The Fall

Disclaimers:

The names Mel and Janice and the corresponding physical descriptions were borrowed, everything else is fiction drawn up from the recesses of my muddled mind.

Big time hurt/comfort here, people looking for the immediate gratification of a happy tale are encouraged to seek reading material elsewhere.

Thanks to ROCFanKat for being the primary Beta (in spite of the 'squicky' bits.)

And thanks to Lyraine who trims up the ratty edges and cleans up after the spell checker.

The Fall by Rocky

Greig's 'Morning' swelled up through the earphones as the day's sunlight crept in through the glass block windows that circled the ceiling of the large room. This music spoke of the peace and glory of a new summer's day and Mel let it fill her imagination as she pushed the cart between the stacks. She pulled two ungainly tomes into one arm and swung easily onto ladder giving it a small push with one foot. Letting the ladder carry her to the shelf she needed, she ascended two more rungs and slid the volumes back into their assigned places. Absently she glanced at the rest of the books to make sure that they were in the right order and straightened them with a sure hand before climbing down to her cart.

This was the place where she felt safest. After nearly ten years of working in the library, she knew these stacks like the back of her hand. Each of the resident books was an old friend and every day she worked with loving care to return them to their homes after their journey out into the real world.

She was the person that people never saw. Only a few of the regular patrons and the staff of librarians were even aware that she was there. The term 'Stack Rat' usually reserved for the rotating cadre of college students, who worked, graduated and moved on, didn't really apply to her any more. A college education was a dusty dream that had died of old age long ago. Still for a woman who could barely lay claim to high school, she was better read than any ten of those so-called college graduates.

Working alone suited her. Seniority guaranteed that so long as the books made their way on to the myriad of shelves no one bothered the quiet, tall woman. She often went the entire day without talking to a soul. Floating along in her own little world of books and music, the troubles of her home life drew away into another dimension.

As the day passed, the light in the large room shifted, pulling the stacks through kaleidoscopic changes of shade and shadow. Waning natural light vying and posturing with the hard constant of the overhead fluorescent. As the mood of the room changed so did the tapes in player at Mel's belt. Older classical pieces had been replaced with the ribald throaty lyrics of Janice Joplin.

'Janice…' Mel paused leaning against her cart for a moment, thinking about the note in her wallet that she often took out and looked at, at least once a day, and never had the courage to use. Its mere presence invoked a tiny spark of happiness that would cause a wistful twist of the lip whenever she thought of it. 'I have a secret friend.' She mused, lifting one hand to her face for a second she felt the unfamiliar smile, and then bent to push the heavy cart further into the library's maze.

Just as 'Bobby flagged a diesel down' Mel looked up to notice Mrs. K. waving at her from the end of the aisle, thumb and little finger up to her face mimicking a phone call. She tucked the cart into an alcove and followed the head librarian out to the returns desk.

"Hello?" She said nervously into the mouthpiece. No one ever phoned her at work. Hell. Half her friends didn't even know 'where' she worked.

"Oh… I'm sorry, I asked to speak to Melvin Kappas?" A low masculine voice asked from the other end of the line.

"Yes, actually that's me… I'm Melvin Kappas." The line was silent for a moment. Waiting patiently Mel had long since resigned herself to the fact that people often did a double take on her name when they found out she was a woman.

"Umm… Yes Ms. Kappas." The man on the line continued. "Do you know a Josephine Lord?"

Her heart skipped over. 'Oh God no. What now!' Mel closed her eyes and ran a shaky hand through her hair. "Joe is my roommate… What's the problem?"

"Ms. Kappas, this is Mercy General, Ms. Lord has been admitted at emergency and we found your name as a contact."

'Shit. Shit. Shit!' At least it wasn't the police. Mel took a deep breath to calm her self. "Is she okay?" She asked with quiet trepidation. Every time this happened was supposed to be the last time.

"All I can tell you is she is resting comfortably. We need to admit her for observation, could you bring down a copy of her insurance information?"

