Psychic Visions 08-Now You See Her... (13 page)

Not going to happen.

The voice rolled through her mind and her head. She cried out at the strange pressure inside, the newness, the shock of the invasiveness.

How was this possible? It wasn’t. It couldn’t be. No one should be inside her head, her body. But the waves of agony had her curling up in a tiny ball and rocking protectively in place, whimpering.

Lord, she hurt. She needed them all to go away.

She hurt too much.

“Please,” she whispered. “Stop. It hurts so much.”

*

Dean stood by
helplessly. Stefan, Dr. Maddy, who wasn’t anything like he expected, and nurses all bustled around, all had a job to do. He’d picked Tia up and brought her to Dr. Maddy in Stefan’s car. Carried her up some elevator in the back and had her in a private room within minutes. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anything like it. No paperwork, no forms to fill out, no wait.

But since arriving, Tia had gone downhill. He hated to say it, but he wanted her back in the normal hospital that he’d been guarding just last night. She’d been in decent shape then.

As he considered the issue, he realized she’d been going downhill since she’d woken up. Not good.

He’d never seen anything like it. Or like the treatment she was receiving right now. Such strange movements and motions. He’d seen Stefan pull off some weird stuff when saving his son, but it had been easy to ignore back then. He’d been so overwhelmed with his son’s miraculous recovery that Stefan could have danced nude, covered in blue paint, and he’d have been okay with it.

But these weird arms in the air, sweeping down her body looked like a bad voodoo session.

He wanted to say something. Desperately wanted to jump into the middle and carry Tia away to safety. Before he could think of anything to help her, she groaned, rolled onto her back under her own power and opened her eyes.

“Why do I feel like shit,” she asked, her voice thin and thready. “And who are you people?”

The tall slim woman standing over her laughed. “I’m Dr. Maddy and you probably don’t remember me, but I saw you when you first arrived.”

Tia shook her head. “I don’t remember anything clearly. It seems like I just had a weird and horrifically bad acid trip, only I have nothing to compare it to as I’ve never done acid.”

The doctor laughed again, her voice light, warming, caring.

Damn it. How did Stefan find all these people? Dean usually lived in a world of nastiness. To think there was an equally positive and happy side to that same world was a bit disconcerting. He was a crime fighter. He walked the dark side most the time. Here they walked in the light. Maybe if he could spend enough time with people like this he’d remember all the good things he was fighting for.

“Any idea what’s wrong with me?’ Tia asked.

“Let me ask you a few questions.” Dr. Maddy proceeded to ask her some of the damn oddest medical questions Dean hoped to never hear again. Questions about shellfish. Questions about type of diet. About her friend Simone. About where and when had she eaten last? About what it was. About the attack and what did she remember?

The answers were simple, plain and seemed fairly unhelpful.

The next question Dr. Maddy asked was how Tia felt during the attack. And where the pain was centered.

When both women quieted, Stefan stepped in. “Maddy? What are you thinking?”

She ran a hand gently across her temple. Everyone, nurses included, watched her. She shrugged and said, “I know this is going to sound right out there, but… First I was thinking implant, and now I’m wondering if something wasn’t removed.”

Everyone stared.

“Removed?” cried Tia. “Are you serious? As in organ donors? As in someone took something away from me?”

“I can’t be sure yet,” Dr. Maddy said. “So until I am, I’m not going to give any details.” She frowned at Dean. “Did you find anything in your truck, your house that might have been hers?”

He stared, his mind a blank. “Not that I remember seeing…”

She shrugged. “Okay. I’ll spend some time thinking about this.”

Tia struggled to sit up. “But you can’t leave me with that little bit…”

“I have to.” Dr. Maddy started to walk away. “I’ll be back in an hour or so and I’ll do more tests. Run a scan. See what I might find.”

Dean shoved his hand into his jacket, his fingers encircling the metal chain he’d found awhile ago. He frowned. “Wait.” He pulled it out. “I don’t know about this… I found it somewhere around the time she was attacked. Something weird happened. It’s like I was attacked too, but there’d been no one else there at the time. I forgot all about it.”

“My bracelet,” Tia cried. “Oh thank you.”

Maddy walked closer. “Interesting. It’s metal balls ringed together.”

“One of the kids gave it to me,” Tia said with a smile. “I’ve always worn it.”

“Well you might want to change that.” Maddy reached out a hand to touch it and drew back. “My energy doesn’t like it. And there’s a good chance, Dean, that your energy didn’t either. Could account for much of your medical problems keeping you off work too.” She studied it, frowning, then did something in the air above the bracelet. “There, that’s better.” She glanced over at Tia. “I think when you lost this, your energy had a chance to shift again. You’ve been living with it for a long time.”

“Is that a problem?” Tia asked hesitantly. “It was uncomfortable when I put it on originally, but John just teased me about it.” She stared at the one thing she’d kept from that world and realized it was likely the worst thing she could have taken.

