Tahiti (Boy x Boy)

Part Three

Dr. West woke up around three in the morning after a couple hours of sleep. In case anything went wrong, she lived at the hospital day and night. Though the sound of her alarm was a peaceful tune, the signal to wake up sounded sharp in her ears. It was another day of getting to send people to a distant, paradise island while she was stuck in the gritty reality to make such travels possible.

She wore a blue top under her jacket on that frigid morning. With only an hour to spare before she would have to conduct more mentoring with Corrinne, she knew that she couldn't waste any time. Dr. West administered a few serums to sleeping patients, Daniel included.

The woman walked into forty-one's room. Even with the dim lighting, the man was flat under the sheets, only making sounds of soft breathing. Currently, he was in an unconscious pit of utter nothingness. His brain floated in a vat of darkness; an ever unchanging scene. However, with the insertion of a needle, Dr. West planned on adding color to his life even if it was fictional.

She inserted the needle slowly into the man's arm. The sleeping pill that Daniel took was a heavy dosage, meaning that even if his arm was to be violently stabbed with the shot, it wouldn't be enough to wake him up. He was as lifeless as a zombie in this state. Dr. West knew this, but still decided to be careful. As a mother, she knew Daniel was always afraid of needles as a child. She could never erase the memory of him crying at a young age the moment he was told a needle needed to go into his skin, and how she had to comfort her child to accept the pokey metal into his body. She had to hold him and sing to him as the shot was being given to him.

Sadness. It flowed through Dr. West like the serum floated through Daniel's blood as it was gently injected. She didn't need to sing to him or hold him, or rather, she couldn't. Deep roots of regret were formed the day she pretended to kill herself just to get rid of her son and start this project. That kid is just dead weight, isn't he? Her and her ex-husband were asked by the president. He's broken as well. He's of no use to society and he's of no use to your cause. She remembered that her and Quinn were against abandoning Daniel. He was their son. Saving lives meant nothing if it meant putting his life at risk.

You'll have to ditch your old lives and get new ones. That was the advice given. Maybe afterwards you can take Daniel in as a patient, but you'll have to break him just a little further. It's a huge sacrifice, yes, but think of all the lives you could save! Dr. West couldn't believe she accepted that as a reasonable incentive to mentally destroy her own child, but she was persuaded even by the following words. You can save Daniel too. You can reintroduce him to society, but you'll never be able to call yourselves his parents to his face. But won't it be worth it when this becomes a success? The "yes" was what got the leader of the United States to invest in the Tahiti experiment.

The serum was now fully inserted into Daniel as Dr. West finished the rest of that mental replay. Those words weren't things that she enjoyed thinking about, but they were the words that got her into this mess. There was no Option B any longer. Opening up to Daniel about the truth would crush him beyond saving. Even Dr. West was red enough to believe that much.

So, like she had many times before, she stood there while attempting to keep a straight face from breaking into a frown. It took about three minutes, but slowly Daniel's stoic expression eased into a slight smile. He was in Tahiti. If Dr. West couldn't live with knowing she destroyed him, she could at least live with knowing that he was living a life of rest and relaxation. He was at peace now.

Though a forbidden practice, the doctor bent down and placed a kiss on top of the man's golden locks. "Good night, sweetheart," Dr. West whispered. It was for herself more than anyone, but she did it because she wanted to feel like a mother even if for only a few seconds.