Lucidity

by CJ Lyons

  Grace stirred beneath his fingers, her eyes fluttering open. He flicked a penlight into her pupils. Equal size, reactive. She began to push herself upright and he guided her to a sitting position, his arm around her shoulders. "Are you all right?"

  Her muscles rippled beneath his touch but she nodded. He helped her to her feet and together they entered the ECU, following Eve into the first treatment room.

  "Go ahead, get her into a patient gown and on the monitor," Eve said. "I'll need a line started as well." She left, relegating Vincent to duties usually performed by a nurse or med student.

  He watched the door swing shut behind Eve, then turned to Grace who sat on the exam table, her feet dangling off the floor. She looked at him with an expression of disgust.

  Guess he deserved that after betraying her to Eve. Not to mention putting his job before her needs. Even if those needs were irrational.

  "Do you have any idea what you're getting into?" she asked, making no move to change into the patient gown he handed her.

  "Helping Eve prepare you for Helman's surgery." He stared at her in concern. "You do remember about the surgery? The brain mapping?"

  She said nothing but shook her head at him as if he were an idiot or worse. Then she kicked her shoes off, stood barefoot on the tiled floor and began to strip out of her scrubs. He turned his back, fumbling with the IV supplies.

  "This is the best thing," he said, his back still to her.

  "For who? You or Eve Warden?"

  "For you, of course." He spun around. She was tying the gown behind her, but somehow she didn't look dwarfed or weakened by the change from a physician's garb to the revealing patient's gown. Somehow she managed to make the usually humiliating costume appear regal. Her eyes blazed across the room at him, challenging him.

  He lowered his gaze, approaching her as she settled back onto the table. "I need to hook you up to the monitor."

  She lay back on the thin mattress, watching him with those intense blue eyes as he pulled the adhesive backing off of the monitor leads and skimmed his hands under her gown to press them against the skin near her breasts.

  "Helman is giving Alex his DNR," she finally said.

  He pivoted, turning the monitor on. The steady beat of her heart echoed through the room. His own pulse was racing, he realized. He reached out to lower the volume on the machine.

  "So you won," he said, surprised at how bitter his words emerged.

  She grabbed his hand, her grip tighter than he'd expected from such a small woman. "No, Vincent. I didn't win. Alex did."

  He met her eyes, overwhelmed by their fierce intensity. Finally he looked away, trying to ignore the trembling of his hand when she released him.

  She remained silent as he began an IV in a vein on the back of her left hand. The bright fluorescent lights made her emerald ring seem to wink at him, as if it shared a joke with its owner--a joke at his expense. Damn it, why did he have to feel this way about her? She'd never give up Jimmy Moran. A mere human like Vincent had no hope of competing against a ghostly legend.

  Eve returned, now wearing a lab coat over her ruby colored silk blouse and black slacks. She hadn't pulled her hair back this morning, it cascaded over her shoulders in a gleaming shower of pure light. Fragments of memory from last night flew through his brain as she brushed pass him and he inhaled her shampoo. For a moment he was drowning in the rich fragrance of orchids, felt her hair skimming over his naked flesh, heard her cries of passion.

  He stepped back, out of range of Eve's intoxicating scent, and saw Grace watching him. He felt himself flush and swallowed hard to regain his composure.

  Eve deftly drew up the Lucidine and began the infusion. "I'm using a higher dose than recommended. She broke through last time," she told Vincent, ignoring Grace who lay beneath her, still awake, although now immobilized by the Lucidine.

  "Last time?"

  "During her biopsy. Woke up just as Helman was drilling into her brain. He was not pleased."

  He could imagine. He could also imagine how terrifying that would have been for the patient, but Eve made no mention of that. Instead, she watched as Grace's vitals stabilized, her body totally flaccid. Eve raised one of Grace's hands, allowed it to drop without resistance onto Grace's face, then flop off to hang at her side.

  Eve looked over at him. Grace lay beneath them, between them, able to hear everything they said, although unable to respond. "She's a skinny bitch, isn't she?"

  "Aren't you going to put the goggles and head set on her? Control her stimuli for the mapping?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation back to professional ground.

