Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 65: Chapter 65

“I don't understand,” I said.
“I know where she is,” Ethan said, grinning widely. “That idiot thinks he's smooth, but he told us everything.”
“He did?” I asked.
“He just had to mention that hospital. The one the humans built,” Ethan said.
“What about it?” I asked.
“I've been looking at patient transfers, and checking hospital rosters for human patients,” Ethan explained. “And I've come up empty. But that hospital is out of our networks because it was built by humans and is still staffed by humans. And at least a third of the patients are human.”
“So my mother wouldn't stand out on their roster,” I said, “and her transfer wouldn't be properly recorded.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you think this is it?” I asked, “Do you really think we've found her this time?”
“I'm sure of it,” Ethan said. “It makes perfect sense. Arthur resented your mother for being human. His ego wouldn't let him send her back to the human territories, but a human built hospital in the wolf lands? That's the perfect place. You don't hide a needle in a haystack, Tessa, you hide it in a pile of other needles.”
Hope hurt. I didn't realize how much it hurt. Because if Ethan was right, we were close. I might see her by the end of the day.
Ethan and I rushed back to the manor to prepare for what I hoped would finally be my mother's rescue. The hospital was far away, across two smaller wolf territories. You could, according to the hospital's web page, see the human lands from the grounds. I'm not sure why they thought that was a selling point.
I packed a bag quickly. I tossed in some clothes, a medical journal on long term convalescence, and my personal healing notebooks. I added a folder full of my mother's human identification and the only piece of identification I'd ever had, my birth certificate. For some reason, even though I was going to be raised as a wolf, my mother had registered my birth in her home city.
I hoped those papers would be enough to grant us access to my mother. I was her next of kin, but I had no way to prove it.
A wolf hospital would do what Ethan wanted because he was an alpha, and would respect my request to see any patient because I was a healer. But this hospital was mostly staffed by humans. Would they respect an alpha and a healer or not?
The drive was long. We probably should have stopped over in an inn or stayed with a local alpha instead of pushing through, but I couldn't imagine stopping and Ethan didn't suggest it.
We passed through two other packs' territories. Luckily, Ethan was on good terms with both alphas and we were only briefly delayed at each border. Ethan just told them he was escorting a healer to a patient and they allowed us to pass.
It was almost funny how many doors opened to me when I finally came into my power as a healer. I tried not to imagine my life if I'd learned what I was sooner.
Ethan worked hard to distract me on the drive. He pointed out any remotely interesting landmark. He told terrible jokes. He tried to teach me how to play the road trip games he used to play with his siblings. I wasn't very good at any of them.
Then, as the sun dropped below the horizon and the moon rose high, we reached the hospital. It was a small, plain building that looked more like a warehouse than a hospital. It was surrounded on all sides by a high, razor wire topped fence and there was only one gate flanked by two guard houses.
“Is this a hospital or a prison?” Ethan wondered.
“Both, I think,” I said. “I wonder what other inconvenient patients Arthur has stashed here?”
“We'll look into that once we secure your mother,” Ethan promised.
I nodded. We pulled up to the gate house. Luckily, the guard was a wolf, and he recognized Ethan.
“I still have to call it in, Alpha,” the guard said apologetically.
“I understand,” Ethan said.
The wait felt like it took forever, but the clock on Ethan's dashboard said it was really only about five minutes before we were driving through the gate and finding a parking spot in the nearly empty lot. There were no visitors, and apparently only minimal staff. That fit Arthur's pattern from the sanatorium.
Inside, there was no reception desk, only an unstaffed nurse's station. The place seemed abandoned, but I knew it wasn't. I could hear the patients shifting in their beds, talking in their sleep, breathing and whimpering from nightmares and untreated pain.
We had to fix that place. But first I needed to get my mother out.
Ethan looked around, growled, and started knocking on doors until a harried looking human woman in dark blue scrubs appeared.
“Who the Hell are you?” she demanded.
“I'm Alpha Ethan,” he said, “This is Healer Tessa. We're here to collect one of your patients.”
The woman snorted. “Great, another wolf who thinks he can throw his weight around. Look, unless you're next of kin you have no authority over my patients. Get out and come back at a civilized time of day.”
“I am next of kin,” I said.
“What?” the woman asked.
“Melinda Carter,” I said, “I'm her daughter.”
“Her daughter,” the woman said, voice dripping doubt. “And why is the first time I've seen or heard from you? What's your name?”
“Tessa,” I said.
“Tessa Carter?” the woman asked.
That sounded weird, but it was the name on my birth certificate so I nodded. A human doctor would expect me to have a human name.
“You're not on the approved visitor's list,” the woman said, checking a clipboard she plucked from the nurse's station.
“So she is here,” Ethan said.
“I didn't say that,” the woman was quick to point out.
“Of course you didn't,” Ethan said.
“Look, I just need to see her. Please,” I begged. “It's been so long. I have, um, I have her driver's license? It's expired but it has her photo and stuff. And my birth certificate. A diploma. Her immigration papers.”
I held out the folder with my mother's papers. It had been hard to keep it hidden and I was pretty sure the things I'd collected weren't the right things, but it was all I had.
The woman looked from my bundle of papers to my face. She still looked doubtful.
I remembered Dr. Lee's suggestion that a blood test would prove my relationship to Sable.
“You could check my blood,” I said, offering my arm. “We have the same blood, right?”
“You think we have the facilities to run a DNA analysis?” the woman scoffed.
“You should be able to check blood type at least,” Ethan said. “Look, I don't want to pull rank on you, ma'am, but I am an alpha and you are on wolf territory.”
The woman shrugged. “I'm human, not part of any pack, and this facility is under another alpha's orders to keep that patient isolated.”
“Did they say why?” Ethan asked.
The woman shook her head.
“It's because they're using her as a hostage,” I said. “Please. Just let me see her. Just a minute. One minute, that's all I need.”
“Hostage?” the woman repeated.
Ethan and I nodded. The woman looked back at my folder of papers, at the birth certificate with my name on it. Then she looked back at my face.
“That patient's situation has never sat right with me,” she muttered. She looked at Ethan. “You have a good reputation, Alpha Ethan. Don't make me regret this.”
“Never,” Ethan promised.
“She's in room 114,” the woman said, “You have exactly five minutes. I'll be outside the door so don't try anything. Just... talk to her, I guess. They say that's supposed to help.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
I didn't run to room 114, but I walked as fast as I could. The woman keyed the door open, and I stepped inside.
For the first time since the Rogue attack, I saw my mother in person.