by Wolf, Terra
A look flashed through his eyes at that, but he quickly suppressed it, not wanting to let her see whatever flash of brilliance he may have had. She meant to ask him about it, but when her mouth opened to speak, a large yawn surprised her. The food was settling in, and her body was telling her it was time to sleep.
"I'll come back and see you tomorrow Melissa. I promise."
She tried to respond, but before she could say anything sleep overtook her. This time it was restful and calm.
***
She awoke later that day, feeling far more refreshed and alive than she had in days. After talking to her nurse, they said she was being transferred to an outpatient facility that would help her regain her strength, and also deal with any mental issues she may come across.
Two women came into the room, introducing themselves as employees of Placid Cares Rehabilitation Center. They were both extremely polite and together the three of them left the hospital.
Melissa found it amazing that less than forty-eight hours into her stay, she was already being discharged. As she left, she wondered if the nurses would tell Edward she was okay. She hoped he would call her, she had so many questions to ask him about his abilities. It was fascinating and she wanted to know more about him and just who he was.
The van drove up the long, tree-lined drive towards a beautiful building with swooping lines and majestic spires. Things were looking up, she thought.
Edward
"Sir, David Albers is here."
"Okay Jane, give me a few minutes and send him in."
Although he was ostensibly hiring for one of the most important positions of his company, Edward couldn't keep his mind on the task in front of him. He kept thinking back to that beautiful, curvy woman he had seen at the hospital. Having seen her freshly bathed and cleaned up, it had been near impossible for him to control his bear.
Her long masses of pitch black hair piled around her face had drawn him in. The pull to run into the room, hug her and hold her close, protect her from the world at large had been tremendous. The logical part of him knew he couldn't do that, however, for she was in no mental state to have an overly large man come at her aggressively.
It hadn't been hard to pick up on the fact that she appreciated him standing at the door, and not completely blocking it either. He had spent the entire night trying to figure out what to say, where to stand and how to act. The last thing he wanted was to make Melissa scared of him.
Now though, he was doing his best to focus on work and his financial empire, but his thoughts and desires were elsewhere. Normally he outsourced hiring, but his chief marketing officer had recently moved on with another company, and he needed to ensure the replacement was not just competent, but extraordinary.
Rolling his shoulders, trying to relax and ignore the nagging worry at the back of his head that something was wrong, he buzzed in the next applicant.
***
With a sigh, Edward heaved himself to his feet and prepared to leave the office. It was almost nine in the evening he noticed, checking his watch. There was no way the hospital would let him visit Melissa now. He growled his frustration, taking out his ire on the elevator button as he roughly pushed it several times in succession.
It only took several seconds to arrive, but the delay only provoked his anger more. He had promised Melissa he would come visit today, but now he would have to break that promise. He made another promise to himself now, that he would go visit her in the morning, so that even if work kept him late again, he would have at least seen her.
Edward slept terribly that night, tossing and turning. His bear was unsettled and something in his gut told him something was wrong. He put it down to the stress of the past few days and eventually he nodded off to sleep.
The morning came quickly, before he knew it he was being spurred to wakefulness by the incessant chirping of his alarm clock. Slapping it to silence, he rose, mentally preparing himself for his visit with Melissa. In his head, he kept going over the same rules that had guided his previous interaction.
Move slowly, no sudden gestures. Never block an exit. Leave plenty of space.
The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever as well, but as soon as he exited the car, his nerves took over. Knots formed in his stomach and his hands clammed up. The feeling was so akin to being back in high school and asking out his crush, that he couldn't help but laugh at himself.
He barely knew this woman, and yet the prospect of seeing her for the first time in two days was driving him crazy. Taking a deep, calming breath, he walked inside the hospital, headed to her room. He noticed that it was rather dark through the small viewing window, almost as if the curtains were closed. Hesitating, Edward wondered if perhaps she was sleeping.
Taking a peek inside before proceeding, he looked around to see if he could spot her. Instead, all he saw was the empty bed where she had lain, the sheets all tucked in and looking unused.
"Can I help you, sir?"
Turning, he noticed a nurse, one he could not recall from several days ago.
"Yes, what happened to the woman who was in this room, Melissa?"
"Do you have a last name sir?"
"Uhm, no, no I don't. I never got it actually. I was the one who brought her in, after she had been kidnapped. I just wanted to check on her, see how she was doing. Where would she have gone? It's been less than forty-eight hours since I was here last. I mean, I only brought her in on Tuesday." He realized he was starting to ramble, and sharply shut his mouth, letting the woman get a word in.
"I'm not sure sir, but I can go find someone who might know."
"Please, that would be so helpful, thank you." He waited impatiently by the door for the nurse to return. The nightmare scenario that the men had returned and taken her out of the hospitals custody was playing through his head. It made no sense when he thought it over logically, for how would they know where to look for her? Still, his gut was telling him he should have come here earlier, and that now she was gone forever.