Mel's knees gave out with relief and she dropped into the chair that Mrs. K had rolled behind her knees. "I'll be right down." She thanked the man for calling and hung up the phone, looking over into Mrs. K's concerned gaze. "I have to leave for the rest of the day."

"That's okay dear… I'll write it down as personal time." The kindly older woman never asked about Mel's life outside the library but she was no fool. She had quietly noted all the bruises, the silent nature of the tall woman and the times she worked long hours of overtime rather than going home.

"Thanks Mrs. K, I appreciate that." Mel made her way to the small coffee room and gathered her backpack before heading out to find her old Dodge in the parking lot.

Part 2

The final days of the Indian summer were warm. A gentle breeze teased the last of autumn's leaves free of the wooden fingers that held them and sent them spiraling down to gather in soft piles of mottled color. The weakened sun sat fat and round on the horizon waiting to slip away into the west. Mel squinted into the light as she pulled into the small parking lot outside the doors of the ambulance bay.

She sat in her car for a moment, head leaning against the steering wheel. Wearily looking up at the tall red brick building and then back down to watch a handful of leaves chase each other along the sidewalk, she sighed and resolutely got out of the car, squaring her shoulders to enter the mouth of the dragon.

Thankfully the ER was having a slow day. The clerk at the main desk looked up expectantly as the lanky brunette entered through the sliding automatic doors. "May I help you?"

It was all she could do not to roll her eyes. 'Same old, same old. I've talked the this woman a dozen times at least and she still doesn't remember me.' Always back to square one. Every time it was like she had never been here before. The same bureaucratic red tape and apathetic indifference greeted her. Reining back a flippant answer Mel resignedly smiled. "Yes please, I'm here to provide insurance information for Josephine Lord." In her mind she muttered angrily to herself. 'As if you couldn't keep the fucking information on file, Joe's in here often enough!'

It would seem that simple and to the point always moved things a modicum faster. The clerk immediately began tapping at her keyboard. "Okay premium Number?"

Mel pulled out her wallet, retrieving a laminated card. "It's all on here." She waited patiently while the clerk hunt and pecked her way through the form on the screen. "Would it be possible to see her before she goes upstairs?" She asked knowing from previous experience that if she blindsided the clerk now, she might be buzzed in the security door without a hassle.

"Huh?…" The clerk said looking up from the keyboard. "Oh sure. Here." Leaning forward she pressed a switch on the wall at the back of her desk. "Bed three, to your right." She called distractedly over her shoulder as Mel stood and pulled the door open.

Mel didn't need to know where bed three was, the loud snoring that came from the curtained area across the hall, was like a beacon signaling Joe's presence. Slipping behind the curtain the sight that greeted her wasn't a shock anymore. The bag from the Lavage kit still hung from its stand beside a saline drip. Charcoal stained the blonde woman's lips, chin, and gown, and even dirtied the bed linens. From the looks of things, Joe had put up a fight against the procedure… again. EEG wires ran up from the neck of the backless standard issue gown, and the monitor beeped quietly behind the bed.

Mel sighed and reached up to brush a strand of hair behind the sleeping woman's ear. "Christ, Chesty, why do you always have to give them a rough time?" She whispered rhetorically and indulged herself in the guilty pleasure of placing a quick kiss on the sleeper's brow. The chances to even touch Joe came far and few between these days, it was sad that she had to relish this opportunity.

The loud snoring continued to roar up from the bed and Mel noted with a slight amusement that every time the buzz hit its peak, the bouncing line on the monitor went through a short crazy scrawl, then resumed its normal pattern across the screen. She watched mesmerized by this event and the glowing red numbers of Joe's heart rate, when a nurse stuck her head in and looked up at the tall woman beside the bed. Mel looked back, her eyes pleading to be allowed to remain.

"Help me to roll her over." Was all the nurse said.

