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Dr. Simone Parkers shift was already over, but she stayed a bit longer in order to make sure that one of her patients was going to be okay.
There had been a number of cases of badly beaten people with a strange side effects recently. The victims could be treated normally, but no form of pain relief showed any effect. Indeed, the injuries seemed to cause much more pain than they should have.
For one person the stress from the pain had lead to cardiac arrest, the others were deeply traumatized by the experience and still slowly recovering.
The last and hopefully final victim was the detective who had cornered and in the end killed the perpetrator, but not before being critically injured himself.
He should make a full recovery and, seeing that he had an extraordinary steady heartbeat, Simone was not to worried about complications there.
Detective Nicholas Burkhardt had however insisted to get help from his personal 'expert for natural remedies'. After, admittedly, they had failed to help him at all with his pain level. Still, Simone was, to say at least, a bit sceptic, and wanted to make sure that this expert did not do any additional harm.
In that moment a women with shoulder length redish hair dressed in loose clothes in earth colors and a leather bag held tightly to her chest, though she did not look nervous, came into the corridor. She looked at the room numbers, stopping right beside Simone.
"Ms. Calvers?" She guessed.
The women turned to her and smiled warmly.
"Dr. Parker? Thank you for calling me, Nicks request must have sounded strange to you."
Simone nodded.
"Yes, and since we still don't know what causes his current condition, I would like you to explain every step your are doing beforehand. We don't want to risk any adverse effects from unknown interactions. He has quite a few painkillers in his system. Just because they haven't taken does not mean they aren't there."
The other woman nodded earnest.
"Of cause" before she entered the room.
The detective was pale, hands gripping the railing on the bed, eyes closed but obviously awake, his jaw clenched.
"Hi Nick." Calvert greeted him softly, much quieter than Simone thought necessary, before she closed the door behind both of them. No doubt to give her an air of mysticism that many 'herbal healers' relied on.
"Rosalee." The response was hoarser, but the look in his eyes was soft when he opened them to look at her, despite the obvious pain.
Calvert kept her voice down when she stept up to the bed and put her bag down.
"Hank and Wu filled me in on what happend, can you tell me what feels most intense right now?"
He seemed to think about that for a while, his eyes closing again, before looking back between both women.
"Left foot. Left shoulder. Neck" a frown, before he continued "Brain? Loud. "
His tone was clipped and equally quite.
Calvert nodded and gently passed a hand through his hair.
She looked at his chard before unpacking some bottles and tin cans.
"I would like to rewrap his ankle with a tincture of Cinnamomum camphora extract, Mentha piperita and Salvia rosmarinus oil."
She held the clearly labeld bottle up. Two sources of compher and mentole, Simone translated silently, in concentrations that were neither harmful nor homeopathic. She nodded before turning to the patient.
"Do you have any known allergie? “
He winced at her voice before waving a hand in the direction of his expert'
"She knows".
A frequent customer then, which surprise Simone slightly.
Calvert prepared the mixture, deftly, unwrapped the ankle and carefully applied the salve, warming it up between her hands berfore gently spreading in onto the skin of the foot and lower leg, not applying any pressure on the ankle itself. She shot Simone a inquiering look once she was finished, and the doctor appreciated that she did not just try to re-wrap the ankle herself.
She did however hold up a bit of fabric.
"I bought some silk and cotton wrap, it is less itchy. Could you use it as a base before the normal bandage?"
The doctor nodded, and while she was busy Calvert took out some more bottles.
"Melaleuca alternifolia and cajuput oil," she commented quietly, "for the shoulder as well as the neck."
At Simones sharp look she added: "Only a few drops cajuput."
By the time she was finished with the second salve, the foot was savely postioned on the bed.
With the help of both women and the lift function of the hospital bed the detective sat up carefully, still pale with his right hand gripping the rail, knuckles white, but not making a sound.
"I will be quick", Calvert whispered, but she took more time than before, massaging the tincture into the skin. By the time she was done with the shoulder and moved to the neck, the death grip on the rail had relaxed a bit, and by the time she was done with the neck, the jaw was not clenched quite as much.
"Now something to help you sleep".
Simone expected chamomilla or lavender. What she did not expect was:
"Coffea arabica. And some wax for your ears. "
Waiting again for a nod from the doctor, she applied oil smelling strongly of coffee onto his temples, before forming wax balls and helping the detective to put them in.
Afterwards she packed everything up before squeezing the right hand that was no longer wrapped around the railing.
The eyes of the man still clearly showed that he was still in pain, but he gave both of them a weak smile before closing them.
The women left the room quietly, Calvert turned the the lights low before softly closing the door.
Simone waited a moment.
"You didn't try to treat his pain, you made him more comfortable." It wasn't a question but a statement.
Calvert nodded.
"I'm guessing he has very sensetive ears, but coffee to sleep?"
Now the other woman similed.
"Nick is not primary my customer, he is a very dear friend, which is the reason why I knew what to try. Coffee smell helps against headaches for him. To be honest I suspect he has a slight coffee addiction. My husband tries to get him to drink green tea or herbl tea sometimes, but unfortunately he also makes really great coffee, so he undermines his own effords."
"And the latin names for mostly common ingredients?"
A sheepish grin aswered her.
"It's like bad tasting medice, if it tastes bad surely it has to help. If it has a fancy name it must be special. Nick should know better, but for as long as it works."
She shrugged before she became serious.
"Again, thank you for giving me the chace to help."
Simone smiled and bid her goodby. What an odd but interesting woman.