Meliora - Emanate - 46

[lady_mab]

*character death

Lionel Darcy

The evening air hits us with sharp teeth the moment we disembark from the bus. Across the street, the glaring lights of the hospital watch us approach.

Lia stumbles halfway across the street. Her grip on my arm means that she nearly pulls me down with her. "What if--" she starts, trembling. "What if it's a doctor that's associated with the game?"

Jun and Zoné, who haven't said a thing the entire ride, don't hesitate long enough to contemplate an answer. They don't even pause to see if we are keeping up.

I don't know why we agreed to come along. Lia and I still consider ourselves on the fringe of this group. Being here, at the hospital, at this pinnacle moment…

It's a step that we won't be able to take back.

"You know," I grumble, helping her upright and tugging her along behind me. "I'm sure they've figured it out at this rate, don't you?" When she doesn't respond, I glance back to realize that she's staring numbly at the building as we approach it. I'm not getting anything else out of her. Not unless she trips and jars another thought loose.

For my part, I only spare the ALICE building a brief glance before we jog up the stairs -- chasing after Jun and Zoné's retreating forms.

The hospital is practically empty at this hour. We catch the tail end of a frantic conversation from Zoné and the nurse at the receptionist desk before we're shown through the side doors and into the sterile brightness.

Unlike the labyrinth of halls that I've become vaguely familiar with over the last few months as we've come in for our check ups, this is the part of the hospital that I know best. From all of the years and months and weeks coming in with Liala, before this game even started. Before her medicine started working, and we had to keep a close eye on her health and breathing.

A tall, tan-skinned man in a white coat meets us in the back waiting room, a stern expression on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm Doctor Sawyer. I take it you're the friends of the boy they just brought in?"

"Glen Willis," Zoné pushes. One hand twitches and flexes anxiously at his side while the other grips Jun's in a vice. She returns it with equal force, clutching with both of her own to keep from shaking. "Is he alright?"

"I'm sorry," Sawyer says, clinical. A small sound escapes Lia before he can even finish. "I'm afraid he didn't make it. Bled out on the way over."

Something bitter and sour rises in the back of my throat that I don't know how to process. Lia's warmth presses against my side, but she doesn't reach for my hand or take my arm. She just sways against me.

Zoné shakes with barely contained anger, the line of his jaw clenched almost tighter than his hands. "How?"

"There's an exceedingly high level of vitamin E in his system. Was he taking any anti-coagulants? Aspirin or the likes."

Jun's voice cracks when she finally manages to speak up. "He was having chest pains. He came in a week ago for them. The nurse gave him medicine and Aspirin."

The doctor's brow furrows and he pulls up Glen's record on his tablet. "Odd. I don't see any trace of the Vitamin E discrepancy from past visits."

"Odd," Jun repeats. "It's odd."

A frown appears on the doctor's face long enough to make itself known before he steels himself back to the professional delivering bad news. "I am loath to admit, but mistakes like this do happen. And yes, before you say anything, fatal mistakes as well. I cannot speak for the RN that reviewed his case when he was in here last. There seemed to be other issues with his lungs and chest as well, beyond just what he claimed to be a chest cold."

Zoné squeezes Jun's hand before she can speak again, cutting off the remark I can see forming on her tongue. "What do you mean?"

Sawyer sighs and turns off the tablet, tucking it back beneath his arm. "We need to inform his next of kin. Do you know if--"

"His parents live across town. I... They should be able to get here in half an hour or so?" With tremendous effort, Zoné pulls his hand free from Jun's and starts to pat his jacket pockets. "I have their numbers."

"Certainly. If you'll come with me, we'll inform Mr. and Mrs. Willis." Sawyer motions over to one of the nurse stations.

Zoné turns to look at us, his face drained of color and energy. I can see my own exhaustion reflected in his eyes, tinged with a pain that I know I'm too numb to process at the moment. "I'll... I'll text the others."

"He can't--" Jun starts, unable to bring herself to finish the thought. "He was fine."

"I know," he says, and steps in to pull her into a hug. "I know."

Her fingers wrap themselves around the fabric of his windbreaker, and she lets herself remain there for two shuddering breaths before pulling back. She attempts to say something, but it trickles out into silence. "I need to go sit down."

But instead of taking one of the chairs in the empty waiting room, she strikes off in the direction of an empty section of hallway. She turns a corner and the bright white of her jacket is lost from sight.

Zoné scrubs his face with his hand, the other clutching his phone. "I'm sorry--" he starts, looking at Lia and I from between his fingers.

"No, no. We're sorry. Oh, Zoné, we're so sorry." Lia sniffles, hiccups, and shakes her head. "We should have gotten him here sooner. I should have said something--"

"Hey, you didn't know what would happen." He places a comforting hand on her arm and attempts a smile. It doesn't go anywhere. "I'll be right back."

We watch him leave. My sister swipes at her eyes with the heels of her hands and tries to contain the sobs tumbling from her mouth.

I have to say something. I have to try, at least. "There's nothing you could have done, Liala. Just because you know your own health doesn't mean you know how to predict someone else's."

"I just... I feel like there was something that could have been done." She closes her eyes, pressing both hands to her forehead as she struggles to gain control of her breathing. "I hate this helplessness."

I do too, but I don't have the words to convey the feelings. I don't feel like it's mine to experience, so I just lock it up and put it aside for now.

"I want to go home..." she mutters, stepping up to rest her forehead against my shoulder. "I want to see Rhys."

