Second Thoughts and Last Chances
By
Latikia
Edited by
The Old Fart
Copyright © 2007,
2008
Chapter 27
We came to a screeching stop outside the Emergency Room entrance, Harmon and his men poured out the doors and took up positions around the vehicle, weapons at the ready. Lilly was nearly as fast in making her exit, which left me the last one out.
As soon as I had both feet on the ground I pushed ahead with long strides, leaving everyone else hurrying to catch up.
Thru the automatic doors, past the waiting area and the seven people in various stages of physical distress, right up to the nurse behind the admittance counter.
The woman in white sat poking away at a computer keyboard, studiously ignoring everything and everyone.
“Where’s the Pediatric ward?” I asked politely.
She continued playing with the computer.
“Visiting hours on the wards ended at 1800.”
The woman’s apathy and self-importance were monumentally maddening.
I lifted my right hand up to shoulder height, made a fist and slammed my knuckles down into the countertop, at the same time projecting all of the violently emotional aggression I had pent up inside. The nurse jerked back from her computer screen so violently that she came very close to falling off her chair. She swiveled around and glared up at me.
I met her outraged glare with sub-zero indifference.
“Where’s the fucking Pediatric ward?” I asked once again, no trace of emotion in my voice.
The woman, a stocky middle aged brunette, glared briefly, repositioned her glasses on the bridge of her nose, got a good look at my face, noticed the armed men grouped behind me, and then visibly wilted. It felt as though she were going to wet herself and vomit simultaneously.
“Third floor. Elevators are down the hall to your left.” she choked out.
Having an armed force trailing along behind you has an interesting effect on
people. Once they recognize the
potential threat they desperately try to be somewhere else, even if the best
they can manage is to flatten themselves against the nearest wall and pretend
to become one with the paint.
I didn’t really need men dressed in black and carrying automatic weapons to create that kind of respectful panic, but it was a nice change of pace not having to do it myself.
The elevator doors opened and we came face to face with two men in white lab coats, one a young Lieutenant and one a middle-aged Commander, both wearing insignia which identified them as physicians.
They exited in a hurry, giving us a wide berth and some rather comedic looks of apprehension in the process.
Harmon and four of his men got on the elevator with Lilly and I; he instructed the others to follow us up on the next available car.
The ride up was blessedly short, because by that point the ache in my head was pounding like a trip-hammer and I was beginning to get a little hot under the collar. Literally.
Lilly jabbed me with her elbow just under my ribcage. I expelled a weak grunt and looked down. Her normally pretty face was locked into a scowl, eyebrows creeping together and arching like two cats facing off on a fence preparing to do battle.
“Don’t you dare!” she growled quietly between clenched teeth.
I cocked my head to one side and gave her an appraising look. Then I straightened my neck, focused my eyes forward on the elevator doors, rolled my shoulders forward to adjust the lay of my coat and exhaled loudly.
“You are in so much trouble.” I said softly.
Lilly snorted like a bull and jabbed me once again with her elbow. I lightly clamped a hand over the back of her neck and gently squeezed.
“Stop it. You’ve made your point.”
Lilly stiffened ever-so-slightly, and I got the distinct impression that she was getting ready to send that elbow back into my ribs. I increased the pressure of my fingers around her neck.
“Do it again and you won’t be able to sit for a week.” I promised.
Lilly snorted her disdain, but kept her elbow tucked in close.
The elevator came to an abrupt and jerky stop and the doors opened. Eric Watson stood there in front of us, a mild look of surprise on his face.
“She said you were on your way up.” he said, waving one arm awkwardly down the hallway behind him.
Eric wasn’t himself. Normally he’s about as unflappable as a brick.
The elevator doors began to close. Harmon reacted quickly, extending his weapon and blocked their travel.
“Peggy?” I asked my assistant.
“Yes sir. She said I should wait here and bring you along when you arrived.”
I nodded, removed my hand from Lilly’s neck and stepped out of the elevator. Eric backpedaled quickly. Lilly followed a step behind me and my half squad of SEALS followed on her heels.
“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Who are these heavily armed gentlemen?”
“They’re our people Eric, new hires, you might say. Speaking of which, we’ll be getting a few new applicants, ex-employees of the FBI and DOJ. I told them to see you.”
“New applicants? Yes, of course. Good thing you got our budget restored.”
“Isn’t it?” I deadpanned.
