Book 2 of “The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 13: A Demented Visit
Note:
My little experiment in speeding up my postings hasn't gone well. My responses are down, the download counts are all over the place, and it looks like posting three-days a week is causing more confusion than it's helping. As a result, I'm going to return to twice-a-week. It means the story will take a little longer, but it's easier for me to manage, and it looks like it's easier on people tracking the story.
Vincent
‘Once more, it’s time to switch perspectives, since Alex’s only memory of the events recounted here were the result of people describing things to him. To understand more, we need to focus on those that managed to surround him at the hospital in the hours that followed. While they may not affect how we see Alex as the leader of a movement or as a spiritual leader, it still gives us insights into how he handled events, and also how people related to him during a crisis. Plus, actions undertaken at this time bear a little more insight into Alex’s unique abilities.’
Cate quietly observed her brother with great concern. She knew they’d come very close to losing him and whatever amazing things he was destined to achieve. If Alex hadn’t acted so quickly she was sure he would be gone now. As it was, he still suffered quite a bit, but, aside from some minor scrapes and cuts, it was his mental state she was mostly concerned with.
She watched his now quiet form. He was resting semi-quietly now, although he’d been ranting on and off the entire way to the hospital. He had to be restrained to prevent injuring himself. Damn, he almost bit the ambulance driver, even if she’d thought it was cute. Cate simply shook her head. She could never believe the things her brother could pull off, even unintentionally.
Once they’d gotten into the hospital he’d continue to spout gibberish, sometimes speaking somewhat sensibly, other times getting glassy eyed and mumbling. She knew he was still in serious danger, as these were all signs of brain trauma, and that wasn’t good news no matter how you looked at it. The hospital staff in the emergency room had finally given him something to allow him to rest, with the strict provision that he be awakened every so often so they could measure his responses.
Cate knew what they were afraid of, aside from getting bitten or his falling off the bed, that is. They were afraid of swelling in his brain, though Cate was even more worried about longer term consequences. It would be terrible to see her brother on the cusp of something great, only to have him fall into a permanent dependent state due to the actions of one crazy individual.
Just the thought of Brandon set her on edge. Man did she ever want to rip that creep a new one. He’d clearly been on something. He simply wasn’t acting rationally. But then he compounded it by manipulating the police into treating everyone as common criminals, when they were all victims of his ruthless attack. She hoped the others were OK. She knew the police were busy questioning everyone, so she didn’t know if anyone would be available to sit here with Alex besides her. Alex definitely deserved to have his many loved ones beside him in his hour of need. Instead they were all….
The nurse came in then, probably to check on him again. For some unexplained reason they’d removed him from the emergency room, where he clearly belonged because he was obviously having an emergency. Instead they’d placed him here, in a private room. It afforded more privacy, but that was something she didn’t need at the moment, and Alex wouldn’t be able to put it to any use while he remained semi-coherent.
The nurse began checking his vitals and Cate decided to take the opportunity to see if they knew anything yet.
“Can you let me know what you are planning to do with Alex? I’d hate to think you’ve just shuffled him off to the corner while something serious is happening to him.”
“Oh, no, Miss Jennings,” the nurse responded to her formally, which Cate immediately thought was odd. “He’s had a pretty severe concussion. We’ll have to keep a watch over him all night. If it’s bad enough we might have to open his skull to alleviate any swelling or excess bleeding on his brain. He’s going to get a CAT scan momentarily. That’ll give us some idea of the damage, but it’s always difficult to tell with concussions. The CAT only reveals concentrations of blood. Everything else is just guess work.”
While explaining this, the door quietly opened and a physician she recognized as Dr. Ryan Moore, the hospital administrator, entered. Dr. Moore was the man who took Alex on a tour of the hospital, having him help out on numerous cases.
“No he won’t,” Ryan insisted. “He won’t need a CAT scan. I have it under good authority from a scan done at the scene of the accident that he only has minimal bleeding. They’ve also informed me of the extent of the bruising to his brain and just how much swelling is occurring. We’ll go ahead with some tests, just for documentation, but they’ll be complete MRIs instead of a useless CAT scan. I’ve cleared their schedule so we can get him there right away, but I want to wait until my assistants can get here.”
At this point he turned and addressed Cate directly. “Those idiot police were trying to hold my medical personal at the scene of the accident because of some wild assertions the attacker had made. Luckily someone had the good sense to call me directly, rather than just leaving everything to the police. That’s how I managed to route the ambulance here instead of to the nearest treatment center, and why I knew to reserve this room for him. I let the police know what I thought of their holding my people, and had them release at least one of them. I’m hoping Allison at least will be able to get here shortly, as I want to ensure there’s no further swelling or any new bleeding.”
“But,” the nurse started to reply, taking a moment to consider how she’d phrase her comment to her ultimate superior, “we need to know the extent of…. Wait, you said you know what parts of his brain were specifically injured?” She sounded astounded by the idea.