“As a general rule, this is not good for our energy. You, however, seem to have adapted to the iron and steel. I’m not sure just what it is.”

“If I’ve adapted then why did it affect my energy?”

“When you lost it.”

“Oh…” She turned away. “I don’t want it. Not anymore.”

“Good. I wasn’t going to give it back to you,” Dr. Maddy said cheerfully. She walked out of the room.

Dean stared at Stefan. “Is she for real?” he asked. There was only one nurse left and the dirty look she shot him left him in no doubt about her opinion of his question. Well, this was the first time he’d ever met the doctor, and the words out of her mouth didn’t inspire confidence.

“She’s the real thing, and the best in the business.” Stefan’s voice was distracted, the look on his face introspective. Dean couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“I have to think about this. Go over the last few weeks. See what might have happened.”

“Does that mean you believe her?” Dean asked incredulously.

Stefan pulled back and shot him a sharp look. “I absolutely believe her. She is Dr. Maddy.” And he turned and walked out.

Leaving Dean to stare at a shattered Tia still lying in the bed.

T
ia tried to
sit up and get her body to follow through on her orders. She needed to leave, but how when all she could do was lie here, useless?

Dean reached down, tucked his hands under her arms and pulled her upward. “Is that better?”

She nodded. “Thank you,” she said, her voice a bare whisper.

He sat down beside her and picked up her hand, his gaze intent. “I don’t know Dr. Maddy but I do know Stefan, and he saved my son’s life when the doctors couldn’t.”

“He’s legendary,” she whispered. “I’m glad to be here with people who can help but this is scary. It’s like my body isn’t getting the signals from my brain. I can barely move and my mind wants to just sleep. Not fun.”

“No, but Dr. Maddy seems to know and understand. At least she has a direction to check out.”

She smiled. “I know. I’m just trying not to panic. I’m starting to wish I’d never left the hospital.”

“Ha. Doesn’t that figure.” He grinned at something secretly funny.

She frowned at him, not understanding where there was anything funny in this. “It’s been a downhill slide since I left.”

“Maybe now that you’re finally awake and placing so many demands on your body, it can’t handle it. Maybe it’s not recovered from the coma yet.”

Mildly interested in that hypothesis, she said, “I hope it’s something as simple as needing bed rest and time, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

“Doesn’t matter. Dr. Maddy will figure it out.”

“Dean, can you come here for a moment?” Stefan stood in the door, motioning him.

He squeezed Tia’s hand and said, “I’ll be right back.”

*

Stefan moved back
out of the doorway and closed the door firmly behind him. “Dr. Maddy is going to run an internal scan, and it’s easier on her if you aren’t touching Tia.”

Internal scan. That didn’t sound good. In fact, it sounded it downright horrible. “Is it going to hurt? She’s in pretty rough shape already.”

“No, in fact, it should make her feel much better.”

He wasn’t sure about that. An odd sound came from behind the door but with Stefan standing firmly in front of him, he realized he wasn’t going to get in.

He studied the door, worry in his voice. “I don’t want her hurt anymore.”

“None of us do.

Dean’s shoulders slumped, he leaned against the wall and tried to ignore the odd sounds coming from behind him. “She’s been failing since she woke up, hasn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Is this likely to kill her?”

“Oh yes,” Stefan said somberly. “And quite possibly soon.”

“As in months?” Damn that wasn’t good.

Stefan shook his head decisively. “Possibly hours at the rate of deterioration. That’s what Maddy is trying to stop. See if we can find out why.”

“Hours?” he exclaimed. “Is this normal for you psychic people?”

Stefan laughed. “There is nothing normal about anything. And psychic people have the same system you have. In fact, as you are psychic, you have the same system and potential problems she has.”

“Wait, what? No way I’m psychic. I’m just normal old boring Dean. Only son. Single father and I have a mother. All the rest is my work world.”

“We all have the ability to be psychic. Some of us are more aware, more open to the center and work with the energy more. You have the same ability she does.”

“Uhmm, no. My body parts all show up all the time.”

Stefan laughed. “Hers do too. If she wasn’t injured you’d never know.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Dean shook his head. “I think she’s used this technique of hers to stay hidden a long time.”

“She has indeed. But you shouldn’t be able to see her in her invisible state.”

“I don’t see the missing part as much as there’s a weird sensation that something should be there but isn’t. When I look out of the corner of my eye, I see her best. So it’s more like a defect in her masking system. At least that’s how it all started. Now it seems her whole system is off.”

“Very true. That you can see her is great.”

“Maybe, but I hear her better. I guess being invisible doesn’t affect the noises she makes.”

Stefan looked at him with an odd expression on his face. “Are you saying you can hear her even when she was invisible?”

Dean nodded. “That’s how I first understood what she’d done. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her breathing. I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“Easy to understand,” Stefan said in a distant voice as if he wasn’t really listening to the conversation.