Eric led us down the hall directly facing the elevators, around an ‘L’ bend to the left where the hall opened into a large room with a central nursing station; a large semi-square counter with two breaks on the right and left sides, and in the middle an enclosed room filled with metallic framed glass cabinets. Nurses and corpsmen, all in pressed white uniforms, bustled about with clipboards, wrapped bundles and small stacks of bedding in their hands. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare as we paraded past.
Eric took us past the station to another hallway beyond the station. We turned right and continued walking.
It took no effort whatsoever to sense the pain and discomfort that permeated those halls; the fear and abject loneliness only a sick child is capable of experiencing. There was so much, and it grated on my nerves that I had to ignore them, but a promise was a promise.
At the mid point of the second hall was a smaller version of the nurse’s station, two nurses behind the single counter that faced another room with shorter cabinets, small green tanks and racks of other assorted medical paraphernalia. To my left I spotted a cluster of people, two in knee length light-weight white lab coats, the other three in civilian dress. Izzy, Peggy and Evan DeBerg.
I reached out and put a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Who’s watching the children?”
“Agents Brewer and Skidmore have the duty right now. Coburn and McMurphy are due to replace them in an hour.”
Okay, so numbers four and two were on watch, one and three were on the way, which left Battaglia working on new identities for the hackers.
“Mr. Harmon, have a chat with the chief floor nurse back at the main station. Get a floor plan and arrange to cover all the access points to this area.”
“Yes sir.”
“You all have radios?”
“We do.”
“Secure channels?”
“Yes sir.”
“Don’t use any of the standard ones you’re used to. In fact I think it might be a good idea to switch every hour or so.”
“Will do. I’ll have the place locked down tight in ten minutes.”
I nodded. “Don’t get in the way of the staff, but be damn sure only the people who are supposed to be here get in.” I half-turned away and then had second thoughts. “Mr. Harmon, familiarize your-self with the non-hospital personnel currently on this floor. There are some of my CIA people here, as well as a rotating watch of FBI agents.” I rattled off a string of names and badge ID numbers. The head SEAL reached under his weapons harness, dipped into a jacket pocket, whipped out a small flip notebook and began scribbling. “I trust these people, and only these people. Anyone else requires vetting. Clear?”
“Aye-aye sir.” Harmon did a smooth about face and led his men back the way we’d come.
Eric, Lilly and I walked over to join the cluster on the opposite side of the open area. Izzy and Peggy had their backs to us. Evan was standing next to Izzy, facing her and the white lab coated duo, and he spotted us first.
Evan put a hand on Izzy’s shoulder, giving her a gentle shake. She’d been staring down at the floor, looked up and Evan gestured towards us with his eyes. Izzy’s head turned and relief flooded her features. Peggy turned around to see what Izzy was looking at and smiled faintly.
They looked so different from the last time I’d seen them. Their hair was unkempt, their clothes uncared for and disheveled. They were exhausted, worn and worried; their faces thin, haggard...aged. There were lines, wrinkles and bags under their eyes that hadn’t been there before. They looked…old.
Lilly rushed forward and embraced both women; they in turn enveloped her in a wet and sappy chick flick style group hug that, for some reason, annoyed the hell out of me. Shit, just about everything that had occurred after I’d stepped outside the plane annoyed the hell out of me.
Evan moved around the girls, took my arm and pulled me towards the pair in white.
“Ike, this is Dr. Martina Galloway, she’s Bethesda’s chief of Pediatrics.” he said by way of introduction, gesturing with his free hand towards a stern faced, sandy haired woman who I estimated to be somewhere between his age and my own.
“And this is Dr. Chet Griffin, he’s the hospital’s resident pediatric immunologist.” The man, and I use the term loosely, looked to be about sixteen years old, thirty pounds overweight (most of it in his face), had a close cropped skull cap of dull reddish brown hair, and was wearing the thickest pair of glasses I’d ever seen. The eyes that peered out from behind those lenses were a watery green color, and appeared to be the size of poppy seeds.
I looked the pair over quickly. They felt solid enough, but I detected no real confidence in either one.
“This is Ike Blacktower; he’s the children’s father.”
Galloway, the pediatrician, gave me a speculative look. I couldn’t tell, from his expression anyway,
whether
“I want to see my children.”
“I wasn’t asking for your permission.” I told the woman, my tone flat and empty.
Evan gave me an odd look, but stepped out and led me to one
of the nearby doors. He knocked four
times, opened the door and waved me in.
Inside was a large private room, with four small automated hospital beds, two to one side of the room and two on the other. Also inside were Number’s Two and Four.
“Gentlemen.” I said quietly. “Please wait outside.”
“Sir.” Skidmore spoke for the both of them and then they filed out and shut the door.
