Nerves of Steel by C.J. Lyons Read Free Book Online

in concern.  "Maybe you should give yourself a break," she suggested.  "No karate belt is worth getting hurt over."
    Hurt?  This was nothing.  Cassie knew real pain--Richard had taught her that.  She yanked her sleeves back down and focused on Jane Doe's chart.
    They sat in silence for a moment before Adeena surrendered.  "Right, I keep forgetting you're superwoman.  Able to kick butt, then patch them up afterwards.  Tessa was asking why you haven't been by to take her to Mass."
    Cassie sighed.  Between her boss, Fran, and Adeena's Aunt Tessa, she had more people anxious to meddle in her life than any one person deserved.  She glanced at Jane Doe's bed and choked down her sarcastic reply.  At least she had people in her life who cared for her.  At least she would never be alone and anonymous like her patient.
    "Tell her I'll be there Sunday."
    "Great.  You know she makes her fried chicken whenever you come over." 
    "Why's everyone always trying to fatten me up?"
    "Because," Adeena reached out and laid her own plump hand over Cassie's, "Tessa promised your Gram that--"
    "She'd take care of me."  Cassie rolled her eyes.  Even from beyond the grave, Gram Rosa somehow still managed to interfere with her life.  Love is stronger than death, Rosa would say.  Right before telling Cassie everything she had done wrong with her life and exactly how to fix it. "One of these days you guys will figure out that I can take care of myself."
    Adeena didn't take the bait and instead turned back to the data sheet from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Cassie looked over the social worker's shoulder, reading the scant information collected on Jane Doe.  
    Adeena jangled her braids in impatience, shifting so Cassie no longer blocked her light.  "Am I in your way?"
    "Yeah, thanks."  Cassie took the paperwork and scanned through it.  "There's so little here.  How can we know next to nothing about her?"
    "One good thing.  As far as the police can tell so far, she hasn't ever been arrested."
    "Is that the only thing they care about?" Cassie scoffed.  "Idiots.  They practically accused me of stealing the FX I took it to them this morning."
    Adeena looked up at that.  "What were you doing with FX?  You're lucky they didn't arrest you or something."
    "Tell me about it.  I think they would have liked to.  Seems they had no idea where all the FX flooding the streets is coming from or how to stop it."
    "They're doing the best they can."
    "Right."  Cassie focused on her patient once again.  "It really burns me that people get more upset over a beached whale than they do about homeless kids on their own streets.  Look at her, she was somebody's beautiful baby, but they all abandoned her." 
    "More likely she abandoned them," Adeena reminded her.  "She's probably been out on the street for a while now.  Long enough to get hooked on FX at least.  Who knows what kind of life she ran away from."
    The monitor above Jane Doe's bed traced a regular, green wave across the screen.  Family members sat beside loved ones at all the other beds, except bed space four where the stark glare of the overhead lights made Jane Doe's pale skin appear transparent.  As if there wasn't a real girl there, but only the too-thin ghost of one. 
    "Still, it's wrong.  She shouldn't have to lie there without even a name to call her own."
    "I'm doing the best I can."
    "I know."  But that wasn't enough.
    Leaving Adeena to deal with the paperwork, Cassie crossed over to Jane Doe's side.   What could have caused this girl such pain that she was willing to throw her life away before it really even began?  She thought about her own life.  By the time she was fourteen, she had already seen both her parents die. 
    If not for people like Gram Rosa, she might have run away from her own future, just as Jane Doe had.  She remembered her morbid thoughts when the helicopter almost crashed last night, her fears that no one would mourn her.