The Ties That Bind (2 page)

"What's her name?”

"Angela Bell.”

"Are you related to her?”

"I'm her son.”

I was still on the verge of panicking just looking at her with her eyes closed, and didn't think before I answered. I have no idea why I said that, though.

"Does she have a history of seizures?”

"No, but she has been complaining about a headache for weeks.”

He made some more notes.

"I need to call the family doctor and her daughter.”

"You can do that at the hospital ... and you mean your sister, right?”

"No.”

He gave a 'whatever' look and let it pass. We pulled up to the hospital and I had to scrunch back in my seat while they pulled the gurney out. Once she was out of the ambulance, I followed closely behind. They stopped me from going into where they were taking her, and redirected me to the waiting room.

I took the opportunity to call Zoe first. She picked up on the first ring.

"Hello? Cas, why aren't you and mom home yet?”

"Zoe, we are at the hospital.”

"What's wrong, are you hurt?”

"No. It's your mom. She had some kind of seizure. I am calling Doctor Chang, next, but can you get a ride up here?”

She had started crying pretty hard. I head a thunk as the phone was dropped and then another voice on the line.

"Cas, what is going on?”

It was Vicki.

"Vicki, Mrs. Bell had a seizure and is in the hospital. Can you get Zoe up here?”

"Oh my god. Yeah, I will get her there. What are we going to do?”

"I am calling Doctor Chang next. She will know what to do.”

I hung up and started to pick up the phone again when the nurse at the desk held up a hand.

"You're looking for Doctor Chang?”

"Yes. She is a family friend and our doctor.”

"I think she's working, tonight. Let me page her.”

A page went out and I stood there for a few minutes. I wasn't sure what the clerk was doing, but she talked to several people on the phone. I couldn't say if one of them was Doctor Chang or part of the clerk's routine. However about ten minutes later Doctor Chang came through the door leading back into the emergency room.

"Caspian, is everything alright?”

"No. Something's wrong with Mrs. Bell. She had been complaining about a headache and collapsed into some kind of seizure. They wheeled her back there a little bit ago. I was hoping you could help, maybe find out what is going on.”

"Yeah, I can do that. Just wait here.”

I reached out and grabbed her arm as she turned away.

In a whisper is said, "Also I told them I was her son on the off chance they might tell me what was happening.”

"Okay. Let me go see what is happening.”

She disappeared behind the doors again. I just stood there for a long time. I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to find out what was going on when I heard a shout from behind me.

"Cas!”

I turned around and saw Zoe, Vicki, Tami and Megan. Zoe ran at me and threw her arms around me. Her eyes were puffy from crying, and as soon as she hugged me, she started crying again.

"What's happening? Is she alright?”

"I don't know. I got Doctor Chang to go back and check on her, but she hasn't come back yet. Here, let's sit down.”

There were several open seats. I sat down and pulled Zoe into my lap. She curled herself into a ball and clung to me. Tami and Vicki sat on either side of us and kept petting Zoe, whispering that everything would be alright, but looking at me in concern when Zoe wasn't paying attention. Eventually, Doctor Chang came out.

"I see everyone is here. She is under observation, now. I admitted her to the hospital and had her moved to a room. If you are quiet, we can go up and see her.”

"Yes. We would like that very much.”

We all followed Doctor Change up two floors in the elevator and down to a room. Inside was just Mrs. Bell, who seemed asleep. All kinds of wires and tubes ran to her and there was a steady beep ... beep ... sound from one of the machines.

"What's happening?”

She motioned for us to sit down in the seats already in the room.

"I had them run a few tests. There is a tumor in her brain. It is pressing pretty hard on her primary motor cortex. What you saw wasn't a seizure, at least not in the practical sense. We think the tumor is messing with her motor control and causing involuntary muscle spasms.”

"How serious is this?”

She looked at Zoe and then looked at me. I knew before she said a word this was going to be bad.

"I will be honest with you, it's very serious. The neurologist doesn't think she is going to wake up.”

Zoe lost it. I hugged her tight, and the other girls pulled in to hug her as well. We completely surrounded her, trying to give Zoe as much love and support as possible.

"There is an option.”

I looked up from the girls, all of whom snapped their heads towards the Doctor.

"We could administer her a treatment of your blood.”

"What?”

"Cas, we know what your blood does. We don't know if it will affect past the blood/brain barrier, or if it will be able to reduce or remove a tumor. But, from all my experiments, I think it might. We couldn't tell anyone about this and I have to come up with some way of hiding what is happening from the hospital staff, but it might work.”

"Might?”

"Cas, this is something hardly anyone ever comes back from. Where it is, we couldn't really operate on it. Using conventional medicine, I think she will die. But, I think you can save her.”

Zoe turned to look at me, pleading in her eyes.

"I will do it. There is nothing I wouldn't give to save Mrs. Bell.”

She nodded and left. That is when it struck me that Megan was still in the room. I was in so much shock that it never occurred to me. She was just staring at me.

"Shit.”

Vicki looked at me, "What?”

I nodded towards Megan, and both Vicki and Tami turned to look. Zoe still had her face pressed into my chest and was oblivious to the world in her panic.

"Oh," was Vicki's response when it dawned on her what was happening.

"Yeah," I said.

Megan was looking back and forth between Vicki and me.

"What's happening? What did the doctor mean about administering her your blood? What does she mean 'she knows what your blood does'?”

Doctor Chang came back in at that moment carrying a syringe. Vicki pulled away from me and walked past Megan, grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door.