“What’s wrong with my kids?” I asked without preamble.
“Mr. Blacktower, your children have pneumococcal pneumonia.”
I nodded my head. “Keep going.”
“Streptococcus is the most common bacterial cause of what is known as community-acquired pneumonia. Pneumococci, the bacteria, are usually spread by respiratory droplets from the nose or mouth of a person with a pneumococcal infection. It's common for people, especially children, to carry the bacteria in their throats without being ill from it. Pneumococcal pneumonia usually starts after an upper respiratory tract viral infection, a cold or influenza, damages the defenses of the airways enough to allow bacteria to infect the area. I believe this is what happened with your children. Shaking and chills are followed by a fever, a cough that produces sputum, shortness of breath, and chest pain on the side of the affected lung or lungs when breathing. Nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and muscle aches are also quite common. The sputum is often rust-colored from blood. Your children exhibited all these symptoms with nearly identical degrees of severity.
“Pneumococcal pneumonia, though generally treatable, can be fatal, especially in the very young. What happens is that many people develop fluid in the pleural space, the space between the two layers of the membranes covering the pleura…the lungs; this condition is called pleural effusion. In rare instances pneumococcal infection can even spread to the coverings of the brain, causing pneumococcal meningitis, resulting in confusion, a stiff neck, seizures, and potentially coma. At the moment there does not appear to be any danger of meningitis.”
Waiting for what? Applause? Some sort of ovation maybe?
“I know what pneumococcal pneumonia is Doctor. I also know the difference between community and institutional pneumonia. I even know the difference between pleura, sputum and a coma. So stop wasting my time and get to the point.” I suggested coldly.
She had been inching her way closer, being quite discreet about her intentions and desires…until my verbal rebuff hit her where she lived, smack dab in the ego.
Martina Galloway backed up a step, radiating unexpected shock and disappointment. The cherubic Chet Griffin took over.
“Chest x-rays were taken immediately after the children arrived, which led us to our initial diagnosis. We also ran a complete blood count. The white blood cell count is often increased with a polymorphic predominance in bacterial infections. The children’s count is extremely high. At that point they were admitted. We then took cultures; you see in older children with a productive cough, a sputum Gram stain, immunofluorescent antibody testing and Bactec cultures are useful in isolating the organisms.
“The condition can be treated with any of several types of antibiotics. Now, antibiotics are medicines that help your body fight bacteria and viruses, either by directly killing the offending bugs or by weakening them so that your own immune system can fight and kill them more easily.”
I must have let some annoyance and impatience show on my face because he held up both hands in a gesture of appeasement, aimed somewhere in the vicinity of my right shoulder. The man was as blind as a home plate umpire.
“Hear me out…I’m explaining it this way for a reason. The vast majority of antibiotics are bacteria fighters; although there are millions of viruses, we only have antibiotics for half-a-dozen or so of them. Bacteria, on the other hand, are much more complex. While viruses must live in a host, bacteria can live independently, and so are easier to kill. Bacteria aren't particularly intelligent, but it is possible, and unfortunately all too common, for bacteria and some viruses to learn how to survive even with antibiotics around. There are now so many different antibiotics on the market that it's hard for us to keep track of them all. Personally, I almost always look up the dose of an antibiotic when I prescribe it, just to make sure that I'm giving the right medicine in the right dose. I also tend to stick to a few antibiotics in my practice, so that I can stay familiar with their effects and side-effects; most pediatricians I know do the same. Anyway, penicillins are appropriate first-line agents in children in whom pneumococcal disease is strongly suspected, but they have limited activity against gram-negative bacteria due to resistance. So far we’ve administered Amoxicillin and Penicillin V to all four of your children, but the organism that causes pneumococcal pneumonia has developed increasing resistance to these drugs. People who are infected with resistant strains of pneumococcus or who are allergic to penicillin are given erythromycin or another antibiotic instead, which is what we’ve been considering as our next step.”
The bespectacled man with the chubby face took a deep breath and I sensed a deep sadness building in him.
“The real problem now is that your children, over the past two hours, have begun to exhibit signs of massive immuno-depressive activity. Antibiotics usually depress the immune system to a limited extent while they’re at work fighting infection, but in the case of your children, something bizarre is going on and I’m at a loss to explain it. Not only are their immune systems ignoring the pneumococci, but the antibiotics are as well. Their white cell counts keep rising, but there’s no sign of dead or dying bacteria and their vital signs continue to deteriorate. We’ve been trying to decide if it’s worth trying a cephalosporin, or moving on to something tougher, like ciprofloxacin. The problem with ciprofloxacin is that, in some instances, it can do significant cartilage damage, but we don’t have many other options open to us right now.”
