We don't get a chance to ask Jen what happened. Or tell her that if it's a medical emergency, she should be getting Anders.
We dress fast and take off. Dalton detours to fetch Anders as I race into the clinic. Jen waits in the back room. Roger is where we left him, on the examining table, which comes complete with a removable foam mattress, sheets, side rails and restraints. In Rockton, everything serves a dual purpose.
"What's the emergency?" I say as I walk in.
Jen points at Roger.
"He seems fine." I walk over and gently peel back the sheet, careful not to disturb his sleep. "Did his bleeding start again?"
"I'm not a doctor, but I think that'd be a medical miracle."
I look at her. She jabs a finger at Roger.
I turn back to him. His eyes are closed. His color's fine, but I lay my hand on his forehead, in case he's running a fever.
His forehead is cool.
No, his forehead is cold.
My hand flies to the side of his neck and then down to his wrist.
"He ... he's..."
"He's dead, Jen?" she says.
I glare at her.
"Not a Star Trek fan, I take it," she says. "Your kind never are."
"I got the reference. The man is dead, Jennifer, which is really not the time to be cracking jokes. Or to be testing my powers of detection. Goddamn it."
I grab the stethoscope to listen to his heart.
"Yeah, that's not going to be beating," she says. "The whole being-dead thing."
"Just because he appears to be dead doesn't absolutely mean he is."
"So he's only mostly dead?"
"Get out."
"I--"
"You sauntered across town to bring us some cryptic message, when maybe--just maybe--fetching Will instead could have saved this man. But no, it's really more fun to stand by his body and mock me with cinema lines."
Her jaw sets, and she says, "I didn't saunter. I ran. And it wasn't a cryptic message. I just didn't know what to say. As for getting Will, I used the stethoscope. I knew there was no point."
Anders runs in, Dalton right behind him. "What's the--"
Anders stops short and says, "Shit," seeing Roger, now lolling to one side, an arm dangling. He hurries over and checks for a pulse.
"I was just telling Jen that she should have gotten you first. In case there was a chance to fix this."
"Yeah, no," Anders says. "I can't fix dead."
He gets my glower now but meets it with a quarter smile. "Sorry. But no, he's been gone for a while."
When Jen opens her mouth in victory, he shoots her a look and says, "Though she still should have gotten me first. That's proper protocol, which she'd know if she'd read the handbook I gave her. You want to be militia, Jen? It's about more than standing guard. It's following procedure. It's knowing procedure. And it's getting off your ass to check your charge once in a while. Whatever shit you've been spouting about my guys this week? None had their charge die on them."