by Gareth Otton
The result was clumsy and slow.
She didn’t understand the process at how the cells were made, so she didn’t know how best to speed up that process. However, she hadn’t known that information when she healed cuts either, yet it had worked. This was because her body knew what it needed to do and all she had to do was tell it what she wanted and then force it to get to work.
Had she understood that process better, then she might have been able to do it quicker, but right now it was quick enough for her purpose.
The pain in her wrist faded as first the redness vanished, then the swelling receded, and finally blisters disappeared. Red raw skin dried up and flaked away, revealing fresh pink skin beneath it. Over the course of half an hour, the wound transformed from a blistered mess to healthy, unmarked skin.
When it was over, Jen slumped into her wheelchair, exhausted and sporting a headache, but the agony was gone. Experimentally she raised her hand, turning it about from side to side and grinning when she felt no pain.
“That is unbelievable.”
Jen looked up at Dr Burman and grinned.
“I figured it out,” she said.
He looked up from his phone, which had been recording the transformation, and his eyes were so wide they might fall out of his head.
“So I see. How did you do it?”
Jen explained the process of what she did, blowing the poor doctor’s mind when she described even just the first step she took.
“So you could see the individual cells with your naked eye?” he asked, astounded.
“Yeah. It wasn’t like looking under a microscope or anything, but I could see them.”
“Amazing. This opens up a whole new world of options for us, Jen. The ability to change how you see like that… Think about how this will make learning everything so much easier. You are going to be able to actually see what the books are describing in the real world.”
“And that will help?” she asked, excited.
“Of course it will. You will have a better understanding of injuries in the moment than any other doctor. And being able to copy the template of existing healthy cells to speed up healing… Jen, that was genius.”
Jen blushed from the praise, but she couldn’t wipe the grin from her face. No, it took a single sound to accomplish that feat.
Click.
Jen looked at her healed wrist, surprised to find that there was once again a thin band of metal encircling it that had a dreamcatcher etched into its surface like it was nothing more than decoration. She stared up at the woman who had just locked that bracelet in place and wondered if she ever hated anyone more than this.
“Is that necessary?” Dr Burman asked, anger replacing his excitement over what just happened.
“Yes. The Dream Team were very clear that we can’t let her have this off for any reason.”
“But how is she supposed to develop this skill of hers without being able to practice? Do you not understand what she just did, or the potential of what that means for humanity? Jen could be the greatest leap forward for medicine in our age, and you plan to cripple that by shackling her.”
“When she proves I can trust her, then we can talk about taking this off so she can practice. But for now, the bracelet stays,” Jeans said stubbornly.
“Be reasonable,” the doctor tried, but any chance of reasonableness flew out the window when Jen revealed her reaction.
“You bitch. I hate you,” she shouted, and she’d have attacked the woman if she could. However, without her access to Dream, her legs weren’t moving and she was stuck in her wheelchair, not able to do anything more than glare at the woman.
Jean’s face flickered in a micro-expression of hurt before she sat up straighter and got control of herself.
“It’s for your own good, Jen. I can’t keep you safe if—”
“I hate you,” Jen shouted again, cutting the woman off. She wanted to say something more eloquent, to use logic to explain to this woman why she needed to remove this band, but the words wouldn’t form. Rage and frustration crippled her ability to think, and all she could do was repeat that phrase over and over until Jean had enough and stood up.
“As you can see doctor, she has a lot of growing up to do. This is why the bracelet is necessary. Thank you for your help, but I think we’ll be going.”
“It’s still early,” the doctor complained.
“If Jen is going to act like a child and throw a tantrum, then she will get treated like a child throwing a tantrum. I’m taking her home and for once she’s going to stay there.”
Before Dr Burman could argue further, the woman wheeled Jen out of the room.
The elation of healing herself had long since vanished, and the hopelessness she felt when coming here returned. She thought she had stumbled across something amazing back there, wondered if it even held the keys to healing someone other than herself. But once again Jean ruined everything.
She knew she shouldn’t say anything as she’d only make the situation worse. However, as they reached the car and Jean prepared to lift Jen from the chair, Jen couldn’t help herself. One last time and with as much feeling as she could, she said, “I hate you.”
The words had a clear impact on the stout woman. She froze, colour fleeing her skin. For a full second she didn’t move, then her expression hardened and she carried on with what she was doing a moment before. But Jen had seen the pain her words had caused and knew that the blow had landed.
Strangely, that only made her feel worse.
21
Tuesday, 29th November 2016
19:31
A year.
The thought spiralled around Stella’s mind as she failed to listen to Tad’s complaints about the Three Amigos recent failures. She knew she should pay attention because losing Jen again had not only hit him hard, but damaged his case. But she couldn’t concentrate.