I looked from
“These two aren’t doctors; they’re a goddamn vaudeville act. Neither one of them has the slightest idea what’s going on. They’re guessing.” I snarled.
I twisted around quickly, projected rage and authority into
the woman, and spoke just barely above a whisper. “Take Chet,
find a place to sit down, and both of you stay out of the way till I’ve made my diagnosis.”
“You were kinda hard
on
They lay there on those beds, the four of them…so tiny, frail and helpless, bags of fluids running into their arms thru needles, oxygen masks strapped over their noses and mouths, gasping and struggling wetly for every breath. My babies; my blood, my flesh, my hope for the future…my dreams. I linked with all four and climbed inside.
What I found there shook me right down to my very soul.
When I say soul I don’t mean soul in the religious sense. I don’t think that kind of soul exists. I don’t mean soul in the way a poet or musician does either, although I do believe that kind of soul actually does exist. No, what I mean by soul is the place deep down inside myself where the tiny, unquenchable little flame that is the core of my existence resides. My will, my power…my self.
In my soul I knew what had happened. I could feel it in my blood and bones. I could feel it in each one of my children. I should have realized sooner. The clues had been right there in front of me.
I should have seen this coming.
Izzy’d had chicken pox when she was eight and mono at eleven. Ivan came down with mumps at nine, measles when he was fifteen. My father got the flu once a year like clockwork. My mother constantly had colds and eventually died of cancer.
I’d been a pale, weak and skinny kid, but I’d never been sick a day in my life. Injuries…yeah, there’d been a few of those, but always inflicted and un-natural. And I’d always healed quickly. Too quickly.
On top of which I was thirty years old and looked almost exactly the same as I had at twenty two.
The girls, once we began living together, no longer got sick, didn’t suffer from PMS or yeast infections, hadn’t aged the way their friends and acquaintances had.
The children, they’d never had croup, or colic, never cried when they were teething, never had any of the usual childhood illnesses.
Why hadn’t I noticed? Was it self delusion, or nothing more than an extended case of intractable ignorance?
“Those two very nearly killed my babies Evan.” I said, wiping a tear from my cheek. I turned away from the sight of those four fragile little bodies and fixed my gaze on my old friend. “Still, to be fair, there’s no way they could have known that’s what they were doing.”
The man stared at me uncomprehendingly. “What? Are you saying they don’t have pneumonia?”
I shook my head. “No, they’re probably right about that. That isn’t the real problem. Evan, I’ve never been sick. Hurt, but never sick. Never.” I said, emphasizing the final word.
“What’s that got to do with the price of tea in
I shrugged. “Not consciously. I think I’ve been doing it for the girls too. All these years and I never gave it a thought.”
“So when you went away, they got sick and you weren’t there to heal them.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they just aren’t old enough yet to do it for themselves. I don’t know how any of this works, no idea how it’s supposed to work. All I know for sure is that, right now, their bodies are ignoring the bacteria and fighting the antibiotics. So the first thing that has to happen is that we discontinue those fuckin’ antibiotics.”
“Son, are you sure about this? I mean, really, really sure? They’re so weak right now; their immune systems may not be able to re-direct in time.”
“I’ll give them all the time they need.”
Evan shuffled his feet awkwardly. “Janice and I went to see the girls a few days ago, like you suggested.” he began haltingly.
“Evan, this isn’t the best time to discuss my relationship with the girls.”
He shook his head. “I’m well aware of that. What I wanted to say is that Peggy told us what you did for Izzy…about her withdrawal.”
I nodded fractionally. “Alright, what about it?”
“Is that what you’re thinking of doing now?”
“If I have to, yes.”
“Can you even do that with four individuals at the same time?”
“I don’t know. I’ve
never tried. But I’d never done what I
did with Izzy before either. Evan, do
you recall what I did to Captain Rossi?”
He nodded his head. “A few days
ago I did something similar to a pair of
Evan nodded and put his hand on my shoulder. “Alright. What do you need from me?”
I gave him a weak smile in return and laid my arm around his broad shoulders. “I want all the drugs stopped ASAP. All of them. The oxygen, saline and glucose drips can stay, but everything else has got to go. And keep those two clowns and their associates away from here. I’ll kill the first one that sets foot in this room without my permission. No nurses either. Med-techs only.”
“Consider it done. You’ll be in here I take it?”
I nodded, grabbed hold of an ugly green upholstered chair, placed it so there were two beds to my left, two on my right, and sat down.
