Warrior Reborn (8 page)

She left them alone for the interview. Mario beat Jason, and not because he let the kid win. Mario lost himself in the intensity of the game. He spoke of his treatment, his eagerness to see his family, about the other kids he’d met, and his nice lady doctor.

“I’m going to have to get Briet a pedestal,” Jason thought wryly. He leaned back against the doorframe as Sandy got Annie Bremar situated for the last interview of the day. Ed downloaded the footage to his laptop, made a second copy of Mario’s interview, and prepped for Annie’s.

The eight-year-old settled into the big padded chair. Jason watched as she chatted merrily to Sandy while they organized Annie’s artwork in the sequence the child wanted to display them.

The shimmering outline of Annie’s body became a haze before Jason’s eyes.

He blinked and focused again on the girl. The intensity of his stare made him feel as light and transcendent as the image of Annie’s body shimmering before him. He blinked faster and the shimmer disappeared. So did Annie. At least to Jason’s view. What remained was an odd composite of colors and moving parts.

Man, he’d had too much caffeine or not enough.

He didn’t move, concerned the lightness in his body might make him pass out. He couldn’t look away from the image that should be Annie. The colors and shapes diffused, streams of flowing dark scarlet and white and hues in between, aligned with physical contractions of sinew and fibrous tissue.

If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was seeing Annie from the inside out. The movements and colors, like so much blood and muscle. His vision went deeper. He swallowed against the nauseous sensation of the bottom dropping out of his stomach. Lungs, heart, blood vessels, and tissue gave way to micro views of moving, living cells.

He was both thrilled and terrified, because for a runaway imagination, this was a good as it got. Though the lack of control of his body was frightening.

The bits and miniscule pieces of Annie’s being swirled and pulsed, smaller and deeper until all Jason could see before his eyes were cell bits. Like a vision from a powerful microscope, nucleus, ribosome, and mitochondria moved and danced before his eyes.

Weird and disturbing as that should have been, it was the tiny black threads of a structure Jason couldn’t identify, wrapped like filament in a light bulb around the mitochondria in Annie’s cells, which sent a chill of unease down his spine. The threads didn’t register from any college biology class he had ever taken and he’d had his fair share.

He rubbed at his eyes with his fingers, pressing his eyeballs to erase the odd visions from his memory and his view.

“You okay, Mr. Ballard?”

Sandy’s voice sounded far away until Jason blinked and found her standing in front of him. Her hand was on his arm. Annie, normal as she should be, sat in the chair holding her pictures tight in her hands, waiting.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just…I’m good.” Jason sank to the rolling stool. “So Annie, you ready to show me your artwork?”

CHAPTER 9

Jason squinted at the laptop’s screen, then rolled away from the conference table to stretch his neck. The digital set of the interviews from Ed had been quick and clean, each one tagged by patient and then by question to make them easy to manipulate and splice. His own notes to accompany the segments were turning out to be a lot more time consuming.

“Would this be a bad time to speak with you, Mr. Ballard?”

He glanced up. The formal tone didn’t bode well for Briet’s state of mind, but at least she’d taken the first step and come to speak to him. Her shoulders were set, eyes focused, hands tapping her pant leg. Nope, she wasn’t happy. Jason could bet she was itching to fist her hands on her hips and glare at him.

“Have a seat.” He waved her next to him at the table and reached behind him for the sealed paper cup of hot water and herbal tea bag he had waiting on his desk.

Her eyes widened as he placed them in front of her. “I’m that predictable?”

“When it comes to your patients, yes.”

She unhooked the plastic lid to the paper cup and narrowed her eyes. “It’s still steaming.”

“Just got back twenty minutes ago and I knew you would finish your rounds soon.” He held up a hand. “I swear I’m not tracking your movements.”

“Speaking of video.” She pursed her lips and took a deep breath. “Was it really necessary to put those kids through that? Does Welson not have enough PR without brutalizing sick children?”

“I admit it probably came across that way, especially with Mario—”

“Probably? The woman had him in tears.”