They successfully maneuvered Joe onto her side the loud drone ceased. The nurse briskly checked the leads and the IV, nodded to Mel giving her a sympathetic glance and left without a word.

Mel sagged against the bed-rails, thankful that she hadn't been asked to leave, silently watching over the small woman who had made her life both heaven and hell. Now that she didn't have to fight to gain breath in her sleep, Joe's features relaxed, taking years off of her face. She resembled the impulsive young law student that had seduced her, as much younger, shy stack rat.

Part 3

Mel had finished for the day and was tucked into her favorite alcove, the one with a bench and a window that looked out into the courtyard behind the library. She glanced quickly around and pulled the battered paperback from her hip pocket folding the cover around the book so that no one could see the title 'Ruby Fruit Jungle'. She had found the copy at used bookstore and spent stolen time in quiet corners like this one to read about something that was only whispered about in this small ultra conservative town.

"If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" The soft voice in Mel's ear startled her and she looked up guiltily into a pair of sparkling hazel eyes.

"I beg your pardon?" Mel asked, fighting to not look like a kid with her hand in a cookie jar.

The woman smiled. "You heard me." She said and then winked.

"Do I know you?" Mel tried to place this very forward person and was left wanting.

"Not yet… But when you do, you are just gonna 'love' me!" Was the cheeky reply. The stocky blonde woman dropped down onto the bench beside Mel and looked at the book in her lap. "Hi I'm Josephine… Good book, huh?"

"It's okay." Was all Mel could muster, since she was fighting to keep her eyes on the stranger's face even though her vision kept drifting down to the well-endowed cleavage before her. "Have you read it?"

"Nah. I've got enough to read these days, but I've heard of it though." Joe slid a little over on the bench, closer to nervous brunette. "What's your name?" She asked with another wide grin. "…And are you going to answer my first question?"

Terror and curiosity warred in the back of Mel's mind as her personal space was slowly being invaded. "Um… Hi. Umm… My name is…" She paused in horror when she couldn't remember her own name. "Um… Mel." She said pleased with herself at finally being able to produce the illusive information. 'Good grief! What on earth is wrong with me?'

"Hey there, Mel." Joe said softly, using the opportunity to slide closer on the bench. She dropped her voice even lower to a whisper. "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" Her hand reached out and cupped the top of Mel's knee where it leaned into the glass of the window.

Looking down at the hand on her knee and then back at the eyes that now seemed to be a golden brown; Mel shivered inside. Never in her life had she met anyone who was quite this aggressive. "If I said no, could I still have a rain check?" The smart answer was a surprise even as it passed her lips. Her experience was limited to some clandestine dating and one doomed relationship. No one had ever come on to her this strong before, and never this blatantly sexual.

Joe made a low growling noise and wiggled her brows. "I love it when a woman plays hard to get." And slid her hand a little further down to Mel's thigh.

Despite the fact that Mel was flattered by the attention she was receiving from the busty little blonde, she was also very aware that this kind of attention was entirely inappropriate here in the library even if It hadn't been where she worked. Coughing to cover her embarrassment, she pulled her legs out from Joe's hand, smiling quietly and shaking her head. "Do you always come on this strong to strangers?"

"Hey if I see something I want, I go after it. Don't you?"

A spur of anger rose up between Mel's shoulder blades. "I am not a 'Something'!" She hissed and stood abruptly, angrily stuffing the book back in her hip pocket.

Unrepentant, Joe's eyes wandered over Mel's body like she was appraising a piece of art. "I disagree." She stood. At a little over five feet she had to look 'way' up to meet Mel's blue eyes. " You are really 'Something'!" The little woman purred softly. "Want to get a coffee or something? …We can discuss this rain check of yours."

Part 4

Coffee turned out to be at Joe's apartment …at breakfast.

Six months later they were the proud owners of a mortgage on a small house. Mel started working at the library full time, plus an assortment of odd jobs, all in aid of paying off the house while Joe finished her law degree. She had always promised herself that she would go back to school to finish her English-Lit. But months turned into years. …And Joe became ill.