“What should I tell the girls?”
I kept my eyes on the four small figures, linked once more and divided myself among them.
“Tell them…just tell them I’ll be in here. I’ll explain what’s going on when they come to check on the kids.”
Evan nodded and moved away.
I heard the door open and close, but all my attention was on the occupants of the four beds in front of me.
I could have started by destroying the bacteria. It would have been easy enough, but counter-productive in the long run. It might seem illogical, but they needed to do that on their own in order to develop a natural resistance. I wanted to eliminate the antibiotics from their systems first, but I had to wait for the drip bags to be replaced, so I could be sure all the little buggers were removed.
So, while I waited for the techs to come in and replace the drip bags, I did the only thing that made any sense.
I reached down into the depths of my own body, tapped into the tiny little flame and channeled it thru the links into my children. I paid special attention to maintaining a filter between the links and all the powerful negative emotions I carried. I needed those ugly bastards to feed my ability, but I’d no way of telling what kind of impact they might have on sick little kids and I wasn’t the least bit interested in finding out, not at the risk of their lives and health.
I sat there for a good ten minutes, feeding my babies four trickling streams from the core of my self, before the door opened and two young women entered. With an unoccupied portion of my awareness I did a quick scan of their feelings and emotions. The pair were trying to maintain an air of detached professionalism, but underlying that studied calm was a distinct sense of sadness and pity.
They quickly and efficiently disconnected all the drip bags from Belle and Rose and replaced them with two fresh ones.
“What are those?” I asked softly, just loud enough to be heard. One of the young women jumped slightly, startled, and looked over at me as if she’d been unaware of my presence.
“Glucose and saline.” she replied haltingly.
“No antibiotics?”
“No sir. Colonel DeBerg was very specific. No antibiotics of any kind are to be administered.”
I nodded. “No drugs of any kind.” I added forcefully.
“No sir.” she agreed, and returned to her work. When they’d finished with Belle and Rose, the pair moved quickly across to Tink and AJ’s beds, repeating their actions.
Once they’d finished, they gathered up the used drip bags and made to leave. The one I’d spoken with stopped next to the chair where I sat.
“You’re their father?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She seemed uncertain.
“Their mothers are outside. You can ask them, if you don’t believe me.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. Really.”
I smiled just a bit. “I know.”
“Will they be alright? The doctors say that without the antibiotics…”
“Doctors are as human as anyone. Sometimes they make mistakes, and sometimes they’re just plain wrong.”
She nodded. “Yes sir.” The two filed out, leaving me alone with the children.
Then the real work began.
I climbed inside my babies and, millimeter by millimeter, I worked my way thru their bodies, from toes to scalps, hunting down and destroying every lingering trace of antibiotics I could find.
With that completed, I pulled back into myself and waited. And waited.
I continued feeding them from the source of my power, just enough, I hoped, to bolster their own strength and encourage their immune systems.
Twenty uneventful minutes passed.
Belle coughed wetly and tried to reach up for the mask that covered her nose and mouth.
I was up out of the chair and crossed the room to stand next to her bed like a shot. I took a cloth from the tray beside the bed and wiped the sweat off her face, brushing her damp stringy hair back behind her ears.
“Shhhh. Rest easy, honey. Daddy’s here.” I lifted the oxygen mask and cleaned the interior, then wiped the perspiration and mucus from around her nose and mouth before replacing the clear plastic mask.
Her eyelids fluttered and then opened. Her beautiful blue eyes were glassy and unfocused, but they fixed on my face and she smiled weakly.
“Daddy?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and muffled by the mask over her mouth, but I heard her. I smiled broadly.
Rose, Belle and Tink, had all learned to say mama within days of each other; their first cogent word. At eight months they’d mastered an awesome vocabulary of ten words, not one of which was daddy, or any variation even remotely similar.
Their mothers were very proud of their offspring, and justly so. Don’t get me wrong, I was too. They knew their mothers by sight and smell and would even fuss a bit if held by one of the other girls for too long. None of them ever fussed when I held them, no matter how long. But they just wouldn’t say daddy. I tried my best to encourage them, to teach them, but they stubbornly refused.
After a while it actually began to hurt when I’d hear one of them call out to mama. The girls told me not to take it personally, and I tried…I really did, but it still hurt, and I walked around in a mild funk for a couple of weeks.
One night, ten months to the day after their birth, about three in the morning, I was jarred awake by a very strong feeling of panic and fear. I eased out from beneath Peggy, climbed over Lilly, got out of bed and stood there trying to figure out where the feeling had come from.