“That’s just not possible,” she continued. “There’s no way of knowing how much the human brain has been injured by an accident like this without a….” Here she hesitated, not wanting to mention an autopsy in front of a worried relative.
“Normally that’s true,” Ryan assured the nurse. “However I have some specialists who have access to a new technology which can effectively measure the actual extent of any and all brain injuries, without any surgical intervention or even using any radiation. That’s why I’m so anxious for them to get here.” Just then his phone rang, distracting him.
“Pardon me, one moment, this is likely to be important,” he said, addressing Cate directly.
“Hello, Dr. Ryan Moore here,” he answered.
“Yes, sir, I understand, sir. Now if you could get that message across to the police on the scene. They’re holding my medical personnel. We need to bring this matter to a successful resolution. We need those people, because otherwise there is no way to treat this patient.” He listened for a moment.
“Very good, I’m glad that’s finally being addressed. I’m glad you could help. I’ll be sure to keep you apprised of the situation as it develops, though I have it under good authority that, aside from some mild temporary dementia, the patient should suffer no long term damage.” He said a few more things, but after Cate heard him say “no long term damage” she was so overcome with relief she didn’t hear much more.
She broke down in tears of relief at that moment, and the doctor came over and patted her on her back, quietly reassuring her.
“That was the Senior Senator of the State of Louisiana calling to assure me that he’d personally spoken to the Governor to help get them to prioritize their handling of this affair. Someone must have called in some big personal favors to arrange this, and somehow I’m not surprised your brother managed to have it done for his benefit.”
Cate looked up, glancing at him through tear soaked eyes. She observed the nurse still standing there, apparently fascinated enough in the proceedings to remain quietly observing what the hospital administrator had to say.
“He said your friends should be free to travel soon. I don’t know how long it will take them to get here, or who they allowed to leave before this, but I think things are looking up now.”
Cate briefly wondered who she knew that could arrange such major intervention in their case, but immediately realized that it had to be Allison. She kept stressing how she knew several prominent individuals in New Orleans. Apparently she’d used her connections to pull some strings. Cate was thankful, and made plans to personally thank her for whatever she’d done.
The door opened again and Allison entered, followed by a uniformed policeman. She immediately hurried to Alex’s bedside, pushing the useless nurse out of the way and closely examined his head. The cop examined everything in the room, apparently recognized the good doctor, nodded and quietly left without saying a word.
“You’re going to have to get him off of whatever they’re giving him as it’s only confusing things, but he seems to be doing OK,” Allison advised everyone, immediately assuming the role of the major medical expert on the scene. “The bruising on the underside of his brain is a little worse, but the small portions affected in the front and the side is no worse, and there’s only minimal bleeding in there. Overall he’s looking pretty good. How is he responding?”
The nurse started to answer, but Dr. Moore signaled her to be quiet and they all turned to Cate for her personal observations.
“He’s been semi-coherent, occasionally lapsing into nonsensical ramblings. They put him on something to keep him quiet, mainly to keep him from accidentally injuring himself. I insisted they take off all of his restraints, telling them I’d personally watch over him to ensure he didn’t accidentally hurt himself. Since then he’s been mostly sleeping, although they come in about every 30 minutes to evaluate how much sense he’s making,” she informed them all.
“Every twenty minutes,” the nurse corrected her.
“From now on, this woman,” Dr. Moore insisted, indicating Allison, “is in charge of this man’s care. Do whatever she says. I don’t care what anyone else says, including the head of neuropathy. If she says don’t do something, no one does it. Is that understood?” he asked, staring pointedly at the poor nurse. She nodded nervously, then hurriedly left to spread the new orders to the rest of the staff.
“When was the last time you spoke to him?” Allison asked Cate.
“It’s been a while now. I thought she was coming in to wake him again, but she first checked all his vitals, then she started explaining things and….” She left the obvious conclusion unsaid.
“Well, I’d better try to wake him up then,” Allison announced, more to herself than anyone else.
“Just be careful when you do,” Cate advised with a brief laugh, “he tried to bite the EMT on her tit.”
“Maybe that just means he’s perfectly normal,” Allison teased in response.
“Yeah, it sure looked like the old Alex,” Cate agreed. “She was more pleased than annoyed by it. Only he could charm women while he’s babbling incoherently.” Her words sounded mocking, but her love for her brother shown clear for each of them to see in her eyes.
Allison gently shook him, whispering softly. He jerked a bit as he came awake.
“Leave the blue pants … where’s my pretty breastie?” he mumbled.
“Alex, Alex, it’s Allison. We’re checking to see how you are. Can you understand what I’m saying to you?”
“Uh, Alizon? Where’s the pretty breast that was … uh, that was….”
She turned to regard Ryan. “Yeah, I’d describe that as semi-coherent. He recognizes words and actions, but can’t quite formulate complete thoughts.” She cradled Alex in her arms as she thought a second.