At first it was just little things, headaches and bouts of moodiness. Then came the spending sprees and Joe started to miss classes. Mel wrote it off to the stress of law school, and quietly paid the bills and tried to stay supportive through her partner's roller coaster mood swings.

Slowly their sex life dwindled to near nothing. One night Mel rolled over to cuddle. She planted several small loving kisses on the baby soft skin behind Joe's ear and slid one hand up to gently caress a full firm breast, softly murmuring sweet nothings.

The elbow in the nose that made her see stars was a total shock.

"Don't touch me!" Joe cried out.

Stunned, Mel rolled away holding her face. "Good grief Chesty! All you had to do was say 'No'."

"Don't call me that anymore."

The cold reprimand hurt worse than her nose. "What?" She asked in total surprise. The term of endearment was her way of expressing her love for her little partner, in devotion of her obvious physical attributes. In fact the secret little bed name had always made Joe giggle in the past.

"Get out!"

Mel looked dumbly at the stranger wearing her lover's face and stumbled from the bed. Her nose had started to bleed, so mutely she left the bedroom and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom holding a cold cloth to her nose.

A week after 'that night' found them at emergency for the first time. Joe had collapsed in the kitchen. Mel rushed her to the hospital and discovered in painful frustration that unless you were related to the patient; no one would provide information. She sat fuming after being rudely ushered out to the waiting room and waited for hours on end staring up helplessly at the light fixtures through the egg crate ceiling.

…A stroke. A tiny portion of Joe's brain had died and changed her, subtly, into someone else.

Part 5

Alex Spanish stopped at the desk to pick up the chart he needed, flipping the cover, he scanned over the information and pulled a pen from his coat pocket to add some notes and sign the admission order. Tucking the chart back into the revolving rack he turned and walked across the hall.

Pulling back the curtain he saw the tall woman standing beside the bed and walked quietly over to stand beside her dropping one arm around her in a loose hug. "Hi Mel."

Hands tightening on the bed rail, Mel slumped back into the tall doctor's embrace, her head leaning slightly on his shoulder. "Hello Dr. Spanish." She replied, her voice low and raspy. "Please tell me you're going to keep her for a for more than forty-eight hours this time."

The doctor's hand rubbed in friendly circles on Mel's back as they both watched Joe sleep. "I got her a bed in the psych ward, she's on close until we figure out what set her off this time."

Mel sighed. "I don't know what makes her do this. I hardly see her anymore, she spends most of her time with her …friend."

"Terry." Alex stated quietly.

Fighting to keep the bitterness out of her voice, Mel shrugged. "Yeah …her." The tangled mess that had become her life tightened around her heart and left her empty. She found that she didn't even have the emotional strength for tears any more. "At least I will be able to sleep tonight." A sad smile drifted over her face. "I can always sleep when I know she's safe in here."

"They are going to take her upstairs in a couple minutes. C'mon, let me walk you out." Dr. Spanish gently steered Mel back out to the hallway. "How's the knee by the way?"

Mel looked down at the joint in question and lifted her leg bending it several times. "Pretty good, it doesn't bother me much these days."

Alex smiled. "Good." He said pulling the Mel into a warm hug. "Take care Mel."

"I will." In reciprocating the embrace Mel thought that she would never get over how thin the man really was. 'Must be the white coat that makes him look bigger.' She mused and turned to leave the ER.

Walking back past the desk, Mel was almost to the double doors when the clerk called to her. "Ma'am… Here's your card."

"Oh thanks." Mel cringed; she hated to be 'Mammed'. Taking back the card from the young woman, she pulled out her wallet and tucked the card back in. The slip of paper that she had been thinking about at work caught her attention. At that moment Mel knew it was just the thing to make her feel better. Withdrawing the note, she unfolded it.

…I think you could use a friend.

