“Your shoulders.”He stabbed the air with his index finger.“How did your shoulders get wet?It didn’t rain this morning.”
“Oh.”She smoothed her fingers over her still damp waves.“I washed my hair.It was before this horrible nursing lessonand—”
Rhett’s wide nose wrinkled in disgust.“Why?”
She hiked her shoulders.“Hygiene?But I should have waited until after my lesson.It was terrible.I’m studying—”
From the monitor for the patient rooms, a wet cough scraped over the hum and clank of the bots and the repetitive beeping of the control panel, and crashed into Elodie.
Rhett’s eyes widened, his golden irises completely visible.“What wasthat?”
Elodie stilled, straining to hear past the beeps and the whirs and Rhett’s thicktenor.
Another cough struck out.Elodie flinched.Her breath released in tiny hiccups as she flicked her gaze to the patientrooms.
Rhett leaned forward.“Is someonecou—”
It was Elodie’s turn to interrupt.“I have to go.”The vidlink box emptied to gray before clearing from her vision.
She could barely breathe as she slid to the edge of her seat and waited.Nothing.She blew out a puff of air and collapsed against the unforgiving plastic.Of course it was nothing.Some bot probably got tripped up on somethingand—
Cough.
Elodie’s skin frosted, goosebumps springing to life across her arms.That was a cough.Undeniably so.Was a patient moving?Was a patientawake?She pulled up the live feed in each of the patient rooms.
Still.
Still.
Still.
Still.
Moving.
Elodie’s heart beat against her chest.“Holly, show me information for the new patient.”
“Sure thing.”The detailed chart appeared on screen the moment Holly responded.
Elodie read it aloud.“PatientNinety-Two, Aubrey Masters, age eight.”She gripped the edge of her seat as she quickly looked over the first page of the chart.“It says that she’s been in the MediCenter since she was four.What was the original reason for admission?”
“I’m sorry, Elodie, but you do not have clearance to access this information.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”Elodie chewed the inside of her cheek and drummed her fingers against the smooth edge of the control panel.“Holly, I’m Lead Nurse for this shift.I have clearance to access any information about any of my patients.Why was patientNinety-Twoadmitted to the MediCenter four yearsago?”
“You do not have clearance to access this information.”
Cough.
Elodie read through the patient info, swiping each useless page off screen until there was nothing left except the live feed.“This has nothing in it.It’s all useless, generic.”
Cough.
“Holly, if you won’t tell me why she was admitted, give me a detailed health report.Nothing I have means anything.The physician was in earlier today.She must have uploaded something.”
“I have it right here.”Again Holly brought up PatientNinety-Two’s records.This time, she’d highlighted the physician’s note.“Quote:PatientNinety-Twois currently in healthy, stable condition.End quote.”
Cough.
