by Linnea Hall
“Hey, Doc. I know you’re not my doctor, and I can see by the way you’re dressed that you’re off duty. You don’t have to play doctor with me.”
“She’s still acting like she knows everything, and has a bit of a sharp wit too. I reckon that’s a good sign. Just humor me for a minute, would you? The x-rays and the MRI came out clean. I’m surprised considering the amount of bruising and swelling. You have several deep tissue bruises that will hurt for a while, and those cuts on your wrist aren’t going away anytime soon. I’m a bit concerned about the cut on your arm though. It did some nerve and muscle damage. Fortunately, whatever you were cut with was as sharp as a scalpel so the cut is clean. We poked around in there to make sure and then put in some stitches. You may feel some tingling or loss of sensation in your hand, but I don’t think that’ll be permanent. We’ll keep an eye on it anyway. So, besides all that, how are you feeling?”
Jewell was surprised at how superficial her injuries really were considering how much pain she was feeling. “I guess I hurt a little.”
“I’ll let Dr. Wilson make the decision, but I think that we can take you off that morphine drip. She’ll probably agree with me. You should be up and around in no time.”
“What about Collin?” Jewell choked on his name. He had survived a life threatening injury once, she was afraid that he wouldn’t survive again.
“Collin? He’s a trooper, that one. He lost a lot of blood, and he had a concussion with minor hemorrhaging. He had several cuts that needed to be repaired, along with a shattered collarbone, three broken ribs and a collapsed lung.” Dr. Babineaux stopped talking when he realized that all of the blood had drained from Jewell’s face, and a tear was marking its path from her eye to her chin. “He’s going to be alright though, don’t worry!” Dr. Babineaux smiled. “It’s going to take a lot more than a little bleeding and a few broken bones to kill that one.” His voice had become distant. He looked down at Jewell. “Don’t worry. I’m taking care of him personally.”
“Why are you so interested in him?”
Dr. Babineaux caught his breath. Jewell was observant. He carefully considered his words. “As you may know, much of my research is dedicated to healing injuries faster. Collin, well, I’m sure you noticed that Collin heals faster than the average person. This is due to a rare genetic anomaly. I suspected it when he was with us the last time.”
“Can he die?”
Dr. Babineaux laughed. “Of course he can die. Everyone dies eventually Jewell. It’s a part of life.” He smiled and patted her hand. “I’d better get going. I have a golf game scheduled in forty-five minutes.” He touched his forehead reminiscent of when men would tip their hats, and walked briskly from the room.
After Dr. Babineaux had left, Ashley turned and looked at Jewell. “Can he die? What kind of question was that? That morphine must really be making you loopy!” Jewell smiled weakly. “I’m afraid I need to get going. Work you know.” She leaned down and gave Jewell a loose hug trying not to hurt her, and then she gave Tommy a hug too. “I know you’ll take care of her.” She whispered. Tommy just nodded.
When Jewell woke up, the room was empty. There was a cot against the wall that looked as if it had been slept in. Before Jewell was able to sit up and look around her father came striding in pushing a wheelchair. “Collin’s awake. He was asking about you. Are you up to a wheel chair ride across the hall?”
Jewell thought about it for a few seconds. She really wasn’t, but she wanted to see Collin so badly that she couldn’t resist the offer. She nodded and her dad helped her as she moved slowly from the bed to the chair. Her legs supported her, that was a welcome surprise, and she found that moving actually helped to loosen some of the muscles and made some of her injuries feel better. Once she was settled, her father stepped behind and pushed her around the nurses’ station to the other side of the hall where Collin was resting.
As her father pushed her through the door, she braced herself for what she was going to see. She briefly flashed back to the first time he came into the hospital, reliving the moment of what she had thought was his death. His face had been so distorted by his injuries. As she approached the bed, he was facing away from her, just like the first time she entered his room. His right arm was bandaged, and he had a square of gauze taped onto his left shoulder where the doctors had inserted the pins to repair his collarbone. His torso was taped tightly. The sheet on his bed was pulled up to his waist so she couldn’t see his legs. The scene was so familiar to her that she almost wondered if she had imagined the past few months.