“Why don’t you see if your friends in the neurology department have a model brain I can use to show you what areas were impacted by his attack. In fact, bring down a neurologist so he’ll be able to advise us on what the damage I describe might be liable to do in this case,” she ordered the doctor. He immediately pulled out his phone and began dialing.
“Remind me,” he told Cate as he was waiting for the phone to be answered, “I’ve got an attorney your father should probably have for this, just in case it gets ugly. I don’t know what he can afford, but if he needs help, I’m sure I can barter a substantial reduction in his fees.” Cate simply nodded at him as he quickly turned back once his call was answered.
Cate moved up and ran her hands along her brother’s face as Allison cradled him. This is more like it, she thought. He deserves to be amongst his many friends.
After Ryan’s hurried conversation with the neurologist, he quickly called Frank Jennings to convey his offer and information, as well as asking how things had been progressing.
“They’d been holding everyone for questioning,” he whispered to the girls. “They were taking the attackers words over theirs, despite the denials by his sister. Once the Governor called the police chief, and he called the officers, things got moving again. Your parents and the rest of the girls are on their way here. Apparently the other girl I met before, Chalise I believe her name was, came here in a separate ambulance to be checked as well. They don’t think she really needed anything, but her brother was yelling about suing everyone, so they decided they wanted evidence of his assault on her. I’ll have someone downstairs check on her for us.”
“Chatty?” Alex groggily asked, seeming to brighten a bit. “Chatty’s hurt?”
“Alex? Can you tell me the date?” Ryan asked him, finally stepping up and trying to evaluate Alex himself.
“I already have … one … morrow,” he weakly tried to explain.
“No, do you know what the date is?” Ryan proceeded to explain very slowly.
“Today or … morrow?” Alex asked, trying hard to focus.
“Today’s fine,” Ryan assured him, although Cate was sure that wasn’t what he’d been trying to ask.
“Friday, April 7th?” he asked, unsure.
“Very good,” Ryan told him. “What year is it?” Alex mumbled a year, seemingly at random.
“Not what year you were born, silly,” Cate told him, gently stroking his cheek.
“When can I talk to the breasts again?”
“As soon as you promise not to try biting them,” Cate assured him, her eyes again growing misty.
“All right,” Ryan said, stepping back so Alex wouldn’t be further distracted by him. “He is indeed semi-coherent. He recognizes simple facts, names, even the current date. But he seems unable to put them together in a sensible pattern.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” Allison said, agreeing with his symptoms.
Another doctor entered then, slightly heavier with a wispy head of hair and a thin mustache and wire rim glasses.
“Ah, Dr. Padilla, welcome. We’ve got a most unusual case that I think you’ll be interested in. Now, before we say anything further, I want you to avoid asking any questions about what you hear. Just assume that, however unlikely, what you are going to be hearing is true. We need you to advise us on the possible extent of this man’s injuries based upon what Ms. Livermore here tells us. Also, I want to say that, anything said here is NOT to leave this room. You have to swear to not repeat a word of it.”
Dr. Padilla, intrigued by a new mystery and confused by the secrecy insisted upon, grudgingly agreed. When asked, he handed Allison the plastic model brain he had brought along with him.
Stepping away from Alex, leaving him in his sister’s capable hands, Allison proceeded to point out each of Alex’s injuries from having his brain severely jostled. She described the extent of the damage, while avoiding any description of odd colors or how she derived the information. When Dr. Padilla tried arguing there was no way to possibly know such information, Ryan simply hushed him, and the discussion continued.
They proceeded to briefly discuss possible repercussions of an injury of the type described. Dr. Moore then described Alex’s symptoms. The neurologist agreed that it sounded likely, occasionally glancing over at Alex as he did so.
“Well, if there’s no more substantial injury than those, I’d guess he should recover pretty quickly,” he surmised. “But we’ve never been able to measure brain injuries before, and we don’t know how much a ‘simple’ bruise might impair someone. Still, I’d try to keep him awake and talking. Chances are he’ll be able to focus more that way and he’ll regain more of his rational thought process as a result.”
Ryan thanked him, then asked him if he’d like to stay and examine the patient as he recovered. He agreed, but they immediately got into a quiet discussion over whether they shouldn’t do an MRI for comparison purposes. They both agreed, though Ryan said he’d been planning on doing a baseline in the morning, but that that idea was moot now.
Gail Sanders paused outside the door. She’d felt drawn by whatever stood on the other side of the door while she was driving past, a good quarter mile away. Being an officer, she had learned to listen to her instincts. They’d worked for her in numerous instances, leading her to be one of the most promising officers on the force. Yet she wasn’t sure until she started getting closer. The nearer she got, the stronger the feelings grew. At first she thought it was just an intuition about something occurring, so she was watchful. But once she’d reached the hospital she knew there was a source of great power here, something she’d never encountered before and she was anxious to find the source.
