Jen Wiley lay in a hospital bed staring at the wall across the room blankly. They had her on a morphine drip to help deal with the pain of a shattered clavicle. She had only been on morphine once before, and it had caused her to have vivid hallucinations. This time was no exception. She couldn't tell when a nurse was actually real, or if she was talking to a figment of her drug induced imagination.
At around two in the morning, an extremely tall woman in a Greek toga appeared next to her bed. At least she could tell this one was a hallucination. As she stared at the tall woman, she decided it wasn't quite a Greek toga. It was far more stylish, and definitely far sexier. As she made eye contact with the woman, she blinked in surprise. She had seen those eyes somewhere before. She was pretty certain they belonged to a fourteen-year old girl, not this mature looking giant of a woman. Those eyes stared down at her sorrowfully as the woman sighed sadly.
"I'm sorry I didn't react sooner," the woman said regretfully. "I could have saved you from this pain."
"Thas okay," Jen slurred, blinking up at the woman owlishly. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not fine," the woman disagreed, reaching down and touching Jen's injured shoulder. Jen expected a wave of pain, but the hand passed right through her, like she was insubstantial.
"Your hand just went through my shoulder," Jen informed the beautiful titan gravely.
"Completely shattered," the woman murmured vaguely. "A few bone shards scraping your artery too."
"Yeah, they're going to remove those in the morning," Jen told her sleepily.
"That won't be necessary," the woman said firmly.
Jen frowned at the odd pronouncement, then gasped as her shoulder turned icy cold, then heated up just below the pain threshold.
"What are you doing?" Jen asked in shock.
"Fixing this mess," the woman replied absently. "Hold still."
Jen complied as the woman's insubstantial hand probed around inside her shoulder, causing small jolts of warmth and cold to shoot around in quick succession. After less than a minute of probing, the woman removed her hand with a satisfied nod.
Jen frowned in confusion when she realized there was no pain at all in her shoulder. Even with the morphine, she had still been able to feel the pain. Now, it was completely gone. She looked up to thank the woman, but there was nobody else in the room.
She hesitantly tested her shoulder, trying to lift her arm and expecting excruciating pain at any moment. The pain never came, and she easily revolved her arm around in a wide circle.
Unsure of whether she was hallucinating, she pushed the red button to call a nurse in.
"Do you need more morphine, honey," the nurse asked with concern as she entered the room.
"No, I think I need less," Jen replied, rotating her arm around in circles. "I don't feel any pain at all. It's like my shoulder is completely healed."
"Uh, you really shouldn't be doing that, honey," the nurse told her worriedly. "You could damage it worse."
"I'm pretty sure it's healed," Jen told the nurse slowly. "Would it be possible to get another x-ray?"
"That's probably just the morphine talking," the nurse told her kindly.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's not the morphine," Jen insisted. "Please, can I get another x-ray?"
"I'll get the doctor," the nurse said doubtfully.
An hour later, the radiologist was staring at the results on the computer screen in disbelief. "There must be some mistake," he said, shaking his head with a frown. "Let me take another scan."
Jen nodded, already knowing there was no mistake.
A few minutes later, the second scan confirmed the results of the first scan. Her clavicle was all in one piece, like it had never been shattered.
"This doesn't make any sense at all," the radiologist declared as he stared at the results in perplexity. "There's no way it could have healed that fast. Let's have a look at your puncture."
He gently unwound the bandage around her shoulder enough to reveal the site where the bullet had entered her skin. There was nothing but unblemished skin, not even the stitches. He gasped in astonishment, then continued unwinding the bandage all of the way.
"I don't understand," he said in bewilderment. "You came in with a gunshot wound, didn't you?"
"Yes," Jen nodded. "A very painful wound."
"Can you hold on for a minute?" He asked in a bemused tone. "I'm just going to contact some of my colleagues."
"I'll be right here," Jen said dryly.
He quickly left the room, looking back at her with a baffled glance as he exited. Jen picked up her phone and noted that she had dozens of text messages from friends and family wanting to know how she was doing. She opened a text from Wendy.
"Call me when you can," Wendy's text read. "Any time, night or day."
Jen called her, glad that it would still be daytime in Germany.
"Jen, are you okay?" Wendy's voice was filled with worry.
"I am now," Jen laughed a little manically. "I wasn't a few hours ago."
"Oh?" Wendy asked anxiously. "What's changed?"
Jen told her about the strange hallucination, as well as the new x-ray results. When she finished, Wendy let out a relieved breath.
"I'm glad you're better," Wendy told her softly. "I've been freaking out over here, ever since I saw the news. What happened? There are dozens of conflicting reports on the news."
"Well, I think your little song bird saved my life," Jen told her seriously. "I was sitting in my office when Jared Jenkins walked in with a gun and told me I was the reason this country was going to hell in a handbasket. I tried to reason with him, but he was hell bent on cleansing all of the 'sinners' at the school. Just when he started pulling the trigger, I heard Heidi's voice like it was coming out of a megaphone. She said 'hypnos', and Jared passed out. If he hadn't passed out, the bullet would have hit me in the chest. He was only a few feet away. Then I passed out too and woke up in an ambulance with more pain than I've ever experienced before."
"Wow," Wendy whispered after a moment of silence. "Just...wow."
"Yeah," Jen agreed fervently. "Wow."
"So are you leaving the hospital soon?" Wendy asked curiously.
"I don't see why not," Jen replied with a laugh. "There's not much point in a healthy person hanging around here. Oh, I've got to go. It looks like the doctor is back with some friends."
"Okay, take care," Wendy said sincerely.
"You too," Jen responded, ending the call.
The radiologist had one of the doctors who had checked up on her earlier in tow. He came over and inspected her shoulder, shaking his head in disbelief at what he found—or rather, what he didn't find.
"You don't have a twin sister, do you?" the doctor asked hopefully. "This isn't some kind of prank?"
"I'm an only child," Jen replied dryly. "Do I strike you as the kind of person that would play a prank like this?"
"No, you don't," the doctor replied, taking a deep breath. "But I'm out of any ideas to explain what's happened here."
"Well, I'd really like to get some sleep in my own bed," Jen told them hopefully. "Is there any chance of getting discharged tonight?"
"I can't see what else there is we could keep you here for," the doctor replied in a mystified tone. "Apparently, there is nothing wrong with you."