When she reached the side of his bed, he turned to look at her. Her breath caught. His face was unmarred and more beautiful than she remembered. She wanted so badly to reach out and touch his cheek, to kiss his lips but as she started to reach her hand toward his face, she was brought up short. At first, she didn’t recognize the emotion in his face. It wasn’t joy, or even relief. It was guilt. “Collin?” Jewell moved her arm uncertainly to touch him lightly on the hand. He turned back to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
“If it hadn’t been for me, this would’ve never happened to you. I tried, but I couldn’t save you.” A tear trickled down his cheek and soaked into his pillow. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you talking about? This isn’t your fault. How can you blame yourself for something that you had no control over? How were you supposed to know?”
“I didn’t. I couldn’t. But I should have. I should’ve known that something was…” his voice trailed off.
“Something was what?” Jewell asked, coaxing him to talk to her. She waited for several minutes before trying again. “Why did you leave?” She wanted answers, but more than answers, she wanted Collin to talk to her. She just wanted to hear his voice again.
“I didn’t leave. Well, not exactly. It’s more like I was taken.” A trickle of anger seeped into his voice.
“What? What do you mean taken?”
“It’s a long story. My uncle thought you would be better off without me and so…well, he drugged me and drove me across the country.”
“Why? Why didn’t your uncle…” her thought trailed off as she realized that everything that had happened to her, the kidnapping, the beatings; it was all because those lunatics wanted Collin. Collin’s uncle must have known. He must’ve known that something was going to happen and so he tried to save her, to keep her away from Collin. “Why did they want you?” she finally asked.
“I didn’t know!” He let the anger loose. The anger he felt toward his uncle, the Obsidian Knights, at what they had done to Jewell. Jewell cringed, pushing her back into the chair and looking behind her for her father. He wasn’t there. She hadn’t heard him leave, but she suspected that he understood that she and Collin needed to work things out. As he shook with anger, Collin realized that he was directing it at the wrong person. He tried to relax, in his mind apologizing for yelling at her, searching for the words to tell her what she needed to know.
Jewell sat up, looking at Collin as he stared intently into her eyes. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“I can hear you, talking to me, you’re not. It‘s like you’re inside my head. It happened while I was…” she choked on the words, not wanting to say out loud what had happened over the last few days. As if not talking about it would mean it never happened.
“What did you hear?” Collin asked cautiously.
“You said that you were sorry, that it wasn’t me you were angry at.”
Collin considered for a minute. He looked at the bruises, at the bandages on her arms, the swelling on her face. She deserved to know; she had suffered for what he was. She had to know why he couldn’t stay.
Jewell waited patiently, watching his eyes as he considered. She tried to hear what he was thinking, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t hear anything but the beeping of the machines in the room.
“I want you to know…I need you to know how much I love you,” he started.
�
�I love you too, Collin.…” She stopped and swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat.
“I’m so sorry if my leaving hurt you, but now I know that my uncle was right. I can’t stay with you. As much as I love you, as much as I need to be with you, I love you too much to put you in danger again. If something were to happen to you, I don’t think I could survive without you.”
“Collin, you’re not making sense. What do you mean? You can’t leave me again.” She choked on a sob. “Please Collin, you can’t.”
“I don’t want to. Please believe me that leaving you will be the hardest thing I’ll ever do in my life. But if I leave, I know you’ll be safe. If that’s what I need to do to keep you safe…” He shook his head.
“Is it because of what happened? That wasn’t your fault. All those men, they were arrested. That won’t happen again.”
“It will! Don’t you see? Because of what I am it will happen again and again and again! You will never be safe!”
“What those men said, about you being…” She couldn’t say the word. It wasn’t true; it wasn’t possible. “Are you immortal?” Collin barely nodded. Jewell started shaking her head, staring at him. “What are you?”