She’d assumed it must be a person, if this much power was generated by an inanimate object it would be classified a dangerous substance. It took her a couple of tries to get the floor correct. She knew when she’d passed it, but had a hard time figuring out the exact floor. Now she stood outside the door and she could actually feel the source of her feelings residing inside. She felt more than a little nervous. More nervous than when she was about to break into a dangerous suspect’s house. Then she only had to fear for her life, now she was afraid of what or who she may find. Death is certain, what she was facing was completely unknown. Girding herself, she slowly opened the door.
Cate, Allison and the two doctors turned when the door suddenly swung open. They were surprised when a young policewoman entered the room, glancing around as if she was searching for something. She had the typical police style, hair pulled tightly back into a bun and wearing a cap and starched blue uniform, so it was hard to gauge her true looks. However, she looked more curious than if she was on duty.
Ryan quickly became defensive. “You’ve got no business in here, Miss, as this is a private medical evaluation.”
However, the police officer paid him no heed, as she quickly focused on the helpless figure on the bed. She slowly approached him, as if afraid, and looked down at him for a moment. She looked at him reverently for a few short moments, then Allison suddenly decided something. Allison pushed her back, manhandling and turning her, shoving her towards the back of the room. The young woman kept glancing back at Alex, over her shoulder, but Allison was insistent.
“OK, stop looking at him. This is important. If you want to help him, you need to focus. Did you look in his eyes?”
This seemed to focus the woman’s attention, though you could tell she was fighting the constant desire to glance back at Alex.
“Yes, I looked at him, but he didn’t seem to react to me”
Allison nodded. “Cate, get over here. Let the nurse earn her pay by looking after your brother, you’ve got something to look after here.” As she drew near, Allison quickly started explaining what she had picked up on.
“She’s one of us, but she hasn’t been activated yet. That means it isn’t simply the eye contact that is necessary, but that Alex needs to be alert enough to be aware of what he’s doing. It’s clearly a conscious thing that he’s doing. We’ll have to wait until the others get here, but, in each of them, I remember seeing a particular bright spot in their brains that other people don’t have. This woman doesn’t have it yet. That seems to imply that when Alex activates us, he triggers something in a specific area of the brain.”
She turned and called out to Ryan, who had been drawing closer along with Dr. Padilla. “I think now would be a good time to take Alex for that MRI you both want. We’ll take this one with us so she’ll be out of the way. When you get back, I’ll watch her as she first greets Alex. I think I already know the area involved, but I’ll make sure when I see it actually happen. I think we’re ready to discover another significant piece of the whole Alex puzzle,” she told him, growing more and more excited, despite the fact that Ryan still didn’t know much of it.
Dr. Moore called the nurse and started shouting instructions, growing excited himself. He wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but he knew it had to be significant. He knew he had to document what was happening, but he already trusted these people enough to assume that whatever they told him was true. He was already sure that Alex would be OK, but he wasn’t sure if the time needed to run an MRI would be enough for him to recover. He wanted to get it done as soon as he could, as he was anxious to see whatever Allison was looking to discover.
Everyone started moving then and Allison and Cate guided the woman, whose name no one had even asked yet, to the nearby visitors lounge while the nurses were busy getting Alex ready for a trip to the testing suites. Without Alex being conscious, Allison couldn’t communicate with any of the other women, so she quickly called them while she gave Cate a chance to brief the new woman.
“Hey, this is Allison,” she responded when Shani answered her phone. “Are you guys close? We have an interesting situation here. No, no, Alex is fine, although he’s still only slightly coherent. That’s why I have to use a phone to talk to you guys. I’ll explain everything when you get here though.”
Shani told her she’d need to contact Brooke, as she’d called in a panic when she felt Alex’s fear and then couldn’t contact him afterwards, so she assured her she would, but that they had a lot to do in the meantime. She then turned to Cate and this newest member of their coterie.
Apparently Cate was too busy detailing everything involved in being a member of Alex’s select group to even slow down enough to ask anything of the officer, who was listening, fascinated with everything she said.
“The others should be here soon,” Allison told Cate. “I’m having them meet us here, so I can do a baseline on them before I observe what it is I’m looking for. I’m assuming Dr. Moore will call me when they’re ready to return.”
She observed this newest woman, who, although somewhat pretty, looked stark and severe with her hair pulled back in that bun and wearing her uniform. She wasn’t a big girl, but was in good condition, apparently from spending time in a gym and on her job. Beyond that she didn’t try to figure anything else out, she simply assumed she’d learn it when Alex did, since she wanted him to be the first to get to know her, rather than trying to pass him faulty information from a hurried conversation.
Gail found this whole thing quite odd. There was clearly a very important person lying injured in the next room, and the people in this room with her were apparently in charge. What they’d just told her was amazing. Hell, if a witness had told her this story during an interview she’d have laughed at them and called in for a psych evaluation. But now she was sure they were telling the truth. She knew this was no mere young man.
