“Can I ask why we don’t want Paige Dominiques talking to these kids?” Laxmi asked, cutting through the slightly awkward silence. “Her charity has the highest reputation—”
“She’s a kiss ass.”
“She’s a fame whore.”
“She’s doesn’t do this for them.”
The words each of us chose rolled over one another, and had Laxmi backing up into the counter. “Okay then!”
Miriam laughed and grabbed her hand. “Paige’s intentions are the best, but the road to hell is paved with those. She doesn’t do this because she feels that it’s her calling. She does it because it gets her attention in the right circles. Not the high up circles like Haden wants in on, but the gossips, the influencers, the nouveau riche. The people who want to be seen with flashy cash and good deeds a plenty.”
I ran a hand over my face. “I don’t think that she doesn’t believe in what she does. She does, she knows these kids are in trouble, and they are screwed. But her reasons for helping them are skewed.”
“We all still support her though,” Fischer said, running his thumb over my wrist. “She uses us—gently—and we use her back. We just have to detour her sometimes, like with these kids that Haden asked us about.”
“They must be a mess to get her to move them out of University City,” I said. “And if they are that messed up, then there’s a good chance they would be awesome poster children for her foundations.”
Laxmi blinked a few times. “So you keep her around because she’s a means to an end?”
Miriam traced her finger over the back of Laxmi’s hand. “Baby, I work with the kids who are in the worst of the worst situation. Pediatric oncology patients, rare diseases, developmentally delayed, or non-developmental. And worse. They all come from families that are dead flat fucking broke, but they don’t want that advertised—they just want their kids to get the treatment they need and deserve.
“She turns them into billboards and charity cases. The absolute last thing a poor person wants or needs is someone advertising that they are poor and have a sick child. They are literally threatened at every turn. God forbid they buy a nice pair of shoes, or a nice cut of meat. Don’t you know poor people can’t have nice things ever? Especially not if someone else is helping them foot the bill for their child’s treatment.”
“The people who take umbrage with the patients and their families don’t realize that without the help, those kids would be dead, or institutionalized,” I continued. “Even poor people deserve compassion, despite the bootstrap bullshit you hear all the time.”
“How is someone who is desperately poor going to pull themselves up by the bootstraps if they have over a million dollars in healthcare bills hanging over their head?”
I folded my hands, and pursed my lips. “They aren’t. Ever.”
Fischer
Holy good goddamn.
These two women were a force to be reckoned with. They were smart, passionate, fierce and driven. And I was watching them pull Laxmi into their circle.
I wanted her to join them. I wanted to cheer them on, and be their fan squad.
Wren put her cup in the sink and blew out a breath. “Well, it’s time to go stare at the ceiling for a few hours, hoping that I can drift off enough to snag some sleep.”
She held out her hand to me, and then pulled it back. “I’m not in this for the Most Orgasms in One Night Award in this house. I’m completely exhausted.”
Miriam and Laxmi laughed and walked down the hall to her bedroom. “We’ll take that award tonight,” Miriam called back.
I heard Laxmi swear in Hindi as the door shut behind them.
Wren held her hand out again as they disappeared and this time, I grabbed it. She smiled and walked down the hall with me.
“There’s no obligation, here, Fischer.”
“I know,” I said, closing the door with a soft click. “We’re both exhausted, and we can mess around in the morning if you’re up for it.” I kissed her forehead, and walked to her bed.
It felt so strangely right to be here. I didn’t understand how I could know someone for about a week and feel like I’d known them my whole life. But I did and here I was sliding into bed with her, with no intention of doing anything sexual.
“It’s an interesting third date,” I murmured as she shut off the light.
Wren chuckled, settling up against me. “It is.”
“So, Miriam…”
“Is really that rich, yes.” She nodded.
Laughing quietly, I let my hand draw little circles on her arm. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask, actually. I wanted to know who Miriam is.”
“My best friend,” she said softly. “She and I dated, and we moved in together, here. About six months into it, we realized we were much better roommates than a couple, and broke up. But we stayed here. We work really well together.”
“I can see that.”
She let out a breath. “I have to be honest, Fischer. She and I have had sex after the breakup. Sometimes it just got to be too much for one or both of us and—”
My finger pressed her lips shut. “I know. I get it. Alone sucks.”
“That’s the voice of experience.”
I nodded in the faint light of the room. “It’s been years since I’ve even tried dating. The last one was…God, what? Like five years ago? They see that MD and it’s all about how they can be a doctor’s wife, and get into my wallet.”
Wren let out a soft giggle. “Not even your pants?”
“Nope. Wouldn’t have even cared if I cheated on her, because she just wanted the business arrangement.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
There was a quiet, comfortable silence between us, but Wren spoke up again, “What do you think is wrong with me?”
“Wrong…oh, the sleeping.” I let the quiet drift between us for a while. “I don’t know yet. I suspect it has to do with the visions and anxiety, but not sure how the two interact yet.”
“Hallucinations,” she corrected me.
“Do you really believe that?”
