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The waiting room was quiet. Marcia the receptionist sat by the phone doing the New York Times crossword. Poupette crept. She hoped none of the others found out she was visiting this place. At least not when it was mandatory. It felt like she had just dealt with this person when she had visited the Church of Histhology.
There was a loud buzz.
"Doctor Colm will see you now, Major," said Marcia.
The doctor's door opened and Poupette entered as quickly as she could. She took her seat in on the couch. Kendall Colm looked up.
"Well- I didn't expect you here for another six months per company policy," Colm said.
"Something wrong with that?" Primeaux asked.
"No. Some of the others meet with me regularly. This work you do can be stressful," Colm said.
"They are civilians. I'm Army-"
"So you can handle it?"
Poupette sighed.
"I thought I was. You've heard?," she asked.
"A few bits here and there. Still, I'd like to hear it from your perspective," Colm said.
"It all started with simple divorce proceedings-"
Josh and I were down in part of the medical bay that had been set up for my experiment. We were keeping a close eye on Chloe and Angelica. Say what you will about Chesterfield in the field, but in the medical bay he's a total professional. Nothing like the noise I could hear out of the other room.
"Report."
"EEG shows several anomalies but condition is over all stable," Josh said.
"Good," she said.
Then for no apparent reasons the monitor's started going crazy just like they did yesterday before Chloe became a little girl and Angelica- well the less said about that the better. This was weirder. Approximately three point eight seconds later their bodies had vanished only to show up on building security sensors as being three stories up in Andy's office.
"Whiskey tango foxtrot," I muttered.
Josh was up there in minutes. By the time we got there the room was all ready a blood bath. Josh- he was a good soldier. He went right for the injured. He assessed their injuries and went to work on triage. For my part I was surveying the room. Bridge is stronger than he looks for a man of his age. He was pummeling Andrew. Andy barely managed to shove Bridge off of him.
"Ah- Major- get back to the medical bay," he said.
His lip was bloody and his left was shut. His right hand and leg weren't looking too good either. Bridge looked like he barely had a scratch on him. I hesitated and then helped him.
"Major- I said get back to the medical bay- now!" he shouted.
"But-"
"No buts. That's an order."
When we got back there we found Curry in the hallway.
"It looks like they left him alive. They just worked some sort of 'Vulcan nerve pinch' on him," Josh said.
"From a purely strategic standpoint it makes sense. He may be a liberal prick- but he's a high profile liberal prick. They couldn't risk the exposure if they killed him," I explained.
I didn't see where Andrew went until I heard the shout.
"DAMMMMN ITTT!" he yelled.
Poupette walked back to the waiting room. There was no one there. She thought was home free. The door opened. Lucas walked in.
"What? You!"
"Don't tell anyone I was ever here," he said.
Lucas walked into the waiting room and was immediately motioned into Colm's office. She smiled curtly.
"Now there is a face I haven't seen in a long time," she said.
"Hey Doc," Lucas said.
"What seems to be the problem?" Kendall replied.
"Where to start..."
"Well- from I heard from Ellie- it sounds like some congrats are in order," she said.
"About that-"
"What?"
"Well-"
I walked into the Medbay. It had been days. I know Ellie had an inexplicable experience but I've seen true miracles performed in that room faster than these tests were taking. Granted I guess Josh had his hands full. Normally he'd have Angelica in there with him. What with all the goings on with all that weird pyschic scanning stuff maybe he was a little overwhelmed. I don't know her name. Finally, after waiting for more than an hour, he let me go back and see her.
"How are they treating you, babe," I asked.
"Fine."
"Good-" I said as I put down the box I was carrying. "I snuck you some Snickers bars and a BLT from the break room. They tell you anything yet?"
She sighed.
"I'm pregnant," she said.
"Who is he?" I said. "I want to beat the crap out of him!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ellie exclaimed.
"The guy who fathered this child. Who is he?"
"You are."
"That's impossible. Simple genetics. Humans and parahumans can't reproduce," I said.
"That's not entirely true. My uncle Jeff-"
"Had a few genes loose and he can change the color of his skin to match anything he touches. So what? It doesn't mean anything..." I said.
"It means I have a one in eight chance of being a latent carrier. One in six if you factor in my great grandmother," she said.
"Then why didn't it happen before?" I asked.
"I don't know. I just know that it did," she said.
I was silent for moment.
"I don't know if I can do this. I mean- look at me. I don't know if I have what it takes. Oh, I could probably do better than my dad, but that wouldn't take much. Finding out he'd been spending all those business trips in D.C.- and having a six year old sister you didn't know about till you were twelve. I mean really-"
"You're not him."
"I know that. I just got my life back together. I'm not sure I can handle this big a shake up right now," I said.
"You asshole! How do you think I feel?!" she shouted.
"- and she's right. I didn't know how she felt. Really all she's asking me to do- cut back on the music, finally give up that chip on my shoulder and throw out the stupid costume. To give myself a chance at a normal life. It's everything I've ever want but-" Lucas trailed off into silence.
"But..." Colm prompted.
"I'm afraid. I've performed some of the crappiest songs ever written in the ugliest costumes imaginable. I've fought off an army of tiny robot mice that wanted to eat Utah. But getting up at 2:00 AM to change diapers- that's scares the crap out of me," Lucas said, clutching his head. "What the hell is wrong with me, Doc?"
"Which do you really want? The normal life or that old life?" Colm asked.
"I don't know. I just know I need her with me," Lucas said.
"Don't tell me. Tell her that," Colm said.
"I would- but I'm afraid she'd throw another flower pot at me," Lucas said.
"Just try it. I'm sure you'll both calm down eventually," she said.
"It's not just that. When the Wolf Pack showed up- I was blind sided. I failed to protect her. How can I be a good father when I can't even protect her from..."
"- a group of super powered and heavily armed terrorists who not only outnumbered you by at least three to one but were . . . let's face it, better trained and in much better shape than you?" Colm responded.
"Well- when you put it that way it does seem kinda silly," Lucas said. "Thanks Doc."
Lucas walked out and closed the door. Kendall pushed the record button on her computer.
"- so it is my professional opinion that Father Perrenias's own assessments were not based on any facets of patients' psychology but on his own biases, many of which are expressed in his papers. That is not to say the patients have no underlying psychological issues to deal with, merely that none of those issues meet the measures of a full blown psychosis," Kendall said.
Marcia walked in.
"Doctor, there is a patient here to see you," she said.
"It's after five. Tell them come back tomorrow," she said.
Andrew coughed.
"Don't forget who signs your paychecks, Doctor," he said.
"Andrew, how may I help you?" she asked.
"I did something I swore I'd never do. I made a mistake. I misjudged just how far my opponent was willing to go, " Andrew said.
"You're only human," she said.
"You know that isn't true."
"Everyone one makes mistakes, parahuman or not. Genetically they might not be the same species, but psychologically they are indistinguishable," Kendall said.
"There are some things about that scuffle with the Wolf Pack the others aren't telling you The mistakes I made could cost one of my people their life. He's up in the ICU as we speak," he said.
Next: The Quintessence of Dust
Characters created by Jesse N. Wiley and various authors
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