She also thought it was strange that no one would even ask her name. She got the idea that man, heck, that kid, was in control of everything around here and that no one wanted to do anything about her until he accepted her. She could understand that. They had their own controls and it only made sense that he’d want to vet who he accepted to join him.
She briefly wondered what kind of protection he had. The fact that he’d been attacked meant that someone had gotten through whatever security was set up, and the fact it wasn’t a gunshot or knife wound meant there weren’t many safeguards around him. She’d have to look into that. For now, she’d just go along with whatever they told her. Clearly there was a lot for her to learn yet.
Allison’s phone rang, so she quickly answered it. It was Shani again, saying that they’d arrived and that they wanted to check in and reassure Chalise on the way. Allison quickly told her to let Natalie do that, since she always felt she couldn’t do enough for Alex, but that she needed both her and Anh here as soon as they could arrange. They assured her that if it was concerning Alex, they’d run the entire way.
When she hung up she turned and picked up the last bit of the other two’s conversation, the officer was finally saying something for herself.
“… saying I’ll see these colors, but will it impact how I normally see everything? I mean, I’m a police officer. If it affects how I perceive things.”
Stepping in quickly she sought to set things right, “Don’t worry, it appears like a vague veil over everything, adding a different sense to your normal five. It doesn’t affect your vision at all. We just talk about visions and colors because we have no other words to describe it. It will be clear once you see it for the first time, but it’s very hard to describe. Plus, there’ll be plenty of us to help you adjust to it.”
“That’s a relief,” she announced. “As hard as it is to believe, I’m already set to give up my career to do whatever he, what was his name again, Alex, well, I’m ready to do whatever I can for him, even though we haven’t spoken yet.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Cate assured her. “First of all, all you’d hear if you talked to him now is how talkative your breasts are, and Alex seems to affect everyone that way. He seems to affect even those without the capacity to perceive his abilities that way.”
“Man, I can’t believe I’m this anxious,” Gail announced. “I’m used to dealing with stress, and life or death situations, but I’m more nervous about meeting him than I think I’ve ever been.”
“You don’t have to worry,” Allison assured her. “Each of us who have been through it knows exactly what you are experiencing.”
Just then Shani and Anh arrived, breathing hard from their rush to get there as soon as they could. Allison introduced them to the new girl, still without bothering to ask her name. As far as they were concerned, she was effectively Alex’s, and she was his present to unwrap and figure out how to utilize. They simply didn’t have the capacity to utilize her the way he could. They knew they often stood in for Alex, or argued with his stands when he wasn’t sure and needed their advice, but they also respected both him and his abilities enough that they’d never dream of standing in his way.
Allison explained to the new arrivals what she planned, and the new girl started to explain who she was. Allison quickly stopped her.
“Listen, as much as we respect you, and know we’ll all love you, we consider that to be strictly Alex’s business. Meeting him for the first time will change your life in a way like nothing else ever has, so I’m not going to diminish the impact either of you have on each other by getting into your personal details. Alex will know what to do with you, even if he’s not recovered yet. He’s often unsure of what to do, but he’s pretty good at always picking the correct thing to do.”
The others arrived, bringing word of Chalise with them. They all hugged while Natalie told them she was OK, just shaken, but that her father had shown up. He’d been alerted by the police and had proceeded to make a fuss in the ER, shouting and screaming at her, being much more concerned about Brandon’s career than his daughter’s being attacked.
“She’s sorry she can’t be here, but she’s anxious about Alex. She said she’d personally castrate her brother if it will help,” she laughed.
“No, I’m not going to guess about what he’ll want,” Shani explained. “Alex is pretty forgiving, but he seems to know things about people that I couldn’t guess. If he wants vengeance I’ll be glad to offer it, but if he asks for our forgiveness then he’ll have it, too.” The women all agreed with that sentiment.
About then Allison’s phone rang and she answered it, it was Dr. Moore, letting her know that Alex was on his way back and asking her if they should try to rouse him yet.
“Not yet, I figure the more time he has for his brain to rest, the better it’ll be. We are all ready here. Oh, by the way, make sure your people in the ER file an official attack charge with the police for Chalise. She’s in the ER at the moment with her father, who is anything but sympathetic towards her. And see if you can arrange for a drug test for her brother Brandon, who came in with a broken knee.”
He acknowledged that and said they’d be there soon. They prepared themselves and headed out, making their way to Alex’s private room when they finally encountered Alex’s parents. It seemed they had this silly notion about respecting the rules of the road when Alex was in trouble, so it had taken them longer to get here. They all hugged and reassured each other until they finally heard Alex being brought out of the elevator.
Something shook me, but I tried to shrug it off. I wasn’t ready to wake yet, I was enjoying my memory of my flashing blue breasts.
“Alex? Come on Alex, you need to wake up now.”
