The Ties That Bind (3 page)

"So, what do you think happened, Doctor?”

"Last week I administered your blood to some tissue from a cancer patient. Your blood eradicated the tumor cells and removed all trace of them. I need to confirm it with actual scans, but I am betting you have removed or are starting to remove the tumor from Angela's brain. I wasn't positive it would work, but my tests had indicated it would. I wish there were some way I could market you. You are literally the cure for cancer.”

I frowned at her, "We talked about this.”

"I know, I know. I am just thinking out loud.”

An orderly walked in at that point.

"Okay, let's get you wheeled down to Radiology.”

I looked over at Tami, "Could you go with her? I am going to try and catch Zoe at home, and give her the news.”

She nodded and held Mrs. Bell's hand as they walked out of the room, followed by Doctor Chang. I reached over to the bedside phone and called the house, where Vicki answered.

"Great, I caught you. Mrs. Bell is awake.”

"Really?”

"Yeah, the treatment worked, we think. They are taking her back to re-scan her brain now, and check. Can you get Megan to bring you guys back up?”

"Sure. Man, I can't believe she is going to be okay. We were all sick with worry.”

"I know. Me, too.”

"Okay, we will see you soon. I love you.”

"I love you, too.”

I sat down in a chair and waited for everyone to come back. Relief washed over me, knowing we would be able to hang on to Mrs. Bell a while longer.

Zoe, Vicki and Megan showed up before Mrs. Bell got back from her tests. Zoe once again threw herself into my arms.

"She is really going to be okay?”

"They think so. Doctor Chang is plotting how to keep her miraculous recovery a secret, but yeah, she said she thinks the tumor will go away.”

Megan still looked a little shell shocked.

"So they just gave her an injection of your blood and it removed the tumor.”

"Yes.”

"Why aren't you out there helping other people or over at the Children's ward saving sick kids. Imagine all the good you could be doing.”

"Because we don't know exactly what all it does, yet. This was a Hail Mary pass to save Mrs. Bell, but it could have serious side effects. We already know my DNA has corrupted and has started changing the base biology of Zoe, Vicki and Tami. But we don't know the extent or the side effects, yet.”

"Vicki said it made them smarter and stronger.”

"It seems to, but there could be other complications. Those three were affected before we knew that could happen. Mrs. Bell was an emergency. I don't want to do anything else until we learn if there are other, less desirable, side effects. You can understand that, right?”

"Yeah, I guess. I was toying with asking to borrow you from your girls. I could really stand to become a super woman, too.”

"Let's not joke about this. I am actually really concerned, and still a little upset about what I did to the girls. I am scared this will all have some massive side effect on them. That would crush me.”

"Sorry, I was just teasing ... well, kind of. But I get it. Can I still be part of your cabal?”

I snorted, "It's hardly a cabal. We are just trying to figure out what to do about all of this. But yes, when we have family meetings about it, you are welcome to join us. I have always valued your opinion. But please, don't tell anyone. Not even your sister.”

"I won't, I promise.”

I looked down at Zoe who was still clutched to me.

"Are you going to be okay?”

"Yeah. I was just so scared. Thank you for saving her.”

"All I did was sit there and be some kind of medical milk cow. Okay, enough weepiness! It looks like we are out of the woods. Let's dry our eyes. Your mom should be back, soon.”

"Where's Tami?”

"She went with your mom to hold her hand.”

We were all sitting around, trying to chat about happier subjects when Mrs. Bell was rolled back in. Tami walked quickly over to Zoe and pulled her into a tight hug.

"So what's the word, Doc?”

She waited until the orderly got everything sorted and left.

"The tumor isn't gone yet, but it has shrunk by almost a third. If I had to guess, by the end of the week, it will be totally gone.”

"Man, that's great news.”

"We need to get her checked out, tonight," she looked down at her watch, "or I guess I should say tomorrow since it's already after midnight. I am going to try and work on her file a bit, to keep the other doctors from realizing she has had a miraculous recovery. It'll be best if she weren't in the hospital.”

"Is she safe to travel? I don't want to have Mom's health put in danger just to protect my secret. She comes first.”

