The next day, Lisa knocks on the door to Lori and Leni's room. The two are nestled in their beds, unable to cope the disappointment from yesterday. Leni buries her face to the confines of her mattress while Lori browses through a book about concussion and its mental effects. "Siblings, I need to reveal something to you."
"If it is some kind of mind-boggling scientific discovery, maybe later Lisa when you literally send this to experts," Lori replies uncharacteristically.
"No. It's about Lincoln!"
With that, Lori's attention spikes. "Spill the beans."
After Lisa does so, she gathers the rest of the sisters to explain her findings in the hospital. She reveals to them about their secret treatment on Lincoln, to how they bring other doctors to examine his rapidly growing intelligence, and to his subsequent change of personality, based on her stray observations. Lisa pours it all with deep concern, even though her siblings might be jarred by her inclusion of technical jargon. "And voila, there you go. I may not deem this as ethical, but unorthodox mental rehabilitation without the consent of the patient's kin is borderline under criminal prosecution. This must be further investigated until it is too late to catch a glance on our dearly beloved brethren who is deeply suffering in the confines of his limbo consciousness."
But Lisa's siblings are just deeply wide-eyed at her sudden highfalutin words.
"Okay, for those who haven't got the gist, the hospital is doing something wrong with Lincoln."
Immediately, the sisters spark an uproar.
Lori tries to calm everyone down. "Okay! Guys! Literally stop all of this! STOP!"
Just as she shouted, her sisters lower down their voice.
The elder sister then expresses, "Thank you. Look. Personally, I might believe Lisa here, even though I may not literally believe all of them are true. But we know there's something fishy going on in that hospital when they don't want us to see our brother."
"So let's use it as a basis for accusation and smite their rear-ends!" Lynn suggests aggressively, to which her siblings agree.
"No, let's not resort to that right away, including violence," Lori replies. "The only thing for that to happen is use credible evidence to formulate a case. And so far, we just have Lisa's observation to do the trick?"
"How can we find evidence, dude?" Luna asks.
Lola then springs up and throws her own plan, "How about this? I heard from mommy and daddy that the hospital will soon release Lincoln for a short period of time until they bring him back. So Lisa, how about you plant a secret microphone and camera like you always do and then we can gather evidence against them?"
"You might have a point…" Lisa surmises.
But Lori tries to intervene, "Guys, let's not get over ourselves too much."
However, Lola's demeanor overshadows Lori's opposing attitude. "Come on guys! Let's gather some dirt over the hospital!"
"YEAH!"
The rest are cooperative, but Lori, being now the more composed of the bunch, holds her head down in shame.
Luan randomly quips to her, "Ironic since we're gonna give the truth serum to them. Hehehe. Get it?"
Lori then walks out despondently.
"Hey, where you going?"
"Just somewhere literally not here. Like somewhere else."
"You don't have to be grouchy about it. We just want to see Lincoln."
"I do too. But there's a better way."
"Like what?"
From that point on, Lori has no other words to say. Though she tries to act composed, she is fairly uncertain. "I don't know."
With that, she walks out of the house, with Luan following her.
The next day, at the hospital, Lincoln is conducting his daily physical checkup. Dr. Wong guides him to the weighing scale, to the rehabilitation gymnasium and to the desk to record their latest findings. After that, he settles back to his room for a round of oats, fruit tidbits and a daily dose of History Channel surfing.
"How are we doing, Lincoln?" Dr. Wong asks as she returns to him.
"Very pleasant. Thank you for asking," Lincoln replies. "You know I commend the kiwis that are being served in this institute. Do you know that kiwis contain a Vitamin A component called lutein zeaxanthin, which is still debatable if it enhances vision."
"That's real…pleasant to hear, Lincoln."
"So, what will be doing today, Dr. Wong?"
"Well, today, you will still undergo observation. The hospital won't be doing tests until Dr. Benedict returns tomorrow night. And speaking of tomorrow, we allowed that your sisters visit you once more and take you around?"
Just bringing the thoughts about his "assumed" sisters raises questions and doubts for Lincoln. "My sisters? You mean biological sisters?"
"Yes, Lincoln. Your real sisters. They'll be returning. Isn't that great?"
"Yeah…I guess. I mean they're annoying. But I don't know if they are really my sisters. Or that I have sisters. Or if I really belong to a family of sisters."
Dr. Wong fixes up Lincoln as she continues to bring his sisters to the spotlight. "You do, Lincoln. You have sisters. You have a family. You have a home."
