Chapter 12:

A terrible stillness had set over Wolfgang's body. Kala reached for him mentally, but there was nothing, just the physical reality of the pale, still, form beside her. With fumbling fingers she reached for his pulse, leaned over him to check for his breathing.

Relief flooded her; faint pulse, slow breaths, he was alive.

"Wolfgang? Can you hear me?" she gently ran her fingers through his hair, softly murmuring terms of endearment, as if she could coax him awake.

Slowly, his eyes fluttered open to stare unfocused, he coughed softly, voice hoarse.

But when he finally spoke Kala had to suppress a cry of distress.

He was speaking gibberish. God, what had she done!

She leapt off the bed, surveying their limited medical supplies, what if she had permanently injured his brain? He was getting more insistent now, sounding angry, could it be frontal lobe damage? For the first time, she realized, she didn't know how he was feeling.

Kala forced herself back to his side, "I can't understand you," she whispered, trying to be soothing. The rest of the cluster was looking on, frozen in horror, "Can you try repeating what you just said?"

A frown line appeared between his brows, eyes still staring blankly at the ceiling, then suddenly his expression cleared. He reached for her hand, and then said slowly, in thickly accented English, "I cannot see."

English.

Of course. Kala could have smacked herself, she was so stupid, of course she couldn't understand him. He was speaking German. The cluster gave a collective sigh of relief.

"Ok," she said carefully, also switching to English. "That should correct itself after the drug wears off. Are you in any other dis-discomfort?"

He shook his head, and then experimentally opened and closed his hands, "Working again," he said at last. Kala nodded and then remembered he couldn't see her.

Sun walked up to him, "Can you hear me?" she asked. Wolfgang didn't respond.

"Can you hear Sun?" asked Kala. Wolfgang shook his head again. Lito sucked in a breath behind her, "It worked." In turn, the cluster walked up to him calling his name, even reaching for his hand or touching his shoulder. He gave no response; he could not sense them at all. Kala frantically took notes.

Slowly the cluster faded back to their lives, both awed and slightly off balance, the absence of Wolfgang amplifying the ache that Will's numbness already caused. The connection felt oddly echo-y, like an empty warehouse or a large room without enough furniture to fill it.

Wolfgang, in contrast, looked smaller somehow - like a child dressed in clothing that was slightly too big for him. Kala eventually returned to the bed, wrapping him in her arms, his head tucked into its spot at the crook of her shoulder. She was reading to him, in between checking his vitals, a book of poetry from one of Daya's classes she had forgotten was in her bag, it was in Hindi, so of course he couldn't understand a word of it, but the flow of words was soothing. He was playing with her fingers; she didn't have to be connected with him to feel his restlessness. He was bored, now that the pain and disorientation of the drug had dissipated. She knew boredom was dangerous for him, gave him too much time to think.

"Are you alright?" she murmured.

He swallowed and closed his unseeing eyes; English was coming easier to him now. "I am lonely, I think." He looked slightly uncomfortable admitting that. "I feel really...empty, like someone came and took out my guts."

Kala snuggled closer to him, wrapping her legs around his. "Me too," she whispered. "I didn't realize how small my life was until I met you."

He groped unsteadily for her hand and took it raising it to his lips. It was such a different experience touching him like this. So much simpler because she only was aware of her own reactions, so much more complicated because she didn't know what he was feeling. Like only knowing her half of a dance.

She propped herself up a little, meticulously tracing the lines of his face, he had a little scar beside his lip.

"Where did you get this?" She asked softly.

"I don't know," he thought about it, "From a fight in Russia maybe? Or my father."

That curious feeling of protectiveness filled Kala again. The world had been so terribly unfair to him, she felt this itching ache behind her jaw, this desire to wrap him safely in her arms and keep him from any harm. A silly notion of course, he didn't need her protection.

She gently kissed the scar, lingered with her lips against his skin. He sighed against her, capturing her lower lip between his for a moment, before pulling away, his expression serious.

He softly stroked her hair, quiet for a long moment. "I am sorry I cannot offer you more," he swallowed, mouth twisting ironically, "but for what it is worth, I am yours."

