by Navi' Robins
“You wouldn’t do that to me.”
“Ha! Try me, Doctor Doom. Just try me.”
“Okay, tonight. Come by my condo around nine. Now—”
Before he could finish, Timothy quickly turned and stormed out of the office without saying a word. Appearing unconcerned about his friend’s abrupt exit, Daniel stood up and began getting himself ready for another long shift in the ICU.
Tonight is going to be very interesting.
Chapter 7
Acceptance
This muthafucka better open this door, Timothy thought as he continued to knock on Daniel’s door. He’d been knocking for a couple of minutes, but the minutes dragged along like the final minutes at work right before a three-day weekend.
Timothy’s anger began to change to concern the longer he knocked. He could hear the sound of Daniel’s television from inside the condo, and he knew Daniel wasn’t the type of guy to leave anything on that wasn’t being used. Either he was ignoring him, or something was wrong, and a terrifying thought popped in his head. The image was like a dark nightmare that unfolded in the most gruesome fashion as his mind created a scene of Daniel’s lifeless body lying across his living room floor. A massive hole of damaged flesh appeared on the side of his head from the bullet that tore through his brain and came out the other side. Blood poured out of his head like a river, and his lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling.
Timothy began to panic as his knocking turned to banging and kicking. Eventually, he started attempting to break the door in, and after six tries, succeeded in tearing the door off its hinges. The resulting loud crash bounced off the condo’s walls, and pieces of wood and metal flew across the black granite floor. Running toward the living room, Timothy noticed an empty bottle of vodka, and a sharp pain filled his chest as the realization of his nightmare began to unfold. Daniel wasn’t in the living room, and Timothy frantically began checking every inch of the 2,400-square-foot penthouse condo.
Glancing in the master bedroom, he noticed that Daniel’s bed was a mess—again, out of character for Daniel, who was a neat freak. Taking a closer look, he noticed that the sheets on his bed were all pulled over to the far side of the bed, toward the large floor-to-ceiling windows that opened up to a breathtaking view of Chicago’s skyline and lakefront, the lights from outside casting eerie shadows on the walls and ceiling. He ran over to the side of the bed to find Daniel on the floor, fighting to breathe. His eyes were closed. His body lay flat as he gasped violently for air. Timothy immediately kneeled to his side, trying to figure out what was preventing Daniel from breathing.
Daniel seemed to be dreaming, and whatever he was going through appeared so real that it was affecting his body. He tried everything he could to wake him, but nothing was working. Daniel’s caramel skin began to turn a dark blue as his body struggled to survive without oxygen. Timothy felt himself lose control as he repeatedly slapped his friend, trying to wake him from the nightmare that was killing him. He was sweating excessively, and tears filled his eyes. The mixture of sweat and tears burned like hot peppers as he repeatedly wiped them and continued to strike Daniel’s face. So caught up in his terror, he couldn’t hear himself as he screamed for his friend to wake up.
Each passing second was a lifetime in hell as he helplessly watched his best friend die in front of him.
“Please, please, wake up,” he moaned and begged through his tears as he pulled on his sweaty shirt, clawing at himself like a man driven mad with grief.
Suddenly, Daniel’s eyes shot open, revealing a look of horror as he screamed, “Victoria!”
Seeing an opportunity, Timothy reached down and slapped his friend with all the strength his exhausted body had left, ripping his friend from his deadly nightmare. Timothy’s strike caused him to bite his tongue, and the pain sent shockwaves through his mouth. The taste of blood filled Daniel’s mouth as he shook his head in pain.
Looking around, he noticed he was on the floor, and his body felt cold and wet. Forcing himself to sit up, he saw Timothy sitting on the floor next to him breathing heavily, his face drenched with tears and sweat. He was clearly terrified by what he’d just seen, and he looked at Daniel like a stranger and not as a friend.
“What happened?” Daniel asked. His body felt like he’d been locked inside a washing machine filled with rocks and set to spin.
“You were having a nightmare so violent, you almost died. I think that if I weren’t here, you would’ve.”
Unable to look Timothy in his eyes, Daniel looked down at the floor and asked, “How did you get in here?”
“I broke your door down. The condo association will be calling you about that, I’m sure,” he replied, trying to lighten the mood.
Daniel remained silent for a few seconds, before gathering the nerve to look Timothy in the eyes and say, “Thank you, thank you for saving my life.”
“What the fuck is going on with you, Danny?” Timothy asked, unable to ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
“To be honest, I don’t know. I started having these nightmares immediately after I got back from Sudan. At first, they terrified me, but after a while, I became used to them. Ever since Meagan and Ayana came to my office asking me to testify against the man responsible for the raid on the village, my nightmares have gotten much worse.”
“Are they about Victoria?”
“What?”
“The nightmares . . . Are the nightmares about Victoria?”
“Not specifically, but she’s in the nightmares.”
“So it’s about when—”
“Yeah,” Daniel replied before Timothy could go into details. “Why did you ask about Victoria?”
“Because you kept yelling her name when you were under.”