“Jewell, please.” He was crying. “I didn’t know, I swear. My uncle told me. He told me that was how I survived the accident; that I couldn’t die. He told me that he fell in love once, that she wasn’t like him, that his love was what killed her. I didn’t want to come back, but I couldn’t stay away. I couldn’t even save you.” The words came out in a rush, almost incoherently.
“It really was you, following me; wasn’t it?” Collin nodded. “Dr. Babineaux knows too. That’s why he’s so interested in you. He knows what you are.” Collin nodded again. Jewell sat silently for several minutes, trying to understand, to believe. “And the telepathy? Is that part of it to?” Collin nodded. Jewell sat silently for a long time while Collin watched waves of emotion wash over her battered face. She didn’t look directly at him, her eyes staring past him, out the window on the other side of the bed. Finally, her head dropped slightly, her eyes looking to the ground. “I love you,” she whispered.
She reached up and pressed the nurse call button on the side of his bed without looking at him. Kelly Wills was on duty. When she came in all Jewell said was, “I’m ready to leave now.”
As the door to Collin’s room closed, she heard him whisper in her head, “I love you, too.”
In her room, Jewell tried to think about what Collin had told her. She wasn’t thinking about him telling her that he was immortal, but that he loved her. She knew she loved him, but what kind of a relationship could she have with him. Even if they stayed together, she would cause him so much pain. She knew the pain of watching someone you love die, she had experience it.
She must have fallen asleep because it was dark outside her window when the door opened and Dr. Babineaux strode in. He smiled, picked up her chart and pulled a chair up to the side of the bed so he could sit down. This time he was dressed in his work clothes. His white jacket had his name embroidered in italic letters across the left breast and hung down to the middle of his thigh. It hung open to reveal a pair of perfectly pressed, tailored, probably custom, gray dress slacks, a light blue button down oxford, also perfectly pressed, and a silk jacquard tie. His classic black oxfords looked like they had been spit-shined. This was obviously not a social visit.
As he sat down, he opened Jewell’s medical chart and started scanning the notes made by her other doctors. When he was finished, he looked up and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t hurt as much as I did yesterday. As long as I don’t touch any of the really sore parts like my face, or my wrist, it’s not so bad.”
Dr. Babineaux glanced at the IV drip still attached to her arm. “You haven’t been using the morphine for pain.” It was more of a statement than a question. Jewell shook her head. “I’ll have Sarah take that IV out then and prescribe some Tylenol with Codeine instead and we’ll see how you do. If you aren’t hurting too bad tomorrow, we can probably let you go home.” He wrote a few notes in her chart and signed his name with a flourish. When he looked up, he watched as a tear trickled down Jewell’s face. He reached out and gently wiped it away with his thumb. “Now, do you want to tell me how you’re really feeling?”
Jewell turned her head to look at him. He sat silently, watching her, his eyes filled with compassion. “Have you talked to Collin?” she asked. He nodded sympathetically. “So you know that he told me”.
“I do. I’m here to answer any questions you might have.”
“You told me everyone dies. If he’s immortal, he won’t die, will he?”
“Well, he won’t die in the same time frame as you or I. Eventually, he’ll die from old age; but it won’t be for a very long time.”
“How long?”
“Well, I’ve been involved in this research for about twenty years, and the oldest Infinitas I’ve met was almost a millennium old.”
“A thousand years?” Jewell asked incredulously.
“Well, just like us, they all have different life spans. I think the average is somewhere around eleven hundred years.”
“Does Dr. Knighton know? I mean, does he know his nephew is like this?” Dr. Babineaux nodded in response. “And does he help you with your research?”
“Actually, Dr. Knighton is trying to find a cure. He views this as a disease, similar to cancer or leukemia. The difference is, while cancer tends to shorten life, what Collin has will extend his.”
Jewell nodded her head. “It is.”
“It is what?” Dr. Babineaux asked.