I didn’t much like the idea, but I slowly came around and opened my eyes. There seemed to be a few people standing around, but I was having trouble making them all out. I groaned and tried to roll over.
Whoever had tried to rouse me tried to do it again.
“Leave lone … like blink breasts,” I answered in a voice that sounded slurred even to my own ears.
“Alex, your girls need you,” said a familiar voice. I recognized it. I looked up and saw a different breast this time. This one had pretty bloody flowers on it. I tried to focus and I saw my sister Cate above them.
“Cate, what are you doing on this … camping trip? I got into a … bar fight with these real … shiny breasts,” I bragged to my 7-year-old sister, even though it seemed to take a long time to explain it to her.
“Man, you’re really out of it,” she replied with a relieved grown up voice that didn’t fit her 7-year-old body at all. “Wish I could have a shot of that medicine they’re giving you.” I thought of medicine, which reminded me of medicine floating above my head, which reminded me of another enticing breast. There was some important thing I couldn’t remember. I told myself to focus. It was important but I couldn’t remember why. It had something to do with breasts biting me or something. Then it hit me.
Chatty got hurt. I sat bolt upright in bed and got woozy for a second and started to list to the side.
“ALEX! Watch it, you’re going to fall out of bed.”
“Got … got to help Chatty,” I stuttered.
“Chalise is going to be OK,” I heard Cate’s soothing voice trying to calm me.
“Need help!” I insisted.
“You already did all you could. You weren’t much help, but thanks all the same.”
“You’re not Chalcy. You’re sister. Catelynn something.” Things were slowly coming back to me.
“Cate. And you’re Alex. How much can you remember,” she gently prompted me.
“Not much.” I stopped and tried to gather my thoughts. “Everything keeps coming, going. Sounds, voices, lights, breasts.”
“Yeah, you kept talking about breast in the ambulance. You tried to bite the paramedic on hers.”
“I thought I got bit by one,” I mumbled confusedly.
“Nope. You, bit, one. Or tried to, at least. What else do you remember?”
“Chatty’s brother tired … tried to … hit Chalice.”
“No, he hit you. Don’t you remember what used to be our antique chair?”
“Chatty’s an antique?” It was hard to focus.
“He’s still only somewhat lucid,” replied an older, bossy voice. I tried to focus on it, but there were a lot of things in the way.
“No, I think I know how to get through to him,” my little sister said, even though she wouldn’t stay the same age for me.
“Alex, there’s someone here who needs you. It’s important. She’s like the others. She needs to know who she is.”
Somehow this seemed to trigger something in my cloudy mind. Need. Someone needed me. Again. Chatty needed me, but little Catelynn said I hit her with a chair. No, that wasn’t right. Think. Who needs me? My sister needed me. She always needs me. But that wasn’t it. She never told me she needs me.
Was it kitty kat? No, there was something about others. I could feel myself weaving in place again, and saw several people reaching for me but one of them waved them off. I tried to think again. Catty and Catey were both OK. Who needed me? Others. Then it struck me.
It was another of my girls. My eyes opened wide and I looked up at the faces surrounding me. As I did I immediately zeroed in on one I didn’t recognize. As I did, she stumbled and took a step back, only to be caught by someone. An older man I somehow recognized moved towards her, but someone else waved him back.
Even in my confused state I recognized the response, and I tried marshalling my strength to be there for her.
“There, it just flicked on like he switched on a light. It’s in the same area as the rest of us.”
I recognized the voice, it was one of my girls but I couldn’t seem to recall her name, although I knew I should. Al or Bert or something like that. I tried to remember, then recalled I had something else to think about. It took me a moment to remember what, but a woman’s hesitant step towards me triggered the memory.
Someone else moved over and grabbed something, it looked like it was a plastic ball or a fancy Japanese toy.
“It’s right here,” they said, pointing at a line on the oddly shaped ball.
“That’s the fore section of the inferior frontal sulcus. It’s near the speech and consciousness areas of the brain. That settles it, you’re both getting immediate intense training in anatomy and physiology. I don’t care if you’re officially in Human Resources, I’ll figure out a way to arrange it. You’re both too valuable to not know the basics.”
“But wouldn’t that put it, technically, outside of the brain?” another familiar voice asked. I looked from one figure to another. I recognized them, but they were all talking faster than I could recall their names. I also wasn’t sure what the hell they were talking about. It didn’t seem to make much sense. Training in inferior souls? Human sources? Value basics? None of this was making any sense.
“It’s in that region, but I can’t place it exactly. What I see is based on the intensity of the energy, rather than showing its actual physical size. I’m guessing it’s just on the edge of it, but it would have to be within the active brain tissue for it to make any connection, but it would have to be far enough to the edge that it wouldn’t damage any vital brain function.”