She wished then he could see her expression. Instead, she settled for wrapping her arms around him instead kissing him over and over. Eventually, he started to pant softly against her lips, Kala marveled in this newfound ability, the way he reached for her if she pulled away slightly, the faint pink flush on his cheeks, how with the touch of her hand she could make him gasp, feel his hips cant against her. She wished she knew what he was thinking.

Wolfgang started to smile slightly against her; "You are very friendly with your patients, Dr. Dandakar."

Kala rolled her eyes and pulled away a little, sighing, "You probably have a point; for scientific reproducibility we shouldn't get your heart rate too high."

"How much longer until the drug wears off?"

Kala consulted her phone, "About five hours."

Wolfgang made a noise of displeasure. He was still a moment, thinking, and then a self-satisfied grin started to spread across his face. He found her leg and started to stroke a hand up it. Kala gulped slightly.

"We don't just want Will to be awake while on the drug right?" he paused, then clarified, "We want him to be functional as well, otherwise he is as useful as he is in a coma."

Wolfgang's fingers were sliding under the hem of her skirt; her traitorous legs were starting to tremble.

"Yes," she began, "But, it –it is the first trial and –" He reached the band of her underwear; she seemed to be having difficulty focusing.

"And?" He prompted, eyes shut, but looking very pleased with himself.

"And- and," She had a good argument somewhere, if only she weren't so distracted. "And you are blind!"

The irrelevancy of that last point was brought to light, as he impatiently pushed her underwear aside. She shuddered as he pushed one finger then two inside her, thumb rubbing her softly, just hard enough to tighten the knot of pleasure forming inside her, mind completely blank. How did he do that?

She made a noise of protest when he slipped his fingers out of her, but he only smirked at her as he brought them to his mouth, sucking them clean. Her mouth fell open a little as he made a pleased sound, and then brought them to her lips. She hesitantly took his fingers into her mouth, very gently stroking her tongue over the tips.

It was his turn to shudder against her, "The things I want to do to you." He murmured, voice gravelly, before climbing over her.

He took control this time, but she could still feel his gentleness, his restraint, as he entered her slowly. Still scared of hurting her. Heat flooded her at the thought of what it would be like if he truly lost control. Someday, she would figure out how to make him abandon that restraint. But for now she was still lost in the newness of having him inside her, the stretch of her muscles around him.

It was so different without the connection, selfish almost, to only be aware of her body responding to him. She had to be much more attentive to determine what felt good to him. Measure her motions by the hitches in his breathing. Narrow her focus until there was nothing but the two of them.

This must be the normal way to overcome loneliness; was her last coherent thought before she was crying out, pleasure pulsing from her, digging her fingers into the soft skin of his back. Then he was following her, biting back a moan, and murmuring something unintelligible in German against her skin.

They lay lazily twined together as they recovered. Kala also closed her eyes, enjoying the loose feeling in her joints. Wolfgang was fiddling with bits of her hair.

"You can braid?" she asked when she realized what he was doing.

'Mmm," he pushed the strand of hair he had been working on over her shoulder for inspection. "How is it? I cannot see it."

Kala laughed a little, and examined his handiwork. Typical Wolfgang, it was nearly perfect, strands neatly and precisely woven. "Excellent." She smiled a bit. "I think you might be better than my sister, but don't tell her that she will kill me."

She felt him chuckle behind her. She relaxed into him again, but then curiosity got the better of her.

"Wolfgang?"

He hummed softly in response.

"Where did you learn how to braid?"

A slight laugh escaped him, "Felix has a stepsister."

"Ah" Kala raised an eyebrow archly.

"A younger stepsister," he continued, smirking at her almost as if he could see her expression. "Much younger, six this year I think."

The mental image Kala had was suddenly replaced by a female toddler version of Felix bossily instructing Wolfgang on the finer points of hair care. "And she taught you?"

"Felix doesn't get along with his father, and his mother passed away when he was younger. But when his father remarried a few years ago we were all invited to the wedding." He smiled at the memory, "I was doing a great job at not talking to anyone when this little..." he paused thinking of the right word in English "...How do you describe something that is both cute and annoying?"

Kala laughed, "I don't know, but I get the image."

He rolled over to blink blankly at the ceiling, "I don't know why she liked me so much, must run in the family, although Felix's father hates me so I don't know." Wolfgang shook his head, "Anyway she wouldn't leave me alone, and I didn't want to make her cry or anything and I couldn't find her mother, so I went along with it. We sat by the drinks table and played with her toy horses. Felix got so drunk that night he passed right out in the chair he was sitting in." He grinned in Kala's general direction, "Felix had very long hair back then."