It lightened her heart to think back to last summer and the kind person who may well have saved her life on that miserable night. 'What the hell!' She told herself in a moment of courage, and walked over to the row of public phones on the far wall. It was funny how she could be thankful for being hurt in a fall.

Part 6

Oscar had decided to have a nap on the end table in the living room, when the phone he was nestled up to rang, he shot straight up into the air. He yodelled in loud complaint as Janice crossed the room and reached out to answer the beckoning appliance.

"Hello?"

"Hello Janice."

It took the little janitor a moment or two to place the voice. "Mel, is that you?"

There was a wry chuckle from the other end of the line. "Yeah it's me. I was hoping you'd remember."

"Of course I remember you. It's not like I go around picking up strange women every night…" Janice paused and cleared her throat. "Oh jeez that didn't sound right." A nervous little laugh. "Okay I'm starting over… Hi Mel! How have you been?"

"I've been okay… You?"

"Oh me, I'm good." Oscar had gotten over his scare and now he was pussyfooting back and forth on the end table and rubbing his whiskers against Janice's elbow. She reached down and scratched between his ears. "Oh and Oscar says 'Hi'."

"He remembers me too?"

Janice's voice glowed with her smile. "Of course he remembers you… It's good to hear your voice. I've wondered how you've been."

There was pause from the other end of the line. " …Um well …I thought I'd give you a call …see if you wanted to go for a drink or a coffee or something."

"I'd like that. Where?"

"Wherever you like." Mel's voice sounded uncertain.

"Why don't you come up to the house and I'll put the coffee on."

"Oh hey, Great! …Um Janice?"

"Yeah?"

"Where do you live?"

Janice gave a throaty little chuckle that bounced musically over the phone line. "I guess you were a little fuzzy headed the last time you where here. Go six blocks north past the ball diamond by your place, it's the gray duplex in the middle of the block, number four-o-four."

"That sounds easy enough, see you in a few minutes."

"'Kay." Janice agreed and then hung up the phone, staring thoughtfully at it for a minute. Smiling, she swept up Oscar and put a kiss on the end of his little pink nose. "C'mon Mister, we've got company coming."

Part 7

Janice stood at the door for a few heartbeats with her mouth hanging open while a little voice in the back of here mind said 'Wow!' The last time she has seen Mel, her face had been battered, bruised, and swollen. Now she was looking up at an extremely handsome woman, who she didn't recall being quite this tall.

"Can I come in?" Mel asked politely.

"Ah… Hi." Janice shook her head slightly to clear it. "I mean… Sure," She said backing out of the doorway, "Come on in."

Mel settled herself at the kitchen table, and muttered thanks when the smaller woman set a mug of coffee in front of her. She was stirring in a lump of sugar when suddenly her lap was filled with twenty pounds of neutered tomcat. "Hey there, Oscar." She ran one hand over his head, flattening his ears at the same time.

"See… He remembers you." Janice said with a snort, as she watched her fat orange companion lift his head to get his chin scratched. "You should be honored, he doesn't jump up into just anyone's lap."

"Oh really?" Mel flashed a smile down at the cat. "I'm special, am I?" Oscar purred loudly in reply.

A pregnant bubble of silence rose up in the room. Janice shooed away the passing angel by releasing a nervous giggle. "You're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you Mel." She paused to take a sip from her cooling coffee. "Did you get your knee looked at?"

Mel laughed. "Yeah, I went and checked out the shiny floors at the clinic. …Very nice job by the way."

Blushing a lovely rose color, Janice nodded, inexplicably happy that Mel had remembered her little quip about her and the power buffer.

"So anyway, it turned out I'd torn a tendon. I had day surgery and was on crutches for six weeks."

A worried scowl erupted across Janice's face. "Oh Gosh! I'm sorry, if I had known it was that bad I would have taken you straight up to emergency."