She had been speaking with the Prime Minister, finalising preparations for her role in tomorrow’s Merging Day memorial, and it suddenly hit her that it had been an entire year. She had the strange sensation of the passage of time feeling impossibly fast and slow at the same time. She could look back on the past year and it seemed like yesterday that she was just a normal detective chasing down leads on a case that was getting progressively stranger by the day. Yet she had come so far from that detective that she couldn’t fathom how so many changes could happen in just one year.
This time last year she and Tad were in Tenby, hunting for clues to stop the Proxy disappearances before it was too late. Since then the world had changed, she helped found a new police organisation, she had dealt with dreams gone wrong, fought off nightmares, hunted down dreamcatchers, and battled night and day to keep Tad from getting himself killed. But that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of changes to her life.
There were of course her physical changes as her fame cultivated enough belief that her Eidolon heritage shone through. But there were emotional changes as well. Through Tad, Tony, Jen, Freckles, Growler and Hawk, she had somehow found a new family. Through Leon, she reconnected with her old family. If she went back in time and told herself that in a year she would not just no longer be alone, but she would have reconnected to her mother’s family and opened herself up to new relationships, she’d have thought herself crazy.
Yet, in that year she had achieved all that and more. As the day ticked by, that notion was dominating her thoughts more than she cared to admit.
“You know, it’s been an entire year since the Merging,” she blurted, cutting Tad off mid-rant and making him look up from where he had been pacing around his kitchen after finishing the washing up.
He blinked in confusion, then said, “I know. That’s what Merging Day is about. Remembering everything that’s happened over the last year.”
He spoke like she was crazy, but she knew that was because his mind was still focused on how much he missed his daughter, just like it was so often recently.
“I know that,”
she said. “I’m just fully realising it, I guess. You know what that means though, right?”
Looking thoroughly confused, Tad shook his head.
“It means that as of tomorrow, we’ve been together for a year as well.” The corners of her lips turned up into an amazed smile as again she thought of the last year and everything they’d faced together. This was by far the longest relationship of her life, and that was maybe the biggest surprise of all. A small laugh escaped her before she asked, “Can you believe we made it a whole year?”
Tad’s confusion turned to a mix of startled panic and hurt.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, and again she laughed.
“I don’t mean anything by it,” she said. “I just… Come on, Tad, you’ve seen my past. Surely you can see how crazy it is that we’re here right now. And I’ve seen your past too, don’t tell me you’re not surprised we made it this far.”
“Maybe I’m a little surprised, but you didn’t have to phrase it like that.”
Stella laughed again, climbing off the stool and stepping around the breakfast island so she could be closer to him.
“Don’t be a baby. You know what I mean. I’m just saying it’s a surprise. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.” Going up onto her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “A whole year and yet somehow I don’t want to run away screaming.”
“Why does that still feel like an insult?” Tad asked, though he too was smiling now as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her a little closer. He was about to say something else when his eyes widened and his face froze in a look of panic. “Wait. If tomorrow is a year, then that means it’s our anniversary.”
“That’s how these things work, yes,” Stella agreed, sensing where this was going and enjoying one of the few bumbling Tad moments that remained to her these days.
Tad had changed a lot over the last year as well, in many ways more than she had. One of the most gradual changes and maybe the easiest one to miss was the confidence he had built. The nervous fumbling she saw so often in him before the merging had transformed to a cold confidence. She was glad to see that change as it meant she had to worry about him less, but it was nice to know that the old him was still in there somewhere.
“But… I haven’t gotten you anything… or planned anything… or… Shit. I haven’t—”
He was cut off by Stella’s laugh and again she pulled him down into a kiss that lasted a little longer and hopefully ended his misery and self recrimination.
“You know me, I don’t need any of that,” she whispered, leaning her head against his as she smiled at him. “But maybe there is one thing you can do to help me celebrate tomorrow.”
“What’s that?”
“You can put those dreamwalking powers to good use and help me move my things.”
Tad pulled back, looking her in the eye hard like he was trying to look into her mind and judge how serious she was.
“You want to move in?” he asked with a hint of nervous caution, like she was a deer that might bolt if he was too forceful.
“Is that a problem?” she asked innocently, knowing full well that he’d wanted this for a while but hadn’t mentioned it to give her the space she desperately needed… at least the space she used to need. “If it is, then I can—”
It was her turn to be shut up with a kiss and she grinned at the passion behind it, happy that his own excitement for this next step mirrored her own. She was almost surprised when he pulled away again, but she ran with it and said, “I take it that’s not a problem then?”
“Jump,” was all Tad said in response, and it took a half second to realise what she meant. That half second was nearly too long, as she only just managed to hop in time for the kitchen to vanish. When she landed again, she felt carpet under her toes and the edge of a bed against the back of her legs. When Tad leaned forward to kiss her again, she fell backward onto it, giggling as she did so.