  Instead Eve grabbed his hand, forced it down over Grace's breast.

  "You like them scrawny with boy-tits like her, Vincent?" she asked, her fingernails digging into his skin. "Is that why you called out her name last night? When I was giving you the best fucking orgasm of your ever-loving fucking life?"

  Vincent tried to pull away, used his free hand to wrench her fingers back. Eve's face filled with pain and she cried out. He immediately released her, remembering the bruises he had caused last night. What the hell was wrong with him? He backed away from the table, from both women.

  "Eve, I'm sorry."

  She rubbed her wrist and he saw red marks already forming there. Then she looked up at him with a smile, her white teeth glistening in the bright lights. "That's all right, Vincent. We'll work things out."

  She whirled around, stepped to the door, and opened it. Vincent watched in surprise as the woman he'd met in Eve's office yesterday pushed a gurney inside, drawing it up along the far wall. A male patient lay on it, a man in his thirties, his head shaved, eyes closed, a sheet drawn up to his chin.

  Eve whisked the sheet away to reveal the man beneath. He wasn't a large man, but both his arms and legs were secured to the gurney with leather restraints thick enough to hold a rampaging guerrilla in place.

  Lukas still wandered the halls of nightmares. No, not dreams. Memories, a woman's voice insisted, her words punctuated by the scream of brakes, the shriek of metal colliding with metal. Remember. Listen to me. This is what really happened.

  He obeyed. But felt as if he were a stranger in his own mind, watching as he steered a car through the night. Right. Driving home from the airport. His throat tightened. With Grace. He looked down, saw her left hand resting on his thigh, her platinum diamond engagement and wedding rings gleaming silver in the dashboard lights.

  Why couldn't he feel her? He looked up in panic, caught a glimpse of her smile, the rest of her face shrouded in shadow. Married, they were married, she was his. She loved him.

  The thought should have soothed, instead it created more panic. He tried to move his hand, reach out to touch her, to prove that she was real but he was frozen in place.

  Then came a mind-splitting crash. As he watched, Grace flew face first through the windshield, glass and blood raining down on him. He heard her screams, tasted her blood splattered on his face, felt her flesh give beneath his fists.

  No, no. It wasn't like that. He opened his hand and the bloody chair leg he'd been holding vanished, replaced by the seat belt buckle as he fought to get free of the twisted wreckage to get to Grace. To save her. He had to save her. He was her only hope.

  Then a man's face intruded. Moran. At first staggering with a drunken gait, grinning like a maniac at the chaos he'd wreaked. Lukas felt the howl of rage and fury thunder through him. Moran sat down on the asphalt beside Grace, dared to touch her. Then Moran lay below Lukas, his face ravished, shattered. Lukas tightened his grip around the man's throat, ignoring the blood seeping onto the oak floor.

  No--not oak, asphalt. Then Grace died in his arms, reaching for him, her wedding ring gleaming in the headlights. Silver and diamonds casting rainbows in the mist.

  He hadn't been able to save her.

  A single tear slid from beneath his eyelid, but Lukas couldn't raise a hand to wipe it away.

  Jimmy bolted through the door to Alex's room th
en stopped short. Seated on the chair, playing cards flying from his hands as he dealt them onto the bedside table, was Leo. Attired now in black turtleneck and black jeans, he looked like a silver-maned David Copperfield.

  "Ah, Jimmy," he drawled, cards flying seemingly in random directions, "glad you were able to join us." He paused in his movements to toss Jimmy a towel, then turned back to Alex and Kat. "I was just explaining to Alexander and Katherine that they shouldn't blame themselves for Grace deciding to have her surgery. That it was her own free will."

  Jimmy chucked the towel back at Leo, disrupting the intricate design of the cards.

  "You bastard," he thundered, stalking past Alex's bed. The children both looked up at him in surprise that quickly changed to fear.

  "Jimmy, what's wrong?" Alex asked.

  He ignored the boy, stepped closer to the monk. "You knew what was over there, waiting for her."

  Leo stood, met Jimmy's glare with a placid gaze, his dark eyes mirroring Jimmy's scowl. "The point, my boy, is that so did she." His voice was as cold as an Arctic breeze. "Grace knew what was waiting for her, yet still she chose to go. Believe me, it's not the outcome I'd hoped for. I brought you here to prevent all this. But," he shrugged, "free will."

