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I watched with the hawk eyes, everything from the way he stepped to the table to the way he breathed because the slightest move could kill the patient.
Hoover put his hand on the needle head, and I happily observed there was not a shadow of tremor in his hand. Good, we were doing good.
"Now start pulling really, really slow, and don't jam your hand around." The last thing this man needed was a first-year resident playing in his brain like scrambled eggs.
As soon as he started moving, we heard sound in the hallways. People screaming, things crashing on the floor. What the fuck was going on?
"Keep steady, Dr. Hoover. Don't pay attention to the noise."
He nodded and didn’t takes his eyes from the needle, but it was harder said than done because the screams grew louder.
"Dr. Sullivan, want me to check outside?" London asked.
"No, it's alright. It's probably just a rush. We had a lot of admissions today." But as soon as I articulated the words, a sharp alarm started ringing in the hospital. What the actual fuck? What now, a fire?
The speaker was turned on, and Sonia Sadin's voice boomed in the room: "Code Black! I repeat that, Code Black on the surgical floor. Lock Down Protocol."
All three of us froze in place. Code Black. Code. Black. This couldn’t be happening. Not here and not now. God, this was horrible. I had London with me. I needed to make sure she was safe.
"Hoover, do not move that needle; you need to get it out."
"I'm trying, Dr. Sullivan, what's going on; what's a Code Black?" I didn’t have time to school him on learning his fucking codes.
"Active shooter," London whispered. She was terrified and rightfully so. "There's an active shooter in the building."
"Yes, we need to close this man right now. London, you can't leave the floor if it's locking down. I want you to go into the scrubbing room, lock the door and get down on the floor."
"What? No! No, James, you need me so we can wrap this up here."
"London, I'm not fighting with you on this. Go, now, I need you to be safe, so Hoover and I..."
My sentence was cut short by the sliding door of the operating room. No one should wander around, so either Zach got here to take care of London, or...
I turned on my feet and all of my worst fears turned to reality. I was facing a man with darkness in his eyes and a loaded Desert Eagle in his hands. Five feet away from me.
Five feet away from my best friend's wife.
"Oh, don't mind me," the man said with a rough voice, the kind you get from smocking two packs a day. "No need to worry. I'm just looking for a pendejo."
Pendejo? No, this had to be a coincidence.
Trying to keep my ground and seem as composed as possible, I put my hands up and forced my voice to sound demanding and calm.
"Sir, we have a man here with his brain exposed. I'm kindly asking you to step out, so we don't endanger his life any further."
"Yeah, yeah, I will. As soon as I find out if the fool I'm looking for is here or not."
"Um, Dr. Sullivan, my hand is starting to shake, and I can't stop it." There's sheer panic to be found in his voice.
"Hoover, do not move. Take it out now."
"I don't think I can."
Boom! Shot fired.
The sound echoed in between the glass and concrete walls, leaving behind a cold feeling of fear. We all stopped in place, and my eyes went to Hoover's hand which was moving, trembling harder by the second.
"James Sullivan, so good to see you. I would have never recognized you under the mask, the hair cap and everything. After all, I've only watched you from afar."