It stabbed thru me again and again and again…three sets of fearful panic. I linked with the women in my bed and found only relaxed contentment.
I rushed to the bedroom door, flung it open and charged across the hall to the nursery, flipped on the light and stopped dead in my tracks.
Standing up in their cribs, bellies pressed against the rails and holding their arms out to me were my daughters. Holding their arms out and up, the way they did when they wanted to be picked up and held.
I tilted my head and stared down at them.
“Daddy!” My heart started pounding as if I’d just run five miles. Belle, she was the first.
I stepped over to Belle’s crib, picked her up and held her against my heart. She sighed happily and went right to sleep.
“Daddy!” another little voice called out. I looked to the right and saw Tink, her face half hidden by the bars of the crib, bouncing up and down and reaching out to me.
I moved over and scooped her up with my free arm, sliding her in next to her sister against my chest. Tink wiggled like a happy puppy and then fell asleep as well.
I patted their backs gently, swaying my shoulders back and forth.
“Daddy?” the remaining little voice inquired. And it was definitely a question. I looked over at Rose, who was franticly reaching out, desperation and fear written large across her face.
I clamped my left arm securely over Belle and Tink, moved close to the third crib, put my hand beneath Rose’s bottom and lifted her up. She squealed happily, lunged forward and wrapped her little arms around my neck.
“Daddy.” she cooed, kissed my cheek and then buried her face against my neck and fell right to sleep.
I stood there in the nursery, holding my daughters in my arms, for the better part of two hours, broadcasting love and feeling about as good as I figured a man possibly could.
Of course, after that they would not shut up. Daddy became their favorite word for the following three weeks, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. But I never got tired of hearing it.
I bent down and kissed Belle’s forehead. “Daddy’s here baby, daddy’s here.”
She tried valiantly to sit up, but didn’t have the strength. I sat down on the bed beside my daughter and watched as her unfocused eyes shifted right to left and back again. I put the palm of my hand against the right side of her face, lightly rubbing my thumb over her cheek.
“Shhhhh…go back to sleep sweetie. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“…hurts…” her muffled voice worked its way thru the mask, barely audible.
I winced, inside and out.
What the hell had I been thinking?
“I’ll fix it baby.” I whispered, and immediately began to pull all of their pain and discomfort back against the flow of the links and into me.
All four of them began breathing a little easier. Belle’s eyes fluttered and then slowly closed.
I got up and moved from bed to bed, mopping sweat from faces, cleaning out the insides of oxygen masks, and just generally checking to be sure they were as comfortable as I could make them.
I returned to my seat and waited, monitoring their bodies from outside and in.
Time passed the way it always does in situations like that…at a snail’s pace. It felt like weeks had passed before the door behind me opened again and two different young techs came in, followed closely by Peggy.
The techs, a male and female this time, busied themselves taking vital sign measurements, checking the drip bags and the oxygen mask flow from the regulators in the wall units next to each bed. I kept a close eye and a closer link on the both of them.
Peggy approached me cautiously, perching herself on the armrest of the chair I was in.
“Rough night, huh?” I asked.
“You could say that.” She reached out slowly, put her arm around my back and leaned against my shoulder. “How are they doing?”
“Better.”
“What did we do wrong Ike? I don’t understand…” Her voice was strained and as full of tension as she was.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, half-pint.” I explained to her what I believed had occurred, and why I’d come to the conclusions I had. It took a while. By the time I’d finished, the two techs were long gone.
“So they’d have gotten better on their own if we hadn’t brought them here?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I can’t say that for sure, but I think so. The fact is I’m not certain how much influence I’m having just by being in the same room with them. The only way to know for sure will be for me to leave. And as soon as I think they’re strong enough, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
“What if you’re wrong? What if they can’t beat this without you?”
I sighed loudly. “God, I hope that’s not the case.”
We sat there for a long minute, both thinking our own private thoughts.
“I missed you so much.” she said at last.
“I missed you too. We both did.”
“What happened to you Ike? I could feel you coming hours ago. You know how you can feel a train or a car coming towards you…the sound starts real low, so low it’s more of a feeling than a sound, and then it gets louder and higher pitched the closer it gets?”
“Yeah, Doppler effect.”
“That’s what it felt like to me. And I knew it was you…it had to be you. No one makes me feel the way you do…you vibrate, you make me shiver all over. But never, ever, like it was today. I swear, sitting here right now, it’s like being under high power lines…really loud high power lines. What happened to you?”
I shrugged again. “I got stronger.”
“How?”