Mel smiled softly and shook her head. "No. …No don't be sorry, I would have more than likely spent the night in an uncomfortable chair, waiting to see an overworked doctor and then waiting again until they found the on-call X-ray tech. I think I couldn't have found more pleasant care if I had planned to wreck my knee."

The little blonde woman seemed mollified by this explanation and looked into her coffee. "Well I'm glad you are okay. I've often wondered how you were doing but I didn't have your number or anything." She glanced up guiltily. "I've even driven by your house a few times, but since you didn't call, I thought I better not bother you."

This admission touched Mel deeply and was almost surprised at the way it warmed her heart. She wasn't even aware that she had started to cry until she felt the warm tears land with on the hand holding the mug of coffee. Quickly she wiped them away with her other hand. "You're a very special person. Do you know that Janice?" She sniffled and then swallowed several times. "You can't possibly know how much, that you cared enough to do that, means to me."

Janice noted that the tall woman was embarrassed by the quick outburst of emotion, and sought to make her more comfortable. "Hey. It wasn't anything special. It was what any friend would do." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "…I mean I'd like to think you are my friend. …Aren't you Mel?"

The room was brightened by a blistering white smile. "Friends then."

Reaching out to squeeze the big woman's hand, Janice mirrored the smile. "Friends."

The afternoon passed quickly. Janice had Mel in stitches telling a story about trying to de-worm Oscar and his accidental ride down the laundry chute.

Mel was enjoying the company so much that she almost lost track of the time. A timely glance at her watch told her that evening visiting hours at the hospital were in half an hour and she had to get going. She drained the last of the coffee in her cup and stood. "This has been fun Janice, but I've really got to get going. …Thank you for the coffee, and I promise to call soon and we'll do this again."

"I'd like that." The small woman confirmed, as she walked Mel back to her front door. She stopped abruptly at the landing, and Mel almost ran into her. "Damn! I almost forgot. …Mel wait just a second."

Mel waited patiently at the door as the blonde disappeared and then returned a moment later with a medallion dangling from her hand. "Here, I meant to give this back to you when you were sober, but I forgot." Janice explained.

"Keep it." Mel said simply and folded the hand that held the necklace back over it.

"No …I never meant to keep it in the first place." Janice tried to open her hand. "Besides I'm not a Cancer." She said jokingly, "I'm a Gemini."

"That's okay, neither am I …I'm a Leo."

Janice frowned. "What the…"

Turning to go out the door Mel shook her head. "It was a guilt gift from someone who knows nothing about me and it didn't mean a thing to me until I gave it to you. Give it away, sell it, or trade in the medallion for one with Gemini on it." She fingered the links hanging down from the smaller hand. "The chain is nice …Please keep it."

"…But."

"…Keep it Jan. It's what any friend would do."

Mel got in her car and drove away, leaving a perplexed Janice standing on her front step with the medallion clutched to her breast. She remembered to wave just as the aged Dodge was almost to the corner.

Closing the door Janice realized that she really didn't know any more about the mysterious woman, even though she had just spent the last hour and a half talking to her. 'Damn… I didn't even get her phone number.' She chastised herself. They had talked about the weather, local politics and the time she had spent restoring her old Chevy pick up and of course 'Oscar', who was peeking out from the kitchen entry. In retrospect it was clear that Mel had wanted to talk, …just not about herself.

Part 8

…Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Mel unconsciously counted the steps up to the psych ward, preferring the stairwell to the clanking old elevator. She passed through the security doors at the front of the wing, knowing that in order to get out she would have to be let out by the staff. After being up here so often, she'd gotten over the trapped feeling that was caused at first. At least in this part of the hospital the nurses remembered her name.

Sandy looked up from the nurse's station and smiled gently at tall woman. "Hi Mel." She pointed with the clipboard in her hand. "Joe's in there." Indicating the small single room beside the station where they kept patients who required 'extra' attention or were an elopement risk. "She still hasn't come to yet."

"Really? That's a surprise. She's usually awake a couple hours after the detox screaming for a cigarette." Mel knitted her brows. "I was at work when they called, so I don't know what she took this time."

