Lucidity

Chapter 5 - Vital Signs

Alex pushed at the wheelchair’s wheels, struggling to pivot in the narrow hallway. By the time he was turned around, Kat was in a full grand mal seizure. Her arms and legs banged against the empty lockers, creating a clashing crashing noise like dueling reggae drums.

He sucked in his oxygen, tried to find the strength to leave his chair and help his friend. Then Grace was there. And, he saw with approval, she knew exactly what to do.

She gathered Kat’s bouncing head into her lap, letting the arms and legs go where they would. She didn’t do anything stupid like put something in Kat’s mouth. Instead, she merely turned Kat’s head to one side, ignoring the drool that spilled onto her jeans.

There was only one thing she hadn’t done. Alex reached down, snagging the monitor from Kat’s belt and turned it off.

Grace looked up at that. “Don’t they need that? They’re recording her seizures, aren’t they?”

Alex nodded, his hand fisted on the monitor in case Grace decided to turn it back on. Not that he could fight her if she did.

“How long?” Her gaze darted to the clock on the wall. “How long do they usually last? Maybe I should call—”

Kat stopped seizing. Her arms and legs slowly ceased their flailing. Her body went slack in Grace’s arms. Grace leaned forward, monitoring Kat’s breathing, then nodded in satisfaction and turned her attention back to Alex.

“She has Rasmussen’s Syndrome,” he said. “They want to remove part of her brain—almost half of it.” He handed the monitor to her.

“They need the recording to know exactly what parts of her brain have been affected,” Grace finished for him. “Otherwise the surgery will leave her just as bad off as before. Rasmussen’s is triggered by a virus, but once begun it’s progressive. If she doesn’t have the surgery soon, it might be too late.”

“She only wants to stall it by a day or two,” Alex said. “It’s her choice.”

“So you sabotage the recording.” Grace was quiet, her eyes on Kat. “She wants to wait until after her birthday?”

He nodded, both surprised and pleased. Most grownups wouldn’t understand. “Her parents promised they’d be here for her birthday. They have a farm and six other kids; they can’t come very often. She’s afraid she won’t wake up after the surgery, that she’ll be a vegetable or a different person...”

What would Kat think of his sharing her secrets with a stranger? Then he looked at Grace, her fingers soothing Kat’s bald forehead, her voice crooning the nonsense syllables of a lullaby as Kat’s exhausted body writhed in the confusion that hit after a full body seizure.

Maybe Grace wasn’t a stranger after all. Maybe she was one of them.

Kat’s eyes fluttered, then opened.

“Shit,” the girl snarled, struggling to sit up. She wiped drool from her face. “Damn it, not again.”

<><><> 

Eve and Jonas Helman left the conference room and Vincent was alone. He could hear Eve laughing at something the neurosurgeon said as she shut the door behind them. Jealous stirrings rumbled through his gut.

He barely knew the woman. Not like that had ever stopped him before. And she’d made it perfectly clear she was interested in Vincent.

So what was the problem?

Helman. Vincent needed the Chief’s support to get his staff appointment. As Chairman of the hospital’s Executive Committee, Helman could make that happen for him. With the malpractice suit hanging over his head that was probably the only way Vincent would be staying at Angels of Mercy. He grimaced. To be indebted to Helman—he’d rather sell his soul to the devil.