  "Free will my Aunt Minnie's ass! You drove her to this. Keeping her here, involving her with them." Jimmy jerked his head at the two children. "Bringing me in when she almost broke free on her own. You set her up from the start."

  Leo smiled, and Jimmy's blood ran cold. It was the smile of a man who had nothing more to lose, the grin of a madman.

  He nonchalantly fanned out the remainder of the cards between his long fingers. "I guess your love wasn't as strong as you thought. Welcome to my world. You'll get used to the frustration and impotence after awhile if you stick around. Maybe a few hundred years or so. Pick a card, Jimmy. Any card."

  "To hell with you and your parlor tricks. I'm getting my wife back."

  "You mean your widow, don't you boyo?" Leo thrust the cards into Jimmy's face. Kat joined Alex on the bed, was holding him tight as both children listened to the argument. "Go ahead," Leo continued. "No more tricks. Pick a card and see your future."

  "Bugger my future. Show me Grace's. Prove to me that she'll be all right."

  "No guarantees. Just likelihoods. That pesky free will again, you know. Okay, two for one. We'll let the children do the picking." Leo spun around. Kat and Alex drew back as far as they could, their faces growing pale. "Alexander, you chose for Jimmy."

  Leo followed his command with a stare. Alex reached a trembling hand forward, his breath whistling as he exhaled.

  "Bloody hell." Jimmy's heart wrenched at the sight of the two terrified kids. He cursed himself for starting this in front of them. "Leave them out of it."

  He grabbed a card and flipped it face up onto the table. The Joker, his fool's cap flying from his head as he peddled his bicycle furiously through empty air, falling. The ground below was an inferno of greedy flames reaching up, trying to snatch him from the sky.

  "I guess this means I will see you in Hell. Or what passes for it." Jimmy practically spat the words at Leo. "Now get out of here. Someone needs to be with Grace and you know I can't go."

  Leo seemed to appear honestly dismayed, his dark eyes pulling away from Jimmy, searching the room. "Would that I could, Jimmy. Would that I could." His voice was so wistful Jimmy almost believed him. "My power goes no further than yours. That's why I needed Grace in the first place."

  Jimmy blew his breath out in frustration. He turned to the children. "Do either of you know Dr. Helman? I need to talk to him, convince him to bring Grace back."

  "I know him," Kat said, her voice emerging as a tremulous squeak. "He's my doctor."

  "You're not going to convince anyone of anything looking like that, man," Leo put in, nodding to Jimmy's soaking wet scrubs and disheveled appearance. He tossed the cards aside and stood, suddenly full of energy as if Jimmy's words had brought him new hope. "You go. Wait and watch for Grace. I'll take the children and discuss the issue with Jonas. Yes, Jonas is the perfect one to approach, Vincent will listen to him."

  "Jonas? So now you two are mates? How do I know I can trust you?"

  "You can trust us," Alex said. His words cut through the air like the chime of crystal. Both men spun to face him. "We won't let anything happen to Grace. I promise."

  "Dr. Helman will listen to me," Kat added. "He always listens if you tell him what a good doctor he is and make him think something is his own idea." She spoke with the authority of experience.

  Jimmy sighed, turned his gaze on each child in turn, searching their earnest faces for reassurance. He nodded. He was trusting Grace's future to two babes barely out of nappies, but he felt the trust was well-placed. Besides, he had nowhere else to turn.

  "All right, then. But hurry. Please," he added, not caring that the last came out a sorrowful plea.

  "Wait," Leo said. "Don't you want to know Grace's future?"

  Jimmy spun back and stared down the infuriatingly less-than-omnipotent monk. "I know her future already, you bastard. Find someone else to play your bloody games with because I'm going to save her!"

  "Vincent, meet Renee's son. Lukas Redding."

  The strange tone of triumph in Eve's voice almost distracted him from the name. Then it sank in. He whipped his head around to stare from mother to son. Lukas Redding appeared harmless, strapped to his gurney with four inch leather restraints, his face slack and innocent in sleep, a small dribble of drool slipping from his lips.