She was quiet a moment, but her hand never stopped tracing my skin lightly. “I don’t know what they are. A glitch in my matrix?”
I chuckled. “That’s an apt description. I’m not one to push mystical powers or religion, Wren, but we share the visions, the hallucinations. That’s not really something that happens in one brain alone. Could be déjà vu. Could be visions, hallucination, shared hysteria. I don’t know. I won’t know, and we may never know. What I do know is that I want to find out why you aren’t sleeping.”
She moved in shadows and held up her hand. “Could it have something to do with this?”
It was impossible not to have noticed her bad hand, but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I was terribly curious though. “How did that happen?”
“I was hit with the full voltage from a transformer,” she answered.
“Jesus!” I gasped. She quietly told me about the whole incident with her aunt and the roadside transformer and I started to formulate a totally different idea of why Wren couldn’t sleep.
“You said that you’ve had ECT?” I asked.
“Yes, but it was a complete disaster.”
“Your migraines used to always spike when you had an episode?”
She nodded. “Now they’re their all the time. Even preventatives don’t do much. Just the in-progress drugs.”
I kissed her cheek. “I have something in the office I want you to try. It’s not a drug. I can’t promise it will work, but I have a pretty good feeling about it. I think that after a few sessions you might be able to get some sleep.”
It was quiet a moment and her voice was soft in the darkness. “Will it help right away? I mean, if I used it tonight do you think it would help?”
“I don’t know…”
She put a hand on my chest and I could feel her looking at me. “Can we get it? Can we try?”
“Hey, hey, Wren. Deep breath. I
don’t know if it will work.”
“I’m desperate, Fischer. All I want to do is put my head down and sleep. And I can tell you right now that as tired as I am, and wiped as I feel, I won’t get but two hours if I’m lucky.”
She was desperate, and I realized that while I was fixing brains and spines, she had been trying to touch souls and psyches.
“What did you see, Wren?”
“It’s not what I saw, Fischer. It’s never about what I see. It’s what I feel, what I hear, what I don’t hear. Those children are all broken. They’re empty and eaten up. There’s nothing in them that makes them them.” She swallowed. “I just want to sleep and escape that for a little while. Dubrovsky knew that. Miriam knows that. My research assistants know that. If I can close my eyes and rest, I can keep doing this.”
The implication that she would lose all of this if she couldn’t close her eyes and sleep was there. If my idea worked, I could save her career, and possibly her sanity.
I rolled so I hovered over her. “It’s late, baby. You need two solid hours the first time you use this device. It’ll be four in the morning by the time we get there get it and get back for you use it, and all hope of a night of sleep will be gone.”
“God, I want to sleep. Just sleep. I don’t care if it means pills or electrocution again. Sleep.”
I leaned my head down and kissed the soft spot just behind her ear. “Maybe I can distract you instead.”
Her hand found my cock as it was still growing thick, and her touch sped me along. “Whatever do you mean, Doctor?”
“I have the prescription you’re looking for right here.” I wiggled my hips and a half second later we collapsed in laughter.
“Good God, please don’t tell me that line ever worked on anyone.”
I kissed her sweetly on the lips. “Once. In med school. Just once. And the sex was awful. Just terrible.”
“You deserved it after that line.” Her hands worked under the waist of my boxers and she slipped them down over my ass.
“Doctor, are you trying to seduce me?”
A small laugh left her, and she leaned up and kissed me. “I don’t think that I have to work very hard at that, do I, Doctor?”
My hand slipped her night shirt up and pushed the edge of her panties to the side. I dipped a finger into her, and could feel that she was already growing wet.
“Please tell me you have a condom in that nightstand,” I managed.
“You bet your ass I do.”
“I don’t want to bet my ass…”
“Open the drawer, Fischer. Get the fucking condom out,” she said. “Because I swear to God, if you don’t get that dick in me—”
My hand was already in the drawer. There were only a few things in there, one of which felt like lube and the other few that felt like toys. My hand landed on a wrapped condom and I slammed the drawer.
“You have an interesting collection over there.”
She ripped the package open, and reached down for me. “Lesbian sex isn’t just cunnilingus.”
I moaned, both from the feel of her hand rolling the latex down my shaft and the implications of her words. An image of Wren tangled in the sheet with her mouth on another woman’s pussy while I watched flashed through my mind, and I moaned again.
“You’re thinking very dirty thoughts, aren’t you, Fischer.” Her voice was soft in my ear.
“Very, very dirty,” I breathed.
Her hand moved me to her entrance and I realized she did not intend to strip off her panties. I looked at her in the dark, and her eyes flashed at me.
“Just fuck me, Fischer. I don’t want foreplay. I want you in me.”
There was something so freeing about a woman who wasn’t young or inexperienced. This woman, rubbing the head of my erection up and down her cleft, knew what she wanted, and wasn’t afraid to ask.
I certainly wasn’t one to object. The next time I passed over her entrance I pressed forward, entering her just a little. A quick, quiet gasp let me know I was there, and I pushed myself in deep, holding myself there. The edge of her panties were dusting over her clit, doing most of my work for me.