Both Zoe and her mother noticed my choice of wording. Zoe looked over at me with an odd look, while Mrs. Bell had a slight smile. Doctor Chang seemed as oblivious as ever.

"She should be fine. From everything, I can tell, your blood is going to make her pretty much immune to every virus and bacteria I have thrown against it, and it is going to shut the tumor down, cold. I will take a few samples now, and some more in about a week for comparison to her original samples, just to make sure. But, I am betting she'll feel totally fine by the time she gets home. The hard part is actually getting her out of the hospital. She has been here for just over eight hours. If I just discharged her, now, my colleagues would get really curious. What we will need to do is have Angela refuse further treatment. That has the added benefit of stopping further testing on her, and hopefully making the other doctors less interested in her case.”

Of course, all that was easier said than done. There was paperwork and a lot of waiting, but eventually, we got to escape the hospital. We all piled into Megan's suburban. Tami sat up front, Mrs. Bell and Zoe were in the captain's chairs, and Vicki sat cuddled next to me in the back.

"Tomorrow night we need to sit down and have a family meeting. Megan, since you're in on our little secret club, you can join us if you want.”

I could see her look back at me and smile in the rear view mirror. Zoe was still looking at me like she was trying to figure something out.

"What was with you earlier?”

"What do you mean?”

"You called my mom 'Mom, ' that's what I mean. What was that about?”

"Honestly? It's because that is how I feel about her. I realized today that I finally found the family I didn't know I was missing.”

Mrs. Bell broke in, beaming at me.

"And I couldn't be happier about it," she said.

Zoe got a sly smile, looking at the two of us as she said, "So, that kind of makes him my brother, now. I guess we have to stop ... dating.”

I knew she was jerking my chain, but my reaction was involuntary, and my face fell.

Zoe was laughing at me, but Mrs. Bell came to my rescue.

"Don't let her mess with you, Cas. Think of me as your mother-in-law, if you prefer.”

Zoe was still grinning as she added, "I'm okay with that.”

Vicki lifted up her head, "Does that make you our mother-in-law, too? How does it work when three girls decide to marry the same guy?”

"Whoa, whoa, let's not...”

They ignored my protest.

"I don't know. We should find a Mormon, or something, and ask.”

"Hey, I am only fifteen! Let's not jump too fast.”

All three ladies in the back of the Suburban looked at me like I was an idiot. Mrs. Bell put words to their thoughts.

"Get real, Cas. I have never seen people as devoted to someone as these girls are to you. You are pretty much already on the hook, buddy.”

Thankfully, they decided they had enough teasing. Vicki pressed herself closer into me and they switched to light-hearted topics. By the time we got home, I started to get worried about Mrs. Bell ... or I guess I should say, 'Mom, ' as that's what I was thinking of her in my head ... again. We walked in the door when she made a sudden dash for the restroom, where we could hear retching noises.

"It was too soon to take her out of the hospital, we should take her back.”

Tami put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from going to her, "Doctor Chang warned me this could happen. Consider that all three of us got sick after we were ... umm, you know, I don't have a good word for this.”

"Infected," I offered.

Zoe punched me in the arm, "No, it's not an infection. I would say after we were evolved.”

I rolled my eyes, and got punched again by Zoe, "Continue, Tami.”

"Anyway, she said that since we all got sick after we were evolved ... nope, still not the right word ... that she might also get sick. She said it was probably the body's reaction to the sudden changes it was going through. I will go get her in bed and resting. If it was anything like it was with us, she should feel better after a few hours.”

Tami gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then went off down the hall.

I turned to the three women left standing with me, "Okay, it's already really late. Megan, do you mind taking Vicki and Tami home? Tomorrow is going to suck for all of us, but we need to power through. We can try and keep the family meeting short tonight and get everyone to bed early so we can catch up on some sleep.”

"Sure, Cas, no problem."

I gave Megan a big hug, and both my girls kisses, before they left. After checking on Mom, Zoe and I settled into bed. Thankfully, Zoe was good at reading my moods, and just cuddled with me so I had time to think. Eventually she broke the silence.

"You're not beating yourself up about Mom, are you?”

"No. While I am loath to evolve ... and Tami is right, we need a better word ... anyone else, I don't see how there was any choice in this case. It was that or lose her.”

