Remember Jamie Baker (21 page)

Um, yeah, my anxiety was obvious. My dad squeezed me tight, and Dr. Rajeet’s face softened, his eyes conveying understanding and sympathy. His soft-spoken and gentle nature was very comforting. If I didn’t fear lab testing so much, I’d probably like the man. “Because of your unique brain activity and tissue damage, we would like to do an extensive neurological examination. We want to make sure that the abnormal amount of electrical impulses in your brain isn’t what caused the tissue damage. We want to make sure you don’t end up with any more.”

Wow. I hadn’t considered that possibility. I didn’t think that was the case considering I’d been fine before the explosion, and I didn’t seem to be getting worse. But if it was possible that my electricity was capable of frying my brain without having to pull in the nuclear amount I’d used to blow up Visticorp, then I wanted to know. Still, an extensive examination sounded bad.

“What does a neurological examination involve? Like what kinds of tests are we talking about?”

Dr. Rajeet smiled again. “All risk-free and painless tests, for the most part. Some of the neurological tests may cause a bit of discomfort, but nothing painful. And you can have your parents—or whomever you trust the most—with you if it will ease some of your apprehension.”

“I want Ryan to stay with me.”

The words flew out of my mouth before I’d even thought them—blurted so fast that every single person in the room smirked or laughed. Ryan’s chuckle was soft, but the cockiness in it was unmistakable. I met his smirk with my angriest glare, but his confidence never wavered. “You’re acting like a girlfriend right now, Jamie. You know that, right?”

He was relentless. And frustrating. And so right. Finally willing to admit to the inevitability of a future with Ryan, I gave in. I was tired of fighting it. But my pride wouldn’t allow me to take my defeat gracefully. “Ugh, fine! Call yourself my boyfriend, if you must. Just come with me and make sure I don’t freak out in there.”

A cheer rang out around us as all the ACEs hooted, cheered, clapped, and whistled. So much for them keeping a professional demeanor while on assignment. I reached new levels of embarrassment.

I waited for Ryan to gloat, but his arrogance disappeared for once. When he tugged me away from my father and pulled my face into his hands, he was all gentleness. The only thing I saw in his expression was joy. “That’s my girl,” he whispered, and then gave me a short, soft, sweet kiss. “You’ll be fine today. I promise.”

When I realized that I believed him, I sighed in defeat and laced our hands together. “Thanks.”

And we were back to
the stupid cotton gown. I sat on the table—at least this one was minus the crinkly paper—and Ryan stood at my side. There was a chair for him along the side of the room, but until they told him to get out of the way, he wasn’t going to let go of my hand.

Dr. Rajeet returned with seven doctors, whom he introduced as esteemed colleagues and the absolute best in the world in neurological care. All of them gave me the creeps, but that could have been because one of them was most likely a crazy mad scientist in cahoots with James Donovan, desperate to capture me for his lab experiments. Thankfully, Dr. Rajeet would be the one actually administering my tests. The others were only there to assist, observe, and throw in their two cents when needed.

They started with the simple stuff—blood, urine, and DNA samples. I didn’t know what they hoped to find in my blood that would help me get my memory back, but I kept quiet and let them have their fun. Ryan and I had both held our breaths when they’d pulled out the needle. I was strong, but thankfully I wasn’t impenetrable. No Man of Steel skin for me. I hadn’t been sure until then.

Next came another MRI, CT scan, and EEG. Those didn’t scare me since I’d already had them done before. But after that, they got a little more creative.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is that?” I asked when one of the new doctors handed a syringe to Dr. Rajeet. “Taking a blood sample is one thing, but you’re not injecting anything into me.”

All of the doctors jerked back at my outburst, especially the doctor who’d brought over the unidentified liquid he wanted to shoot into my body. Dr. Rajeet paused. “Miss Baker, I assure you this is safe. We’d like to perform a simple PET scan.”

“Meaning?”

He held up the needle. “Meaning a standard medical test that we use to highlight tumors and diseased tissue. It can also measure cellular and/or tissue metabolism, and show blood flow in your brain.”

I sighed. He said it was standard, but I still didn’t like the look of that needle. I eyed the man who’d given Dr. Rajeet the syringe. Was he Donovan’s partner? Had he swapped needles when no one was looking and replaced it with something else that could harm me?

As if reading my thoughts, Ryan squeezed my hand. “It’s okay, babe. Let the doctors do their job. That’s why we came.”

Not that what he said was convincing in the least, but he said it with such surety. And who could say no to that face? Seriously,
who
?
Reluctantly, I held my arm out to Dr. Rajeet. I watched silently as he sterilized my inner elbow, and I held my breath as he pumped the liquid into my body. I felt its cool foreignness travel up my arm. “What is that stuff?”

Dr. Rajeet’s eyes brightened. “It’s a mix of special radioactive isotopes that will bind with certain chemicals that flow to your brain. Here, lie back.”