Daniel’s body began to slouch as the exhaustion of his ordeal started to take a bigger toll on him. It’d been years since he dared say her name. He purposely tried to forget it, but no matter how much he tried to ignore or hide his pain, his subconscious mind wouldn’t let it go. Feeling succumbed with grief and gratitude, Daniel decided to tell Timothy everything, including Ayana’s real reason for her 4:00 a.m. visit. When he was done, Timothy, still sitting on the floor, shook his head in disbelief.
“I can’t pretend to imagine what you went through over there, but you can’t carry on like this. You need closure, and this trial can give that to you. You can’t hide from this any longer, Danny. You have to face this, and get that part of your life behind you and under control.”
“The trial will only make things worse.”
“Why do you feel that way?”
Daniel exhaled forcefully and told Timothy about his uninvited visitor. After he finished, Timothy nodded his head slowly, attempting to find the silver lining in today’s events.
“Yeah, but you are looking at this all wrong. God sees what you are going through and presented this opportunity for you to heal and move on.”
“God? Really? Now, some mystical being is looking out for me? Where was he when I needed him? Where was he for Victoria? Oh, I get it. He works in mysterious ways, right? Let me tell you what I’ve learned about mysterious ways. Wherever there’s mystery, there’s death. The death of an entire village and a 5-year-old girl isn’t mysterious. It’s evil. There isn’t some kind of hidden agenda that will work itself out down the road. There is no God . . . There is only us and what we do. And if there were a God, and he sat by idly while those people were slaughtered in cold blood, I don’t want anything to do with him.”
Looking at Daniel like a lost child, Timothy scoffed while rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay, okay . . . Well, if it’s not God, it’s something. Life, Karma, Buddha, whatever! I don’t fucking care at this point what or who it is. What I care about is you taking advantage of this opportunity to find closure. Reality is you really don’t have a choice, because Kronte and his people won’t stop until either you accept their bribe or you aren’t able to testify. Period. They tried to kill you the first time and failed. It
’s still a miracle you survived that, but I can assure you there won’t be another miracle. So, put him away for good or be prepared to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life—however long that may be.”
“Fuck! I’m not ready for this, man. I’m not ready.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Timothy replied, “Doesn’t matter now. You have to get ready because it’s time for you to face what happened over there, and maybe I can get my old friend back.”
“Ayana told me I wasn’t ready to testify, and if I testified in my current state, I would ruin the case they are building against him.”
“I can see her point. My advice is to let her help you get ready. If she can help where the other doctors couldn’t, then I’m all for it. Let her.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Yeah, I know you’re attracted to her, and that can get complicated . . . or it could make things more interesting. Either way, I think you should give it a shot, because next time, I may not be around to save you.”
Nodding in agreement, Daniel forced his body to stand as he slowly walked into the bathroom. Before closing the door behind him, he turned, grinning at Timothy who was still on the floor, and said, “If I do die, that would mean our bet is off, and you can get you some much-needed genital-to-genital stimulation and maybe find a reason to comb your hair and shave. Damn, bruh, the lack of sex got you slipping. I almost didn’t recognize you at first. I thought a homeless man broke in the condo.”
Feeling embarrassed and amused, Timothy ran his hand through his unkempt hair and laughed.
“Kiss my ass, Danny. Your teasing of the afflicted isn’t funny. I feel handicapped or something, like I have an abnormally large organ.”
“Maybe we should call the fire marshal so that he could give you a ticket for your balls being filled over capacity and posing a public safety hazard,” Daniel teased before closing the bathroom door.
“You mutha . . . You got jokes, I see,” he yelled.
Chapter 8
An Uncomfortable Arrangement
It took Daniel three days to track down Ayana and Meagan, and another four days before she returned his call. Back in New York, Ayana was busy with a laundry list of things to tackle, and returning the call of the rude and immature Dr. Daniel Bennett wasn’t at the top of that list. He was nothing like she’d expected and was worse than she feared. He was so closed off and self-centered that he’d rather insult her than listen to what she had to say. After leaving the coffee shop, she vowed to never contact him again, especially after his threat of suing her for harassment.
What type of man sues a woman for trying to help him?
She was content in not hearing from him again . . . until he started leaving multiple messages everyday this week. Her assistant said he sounded desperate, and no matter how many times the assistant told him that Ayana didn’t want to speak with him, he kept calling. Complaining to Meagan only made things worse, because she became upset that Ayana wouldn’t call back the most solid witness in their case against Kronte. Ayana wasn’t concerned about the doctor being a potential star witness. She was concerned about his well-being . . . well, until he left her high and dry at the coffee shop. After that, she allowed her anger to take her out of character, and she couldn’t have cared less if he leaped to his death from his much-needed perch in the sky.
His constant calling began to weigh on her conscience, and she finally decided to call him back. Staring at her desk phone, she took a deep breath, trying to relax. She wanted to make sure she remained professional and that she would allow his previous behavior to be water under the bridge if he behaved himself. However, if he got out of line one time, she wouldn’t hesitate to curse him out and hang up in his face. She’d come too far in life to be disrespected by a crazy doctor that refused to admit he had a problem. The phone only rang twice before the doctor’s deep voice answered, sending pleasant vibrations through her ear.
