The Bullet Hits The Bone

Breann held my right hand with her left and leaned into me with most of her body weight.

"This migraine is horrible, Caleb. I need to sit down."

The exam room was brightly lit. Breann winced.

"Ava, can we dim the lights and get her something to lay down on. Whatever you're going to do to us, do it to her first."

Ava turned off the lights to the front part of the room and found a large, black, desk chair. I sat Breann down. I could feel her heart beating as I held her still.

"Ava, tell us what's going on."

From a hermetically sealed container that looked like fancy tupperware. Dr. Oliver Wicks, removed a small, oval grey object that looked like a bullet. Then turned toward us.

"This is a magnet. Magnetic therapy is used on mostly on animals. There's been some success with humans that have joint problems like arthritis but never with something like metallic poisoning. In theory, this magnet will draw the metals from your heart area, central nervous system, and brain stem into one pool, thus reducing the radiation effects until we can, well, see, if a new heart can be transplanted."

Ava was staring at Wicks, as if to telling him to shut up with her eyes, and get his stuff done. Wicks stopped talking. Ava had scrubbed her hands and arms and was putting on surgical gloves. Two scalpels were next to Wicks on the stainless steel table. Ava stood between Wicks and I and took over the conversation.

"Breann, Caleb, I'm going to make an incision. As long as the magnet is placed away from your heart area and above your waist the metals sould find their way to the it. You can choose where we put the magnet, for scarring purposes. I suggest one of your shoulders. There's plenty of tissue and muscle to take a cut."

Breann rubbed her temples and looked up at Ava intently. She mustering strength.

"How do you know this will work? I mean, these things could cause infections or our bodies could reject them, right?"

Ava hated being questioned. She picked up the first scalpel.

"You have a choice, Breann. Take the magnet and buy yourself some time and health or have that headache and that heart palpatation that's slowly kill you. As I told, Caleb, I am your your only hope right now."

Breann wasn't going to be controlled. She looked ready to fight until the magnet was put in her body.

"I want to know that Dr. Anson Cluber is going to help me, Caleb, and the other four. Band aids are temporary. I want something permanent. I also want it in writing."

I had seen the look on Ava's face before. We were 23 years old, at a wedding together, and my drunk cousin, Helena, told Ava what she really thought of her. Instead of slapping Breann, like she did to Helena, she looked at Wicks' and nodded to him. Wicks removed a zip drive from his sports coat and walked over to Breann.

"Inside of there are emails and phone calls between Oliver, myself, and Anson Cluber setting up yours, Caleb's, and your friends Lena and Clare's heart surgeries for the first of the year. Of course that depends on how sick each of your hearts are in January or February. We'll need the three months or more to get these magnets to work, centralize the metals, and set up other logistics. The deal is, Oliver and I are yours and Caleb's doctors. Lena Cosburn and Clare Bunsen are being set up with a another doctor in Dallas."

Breann wasn't through. She had found comfort in poking Ava with a stick.

"You've been watching us, haven't you, you stalker. Lena told me she had some anonymous internet attention since I started talking to her. You and your boy Oliver Wicks want in on the guinea pig robot babies, don't you."

The storm inside Ava was swirling. She gripped the scalpel forcefully, and sat down in front of Breann.

"Show me where you want the magnet or I'll put somewhere where you won't ever be able to wear a bikini. Not that you should anyway."

Breann smiled and leaned back in the chair.

"Just tell me I'm right Dr. Ava. You looked up your ex boyfriend, got him to call you. Then tracked me and Lena and Clare over the computer. Now, you want your name in the New England Journal of Medicine or your own Dr. Blondie show on the E! channel."

Ava breathed in and curled her dry, pinkish lips. The scalpel was making it's way toward Breann's throat.

"If you shut up, I'll make a vertical incision in your unfortunate small B-Cup bra line. That should be really easy for you to cover."

Breann smiled and nodded okay to Ava. Breann unbottoned her her purple blouse, and moved her white bra strap to the side.

"Caleb called me. He always does when he needs me. Right, Caleb?"

I ignored her and shrugged at Wicks, who was preparing to put the magnet inside Breann's shoulder.

"Breann, you need a doctor, locally, that can keep a secret, have your best interests and his close to the vest. If it were up to me, you'd rot with your migraines and decaying heart. But, to Caleb, who really matters here, you're important. So I called Oliver. He's a very good physician. Don't worry, you don't have to say thank you."

Wicks moved over to Breann and implanted the oval magnet inside her shoulder. I couldn't see much so I talked Breann through it.

"It is good for you Breann? You're like the six hundred dollar woman now."

She laughed then cringed in pain.

"It's not bad. The magnet is really warm. It feels like it's absorbing through my skin down to my bones."

Wicks and Ava looked concerned but said nothing as he moved away from Ava and Ava began stitching the incision.

"You're next Caleb. We'll remove the counter from your side then give you the magnet."

I took Wicks' chair from him. Then sat next to Breann as Wicks finished stitching her.

Breann smiled at me and closed her eyes to handle her pain.

"You can cut me anywhere, Ava. Chicks dig scars."

*blogger's note* - This is another episode of a story I am writing. This one is based on a prompt THE STORM by @Studio30plus - http://www.studiothirtyplus.com. The other episodes are here:
1) Synchronicity
2) Personality Crisis
3) Serendipity 6
4) Hot Dog Harbinger
5) Goodbye Stranger
6) The House of Irony
7) Connection
8) Dead Man's Party
9) Hope Springs A Turtle
10) Drown
11) Toyed
12) Fever
13) The Girlfriend Experience
14) Sympathy for the Devil
15) Tomorrow, The Green Grass
16) Possession
17) Numb
18) http://lance-myblogcanbeatupyourblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/cage.html

Today's song reflects the title, wneh The Bullet Hits The Bone. It's from Golden Earring's 1982 music noir song, The Twilight Zone.