A Complicated Web

Chapter Fifty Three: Different Circumstances

Dr. Bosch and his team entered the med lab like paramedics dispensing a trauma victim. They pushed the gurney to the empty space where Hiro's bed used to be while one medic broke off to retrieve another set of portable monitors. While he did that, the other attached the saline bag to a stand before moving out of the way for the doctor to examine his patient in greater detail. He also injected a colorless serum into the access port of the catheter when the doctor wasn't looking.

Kally still looked like her entire body was straining, her teeth clenched as her muscles continued to stay taut. This surely couldn't be good for her, Dr. Bosch decided. But without a general idea of what was going on or what had caused it, he wasn't sure he should prescribe any kind of muscle relaxers. So he ordered morphine to see if that might at least lessen the effects. He couldn't move far though because she still held his arm in a vice-like grip.

When the one medic who'd hung the saline suggested trying to loosen her hold on him, Dr. Bosch shook his head. He had a feeling it wouldn't be quite that simple and didn't want to risk breaking her fingers, or anyone else's for that matter. He'd just have to bear with it and hope she didn't break anything in his arm. Bruises he could live with.

Now that the monitors were hooked up, he could tell that Kally's heart and blood pressure were still through the roof. That was decidedly not a good thing, not by any medical standards he knew. And, from all indications, the morphine had yet to do anything to relieve her pain. From start to current, this had been going on for a good five to ten minutes. It had taken them some time to get back to the med lab after all.

But just as Dr. Bosch was about to order meds to counter the symptoms before him, they stopped. Everything stopped. Including Kally's heart, her entire body going limp. The doctor stared in shock for about two seconds before he realized his arm was now free and all the monitors were sounding the alarm for the complete opposite reason. "Crash cart!" he yelled as he brushed wires out of his way so he could begin CPR, just in case the other medics didn't respond fast enough.

The doctor drove his fist into Kally's sternum like a hammer, right above the heart cavity. The jolt seemed to send a shock wave through her and she gasped, eyes flashing open as her back arched with the sudden intake of air. She fell back to the gurney with another jolt of energy, now breathing hard from the oxygen mask still over her nose and mouth.

The heart monitor registered the restarting of her heart, indicating that her pulse now beat within the normal range, albeit with more intensity than was probably necessary. By this time, the medic who'd gone after the cart returned, holding the paddles out, but he was waved off as Kally's vitals evened out.

"Can you hear me?" Dr. Bosch asked his patient, noting that her eyes were still wide open, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Are you in any pain?" Her eyes, he noted, had dilated until they were almost black.

Kally turned her head slowly to look up at the doctor. There was something funny going on with her vision. Or maybe it was just that it seemed so much more different than what she was used to. "What did you do to me?" she asked, feeling a little short of breath. She blinked and her vision returned to normal. More than a little confused, she shook her head to try and clear her thoughts.

Dr. Bosch couldn't help but look puzzled. "I'm not sure I understand," he admitted. "I didn't do anything to you."

She raised the hand with the IV line and made a funny little grimace at it. "Ugh. Was that really necessary? You know I hate needles." She looked up again, not at the doctor but past him. "I still don't know what you did."

Realizing Kally was possibly not talking to him, Dr. Bosch turned to see if anyone was behind him. There wasn't. Were hallucinations a residual of what she'd just gone through? It was possible. "I don't know what happened," he told her, still not sure if she was listening to him. "But I want to run some tests to try and find out."