For a long moment, I don't think I have it in me to reply. That I'm still pushing it aside to be strong for her. But when I hope my mouth, the words fall easily. "Me too."

Her hand, cold and clammy to a point where I wonder if I should be worried, presses against my wrist before she pulls away. "I'm going to go sit in the lobby. I don't want to be here."

I step after her before she can get too far. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No. You..." She hesitates before glancing down the hall that swallowed Jun moments before. "I'll be outside." Lia leaves before finishing her previous thought.

I'm left standing alone in the middle of the waiting room. Across the way, Zoné listens to Doctor Sawyer as he taps at his phone. One of the nurses eyes me from her station, but I don't recognize her from Meliora.

Taking a deep breath and shoving my hands into my pockets, I head off in the same direction as Jun.

It doesn't take long to find her. She didn't make it too far past the first turn. She sits in one of the uncomfortable bucket seats, head in her hands and shoulders shaking.

I sit next to her without saying anything.

"I should have turned down his idea to hang out," she says, suddenly, and it takes me a moment to realize that she's talking to me. "He hasn't been feeling well. I should have told him to stay home."

I don't have it in me to repeat the words I gave to Lia. They would feel too shallow given to Jun. Instead, I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees, gripping my hands together. I don't know if I'll start shaking if I allow the tension to ease, so I don't. "I can't remember. Did I ever tell you about what I found out in the shot they give us?"

Jun tilts her head to look up at me. Her eyes are rimmed in red. "I don't think so."

"The shots are laced with little RFID tracker chips and drugs used to alter memory inhibitors. You know, like being able to make memories better and stuff like that." My leg starts to bounce, but I force it still. I can't allow the events to sink in. "It's... um... Vitamin E is an enzyme that is easily absorbed by the body, and so it's used as the base for the transmitters and the memory drug."

The lines of her face shift to something resembling anger. "So this is an accident?"

"I think so."

"There wasn't anything that could have been done?"

I make a small gesture into the space before me. "I don't know what you want me to say, Jun. Medical accidents happen all the time. Are you planning on blaming ALICE for this? Did you want it to be on purpose so you could have someone to blame?"

She flinches, dragging her fingers through her hair to grip the roots. "No. I think... I don't know. I honestly don't know what to do."

"Neither do I. I don't think any of us do. Keep being strong. Be the same girl that told me not to be a coward."

This makes her laugh, though it's dry and lacks the emotion that I'm used to hearing from her. "Maybe in a bit. But right now I can't."

Before either of us can say something else, a nurse appears in the hallway. I start to get up, thinking that he's going to tell us that we can't be here, but instead he calls out a greeting in Chinese.

Jun sits up when she hears it, head swiveling in the direction of his voice. She answers, though I have no clue how to even begin guessing at what either of them might be saying. I suppose I could be nosy and use my phone to automatically translate the conversation for me.

But the thought immediately becomes unnecessary as Jun switches back to English and says, "It's okay, Xue. You can tell him too."

The nurse casts a quick glance at me before carrying on. "Uncle Bao asked us to look out for anything for you. Willis -- he was your friend?"

Her face remains impassive at the use of the past tense. "Yes. You remembered?"

"It was difficult," he admits, and I wonder just what exactly the precursor for this conversation is. "Things start slipping if I'm not reminding myself about them. But his file was already flagged because of that game you are participating in."

At this, I sit up a bit straighter and reach out for Jun's wrist. "You told him?"

She shrugs, but doesn't remove my grip. "I told my uncle and asked if he could have people look out for irregularities. An effort to try and track and identify events for Meliora."

"What kind of man is your uncle?"

"A very good cook," the nurse says and this earns a small smile from Jun. "I can't stay long. I'm on call so I can't linger. But I wanted to ask -- is there anything you would like to do?"

"A tissue sample," I say without thinking.

I get confused and surprised looks from both Jun and Xue. "What?" she asks, struggling to see my thought process.

Of course, I'm having a hard time following my own process at the moment, mind scrambling to block out the fact that I'm trying to ask for a tissue sample from someone I was just having dinner with. The thought makes the taste of bile rise in my throat again, stronger this time, but I fight it back and push on. "I know someone who works in a lab not associated with ALICE. He's the one I asked to look into the properties of the shot for me."

Come to think of it, Zakariah also mentioned having a hard time remembering to work on my request.

Xue hesitates, glances at Jun, then nods when she doesn't say anything. "I can do that." He leaves without further prompting.

She closes her eyes, takes one deep breath, lets it out slowly. Then another deep breath, and I can see the shudder return to her shoulders. She buries her face in her hands once again and releases a shrill, pent up scream that her palms barely muffle.

I jump in my seat, uncertain of how to react. "Are you okay?"

"I'm trying very hard not to break down," she says, face still covered by her hands.

"No, that I get."

Pushing herself to her feet, Jun whirls to face me. There’s an echo of Zoné's pain etched across the corners of her mouth. It's an exhaustion that I've seen on Rhys after nights spent at the hospital waiting for Lia.

She holds her hand out to me, and after a slight pause, I take it. She tugs me to my feet so that we're standing toe to toe. In the space between us, still gripping my hand, her eyes bore into mine. "Help me figure out what is happening."

"I will," I say without hesitation.

"Help me figure out what happened to Glen."

"I will."

Her lips twitch into a thin smile, watery at best. "Thank you." She squeezes my fingers once before finally turning away.

I watch her retreat, wondering how anything is going to be okay after this.