"I'm sorry sir, but it appears she was transferred to a facility to help her recover," the nurse said as she came back around the corner some time later. His patience had already been wearing thin, and this last bit of news did nothing to improve his darkening mood.
"What, already? Which one?" His mind was racing now. What recovery center would have taken her in such a short time? It had been his plan all along to set one up for her, that he would pay for, to make sure she got the best care money could buy. Even if she didn't return the oddly powerful feelings he had for her, he had every intention of helping.
"I'm really not supposed to divulge sir," she began, before pausing at the sight of the forming thunderhead in his eyes, "but I do believe you should be placid and take care with your next steps sir."
He stopped abruptly, his jaw slamming shut at the emphasis she put on those two words. His suspicions were further confirmed when she nodded slowly as he gave her a suspicious look. Obviously she was willing to help, but couldn't outright tell him. Very well, he thought, I suppose I'll just have to do this myself. Turning on his heel, he headed for the exit, cell phone already dialing.
"Jane, I need everything you can get me on a potential rehab facility with the keywords placid and cares. It's somewhere in town. I need this information yesterday Jane, thank you." He hung up, trusting her to do the job impeccably. He paid her handsomely to put up with these types of requests, and she had never failed to rise to the occasion.
True to his thoughts, less than five minutes later an entire data file was in his email.
Placid Cares Rehabilitation Center the title read, followed by phone number, address and then detailed notes on the center. Apparently they were actually reputable, which put a lot of his fears at ease. He noted they were state sponsored, which explained how they had come for Melissa so quickly. The nurses must have been forced to file a report when she came in, which then went to somebody in the government who had forwarded it over to the facility.
> Dialing the number, he wondered just what he expected to say.
"Placid Cares, how can I care for you today?" The receptionist's line made him wince, wondering if she still realized how silly that sounded, or if she was inured to it by now.
"Hello, I'm looking to speak with Melissa, the patient who arrived there yesterday."
"And your name sir?"
"Edward DeHarnais, I'm the gentlemen who found her and brought her into the hospital. We were supposed to talk yesterday, but you folks came and took her away without warning." He clamped down on his fury as it started to seep through, not wanting to irritate the very people he needed to help him.
"One moment," she said, her tone obviously indicating she had taken some offense to his words.
When the line became active again he tensed, expecting to hear Melissa's voice. Instead, the receptionist spoke again.
"I'm sorry sir, but due to the program Melissa has enrolled in, she is not able to take incoming phone calls or visitors. Unless she specifically asks to speak with or see someone, then no contact will be allowed, barring family emergency. Are you family sir?"
"No." He could imagine her smirking in the background, knowing all too well that she had no family.
"If you wish to leave your number sir, I will add it to her file if she does ask to be able to speak with you."
He gave her his number and hung up, feeling defeated. Melissa had enrolled herself in this program, which meant she knew what she was doing with no outside contact. Had he done something wrong the last time they were together? He played back the memory over and over again, trying to decipher just what he had done to upset her. There was no reaction from her that seemed to indicate it. Perhaps¸ he thought, it is more because I'm male and she can't deal with any of us just yet.
That evening, he sat by the phone in his downtown condo, pointlessly waiting for it to ring, even though he knew it was not going to go off so late at night. Or the early morning, now that he looked at the clock, taking another sip of his beer.
He had decided to obey the rules this time, for Melissa. If this was what she needed, then he wouldn't go barging in there like normal, but instead would respect her wishes, and hope that she contacted him before too long. It was something he wouldn't have considered six months ago, but that today felt like the proper thing to do.
It was another sign, he knew, that he was changing, hopefully for the better. It had always confused him how Derek had been willing to go to any length for Keri. When Derek had punched him for being careless about some personal information, he had taken a step back and reevaluated what was important to him. Now, he realized that that something was Melissa. It was his turn to go to any lengths for her, even if it meant leaving her alone.
Melissa
She wished he would call, or come visit. It seemed so strange to her. He had been extremely adamant about coming to talk the next day, but then he had never showed up. Since then, no visits, no phone calls, zero contact. It was enough to make Melissa wonder if she had done something wrong. Perhaps it had been the fact that she passed out on him in the hospital. It didn't seem to mix with what she knew of him though, for that to upset him so badly.
Staring out the window, she flinched back in surprise as people walked by. It was only the food delivery men, but every time she saw them, she instinctively panicked. They looked at her rudely, with huge, leering eyes, almost as if they knew her problem and were doing their best to exacerbate the problem.
Dealing with men was proving to be a real struggle for her, no matter how gentle and polite they were. The program she was part of was supposed to help with that, but although she had been there for a week, nothing seemed to have changed. Even the nurses were mystified, she had overheard one of them discussing how she should be making more progress by now.
When it was just her, other patients or the staff, she was fine. But as soon as any roughly adult aged male appeared, her body went into an auto-panic mode, where it shut down her senses and made finding an escape the number one priority. She had gone to classes designed to help her relive and accept the memories, which hadn't done anything.