"So what has you so keyed up?”

I was quiet for a moment as I tried to put my thoughts into words.

"Partially, I am arranging my thoughts for our family meeting tomorrow, but mostly I have had something bumping around in the back of my brain. There is a pattern I am starting to see, but I don't have enough information to make sense of it.”

"What's the pattern?”

"It has to do with everyone in my life. There is the sudden ramp up of our relationship. We seriously went from zero to sixty in no time flat. I am not complaining mind you, just saying it is one of the pieces of the puzzle. By itself that normally wouldn't raise any flags, considering how we met and how intense everything was. But, add Vicki to that. First, she was just helping a friend. Then she was interested in me, but not in love with me. Now she is totally in love with me ... of course I feel the same about her. Then there is Tami. My relationship with her is much like with Vicki. It started out as one thing, but did a one-eighty into a pretty serious romantic connection.”

"Then there is the fact that you girls are as into each other, as you are into me, even though some of you previously had no interest in girls. Plus there is the fact that all of you have no interest in girls or guys outside of our little setup, and you and Vicki actively wanted to add a fourth to our makeup.”

"Add to that, Rachel, the other day. That was weird. She is totally into Jacob, and yet she was all over me. That came out of nowhere. And then there is Tina. From disinterested, to sisterly, to wanting to kiss me at your party, to standoffish and cold. All of those, singularly, could be explained ... maybe even a couple of them, but all together? No, I feel like there is something I am missing.”

"Yeah, it is weird. I mean, I guarantee that I love you, and I know Vicki and Tami love you; but you are right about how we feel about each other, and how we feel about people outside of our group. I have thought about that since you asked about it the other day. I actually have no attraction to anyone outside of our group, which is strange I guess. I do think it is weird that both Vicki and I were very attracted to Tami and really wanted to add her to our relationship. I didn't at the time, it felt so natural, but laying here thinking about it logically, there doesn't seem to be an explanation for that. Also, speaking of Rachel, I do feel a little something towards her, too ... and, sorry about this, Tina. But that's it. Tina, Rachel, Vicki, Tami, and you are the only people who I find attractive at all.”

"Yep, it's a puzzle. We need to go to sleep now. As it is, we are only going to get a couple of hours before school tomorrow.”

As predicted, the next morning came way too soon. We checked on Mom, who was still feeling sick, and dragged our way to school. We showed up late to the morning run and Vicki, who was normally there with us, hadn't made it yet. I saw Tami had chosen not to run and was slumped on the bleachers. When I collapsed next to her, she leaned over to lie against me while Zoe took the other side. Amanda was smirking when she stopped running and jogged up.

"You guys look like shit.”

I shrugged, "Yeah, it was a long night.”

"I bet.”

Zoe opened one eye, "It wasn't like that. Mom got sick yesterday afternoon, and was rushed to the hospital. It was after three in the morning when she was released from the hospital. Cas, Tami and I were there all night, along with your sister.”

"Oh, god ... I am sorry, I didn't know. Is she alright?”

"Yeah, she is getting better. She is still feeling sick today and stayed home, but Cas thought we still all needed to come to school.”

"I wondered what happened to Megan last night.”

"She was nice enough to pick up me and Tami and bring us up to the hospital. Cas was already there and rode in the ambulance with Mom. She stuck around and drove us all home afterwards.”

I nudged the now sleeping Tami and pulled her and Zoe to their feet.

"We need to get in guys; it's almost time for class.”

The rest of the day was a haze. At lunch, none of us even ate, we just put our heads down and took a nap until Rachel woke us up and said it was time to go to class. I begged off from practice by explaining the previous night to the coach and went by to find Mrs. Runkle.

"Hi, Mrs. Runkle, I wanted to see how the girls did on the test.”

"As you predicted, Cas, they all aced it. Normally I would have to take their previous school work into account, which for some of them would disqualify them from the program. But, considering your explanation of their sudden focus, and their scores, I am willing to take all three. However," she made sure I was making eye contact, "I am holding you responsible for their participation. They need to take this seriously.”

"They will. Thanks, Mrs. Runkle.”