"You didn't."

"It was not my idea!" he laughed, then added. "He looked very nice with braids."

Kala giggled at the mental picture he conjured. She smiled fondly at Wolfgang, "You are an interesting set of contradictions, you know that?"

He shrugged, a seeming little self-conscious. "I was always glad I was an only child," she watched his throat bob as he swallowed, "But if I had a different family, a different father, I think I would have liked a little sister."

Kala thought of Daya, with a certain warmth. For all their differences, they were still very close. Sometimes when they got in an argument with their parents; it felt like just the two of them against the world. It was nice to have an ally.

She closed her eyes and went back to dozing. He started humming softly in her ear.

She felt tendrils of awareness begin to spread over her not long after that. Fleeting sensations that were not hers, but were intimately familiar. He was tired, but pleasantly so, he was craving a cigarette, he was deliriously grateful to have her in his arms. Kala sighed at the comforting feeling of having him back before she stiffened.

"Shit!" Wolfgang looked a bit startled at her use of foul language.

"What?" he asked, he was speaking in German again, speech coming much easier. Kala could tell his eyes were gaining focus, she leapt out of bed and returning with the medical kit. She shone a light in his eyes and saw his pupils respond.

Kala started cursing under her breath. He was looking more than a little concerned, she forced herself to calm down, and explain.

"It has barely been two hours and the drug is already loosing its effect." She sat next to him. "That is very not good. I have been working on this theory; both Will and Riley have extremely high drug tolerances. With Riley it could be discarded, because she was a regular user of narcotics and various other drugs. For Will, it was harder to explain, but some people just have high tolerances and it is not like I could ask him –" Kala suddenly cut herself off. She turned to Wolfgang, "Did you ever regularly use recreational drugs, opioids? Stimulants?"

He shook his head, "Pot or hash sometimes, and I tried Ecstasy a few times when I was younger, but I didn't like it much." Kala absorbed this. Have you ever been put under anesthetic?" He shook his head again.

"I have," Nomi appeared at the end of the bed. Kala blushed and pulled the covers over her, recalling that she was naked except for Wolfgang's shirt. Wolfgang didn't blink. "Several times."

Kala pondered this, "Did anything happen during those surgeries? Did you wake up during them?"

Nomi nodded slowly, "The first one I did, when they were taking out my wisdom teeth," she shuddered, "I still have nightmares about it."

"And the other ones?"

"No they went smoothly, they did a very through review of my medical records, they were surprised that for my first surgery I needed almost two times the normal amount of anesthetic, but as I was in good health and had no history of drug use, they figured it was that I had a weirdly high tolerance."

Kala bit her lip. That confirmed it then. She cursed herself, she should have known, it was such an obvious thing to overlook. Will's condition alone ought to have raised some red flags. But how could she have known for sure until she tested it? And the greater issue, how did she fix it?

"I think," she began, "Something in our physiology causes certain drugs not to work in the expected way, sedatives in particular. "

"Couldn't you just use more?" inquired Nomi.

"No," Kala sighed, "The problem is I don't know if it is that we breakdown the drugs faster or if they are just less effective." She forgot to be shy and started pacing, "The seizure Will had a few weeks ago, leads me to believe that it is the latter, which is a problem, because even they don't effect the target receptors, his liver and kidneys still have to process and detoxify his blood, and their ability to do so is fixed."

She turned to look at Wolfgang and Nomi, "If we increase the dosage too much, he might go into massive organ failure."

"Shit." They both said. Kala bit her lip. What she wouldn't give for some lab analysis equipment.

"I need samples," she said finally. "Blood and urine from both Will and Wolfgang. And I need access to a lab that conducts drug tests."

Nomi nodded, "I will tell Julia, and figure out a way to get the samples to you."

Wolfgang looked somewhat bemused as she handed him a sample container, but he gamely accepted it, "I can get you into a lab if Nomi can find one."

Nomi sighed clicking away at your laptop, "It is not going to be easy, it seems there was a string of lab break ins five years ago in Florence, some athlete drug testing scam, and subsequently much stronger bylaws have been put in place."