“A disease. It’s not something that people should see as a gift, but as a curse, a burden.”
“You don’t dream of immortality?”
Jewell gave him a dismayed look. “No, death is essential to continued life. We shouldn’t try to cheat it.” She thought for a moment. “Why is he like this? What makes him different?”
“Without getting into too much detail, it’s a genetic anomaly that’s triggered sometime after puberty. Some people carry the anomaly, but it’s never triggered.”
“What triggers it?”
Dr. Babineaux shrugged. “We don’t know.”
“How many people have the anomaly?”
“More than you would think. About one in every ten thousand people has the anomaly, but it’s only triggered in about one in every fifteen thousand who carry the anomaly. There are fewer than five hundred people in the world like Collin.”
Jewell nodded once. “So, then it’s sort of like cancer in reverse?”
“Well, at a very basic level I guess you could say that. Do you have any other questions?” Jewell shook her head.
Dr. Babineaux stood to leave. As he started to walk away, Jewell reached out and grabbed his hand. “Thank you.” Dr. Babineaux nodded a serious look on his face. He knew all that she wanted to say with those two simple words.
Chapter 52
It was early in the morning when Dr. Wilson came in to sign Jewell’s release papers. Jewell waited for Dr. Wilson to leave and then carefully got up and walked over to the duffle bag that Ashley had brought for her. She took out a hairbrush and ran it through her hair, then pulled it back in a high ponytail like she usually wore to work. She dug through the bag for some clean clothes and found a pair of light weight pants, a shirt with long sleeves, obviously designed for summer wear, and a pair of shoes, all with tags still on them with the price carefully marked out. A note was stuffed in one of the shoes. “I left the tags on in case they didn’t fit. Ash.”
Jewell pulled on the new clothes and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face, except for a little swelling, looked like her face. She smiled at Ashley’s thoughtfulness in choosing clothes that would cover her bruised and battered body. She grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth.
Finally, she took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped out into the hallw
ay. Jewell looked over at Collin’s room. When Jewell pushed open the door, she heard the television. Collin turned his head and smiled. When he smiled, Jewell’s heart started racing. “Wow! You look like an angel.”
Collin reached his hand out to her. She took his hand and felt the familiar lightening of his touch shoot through her. He pulled her around so she was sitting on the bed next to him.
“How are you feeling?” She asked, and then laughed. “Never mind; I’m sure you’re tired of answering that question. I know I am.”
He flashed his most brilliant smile at her. “With you sitting beside me, I feel like I’m in heaven.”
“I can’t stay. My dad is waiting for me downstairs,” she sighed.
“Would it hurt too much to give me a kiss before you leave?”
Jewell leaned down and gently brushed his lips with hers. Before she could sit up, his arm tightened around her shoulders, pulling her closer. She pressed against him when all of a sudden she felt a shooting pain run through her lip and up into her head. She sat up, her hand moving to her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” Collin whispered. “I forgot for a minute. I just…wanted you so badly.”
“I know. Me too.” She brushed her fingers over his lips. “I’ll talk to you later?” Collin just nodded silently as he watched her leave.
Collin watched Jewell leave. Even though he knew that he would see her again, it still hurt every time he had to say goodbye. He wondered what would happen if they decided it would be best to say goodbye forever. He tried to change the direction of his thoughts. Something would happen. Something would make it work out. He thought about what his Uncle Percy had said about Avelyn. He had let Avelyn make her own choice, and Percy believed that his selfishness let her make the wrong one. He believed that Avelyn would have been better off if she had stayed with her family.
All Jewell had was her father. Would it be right to let her choose him over her father? Could he take her away from him knowing that there was a chance that she would never see him again? And if she made that choice, if she chose to leave everything behind for him, could he let her do it? Could he tell her that she had made the wrong choice? Could he tell her goodbye? Should he tell her goodbye? The questions were pouring over him like a waterfall. The morphine was making him dizzy and his circling thoughts weren’t helping. What he knew now was that he would see her again.