“By the way, Elaine, what are we gonna do about your shoulder? That can’t feel that great.”
Elaine rolled her eyes. “Oh, no, I’m fine. It’s only a dislocated shoulder. No need to show that much concern,” she muttered dryly.
“Are you done?” Brad asked, irritatedly. “We probably should get you to a doctor.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Elaine shot back. “You may as well paint a giant bulls-eye on my forehead! Plus, you need someone who’s armed.”
“Just let me take one of your guns,” Brad suggested. “I mean, are you going to be giving Jolene’s piece back to her?”
“Can’t.”
“Right, we don’t know how Jolene’s going to proceed from here.
“No, I mean I can’t give you one of the guns. They’re ID tagged. You already know this.”
“Ah…right.” Brad had forgotten that.
“Umm…” Jolene began.
“Hmm?” Brad responded, offering to let her continue.
“I have some training as a medic. I mean, it’s not much, but I might be able to reset your shoulder, Officer Seol.”
“Might?” Elaine asked back, narrowing her eyes.
“Depends on how much you struggle.”
Elaine scowled. “If you make it worse I’ll break one of your shoulders. See how you like it.”
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“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, Elaine?” Brad asked, uncomfortably.
“I’m sorry, I guess we glossed over the fact that she shot at me earlier today,” Elaine fired back.
Brad opened his mouth, but Elaine held up a hand.
“I know, I know, she wasn’t in her right mind, or whatever. I’m sorry, I’m tired, my shoulder is killing me, I’m kind of hungry, and I’m a little cranky.”
“I’d offer some food but you caught me at a bad time. Though you probably should eat something if you’re going to take some medicine for the pain. At any rate, Jolene, you really think you can reset the joint?”
“I’m not 100%, and even after this she…you…probably ought to have a professional look at it to make sure I didn’t screw anything up.”
“Well, I dunno about you, Brad, but I feel much better after hearing that,” Elaine murmured.
“Elaine…” Brad said sternly.
“Fine, fine. Do you have anything for pain?”
“Uh…some aspirin.”
“Aspirin?” Elaine asked in disbelief. “That’s it? Hell, you may as well just give me a fifth of vodka for all the good it’s gonna do.”
“You’re the police officer. Don’t you guys have some sedatives or something like that?”
“Oh, silly me, of course, let me just grab that. I probably could have saved myself my dislocated shoulder by using the standard issue sedatives we’re definitely outfitted with!” Elaine fired back, not even trying to hide the bitter sarcasm in her voice.
“Okay okay! I get the picture,” Brad said. “Umm…maybe I can give you something to bite down on after a couple aspirin so you don’t give yourself a concussion. Sorry.”
The time taken to reset Elaine’s shoulder took much longer than Brad was hoping it would. In between the bouts of shouting and cursing coming from Elaine and profuse apologies coming from Jolene, Brad checked the time. His meeting with Sonia was coming quickly. Between dealing with Elaine and Jolene and plotting his next move, Brad had completely lost track of time.
Brad frowned. He certainly couldn’t just leave Elaine and Jolene, though the two of them were much more likely to handle a threat than Brad was, especially unarmed as he was. But by the same token, moving as a group could be troublesome.
Brad chuckled. Shoot, I’m so rarely with a woman that me being with two of them might be just suspicious enough to attract more attention than anything.