Needles and Butterflies

Twenty-Seven

Tim sat in the lab, staring down into the microscope at the cells he had modified. He smiled and sighed before quickly marking in his work journal. He looked over at the most recent scan of Elliott's brain and smiled softly, seeing that the tumor had gotten significantly smaller.

"Chalamet, we need to talk," Kruger said, bursting into the lab suddenly.

"Oh, Edwin. I was just about to call you, Elliott's cells are finished. And look, his tumor has shrunken significantly. We need to schedule him for surgery-"

"There isn't going to be a surgery," Edwin said softly.

"W-what? What are you talking about?"

"I just got off of the phone with our investor... he's decided to pull his funding." Tim felt as if the world was crashing around himself.

"W-why would he do that? What are we going to do?"

"It turns out he only ever gave us the funding because his wife grew a form of tumor in her own brain... he slipped us her file while we were choosing our last patient... we chose Elliott and his wife passed away..." Timothée stood up and began pacing back at forth, feeling a crushing weight set on his chest.

"W-where else are we going to get $20 million?" He asked, running a hand through his hair. "How are we supposed to break the news to Emma that we can't save her brother because some passive aggressive millionaire decided to pull our funding?"

"Timothée, we are doctors. We lose patients everyday... sadly, it is just a fact of life. We handle this just like we handle everything else. We can apply for funding other places, but there's nothing more that we can do..."

"I need to get some air," Tim said, suddenly bursting out of the room. He walked outside and let out a soft sigh as he began walking away from the hospital. He ran across the street to the nearby park and found a lonely tree. He lowered himself to the ground and put his head in his hands.

"Are you okay?" A sudden voice spoke out. Tim looked over quickly and saw Luke sitting nearby next to another tree.

"No, not really..." he muttered. "Are you?" Luke scoffed slightly and shook his head.

"Same..." they let out a collective sigh and Tim ran a hand through his hair. "What's wrong?" Luke asked softly.

"I can't really talk about it," he muttered. "It's just... I had a chance to help a friend and their family, and now I can't because a stupid ass rich man got to call all of the shots... and now, because of that, my patient will probably die. Please don't tell anyone this. I'm not even really supposed to tell you anything." Luke just nodded softly in response as he thought for a moment.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," he muttered. "But... you don't mean-" Tim looked up at him and sighed softly. "Emma's brother?"

"I really can't say..." Tim muttered. "But... I had really hoped that we could make a difference... I really hoped that we could-" he stopped himself and shook his head. "It doesn't matter now," he whispered.

"Why was your study canceled? What happened?" Luke asked. "And don't worry... I already get that you can't tell me." Tim let out a bitter laugh and looked back up at him.

"Our sponsor cut our funding," he whispered. "Now we need to find another $20 million so we can save some damn lives..." Tim sighed and stood up. "I need to go... maybe I can do some damage control... hell, maybe I have to grovel... I'll see you later, Luke." Tim turned and walked away, leaving Luke alone, sitting in the grass. He looked down at his lap as he thought silently for a moment.

He knew what he had to do... and it involved spending a large sum of money that he could barely remember making.

~~~