“Sorry I wasn’t around all day,” Sonny said picking up a chair. “You’re not mad, are you?”
“No. Not at all.”
“It’s been a hell of a day.” Sonny sat down.
“I totally understand,” I said. What I wanted to tell him was that he could confide in me. But I knew with something so sensitive, he had to be the one to open up first.
I stared at him. Trying to read his face, see the pain on it. How brave Sonny was being. I admired him.
“So, anyhow, we had a meeting when we got back,” Sonny said.
“No time to…adjust?” I asked, trying to get him to open up.
“No. Has Danny been here?”
“Not at all.”
“So you haven’t talk to him?’
“No. Is there something he should tell me?” I asked.
“Yes. But I’ll leave it up to him to be the one.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It will.”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“I can’t.”
Of course he couldn’t. It was too hard for him to say. He wanted my son to break it to me. Again, I found myself staring sympathetically at him. I just wanted to reach out to him, hold him, and tell him it would be all right. He could cry if he wanted to. It looked like he wanted to. I wouldn’t blame him for breaking down.
“What? What is it?” Sonny asked.
“Sonny…Sonny, I know.” I winced.
“You know?”
“I heard about today.”
“Aw,” he whined. “Seriously? Are you going to make fun of me
now too?”
“No!” I grabbed his hand and fought to find the right words. “Oh my God. No. How…why…oh my God. Never. What happened to you today…was terrible. Absolutely terrible.”
Sonny looked at me. “You’re not joking?”
“No. I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better. I know it will take a while to get over it. Just know I am here. I am here for you whenever you need me. Something like this, if you need to talk about it, just know I am here.”
He looked at me as if he didn’t believe me. Leery, perhaps, of my intentions.
Then Alex walked in.
“Hey, hey. I just saw the baby,” he said, upbeat. “I better get a move on getting things ready back at the…” he paused. “What’s going on?”
I cleared my throat. “Sonny and I are just having a serious discussion.”
“About what?” Alex asked.
“Today,” I said.
“You mean the stuff we got at Walmart?” Alex asked. “Because it’s supposed to be a big surprise so—”
“No,” I cut him off. “About—”
Sonny stopped me. “Don’t. Don’t bother. He’ll only joke.”
Before I could say anything, Alex tilted his head back. “Ah. That.”
“Ah…that what?” I asked.
“Ah, that, what…the thing that happened with Sonny today.”
“Yes, that,” I replied.
“Is he whining about that again?” Alex asked. “Hell, Sonny, get over it, take it as a compliment. You’re the Sleeper sex symbol.”
Pretty much sounding possessed, I stared at Alex and growled, “Oh my God. You dick.”
“Dick?”
“Dick.”
“Dick. Then maybe you ought to talk to Sonny about that, seems he—”
I covered my ears and screamed.
“What?” Alex asked. “Jesus, woman, you’re acting weird.”
“Stop it. This is serious.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Alex asked.
“Overreacting!”
“Sonny, tell her you’re fine,” Alex demanded.
“Quit picking on Sonny,” I warned.
“Picking on Sonny? People pick on Sonny because he asks for it.”
“I suppose you’ll say he asked for it today?” I sneered.
“Yeah, duh. He was playing fashion doll with women’s underwear.”
“I was not,” Sonny argued.
“Alex, I know you think in your hick mind this isn’t a bad thing,” I said.
“Hick mind? Oh, now, stop. Enough.” Alex laughed. “Mera, come on. It’s funny.”
“No it’s not!”
“Yes it is. So what? A Sleeper wants Sonny as a mate. You can’t—”
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out. This is a side of you I don’t like and I don’t want to see. Out.”
“Are you, like, suffering from some sort of post-baby psychosis? All this about Sonny?” Alex asked. “Really?”
“I can’t believe you’re this insensitive.”
Alex walked up to me, leaned closer, and sniffed. “Oh, yeah, you’ve been drinking, and you,” he pointed to Sonny, “are starting trouble. Make no bones about it. I’m telling.” He walked to the door.
“Go on and tell,” I said. “Whatever that means. Make no bones about it, Alex Sans, you and I will talk later about this.”
Alex didn’t say anything, he just walked out.
“Thank you, Mera,” Sonny said. “You know, I was upset and then everyone had me believing it was nothing and I was overreacting.”
“No. No you aren’t. I mean, how would they feel if it was them?”
“Exactly.” Sonny held out his hand. “I said the same thing.”
“Just know I am here and there are a lot of people in this community that would side with you and stand by…by…” Everything around me started spinning.
“What’s wrong? What is it?”
“I got dizzy.”
“How much did you drink? Maybe your resistance is low.”
“Maybe I…” The words caught in my throat and I choked and coughed.
“Mera?”
It hit me all of a sudden, the dizziness, the cough, and I kept coughing like something was stuck in my throat. I fought not to cough because it pulled at my stitches and caused a ripping pain.
“Are you all right?” Sonny rushed to get me a glass of water. He reached to help me sit up and have a drink. The moment he touched me, he yanked his hand away. “Mera, you’re burning up.”
He helped me take a sip of water, but only a little made it into me. I choked on it.
