by Palladian
“I’m really hungry now,” Casey said, smirking.
“I’m starving!” Serena said, looking over at Lex. “Is that what you can do?”
Shrugging, Lex answered. “Well, one of the things. I can make suggestions. If it’s something you’d normally do anyway, the idea will probably come through as something you want to do now.”
“That’s really cool!” Serena replied with a laugh. “I wish I could do that sometimes. You know, on a slow night or something,” she finished with a smirk.
Lex couldn’t help blushing as the group of them turned to the kitchen as one and Casey began pulling out the makings for lunch. All of them made their own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and took chips or fruit to go along with them. Over lunch they caught up with the goings on in DC and what people they knew had been up to. Once she’d finished eating, Serena leaned back in her chair, then raised her eyebrow as if she thought better of it and tried to rearrange the skirt of her short dress to pull it down a little more. Lex couldn’t help looking at her friend curiously, and Serena smirked in return.
“You know, I was so excited to get your email that I didn’t really have time to shop for a full outfit, just a dress and sandals,” she said, smirking even more as Lex felt her cheeks heat up.
“You mean…” Lex said in a smothered voice then trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.
“Well, they didn’t exactly have a lingerie store there that I saw,” Serena continued, smiling wickedly now.
Lex’s eyes went wide and she grabbed Serena’s hand. “We’ll be upstairs for a couple of minutes,” she told everyone else, turning away as Kate started cracking up.
She glared at Serena when they got up to her room. “I can’t believe you told everyone you weren’t wearing underwear!” Lex said, then looked at her friend and sighed. “Yeah, well, maybe I guess I can.”
Serena laughed, a rich, long sound. “Hey,” she replied, “I didn’t really admit it, I just hinted at it. You came to your own conclusions.”
“Well, am I wrong?” Lex asked, turning back to her friend after having rummaged through her drawers for a moment.
“No,” Serena answered, a wide smile on her face. “I was thinking that maybe I should have gotten a longer dress.”
Lex threw a handful of cloth on her bed, which Serena started poking through. She drew out a pair of string bikini underwear, black with tiny white polka-dots, and looked them over with a nod. “Very nice. I wouldn’t have figured you for a string bikini girl, though.”
Now stumped for words, Lex just stared at her friend for a moment. “What?” she finally managed, the word sounding rather strained.
“You know, I would have figured that you wear those briefs or something. I mean, not like granny panties or anything, but—” Serena answered, only to be cut off by Lex after she let out an incredulous groan.
“I just bought these and I washed them, but I haven’t worn any of them yet, so take your pick. I know I don’t have any bras that would fit you, so I guess you’ll have to go without on that end,” Lex said, not looking at her friend and knowing that she was probably blushing bright red by now.
“You don’t have any thongs or anything, do you?” Serena asked as she sorted through the pile. “I mean, your ass is smaller than mine…”
“No,” Lex said, her voice muffled by the hand now over her face. “Just those, Serena.”
Serena laughed as she picked out a pair and slipped them on, pulling them up under her dress. “I’m sorry, Lex. I just love teasing you, though. You blush so prettily.”
Lex hung her head for a second and shook it, then turned to face her friend again. “Look, there is one thing I wanted to tell you about while we’re here, though. I figure it’ll be easier to talk about now, without the whole group. Kate is sick the way I was sick when I nearly died those times,” Lex said, watching as Serena turned and looked her in the eye with a concerned expression. “There’s nothing we can do to help her, so we need to get Lily here. Obviously, we’re going to need your help with that. What do you think?”
“Hell yes, I’ll help out,” Serena said, her face serious now. “Who’s going to set things up with Lily?”
“We will, the same way we set things up with you,” Lex answered, returning her friend’s serious look. “We just needed to talk to you first, to make sure you could do it.”
“Don’t worry,” Serena said, giving a final look at her reflection in Lex’s mirror. “I’ll do it, no problem. So, you want to go back downstairs before everyone starts to think we’re getting it on?”
Lex rolled her eyes and couldn’t help blushing again. “Come on,” she said, somehow managing not to laugh as she made her way out the door.
Serena sat with the group for a while, staying long enough to say hi to Victor when he appeared out of his workshop an hour later. She disappeared after memorizing the main room and promising to be back when needed.
Once Serena left, Kate and Casey both fixed Lex with a look. “I didn’t see any point in discussing it again when we came down because we’d talked about it when we were in my room,” Lex said to answer their unasked questions. “She said she’ll do it, no problem. All we need to do is to tell her when and where.”
Riss nodded, looking up from her ever-present laptop. “Good. The next thing we need is Lily. I’ll start that up right away.”
Lex watched as Riss’ focus became pulled into her machine and Lex bit her lip, hoping on the chance that, if they could contact Lily, there would be something she could do to help Kate.
Chapter 29: Vision
A few days after the last time they’d seen her, Serena showed up in the main room with Lily in tow. Everyone except Victor showed up to greet the two women, but Lily quickly spirited Kate away to her room.
Serena said as she settled on one of the couches, “So you’re going to play me some of your music now, aren’t you? I got to hear about what you guys have been doing with the band, but I didn’t get to hear what you’ve been playing.”
