Lilith, for all of her abilities, knew she couldn't really do anything here in the hospital... though she did want to do something.
She could sense something in the air when she first came in when her son had been brought here, gone through orthopedics to deal with his bone breaks, and then to the ICU given how much blood he had lost. She was sure her son would not die because of power she had wrapped around him, but the very same spell that kept him alive had the cost of keeping him from being a "strong", masculine, man, too. In some ways she wondered if this was a good trade, given that all magic had a price.
As for that smell of magic... it didn't smell like anything she was used to, but it sure had some elements that did smell like her doing, but could not account for what it may have become.
It had been after Percy had been transferred to a step-down unit, after the MDs had finally acknowledged that her son's life was no longer in danger, that some of the extra pieces to the puzzling magic materialized.
She'd been visiting her son when another boy-- a Native American, what the locals called "Indians" with a curl of their lips, which pissed her off-- was wheeled in and placed in the bed by the window... and heard her son greet him, saying "Hey, Tommy, it's good to see you again. Thank you for buying me time..."
The other boy smiled at him, saying "Just wait until Grizzly has you in her arms again, boy. I gotta watch that... heck I'd pay to watch."
For the first time since the incident, Lilith heard her son laugh with a sound of joy she'd never heard from him before, the kind of laughter she'd despaired of ever hearing from him. "Yeah, Tommy, but I've heard that you made quite an impression on Harmony, too!"
The new boy-- Tommy?-- chuckled. "It'll be a lot easier on her now that she doesn't have to sneak into the ICU, though I think some of the nurses were helping her get away with it."
Listening to the banter being exchanged between her son and this boy made Lilith's heart soar.
Well, for a little while, until she heard her son ask, "Any news on Grizzly? I heard from Harmony that she got sent to the psych unit from the ICU and Harmony can't go into the locked unit."
Lilith heard Tommy sigh. "No, I have no idea."
"Son," Lilith spoke up, drawing their attention. She'd been suppressing the ability for people to notice her-- which did a lot to maximize her life expectancy-- and she was startled to see both boys look at her. "Who... or what... is this 'grizzly'?"
Tommy spoke up, saying "Sally Whitehorse. She owns the nick-name of Grizzly... and your son, here, has become her... ummmm... she calls him her 'little princess'. She's my cousin."
Lilith nodded. "Thank you. Son, is it all right if I go see her?"
The look of fear on her son's face was... reassuring, some how. He was obviously afraid that his mother would try to derail a relationship he'd formed behind her back.
She knew that he had a relationship-- she'd have had to been struck blind to not see and feel it in his heart-- but all of her efforts to look in on his love had been scrambled, somehow. There was something 'jamming' her efforts to see the face of his true love.
All she knew was that she still worried. It might take one hell of a lot of effort to kill her son... but it took so very little to hurt him.
Stepping out of his room she went back to the lobby and the wonderfully manipulable person to give her the pass needed to get to see this Sally Whitehorse.
Getting into a locked unit isn't all that hard, really. The hard part is usually getting back out again, but Lilith was certain she had the ability to slip in and out, even without the pass she carried.
Finding the room where this... 'Sally'... was being held was not hard, but, on trying to walk into the room she bounced off of... something.
Concentrating this time she made it into the room past some kind of "pressure" and looked at the sleeping girl on the bed.
It was a larger than usual hospital bed because the patient, herself, was larger than usual, built to a robust standard somewhat larger in scale than the "normal" human body. The girl on the bed was... impressive... and not the kind of girl she thought her son would be a good match for, though, come to think of it, this girl had proven herself to be more than merely fiercely protective of her love.
In other words, that one trait was what she would have wanted in her son's mate. That one trait made her perfect for her son. Lilith smiled, thinking of getting to hold her grand-children by this girl.
Lilith could sense the strength in the girl, held at bay by the medications in her IV, and could also feel, just like she could do with her son, her commitment to her true love.
For a moment the thought struck her that the love between this girl and her son didn't smell like the one she'd been hoping for. She could recognize her role in the "field" the girl-- and her own son-- were swimming in, but it wasn't more than 60% her doing. Something else was mixed in.
Taking some care to re-engage her stealth spell-- something she'd seen described in satirical sci-fi as a "somebody else's problem field"-- she sat down to watch this girl as she slept, watching the ghostly apparition floating over the girl's head, that looked so much like something she'd glimpsed hovering over her son's head.
It was only a couple of minutes later when another woman walked in, carrying a mug of coffee... and noticed Lilith immediately, despite efforts to escape notice.
When you have power and sight you can tell things, just by looking. Lilith knew, immediately, that this woman was the mother of the girl on the bed. Lilith could also tell that this new woman had her own form of power... and sight. With the recognition of a peer, she spoke up, "My son loves your daughter, you know."
The Native American woman smiled back. "And you can tell that my daughter loves him back, right?"
Lilith smiled. "Yes. I was hoping he would find his true love. It is strange to know that she is her."
The strange woman smiled. "You did more than hope, didn't you?"
She couldn't keep her face straight when she realized that she wasn't alone in trying to ensure her son had a good woman to love, honor and cherish him. "As did you, it looks like. I can tell that my work is in there... mixed with another effort, too. My name is Lilith, by the way."
"Agnes," the woman answered, "and I wanted her to find a man to settle her down, but... I noticed it all went wrong. I can also tell that they're now a catalyst. It isn't as strong when they're not next to each other, but it has affected people around them."
Oh, shit, pondered Lilith. Like alcohol, it is unwise to mix different magics.
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Author: Jack C Lipton Title: Visiting Hours - Lilith and Agnes Part: 3/ Universe: Hybrid Vigor 04C Summary: Can you pronounce "Whoops?" Keywords: Revision: $Revision: 1.2 $ Archive: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/CupaSoup/www/ Mailing List: FAQ: RCS: $Id: synergy04c.x,v 1.2 2008/02/25 04:48:50 jcl Exp $