“If he did something, what, I couldn’t even begin to imagine, to that region of the brain, he’d have to have a detailed knowledge of the brain’s anatomy. Not only is it completely impossible, but the amount of research and training it would take would be phenomenal,” argued a voice I didn’t recognize.
“Wha…?” I tried to ask, as I had no sense what he’d just asked me.
“I warned you that you aren’t to interfere. There’s a lot more going on here than we are ready for yet, but it’s hard to argue with results,” said the older man, the one I recognized. One of my girls wrote something on a notepad and showed it to the man I knew and the one I didn’t. Some crazy numbers flashed across my mind, then the new woman, also my girl now, dressed in a uniform, said “957-326-50342.782”. I had no idea what was going on, what she was saying, or even who was who. There were just too many people to figure out who I knew and who I didn’t.
‘What … Who … Which…,’ I thought, although I wasn’t sure what I was asking, who I was asking or what was going on.
‘Alex?’ I could see her mouthing the words after I heard them, which just confused me. I shook my head to clear it but that was a mistake. It produced a stunning pain that shot straight through my head. Immediately several women clustered around me.
“That’s not a good idea,” some genius informed me.
“So I … so I gathered,” I managed to spit out. Someone in a white uniform offered me a pill, but someone else gave her a dirty look and she pulled her arm back.
“We need him at his best. Drugs won’t help that,” they insisted. I tried to nod at that, but that hurt too.
“Don’t nod, in fact don’t speak, just tell us without words,” someone near me, I think her name is Shammy, told me.
“Does she mean—” that obnoxious guy I didn’t know started to ask.
“Shh,” he was immediately shushed.
‘Everyone slow. Hard follow. Let think,’ I managed to get out. She answered with a quick slicing motion across her throat.
‘Who new girl?’ I asked her.
‘Gail Sanders, your majesty,’ I heard in reply. I hadn’t remembered asking her, but her response focused my attention on her again.
‘No magi, just me,’ I answered. ‘Why form?’ I asked. She looked confused for a second, then brightened.
‘I’m a police officer, out of St. Louis. I was—’ I waved her off, forgetting Sheshe’s instructions.
‘Too much word. Ask Cate, she tell,’ I managed to get out.
‘Yes, we already talked. She explained everything,’ she replied.
“Everything?” I asked, forgetting I wasn’t supposed to talk. “Why speak me?” I asked. I was slowly starting to handle concepts, but speech or forming sentences was still difficult.
“We wanted to get you thinking again. Cate suggested it. I also think your women didn’t want to make any decisions concerning me,” she answered, also forgetting we weren’t supposed to use words. But then again, she didn’t have to worry about her head hurting like mine was.
There was a sudden noise, some arguing outside and the door opened, to reveal another policeman. “Is he conscious yet?” he asked brusquely.
“I’m sorry, but this is a private medical consultation. You can’t come in here now,” that guy said, I think he was more something, but I couldn’t quite remember.
“It sure doesn’t look like a medical consultation with all his friends and family here. We need to interview him to determine who the victims and who the attackers are,” he insisted and he pushed his way into the room, followed by yet another policeman. The rude one regarded me and everyone looking at me, waiting for my next comment.
“You can’t barge in here,” Gail responded. “This is a private meeting and the proceedings are protected by medical utterance.”
The larger of the two cops barked a short laugh. “There ain’t no damn medical utterance clause to the law, besides, he’s not suspected of anything.”
“No, but you have no cause to force your way into a private meeting, and you aren’t going to get any information out of anyone by antagonizing his entire family, just as they’re trying to evaluate whether he’s likely to regain his full mental abilities,” she informed them. Personally, most of what was being said was going right over my head. I was picking up the occasional word, but that was about it. I knew I didn’t like either of these guys, though.
“No talk. Everyone shut,” I announced, my voice still surprisingly weak. Instantly everyone shut up.
“Now look, I know someone pulled some strings and got us in trouble over this, but there are a lot of accusations being thrown around. Unless someone says something, we don’t know what to do with anyone,” the big guy insisted. He was met with a completely silent room. He just looked from one person to another for a few moments.
“Fine, we’ll release Brandon Jones and officially press charges against everyone who was in the house when the attack occurred. How’s that with ya?” he asked with a real attitude.
“You can’t—” Dr. Moore started to protest until someone cleared their throat and he instantly shut up again.
“You … release … Brandon. We sue entire force. Nice own … your house,” I told him, although he had to walk forward to understand me. This seemed to set him off even more.
“You can’t just shut the police up with vacant threats just because you have a few friends. There are conflicting valid claims of assault, and we can’t do anything until we hear both sides,” he said, addressing me. His fellow officer touched his shoulder, trying to say something to him but he just shrugged him off.
“Short statement, only,” I said, finally starting to get the hang of parsing short sentences.
‘Give short statement, Shammy,’ I instructed her. I knew that wasn’t really her name, but I didn’t want to get distracted for fear I’d lose track of what I was doing at the moment.