"Well, if I can retrieve some photographic memory of such an occurrence. Or if my lateral hypothalamus would immediately react to such preconceived notions."
"Lincoln, it will be alright. I know with you, losing memory after something extraordinary happened, it will be hard to recall stuff. But we can work on this."
"But kind of feeling something else. Like my present anatomy is what I sense is my true identity."
"What do you think it is?"
Lincoln wants to share his thoughts about his own perception of family. But he is nervous to do so, since some internal emotion holds back this certain notion: that he sees Dr. Wong and the hospital more as home than his own home. It is normal for patients to feel that. But it is certainly an emotional conflict that will soon manifest itself. "I don't know, mom."
Dr. Wong gasps from what she heard. "What did you just say?"
Lincoln then stutters in response, "I meant, doc. I don't know, doc. You know."
"Okay…" After that, Dr. Wong slowly leaves the ICU unit, stunned at that finding.
She retreats to the nurse's station where she places Lincoln's data on top of her desk. She shares her findings to her closest colleague, Nurse Ignacio, an African-American and half-Puerto Rican caretaker to the neurology unit. "Got Loud's data in place. Can you collate that with the rest, if you will?"
"Sure," she replies. "So, how was Lincoln?"
"Oh you know, recovering. He is a sweet boy. Well, besides the bookworm he never was."
"I suppose he is."
"His never actually told me that he was real comic book fan."
"You know, one time, on their first visit, they were bringing this box load of comics. The guards question them. And they were allowed otherwise."
"Oh yes, speaking of his sisters, I think there's one concern I have from Lincoln."
"What would that might be?"
"I think Lincoln sees me as a mother figure."
"Probably getting the gist of hypothalamic activity."
"No. Not that. I mean he actually perceives me as a mother. A guardian. Like he has an attachment to me like a real child."
"How would you describe your interactions with him?"
"Just casual. I would assist him, strike a connection so there's that trust when we conduct checkups for him. But it kind of gets in the way."
"What is?"
Ultimately, Dr. Wong confesses, "I feel the same way. Like he is my actual child."
Concerned, Nurse Ignacio looks out for anyone to hear. When their area is in casual terms, she drags Dr. Wong to the records storage room and confronts her about the situation. "Are you insane, doc? Where's the doctor-patient confidentiality?"
"I am sorry. I am deeply sorry. I try my best to keep professional in front of me. But he is reacting emotionally. Sorry. This really goes beyond ethics."
"It really goes beyond, doc. Now listen, we cannot escalate this further to the boy's family. So, I suggest you keep it low profile till we resolve this."
"Look Ignacio, I've dealt with patients with trauma disorders. And it is vital to strike a connection with the patient to allow procedures to happen."
"Oh you are now saying that this is similar to that?"
"No. I am saying that Lincoln needs that cognitive balance aside from the hospital's procedure to boost his intelligence."
"Yeah, I definitely see an emotional doc right here."
At that point, Dr. Wong feels a little regret in her, holding her tears back.
Nurse Ignacio then taps her shoulder in comfort, which makes Dr. Wong lean her face to her hand. "Sorry doc for bringing this much pressure. Just trying to say that we need to make certain smart options."
"Yes. I know," Dr. Wong tearfully says.
Later on, the neurologist moves on to other patients, which makes Lincoln concerned.
Meanwhile, as the sisters prepare their plan for tomorrow's visit, Lori, who was soon accompanied by Luan, drops by at Audrey's house to meet her.
"Is this her house?" Luan asks.
"Yes. Literally. Just ignore the exterior," Lori notes.
"What you got from her so far?"
"Not much."
"Not much?"
"Well, she is…overwhelmed that I need to at least have that friendship with her to make her feel comfortable with telling what happened."
"So, is that why you kept tagging her along with us?"
"Any problem with that?"
"What? No. By means no. All I am saying if you want her to stick around, she would at least reveal something to us."
"Well, with mom and dad's insurance still hanging, we have time to work on her."
Speaking of Audrey, she appears them from behind. "Lori?"
The two turn their heads and greet her.
"Audrey, hey, how's it going? I thought you were still inside the house."
"My…he sent me out to buy." She slurs her words there. She is aware that the items that her stepfather told her to buy will induce harm to her. Thus explains the mumbles. "Sorry." She then hurriedly enters back to the house.
"Wait." Lori then grabs her by the hand when she sees a striking revelation: bruises on her arm. She turns to the left arm to see similar bruises. "Did he?"
"I'm scared," she mutters tearfully.
Lori and Luan look to each other on what drastic measures should be done for Audrey.