The Shrink Program

Chapter 131

Then and there, I nearly threw up.

"Apollo...." I started, wanting to tell him that he didn't need to explain it to me.

Sure I was curious, and a little wary, after what had happened with Alex and Alan the last time I tried to mind my own business.

But I didn't deserve to hear something so.... personal. I had only met Apollo a little over a week ago after all, and I'd be lucky to have known Artemis for twenty-four hours.

So it wasn't like I was going to ask Apollo to drag the family skeleton out of the closet and make it dance for me...

Despite my epic sensitivity to his privacy, the words seemed to have a domino effect on Apollo. Now that he had started, he couldn't stop.

"By the time we got him out, he was so disorientated, so panic crazed that he ran away, desperate to escape." Apollo spat out each word like they were venom on his tongue. "He ran, so blind with fear, that he didn't see the car until it hit him."

"T-That's-" I sputtered, unable to think of anything to say.

Seeing as "Shut up before you traumatise me" seems a bit harsh in this sort of situation.

"It messed him up so bad. He was going to be paralysed if he even survived it. If he even made it through the night."

"Apollo." Alan cautioned softy, but Apollo didn't listen. Didn't seem to even hear.

"So Father begged the Underground to save him. But even with her genius and her nanotech, all she could do was..."

"Apollo." This time, Alan snapped, his normally cheerful voice sounding incredibly harsh.

Sure enough, the sudden urgency of Alan's voice grabbed Apollo's attention, and the younger boy looked up at Alan in badly contained fury.

"Vanity gives people sensitive ears lad." Alan murmured, sending a glance down to his mother.

Who was watching us in the sudden silence of the room. In fact, everyone was watching, listening to Apollo, whose voice had risen unnoticed by both he and I.

"Oh, hush Alan. Let the boy continue." She admonished, smirked knowingly at us instead of looking at her son. " Tell everyone, Apollo, what did I do to save your brother?"

Apollo tensed beneath me, and I somehow knew that it wasn't because of Dr Floid.

But because the tiny figure of Artemis Mc'Valium was staring up at us.

Swallowing, Apollo resumed speaking, in a much more composed voice.

"Without an established blueprint of my brother's body before his accident, you were unable to heal his injuries in time to prevent the damage from spreading to his brain. Particularly, you couldn't reconstruct his spine without an increased risk of malformation." Apollo begun, speaking the words as smoothly as if they were rehearsed.

"In his quickly deteriorating state, it was urgent that he receive some sort of treatment. So you reconstructed his body, except for his brain, using the image of someone who had a similar state of physical development and genetic makeup, to ensure that the transition was less traumatic."

"Hmm, good." Dr Floid smiled brightly. "Now say all that again, in a way that the idiots in the room can understand."

Looking right at me when she said that.

"They used the blueprints of my body to heal Artemis," Apollo explained, also looking right at me.

In fact, pretty much the entire room took the word idiot as their cue to look right at me.