AN: Yay! Another new chapter! Thanks to everyone who added/alerted the story, and those who added me to their author alert! I think there were a few of you who reviewed the last chapter, so thanks to you guys, too!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tin Man, and this story is written for entertainment purposes only.
"Take a deep breath . . . hold it." The mechanical voice echoed around the concrete and tile room, and Cain watched carefully as DG struggled to follow its directions, a small tear trickling from the corner of her eye and her hands clenching into fists. "You can breathe." He glanced across the room to watch the technician at work at a computer screen in the small area off the main chamber, Ivy and Doctor Gabriel hovering at his shoulder, their eyes glued to the images that flickered across the monitor. Ivy met his gaze through the plate-glass window, shaking her head slightly before returning to her conversation with the other doctor.
"You can relax your arms, DG," the technician spoke to her through a microphone. "A nurse will be there in a moment to push the contrast, then we'll take a few more scans."
Cain stepped forward as DG was slowly slid out from the machine, carefully helping her lower her arms from where they had been resting over her head. His fingers lingered on her wrist for a minute, and he frowned to find her pulse fluttering erratically.
"You're alright, sweetheart," he murmured, stroking her hair. "You're not closed in here. You have plenty of room." Her nightmares had returned that morning, forcing her out of sleep drenched in a cold sweat and gasping for breath. He had barely been able to make out anything that she said as she huddled in his arms, her need for air fighting with the tears streaming down her face. The only words he'd been able to decipher were "coffin" and "Grey Gale." "Deege, look at me," he ordered gently. Her eyes had gone distant, claustrophobia kicking in as she'd been put into the confining CT machine; she wasn't even in the same room as he was. "DG."
His firm voice finally had her vacant stare focusing on him, and he gently brushed a tear from her face. "You're alright, Deege."
"Wyatt," she whispered, her body shaking as she fought to breathe.
"I'm right here, darlin'. What do you need?"
Ivy tuned out the voices of the two bickering men standing beside her, her gaze moving from the computer monitor to the two figures in the next room. Wyatt had leaned down closer to DG, their hands locked in a death grip as he tried to calm her. She was saying something, and a look of shock and confusion flickered across the Tin Man's face before it melted into one of sadness, exhaustion, and resignation. He replied to her, nodding slightly, and even as the doctor watched he lulled the young woman into a troubled sleep.
"How can you even think of trying it? With the way she is now, it could kill her!"
"There's also the chance that it will work fine! "
"It's an experimental treatment, even when it's used according to protocol! The data on its effectiveness is incomplete at best!"
"Anything we try at this point is experimental! The girl has survived a Fangpox active stage that is almost fifty percent longer than anyone ever has! There is no protocol, no treatment prescribed for a person older than ten annuals old!"
"You would still need to have Mr. Cain's permission before you tried anything, Gabriel," Ivy sighed, rejoining the conversation. "And chances are my niece would want to know everything as well. What you are suggesting holds a much greater risk for DG than it would for any other patient, not only because you're recommending we use a cancer treatment drug under conditions that many physicians would not even consider but also because DG's mental and physical states have drastically deteriorated since we put her in the coma." Dark green eyes fell upon the other doctor. "Do not be so keen to read about yourself in the medical journals that you are willing to put a young woman's life in even more danger than it already is in the hopes that you'll make a brilliant discovery that will change the history of medicine. She is my niece, not a science experiment. I do not recommend that you bring this course of treatment up with either Wyatt or DG unless you truly believe that it could help her."
Gabriel seemed to wilt under Ivy's gaze, but he nodded, a glimmer of defiance crossing his features. In the other room, a nursing unit was carefully pushing the dose of contrast into DG's I.V. port. "Let's get these scans finished," Ivy decided. "DG needs to be back in her room so that she can rest."
"Then explain it to me so that I do understand. Don't throw all this medical nonsense at me and then treat me like a headcase when I don't catch everything you say."
Wyatt's voice was angry, though it was only because she knew him so well that she even recognized this as anger and not irritation. Even in her drug-induced haze she knew that there was something bothering him. His hand suddenly wrapped around hers, his thumb brushing her knuckles, and she heard his voice in the back of her mind, softer this time, telling her that he'd tell her what was going on later, and that she'd be better off trying to get more sleep while the painkillers were still working. Her nerves were still buzzing, her skin hot and prickly, and she complained faintly; whatever they had her on, it didn't work as well as the other medicine did. She felt his magic pulse into her, calming the uncomfortable feeling as he told her that he'd explain later, that it was the best they could do for now.
