Agent Kat

Chapter 42: Examinations

Leroy laid Kat's limp body down gently on the exam table in one of the labs. He looked around and saw a tiny glass square used for tests. He looked out the windows and saw none of the other scientists. 

Then again, it was the middle of the night.

He took a deep breath and flipped Kat onto her stomach. I need to... I need to take a sample of the stuff on her back, and test to see what it is. 

Leroy ran a hand over the spot through the shirt and couldn't feel anything.He reached for her shirt and pulled it up just enough so that the white spot was exposed. He felt it again and felt himself pale. It wasn't on the outside of her. It was on the inside. 

Almost like internal bleeding. 

Sighing, Leroy paced back and forth for a few moments, weighing his options. In order to find out what was happening to her, he needed to test that stuff. But if it was on the inside of her, then in order to get to it, he would have to cut into her.

He closed his eyes and took three deep breaths, before becoming calm enough to do what he needed to.

He worked quickly and grabbed a tiny scalpel and the little glass square. He locked the door to ensure that he wouldn't be interrupted and stared down at Kat. I have to do this. He looked down at Kat's face and grimaced. If she wakes up, she's going to be in a lot of pain... 

Leroy searched the lab for a syringe and smiled to himself when he found one. In one of the cabinets, he also found a glass jar of anesthetic. He filled the syringe with the anesthetic and brought it back to Kat. 

Crap, he thought. If he was going to do this, he was going to have to steel his nerves enough to cut into her.

A minute later, he took the syringe in his right hand and slowly inserted it into the very middle of the white web-like stuff. 

He pulled it out and placed it on a steel dish. "Okay, Kat," he muttered, hoping that talking to her while she was unconscious would help him. "I'm doing this for your own good." 

Taking the scalpel in his hand, he placed it on her back, trying to figure out the best place to cut. Right at the source, he thought. Just as he was about to slice into her skin, someone tapped on the door. 

He cursed and threw the scalpel onto the same dish as the syringe. 

Opening the door, he saw the last person he wanted to see. "Adam."

"Leroy," Adam said, just as unhappy as he was. "Where's Kat."

"She's fine. Now, I need you to leave right now."

Adam stuck his head into the room. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Leroy said, shoving Adam's head back out. "But she won't be if you keep pestering me."

Adam crossed his arms and stuck his foot in between the door and the wall. "Let me in, or I'll force my way in."

Leroy glared at Adam for a few more seconds before letting go of the door and walking away to the table. "She's fine, see?"

Adam closed the door and locked it behind him. Leroy tensed. "You don't really expect me to let you stay, do you?"

"I don't think you've got much of a choice." Adam crossed his arms again and strode over to where Kat's body lay. "What's wrong with her?" He felt her neck, looking for a pulse. "Her heartbeat's erratic."

Leroy's eyes fluttered in exasperation. "I know. I've already done an examination."

He narrowed his eyes. "How in depth of an examination."

Leroy's cheeks flushed pink. "If you think I did anything to her, think again. I would never do anything to hurt her. But she will die if we don't find out what's growing on her." He looked back at her back and cursed. "It's crawling around her sides. We need to move quickly."

Adam didn't move.

"Now!"

Sighing, Adam said, "Are you sure she won't wake up?"

Leroy picked the scalpel up and positioned it. "If she does, she won't feel it. I've already numbed the area."

"How much?"

He took a deep breath and cut a small incision in Kat's back. "Enough." He called for Adam to bring over a cloth of some kind to stanch the flow of blood once he'd gotten a sample. 

He took a small swab and swiped it on the side of the incision. It was mostly blood, but he saw a little bit of white on it. That's enough for me.

"Hurry, stop the bleeding," Leroy ordered. 

A groan startled him. 

"What..." It was Kat. She was awake. "Aaah," she moaned. "What happened?"

Adam looked up at Leroy and smirked. "Yeah, Leroy. What happened?"

Leroy narrowed his eyes at Adam and turned to the microscope. "Kat, you've got something growing on your back. It was causing you a lot of pain. I knocked out out so I could examine you further."

"Is that why my head hurts and my back doesn't?" she asked wryly.

His mouth tipped up slightly. "Yeah. Now, give me a few minutes to figure out what this stuff is." He put the little bit of white on the glass square and slid it under the microscope. He looked into the eyepiece. 

When he focused the lens on the substance he looked at the shapes that the stuff made. It was all white, and that was certain, but it didn't just look like silk. The formations that the silky substance made, the consistency of it. 

He took the blood that came with it and put into a different microscope; one that had a stronger magnification. He examined the cells in the blood and the formations in the silk. 

Leroy pulled away, stunned. 

"What is it?" Adam asked.

"That white stuff... It's not growing on her," Leroy said, too shocked to be angry at him. 

Kat shook her head. "What do you me--" She stopped to wince in pain. "Ow. Something's stinging on my back."

Leroy sighed. "The anesthesia is wearing off. I'll have to stitch up the incision to make sure it doesn't start to bleed again." He gathered some thread and a needle. Why a scientific lab had all of this medical stuff in it, he didn't know, but he was thankful.

"This is going to hurt a bit," he warned before starting to stick the needle into her back. 

"Ow," she muttered.

He grimaced. "Sorry, Kat."

She gritted her teeth against the pricks. "It's fine. I'm sure we've all faced worse than stitches."

Adam laughed. "True."

"Almost done," Leroy said, trying to be comforting. Adam rubbed Kat's back between her shoulder blades.

Finally, Leroy was finished and he tied off the end of the string.

"Now, what were you saying about the white stuff?" Kat asked, trying to sit up. Adam supported her as she pushed herself into an upright position.

Leroy sat down in a chair and looked solemnly at her. "It's not growing on you. You're growing it." Her eyes bugged out. "It's kind of like a cocoon. It's growing around you, but from the inside. It's like you're going through metamorphosis, like a caterpillar."

She snorted. "So what, I'm the caterpillar and I'm going to turn into a butterfly?" When Leroy said nothing, Kat looked up at him with panic in her eyes. "I'm going to change?"

"That's what I'm thinking," Leroy said. "We don't know what to expect. Anything could happen."