Chapter 114
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA, 1941
War was coming, there was no doubt of it, and even though Jamie had been at war for over half a century now, this would be a different kind of war, and he wanted to do his part this time.
When World War I had swept across Europe, Jamie had been tempted to join, but at Jordan’s insistence, he had kept to his previous assignment. Vampires had a tendency to become even more active during times of war because humans were so distracted tearing each other apart, they didn’t seem to notice the other enemies. Now, on the brink of another war sure to encompass most of the world, Jamie enlisted as a medic with the Navy well before the US even entered the fray, hopeful that he would be able to use his talents in any way that might help his country’s cause, and since Jordan wanted him in Hawaii anyway, being assigned to the Navy Hospital in Pearl Harbor worked out as a compromise for the pair.
There had been an increase in Vampire activity in the area starting well before Jamie moved into an apartment near the hospital in the summer of 1941, and along with some locals, he was doing his best to track down as many of the bloodsuckers as possible. After two weeks of gathering intel, all he’d discovered was that it was easy for Vampires to lose themselves in the forested areas of the islands, and there were lots of rundown former sugar cane workers’ homes for them to hide in, as well as other obscure dwellings and even caves, which Jamie was keen on avoiding. By day, he worked his shifts in the hospital, and most nights, he was out late looking for Vampires or gathering information.
There were so many legends of mythical creatures in the area, sometimes it was difficult to know what was true and what was storytelling. He’d teamed up with a local Hunter by the name of Kai who had been hunting Vampires on Oahu for longer than Jamie had been alive. His hair was gray at the temples and he had to weigh almost twice Jamie’s 130 pounds, but his girth didn’t seem to slow him down any, and Jamie enjoyed working with him.
Thanks to an invention Christian and Aaron, along with some other LIGHTS team members had come up with they were able to make telephone calls to each other even when they were out in the field using special devices they could carry in their pockets. Jamie still wasn’t used to the new technology, but when he remembered to use it, he was impressed with how well it worked. He had a feeling it would change the way the organization worked.
While doing his rounds at the hospital, Jamie was always careful to wear gloves. Being back in the same setting as he had begun was cathartic in a way, but it was also a reminder of how he had failed to follow his original dream of being a renown surgeon. While he was proud of all that he’d accomplished over the years, he had always wondered what might’ve been different if he had only avoided Transforming altogether. Now, he was able to live part of that dream, at least for a little while, and he didn’t want his special abilities to change the experience for him, so he rarely used his Healer powers unless a patient was going to die without them. So far, in three months of being stationed at Pearl Harbor, he’d only taken off his gloves on one occasion and that was to save a newborn baby that was having trouble getting air inside of his lungs.
It was much more common for doctors to wear gloves now than it had been when he’d first realized he had to wear them to keep from Healing people, and most doctors wore them as a habit. They were also much thinner now than they had been before, which allowed him to have better control over his utensils and tools. Even without his special skills, Jamie was still in the top one percent of practicing medical doctors in the world, and he was aware of that, even if no one else seemed to notice or care. He saw it in his own ability to ascertain what was wrong with his patients and treat them appropriately in a timely fashion.
People did start to notice, however, and after a few months he was promoted, which allowed him to pick his own shifts. Since Vampires tended to come out more in the twilight hours, he chose to work during the day at the hospital and leave his evening hours for other activities.
Jamie finished closing his patient, a sailor who had needed an emergency appendectomy, and looked out the window at the pristine blue sky. It seemed like the perfect day to head out to the beach to catch some waves, and he was considering doing just that as he left the rest of the staff to finish with the patient and headed out the door of the operating room toward the front desk area to see if anyone was waiting to hear news about the surgery. Since it had been an emergency, all Jamie knew was that he was a petty officer by the name of Tommy Whitfield and that he’d been stationed here for just a few weeks longer than Jamie had been. He’d gathered most of that information from the nurse who’d called him into surgery, but how she’d found out, he wasn’t sure. Hopefully, the nurse at the front counter would have some idea how Whitfield had arrived at the hospital.
Jamie approached the intake desk and didn’t have to wait long for Nurse Parsons to look up. When she did, a smile broke across her face and her ruddy cheeks seemed even more red somehow. She pushed up her glasses with her index finger and gushed, “Hello there, Dr. Joplin. How can I help you?”
“Nurse Parsons—”
“I’ve told you to call me Hildy,” she insisted, still smiling and batting her eyes at him.
“I know,” Jamie replied, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile. “I just don’t feel comfortable doing so… while we’re at work.”
“All right then. What can I help you with?” she asked again, still smiling though she seemed a little disappointed that he wasn’t responding to her advances.
“I just finished with that emergency appendectomy, and I was hoping you could tell me who brought him in.”
Hildy’s expression changed. “Oh, yes. That woman over there brought him in. She’s been pestering me for information for hours now.” She jabbed with her thick finger in the direction of a woman standing with her back to them in front of the window, her arms folded and her legs crossed at the ankle. Jamie knew that worried look even from behind and from across the emergency waiting room.
While he realized Hildy had to be exaggerating since the surgery hadn’t even taken hours, he knew he needed to keep the buxom middle-aged woman on his side or else things could go very poorly for him. “Thank you, Nur—uh—kindly,” he stammered and then approached the woman at the window.
She was wearing a light blue dress and was slim with long blonde hair which she wore down her back, except for the pinned up waves on the top of her head. As he approached he could see her reflection in the glass, though she didn’t seem to notice him, and couldn’t help but observe how breathtakingly beautiful she was. Her eyes were a shade of blue similar to her dress, her skin looked smooth, like porcelain, and her nose was perfectly shaped with just a slight upturn at the end which he thought made her look even more unusual in her loveliness. He was a bit envious of Whitfield if this was his wife or girlfriend, but he tried to push those thoughts aside as he approached her. Professionalism was very important to him.