◆◆◆
Stella stepped into the tiny living room of her apartment just as the clock above her sofa turned one in the morning. She looked around the small space and wondered if she’d miss anything about it when she moved, but decided she wouldn’t. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the place, but it housed only memories of lonely nights with her being miserable without even knowing it.
“It’ll make sneaking out in the middle of the night less troublesome at least,” she said to Freckles, who looked up from his spot on the sofa as she entered. She’d woken him up and he yawned wide, displaying teeth that seemed to be larger every day.
Stella had returned to her apartment with Freckles’ help after Tad had fallen asleep. As much as she would rather stay there and concentrate on moving to the next stage of her life, there were expectations of her that she couldn’t ignore and this was shaping up to be one of the biggest days of her career. Norman had an entire schedule of activities he wanted her to be a part of to help highlight the good that had come from the Merging and move people’s mind off the bad.
However, with the troubles Stella was having at work with Trevors’ men, she didn’t have the luxury of leaving everything that needed to be done to other people. Denise was dependable as always, but unlike Stella, Denise needed at least some sleep. Therefore Stella had waited for Tad to drift off and then came back for a quick shower before heading back to the office.
“I know you’re tired buddy, but one more trip and then you can sleep as much as you want, I promise,” Stella said to her dog who yawned again before climbing off the seat. He wagged his tail lazily as he padded over and nuzzled his head against her leg before huffing to indicate he was ready. “Good boy,” Stella said, earning herself another head nudge before she ran her hands through his fur and rested her fingers on the back of his neck.
Freckles huffed again, and that was her signal to jump. She hopped into the air and once again the world shifted around her, only this time the walls of her apartment vanished and the walls of her office appeared.
“Perfect, thank you,” she said to the dog, giving him an extra fuss behind the ears before he walked over to the padded bed she kept for him in the corner of her office, spinning in a circle twice, and then promptly laying down and falling asleep. Stella smiled as she watched him settle. She’d only had him for four months, but she already couldn’t imagine life without him.
More content than she had felt in a while, she looked away from her dog and sat at her desk, her mood slipping as she noticed the massive piles of paper that were waiting.
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
Time lost all meaning as Stella let herself get absorbed by her work. This was always the case when she wanted to get things done, and since she had stopped sleeping, these early hours of the morning had become her most productive times. She knew that one of Trevors’ tactical teams would be downstairs on call, but other than that she had the place to herself with no interruptions and no one to distract her.
Therefore, it was a little strange when she noticed a familiar silhouette walk by the frosted glass that covered her office wall. She glanced at the clock on her computer, which read 2:47 and wondered what on earth Miles was doing here so early. However, she dismissed the thought as she knew he would be every bit as busy as she was today and had probably come in early to get ahead.
She worked for another five minutes before the nagging voice in her mind broke through her work mode and got her to pay attention. She looked at the clock and frowned. Even if he was here for an early morning, three o’clock was pushing it. Something about the memory of him passing her office made her subconscious sit up and pay attention. It was almost like the smallest of itches that kept building until she just couldn’t take it anymore and needed to scratch it.
Putting aside her work for a moment, she climbed to her feet to go do a bit of snooping. It was probably nothing and she felt stupid for doing this, but she didn’t feel like she had a choice.
Freckles opened a lazy eye as she stood, looking up to see what was wrong, but she waved him off.
“Relax buddy, I’m just going to say hello to Miles.”
He didn’t need to be told twice before that eye closed again and he fell back to sleep. Stella stepped past him and opened the office door into the hall that ran down the length of the building. The motion activated lights were all on, which made sense as Miles had just walked buy, but Stella couldn’t suppress a shiver as something about what she saw felt wrong. The hall was lit up like it was daytime, yet there weren’t people rushing about or Denise waiting to ambush her the second she stepped outside.
She always thought the office was spooky when she was alone and put the strange feeling down to that as she headed towards Miles’ office. However, despite rationalising it away, something didn’t feel right to her and she started thinking back to when she first noticed the shadow walk buy.
It was Miles, right?
Suddenly she wasn’t so sure. As soon as she saw the shape she thought of Miles, but now that she examined her memory she was less confident. Despite this probably being nothing to worry about, her heart started pounding as she came closer to the end of the hallway and the computer room that was Miles’ nest during working hours. The door was open, so it must have been him.
Stella shook her head and laughed to herself. She was probably more tired than she thought if she was jumping at shadows like this.
She breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the office, wanting to laugh about her paranoia with Miles as a friend. Therefore, she was unprepared for when she came face to face with… Miles.
Only, it wasn’t Miles.