Jason held up his hand. “Your promise was you’d come to me
and
let me try to explain.”

She took a breath, dropped the tea bag into the water, and folded her hands, giving him an opening.

“The majority shareholder’s meeting is tomorrow.”

She raised her right eyebrow.

“I’m presenting these interviews as part of the closing statements on the status of the project. And—” He needed to hurry up. Briet’s brows had drawn together like thunderclouds. “Several of the shareholders, who I’ve already approached for extraneous funds, will be there. The clips are a tool. To validate the money I’ve proposed they commit for the initial procurement and support of a small facility to house parents and siblings while they visit patients.”

Briet’s frown lines smoothed out. “You’ve already spoken with these people?”

“I initiated this discussion a few weeks ago. The clips will be for their PR use, within their own companies or for their own manipulation. I frankly don’t care as long as they pony up the funds.”

“But this trial doesn’t last long enough to warrant purchase of a building.”

“The oncology ward in this hospital is huge, as well as the pediatric wing. Between the two, the family/guest facility would be in full-time operation. Once Welson’s project is completed, the facility will be entrusted to the hospital for this ongoing purpose. For the donors, it’s a viable tax deduction, win-win.”

“You’re playing way out of your sand box, Mr. Ballard.”

“
Briet
.” He emphasized her name.

She had the good grace to flush with embarrassment. Scaling back to calling him Mr. Ballard wasn’t going to resolve anything between them. Why it was so important to him that she stay open and connected with him, he didn’t know. His reactions went against every rule he set for himself. Right now, he didn’t give a damn. All he wanted was to reestablish balance between them.

“I took this job because I can play wherever I want. As long as the job is successful I get a lot of freedom.”

“Must be fun having all that freedom.”

“Maybe you’d like to try your hand?” He shook his head at her scowl. “There’s a reception after the meeting tomorrow. The shareholders like to meet the doctors, makes them feel like they’re personally influencing the process.”

“Thought they weren’t allowed to personally influence us?”

He laughed. Of all the people least likely influenced, Briet was at the top of the list. “Don’t take any money or bribes and you’ll be fine.”

“Can’t remember the last time I took a bribe.”

“Probably never?”

She pretended to consider and answered soberly, her eyes sparkling. “Yes, never.”

“Perhaps I could
induce
you to have a late dinner with me after the reception?”

The question took her by surprise. She almost missed putting the wet tea bag down on the cup lid. “Dinner, like…”

“Like eating. Somewhere public.”

Jason couldn’t have prepared for her response. Until he saw her smile, he didn’t realize how he longed for it. Sweet God Almighty, she could just lay him low with something so simple. Made no sense, but he knew he’d do anything to see that again.

“Sometimes these functions get out of hand, but we’ll play it by ear.”

“All right. I would like to see what some of the people who support the Welson project are like.”

“They’re very normal, boring even.” He figured she would impress more than a few. The screen saver now swirling over the video clips caught his eye. “I’m sorry about Mario. It was not my intent to make any of the children uncomfortable.”

She dipped her head and he could almost see the thoughts whirl there. When she looked up again it was with a softer expression, her large brown eyes bolstered her smile, once again filled with trust.

“You did very well with Mario. I haven’t seen him let go like that since he’s been on the ward.”

Jason shrugged. “He’s got a lot to worry about and no way to shake it off.”

Briet watched the compliment sink in and the lines of tension around Jason’s mouth ease. The only sign she’d ever detected of his stress. And he was still stressed, though he hid it well. She doubted the cause stemmed from the presentation. If anyone could talk with ease in front an important crowd of people, it would be Jason.

“Does the trust go both ways?” she asked.

Looking wary, he nodded.

“Tell me what happened when you were with Annie?”

With a deep breath, he opened his mouth to reply. She could swear he was preparing for a denial. None came.

“I don’t know what happened. One minute I was looking at her and the next…”

“What did you see?” It was impossible to help him until he waded a little deeper into her world. She needed him to wade a little farther in order to prepare him to accept changes beyond normal human comprehension.