“I’ll speak for him, since he’s in no shape to be saying anything at the moment,” she announced. “He and Chalise had returned from their date and were sitting alone in the living room when the doorbell rang. When he started to open it—”
“Wait, wait,” the abusive officer insisted. “You can’t give us testimony in front of a group of other witnesses. That’s called collusion.”
The new girl, Gail, looked at me, presumably to ask if she could speak. I merely nodded and she spoke for me.
“If you insist on a statement from someone incapable of speaking at the moment, then that’s all you are going to get.”
The guy sneered again, “You, of all people, should know that I can pull you all in for questioning. We’ll see who’ll stay silent then, when you are all facing charges.”
Gail started to answer but I warned her off.
“No one speak, no matter what … what you threaten. You victim brother, testify against him, make bad witness.” It was a struggle, trying to string together coherent thoughts, but I knew this had to be dealt with now.
“Look, creep, I don’t know what you have over everyone, but I’m not going to let some brain damaged idiot dictate how I enforce the law.”
“What do?” I asked him, playing up the helpless routine, after instructing Gail.
“I’ll pull up every damn ticket your family ever had. I’ll pull you all over anytime you pull out of your driveway. I’ll make each of your lives a living hell,” he threatened, looking clearly pissed.
“I not do anything. I victim. I hit with chair in head,” I stated, slowly, struggling to enunciate each word clearly, playing it up for all I could.
“Yeah, the real victim claims you’re all a bunch of lying, racist, neo-Nazis,” he snarled.
“Yet … mother, sister, brother each defend?” I asked pointedly, hoping that Darrell would back up his sister and not his own brother.
This seemed to throw the guy for a moment, during which his partner tried to talk some sense into him. Finally the guy seemed to lose it and yanked his arm away from his partner.
“All right, asshole. Brain damage or not, I’m pulling you in. We’ll see how well you speak after spending a night in the slammer with the local criminal element slamming your ass!” With that he started towards me. I nodded and suddenly everyone formed a shield around me.
“Touch him, and I’ll personally shoot you,” Gail quietly assured him. “It’ll be considered justifiable defense once the hospital’s video shows you dragging a screaming victim with head injuries out of the hospital after telling him you’re going to arrange to have him gang raped.”
The officer halted and visibly paled. His partner, apparently a little more in control than he was, walked up and again pulled him back.
“I think we’ll leave you all to look after your friend. Just don’t try to arrange a common story because we’ll be able to figure that much out. We’ll be back when the good doctor here tells us the young man is medically able to testify. The rest of you we’d like to see, if that’s all right with you?” he asked, looking directly at me.
“He says that’s fine,” Gail assured him, completely unnerving him as I simply glared at him. “He says that Shani will go with you, but I’ll sit in, at least until the family’s lawyer can be there to protect them from any potential unlawful prosecution.” With that Shani stepped forward. I signaled to Ryan who, after a second to think of it, also stepped forward.
“I’ve got their lawyer on speed dial,” he announced. “If you can handle not threatening them for a few moments he’ll be up shortly. I’d also like to insist, since you’ve already been recorded threatening the entire family, that the interview take place on the hospital grounds, where the family lawyer can utilize the recording.”
They both looked unsure, the burlier guy visibly shaking with anger and frustration. I was hoping he’d lose it for the video camera, but his partner won out.
“We’ll have to speak to our supervisor about whether that’ll be acceptable. We can’t agree to that ourselves, but we’ll advise him that it just might be an advantageous position to take at the moment.”
“Thank for you … consid… eration,” I managed to get out. “We don’t … have a problem … with speaking honestly. We just … won’t be railroaded.” I was getting winded from all the effort this intense concentration was taking.
The one guy simply grunted, while the other one thanked me and escorted his partner out. Ryan followed them out to ensure they didn’t immediately head to the area where the central recording equipment was kept. At least I assume so. Actually I had no idea whether they had those facilities here or not, but I didn’t think the local police by our house would know that either.
Once they were out of the door someone closed it behind them and they all turned to me.
Before anyone could say anything Gail spoke to me. ‘Alex, I’m glad you were OK to think of all of that. I managed to record it all. I’ll give a copy of it to the lawyer when I see him. Take care.’ I was glad she was so enthused, but I was still having trouble with that many words strung together.
“Well, you seem to be recovering pretty well,” asked the one guy I’d never met before.
“And you are?” I asked.
“Oh, sorry, my name is Dr. Edward Padilla. I’m the chief of the Neurology department here at the hospital. May I just say that you have got to be the most amazing—”
I waved him off. There were just too many words for me to follow it easily. I was doing better, but I was feeling exhausted.
“Please, tired. Need to rest. Are we done?”
He looked around, at which point Allison moved to help escort him out and Anh assured me she’d guard the door. I grunted in acknowledgment. I’m not sure what everyone else did, but I took that opportunity to close my eyes and that’s about all that I remember.
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