“I have no idea.” I muttered. Then I shook my head, a spastic movement that caused my head to throb even more than it had before. “That’s not quite true. I have an idea; I just don’t know how good it is.”
“Lilly said you told her it was puberty.” And she started giggling.
I snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her off the armrest and into my lap, enclosing her in a snug embrace. I held her close, but never for an instant did I take my eyes off the four small figures lying across the room.
“Think that’s funny, huh?”
“Well, yeah. Don’t you? I mean, honestly, a big strapping boy like you going thru puberty again at your age.”
She wiggled her hips ever so slightly and lowered her voice. “Any…changes I should be on the lookout for?”
I snorted quietly. “Nothing like that.”
I felt her frown, felt her curiosity growing. “Then what?”
The corner of my mouth twitched, and I got a sudden, and somewhat malevolent, inspiration.
“Why not link with me and find out for yourself?” I suggested. “But…be careful. I’m linked with the kids.”
Peggy’s frown increased, but in the end her curiosity won out.
She formed her link and cautiously extended it. I felt it build between us, felt the feathery touch, the slithery worming sensation as it worked its way in.
Peggy’s entire body began to shake, vibrating from head to foot like an oscillating crystal. Her eyes rolled back in her head, only the whites showing and her mouth opened in a silent moan.
I took pity on her after a few seconds and snapped her link, although I have to confess that I rather enjoyed the effect her shaking body had on my lower body. But I didn’t want any of that making its way down the links I had with the children. They didn’t need that kind of stimulation in their lives just yet.
Her body went slack and she gasped for breath.
I held her close and she pressed her face against my chest, still laboring for each breath after two minutes had gone by.
“You okay?” I asked.
Peggy nodded, rubbing her face against my jacket. “That was incredible!” she muttered.
“Not very much fun though, was it?”
Peggy pulled back and hammered her fist lightly over my heart. “It was and it wasn’t.”
I nodded fractionally.
“What was that?” she exclaimed in a whisper.
“What did it feel like?” I asked in return.
“Like french kissing a lightning bolt.” she replied.
I chuckled. “Just imagine what making love’s gonna be like from now on.”
Peggy shuddered violently, put her face back against my chest and began laughing hysterically. I stroked her hair and joined in, laughing quietly.
I loved that little woman so much. She was adventurous, curious, more intelligent than I’d ever imagined, and as fearless as anyone I’ve ever known. On top of which she was cute, cuddly and sexy as hell.
God I’d missed being around her.
I shot a blast of love, large enough and powerful enough to kill a rhino, directly into her inner ring. Peggy groaned quietly, shuddered softly and sighed.
Then she giggled brightly and sent one almost as powerful right back.
The throbbing in my head faded away into memory and I felt
stronger and more alive than at any time since I’d left
“I love you too.” she said.
“I’m glad you do. Very glad.” I told her, squeezing her tightly.
“You’re not crazy, are you?”
“No more than usual.”
“That’s good. I couldn’t feel him in there this time.”
There was no mistaking who she meant by him.
“Yeah, well…he’s there. We’re all there, so to speak.”
“We?”
“There’s two of them. One dark, one light.”
“How come I couldn’t feel them?”
“I guess because I’ve finally accepted that they really are me.”
“Maybe that’s what changed. Maybe that’s your puberty.”
“Maybe.”
We sat together quietly for a few minutes, and then I asked the question that had been bothering me since I’d laid eyes on Peggy and Izzy.
“So, you wanna tell me why she’s avoiding me?”
“Who’s avoiding you? Izzy?”
“Yeah, Izzy. Lilly’s still pissed that I might possibly, potentially, accidentally have blown up the plane. But why hasn’t Izzy come in?”
Peggy squirmed uncomfortably. “Look, the past few days have been kinda tough for her.”
I nodded. “I don’t doubt that one bit.”
“I mean, what with you and Lilly being gone, me and Izzy all alone with the children for the first time in a long time, neither one of us with a job to go to…”
“Come on Peggy, what’s really bothering her?”
Peggy sighed. “Evan and Janis came to visit a couple of days after the two of you left.”
“Yeah, he mentioned that.”
“Janis doesn’t like us very much.” she said morosely.
I smiled half-heartedly. “Janis doesn’t approve of our arrangement. But I’ve never known her to allow personal feelings to influence her professional judgment.”
“Trust me, she did this time. She let Evan do most of the talking at first, but I could tell. She was cold to me, but she was downright hostile towards Izzy.”
“And Izzy blames me because I arranged it?”