"We will find a way," Kala opened the mini-fridge in his room and cranked to dial to maximum, it wasn't ideal but it would serve as decent cold storage. Wolfgang was still gaping a little at her, so she gave him a little shove towards the bathroom.

She and Nomi sat side by side on the bed.

"At least it worked," Nomi consoled, "Two hours isn't nothing."

Kala shook her head, "I suspect it will only work once or twice, then he will build up tolerance to it. The blindness is a problem too." She tiredly rubbed her eyes, 'This kind of research takes years, what I need is hundreds of case studies the ability to scan our brains, tissue samples, a degree in endocrinology and that would just bring us to clinical trials."

Nomi squeezed her hand. "You are doing your best, you can't expect anything more of yourself."

Kala sighed, "I know," she eyed the shut bathroom door, "I have had a few more distractions than usual though."

Nomi smiled slightly at that. "I am happy for you two," she said, leaning over to give Kala a half hug.

The rest of the evening was rather grim, Kala donning a pair of shorts she had brought with her, and barricading herself behind a wall of notes. Wolfgang wisely kept his distance, except to brush a kiss against the top of her head, bearing a cup of tea, and to soundlessly offer his arm when she needed a blood sample.

It was near midnight when Kala's laptop died. Digging fruitlessly in her briefcase, she realized she must have forgotten it in her hotel room. Wolfgang was fast asleep, sprawled out across the bed, breathing slow and even. For a moment she was tempted to lie down next to him and call it a night, but only for a moment. Sheer determination and stress had kept her going through much worse sleep deprivation during her graduate degree and then it had only been her own career at stake. Now, with lives in the balance, she could not afford to waste another second.

"Wolfgang," she whispered, gently shaking him, and then quickly stepping back as he startled awake. She kept forgetting how strong his self-defensive reflexes were, heart aching a bit when she thought why, "I am going back to my hotel I forgot my charger."

A little crease started between his eyebrows, "It's late Kala, you shouldn't be going out, come to bed.''

She shook her head, "I wont be able to sleep, and I will just be up worrying and thinking all night. " She started packing up her briefcase. "Don't worry I will take a taxi back to the hotel."

He opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it. "You will let me know when you get to the hotel?"

"I will," she promised.

He caught her hand as she went to leave, forcing her to stop. She looked back a little impatiently; he seemed to be searching for the right words.

"Are you going to be ok?" he asked finally.

Kala sighed, and nodded. "It is most certainly not the first time I have faced an impossible problem and figured out a solution, I just need to focus on it and nothing else."

"Ok," he kissed her hand and then let it go. "I understand." An image flashed swiftly through Kala's head, Wolfgang as a teenager, gangly and messy haired, staring down a locked safe, bedroom door firmly shut against the world, oblivious to time passing outside his window.

She leaned down and kissed him softly. "Thank you." His sleepy eyes followed her as she left the room, softly shutting the door

Time seemed to be conspiring against her. The elevator refused to come, and after pacing restlessly in front of the closed doors she gave up and took the stairs.

The tired looking receptionist blinked owlishly at her when she reached the lobby, apologizing halfheartedly saying there was vent maintenance going on.

"At this time of night?" inquired Kala dubiously.

The clerk just shrugged, "Vent company showed up late, hard to find reliable workers these days."

Kala just sighed and gestured at the door, "Would you be able to call a cab for me?"

The exhausted looking woman had just nodded and waved her away telling her to wait outside. Wolfgang had dozed off again upstairs.

She paced some more as traffic crept by, the air ripe with cigarette smoke and gasoline. Finally sleek black minivan slid up, and a large man with a friendly looking smile and a strong Italian accent rolled down the window.

"Sorry for the wait Ms. Dandakar, I am one of the hotel's drivers, taxis are very busy tonight."

"That's fine," muttered Kala distractedly climbing into the dark backseat.

As soon as she did she knew she had made a mistake.

The lock clicked beside her, and belatedly, she remembered that she hadn't told the clerk her name.

Kala didn't even have time to scream before a hand clutching a cloth wrapped around her nose and mouth.

Chloroform, she recognized distantly, as the world spun nauseatingly, there must have been someone hiding in the seat behind her.

There was a sharp prick in her arm, and a warm and ringing unconsciousness pulled her under.


Thank you for reading! Next chapter is on THURSDAY because life.