  "Lukas Redding?" he repeated in a hoarse whisper. "The man who--"

  Renee's hand stroked her son's head as she met Vincent's gaze with a sharp-edged glare. "The man who needs your help, Dr. Emberek," she said in a calm, commanding voice. "The patient you and Dr. Warden can save."

  Vincent stared at her, saw only grim determination in her expression. The warped visage of a mother's love, driven to sacrifice anything or anyone for the sake of her child.

  Even if that child was a monster.

  He backed away from the Reddings, turned to find Eve busy draping ice packs over Grace's face and hands. Grace's eyes were wide open, staring unseeing at the ceiling, but her heart rate on the monitor had sped up, and he realized that she had heard everything, knew exactly who she now shared her room with.

  "Eve, what the hell are you doing?" Vincent demanded. "Wake her up, bring her back. Now."

  Eve finished tucking the last ice pack against Grace's cheek and looked up, tossing her hair back. "Don't worry," she said. "She'll be fine. A touch of beta-blockers to slow her pulse and Lukas will think she's dead. He'll finally be able to say his good-byes, let her go for once and for all."

  "You can't--Eve, you can't do this to her. I won't let you."

  She arched an eyebrow at him, rounded the gurney and stepped close. She placed a hand on his chest as if she were pushing him away, but her fingernails dug in with a steel grip. "You won't let me? Vincent, this is the answer to our dreams. The ultimate validation of Lucidine therapy. Not to mention your way out of the mess your life has become," she paused. "With Renee's help."

  "You mean with Renee's money. Blood money."

  She narrowed her eyes as she tilted her head up to stare into his. "Does it matter whose money it is? If it buys you the future you've always dreamed of?"

  Her voice was hypnotic, a siren's song. The beeping of Grace's heart rate on the monitor sped up, drawing his attention back to the woman who lay helpless on the gurney. All that she had suffered already--how could he let Eve put her through this?

  "I can't," he stammered, his gaze fixed on Grace's still form. "I won't let you."

  Eve's laughter surprised him. He returned his focus to her and saw that her cheeks were now blossoming with crimson. Her grip on his shirt and chest tightened, became painful. He circled his hands around her arms, tried to break free, but instead she forced him back against the wall.

  "I think you will," she whispered as her free hand
stroked his thigh and her body pressed up against his. "If you want to save your lady, Grace. A hospital can be such a dangerous place, after all."

  Vincent stared down at her, amazed that this she-devil had ever seemed attractive to him. His flesh crawled beneath her touch.

  "You might want to think about saving yourself as well, Vincent," she crooned, her hand moving between their bodies to slide beneath his waistband. His breath whistled as the heat of her touch flared through him. "The patients aren't the only ones recorded--my office has a camera as well. No audio, but the video will speak for itself after I go to Helman and tell him how you raped me last night."

  He tried to push her away, but her fingers tightened on him. His hips rocked as she coaxed him into involuntary arousal. "I never," he whispered. "That's not what--"

  "That's exactly what happened. They'll investigate, find drugs in your call room. Drugs like rohypnol, the date rape drug. Of course, I'll have to tell them how I've found you in Kat's room when she was sleeping, watching her. And Grace--why else would you be interested in a crazy woman, near to death, the perfect victim, a woman who no one would ever believe if she told them of your perversions."

  He shuddered beneath her touch and gulped for air. Sweat broke out all over him, his chest constricted as he worked to breathe.

  "When I'm done with you, Vincent," she continued mercilessly, "you'll be labeled a sexual predator, a rapist, pedophile. Losing your career to a malpractice case will be the least of your worries."

  She stepped back, her hands leaving his flesh, and he found air to breathe again. He realized that he was still clutching her shoulders. His vision cleared enough to look past her to the blinking red light of the camera behind her.

  He dropped his hands. She smiled in triumph. To the camera it would look like he had grabbed her, pulled her to him, maybe even against her will. She gave him a wink and he knew she had won. She had manipulated him, Grace, Helman--twisted reality into something macabre and bizarre.

  Eve's version of the truth would be the only one anyone saw. Or believed.