Under My Skin

Under My Skin - Part 45

By the time Louis was dropped off at his apartment he walked like the living dead, lethargic and heavy. His mind kept racing, hopping from one worry to the other. Once he locked his door, he shed his clothes in a line to his dark bedroom. The smell of roasted coffee beans had sunk into the brick and drywall, making the air warm and jittery. Dawn leaked through the cracks in the vertical shades. And his mind still spun about with questions and doubts.

"Shut up," Louis hissed as he clutched his head. There would be no getting to sleep on his own tonight.

Wearing only his boxer briefs, Louis collapsed on the bed with a thump and reached his hand out to the cell phone, the charger still plugged in, on his bedside table. He flicked the screen and tapped the app to play the recording titled "sleep.wav".

Out of the phone's tinny speakers came the throb of a strong, slow heartbeat. Will's heartbeat. It was a fifteen minute recording that drove away the endless questions in Louis' head, pulsing over him as he curled up in the less than crisp sheets.

If he was any more alert he might have scoffed at the irony. Fanboy's heartbeat was the only thing that could get him to sleep. Depending on such a thing was a crutch, especially when it was so...

"Fuckin' sappy," Louis muttered into the pillow.

It had been the second night after Freewill; Louis had been wandering around the halls of Med Tech, avoiding Rachel and trying to find some peace and quiet. He hadn't been able to sleep since yesterday when he had snuck into Will's room and fell asleep at the rookie's side. He refused to mention it to Rachel who would just sic another medical test or scan on him. He didn't need a damn scan, he needed sleep.

Louis had wandered past Will's room, glancing at the heart monitors, and something pulled at him, coaxing him to enter. Will was still asleep, dead to the world thanks to the medications treating the food poisoning that nearly cost them both their lives.

Just getting closer to the heart monitors made his eyelids heavy. Louis tilted his head down towards Will's chest. He nearly fell asleep where he stood. A glimmer of an idea, which he didn't like but was desperate enough to do, formed in his mind, and within the hour he had bypassed Rachel's snooping nurses and retrieved his cell phone and a wire microphone from his desk. Once he had the microphone pressed against Will's chest he started the recording.

And now the recording was the embarrassing lullaby for sleep.

Louis sighed. Sleep, then coffee, real coffee. Tomorrow he had a scientist to track down and throttle.

***

Cetz had given the appropriate people leave for a few days. After lockdown there were people desperate to go home to their families or loved ones.

But Massaru Devi couldn't.

The Indian doctor was still stuck in his room in Med Tech. Though he could don normal clothes again, now that Zachs was gone, he couldn't go anywhere. His fingers traced the edge of a photo he kept at his bedside; a family portrait of him, his wife, and in between the two of them, their son.

Did they miss him? Would there still be pasta Mondays when he returned? How much longer must he be lonely before he could finally see them?

Massaru wanted to sleep his misery off. Instead he turned back to the employment logs and flipped through for an entry on Sandra Pearl. The sooner he found the leak the sooner he could go home.

***

The atmosphere at Watch Two the next day was refreshing, cleaner, less tense, as if a bottle of soda was shaken about for six days and then finally allowed to foam and hiss.

After a full day of rest, a little shopping in the old market, and a short Star Wars (original trilogy) marathon, Will came to work with his chipper attitude reasonably intact. Louis' encouragement the other day that the nightmares and fears would fade had helped him get a full night's sleep. After going through the messages at this desk, he met Louis at the Comp Tech entrance with a normal looking black mug of coffee in one hand, and his tea in the other.

"Morning," he chirped. "Rachel wants to see us."

Louis grunted with a frown and took the mug, drinking deep. "Another damn test."

"I don't think so; her note said she had some sort of presentation to make."

Louis stomped over to his desk to check his own messages. "What kind of presentation? A guide to preventing VD?"

Will nearly sprayed his tea out his mouth. His cheeks reddened as he coughed and hacked the tea back down his mouth. His side ached a little, but not enough to be worrying. "No. hack But the sooner we get there the sooner we can find out."

"Great."

Will smiled as Louis led the way, still sipping from his mug of coffee and not noticing the amused looks people gave him as they walked past.