Cain felt DG drift back into sleep, and he shifted slightly where he was sitting on the edge of her bed to hide their glowing hands from Dr. Gabriel. Not that the man would have noticed, even in the dark room; the self-important doctor was completely immersed in explaining his plans for DG's treatment. Wyatt cast an appraising eye at the doctor, wondering not for the first time just how much they could trust him.
"The medicine we would put her on is a cancer treatment drug. Chemotherapy treatment is used on the idea that a disease can be treated by making the host environment, the patient, uninhabitable. Many people don't like to consider it, because it is, quite literally, poisoning a person, but it's had great success with many other diseases besides cancer."
"Is Fangpox one of them?" he pinned the doctor with a stare, only somewhat satisfied when the man paused.
"No. As of right now, we're not sure what treatment plan to follow for DG. No one in this hospital's history, or any other, has ever survived this long. Simply treating the pain as it arises is no longer working, the virus seems to be growing accustomed to any medication that we keep her on for any length of time. I believe that going after the virus itself in an attempt to weaken it is the best course to take."
"So what would you end up giving her?"
"We would put her on a combination treatment that would both weaken the virus and strengthen the cells in her immune system that would fight it off. The goal here is to lower the viral load, or the amount of the virus that's currently active. We would continue to treat the pain as we currently are."
Wyatt's gaze fell past Doctor Gabriel's shoulder to where Ivy was standing, arms crossed, by the door. He could tell by the look on her face that she was less than pleased with the idea of the treatment. Not that he would have agreed to it without consulting her first, but seeing how she felt about it already was definitely raising the red flags. The Tin Man frowned slightly, his icy glare returning to the man standing in front of him.
"How soon would you recommend we start this treatment?"
"As soon as possible."
"Can you see any major problems if we wait a day or two? I need to think about this, and I want to talk to DG about it as well."
"No," the doctor said hesitantly. "But . . ."
"Look, doc, I don't want to agree to anything without discussing it with DG first."
"You don't have to, Mister Cain. You are her guardian, which means that you can make this decision without her."
"But I'm not going to. I may be her guardian, but she is my wife, and my partner, and we talk things over before we make a decision. If the situation arose where she wasn't able to give her input, then I would just have to think about it longer than I normally would. But she can, and since what you're suggesting directly affects her I'm going to talk to her about it." His icy gaze pinned the doctor, squelching any argument the other man might have been readying himself for. "You're going to have to give me at least a day or two. I'm not going to wake her up when sleep is the best thing for her right now."
Doctor Gabriel frowned, but nodded, then turned and left the room. Wyatt sighed, reaching up and rubbing his hand across his forehead.
"I'm afraid you've made him very unhappy, Wyatt," Ivy chuckled humorlessly, her arms falling to her sides as she crossed the room and sat down in the chair next to DG's bed.
"Unless it causes his plans to make trouble for us, the fact that he's angry really isn't my problem. I'm looking out for DG, and as long as I'm here with her she's not in any danger."
"Gabriel can be quite single-minded when it comes to anything that might bring him attention, even to the point of being narcissistic. He has his mind set on trying this new treatment on DG."
"You don't agree with him." It was more a statement than a question.
"If there was more data on how the medication works when it's used according to protocol, I might. But no research has been done on it as anything except a cancer treatment, and only a handful of doctors in the zone have even considered its use as anything else." She turned to gaze at DG for a long moment. "I admit I'm probably much more wary of his suggestion because DG is my niece, but I doubt I would agree with him with any patient."
"What do you suggest?"
Ivy sighed, her emerald-colored eyes trailing away from her niece to stare out the window.
"I don't know. You already know that DG has survived this disease longer than anyone ever has. We don't know how it will progress from here, or if it will react with any other medications we may put her on. I'm not sure that Doctor Gabriel's idea is any better or any worse than trying something different." She glanced at the Tin Man. "I'm sorry, Wyatt, I wish I could tell you what you want to hear, or that we're doing anything but grasping at straws. But I'm not sure anyone would be able to."
Cain shook his head, his thumb brushing absentmindedly over DG's knuckles. The girl's brow furrowed slightly, her breath hitching in her chest, but just as quickly she drifted back into sleep.
"You know what she asked me today? When she was having her scans done?"
Ivy frowned, confusion flickering across her face. Cain sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "She asked me to take her home."
