Time, Truth, Tragedy

Crisis on Earth-X Part I

Chapter 13

Crisis on Earth-X Part I

"We've got to be judged by how we do in times of crisis."

-Johnnie Cochran

Katie thinks she's dying. She thinks that's what Felix was doing to her. He was slowly killing her, and she hadn't found the courage to tell anyone it was happening.

She'd handled pain before. She knew how to separate herself from the pain, and go about her life as normal. But it was getting harder with each passing day and she knew if she didn't do anything about it, it really would break her.

Katie stood in her office, her hands cupping her head and eyes clenched shut. It was happening now. A mind numbing, excruciating pain in her head. She didn't even turn when the door opened.

Rene, and Claire walked in laughing at a joke Rene made, but stopped when they looked over to Katie.

"Hey, doc, you ok?" Rene moved to stand beside her, placing a hand on her arm. Katie opened her eyes and turned to him, her eyes filled with unshed tears and pain. "Doc, tell me what to do?"

"It's—it's just-" she turned away from him and walked over to sit at her desk. "Very bad migraine." she dropped to sit at her desk, before reaching into a drawer to pull out a bottle of Tylenol that only slightly made the pain better. "How did it go with Pollard?"

"The usual." Claire replied walking over to sit, her eyes still watching Katie closely. "Are you sure you're ok? We could call Dr. Mills, have him come check on you."

"Claire, I'm fine, thanks." Katie said before turning to Rene. "Either of you get a status update from the foreman on how construction is going?"

"I believe Tam did, she sent us an email. Everything is still going well. There have been no delays so they should be finished per our deadline."

"Good, we should shift focus to staff. Have we gotten the approval to start posting those requisitions?" Katie asked.

"Me and Rene have a meeting with HR to see what steps we need to take to get started on that. Or we're supposed to."

"They keep rescheduling." Rene took a seat in the chair beside her. "I don't know what's going on, but everyone's just dragging their feet all of a sudden."

"It's the trial." Katie poured the pills into her hand and both Rene and Claire noticed the number of pills falling into her hand seemed more than the recommended dosage. "Everyone's nervous and don't want to make the wrong move and working with the Mayor's wife right now isn't something a lot of people want to do. " she tossed the pills into her mouth and grabbed her bottle of water to wash them down. "Loop Quentin in, he can use his scary look to put fire under their butts."

"Well we can ask him at the meeting we're supposed to be heading to." Claire said standing to her feet and Katie looked over to her in confusion. "The status meeting with Quentin and the mayor we have twice a month."

Katie groaned. For the past week she'd successfully avoided Oliver's gaze. At work she tried not to even go to his floor and at home he'd been working late hours to restore public opinion of the mayor. A part of her wanted to question that excuse he'd have when he came in late, but a part of her was kind glad. She knew if she was in a room with him for too long, he'd just know and she'd have to come clean.

There was a knock at the door, before it opened and in walked Tamera who held her tablet in hand.

"We ready to go?" she asked with a smile.