"I will explain as much as I can, while they try to save Mrs. Bell.”

As they walked out the door, Megan was looking back at me. As usual, Doctor Chang was wrapped up in what she was doing and was oblivious to the interchange.

"Okay, Cas, I am going to take some of your blood and inject it into Angela. It's a little crude, but I don't want to wait to get a donation and hook up a bag of it for her. Plus, my tests have shown it shouldn't matter one way or another. It if is going to work, it should work from just an injection and the quantity of blood doesn't seem to matter either.”

There was a short but sharp pain as she jabbed me with a needle and started to draw blood. Her bedside manner was as brusque as ever, but at this point, I just didn't care about that. Once the syringe was full, she went over and injected it into one of the tubes coming out of Mrs. Bell.

"And now we wait.”

The doctor puttered around for a few minutes cleaning up the supplies to erase the evidence of what she had done, and then left. I noticed Zoe had fallen asleep. That much panic and stress can really do a number on your body. There was a small couch, and I laid her down just as Vicki and Megan reappeared.

Megan's eyes were like saucers as she stared at me.

"Is all this real?”

I looked at Vicki then back at Megan, unsure of what all Vicki had told her.

"It seems so. The Doctor that was in here and Mrs. Bell have been doing experiments on me and the girls, to try and figure out what is actually happening. They are pretty certain at this point that my biology is different from everyone else, but we are still trying to figure out the entire scope of what that difference is.”

She sank into a chair and stared at me some more before speaking again.

"I don't know what to do with this information.”

"You don't have to do anything, except keep it secret. This is very important. You can't tell anyone what you know. We have been trying really hard to keep this in the family, as it were. The only people that know about it are my sister Tina, the Doctor, and everyone in this room. Honestly, had I not been in so much shock, I would have made sure you weren't in here when we were discussing it. But now that you know, you have to keep our secret. Otherwise, me and the girls could be taken away. Imagine what the government or pharmaceutical companies would do to get at my cells.”

"Yeah, I can see that. I won't tell anyone. Actually, it is exciting. Vicki said you were going to change the world.”

I frowned at Vicki, "That isn't exactly what I am planning on. We haven't really discussed it yet, but I do have some thoughts. We were going to be having a family meeting soon, at least before this happened. Would you like to be there, now that you are on the inside? I find myself in need of some sage advice from time to time, and could always use an extra counselor.”

She beamed at me, "Yes. I would love to. I can't believe this is happening.”

"Yeah. Why don't you get Zoe home? She needs to change and we should pick up some stuff for Mrs. Bell when she wakes up, clothes and what not. Vicki, will you go with them?”

"Yeah," Vicki said as she went over and shook Zoe awake. She wiped the stained tear streaks from her face and gave her a small peck on the lips, then started to whisper at Zoe. After a minute, Zoe nodded, gave me a hug, and left with the other two girls. Tami came over and sat in my lap, hugging onto me. We probably sat like that for almost half an hour, just thinking.

Tami eventually pulled herself from my lap.

"I am going to go get us a couple of drinks, okay?”

"Sure. Thanks, Tami.”

She leaned down, gave me a short kiss, and then walked out. I moved over to a chair next to Mrs. Bell's bed. I reached out to hold her hand and dropped my head onto the bed.

"Please get better. I need you to stay with us. I love the girls but I rely on your advice above everyone else. With everything that is happening, I need your experience.”

I was silent for a while longer, tears starting to pour out of my eyes soaking the bed sheet.

"I don't know what I would do without you. You are the closest thing to a mother I have ever had. I never realized before how much I really wanted a mother, and now that I have one, I don't think I can go back to not having you. I love you. Please don't die.”

My tears turned into sobs as I thought about a world without Mrs. Bell. Panic was starting to creep up on me again.

And then ... she squeezed my hand. My head shot up and I looked into her open eyes. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She let go of my hand and reached up to stroke my cheek.

"I love you, too, Cas," she whispered.

As she said that, Tami walked in carrying two sodas. Seeing Mrs. Bell awake, she set down the drinks and ran over to give her a hug.

"You're awake. We were so scared.”

Mrs. Bell stroked Tami's hair with one hand while she held onto my face with the other.

"I am okay, kids. What happened?”

Both Tami and I sat up. I took one of Mrs. Bell's hands and held it tightly.

"Tami, could you go find Doctor Chang?”

"Of course," she said as she practically ran out the door.

"We sent Zoe home with Vicki and Megan to get stuff for you, in case you woke up. I also wanted to get Zoe away from the hospital for a little bit. She was really panicked and I was worried about her. They should be back soon.”

"As for what happened, you collapsed in Mr. Green's office, and had some kind of seizure. I had Doctor Chang take over your care and they ran some tests. You have a large tumor in your brain. The doctors were sure you wouldn't make it, and would probably never wake up. That is when Doctor Chang suggested we give you some of my blood. It was a long shot, but here you are, awake. So it must have worked.”

She squeezed my hand again.

"So, I guess I have to thank you for saving me ... first Zoe, then me. It's like God sent you down to save this family, and gave me a wonderful son at the same time.”

I lay my head down on our clasped hands. I was just thankful she was still with us as I basked in the love I felt from her. A few minutes later, the door opened and Tami came back in the room, followed by Doctor Chang.

"I see it worked. Excellent. We need to get you down to Radiology and get some more pictures of your brain. I want to see what changes have happened and make sure things are turning around.”