Once inside, alone in her triage, Hector eyed Hilde as she pulled his injured hand roughly towards her, never looking up at him, and set about getting his wound cleaned before it got infected—several empty beds away from where Devi kept a vigil from her perch.

"And your ma is fine with this?" She dabbed iodine on his inch-long wound as if she were playing whack-a-mole. He was the mole, and she was whacking him. If Hector didn't know any better, she was still cross with him.

"She's over the moon." He winced in pain as the iodine met his raw, open skin. "She gets to meet an author she admires in real life. Go figure. She's a recluse since Papi, and now she is jumping around like a teen waiting to meet her idol..."

Hilde grabbed a pair of surgical tweezers and attempted to get the small piece of rusty shrapnel embedded in his wound. "Maybe that's a good thing... get her talking and out of the house more..."

Hector bit down on his lips as Hilde reached for the wad of iodine-doused cotton pad again. He was a grown man. He could take it.

"Help me," he begged Hilde when he caught Devi's scrutinising squint all the way across the ward. "I need this."

Hilde looked at him through the thicket of her lashes that were full but short. Not a hint of makeup was on the doctor's face, but her skin was dewy and blemish-free, like a perfect canvas. So smooth, Hector felt the urge to touch it, to recall the one wonderful, fairytale night he'd spent with her, in her wonderful, soft bed.

"Of the many things this hospital needs an update on, a functional wheelchair is probably one of them..." Hilde slapped a large bandage over his wound and taped it up. "I don't know how this hospital is still running with one VMO and an exhausted list of all but two nurses, and a security... so, no, Heck, we don't have a wheelchair capable of moving her." She packed the first aid kit away, and Hector could hear the exasperation in her voice. "Half the time, I don't even have the medicine I need on hand... I'll have to drive to the next big town to fetch some if we're gonna move her..."

"So you'll let me do it? Take her with me?"

"I don't see how I can oppose it." Hilde glanced back at Devi. Hector followed suit. "She's not exactly easy to keep hidden, out of Brady's reach. It is his hospital."

"It's his family's," Hector corrected.

"You know what I mean."

And he did. "You got anything in mind for moving her?"

"Well." A glint flashed at the corner of Hilde's eyes and somewhere deep inside, Hector got the sense he was going to regret whatever it was she was about to suggest... and boy was he right.

Moments later, he stood staring as Lewis wheeled in a large wheelbarrow that was still dripping slightly from the quick rinse the big man had given it.

"You're kidding me, right?" Hector turned to Hilde. "She's not a potted plant."

She shrugged. "Use it or lose it."

"Fine." He snatched the wheelbarrow from Lewis and wheeled it towards Devi's bed. "If I cop flack for this from Ms Princess, I'm squarely blaming you two for the brilliant idea."

"Fine by me." Hilde followed.

Moments after that, Devi's reaction to the transport Hector presented her with wasn't too far off from his own. "You've got to be kidding me? I'm not a fucking tree."

And frankly speaking, a tree might have been easier to move, because Hector struggled to balance the wheelbarrow between Devi and Hilde walking beside him, wheeling her IV lines towards the exit. Toward freedom, and the possibility that he may just have found his grove, finally.

Alas, as he pushed the barrow towards the doors, with Devi's leg out like the bowsprit on a ship—he was the captain, Hilde the first mate, and their fucking cargo was as heavy as he'd imagined—his inflated ego got punctured by the sight before him. Hector stopped short as they approached the glass doors, almost sending Devi toppling over like a giant, colourless garden gnome.

Devi yelped.

Hilde jumped out of the barrow's way, with "Wow!"

But Hector focused his gaze on the lurking danger outside. "Fuck, what's he doing here?" It was a redundant question, for Hector knew why Brady was back. For the scoop.

Brady Moriarty was combing his hair with his hand, striding towards the hospital from the parking lot with the confidence of a man with purpose. A camera slung from his neck, behind it, his 'media' card hung in a clear plastic pocket. He wore a determined look upon his clean-shaven face. He'd come in an official capacity today.

The man meant business. Just like our Hector.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Devi clutched the side of the wheelbarrow with her injured arm. "Trying to break my other leg?"

Hector had no time to assure her that her safety was upmost in his mind. No time.

"Don't let him in, Lewis!" he yelled, and immediately reversed the wheelbarrow as fast as he could, trying to steady the wobble, and half sprinted to the other end of the ward, hoping Brady hadn't seen them and Hilde was keeping up. Devi and the wheelbarrow continued to wobble like Gavin on the dance floor all the way there.