“OK,” Casey replied, and Lex smiled a little, recognizing the proud way her friend often talked about the band when she promoted them for shows. “We’ll have to play you the CD, though, since Kate’s not here and we probably shouldn’t be too loud when Lily’s looking at Kate, anyway.”
The group of them relaxed and listened to the first CD the band had recorded, each of them chiming in now and then to comment on parts of the songs or something about the piece playing. Riss continued working on something on her computer, as usual, but even she seemed to pay attention to and enjoy the listening session.
After about an hour, Lily came back downstairs. Lou moved to turn off the music, then sat by Casey as the doctor began to speak.
“Kate will probably sleep for a while now, maybe all night. It’s important to let her rest as much as possible right now,” Lily said, looking carefully at each one of them, including Victor, who’d suddenly appeared. “I want to work with her for about a week, and I think she’ll be fine after that. I have two weeks of vacation coming up at the end of the month, and I can probably manage to spend one of those here. Serena, can you help with that?”
Serena nodded. “Sure thing. Just let me know where and when, and I’ll be there.”
“We can feed all of the details through Riss’ emails and arrange everything like that, OK?” Lily said, glancing over at Riss.
“Sure,” Riss agreed. “Just make sure to keep checking it around the same time every day, the times I’ve been sending you emails, and if there’s anything, it’ll come then. If you have anything that you need to send to each other, make certain to copy me and send it during those times.”
Both Serena and Lily nodded. “Thanks, Riss,” Lily said. “I’m really tired now, though, so could you take me home, Serena?”
The other woman stood up from where she’d been lounging on pillows on the floor with Lex. “Sure, let’s go.”
Lily smiled faintly as she waited for Serena
to reach her. “It was nice to see all of you again. You have a really nice place,” she said, looking at all the assembled company.
Lex smiled in return and noticed Casey give a wave before Lily and Serena disappeared.
“Well,” Casey said after a moment, “I guess we’d better try to keep it quiet down here this evening. Is anyone up for a movie?”
Victor smiled but made his way back to his workshop after excusing himself. Riss brought her laptop to the couch and the four of them watched a couple of films with the sound on low before they all made their way upstairs.
Before they got to their respective rooms, Lex turned to Riss and asked, “So, have they given up, or are they still moving west?”
Riss met Lex’s glance. “No, they’re still out there. I’m seeing signs of the MSI team as far west as Colorado now.”
Lex nodded, feeling a cold chill spreading through her chest, but wished her friend a good night before going to her own restless sleep.
The next morning, Lex had begun making herself tea when Kate came downstairs. She felt a surge of gladness to see her friend up and about, but restrained herself from asking too many questions.
“Hey, Kate,” she said in a low voice. “Lily said that you’d probably be hungry this morning. Would you like me to make you something to eat?”
Kate was wrapped up in her favorite robe and had her eye patch on. She looked over at Lex, still blinking at the sunlight, and shook her head. “Don’t bother. I can take care of it.”
“It’s not a problem,” Lex said, reaching for the coffeepot and pouring Kate a cup. “Why don’t you just sit and wake up for a little while?”
“OK,” Kate mumbled as she reached for the sugar. “Nothing too complicated, though.”
“Not at all,” Lex said, hiding her smile as she went to the cupboard for ingredients. She started up a pot of oatmeal, knowing her friend favored that in the morning, before she began speaking again. “So, how are you feeling?”
“A little like I got run over by a truck,” Kate said, rubbing her eye. She laughed as she saw Lex’s dismayed expression a moment later. “I’m a lot less worried, though. I think Lily can help: my eye actually feels a lot better today.”
“Good,” Lex said, smiling as she stirred the oatmeal.
“Actually,” Kate said after looking behind them, “when Lily got here yesterday, she started by looking at my empty socket, but then we began to talk. She told me that she was the one the lab called in to try to heal people up when treatments went bad and they nearly died. After that, she started asking me some questions about the animals I could mimic, which I found weird enough that I stopped her after a while to ask what it was about. She said that if we worked together that maybe we could…permanently heal my hurt eye.”
Lex frowned as she put out nuts, raisins, and brown sugar and dished up their cereal, mind replaying the pause where it almost seemed Kate had been about to say something different, but after a moment just decided to forget about it due to Kate’s condition. “Well,” she said as she handed Kate a bowl, “you know I’ll be rooting for everything to turn out well; I hope the two of you can do that. Did Lily say there was anything special you’d need: any supplies or anything like that?”
Kate shrugged. “No, she didn’t. I think it’ll just be the two of us working together. If this morning is any indication, we’ll probably need a lot to eat, and a lot of sleep, too.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Lex replied with a nod. “Let me know if there’s anything other than that.”
The two of them ate together in silence, Lex occasionally stealing a look at her friend and smiling.
Lex found herself growing more anxious over the next three weeks as they waited for Lily to be able to come back. She worried that Kate would get worse or have a setback and possibly die before Lily could make it back, or that something would prevent Lily from coming at all. A couple of nights she’d woken herself up with nightmares where Kate died. Finally, Casey cornered her one morning just as she came down to the kitchen.