“I’ll be right back. I’m getting Javier.” He set the glass down and hurried out.
Normally I would stop him, tell him he was overreacting. But something was wrong, terribly wrong, I could feel it and I was scared. Whatever it was hit me fast, and I was sick as a dog in an instant. One second I was fine, the next I was shivering out of control, instantaneously was chilled, and not only was it hard to breathe, I felt as if each breath I took would be my last.
10. Sonny
Mera paled and choked on air, coughing up a storm. Her skin was hot to the touch when only a few minutes earlier she was fine. I raced out to find Levi or Javier, even Noah, although he wasn’t the doctor I trusted most.
Levi was with Hope, and I got his attention to tell him of the emergency. Javier was on it and raced down to Mera’s room. By the time we arrived she was in respiratory distress.
It happened that fast. There was nothing I could do except follow Javier’s orders to go find Beck after he quickly examined her.
Beck? Why Beck? Why not Danny? Alex?
Trying to comprehend what all was happening, I moved sluggishly and in shock. Would she be all right? What was going on?
Levi and Noah rushed in the room.
Who was with the baby?
I lifted my radio, walking down the hall.
The baby was in the nursery all by herself. I suppose a woman in distress took precedence over a healthy baby.
“Beck, Danny, Alex,�
� I said in the radio. “You’re needed at the clinic STAT. Something…something’s wrong with Mera.”
Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to do, but I didn’t want to repeat the same message to the three of them. I figured those who needed to hear would come. Like Michael and Ed.
I hung outside the room, back against the wall, waiting, hating that when Beck did arrive I had nothing to tell him.
I tried to find something out by staying close to the door. I could hear them talking and the machines beeping. Like the others, when they arrived, I would have to wait for answers.
***
A brigade of them rushed down the hall. Beck, Alex, Danny, Michael, Ed, Bonny, and Randy. I stood straighter.
Beck reached me first. “What’s going on, Sonny?”
“I don’t know. One minute she was fine, the next she couldn’t stop coughing and she has a fever. They said…they said she’s in respiratory distress.”
Almost everyone’s reaction was one of despair. Danny backed up and closed his eyes. Alex threw his fist against the wall. Bonnie gasped then turned into Randy’s arm. Michael lowered his head. Everyone but Ed and Beck noticed it.
“We know in your timeframe she doesn’t die, Ed,” Beck said. “To the best of your knowledge, did this happen?”
“Yes,” Ed said. “She developed some sort of weird infection that she fights for over a month. It’s touch and go, but she makes it. She needs blood, I remember her telling me that. But there’s more. She….” Ed gulped. “You know what? Never mind.”
“What!!” Alex snapped. “You can’t say that shit and not follow through.”
“I just…we don’t know,” Ed said. “Things could change. I’d rather
not say.”
Just then Javier’s voice entered the conversation. “Rather not
say what?”
“What I was told happened,” Ed said. “With my mother, I mean.”
“I agree. Right now she is stable and resting. Her fever is high, but we’re fighting that. I’m waiting for the blood count results, but if my suspicion is correct she is going to need blood.”
Everyone looked at Ed.
“Beck,” Javier turned to him. “Can I get you to come with me and I’ll take the blood?”
“Wait. Wait,” Alex said. “Why Beck specifically?”
“Yeah,” I added. “You asked for him.”
“Because Beck has the same blood type as Mera,” Javier explained. “While a few of you do as well, your blood is useless because all of you have been given the serum. Mera hasn’t. Beck hasn’t. Not yet. Mera’s body has been combating a form of Sleeper virus. It’s been attacking her DNA, unsuccessfully as of now. It’s still in her system. I think this episode, this fever, is her body’s stand against it. I just don’t want to chance giving her the blood of anyone who’s got the cloaking serum. Which means…” he looked again at Beck, “I can’t give you the serum until she is out of the woods.”
“Absolutely, I’m at her disposal,” Beck said.
“Good. Come with me.” Javier led him down the hall.
Alex had an inscrutable look on his face when Beck walked down the hall with Javier. I didn’t understand it, it was almost as if he was upset.
It didn’t matter how Mera got better, as long as she did.
“What happened?” Alex asked me. “I mean, I just left. I was down in the dining room.”
“We were talking and she just started coughing. I notice she was fevered and I went for help. That’s all I know.”
“A fever is a body’s way of fighting off infection,” Bonnie spoke up. “She’s fighting. Ed said she gets better.”
“In my timeframe, yes, she does,: said Ed. “From what everyone said it’s weird for a while. I don’t know all the details.”
“I believe my mom gets better,” Danny said confidently. “I do. Hey, my sister is alive now, right?”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
Everyone looked at me,
“Fate takes,” I said. “We save a life it takes a life.”
“No,” Alex said strongly. “I will not agree with that. Not at all.”
“If my timeframe and what I heard is correct, in a sense, Sonny’s right,” said Ed.
Danny squealed, “What!”
“You said that she lives,” Alex growled.
“Wait.” Randy held up his hands. “Ed said in a sense. What does
that mean?”
“What did you say, Sonny?” Ed asked.
“Fate takes a life,” I answered.
