JP - Get It Out of Me!

“How the hell is there a FUCKING BULLET in me?!” Tzeitel’s shocked voice could be heard demanding.

A few people down the hall jumped and turned toward the room Tzeitel was in. Riven was on his way to visit Evie and just stopped at the door, blinking. “Uh…what?” He asked.

Joel could be heard waking up with a loud yelp as he looked around for threats.

Annie moaned and grabbed one of the pillows, trying to cover her ears.

Joel calmed back down and snuggled Annie again in bed.

“That’s a fucking bullet!” Tzeitel exclaimed to Riven, pointing at the x-ray on the monitor.

“Calm down, Tzeitel.” Frisk said. “When were you shot?”

“I don’t even fucking know!” Tzeitel was not happy about a foreign object being in her body.

“You sure it’s a bullet?” Riven asked as he stepped into the room and looked at the x-ray. “Some things can be bullet shaped. Do you have any clue when a gun might have gone off in your direction? Just try to calm down and breathe…screaming and stressing won’t fix this.”

“Guns have gone off in my direction loads of times, but I think I would remember a bullet shaped hole in my body.” Tzeitel said. “Fucking MegaCorp! I gotta look at my fucking file. Assholes probably erased my memory after I got shot.”

“Okay, but…freaking out isn’t going to help, Tzeitel.” Riven kept his voice calm. “Lets just see what can be done for it. Maybe they can remove it for you.” One hand was fiddling with his pendant nervously.

“If she would calm down we would explain to her theories for why the bullet was left-” A tech tried to explain.

“Because MegaCorp doesn’t do jackshit for their metas when we get hurt.” Tzeitel interrupted.

“Or it could have caused even more damage digging it out.” The tech rolled his eyes. “More images will need to be taken to determine if the bullet can be removed, or if it should be.”

“Fuck, get it out of me.” Tzeitel paced. “Get. It. Out. Of. Me.”

“This bullet has probably been there for years not causing you any harm…” Frisk pointed out. “Sit down.”

Tzeitel shook her head jerkily. She hated not feeling like she had control of her own body. She hated not knowing how the bullet got there, or even when.

“Tzeitel, you need to calm down. You’re obviously panicking.” Riven insisted, trying to help Frisk in calming her down. “Think about it. If they get more scans, they can probably get the bullet out.” He reached toward her, but did not touch, his cold hands misting the air a bit as a warning for her to sit back down while his free hand reached behind him where he had a sedative with him he’d been ready to use on Evie if need be. If there was one thing he’d gotten good at over the years, it was getting frantic metas to calm down and rest.

Frisk was also thinking about the sedatives she kept in her med bag. “Tzeitel, it’s okay.” Frisk said softly as if to an injured wild animal. “It’s going to be okay.”

“It’s never fucking okay. I gotta know when this fucking happened.” Tzeitel bolted out to get her MegaCorp file from the stuff salvaged from her car. She was texting Klaire. ‘X-ray showed a fucking bullet in me. Do you remember me getting shot?’

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” Riven muttered and looked at the x-rays to see exactly where the bullet was.

Cody was sitting on a bench in the hall, waiting for Tzeitel and talking to a girl he was sitting with. His eyes drifted to his mother as she rushed by. “Mom, what’s wrong?!” He called out and blinked, realizing she had not even noticed him in her determination.

From Klaire: No, but I don’t remember a lot of things that happened due to what they did to us. All I know is what the files told us.

The bullet looked pretty well lodged in Tzeitel’s neck, but further imaging would be needed to determine if it could be removed. Frisk sighed and looked at the x-rays, noticing a lot of healed fractures. It did not look like the car crash did her any harm, besides making her aware of the bullet.

Riven sighed heavily and made his way out of the room, going to see Evie.

“Oh, I’ve just been shot.” Tzeitel said with a short laugh. “But the bullet has probably been in there for years so I should fucking calm down about it.” She read Klaire’s text. ‘I’m gonna look at my file again.’

Cody frowned and didn’t follow. He wasn’t up for dealing with more drama…besides, the girl with him wanted his attention.

From Klaire: Okay, but what if it can’t be taken out?

‘I gotta get it out of me’ Tzeitel texted Klaire back. She dug through her stuff and found her file. She flipped to the pages about her various escape attempts with Klaire.

There would be various moments during those attempts where it explained Tzeitel and Klaire being shot at by the guards and soldiers, but it was all reported as tranquilizer darts. The only incident where a real bullet was shot was when a guard stole Klaire’s rifle from her and shot at them…

The medical report showed that taking the bullet out could kill her…

Tzeitel felt sick and started to shake. “No no no no…” She whispered.

“Tzeitel?” Colt asked from the doorway, his arm still bleeding as he gazed at her with worry. “What’s wrong?”

Tzeitel was staring at the small note about the bullet lodged in her neck. They had taken plenty of images of the glands in her body but they never bothered to focus on the bullet. One image of her neck showed the bullet but they were clearly focused on the glands in her neck. If she had not known that the bullet was there she would not have even noticed it. Tears were welling in her eyes. "It can't come out." Tzeitel whispered.