Ryan started to help me lie back, but I snapped up. “Did he just say
radioactive?
”

Ryan pushed me back. “Babe, lie down.”

“He just pumped me full of radioactive material!”

Dr. Rajeet smiled as he adjusted some kind of machine above me. “Completely harmless, I assure you. These scanners will be able to detect the gamma rays—”

“Gamma rays!” I shot up again. “Oh,
hell
no.”

“Miss Baker, please try to relax.”

Ryan placed his hands on my shoulders.

“Gamma rays, Ryan. The man just said
gamma rays
.”

The doctors in the room all chuckled at my reaction, but I didn’t find it funny. My life was already comic book enough without radioactive isotopes and gamma rays.

“It’s perfectly safe, Miss Baker. We use this test to evaluate patients who have seizure disorders that don’t respond to medical therapy, and for patients with certain memory disorders. It can help us determine brain changes following an injury. We might learn more about your condition. Why it happened, how, if it’s still happening, or if it’s likely to happen again.”

That gave me pause. It sounded like medical mumbo jumbo, but at least it was about my memory. And I did
not
like the possibility of any more brain damage, thank-you-very-much.

Ryan took advantage of my hesitation and gently pushed me back until I was once again lying on the hospital bed. He pulled my hand to his lips. “You’ve got to trust him.”

I pulled him down to me so I could speak in a whisper. “Fine, but you said I was cooked in toxic waste. What if I’m already radioactive? What if the gamma rays they detect aren’t normal? What if they figure out my secret? Or what if whatever they just pumped into me reacts badly with whatever’s already in my system?”

I could see I had him stumped. His brow furrowed with concern. But before either of us could make any kind of decision, Ryan was pulled away from me and I was pushed into the large white tube of a machine that they’d used to do my CT scan and my MRI.

I could have climbed out. I could have forced them to stop. But that seemed more suspicious than anything else, so I tried to relax. There were a few moments of silence, and then people began to gasp. “What on earth?” someone asked while another whispered, “Would you look at that.”

Every medical person in the room quickly gathered around some monitor to gawk and stare. “It’s impossible,” someone said.

“Any more impossible than her brain activity?” Dr. Rajeet challenged.

“What happened to this poor young woman?”

“How can she be alive with this much radioactivity in her brain?”

“It’s not just her brain,” the man who’d given Dr. Rajeet the needle of radioactive junk said. “Look. It’s
everywhere.
”

They were monitoring my entire body and not just my head. Under the scanner, my body was ablaze with pulsating color. My theory must have been correct. I was a walking, talking vat of radioactive toxic waste.

While the doctors continued to
marvel
at my scans—comic book pun totally intended—I started to freak out. This was so not good. My panic attack was interrupted by another loud gasp. “It
can’t
be.” Someone dashed to a computer and began typing away. Ryan muttered a curse just as the doctor gasped again. “It’s her. I don’t believe it. This young woman is Chelsea’s Angel!”

Echoing Ryan’s curse, I scrambled out of the scanning machine. The doctor had pulled up pictures of me on the Internet as Chelsea’s Angel. The hair color and eye mask really didn’t do much to conceal my identity. It was obviously me. “Time to go,” I said to Ryan.

I didn’t wait for an answer before grabbing his hand and dragging him toward the door. The doctor who’d recognized me ran frantically to block my exit from the room. “Miss! Miss! Wait! Do you know who you are?”

I glared at him. “Sorry. This examination is over.”

“Miss Baker, please. You have complete doctor-patient confidentiality. We won’t tell anyone.”

“No, you won’t,” Major Wilks’s deep, powerful voice boomed. He and the other ACEs had barged into the examination room, guns drawn, ready to act.

I snorted. “Not that I’m thrilled the secret’s out, but what are you guys going to do, waste the country’s best neurological doctors to keep my secret safe?”

Major Wilks was not amused. After giving me a look that I rolled my eyes at, he addressed all the stunned doctors. “The Angel’s identity is classified and considered a matter of national security. If it’s leaked, we
will
figure out who leaked it and we
will
treat it as an act of treason met with the severest punishment.”

Treason?
“Aw, Major, I had no idea you cared so much.”

“Miss Baker.”

I’d never heard a man sound more exasperated. “Sorry. I can’t help it. Sarcasm is my go-to defense mechanism when I’m nervous. That’s followed closely by violence, so really you should be grateful I’m cracking jokes instead of blowing things up, because I am seriously freaked out right now.”

Dr. Rajeet stepped forward, gazing at me with total awe. “Miss Baker, you have nothing to fear from us. Please, there’s no need to leave. We have so many questions. We could learn so much about the human brain and what it’s truly capable of from you.”

Bye-bye, sarcasm. Hello, rage. “I won’t be your science experiment! That’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place. I just want my memories. Can you or can you not get them back for me?”