"What are you doing, you absolutely fruitcake?" Devi screeched at him as Hector stuffed her into the last cubicle and drew the curtain close.

"Shush!" He held his finger to his lips. "We're not here."

"Ugh, I think we are!" Devi eyed him, enraged.

"Shush... The reporter!" he informed.

"What reporter?"

"Brady Moriarty!" Hector hissed again. "He's outside. Now shush."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, not really." Hector spat back as Hilde joined them with flushed cheeks from their little dash.

"You could have warned me you were running... you made her IV pull out!" She immediately brushed past Hector and kneeled next to Devi in her wheelbarrow to check her cannula and re-attach the line.

As Hilde helped her patient, Hector slid to the edge of the cubicle and peeked out. "You wanted to remain hidden, to remain nameless in this town, didn't you? Well, leaving the hospital while Brady is out there isn't exactly a smart move then."

"And running like a loon without looking is?" Hilde fired, straightening up. "You're lucky the line just slipped out, and you didn't accidentally rip open her hand."

Devi glowered at him. "So now what?"

"We wait."

"How long?"

He shrugged.

So they waited. And they waited. And waited.

Devi with her one heavily bandaged arm folded over her wrist in a cast on the other, huffing, looked anywhere but at Hector. Hector ignored her, craning his neck out towards the drawn curtain, listening for footsteps that would approach them and reveal their hiding spot.

Hilde, leaned against the bed, arms crossed, boring a hole at the back of his head. "We need to talk."

"About what?" He turned, thinking all the talking had been talken.

"About her care."

Oh, right, that? Hector sighed. "My mum refuses to."

"Your mum?" Devi piped. He ignored.

"She's iffy about ... body functions..."

Hilde nodded. "So the question remains. Who will look after her?"

"You two know I'm right here, right?" Devi spoke again but neither of them addressed her.

Hector stared into Hilde's eyes. Hilde's bore into his. The only thing that was missing was perhaps some soft jazz to complete the romantic scene unfolding before Devi's very eyes.

"I could help," Hilde said in an intimate hush, her cheeks flushed from the run, flushing further.

Hector took a subconscious half-step towards her. "I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not."

"But still." Another half-step closer, Hector had eyes only for his swanky doctor.

"She needs medical help."

"Yep. And you two need a room." Devi looked from one to the other.

"I'm qualified," Hilde continued, matching Hector's half-step with her own.

"I never said you weren't ... " he breathed.

"So what's the problem?"

Devi raised her hand, "Oh, I know. UST. It's UST. Tones of it ... oozing from the both of you. It's actually screaming, 'tear off my clothes Hector, right here, right now,' very loudly."

But again, they ignored her, or rather; they forgot she was even there.

Hector swallowed.

Hilde held her breath.

"You have the hospital."

"We barely have any patients."

"People will see. Ask questions," Hector whispered, taking another absent step towards the doctor, close enough he could have pulled Hilde in without effort and kissed her like he missed her. "It'll be obvious."

"Like this isn't?" Devi scoffed.

Hilde shrugged. "We say I'm there for your mum."

"A likely story." Devi stared from one to the other. "Hello? Am I even involved in this threesome?"

"What?" Hector cleared his throat and slide away from Hilde, just as voices from the front filtered their way. Lewis and Brady.

"You're moving me to your mum's?" Devi asked in a hush of her own.

"Shush..." Panic rose in his throat as the voices continued.

"What?" Devi glared at them.

"For once, in the interest of self-perseverance, Devi, shut up."

"In the interest of self-perseverance, shut up," Devi mumbled. "You shut up."

Once the voices died down, Hector relaxed a little.

"Again. You're moving me to your mum's?" Devi asked. "Don't you think it's obvious ... for a safe house?"

Hector grinned. The woman may be smart but she wasn't Mystery Cove smart. "It is if the one you're trying to ward off is Brady. Ma scares the shit out of him, so he won't go anywhere near her. Not since Year 9 anyway, when she caught him outside our house one night..."

"You two have a history, don't you?" Devi asked, turned to Hilde, and then pointed at the two of them. "Same goes for you two, I bet."

Hector cleared his throat. "It's none of your business."

"It is when my life depends on it and you two are too busy trying not to undress one another in front of me."

"Anyway!" Hilde stepped in. "Sounds like Brady is gone. We should move her now."

"Not so fast!" Devi snapped, to both their surprise. "You need a plan, better than the half-arse shit you two were trying to cook up. No offense, Inspector, but your plan? It sucks donkey balls!"