“Hello, Ayana? Thank you so much for calling me back. I want to apologize for my behavior. I was dealing with a lot, and I wasn’t sure who I could trust.”
Rolling her eyes while listening to him, she kept twirling her hands in a gesture for him to move the conversation along and skip the pleasantries.
“How can I help you, sir?”
Her no-nonsense and professional demeanor threw Daniel off, and he was at a loss for words. He thought after offering his sincere apology, she would be more receptive to him, but his assumptions were wrong. Ayana also assumed that she could forgive his behavior at the coffee shop, but after hearing his voice again, the scene began to replay in her mind of being left hanging at four in the morning, and she couldn’t bring herself to overlook his immaturity. She decided to keep things strictly professional yet cordial.
“Dr. Bennett, are you there?”
“Yes, I am.”
“So how can I help you, sir?”
Clearing his throat once he accepted the new dynamic of their relationship, he proceeded to update Ayana on the events that had transpired in his office not too long ago. A very uncomfortable silence followed as Ayana remained quiet. She tried to calm her nerves after hearing everything the doctor had to say. She’d heard about the almost legendary selfish attitude that Americans possessed, but she’d never come in direct contact with it until this moment. Meagan was from the US and a native of New York, but she was one of the most selfless people she knew. She always thought Americans were unfairly getting a bad reputation, but after meeting Dr. Bennett, she began to understand that maybe the reputation wasn’t ill placed. She felt he wanted her help only because he was concerned about his safety and not because he wanted to bring Kronte to justice.
Oh my God, I can’t stand this man.
“Dr. Bennett, let me recap so that you and I are on the same page, okay? So you supposedly got a visit from one of Kronte’s henchmen, and he offered you a bribe that you turned down.”
As selfish and self-centered as this man is, I’m shocked he didn’t take the money, she thought.
“After carefully assessing your situation, you’ve discovered that you have no choice but to testify in order to protect yourself from retaliation for not taking the bribe. Am I on course so far?”
“Yes, Ayana.”
“Call me Ms. Burundi, please,” she responded coldly.
“Really? So that’s where we are now?” Daniel asked, clearly becoming frustrated with her attitude.
“And where might that be, Doctor? I am clearly trying to maintain a professional tone with you. When I tried to be more of a friend to you, you punished me. So, for me to remain objective and do my job, we must maintain a professional relationship. Or will that also be a problem for you, Dr. Bennett?”
Momentarily taking the phone from his ear and pointing at it angrily, Daniel balled up his fist while swinging in the air without uttering a sound. After completing his three-second tantrum, he placed his cell phone to his ear and began to speak. Attempting to match her cold demeanor, he responded, “No, professionalism is never a problem for me, so as long as we maintain that and stay out of coffee shops at 4:00 a.m., we should be just fine.”
His response sent vibrations of anger through Ayana’s body, like the tremors of an earthquake. Her arm swung down hard in an attempt to hang up in the doctor’s face, but she stopped herself.
He wanted to get a rise out of me, and if I hang up on him, he will get the satisfaction he wants.
Refusing to be outdone by a man she believed wasn’t worth her time and effort, she put the phone back to her ear, smiling, and began to speak in the most pleasant voice. What she planned to say next, however, wasn’t pleasant at all.
“Dr. Bennett, as much as I would like to continue to stroke your ego and babysit you, I can’t. I have a full schedule that is dedicated to people with real problems, people who really want to solve them. The fact that Kronte has taken notice of you is the only reason you want my help. Not because of the millions of lives that’ve been lost and more that wi
ll be lost if Kronte’s allowed to go free. My services are not for people who only think of themselves. I work for the United Nations, not the United States or the United States of Daniel.
“So, in response to your request for my assistance, I will have to decline with great satisfaction . . . oops, I mean great dissatisfaction. Now that we got that out of the way, is there anything else you would like to say before I disconnect this call?”
“Yes, it’s called the United States of Dr. Bennett,” he responded and immediately hung up the phone.
Hearing the click from the doctor hanging up in her face sent her emotions raging as she slammed her handset back on its receiver. The sound caused her secretary to leap into action, rushing to her door to find out what was wrong.
“Is everything okay, Ms. Burundi?”
Not wanting to take her frustrations out on the innocent secretary, she withheld her need to yell at someone and calmly replied, “Everything is fine, Mrs. Brown. Just a slight misunderstanding on the last call.”
“Can I get you something?”
“Sure, you got some tequila?”
Mrs. Brown, in shock, immediately started laughing, which caused Ayana to follow suit.
“No, but I know a place not too far from here.”
“That sounds great. How about you, Meagan, and I all head down there after work?”
Surprised that Ayana invited her, she quickly accepted the invitation and walked out of the office to make reservations for later that evening. Once Mrs. Brown was out of her office, Ayana took a deep breath and continued to work on the case files that were covering her desk.
* * *
A few hours later, Timothy walked into Daniel’s office anxious to hear the good news that Ayana would help his friend, but after seeing the aggravation on Daniel’s face, he knew things didn’t go as planned.
“Don’t tell me she said no!”
“Yep, she surely did.”
“Why? What did you do, Danny?”
