The End

Her life was becoming hell. The last few years had been bad; this was worse. She wasn't herself anymore. She'd been confined to a hospital, unable to take care of herself. On occasion, Taub or Foreman or Chase might come to visit, but quite often, she was alone. She preferred it. As a child, she hated seeing her mother like this and now hated how her former colleagues would see her.

Night had come and the nurses who'd pop in to check her vitals had retired to the nurse's station for the evening. As the Huntington's gripped her, she could only convulse and writhe around in her bed. Her body had become a prison. Her mind, unable to control its function, thought of the past; of the happier times practicing medicine. Curing the incurable, playing detective and doing whatever the case needed; the puzzle must be solved.

But there was no puzzle for Huntington's chorea. It was a boring diagnosis. One without any tropical worms to blame, or slow acting poisons. It was simply her nerves breaking down. It had made her a prisoner in her own body.

She spasmed wildly, kicking blankets to the floor and slamming her head backwards into her pillow. The best was behind her. No more doctoring or self destructive behavior or random bar hookups; she was ready to die. Dr. Remy Hadley as she was had ceased to be long ago.

As the most current bout of chorea began to subside, she noticed a figure across the room in the pale moonlight. A figure with an uneasy gait; one helped along by a cane, hobbled toward her. It could only be one person. A man she held in high esteem, one who'd made the most serious and genuine promise that one person could ever make to another. Her angel of death had arrived.

She watched as the syringe slid into her IV and as he pressed the plunger down. A look upward showed only care and concern as his blue eyes glinted in the light of the full moon. 'Thank you' she mouthed, as her eyes grew tired and listless.

He nodded. His eyes darted away, and then went back to her. "Goodbye Thirteen," he said.

As her eyes drew in the last few photons of light they ever would, she could see him limping away, out the door.