When Wilson was done fixing Thea up, he started his exam on Atlas. Thea excused herself to use the bathroom, and as soon as she did Atlas began to glare at him. Wilson decided to ignore him and went to feel his glands, but Atlas pushed his hands away aggressively. Wilson was shocked for a moment until the boy spoke.
"What did she agree to?"
"I`m just-"
"You are not going to use my mother as your whore to pay for my medical treatment."
"Woah, woah," Wilson was taken off guard, "I just hired her to do some cleaning and paperwork." He saw that Atlas still looked skeptical, so he continued, "That type of thing isn`t legal here. When did you two get here?"
"This morning," Atlas grumbled. He wasn`t sure that he believed Dr. Wilson, but he accepted the answer for now.
For what felt like the hundredth time today, Wilson was taken by surprise, "Where are you living?"
Atlas looked at him like he had three heads, "In the woods, I suppose. That`s what we did most of the way here." For the first time since they`d met, Atlas` dark eyes didn`t look afraid or angry; instead they looked confused. Like asking where they were living was crazy.
"What? No! Look, I have some extra bedrooms in my condo. I can talk to your mom-"
"She won`t be staying in your bed!" and the anger was back just like that.
"No, no. She`d have her own," Wilson tried to calm him down. He wondered what the men in their country had treated his mother like. "Where are you two from?" He tried to change the subject.
"Panem," Atlas mumbled. Wilson looked up in shock. That explained a lot. Panem kept everything within their borders a secret, but the common perception was that the government was backwards and crazy. And they never let citizens leave.
Wilson rubbed a hand over his face. "Ok, you know what, I`ll drive you back to my place for now. Obviously you`re not here legally, so we`ll have to figure something out." Atlas simply nodded.
Wilson was glad to see another side of Atlas on the ride to his condo. He was excited and thrilled at everything he saw.
"He`s never been in a car before," Thea explained.
"Mama!" he exclaimed, pointing out of his window and toward the library that they were passing, "They have real books! A whole building full! Can we go?"
Wilson couldn`t help but smile. The kid had been acting like a strong, silent brute back at the hospital, but his excitement over a library didn`t fit that persona.
"When we get you better you can read them all," Thea was smiling too, glad to see her son happy and to know that he was relatively safe.
Wilson parked and led the way up to the condo. He showed them where the two guest rooms were, then showed them around. Thea told Atlas to go take a shower. He obeyed his mom without question; it was obvious that he wasn`t an American teenager.
Once he was gone, Thea turned to Wilson with a smile, "Dr. Wilson, I can`t thank you enough. Please, what would you like for me to start working on?"
"Call me James, ok? And for right now I just want you to rest and let yourself heal."
Thea looked as though she might cry. She hugged him, and when he hugged back he could feel her shaking with sobs.
"Shh, shh," he rubbed her back and rocked slightly. He instinct was to comfort and take care of people, and that`s what he did. She pulled back, wiped her eyes, and smiled at him.
"I don`t think I`ve ever cried in front of someone before," she whispered.
He laughed, "You might have a hard time fitting in with the women here," he joked.
Wilson returned to work, deflected House`s question for a while, then drove back to his condo. He was planning on ordering a pizza, but as soon as he opened the door he smelled something delicious.
"Wow, what smells so good?" he called as he took off his coat.
No one answered, and when he walked in he didn`t see Thea. He only saw Atlas, eating like this was the first meal he`d ever had.
"My mom cooked," he explained with his mouth full.
"I see that. Guess you didn`t get to eat much on the trip." Wilson sat down and scooped food from different bowls and trays onto a plate. He didn`t recognize most of it, so it must`ve been ethnic.
Atlas shook his head, "My mom survived off of food in the woods when she was a kid, I had more than enough to eat. Mama says I`m just a bottomless pit."
Wilson laughed, "If everything she cooks tastes like this, I don`t blame you," he was amazed at how delicious everything was.
"She insisted that I leave enough for you. She wanted to stay up and make sure. She`ll be happy that you like it," Atlas told him.
"It`s good that she`s resting, you should be doing the same."
Atlas shrugged, "I`m on a different sleep schedule than her. She has nightmares," he explained when Wilson looked confused. As if on cue, Thea let out a hysterical, high-pitched scream. Atlas ran in an Wilson followed on instinct. He saw Thea flailing in her bed; it almost looked as though she was trying to fight someone off. Atlas tried to wake her. He wound up with a bloody lip after the first try, but the second time she woke with a start. She didn`t seem to register where she was at first, and she looked around fearfully before her eyes landed on Wilson. She cleared her throat.
"Dr. Wilson, I`m so sorry. I hope I didn`t wake you."
"No, I wasn`t asleep. Are you ok?"
"Yes," she said in a voice that left no room for further questioning.
"Ok. Thank you for dinner, it was delicious. Try to get some more rest." With that, he left the pair alone, but he couldn`t shake the scream. It was full of real terror. That kind of terror had to have come from something real.