~ Belle ~
Inside the room was much like every other room in the hospital: white, sterile, a curtain wrapped around a bed that was against the far wall. The walls were bare of paintings or pictures or a TV to keep people entertained—mostly because when people were in these rooms, the last thing they wanted to be was entertained.
The bed hidden behind the curtain creaked, and I crept closer to Jenna, suddenly afraid of who or what was behind it.
Beast.
That’s what they had called him.
Beast by name, beast by nature? I sure hoped not.
Jenna pointed to the cart in the corner of the room filled with sterile bandages and creams, and she headed over to the bed. I grabbed the cart and pulled it forward before Jenna abruptly tugged the curtain back from around the bed.
“The fuck?” Beast roared, his fury sounding like he’d just had his most prized possession stolen from him and not the curtain around his bed pulled back.
“Oh, quit that right now,” Jenna tutted.
I stood there, my knees knocking as I stared at the man on the bed with most of his body covered in bandages. And what could be seen looked purple and yellow from bruising. God, what had happened to him? A bandage was wrapped around his head, covering one of his eyes, and since I was standing on the bandaged side and he was so focused on Jenna, he didn’t notice me right away—but slowly his attention slid from her to me, his one good eye focusing in like a knife. It was bloodshot and it made him look even more frightening.
“Who the fuck is this?” he growled at Jenna. “Who the fuck are you?” he snapped at me.
Full-on growled like some kind of rabid dog ready to attack.
In fact, I had no doubt that if he hadn’t been bandaged up like an Egyptian mummy he would have dove up and tore my throat out like the bloodthirsty animal he was.
Jenna looked between me and Beast with a frown. “Watch your language,” she sniped at him, and his attention moved from me to her in a split second before he began to laugh. But there was nothing humorous about his laughter.
“Watch my language? Are you fuckin’ kidding me, Nurse?” he snorted out a laugh, his mouth contorting into a sadistic smile that looked all the worse for the long red scars that covered his face.
Jenna put her hands on her hips and glared down at him. “Do you like lying in your own pee, Beast? Because I’m quite happy to let you stay like this all day if you’re going to speak to me like that.”
His smile faltered. “Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you,” Jenna retorted. “Fuck you and that dirty potty mouth of yours. If you were hoping for pudding later, you’re very quickly talking yourself out of it, young man.”
And that was that.
Jenna busied herself filling a bowl with warm water and soaking some sponges in the sterile liquid while I stood there staring at Beast like an idiot.
He looked away, his one-eyed gaze going out the window like he was sulking. Jenna snapped her fingers and I scurried to help her.
“Okay, Beast, you know the drill,” Jenna said sternly, and he turned back to glare at her.
It was weird, almost like there was a battle of wills going on between them. Who was going to be the most stubborn? The biggest asshole to the other? The meanest? I had no doubt that Beast was without a doubt the meanest, but I’d never really seen this hard side of Jenna either. We didn’t really get to work together, despite working in the same hospital.
Beast looked back at us both, his one eye staring daggers at the two of us. I knew why; this was going to hurt.
“I need pain relief,” he said.
Jenna checked the board at the end of his bed and sighed. “You’ve already had more than enough for today.”
“I need some fuckin’ pain relief!” he yelled.
Jenna huffed. “Afterwards.”
“Bitch, I’ma get out of this bed and—”
“Oh, calm yourself down before you give yourself an aneurism. You’re not getting out of this bed anytime soon. You’re going to lie there and let us bathe you, and then afterwards I’ll let your little friend outside give you some of his special medicine, but not before, and that’s all you get until tomorrow.” She placed the board back on the hook at the end of his bed and came toward him, starting to unwrap some of the bandages without waiting for his acknowledgment.