"And you got a better one?" He asked, not an ounce of 'offense-taken' in his voice. How could he? He too knew, his plan went nowhere beyond, get her to mum's, at this present moment, as if the old Aussie adage, 'She'll be right,' would fix everything eventually.

"I do. But it'll need both of you to work." Devi looked at him and Hilde with a smirk. "It means you'll get what you want, me in your safe house, while she gets what she wants, to make sure I don't die or haven't killed you."

"Excuse me?"

"Relax, Romeo." Devi held up both her injured arms. "I'm obviously kidding. Cannot stabby-stabby you with these arms."

Hector snatched at the tight collar of his uniform, and leaned against the bed beside Hilde. "Let's hear it then, your idea."

The smirk on Devi's face got wider. "Ask her out."

Hector's eyes widened. "What?"

"Ask Dr Chen out. On dates ... You know what dates are, don't you, little man? It's when a young man takes a young woman out, or another young man, hoping that they'll let you—"

"I know what a date is!" Hector snapped ramrod straight. "But how would that solve the issue we have: your medical care and safety?"

"If you stop flapping your gums, pretty boy, I'd tell you."

"Okay!" Hilde stepped in between the two like a wrestling umpire. "You two drop this right now. You two are grown-ups for Pete's sake."

"I will drop it if he does." Devi fired.

Hector clenched his jaw. "Same."

Hilde turned to him. "Be the bigger man, Heck..."

"Yeah, be a man, Heck!"

"Will you shut up?!" It was Hilde's turn to snap. "Just because you're hurting and scared, and alone in a town you do not know, doesn't mean you may treat the people who are trying to help you like shit." She glowered at her patient. "Grow up. The sooner you drop this bravado—that's clearly not serving you—the sooner Hector can figure out how you ended up in our town with a knife on your back, especially when you can't remember what exactly happened that night. So stop it or I'm warning you..."

"Or what, doc?" Devi squinted at Hilde.

"I'll lower your morphine ... just to stretch it out a little longer ..." Hilde squinted right back. "We are running low on it anyway ..."

"You wouldn't?" Devi's eyes narrowed.

"Try me." Hilde's lips thinned.

"Okay, okay. How about we all stop?" Hector wove his arms about, turning to Hilde. "And what was it you were saying about her memory?" Hector asked behind her, while Devi's mouth flew open soundlessly mid-battle. "She doesn't remember what happened that night?"

"She has retrograde amnesia, possibly from several contusions." Hilde shook her head and turned back to Hector. "Didn't she tell you that before demanding a safe house for info—that what she remembers are fragments?"

"No," Hector mouthed the word. What did this mean for his case? If Devi couldn't recall anything from the event, how was she going to help him solve the mystery? How was he going to land his promotion? Get out of town?

"You remember nothing?" He turned to the woman in the wheelbarrow, the wind knocked out of him. "Nothing?"

Devi shook her head. "Like the doc says, I remember bits and pieces, okay?" her voice, a ghostly whisper.

Hector pinched the bridge of his nose, sensing a headache coming on. What the fuck did I sign up for? "Will she get her memories back?" he asked Hilde.

"Most times, yes, they come back, but how soon depend on the patient and the triggers."

"And it probably doesn't help that I'm here, worried someone will leak the news that I'm still alive." Devi picked at the polka-dotted puke green hospital gown, acutely aware that her back was hurting by this point and some dirt might have found its way into her crack. "Is the coast clear, Inspector? Can I get out of this barrow?"

"I'll check with Lewis ..." Hector walked away, feeling numb for the first time in his life. Devi was in an unknown town, surrounded by people she didn't know, scared for her life. Of course, she was angry and defensive and he hadn't seen it. All he'd seen was an obnoxious woman who was adamant about making his life hell. Not the woman who was terrified half to death, and a schmuck of a cop was all that stood between life and death.

Secrecy meant everything. Secrecy meant life. And Hector had almost blown it—several times. Fuck.

A moment later, like a wet dog, he dragged himself back into the cubicle, right into the icy cold draft that festered between the two women.

"So?" Hilde stood from the bed.

Devi looked up from her barrow, trying not to think about the pain shooting up her spine.

Hector shook his head. Brady was parked right outside, watching the doors, wasn't he? "No." For the first time, he hated the very quality he'd often admired in Brady, the ability to stick to his guns. "He's waiting for us outside."

"For how long?" Hilde stared at him.

Hector shrugged. I wish I knew.

(Continued in Part C...)

(Sorry, this chapter ended up being longer than I anticipated.)