"To Central City?"
"No, to the Otherside. She asked me to take her back home to the farm she grew up on." He turned and met Ivy's gaze. "I told her I would try."
The woman nodded thoughtfully.
"It would certainly be possible. Fangpox isn't especially contagious between humans, so I'm not concerned about it causing an epidemic on the Otherside. I'd be able to help you with the travel storm, and you'd be able to use my home as a safe house before you leave and when you come back. Still," her frowned deepened. "I want to keep her here as long as possible. The longer she stays here, the greater the chance she'll get better."
"I'm hoping we won't have to leave until she's better."
"I agree."
"No, Ivy, you don't get it." He looked at DG's aunt, and the thought crossed Ivy's mind that she had never seen such a look of exhaustion and sorrow as the one that had creased the Tin Man's face. "She asked me to take her home because she doesn't want to die here."
Ivy felt as though her heart was sinking, realizing that her niece was giving up.
"She told you this?"
"Not in so many words," Cain sighed, reaching up with his free hand and tapping his own temple. "I could see it, though." His tired gaze fell back to the still figure of his fiancée. "Ivy, I'm asking you to help me do this for her. If we reach a point where you feel like she might not . . ." his voice broke, and the doctor could see the shimmer of tears in his crystal-blue eyes.
"I promise I'll let you know," Ivy slowly stood, resting a hand on Cain's shoulder. "But for now, she is doing as well as she could be. Just take it one day at a time, Wyatt; you being here gives her strength to keep going." She paused for a moment, glancing at her niece before continuing. "I'm going to put in a request to the hospital director that I take over DG's care. I'm working in the E.R. tonight, have one of the nurses come get me if you need to."
Wyatt gave a perfunctory nod, and the doctor stayed for another moment before turning and leaving, closing the door quietly behind her.
It was a moment before Cain realized that DG had woken up again, though he was glad to note that it was because she wasn't pulled from her healing sleep as violently as she had been before.
He hadn't been able to sleep, so while Raw kept watch for a few minutes he had gone to the hospital library, hoping to find a book to read. Now, the Viewer was dozing soundly in his cot across the room and Wyatt was partway through a novel whose plot he couldn't even remember. The heart monitor's tempo increased briefly, followed by the sound of DG's breath catching in her throat and a quiet sniffle. Cain turned away from his book, his gaze trailing over the young woman, a small frown crossing his face. Her back was to him, so he couldn't be sure she was awake, but he put his book down and went to sit on the edge of her bed.
"Deege?"
She twitched slightly as his hand brushed down her arm, and when he leaned over he could see her eyes were open, though they were tired and puffy as if she'd been crying. He carefully twined his fingers with hers, his other hand going to rub her between the shoulders. "Are you hurtin' again, darlin'?"
"It's not as bad as it has been."
Wyatt nodded, realizing that the virus had settled again for the calm before the storm. The last wave of the illness would not be an easy one.
"How long have you been up?" he asked quietly.
The girl shrugged, the movement so slight it almost wasn't there, "A few minutes. I didn't think you were awake." She brought a shaking hand to her face, rubbing at the tears that trickled from her eyes. "Could you lie down with me?"
"Sure, sweetheart, just give me a sec, okay?"
She nodded silently, releasing her hold on his hand, and he quickly pulled off his boots before lying down behind her. His arm wrapped around her waist, and hers rested over his as he tucked the crown of her head under his chin. He could feel her shuddering as she fought to keep the tears away, and he carefully pulled himself closer to her. "Shhhh, darlin', it's alright."
"I'm scared, Wyatt."
"I know Deege, I know. But you only have to hang in there for a few more days."
"I can't," she whimpered, her eyes squeezing shut as she turned her face into the pillow. "Wyatt, I want to go home."
"Can you tell me why, Deege?"
"I don't want to be here, I want to be in a place I know. I don't even care if I have to be in a hospital, I just want to go back to Kansas." Her voice was a hoarse whisper now as she fought against the tears. Cain sighed and closed his eyes, sending a silent pulse of light to Ivy, asking her to do what she could so that he could take DG to the Otherside. A few minutes later, he felt her reply, a flicker of unfamiliar white magic telling him she would do what she could that night and talk to him in the morning.
With the plans already underway and the future even more uncertain than it had been a mere hour before, Wyatt simply held DG close as she cried, waiting for the suns to come up and bring them one day closer to a vague and potentially heartbreaking fate.
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