To Be A Leader

Chapter 35: I Know Those Eyes

I wince as Paula pricks me with a needle, and I watch as dark crimson trails down the clear tubing and into a small vial.

She was overly eager to pick and prod me this morning. Of course, she's been performing tests on herself after taking the cure, but she wanted me to be also be a test subject so she could have another pair of results to compare hers to. It should take a few days to get the results back, so she still plans on receiving plasmapheresis treatments, and she's advised me to do the same, just in case.

"There," Paula says, placing the two vials of my blood down onto the table. She pulls the needle from my vein and places a cotton ball and band aid over it. I can feel the slight burn in my skin. "Hopefully we can see if this cure really is that."

"I feel fine," I say with a shrug. "And I was on the verge of turning before Janine injected me with the stuff."

"I feel fine most of the time too, and Sam's blood saved me when I was on the brink of death. Doesn't mean it cured me. From your vital signs, you're fine, cured, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."

I nod, not really meeting her eye. She frowns, tipping her head to the side. "Are you alright?"

"What? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. Yesterday was..." I hesitate, "a lot, with Sigrid and being infected and the Glass Protocol. I'm still processing it and trying to think of what we'll be doing next."

"Janine says she's going to be looking into how to help with your Moonchild... issue." She says the words with caution, as if afraid she might trigger Moonchild.

"We've been trying to deal with that for awhile now. I mean, even that treatment place we went to didn't have the answers for me." I shrug again. "Still, Sigrid doesn't know I'm her special Alpha or whatever she calls it, so I have that going for me."

Paula's frown deepens, her gray eyes scanning for something on my face. I'm not sure what. "You know you can tell me if you're not okay. I am a doctor, which means patient confidentiality. I won't tell anyone, not even Sam. I know... what it's like to have that fear, to feel that pain while on the brink of death."

"I know," I say, memories of yesterday flashing before my eyes, "but I'm fine. Really. I'm fine now, or at least, I should be. I'll still get the plasmapheresis treatments until you get those samples back, and I'll then move on."

I have to move on. That's what I tell myself every time yesterday's fears come to mind. That's what I told myself last night when I kept waking up screaming because I kept dreaming that I was about to turn.

Sam tried to talk to me about that this morning before I came here. I refused.

"Callista, what you experienced yesterday was traumatic-"

"What I experience almost every day is traumatic," I reply, my tone flat. "Is are any other tests you need run on me?"

The words come off a little harsher than I expected them to, but I've been here for hours. It reminds of after I broke out from the mind control and Maxine ran every test under the sun on me to make sure I was actually me.

I'm tired. I'm sore. I want to be left alone.

Before Paula can respond, there's a knock on the already open door. A second later Peter pokes his head into the hospital room.

"Hey, Five-o. I was looking for you. I managed to convince Tom to move training with him to tomorrow. I told him after got your arse beat by Sigrid, the Glass Protocol and the zombie virus, he should be a good friend and spare you from getting your arse beat the very next day."

I roll my eyes. "Haha, very funny. What do you want?"

He gasps in mock offense. "I've come to make your day better. Sam's busy with runs most of today and he's got a Demons and Darkness session tonight that he knows you won't go to, so he basically asked me to be your babysitter."