The worst had been the attempts at helping her overcome her fears directly. The first time, a nurse had decided to see what would happen if she watched some TV with males on it. For several hours, Melissa had sat in front of the screen and admired the rather good looking men on the sports show of some type.
"How is this supposed to help?" She had asked blandly, wondering if they thought she had gone brain dead or something. "This is a guy on a television, I know he's not going to hurt me, because it's a recording."
"We weren't sure how far it extended Melissa," she had replied patronizingly.
"I'm traumatized, not stupid. I'm thinking rationally, I've just developed an instinctual response to any male who looks old enough to hurt me sexually. I can distinguish between those on the TV and those in real life. How hard can this be?"
Her nurse had simply looked at her and then walked out, leaving her to her own devices for the remainder of the day. That had been okay with her, for she couldn't tell them about what was really bothering her either. That fateful night when Edward had rescued her, he had changed, shifting from a gargantuan bear into a human. She was still having a hard time wrapping her mind around that, understanding that such people existed.
What she really wanted, was to see Edward again, and have him confirm that she wasn't going crazy. She wanted to hear his laugh, pinch his arm, and see him transform into his bear. The concept of it was just so cool. If he was never going to come visit her though, then she would continue suffering in silence. It wasn't as if she could reach out to him, she had no contact information. She didn't even know his last name!
It was frustrating, having this secret inside of her, something almost eating at her, and not being able to discuss it. When her frustration with the situation ran high, she took it out on her nurses, especially Linda earlier. She made a mental note to apologize to her, so that there wasn't any bad blood between them. The last thing she wanted to do was make enemies here already.
Now if only she could stop trying to run in terror every time a male face leered at her. There had to be some way to fix herself. She had exhausted a lot of the options so far, yet nothing worked.
"Maybe Edward knows somebody who can transform my brain back to normal," she mocked herself aloud, laughing at the silliness of the idea.
Edward.
She sat bolt upright in her chair as she realized what had been bugging her about him, besides what he could do. It was so obvious now, that she wanted to smack herself over the forehead for not seeing it earlier. The proof that she was curable was right there in front of her eyes, and she had missed it.
Edward didn't scare her. She trusted him, somehow. They could talk, they had even made a joke and she had laughed about it at one point. There was something different about him, some sort of effect he had on her. Perhaps it was because he wasn't normal himself, she wondered, something in his body language that told her brain he wasn't a threat.
Whatever it was, nothing was going to happen with her sitting there in the room moping. Gathering her wits about her, she left the room, walking purposefully down the hallway to the receptionist's office. She had no idea how to contact him, but there would definitely be a way to find out. Perhaps the hospital had his name on record because he brought her in. That would make sense, she thought, they wouldn't just take his word that it hadn't been him who had hurt her, so they would need a way to contact him.
"Excuse me, Lucy, can I borrow the phone?" Residents weren't supposed to contact the outside world without authorization. Melissa hoped that if she seemed purposeful and adamant, that she would eventually bull her way into using it.
"What for? Do you have a phone slip?"
"I need to call the hospital where I was at to find something out about my stay. Something has been bugging me and I know they have the answer. It won't be long, I promise."
"Well, I'm not supposed to let you without a slip. But I can't see how calling the hospital where you came from would be an issue, so sure, go ahead."
Lucy slid the phone across the table to her. After a quick internet search, she also provided the number to Melissa, who punched it in quickly.
"Seattle General, how can I direct your call today?"
It took some finagling to find the right department, but eventually she was put on the phone with her nurse, who luckily happened to be working.
"Hello, sweetie?" Melissa had to stifle a laugh at just how stereotypical she was of an old-fashioned nurse.
"Hi, this is Melissa Chapman, you took care of me after I was brought in by a gentleman named Edward. Do you remember?"
"Oh of course dear, I nary forget a face! What can I do for you?"
The receptionist shot Melissa a sharp glance at the name Edward, and then began sorting through her files on the desk as if searching for something. Melissa tried to ignore her, focusing on the nurse.
"Well, I have a question I really need to ask him, something that's been bugging me about where they found me. But would you believe it, I don't even know his last name, let alone have a telephone number for him."
"Hmm, I'm sure it's around here somewhere sweetheart. Give me a moment to check, will you?"
"Of course, thank you so much." She leaned against the wall while the nurse put her on hold. Lucy was still rummaging through the mess that was her desk, as if on a mission.
"Did you lose something, Lucy?"
"Yeah, that guy called for you I think, I have his number here somewhere," she replied nonchalantly as if the fact that someone had called for Melissa didn't matter.
"Is there a reason I wasn't notified of the fact I received a phone call?" Her shoulders felt light as if a weight had been lifted off them, although her eyes narrowed in frustration with the facility. Why wouldn't they tell her someone had been trying to contact her? At least Edward had been true to his word, and had even tracked her down here. That made her feel better, that he hadn't lied to her about coming to see her again.
