Chapter 6

It was the day after Chad had fired Chastity.

God, that had been horrible.

He had had to stop everything he was doing and go out to find a new nurse.

What a waste of time.

A whole afternoon of work had been wasted.

Today he had to go visit Henry.

Henry was an around-65-years-old man who he looked for advise or answers whenever he had some kind of question or something didn't make sense.

And today was one of those days.

The city of Hollywood rushed by as he looked out his black limousine.

"Roger, can you just a bit faster?" he asked the driver a bit rudely.

But he just wasn't in the mood for being nice.

He had frustrated over the last equation for the whole night yesterday and this morning.

It took him more than two pages every time he tried to figure it out.

By 10 p.m. he had lost count of how many times he had sent Molly to Staples to get him more paper.

He had grown one of worst headaches of his career and he had had to be careful not to reach for the aspirin bottle and taking the whole thing to end his agony.

Painkillers didn't work on him anymore anyways, no matter how many he took.

After so many years taking them almost everyday to relieve the unstoppable migraines due to overworking and hard (if the word even covered a tenth the level of difficulty) never ending mathematical problems, they no longer worked on him.

He had grown accustomed to walking around with a headache even before 12 p.m. almost everyday.

He looked out his window and saw the people walking around normal, without a worry in their heads.

He had been like that once.

When he remembered those days they seemed so far away, like it had been somebody else's life.

Like maybe it had been a dream.

Or a story he'd heard.

He was in front of the old man's mansion before he had realized it.

"Thanks, Roger" he said with a mild smile as he stepped out of the car.

But it was only in his lips for his mouth showed it but his eyes said something different.

It had been a while since he had smiled genuinely.

He fixed his gray suit as he rang the bell.

After a few seconds the butler opened the door.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Cooper" he said.

He was widely known in the house by now.

"Good afternoon, Frederick" he said falsely smiling again.

"Mr. Alsthom is in his study. You may step inside. He said he was expecting you".

"Thank you, Frederick" Chad said and walked in.

He walked by a number of rooms to reach the genius's office.

The were all characterized by, in Chad's opinion, a bit too many statues.

It was actually kind of freaky.

You never felt truly alone...

Chad laughed to himself.

I'm so stupid he thought shaking his head lightly.

Still, he would never get so many statues.

He passed by a mirror in the fifth room and something caught his attention.

He abruptly paused.

Was that...?

Oh no... Damn it!

He walked closer to see his reflection better.

"Ha ha!' he laughed out loud. "This" he flinched as he pulled out a white hair from his head " is not white hair" he tried lying to himself. "I am 24-years-old, not forty. I do not have white hair. This is simply a highlight." he paused for a few seconds. "Who am I kidding? I am becoming an old man. Accept it Chad. The years are falling on your shoulders" he sighed. "Whatever" and he kept walking.

White hair was the least of his worries right now.

After what seemed like an eternity he finally reached the study.

It was enormous.

He had portraits of the greatest scientists in history all over his wall.

Isaac Newton, Aristotle, Galileo Galilei, Charles Robert Darwin, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, Archimedes, and some others whose names he didn't even know.

"Ivan, my friend. How are you?" Chad saluted.

"What? Is that white hair?" the old man asked after he'd turned around.

"Another one?" Chad asked.

"Ah, I see it's not the first one" he observed.

"Where is it?"

"No, don't take it out. That's a sign of wisdom" Ivan said.

"Wisdom? Ha! If I were wise, my friend, I would not be here right now" he sighed. "If I were wise" he said trying to sound as if it were a joke but there was no humor in his voice, and then he paused for a few seconds and sighed again "if I were wise" he repeated "Allison would be out of her coma by now" he said unable to meet the other man's gaze. "In fact," he laughed "she wouldn't even be in a coma right now" he looked down playing with his nails.

"Now Chad, you need to stop blaming yourself. I've told you that, you know" he said fatherly.

"Stop blaming myself? Stop blaming myself? How CAN I stop blaming myself, Ivan, when there is no one else as GUILTY as I am? Huh? When the only reason she is in the condition she is is me! Because I was STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Stupid first for not bringing her with me because I was too proud to admit that I loved her, and then stupid again for not having found a solution by now! It's been seven freaking years, Ivan! Seven freaking years!"

"And you say it like that's an eternity! Ha! You don't think that dozens of men have died spending their whole lives doing research to find a cure to comas and not even getting one single relevant lead?!?! Huh? You have found three recognized ones. Yeah, true they turned out to nothing when it came to Allison but they were smart enough to cure cancer, Parkinson's disease, and Autism! Tell me how many men can say that about themselves? Tell me how many men can say a third of that about themselves?You have cured and saved millions of lives! What the hell more do you want?"

"Yeah, that's all very great but is Allison up and walking? No, she isn't! You know, I hate myself so much that the only reason I haven't put myself on FIRE or some other torture and killed myself once and and for all is for two reasons. One, it would be cowardice for it would only put me to rest, and what I have done is so unforgivable, so dreadful, so loathsome, so horrendous, so shameful, so revolting, so abhorrent, so abominable, so hideous, so atrocious, so repugnant, so rotten, so disturbing" he breathed "I deserve to suffer the acutest pain possible and that is to see the fruit of my foolishness everyday day lying there almost lifeless in hospital bed across from my room. And second" he paused " the only way I will get any peace in my mind is by seeing her out of that nefarious coma and I know that if I don't make it happen no one else will and I can't let that happen" Chad finished.

"Then lets get going and stop wasting time and figure out that equation together so we can get that peace to your mind, shall we?" he asked extending his hand towards Chad.

Chad nodded breathless and took out a roll of papers and gave them to Ivan.

MUST REVIEW!!!!!!