Ed nodded. “Then fate does. Metaphorically speaking.”
Alex threw up his hands. “What the hell?”
“We saved my sister Hope,” Ed said. “My mother does lose her life, but not physically. See, she loses her life here.”
We all just stared at him. The more he spoke the less sense he made.
Ed explained further. “I didn’t want to say anything before. But the fever, the illness, infection, it does something to my mother. She loses two years or so. When she wakes up she can’t remember anything. She has to start again.”
I groaned and tossed back my head. Two years. That was how long it had been since the event. If Ed was correct, then Mera in a way does lose her life. The life she built and regained after the event took everything from her.
Sadly, all that Mera became would be gone. If Ed was right, she’d have to start all over again.
11. Alex
There was a sense of confusion, coupled with high emotions that followed Mera’s medical emergency. It was the first time since the event that someone was majorly sick. Typically anyone needing serious attention was injured.
We all blasted Levi and Javier with questions they just didn’t have concrete answers to.
Bottom line, Mera was awfully sick.
They managed to lower her fever, get her breathing back on track, and the blood tests showed that her kidneys were out of whack. Her blood count was low and Javier was hopeful the transfusion from Beck not only would help there, but also combat the Sleeper virus she had knocking on her DNA door. Beck had a strong immunity factor to the Sleeper virus, and that hopefully would transfer to Mera.
Until she was better, Beck couldn’t get the cloaking serum.
The thing that threw me was Ed’s recollection of Mera losing her memory. I wasn’t a doctor, but I just couldn’t see how that was happening. We were alternating shifts at the medical building, sitting with Mera. Although we all wanted to be there nonstop, we couldn’t. There was work to be done and a slew of kids to care for. Not to mention Levi and Javier were releasing Hope and sending her home into our care.
Mera slipped into a deep sleep. Before she did, she was murmuring incoherently. Sounds but no words, sending off warning sirens. It was like she’d had a stroke or something.
They had her in a near sitting position in bed, which Levi explained was because he was worried her lungs were filling up.
So pneumonia, raging infection, kidney failure, respiratory problems, and a pesky Sleeper virus that wanted Mera. What the hell else?
Had it not been for the mumbling and the deep sleep, I would have dismissed Ed’s prediction, but I had to bring it up to the doctors.
The second I said, “Ed told me something,” Levi got irritated.
“Why do people insist on talking about events that haven’t happened?” Levi said.
“I haven’t even said what it is.”
“Doesn’t matter. Things are different,” Levi said.
“What is it, Alex?” asked Javier.
“Ed said he heard that Mera got real sick, but she also lost a bit of her memory. Is that possible?’
We were standing right by Mera and Javier looked down at her. “It’s possible, but unlikely. I mean, Ed is basing this on a future where I
&nb
sp; had died.”
“Ha!” Levi snorted. “Can you be any more arrogant and full of yourself?”
“Yeah, I can,” Javier said. “In his future the baby died. Apparently, I had something to do with the baby’s survival.” He quirked an eyebrow.
“Are you saying I am incompetent?” Levi asked.
“History or future history shows—”
“Gentlemen,” I interrupted. “As enjoyable as this back and forth macho ball busting is, I just want to know—is it possible?”
“I realize that my colleague here believes he is a super medical stud,” Levi said, “but I have to say the infection and the lack of oxygen to the brain, combined with Javier’s virus—yes he created it—attacks the brain, and I am going to go on record as saying it’s feasible.”
“Probable?” I asked.
Javier shook his head. “Not probable. Possible. But unlikely.”
“How will we know?” I asked.
“She’s resting and we are keeping her that way,” said Levi. “She needs rest to fight this illness.”
“Okay, I get that. I’m not asking when, I’m asking how will we know?”
“Shall I call you Sonny?” Levi asked. “Are you that dense? I would think the moment she opens her eyes and asks, ‘Who are you?’ would be the telltale sign.”
“Now, see, why do you have insult me?” I asked. “I was asking can we tell before she wakes up so we’re ready?”
“No,” Javier said. “We won’t know until she wakes up fully. Since you have a head’s up, it won’t hurt to be prepared.”
If I were reading their words, I’d probably read between the lines. They weren’t ruling it out. Not at all. That told me a lot.
I was obsessing over the memory thing. Beck snapped at me about it when he came to relieve me.
“Alex, focus on Mera getting well. I know what Ed said about her survival, but let’s not worry about something that won’t kill her.”
“You don’t think?” I asked. “Maybe physically it won’t, but if she doesn’t remember anything she has to learn her kids have died all
over again.”
“That’s not entirely how it works,” Javier said. He must had overheard our conversation and intervened. “Not always. Amnesia is tricky. Assuming Mera loses some of her past, then it is retrograde amnesia. I spoke to Ed and apparently he doesn’t recall being told that Mera needed to learn to walk, talk, or eat all over again. She loses a point in time. The mind,” he pointed to his head, “is tricky. She could lose a whole block or she could lose only memories. Underneath she will have the underlying knowledge, but she won’t know how she knows it or remember it happening. Does that makes sense?”
Sleepers (Book 7): Sleepers 7 Page 6