooting the nurse a scowl so deadly that if looks could kill, she would be well past six feet under by now.
“Are you going to keep your teeth and fists to yourself if I do?” the nurse, whose name tag read Michelle, joked. Shauna wanted to punch and kick her till she was squirming and begging for mercy beneath her, but she knew that would not get her anywhere, so instead, she just nodded stiffly. The feeling of her hands being freed was a pleasant one, and she had no idea how long she had been out for, but judging by the marks on her arms, she would say quite a while.
She wants to run and kick and beg and scream until she reaches Jackie but she realizes that wouldn't go over all too well so instead she settles on asking “How long was I out for?” nurse Michelle gives her a pitying look that makes Shauna want to smack it right off her face. “A few hours,” she replies.
“When can I see Jackie and my baby?” the nurse once again gives her a tight bittersweet smile and gives a squeeze to Shauna's arm, which she quickly moves away from shooting the nurse a death stare in the process.
“I'll let the doctor know you're awake,” she replies before fleeing the room, not too dissimilar to a rabbit fleeing a predator. A blonde-haired woman dressed in a white coat and carrying a clipboard came in through the door and smiled at Shauna.
“I’m Doctor Robbins. I’ll be your doctor for the duration of your stay.” She introduces herself, and Shauna repeats the same sentiment she gave to her colleague earlier by scowling and asking, “When can I see Jackie and my baby?”
Dr Robbins sighed with that same sympathetic smile that just made Shauna feel patronized. “We are going to have to keep you all quarantined from each other for a while.” Panic rose in Shauna’s chest, and her heart jumped to her throat. It was one thing to keep them away from each other when they were being examined, but quarantined? For a few days? No, that wasn't going to happen on shaunas watch.
Shauna lept out of the bed and lunged at the unsuspecting doctor, sending the pair tumbling unceremoniously to the ground with a thud. Shauna raised her fists, her body completely on autopilot as her mind kicked into her fight-or-flight instinct. A group of guards and other hospital staff rushed into the room and pulled Shauna back before she could do any further damage.
She struggled and kicked the man holding her back in the shins, who in turn loosened his hold on her. She wriggled out of his grasp and flew across the room until her back hit the wall opposite the door. The weight of everything happening to her so fast finally hit her, and overwhelming emotions rippled through her. Her breathing was ragged and heavy, and her legs gave out from under her as she slid down the wall to sit with her knees pulled up to her chest.
Dr. Robbins approached her with her hands out in surrender and with a level of caution one would use to approach a wild animal. Maybe that's what she was now, at one with the wilderness and all. She lifted her head from its perch on top of her knees and finally registered the tears flowing down her cheek as her breathing evens out.
Dr Robbins slowly coaches Shauna back into the bed after telling the guard to stand down. Shauna hated feeling belittled, but she was too exhausted to care at this point. She wanted Jackie. Jackie would make everything alright again and make her feel safe.
Shauna zones out so completely in her head that she barely registers Dr. Robbins taking some of her vitals and running some tests on her until she hears it, deafeningly loud and piercing.
A primal-like scream echoed through the ward.