The nurse rubbed her chin with one finger. "That's our girl all right, always full of surprises."

"Yeah, this is the first time it's happened during the day too. Never a dull moment huh?" Mel put a shopping bag upon the counter. "Here's some cigarettes and clean underwear for her, I know she can be a real bitch to you guys without them."

Taking the bag with a grateful look, Sandy nodded to the half open door of Joe's room. "Go on in, let me know if she wakes up. Okay?"

The nurses had obviously cleaned the small woman up since Mel had seen her down stairs. Her face was clean and she wore a fresh gown. After twenty minutes she started to stir and looked up groggily at the tall woman perched at the end of the bed. She looked around the room and at the ID strap on her wrist. "Fuck… They forgot my penicillin allergy band again, I better not wind up with a yeast infection!"

Mel stood and walked to the head of the bed. "That only happened once, every nurse up here knows better now." She crossed her arms and waited. This was a scene she had repeated time after time.

"Did you bring me some smokes?"

"Yeah."

"Clean clothes?"

Mel sighed. "Joe you're on close, you know you can't have any clothes. I did bring you clean underwear though."

"Fucking licorice enema, I hate that charcoal shit." Joe complained.

Mel chose to remain silent, this was an old argument, there was no point in saying that the procedure was the reason Joe was in this room rather than the morgue. Instead she walked to the door and leaned out to catch the nurse's attention. "She's awake, can I take her out for a smoke?"

"Sure, you know the drill, you sign her out and you get her back in half an hour." The little redheaded nurse grabbed the stethoscope off of the desk. "Let me get her a robe and slippers, do a quick BP, and you can sign her out."

Minutes later they were riding the rattle trap elevator up to the third floor with the smoking lounge. Mel fetched a couple of coffees from the machine and lit a cigarette for Joe and then lit one for herself. She braced herself for Joe's reaction. It was always a toss up; either Joe would be angry and loud, or petulant and quiet. Today it seemed it was to be the latter. They sat in silence drinking and smoking until it was time to return to the unit.

Waiting for the elevator, listening to the various creaks and groans that meant the aged machine was still working, Joe finally spoke. "Did you call Terry?"

There. The other shoe had dropped.

"No." Mel bit off the word and didn't bother to elaborate.

The elevator doors opened and they got on.

"She's going to wonder where I'm at." Joe stuffed her hands angrily in her robe. "Are you going to call her?"

The doors rolled open and Mel marched over to the doors of the unit and held the door open until Joe passed through. Still not answering she approached the nurse's station and signed Joe back in. The short woman looked at her with her lips pursed. "…Well?" She demanded. "Are you?"

A flush of emotion rose up and engulfed Mel, sucking a deep breath in through her nose, she turned and dug into her pocket and pulled out a handful of change. Slapping the money down on the counter her bent forward until she was on the same level as the pair of hazel eyes that were a washed out brown-green today. "There's a phone here at the desk." She said keeping her voice even and low. "There's a phone in the patient's lounge." She lifted her hand off of the pile of coins. "There's two pay phones right behind you. This is your fuck-up; she's your friend. …Phone her yourself!"

The exit would have been much more impressive if Mel had remembered about the security doors. She rattled the handle twice before she reluctantly turned and looked sheepishly at Sandy, who had witnessed the entire episode.

Mel closed her eyes and shut the world out until she felt the door give under her hand. Bolting, she crashed through the stairwell door, taking the steps two at a time to the ground floor, to burst free of the hospital and its death and chlorine stench. The last rays of twilight shone down as she rushed over to her car and collapsed behind the wheel. In a fit of anger she brought her fist down several times on the cracked dash. Angry mostly because she knew she'd be back tomorrow to visit the stranger in her wife's body.

…It was all she had left.

Note: This the second in a series Alt fiction dealing with recovery from physical and emotional abuse. Please let me know what you think. - Rocky

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