The group of doctors exchanged glances before each giving me defeated gazes.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I’d known this would be the answer. I knew coming today that these tests weren’t about retrieving my memories. It still hurt. “I’m done.”

“But Miss Baker—”

“No. I can’t do this anymore. If there’s no chance at all in recovering my memories, then there’s no point in my being here.”

“Jamie,” Ryan started.

“No. I’ve done what I came here to do.”

If Donovan’s partner was going to be drawn out, then he was already in this room. My leaving because of my memories and refusing to be tested on just for the fun of it would only work in my favor. I met the major’s eyes. He seemed to share my thoughts. “All right, Angel.” He sent one last glance to Dr. Rajeet. “You’re absolutely positive there is nothing that can be done?”

With a small nod, Dr. Rajeet sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay, then.” He nodded to the ACEs to all leave the room. “Let’s let Miss Baker get changed, and then we’ll take her back to the hotel and discuss her plans for the future.”

. . . . .

Once in the bathroom where I was able to change back into my clothes, my nerves settled a little. It was quiet in there, and calm. I was alone for the first time in what felt like days. I found myself wishing I had several more layers to put on, because I’d slid on my dress and sandals much too quickly.

My body ached and my head was pounding all of a sudden. I wasn’t ready to go back out there. Wasn’t ready to face reality, deal with questions and media, make plans for the future, or worry about Donovan. So many people were waiting for me now. After months of seclusion, I simply couldn’t take it.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to get as far away from this place as possible. I needed to leave without anyone seeing me. I needed to
escape
.

A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts. “Jamie? You okay in there? It’s been fifteen minutes.”

Fifteen minutes? How in the world had I been in here for fifteen minutes? Gathering my focus—which took an insane amount of effort—I made sure I was presentable and stepped out of the restroom. Ryan waited for me with a worried look on his face. My parents were behind him.

“Everything all right?” Ryan asked.

Again, I had to collect my focus. I felt as if my brain were completely fogged over. Freaking radioactive isotopes and gamma rays. “I’m fine, I just…”

My voice trailed off. I wasn’t fine. I needed to leave. Now. Escape.

“Jamie?”

“It’s nothing…I…” I couldn’t breathe. I was starting to sweat. “I have to go.”

I stepped past Ryan and he grabbed my hand. “Babe, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” What was going on? Ryan’s hand gripping mine felt so good, so right. But when I looked at him, all I felt was panic and the need to run.

I was going to explode if I didn’t get out of here right now. Pulling my hand out of Ryan’s, I hurried for the exit. But not just any exit—the staff exit, out the back. I needed to get out of here without being seen.

“Jamie?”

“Sweetheart?”

“Miss Baker?”

I ignored everyone.

“Jamie!”

People scrambled to catch up with me. My instinct was to use my superspeed and run away to a place no one would ever find me. At first I did. In the blink of an eye, I burst out of the exit in the back of the hospital. But once I felt the sun on my face, I stopped and tried to calm my breathing. This just didn’t make sense. Why would I run from Ryan? From my parents and the life I’d been so desperate to discover?

“Miss Baker?”

The soft, gentle voice startled me so badly that I whirled around and nearly roasted the man standing just to the side of the exit, but the moment I saw him, my intense panic stilled. Something about him put me at ease. It was strange, but undeniable.

He was a slender man who looked like he had some Asian heritage in him. Naturally, I was wary—I hate doctors
and
strangers, and this man was both—but something told me I should trust him. He was familiar. He wanted to help me.

Again, this was insane. Why would I feel safe with a strange doctor, who could easily be the man we’d come here to find—Donovan’s partner—and need to run from the people helping me, the people who’d been earning my trust.

“Hello, Miss Baker.”

“Who are you?”

He didn’t answer my question. Instead, he frowned and reached out a hand toward me. “Are you feeling all right? You look unwell.”

“I—” I didn’t want to talk to this man, but he was right. I did feel unwell. “I don’t know what’s wrong. My head…everything seems so…strange…”

I stumbled, suddenly dizzy, and my new friend caught me before I fell.

My new friend?
That wasn’t right. Was it?

I looked at the man and he smiled. His smile was nice. He was nice. I could trust him.

“Miss Baker, I’m Dr. Chen. Would you like to come with me? I can take you someplace safe and we can figure out what has you feeling so disoriented.”

I shook my head. Go with him? I didn’t want to go with him. That wasn’t right. But I
did
want to go with him at the same time. “I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense.”

My emotions were all over the place. I started to lose control of my power, and when the energy rose up inside me it cleared some of the confusion in my head. The energy filled with comfort. This was familiar.
This
I knew. I had powers. Great powers. I wasn’t helpless. I didn’t need anyone’s help if I didn’t want it. Maybe this man was a friend and maybe not, but I had time to figure that out.

I stepped away from the doctor and let my energy flow enough that my eyes lit up. “Keep your distance. Something’s not right, and I don’t know you. I can’t trust you.”