Moving slow, I pulled back and arched forward slowly. Each move was deliberate, and her walls were tight around me. It was a caress that, after only one other night, I was going to be addicted to.
“Hard, Fischer,” she hissed the words.
I added a pop to the end of my stroke, and had her moaning a moment later. It wasn’t enough for me though, and I started to shuttle in and out of her faster, harder. The pop was gone, and the motion of my thrusts were scraping the cloth across her sensitive bud.
We weren’t long for this. I was surprised at how fast we had gone from zero to orgasm, but I wasn’t one to complain.
I slipped an arm under her knee and lifted her leg to my shoulder. I watched as my cock disappeared over and over into her wet, wonderful pussy in the pale light from the streetlamps. The erotic sight sent me spiraling faster.
“Damn it, Fischer, make me feel this!” My eyes snapped to hers and she reached up, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Do it. Please.”
I smiled, and thrust hard into her. Her body jerked and she groaned. I did it again, and leaned down to brace myself on either side of her body. Her leg was still hooked on my arm and she grunted every time I hit into her.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
She pulled up and slammed her mouth over mine, and she stole into me, licking and sucking on my tongue. I felt a desperation in her, but more a driving desire. There was more to her than she knew, more than I knew. There was lust in spades inside this woman, and I didn’t know if I would ever be able slake her thirst for sex.
I’d happily try.
“Yes, yes, Fischer, yes…” She was mewling and squirming under me, so I pushed through to the hardest thrusts I could give her. She threw her head back, and her breath was sawing in and out of her chest.
“Come, baby,” I managed to squeak out. “Come on, come around me.”
“Fuck yes!” She arched her back and her orgasm took over and had her screaming, “Yes, yes yes yes, oh yes.” The word was an endless loop, and as her channel fisted me, the delightful feeling of climax rolled down my spine and landed in my balls.
“Shit!” I yelled as my release shot out of me. I desperately wished I was pumping ropes of cum into her and not a barrier. Still, it was one of the mind shattering orgasms like I’d had the other times with her.
…”Never leave me, S. No matter what happens, don’t leave me.”
“There is nothing that will keep me from you.”…
Wren smiled at the images of us wrapped together as she tried to catch her breath. “Damn it, Fischer. You are so good at this.”
“I have someone who’s good at her part.”
She laughed and wrapped herself around me after I tossed the condom in the trash and dropped back to the bed.
“There’s more to us,” she whispered. “That’s what these hallu—visions are trying to tell us, isn’t it?”
“Don’t know, baby,” I said, kissing her forehead. “We’ll just have to find out.”
And for the first time in what had to be years, Wren fell asleep.
Wren
…A month later…
“Doctor warner?”
I turned away from the observation window, and unfolded my arms where I had them wrapped around me. One of my favorite nurses was standing behind me.
“Wow! Doctor Warner!” He stepped up and studied me. “Did you get your hair cut? Lose weight? You look radically different!”
The grin just grew on my face. “I’ve been sleeping every night for seven hours for the past three weeks.”
“Oh, my God! Really?”
“Dead serious, Andy.”
“So this new doctor worked out!”
I coughed and I couldn’t stop the blush. “You could say that.” He laughed. I hadn’t actually meant to reveal that part of it, but when he said it that way, t
he blood just rushed through me. “Well, he actually came up with really weird use for a migraine device.”
The nurse cocked his head. “The Cefaly?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “After he realized what screwed up my hand, he realized that the ECT might be too blunt for the issue. The magnets in the Cefaly are the perfect strength for TENS therapy. I mean, I had it on three days and I woke up feeling so goddamn refreshed that fourth morning I could hardly believe it.”
“That was a brilliant idea.” Andy nodded his approval.
“It also feels really good after a tough day,” I answered. I nodded back to the young woman in the observation room. “I’m here for her today. How is she?”
Andy held out the file in his hand. “She hasn’t had an episode for three weeks, but I don’t think she’s done freaking out. I think there’s more in there and it needs a trigger.”
“Like?”
He nodded at the file. “Look.”
I put the file on the table and flipped it open. Drawings, pages and pages of faces and abstract drawing. Some of the abstracts were thoroughly violent and disturbing, and some of the faces were distorted and terrible and full of hate.
“You’re right. There’s more in her.”
He leaned against the table. “I’ve managed to have them keep her here, but they want to put her in the Horsham pediatric unit. I don’t think it’s safe for her yet. Not until this…evil gets out of her.”
“I need to talk to Justine, don’t I?” I sighed.
“She’s the only one who can get Foster off the case.”
“I fucking hate that man.”
Patting my shoulder, Andy headed for the door. “We all do, Doc. We all do. But yeah, Justine is the one who is going to get him to back off.”
I looked back at the girl in the room. “I’ll write up a justification for keeping her here.”
“Don’t forget why she’s here,” Andy said. “If you have to go for the low blow of the case and going out of the district, do it.”
“Good man, Andy,” I said.
“Going in?”
“Yeah.” I glanced at him. “Just turn on the cameras. I can handle it.”
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