The alarm went off after what only seemed a minute and he knew he needed more sleep. Something to do with age. When he was younger he could pull all-nighters, easy. But as he was getting closer to 50, that no longer seemed a luxury he could manage. He turned 48 just 2 month ago.

He was getting pretty old to patrol the city, but it was what he liked best, what he was good at. Many times his superiors had asked the question if he wanted to make something out of his career, move up. Become a detective or sergeant. But as a detective he would sit behind a desk and as a sergeant he would be buried under the paperwork.

No, not for him, he was fine patrolling the city, talking to the people, ensuring they were fine and when possible, protect them from the monsters that prowl the city for victims. That was also the reason why he had declined early retirement after 20 years. He wanted to at least give it another 10 years. And who knows, maybe more after that…

He opted for another shower. Just to get the burn, that told him he needed more sleep, out of his eyes. He remembered he had put yesterday’s uninform in the washing machine and hang it out to dry. Picked up a new one out of the closet and after a quick and cold breakfast he got in his car towards the hospital to see the girl.

Sam was her name, Sam Henley, 20. She was a sophomore student at the local Uni. But that was all he knew of her. She seemed like a nice girl. He had talked a little with the mother, but she had replied in distant answers, focused as she was on her daughter.

He had also talked to the doctor that treated her and she told him that the girl was physically fine and the only thing she had found was some slight bruising on her arms. Grab marks by the look of it, but otherwise there was no physical evidence of violence. Nothing that would explain her current state.

The only medication she used was for migraines and yes that could be the cause of her unconsciousness, though it was very rare and highly unlikely that migraines resulted in this. And no, according to her mother this had not happened before. The doctor said that most likely Sam’s unconsciousness was the result of extreme stress, pain or fear and it could be hours or even days before she gained consciousness.

But he stayed anyways. Somehow he felt responsible for Sam,  having seen the small young women, barely more than a girl, laying in all of that gore. His mind wondered off again. Also something that seem to happen more and more. Maybe also an age thing, or maybe he just had to many things on his mind. He brought his attention back to the traffic and arrived at to the hospital 5 minutes later.

When he got up to Sam’s room, he saw somebody had relieved DT and he struggled to remember her name. She was not from his precinct. But when you are on the job for as long as he had, you get to know most of the cops in town. And her name popped into his mind. Serena, of course. The lack of sleep must already be paying its toll. How could he forget. “Hi Serena, good to see you again. How are you? How is the girl? And has Gerald arrived yet?”.

“Hi Dei, always full of questions, but yes, I am good, thank you. I have not seen Gerald and the girl is ok I guess. Not sure if she got a lot of sleep, but I have not seen doctors run into her room in panic either. Her mother left around the time I arrived and relieved DT. That was about 7 am. Only people going in and out of the room were the nurses and she had breakfast a couple of hours ago. She is awake now, at least she was when I looked in on her 15 minutes ago.”

He decided to wait till Gerald arrived before entering the girls room and spend a few pleasant minutes chatting with Serena. She was nice. But unfortunately married. And for him that was off-limits. He was never de marrying kind. Short relationships, one night stands, but nothing solid. It would not last. He was married to the job. He did not know if that was right or wrong, but that was what it was.

Gerald arrived about 10 minutes after he did and together they went into Sam’s room. He winked at Serena when he walked by her through the door. There was no rule saying he could not flirt with a nice looking women like her.

Sam sat up in her bed. She looked at both man. The big, dark one to the left she knew from last night. The smaller one on the right she did not know, but assumed it was the detective she was promised to stop by. They asked her how she was feeling and she told them she was tired but fine.

After some PPQ her headaches had subsided to just being an annoyance, a humming pain in her head, but nothing she could not handle. No needles in the brain, no fire behind her eyes, no hammers in her head. Currently her pain was a 4/10. Though she may have to adjust the scaling after last night’s experience. That headache was way beyond the 10/10 she had set for herself.

The smaller man introduced himself as detective Gerald Johansson. And after some small talk about the hospital and the quality of the food, they asked her to tell them what had happened that evening. What it was she could remember. And she had replied that is was no problem at all and she would tell them everything she could remember.