"Sounds like the right move. I'll head up now and take a look at her EKG and chart, then do you want to hang around and discharge her, or do you want me to take care of that?"
"I wouldn't mind heading home; it's been a long night."
"Alright then. I'll sign off on her, you go get some rest." He smiled at her and left her to grab the rest of her things.
He pushed the button for Aurelia's floor and when the elevator opened, he got on. He closed his eyes and worked on keeping his feelings off of his face. When the doors opened he headed over to the nurses' station, picked up the chart with Aurelia's name on it and looked over her EKG. It didn't look like she'd done too much damage, so he nodded at the nurse on duty, then headed down the hall to her room. He knocked on the door and waited.
"Come in?"
He poked his head inside, trying to keep his expression from moving from pleasant to thrilled at seeing her. "Ms. Carson, how are you feeling?" He strode into her room, barely glancing at her as he clicked a pen and started looking over her chart.
"Better now. I hate that I ended back here again."
He nodded and glanced up, seeing two pairs of eyes on him. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had company. I promise I won't take a minute and then we'll get you discharged." He smiled tightly at the woman seated next to Aurelia.
"Hi, I'm Kelly Southern, Aurelia's neighbor, I brought her in."
"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Southern. I am glad you were there to help Ms. Carson when she needed you. Now, Ms. Carson, can you rate your level of pain?"
"Um do you mean right now or last night?" she asked, looking up at him with exasperation.
"How about both?" he replied with a smirk that he quickly fought to get off his face.
"Last night around a twenty out of ten." She said that with a straight face and then smiled. "Right now, it's not too bad, around a two."
"Good. Well, your EKG looks like you've back slid just a little, but we'll do another test when you come to the office on Tuesday. For now, I'm going to discharge you. Please try to rest and keep those stress levels down, all right?"
She nodded. "I will."
"Ms. Southern, are you going to be around Ms. Carson this weekend?"
"Damn right I will be, making sure that bastard stays away from her and doesn't call her anymore."
"Right. Well, if she shows anymore signs of stress, get her back here, all right?"
"Sure, no problem."
"Have a pleasant day, ladies." He gave them a nod and headed out the door, but he couldn't relax, not yet. He had to get the paperwork done and then get her discharged. As soon as he stepped through the door, he ran into Dr. Bellamy. "Good morning, Dr. Bellamy, did you need me? I stopped by your office earlier."
"No. Actually, yes, I have another patient for you to consult on."
Her eyes went to Aurelia's room and he held his breath wondering what she was going to say. "Ms. Carson had a relapse?"
"Minor it seems. Dr. Song made the right call keeping her for observation."
"Any idea what caused the backslide?"
He shook his head, but then said, "Her neighbor, Ms. Southern, who is with her right now, mentioned keeping someone away from her, so I'm going to assume it had to do with that. I know from her records and what I learned when she had her first attack that she left a bad situation when she moved here. I think it might be related to that."
"I see. Do the police need to be involved?"
"I wouldn't think so. Neither Ms. Carson nor Ms. Southern mentioned any physical abuse. I think it was phone call."
She nodded. "Finish up her paperwork, then come see me. I want to move a patient from Doctor Calburton to you, she's complained about his lewd comments and doesn't feel comfortable seeing him anymore."
Daniel nodded. "I'll meet you in your office in ten minutes."
She agreed and left.
Daniel felt an extensive amount of tension leave his shoulders as she disappeared into the elevator. He thought for sure she was there to bust him with Aurelia, but clearly he'd been wrong. He made quick work of the discharge papers and then headed down to her office.
The rest of the weekend flew by and now he sat in his office, waiting for Kelly to call him, and let him know the investigator was in place, staking out Aurelia's office building. As soon as he'd left his car, Kelly had stuffed a racquet ball in the tail pipe and then jumped back in her car. She was keeping an eye on the guy as he leaned on the building next door to Aurelia's in the alley between the two buildings and texting him a play by play.