“No. Ike, Izzy may not be able to link like we can, but she’s not stupid. She can tell when someone doesn’t like her. Janis, once she stopped letting Evan talk and sent him off to play with the kids, she got real personal, and real nasty. With both of us, but especially with Izzy. Asking about our sex lives, about Izzy’s childhood, hinting that you’d molested or abused her and was she suffering from suppressed memories, wanting to know if the children showed signs of retardation or deformity…Izzy just went off! I’ve never seen her so mad. I thought she might go looking for one of the guns and shoot the bitch. I wanted to shoot the bitch. Instead, she just started yelling…cussing up a blue streak, calling her every dirty name she could think of, insulting her family and her family’s family and their friends and pets…then, when she ran out of things to cuss Janis about, she started on you.”
I nodded sagely. “Ahhhh.”
“Ahhhh? That’s all you’ve got to say?”
“How long did she rant about me?”
“Half an hour, give or take a few minutes.”
“And what did Janis do or say during that half hour?”
Peggy stared up at me for a long, empty, silent few seconds. “Nothing. She didn’t say a word. Just listened.”
I nodded again. “Ahhhh.”
Peggy punched me in the chest. “Will you stop doing that?”
I chuckled and smiled. “Sure, if you’ll get to the point. Why is Izzy avoiding me?”
Peggy looked and felt as though she wished she were anywhere else at that moment.
“Belle was outside the room. She heard.” she whispered.
Her words completely failed to take hold in my brain. “Heard what?”
“Heard Izzy call you her little brother.”
Ahhhh…
…fuck!
I think my heart actually stopped beating for a second. I know for a fact that I stopped breathing.
Ten, twenty, forty, sixty seconds passed before I remembered to take a breath.
I felt myself growing colder. Crystalline webs formed across the surface of my eyes, my blood slowed and became sluggish, my heart beat slowed to half its normal rate and my thoughts began racing at high speed.
“Are you sure Belle even understood what she heard?”
“I’m sure. I overheard the girls talking about it later that night.”
“Izzy thinks I’m going to blame her.” I said.
“Izzy blames herself. She’s convinced you’re going to hate her when you find out.” Peggy cocked her head and peered up at me. “But you don’t, do you?”
“Of course not. Just between you and me, I think Rosie worked it out weeks ago. And if she knew, or even suspected, she’d have told Belle and Tink.”
“You don’t seem all that upset about this.”
“Oh, I’m plenty pissed, but not at Izzy.” I exhaled loudly. “I’d have preferred the kids not find out about this till they were, I don’t know, forty or fifty, but I never actually thought we could hide it from them forever.”
“Izzy was crushed when she realized that Belle had overheard. She just folded up and started crying. And that stupid cow…she sat there smiling and feeling so fucking smug and superior! So I zapped her fat ass.”
Cold water thrown over a frozen lake. That’s how I felt at that instant.
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“Nope. I drained all of Izzy’s feelings and shoved them right up Janis’ fat bovine buttocks.”
All the blood drained from my face.
“Shit.” I muttered quietly. Then a thought occurred. “Peggy, where’s Janis now? Did she come here with Evan?”
Peggy looked puzzled by the question. “No.
He said she’d gone to attend a conference in
“Shit.” I repeated.
“Well, she deserved it!” Peggy snarled.
“I’m not saying she didn’t. The thing is, apart from you girls, Evan and me, no one else knows that you’re an empath. Now Janis does.”
“So what? What can she do? Who’s she gonna tell, and who’d believe her?” Peggy snarled.
I sighed. “There’s a few in DC right now who might.” I shook my head. “Oh well, one more person to put on my to-do list. I’ll take care of Janis.”
Peggy calmed down slightly and sagged against me. “I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. But you weren’t there…you didn’t see what she did.”
I gave Peggy a gentle squeeze. “It’s not that big a deal. I’m more concerned about how Belle and the other kids took the news.”
“I couldn’t tell. They haven’t felt any different, but they kind of kept their distance for a day or two. I don’t think Izzy even noticed. She’s taken the whole thing pretty hard.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
Peggy shivered and pressed closer. “Why is it so cold in here?” She slid her hand inside my jacket and rubbed her fingers over my chest. “Jeez…your skin’s as cold as ice.”
“Sorry. I’m still a little angry.” I tried to relax my thoughts, think happier, more pleasant thoughts. “Do me a favor? Tell Izzy I’d like to see her?”
“Now?”
“Yeah. No point delaying things. Bring Lilly too, you should all be here.”
“Okay.” Peggy slid off my lap and headed out of sight. The door opened and shut quietly and silence filled the room.