“Lex,” Casey asked as she handed her a steaming mug of tea, “What’s on your mind?”
Shaking her head, Lex massaged her forehead with one hand where it had started to ache. “I’m just so worried about Kate.” Lex spoke quietly, looking Casey in the eye. “What if something goes wrong? If she gets worse before Lily can make it here? What will we do?”
Casey sighed. “I figured it was something like that. Look, I know we need Lily to help Kate, but don’t think we’re helpless here. Since that time when you weren’t well, I learned a lot about caring for someone who’s sick. I’ve even signed up for a class next week so that I can get officially certified to do CPR and to learn more first aid. I know I’m not a doctor, but I can help. We’re doing what we can. Just try to relax. You can’t do more just by worrying about it.”
“I know, I just…” Lex trailed off, digging her thumb into her forehead now as the pain in her head increased in intensity.
A moment later, Lex gasped wordlessly as a massive bolt of pain shot through her entire being, starting with her head. Her eyes flew open, and she noticed Casey saying something that she couldn’t hear as the world went dark a second later.
Some time later, Lex woke up in her room. At first, she thought maybe someone had decided to demolish the building, or play some noisy music at the highest volume possible. As she adjusted to it, Lex realized that the pain had gotten so intense that not much of anything else could make it through her overloaded senses. Her lamp had been switched off, but the light through the drawn blinds felt so painful that Lex threw the covers over her eyes and closed them tightly. She saw Casey just before she did, leaning over her with a look of concern. Then the pain flared up again and there was nothing.
Darkness surrounded her, for which Lex felt grateful for some reason she couldn’t remember. She walked through the black nothingness when suddenly she saw a pair of eyes. They seemed brownish but with an odd red cast, and as she looked, they seemed to catch fire, their gaze seeming to pierce through her–
Lex gasped as she awoke, the last shreds of the dream disappearing. She could tell from the faint orange streetlight glow that night had arrived, and she felt cheered that the light coming through the blinds didn’t feel painful and the feeling of loud noise seemed to be gone. She sighed in relief, then jumped afterwards as she sensed movement nearby.
“Is someone there?” she asked, her voice sounding weak and hoarse in her own ears.
“Yeah, Lex, it’s me,” Casey said, and Lex could see her friend as she stepped closer to the bed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“A lot better, thanks. The headache seems to have gone away; I’m just hungry now.” Lex kept her voice hushed, conscious of her other friends sleeping in the rooms nearby.
Casey sighed, and Lex could hear relief in the sound. “Do you want me to make you something?”
“You don’t have to do that,” Lex said, shaking her head in embarrassment. “You look really tired, why don’t you go to bed?”
“I’ll go downstairs with you, at least,” the larger woman said, moving behind Lex as if to support her as she stepped out of the bed.
Casey didn’t speak again until they got down to the kitchen. “You know,” she said as Lex dropped some bread into the toaster, “Lily wanted to know if anything like this happened once you were up and about.” Shaking her head, Casey continued. “She said there’s a possibility that you may have grown, as she put it, new structures. Your digestive system seemed involved in the process, but since it seemed like your head and brain got hit the hardest, Lily said that if you grew anything new, it was likely to be there.”
Lex bit her lip, considering. “Do you know what she meant? New structures?”
Casey shook her head a little. “The way she explained it was like if you dropped your fingernails and re-grew them as claws, stuff like that. External things would be easy to spot, but not if you grew new organs, unless
they can use imaging tools to see inside you. Apparently, they scanned everyone at…that place all the time. She wanted to be able to scan you before we left, but she couldn’t figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t draw attention.”
“I see,” Lex said, nodding and feeling as if something heavy came to sit in the pit of her stomach. “There probably won’t be any way to be able to do it this time, either, but I’ll tell her what happened when she comes back. I don’t want to distract her from her work with Kate, though; that’s what’s most important. You know I’ve had these headaches before,” Lex concluded, her voice weakening because she knew what Casey would say next.
“Yes,” Casey said, hands now on her hips, “you did have headaches before, but nothing like what you just had! The only other time you had one like that was probably around the time the drugs they gave us at the facility really kicked in and started to mess your system up.”
“I know,” Lex nodded, “but I’m wondering if this isn’t just a side-effect of the new things I can do. Maybe this is just the price I pay. The migraines I had before weren’t fatal.”
Casey sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Maybe,” she said, shaking her head.
Lex came around the counter and hugged her friend. “It’ll be OK,” she said as she pulled back. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. Now, get some sleep and please tell Lou that I’m sorry to have taken you away from spending time with him.”
“OK,” Casey said with a smile she’d been unable to hold back. “Just don’t stay up so late that your headache comes back, because I won’t be here to catch you this time.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lex said with a smirk, watching her friend disappear in the direction of the room she shared with Lou.
Lex put peanut butter on her toast and had almost taken a bite when she saw Riss appear at the top of the stairs. Her friend silently made her way down and sat across from Lex at the table. Putting her toast back on the plate, Lex gave Riss a little smile.
