Chapter 10: Hello, Father.
"How is that?" Dr. Tenenbaum asked, monitoring Booker's heart rate and watching his eyes for pupil dilation.
"Better." He breathed out in a sigh. But it was not very much better from the looks of things.
"You said you would come back after your dealings in Rapture." Dr. Tenenbaum began as she cleaned up some of her equipment. "But seeing as only one of you is going, I would suggest that Mr. DeWitt say here for a time to be monitored just in case. It has been some time since I have seen anyone looking as healthy and as human as you do with this much ADAM in their blood. All the same, you may have an… adverse reaction. Your symptoms will take time to subside and they may return in the next few days." Booker's left hand was still visibly shaking, and the nausea he was experiencing was evident in his eyes.
"But he'll be alright." Elizabeth, who was standing by her father's side, her hand on his quivering arm, asked.
"In time." Dr. Tenenbaum reassured her. "You are the one I am worried about now, child." She motioned for Elizabeth to sit down in a chair similar to the one her father was occupying.
The sight of her seat and the apparatuses around it alone made Elizabeth nauseous. She swallowed hard as she forced herself to sit down, trying to remember that this was not Comstock House. Dr. Tenenbaum would not hurt her.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" Tenenbaum picked up on her nerves. "It is not too late to turn back. ADAM is… a beast of a thing."
"I'm fine." Elizabeth insisted. "Just… just promise me that this will work. I don't need any plasmids, I just need Booker. He can get me through Rapture. He'll know what to do." The man in question looked close to passing out, but he tried to give her some support. All he could manage was a grim smile.
"He is your father." Tenenbaum comforted. "That should make this simpler. You already share much of his DNA." She readied the large syringe with which she had drawn out Booker's ADAM "Now I don't want you taking any more of this than is needed. Mr. DeWitt had far more than enough ADAM in his system to capture the memories you say you need." They had opted for injection over consumption for more immediate effects. "Are you ready?"
"I'm ready." Elizabeth steeled herself as Dr. Tenenbaum pushed the needle into her arm. The scientist pumped a tiny amount of the bright red substance into her blood.
Elizabeth screamed, her vision flashing red and fire shooting up her veins. "You're alright." Tenenbaum's voice tried to pierce through the pain. She pumped another small amount of ADAM into Elizabeth's arm. "Your biological code is being re-written. This is not a plasmid, it should not have any specific effects. Your body does not know how to apply it, but your immune system should calm down soon." Elizabeth had now received roughly one tenth of Booker's ADAM. After the initial shock had passed, Dr. Tenenbaum's word was proven true. Though her heart rate was still erratic, the pain began to subside.
"How do I know if it's working?" Elizabeth was trying to keep her eyes open now.
"When you begin to know things that you did not." Tenenbaum answered.
"Like what?" Elizabeth bit her lip as she received another tiny dose.
"What's my birthday?" Booker suggested from across the room.
"A-April…" Elizabeth answered. "April Nineteenth."
"That's right." Booker confirmed, still struggling just to talk. Tenenbaum did not ask why Elizabeth would only just now have learned her father's birthday. "My mother's name?"
"M…" Elizabeth stained her mind. "Molly? No. Margret. They called her Maggie."
"Good." She heard her father's voice. "Alright let's try a story. How about your mother? When did I meet her?"
"It was… it was New Year's Eve." It took longer this time, but once she found it the knowledge came as easily as if she had been told since her childhood. "She was a waitress. And you… you stopped a drunkard who was yelling at her. She bought you a drink and… you bought her dinner the next night."
"Alright." Booker's voice was sounding stronger now. "Without looking through the possibilities, what were you doing when I first saw you in that tower?"
"I was reading, you fell in through the ceiling and- no." Elizabeth stopped. "I was… I was daydreaming." She said. "About Paris. You saw me through the mirror. I opened a tear."
"You almost got yourself killed." Booker told her, sounding more like a father than she had ever heard him. "What number did I pick at the Columbia raffle?"
"77." Elizabeth reported automatically.
"There you go." She could hear him smiling. Elizabeth opened her eyes as she felt her father's hand on her arm.
"Booker?" He looked far healthier than he had a moment ago.
"No." He told her with a smile as her vision cleared. "Just a voice in your head."
Elizabeth blinked and saw Booker still sitting a few feet away, slumped in a chair behind Dr. Tenenbaum.
"Elizabeth?" He looked concerned.
"What was the last thing you asked me, Booker?" Elizabeth had to catch her breath.
"About your mother." He said. "What was all that about Paris?"
Elizabeth smiled. "It's working, Dr. Tenenbaum."
"I should hope so." The scientist answered, "You've only taken about one half of your father's ADAM but it's far more than people normally take for their first dose." She carefully removed the syringe and bandaged Elizabeth's arm. "How do you feel?"
"Like I've swallowed fire." Elizabeth told her. "Like I've got someone else's head in my own." She raised her hand to her face, half expecting to find her nose bleeding. It was not the same thing as experiencing other versions of herself. It was like being actively told a story, as if her father was talking to her directly. It scared her to think that she was hallucinating, that no one else saw what she did. But Elizabeth was somewhat used to seeing things that no one else could see. The tears, the other worlds, she could show them to others but she knew that no one else could see them on their own.
Dr. Tenenbaum immediately began to examine Elizabeth's health. Booker forced himself from his chair and drug himself to his daughter's side.
"Sit down, Mister DeWitt." He was told, but paid no heed.
"Are you alright?" he asked Elizabeth, "Are you sure this was a good idea?"
"I'm sure." She told him. "If I'm going to Rapture I'll need all the help I can get. I need you here and there. Now you can be two places at once."
"I won't be able to protect you, Elizabeth. Don't forget that." He took her hand in his own.
"But you'll be able to save me," She told him. "Just like you always have."
"If you are still set on going back to Rapture." Dr. Tenenbaum interrupted them. "You'd best do so quickly. The faster your return the easier your recovery will be."
"Thank you, Dr. Tenenbaum." Elizabeth said earnestly as she stood to her feet, adjusting her sleeve over the bandage on her arm. "Thank you for helping me and my father. We are in your debt." Elizabeth, to the German scientist's extreme surprise, leaned forward to hug her.
Tenenbaum accepted the gesture somewhat stiffly. "You… you are welcome." She said. "But you will not owe me anything so long as you come back. All I want is to help undo what I've done by helping as many as I came overcome the ADAM sickness. As for your father," She turned to Booker "It would be best for you to remain here, if that is possible."
"No, I need to go with-" Elizabeth pressed her hand to his chest.
"Booker, I think you should stay."
"Elizabeth!"
"I'll be fine. And… you'll be with me." She smiled. "But you need to rest, and you promised Dr. Tenenbaum to help her research. You can't do that if you're running after me."
"Elizabeth," He tried to scold.
"I'll be back soon. Before I go to Rapture. There's just one final arrangement." She told him and opened up a tear. "Thank you for taking care of him, Dr. Tenenbaum."
"Is this your time machine, then?" Tenenbaum questioned, intrigued but suspicious. Both DeWitts were still surprised at how well Tenenbaum was accepting that fact.
"Elizabeth!" Booker called after her again in frustration, but she continued addressing the German scientist.
"Sort of." Elizabeth said in short and stepped quickly through the tear before Booker could stand up and stop her. "I'll see you soon!"
Booker cursed as he and Dr. Tenenbaum stared after her.
"You seem to have a great deal of explaining to do, Mr. DeWitt. Your daughter is by far the strangest girl I have ever met, and that is saying a lot."