His hand scrubbed over his face. “Nothing that makes sense. Thinking back now, it seems more like a dream or a bad horror movie. You know, seeing body parts instead of the whole person kind of thing.” Pushing the laptop to the middle of the table, he clasped his hands and leaned forward, not meeting her gaze.

“Just body parts?”

With a strangled laugh, he shook his head. “No. Not really body parts, more like actual cells, with some tissue and anatomical composition.”

“Sounds a little refined for a dream. How would you even know what you were looking at?” Hoping to ease his tension and give him contact, an anchor to ground him, she placed a hand on his forearm. As much as she would like to ease his transition there was nothing she could do until he was ready to hear the truth. Relaying his vision aloud was the first step.

“You can’t be taking me seriously here. I don’t even take this seriously.” He glanced at her hand and shook his head again. “I’m more than familiar with what I thought I saw. College, four years of med school, the usual internship and residency, six years of practice in internal medicine. I know what I was seeing. It just wasn’t real.”

Her shock must have shown because the lines appeared around his mouth again.

“What? You thought I just popped out of the womb working for Welson Laboratories. Certainly no self-respecting person walks away from a medical career, right?”

A quick squeeze of his arm and a gesture of denial bought her a second to consider how to diffuse the button she’d pushed. Yes, she was shocked. But no, she didn’t judge him. He deserved to make his decisions. “I’m just surprised. You’re very good at what you do. You always seem one step ahead of the problems.” She pressed faster, trying to project reassurance. “I can see why. You bring more to the job than almost anyone on the team.” She tilted her head and smiled. “Except maybe Lan Makai. She has a thirty year head start on you.”

He dipped his head, let out a breath, and covered her hand with his. “I didn’t mean to dump that on you. This thing with Annie—sort of has me off kilter.”

The solid warmth from his fingers spread along her skin. In a wave, the warmth surged through her body, triggering a desire for more, contact, gentle, warm, and enticing.
Oh, God
. She slid her hand back and ducked her head. She hadn’t expected to feel so much, so soon. She could sense the heated blush on her cheeks.
How embarrassing.

“Jason, just the man—” Max Harris hesitated at the open doorway with a look to Jason. “I can come back.”

“No.” Briet picked up her cup. “We’re finished. Thank you for taking the time to clear up my concerns.”

“Any time.” Jason gave her a smile that ran all the way into the deep blue of his eyes.

My, oh my
. He’d recovered from his outburst, now she just needed to get a grip. Less tea and more cold water.

***

“Anything wrong?” Max took Briet’s empty seat.

“No. The video shoot was today. I handled some of the interviews. She wanted to see how one of the kids did.”

“I hear she has some unusual practices with her patients. Any new input from her?”

Jason shrugged, not offering details. Max’s knowledge of Briet’s handling of her kids sealed any final doubts about Nurse Groden’s role in the information flow. “The parents like her, patients love her, and she hasn’t put the hospital at risk or cost the project money. So far, so good.”

“Probably right.”

“She’ll be at the reception, so if anyone has issues they can speak with her then.”

Max gave a quick rise of his brow and crossed his arms. “Good, you do have some rapport with her. Definitely doesn’t hurt to keep some of the trailblazers close under quiet observation.”

Jason focused on his laptop. He saved the presentation, shut down the power, and tried to conceal his initial reaction of surprise and distaste. Max had never insinuated he watch over doctors before. He was pushing the need to monitor Briet and the term trailblazer sounded uncomfortably synonymous with troublemaker.

“I think you’ll agree it’s more than worth your while once the project concludes. Even if she’s not your type, the time will be well spent. There’s a heavy bonus coming to you on this one.”

Why? And what was with the slam at his type, or was it a slam at Briet?
“My usual bonus is a fair chunk of change, Max.” The scope of this project was concentrated on a small age group, not a cancer with a high infection or mortality rate that would warrant more notice and reward. Not that Jason didn’t like money, but he already made a very good six-figure salary. His bonuses were usually five figures and he had sufficient funds in reserves. Money hadn't been an incentive for quite some time.